Nicolas Cage's ex-lover has urged warring former couple Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger to seek counseling in a bid to end their public feuding over custody for their daughter Ireland. The war of words hit a new high last month, when an angry rant left by Baldwin on his 11-year-old's answer machine was leaked to the media. The actor has since had his custody privileges suspended and has appeared on TV apologizing for losing his temper with his daughter after she missed a court-appointed telephone conversation with her father.

Cage's ex, Christina Fulton, who has a teenage son Weston with the actor, wishes Baldwin and Basinger could get along like she does with her former partner and like Bruce Willis and Demi Moore do. Fulton says, "There really is no excuse to lose it with your child. It's too bad these two can't find someone to talk to. I mean, you signed up for this. The trick to making a split work for the child caught in the middle is to make the homes go back and forth gracefully."

Fulton, who enjoyed a five-year romance with Cage in the late 1980s and early 1990s, insists she and her ex should be the role models for split couples.

She adds, "Nic and I have a fabulous relationship... We still value and cherish each other. Plus, he's a great father. He loves his boy more than anything. He listens and that's a big problem with parents. And he's always there. He gets on his plane and flies back from movie locations to be with his son. They're both big fishermen and so they go off sea fishing together."

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)