Charisma Carpenter is Broke?

[Brian Damage]

According to Charisma Carpenter, the writers' strike is slaying her earning capacity.

The former Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel star claims that the ongoing Writers Guild of America walkout has left her unemployed, and therefore without the means to afford the attorneys' fees pertaining to her current divorce proceedings, according to court documents filed Dec. 4.

In turn, Carpenter has requested that estranged hubby Damian Hardy be required to pay her legal bills.

Per her declaration, the last work the 37-year-old actress had was a Nov. 26 appearance on a TV show that has not yet been renewed or picked up. The nearly seven-week-long strike could go on for months and, even if it ends, the Screen Actors Guild contract is up for renewal in June and could prompt further labor action, she said.

Carpenter briefly guest-starred on Fox's Back to You as the single mother of a bully who has been terrorizing the daughter of the bickering news anchors played by Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammar. Grammar's character, Chuck, wants to give the kid's mom a piece of his mind—until he sees how hot she is, of course.

The sitcom's status is still up in the air, along with the fate of myriad other freshman series, thanks to the strike.

"At the present time, [Hardy] has the ability to work full time and make more money than I am currently making," Carpenter states. "[He] should be paying my attorneys' fees and costs…The court should uphold the spousal support waiver, but if it does not do so, it should award spousal support to me."

The 2004 Playboy cover girl says that her and Hardy's prenup includes a waiver of spousal support by both sides in the event that their marriage fails to last seven years. Carpenter filed for divorce Aug. 2.

But Hardy, who stated in a declaration filed Nov. 27 that he quit working for awhile to be a stay-at-home dad for their four-year-old son, Donovan Charles Hardy, maintains that he wasn't fully aware of what he was getting into before he agreed to the premarital arrangement.

"I do not recall any discussion regarding the waiver of spousal support, and no one explained to me what rights I was giving up regarding spousal support by signing the premarital agreement," Hardy stated.

He claims that before the couple swapped vows in October 2002 he earned $18,000 a year working as a hotel bellman and supervisor. Meanwhile, Hardy stated, Carpenter is capable of making up to $500,000 a year (what he says she earned in 2004) as an actress.

"I have recently returned to work, but I am making less than $2,000 per month and I cannot afford to go to school at this time," Hardy, a high school graduate, said.

A hearing on custody and financial issues is scheduled for Jan. 9.


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