Linda and Hulk Hogan:  Splitsville  
Sunday, November 25th, 2007

Linda Marie Bollea, 48, has filed for divorce from her reality TV costar and pro wrestler husband of nearly 25 years, Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea.  She filed the petition on Tuesday against Terry Gene Bollea, 54, in Pinellas County Court - the same court system where their son Nick Bollea is finally facing felony charges for his August car crash that left John Graziano in a comatose state.

I attempted to look up the court documents - which are public record, mind you - but ran into some problems.  First, the Pinellas County Public Records search revealed Linda's information, but claimed she is not involved in any Case.  Once I obtained the Case Number, I got the following error message: "THE FAMILY CASE REQUESTED CANNOT BE VIEWED BY PUBLIC ACCESS."

In order to get Electronic Access to all cases - which are public record, as I said - one must pay a One Time Membership Fee of $60.00, plus a flat monthly charge of $5.00 for 1-100 transactions, and $.05 per additional transaction over 100.  Since I don't go combing around Pinellas County on the regular - and since "CUSTOMERS WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DISCONNECTED AFTER A PERIOD OF INACTIVITY set by Pinellas County Government" (but not disclosed), I am not ponying up for this.  Pinellas must be making a killing off of charging for public records...I've ought to check into whether or not it's legal for a local government to charge that much for access.

Fortunately, TMZ.com (owned by AOL, who has the $60+ to toss around) obtained the court documents - but, conveniently missing from the legal papers is an answer in the required field "Reason" for requested Dissolution of Marriage.  Just out of curiousity, do the Hogans/Bolleas own Pinellas County?

The St. Petersburg Times called Hulk Hogan for a comment on the pending case, and instead ending up being the ones that informed him that Linda had filed - he said he had no idea.  "Thank you for the great information," he said politely, and hung up the phone.

He called the paper back about five minutes later, and said, "I'm kind of shocked.  You caught me off-guard.  My wife has been in California for about three weeks...Holy smokes.  Wow, you just knocked the bottom out of me...I just pulled over to the side of the road for five minutes to find out what was going on here."

In the last season of the family's VH1 reality TV series, Hogan Knows Best, Linda and Hulk admitted to marital problems and went to see a marriage counselor at Linda's insistence.  In the episode "Trouble In The House of Hogan," Brooke attempts to have a heart-to-heart with her mother in the car about the state of her marriage.

"You guys argue way too much - it's not about anything, either, which is weird," Brooke says.

"We get to the point where we hate each other.  I just don't want to talk to him, you know, we walk past each other like two ships in the night, I'm just like - I don't want to look at him," Linda says.

"Would you be happier divorced?" Brooke asks, obviously expecting a "No" answer.

"I don't know!" Linda says.

"No, you wouldn't be!"

"How do you know?" mother asks daughter.

"'Cause he's the love of your life!"

Brooke has a point with their arguments seeming completely meaningless.  You would think that after the incident with Nick, it would bring the family closer together, perhaps lead Linda and Hulk to realize their previous issues were petty.  In the "Marriage Counseling" episode, they seem to grasp at straws to give the counselor any real problems.

"Is there time for just, getting out to dinner in Miami, just the two of you?" the counselor asks, probably looking for a lack of quality time between the long-married couple.

"Yes," Linda replies.  "We do go out to dinner, and we do try to do things together, but it really, it's not like a 'set aside special time.'  Because when we go out to dinner, it's just - we're on the hunt for food."  Huh?

"And cell phones, I think is a huge problem," Linda adds.  "I mean, mine isn't as bad, but his, he's on it, like, eternally.  And then that can escalate into an argument.  Because, it's like, you know, he hangs up and he's in a rotten mood, he's in a great mood."  Huh?

I think that America used to be rooting for the Hogans, Bolleas, whatever.  I watched a few of the episodes of Hogan Knows Best when the series first aired, and I remember hoping that Brooke would land the singing contract she so desperately wanted.  It seemed like a sweet, honest dream that brought the family closer together.

And then Brooke got signed, and started wearing assless chaps and strange stripper combos, and Nick had the car crash after a series of dangerous traffic violations that he wasn't disciplined for; and recently, video even surfaced of Linda and Brooke participating in illegal streetracing themselves, with Linda commenting on how she enjoyed the rush of running from police.

If the Hogans had made any sort of attempt to apologize for the accident that left two-time Iraq War Marine Graziano in a permanent vegetative state, perhaps the world, the media, the public wouldn't have come crashing down so hard on them.  If they'd made any comment about learning from the episode, of taking accountability for Nick's actions, lack of discipline, underage drinking and driving under the influence, purposely flaunting his lack of respect for laws that were enacted for the public's safety...but instead, they issued a press release saying it was unfortunate that John wasn't wearing his seat belt and Nick was.

"The tragedy to both families is compounded by the fact that unfortunately John was not wearing his seat belt," the statement said.  "Thankfully, Nick was wearing his."

Kimberly Kohn, the lawyer representing Graziano's father, Edward, said she was stunned at the statement, and saw it as a deflection of blame.

"If they're going to be doing a campaign, I think they should do a campaign on excessive speed, a campaign on underage drinking, and a campaign on underage drinking and driving," Kohn said.  Nick also plans to plead not guilty, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard (see the case against him here).

They continued to encourage Nick's racing "career" and minimize any responsibility he had for what happened that day in August.

So, in my mind, at least, they deserve whatever is coming to them.  They could have chosen to grow from this, to utilize a tragedy as a wake-up call.

But, apparently, none of the Hogans know best.

   

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