Christie Brinkley Is Fired as Host of CNN Lifestyles Show

NEW YORK — Model Christie Brinkley was fired Friday as host of a CNN lifestyles show.

Brinkley said she got the ax because she wouldn’t accept a contract clause limiting her options to work with other networks and had asked for more creative input.

“They wanted to hire somebody to draw attention to their program. I was just hired to do wraparounds,” she said in a telephone interview from Miami.

Bob Furnad, CNN’s senior executive producer and vice president, said he didn’t “consider the program a success.”

Also, “the indication was they wanted more control, and we were not comfortable with relinquishing control,” he said by telephone from Atlanta.

Her half-hour show, “Living in the 90s,” has been on the all-news channel every weekday morning since September.

Brinkley, 39, and CNN executives had agreed to review the contract after the initial 18 weeks. Discussions began this week on extending the deal.

Furnad would not reveal how much Brinkley had been paid.