In an amicable divorce agreement, Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton has agreed to pay £20 million to his former wife. In addition to this cash settlement – "to be paid by certified cheque or wire transfer to her bank account " – Anne Marie Crichton gets to keep the couple's sprawling home in New York state as well as their fine art collection, which includes a Roy Lichtenstein sculpture and a painting by Rene Magritte.
While apparently content to bestow all this on his former wife, to whom he was married for 15 years, Michael has staked a claim to some of his favourite personal possessions. These include two rugs and a pair of aging Ford trucks.
The 59-year-old writer, who created the hit TV series ER, also keeps the pair's Hawaiian estate. He and Anne Marie, who currently live in separate homes in Santa Monica, California, have agreed to share custody of their 14-year-old daughter Taylor, who is to divide her time equally between the two.
Michael's highly lucrative writing career kicked off with The Andromeda Strain, which he wrote while still at medical school in 1969, and he will retain all rights to films, books and TV programmes arising from his creative input – except for Twister, which he and Anne Marie co-authored.
The film rights for his latest book Prey, a tale of genetic engineering and biotechnology, were recently snapped up for £3.5 million. And over the years more than a dozen of his novels, including Disclosure, Westworld and Jurassic Park, have been made into movies.
The 36-page agreement closes with the couple agreeing not to "make disparaging remarks about the personal, private or family life of the other party (including the other's family, companions, dates, acquaintances or future spouses)".
Photo: © Alphapress.com
