Sandra Bullock probably never prepared. Here's a role for which Sandra Bullock probably never prepared: wrestling with her husband's porn star ex-wife, Janine Lindemulder, over custody of their 5-year-old daughter.
Bullock, the perpetual girl-next-door actress famous for films including "The Proposal" and "Miss Congeniality" has been helping her husband, Jesse James, raise his daughter since January of this year while Lindemulder was in prison for tax evasion. Now out of jail, Lindenmulder faces a fierce custody battle against James, the tattooed biker and star of cable TV's "Monster Garage" and his megawatt Hollywood actress wife who has said she is now relishing her role as a stepmother.
In a letter to the judge at Lindemulder's sentencing, Bullock denies the assertion that her desire to gain custody of the girl is rooted in her inability to have children. "We realized that due to the instability in [the girl's] life, bringing another child into the world at this time would not be in [the girl's] best interest," she wrote.
Bullock further alleges concerns about the girl's safety, stating that the child was left alone during the day while Lindemulder was "asleep from drug use."
"I am aware that Janine has claimed many times that my desire to have [the girl], was because I could not have children of my own," Bullock says, adding, "that couldn't be farther from the truth."
"I know the term 'stepmother' carries many connotations, one of them being 'glorified babysitter,'" Bullock writes. "My commitment and responssiblity to [the girl] ... goes beyond that."
Jesse James also wrote to the judge, blasting his ex-wife's lack of responsibility in paying her taxes and her lifestyle.
"I believe that Janine should not be shown any leniency in her sentence," he wrote.
Bullock's Battle for Child an Unprecedented Move
It's an interesting battle for the couple to wage. Before marrying James, the actress, now 45, never expressed interest in being a mom, telling People magazine in 2005, "If I did have kids my entire life would shift. I would no longer act or be in magazines."
But now it seems fame and fortune aren't enough. In March, Bullock hinted in an interview with InStyle magazine that she regretted not having children."If I waited too long, it's because we were supposed to do other things," Bullock told the magazine. "If it is just too late? There are millions of children on this planet that I would be honored to call my own."
"She's been very frank about the fact that she chose her career rather than having children," said Albert Lee, Us Weekly magazine's deputy news editor. "She's talked about how her mother always taught her to choose career over family. In that respect, she was certainly successful. She's one of the few women who can earn an eight-figure salary per movie, especially at that age."
Janine Lindemulder on the cover of Blink 182's "Enema of the State."
According to Parade magazine's latest issue and court documents related to the custody case, Bullock has become close to James' three children from previous marriages, particularly with his 5-year-old daughter who is at the center of the custody dispute. Bullock tells Parade that she can't image life without the little girl.
"The universe put this in our lap," Bullock said. "I seemed to have stepped in right when I needed to be there. I now know that anything sweet, really sweet, that I have was nothing that I planned. If you don't have kids and animals, you don't truly know what real life is about."
But Bullock's latest role as a stepmother embroiled in a custody fight with James' ex-wife has been anything but sweet.
Bitter Battle Over Fate of Five-Year-Old Girl
Before tying the knot with Bullock in 2004, James was married to Lindemulder. James left Lindemulder when she was seven months pregnant with their daughter, ending their year-long marriage, her lawyer, Ron Hoevet, told the Orange County Register. Hoevet represented Lindemulder when she was ordered to pay almost $300,000 in outstanding taxes last year and served the six-month prison term.
She has since spent six months in a halfway house and, according to court documents, obtained by ABC News, has rented a "low-end three bedroom home in a fairly undesirable neighborhood in Hollywood." Lindemulder stated that it is the best she could do "because of her poor credit" and an order stating "I am not allowed to work in the Adult Industry, which is all I've ever done for the past 23 years."
Janine Lindemulder.
Ideally, Lindemulder says she would like to live near her daughter's school in Costa Mesa, Calif., so she can become be a "good co-parent with Jesse and stepmother, Sandra." In a long letter to the court she says "my daughter and I are both very eager to get back to normal" and requests financial aid, "possibly Jesse [James] can sign for a proper home for [the girl] and I." But according to court documents, it doesnt look like that is going to happen anytime soon. Lindemulder and James have been ordered to meet with a court mediator in the custody dispute later this month.
Indeed, while Lindemulder was set to regain custody after completing her prison sentence, James went before a judge to determine whether the 40-year-old adult film superstar is a fit mother. According to a court declaration, James asked that Lindemulder prove that she could provide a safe environment for their child that includes keeping her away from pornographers, drug addicts, guns and firearms, felons and other unsafe environments.
James portrays Lindemulder as emotional and erratic, sending taunting text messages to James one moment and writing "I WON'T BE AROUND. YOU GUYS WIN. I CAN'T TAKE" and "U WIN, FICKIN WIN," and then apologizing for her behavior. Court documents confirm that she did apologize for the messages but also indicate she has other issues.
Sandra Bullock.
Lindemulder recently married a man with a checkered legal past. James, in his declaration, asserts that Lindemulder kept her marriage to Jeremy Aikman, "a two-time State and Federal felon," a secret from him and the court. The Judge in the case recently amended Lindemulder's visitation order to states that Aikman must stay from the little girl. Court records indicate that Aikmen recently left prison and has a record of several convictions involving alcohol, guns and manufacture of narcotics.
A source involved in Lindemulder's dealings with James and other legal issues told ABCNews.com that Lindemulder was "not in favor of the divorce when Jesse left. Janine had custody of her daughter. Jesse didn't see his daughter for the first two years of her life except for around the time when she was born. It was only after he got involved with Sandra Bullock that he decided he wanted to have a relationship with his daughter."
The source added that "the only reason Jesse got temporary custody was because Janine had the tax problem and the court order said that custody would revert to Janine when she finished serving her time. One of the things that was really vicious was that both Jesse and Sandra Bullock wrote letters to the court in [Lindemulder's] tax case urging the judge to put her in jail so they could use that as an advantage. They claimed that because she was in the porno industry and abused drugs, she should be put in jail, but the fact was she passed drug test."
"They used a misdemeanor tax offense to gain advantage," the source concluded. According to court papers, James did accuse Lindemulder of drug abuse and although she admitted to a long-term cocaine problem in the past, she passed a court ordered drug test administered before she went to prison for tax evasion.
Jesse James.
Very Different Marriages
While Bullock told InStyle that her marriage with James is stable and satisfying, saying, "Thankfully I married someone who loves me just the way I am," that was clearly not the case for Lindemulder's relationship with James.
Lindemulder and James' stormy one-year union was documented on the Discovery Channel special "Motorcycle Mania 3" from the passionate beginning to its bitter end.
She has a son named Tyler from her 1988-1996 marriage to a construction worker.
Lindemulder didn't start off in the porn industry -- after some attempts at mainstream movie stardom, the tattooed blond beauty made a name for herself in lesbian adult films in the 1990s with the adult film company Vivid.
Soon after dating Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil, a sex tape surfaced of the couple and former Penthouse model Brandy Ledford. The tape was eventually distributed by the same company that released Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's now-infamous honeymoon sex video.
Lindemulder is perhaps best known because of her association with the punk band Blink 182. She graces the cover of their 1999 album "Enema of the State" and appears in two of the band's videos.
ABCNews.com's multiple calls and e-mails to Bullock's publicist and James' attorney were not returned. Bullock's attorneys said they had no involvement in the case. Calls to Lindemulder went unreturned. / abcnews
CLICK HERE to read the full text of Bullock's letter.
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