Jamie McCourt on divorce case: “He likes litigation”

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Jamie McCourt said today she had no desire to stage a public fight over ownership of the Dodgers but even less desire to walk away from a 30-year marriage on terms dictated by her estranged husband.

‘I don’t think that I should have to settle for less than what is right,’ she said at a luncheon benefiting the Jewish Federation of Orange County. She declined to speak with reporters afterward.

McCourt, in a conversation with Vikki Vargas of KNBC-TV, focused on her Jewish roots, the role of women in business and the power of community and education. She deflected questions about the Dodgers and her divorce proceedings against Frank McCourt, but she did say that he ‘unceremoniously and publicly terminated me’ as the team’s chief executive and repeated the assertions of her lawyers that he has pressed to enforce an agreement that they say would leave him with 95% of the couple’s assets.

‘It reminds me of an old Jewish story,’ she said. ‘Moses said, ‘God, they get the oil, and we get to cut off the tops of what?’ That’s really how I look at it.’ (The references are to Israel as one of the few Middle Eastern countries without significant oil reserves and to the Jewish ritual of circumcision.)

Jamie McCourt said she plans to launch a foundation soon, in part to address the needs of women. She said she hopes to parlay the ‘unwanted celebrity’ conferred upon her by the high-profile divorce to transform her work and life ‘into something fantastic.’

‘I love change, which is a lucky thing,’ she said. ‘There’s no telling what’s going to come next.’

She said she was fortunate to work with the Dodgers, because the team has the power to draw attention to all sorts of community causes.

‘It is truly a civic asset,’ she said. ‘The best part of the Dodgers was what you could do for all these constituencies in the community.’

She has asked a court to overturn an agreement that provides Frank McCourt with sole ownership of the Dodgers. Vargas asked whether baseball would be in her future.

‘Time will tell,’ she said. ‘There’s a big debate right now ... What can I say? He likes litigation.’

She might like to get involved in another sport.

‘I might go football now,’ she said.

-- Bill Shaikin