SHE WINDS! Ex-model Kim Charlton, with the “exhibit A” weather vane, is all smiles yesterday at Manhattan court, while ex Stephen Benson’s day goes south. (
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Some divorces end with a fight over the kids — but a stormy relationship between a former supermodel and an investment banker ended yesterday with a battle over a weather vane.
A Manhattan judge yesterday sided with leggy blonde Kim Charlton, 56, who graced runways for top fashion houses including Versace and Chanel as a Ford model in the 1980s, granting her possession of a $150 copper weather vane that ex-hubby Stephen Benson had used as a pawn to withhold a $365,000 divorce settlement.
Charlton lugged the bulky vane instrument to court as evidence against her 64-year-old ex’s claims that she damaged their $4 million Bedford mansion when she removed it from the roof after their three-year marriage soured in 2009.
“He has so much money, but he picks at the little things,” she told The Post.
She pointed out the four screws she hired a worker to detach, and called the damage accusation nonsense.
Benson had claimed the rusty weather vane belonged to him, and he wanted it back before forking over the settlement money.
The judge disagreed.
“Your client owes $365,000. That doesn’t get offset by a weather vane,” Justice Matthew Cooper thundered at Benson and his attorney, Stanley Alter. Moments earlier, Cooper had reprimanded Alter for tsk-tsking the judge while leaning over the bench.
“Step back! Don’t stick your finger in my face,” Cooper ordered, which sent two court officers rushing to his side.
The dramatic standoff was followed by four hours of back-and-forth negotiations between Alter and Charlton’s counsel, celebrity divorce lawyer William Beslow.
Benson — who worked for Salomon Brothers and Gibbons, Green — maintains a mountain-view Aspen property in addition to the Westchester County home. He was already delinquent on the settlement and will have to pay up immediately.
“This wasn’t about the weather vane,” Beslow said in court, “It was about him using it as a defense. It was hers. She bought it before the marriage.”
Charlton was willing to exchange the oxidized copper, which set off court metal detectors, for the payment, but was happy to walk away with both.
She’d purchased the piece in her 20s, when an image of her in white Geoffrey Beene jeans was splashed all over city buses, and sees it as symbol of severance from the failed marriage. “I didn’t want him to retain that last tie to me,” she said outside court.
Benson and his attorney did not return calls for comment.