Love the centerpiece and the china. LOL
Love the centerpiece and the china. LOL
Protégée of Brooke Astor Is Cast as Her Protector in Dispute Over Her Care
For the last year and a half, Brooke Astor, 104 years old and sometimes unaware of much of what goes on around her, has been cloistered within the confines of her duplex apartment perched on the 16th floor of 778 Park Avenue, on one of America’s richest blocks.
She rarely emerged, all but vanished from New York life, remote and unreachable even for many who were once close to her. Some friends wanted to see her. But, according to several of them, they were turned down by a young man they came to call a kind of “gatekeeper,” who explained that Mrs. Astor was in no condition to recognize them.
There has been one notable exception to these polite yet firm denials: Annette de la Renta, who is married to the designer Oscar de la Renta. Every two weeks or so, Mrs. de la Renta made her way into the grand apartment for a visit with the woman who, friends and associates say, had become something of a surrogate mother.
Mrs. Astor’s grandson Philip Marshall has accused his father in a lawsuit of neglecting the grande dame of New York philanthropy and high society, and he has proposed that Mrs. de la Renta be named legal guardian. Whether the courts will grant her that role remains to be seen. A dozen friends and associates have said in interviews over the past five days that she is suited to play it. Indeed, they say, Mrs. de la Renta, with her visits and her vigilance, has assumed the task that Mrs. Astor’s only son, Anthony D. Marshall, 82, has abandoned.
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Ms. Corbett said Mrs. Astor and Mr. Marshall, the son from her first of three marriages, did not seem to be close. “When I would ask about Tony, she would usually say, ‘Oh please.’ She never said much about him.”
Ms. Corbett said that in the 1960’s or 1970’s, Mrs. Astor objected to her son’s desire to change his last name from Marshall to Astor. “She would not allow it and said, ‘No way,’ ” she said. “Mrs. Astor was a woman of principle, and she thought it was opportunistic and inappropriate.”
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Friends said that about a year ago, members of Mrs. Astor’s staff began calling Mr. Rockefeller and Mrs. de la Renta because they were worried about her care and comfort. Philip Marshall was getting similar calls, they said, and he contacted the two of them.
“David Rockefeller and Annette really are Brooke Astor’s guardian angels,” said John Fairchild, the retired publisher of Women’s Wear Daily and a friend of Mrs. Astor’s for about three decades.
"Such paranoia..........our fair minded, objective reporters would never do such a thing....."
*Rolling eyes*