Jacqueline Cooke Redux

All, er, grown up

Back on January 26, Curly R ran a piece on Jacqueline Cooke, the 20-year old granddaughter daughter (thanks for spotting that, mom) of Redskins owner emeritus Jack Kent Cooke, suing her dead grandfather's estate. This is a follow-up to that story.

On Feburary 5, an anonymous commenter to that thread pointed me to Jackie Cooke's MySpace page, at this location. Since the furor over her lawsuit, the page has been taken down. It was for all intents and purposes any college girl, with pictures of friends, comments to her personal blog and things she wanted visitors to know (her 20th birthday for example had been right before the lawsuit story broke).

Jackie continued to stay in the news. February 3, a week after the original lawsuit the George Washington University offered Jackie admission and financial aid if she wanted to leave Southern Methodist University and transfer to GWU. The story was irony-deficient though, because GWU is the most expensive school in the country, and Jackie had been locked out of SMU because she was unable to pay.

February 13, the Washington Post reported that Jackie had worked it out with SMU and would be returning for the spring semester. If SMU was ever serious about booting her it was because they did not know who she is. SMU would never want to alienate a trustfund student like Jackie, who's going to be known her entire life and certainly not in an environment where Stanford raised almost a billion dollars in one year. It all worked out and she does not have to leave her school and friends.

Then four days ago on February 21, Jackie appeared in the Washington Post's gossip column, the Reliable Source, written by two longtime enablers in the disgusting world of celebritology and I read it every day usually to find out which celebs are bad tippers. The piece was a brief recap of Jackie's hard-way arrivee into public Washington as the three-year old meeting her 77-year old father for the first time, and how Jackie's mother was cut out of JKC's will. According to the piece, Jackie still loves football and is considering a career as a sportscaster. Or an actress, or a model, or a news woman.

In researching this piece, I came across two other interesting tidbits. First, this is not the first time Suzanne Cooke has claimed JKC was not paying Jackie's school bills. On October 17 1995, the Reliable Source reported that timely payment for Jackie's private school tuition was not forthcoming (this would have put Jackie in about third grade). Money quote from mother Suzanne and her attorney:

"I am appalled that Jack would do this to his own flesh and blood," she said. Mark Barondess, Suzanne's lawyer, noted drily: "If Jacqueline were a stadium, maybe Jack could find the money."

At the time, JKC was furiously negotiating a deal for a new Redskins Stadium.

Second and most odd I found this reference to Jackie in the Washington Post on January 24 2007, a mere two days before her lawsuit was reported. In a Reliable Source live discussion on the Post's website, Bronxeville, NY asked this question:

would love to hear a follow-up on some of the best gossip articles from the past. In particular, where is Jacqueline Kent Cooke, or has she just dropped off the face of the Earth?

Amy Argetsinger responded thusly:

Ah, good question. Anyone else remember when late Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke became father, at age 75-ish, to a little baby by his short-term wife Suzanne? Well, believe it or not, Jacqueline Kent Cooke is all growed up and a college student now, and allegedly a total hottie. Let's cross our fingers and hope she produces some news sometime soon...

Methinks Amy doth protest too much for Jackie Cooke news. I'll bet this question was a plant and that the Reliable Source ladies knew what was coming out of the A section later that week.

Personally, I think we will see Jackie back in Washington again, where she will be the Beltway's own Paris Hilton. About time. We need some of that old Cooke vibe back in town.



Image: Washington Post here. Young Jackie and Suzanne Cooke by Annie Groer. Inset is allegedly a family photo but it was also the lead photo on Jackie's MySpace page.