Brooke Astor’s Prince Charles ‘mistress’ crack to Camilla Parker Bowles proof of her own crack-up
Melissa Grace/Corky Siemaszko
May 18, 2009
New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/05/18/2009-05-18_brooke_astors_prince_charles_mistress_crack_to_camilla_parker_bowles_proof_of_he.html
Brooke Astor caused Prince Charles some royal embarrassment when she welcomed his girlfriend to New York high society by declaring, “You’re keeping this mistress business in the family.”
Astor made the crack at a 1999 luncheon for Camilla Parker Bowles after publicly pointing out that one of Camilla’s ancestors was the mistress of Charles’ great-great-grandfather, Edward VII, former New York Public Library honcho Vartan Gregorian testified Monday.
“That also was a nightmare,” Gregorian said at the fraud trial of Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, and his lawyer friend, Francis Morrissey.
Bowles, who has since married Charles, was blamed for breaking up his marriage to Princess Diana.
At the same luncheon, Astor also failed to recognize actor Michael Douglas and dissed his soon-to-be wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.
“Who is this woman?” Astor said, Gregorian testified. “She’s wearing the wrong dress for this occasion.”
Gregorian is the latest upper crust New Yorker prosecutors have put on the stand to support charges that Marshall and Morrissey took advantage of Astor’s Alzheimer’s to plunder her $185 million fortune. She died in 2007 at age 105.
Prosecutors also showed video footage of a shaky Astor telling a perplexed and embarrassed audience at a library awards dinner that she was pushed by her parents into marrying “a perfectly terrible man” at age 16.
“They were not what you’d call interesting people, but they had a lot of money,” Astor said in December 2001. “In those days, I thought if a man kissed you, a popped baby popped out of you.”
In the same speech, which Astor gave shortly before she turned 100, she also told the audience “I am almost 90 years old, just two weeks from being 90 years old.”
Gregorian said he was “astounded” by Astor’s speech but didn’t consider giving Brooke the hook.
“There was laughter and embarrassment, but I would never have dared to take Mrs. Astor away from the podium,” he said.
Marshall, 84, and Morrissey, 66, deny swindling Astor and insist she was lucid when she rewrote her will in January 2004 to give her son an extra $60 million.
Astor’s Social Gaffes Recounted at Trial
Told Camilla Royal Mistresses Run in Her Family
Laura Italiano
May 18, 2009
New York Post
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05182009/news/regionalnews/astors_social_gaffes_recounted_at_trial_169896.htm
How’s this for a faux pas — Brook Astor, noted philanthropist, age 97, reminding Camilla Parker Bowles, during a crowded gathering, that Bowles’ own great-grandmother had also been a royal mistress.
“You’re keeping this mistress business in the family!” Astor told Parker Bowles.
“Two generations providing mistresses!”
The cringe-inducing moment of social gracelessness was recounted this morning, as the Astor swindle trial kicked off its fourth week of prosecution testimony with witness Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation.
Prosecutors are trying to show that Astor was out-of-her-mind with Alzheimer’s by the time she hit age 101 — when her son, Anthony Marshall, allegedly began strongarming her into bequeathing him and his wife Charlene some $60 million Astor had long intended go to her favorite charities.
Gregorian’s story shows that Astor was slipping at least two years before then — or at least the one-time grande dame of New York had lost her social mojo.
The occasion was a party that television personality Barbara Walters and Astor herself were throwing for Parker Bowles, to welcome the well-known mistress of Britain’s Prince Charles to New York City. Astor had the star-studded party at her own Park Avenue duplex.
“Who is this woman?” Astor asked when Catherine Zeta Jones — whom Astor had presumably invited — walked past.
“I said, ‘Catherine Zeta Jones, a great actress,’” Gregorian recounted.
“Then she said, ‘Well, she’s wearing the wrong dress for this occasion,’” Gregorian remembered. Astor made the remark loudly — something the one-time doyenne would never have done in a prior year, he said.
“She said that right in front of her. Catherine Zeta Jones pretended not to hear.”
At another point in the party, Astor got confused as to which Douglas — Michael or Kirk — was at Jones’ side.
“He’s not that young,” Astor ultimately figured, correctly, of Kirk, in realizing it was the younger Douglas attending her party.
Then came the ruinous conversation between the guest of honor — Bowles — and Astor, low-heeled pump firmly in mouth.
“Your grandmother would have been proud of you,” Astor announced to Bowles. Actually, it was Bowles’ great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, who began the family “mistress business,” as Astor would call it. Keppel was perhaps the best-known mistress of Edward the VII, and was at his deathbed in 1910, two years before Astor’s own birth.
“You’re keeping this mistress thing in the family,” Astor said. “Two generations providing mistresses!”
“That,” Gregorian said, harkening to the earlier Zeta Jones debacle, “was also a nightmare.”
Gregorian, who met Astor while he was New York City Public Library president in the 1980s, noted that Bowles herself kept her footing nicely.
“She laughed,” at Astor’s “mistress business” remark, he remembered. “Gracious.”
Son vs. father is Astor tradition as Anthony Marshall trial continues
Melissa Grace
May 18, 2009
New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/05/18/2009-05-18_son_vs_father_is_astor_tradition.html
More than 50 years ago, Brooke Astor’s son faced down his father in a Manhattan courtroom.
Tuesday, the blue-blooded family’s tragedy comes full circle.
Astor’s son Anthony Marshall will be sitting at the defense table watching as his twin sons Philip and Alec Marshall testify against him in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Anthony Marshall is charged with plundering Astor’s $185 million estate.
“What is tragic about this family is that Tony Marshall faced off against his father in court over a half century ago, and now his life is bookended by his sons’ testifying against him,” Astor biographer Meryl Gordon said.
As a young man, Anthony Marshall successfully fended off in court an effort by his dad, Astor’s first husband, Dryden Kuser, to loot his trust fund.
Now, his 56-year-old sons’ testimony could send Marshall, 84, to jail for 25 years.
Philip Marshall charged his father was holding the Alzheimer-addled Astor a virtual prisoner, depriving her of decent food, a warm bed and even time with her dogs.
Anthony Marshall and his lawyer pal Francis Morrissey, 66, are charged with snatching $60 million the late New York philanthropist intended for charity. The men have pleaded not guilty to the fraud raps.
The sons’ court appearances will be a reunion, of sorts, as neither twin has seen his father since Astor’s funeral in 2007. She was 105.
Philip Marshall, a college professor in Massachusetts, and Alec Marshall, a photographer in Westchester County, will likely testify about their grandmother’s deteriorating mental capacity, saying she seemed to lack the ability to competently update her will.
After his father was indicted, Philip Marshall told the Daily News, “I sincerely hope there is a way justice can be achieved without my father going to jail.”
His testimony, prosecutors say, might make that impossible.
Estate of Denial® provides news, analysis and commentary on abusive practices occurring in probate courts and via probate instruments (wills, trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney). We provide original perspective to educate the public regarding this growing threat to both individual freedoms and property rights.
