Free Republic

ALos Angeles socialite accused of fatally ploughing into two young boys in a crosswalk while “racing” her sports star lover has been convicted of murder. Rebecca Grossman, 60, was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother Jacob Iskander, eight, on Friday – following a six-week trial.

A 92-year-old nun, who took a vow of silence, solitude and poverty, has died at the monastery where she lived for the past three decades - however the full story of Sister Mary Joseph's life is far from traditional. Until she dedicated herself to a life of prayer she was known as Ann Russell Miller, a wealthy San Francisco socialite who hosted lavish parties, had season tickets to the opera and was the mother of ten children. Born in 1928, Ann had dreams of becoming a nun, but she fell in love instead. At 20, she married Richard Miller, who...

A British socialite stole nearly $300,000 from her dementia-suffering grandmother to fund her lavish lifestyle, including designer clothes and stays in Beverly Hills hotels, according to local reports. Emily Rosina Evans-Schreiber, 38, had only about $50 in her bank account when she was given control of her 94-year-old grandmother Rosina Evans’ finances in April 2018, a Northampton crown court heard Friday, according to the BBC. The former model’s mother had become worried about her daughter’s “high life” in London, and bought her a house in Naseby, tasking her with taking care of her grandma, prosecutors said. Over the next eight...

Zsa Zsa Gabor dies at 99; she had glamour and husbands in spades

Marine Gen. John Allen, a 1976 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, served this country admirably for more than 36 years. Now he has announced he wants to retire. The 59 year-old former top officer in Afghanistan cited his wife's "chronic" illness and said he wants to devote more time to helping his beloved Kathy cope with serious health problems, including an undisclosed "auto-immune disorder." We join the vast majority of Americans who pray the general's wife will get better, and thank him for his service to this country. But one would have to be pathetically naive not to realize...

The daughter of a prominent New York lawyer has told of her amazing transformation from sheltered, society girl to seasoned combat veteran. Former Manhattan jetsetter Jane Blair swapped her pampered life in New York to become one of the first women on the frontline in Iraq. In her new memoir Hesitation Kills, Mrs Blair, now a 38-year-old captain in the Marine Reserves, recalls the moment that changed her life. She said: 'I grew up in this environment where I never had to work for a living. My dad told me, "I will always take care of you".' She was in...

Miami Beach's newest socialite, Conchita, lives in an $8.3 million Sunset Island mansion, owns a Cartier diamond necklace and has a $3 million trust fund to support a lifestyle of designer duds, massages and pedicures. What makes Conchita different from other Miami Beach socialites: She's a Chihuahua. Conchita came into her wealth upon the March death of her owner socialite Gail Posner, the daughter of late corporate raider Victor Posner.

Still wearing dark false eyelashes after a night in the Franklin County jail, a Beverly Hills, Calif., woman accused of bringing 23 bales of marijuana to Columbus faced charges in U.S. District Court yesterday. Drug Enforcement Administration agents picked up Lisette Lee, 28, at Port Columbus on Monday night after she arrived on a chartered jet from Van Nuys, Calif., with a bodyguard, two assistants and 13 large suitcases. Inside the suitcases, agents found 506 pounds of marijuana, according to a DEA complaint. The DEA esimated the street value of the drugs to be $500,000. Lee, reportedly a California socialite,...

While publicly identifying with the nation's have-nots, the Obama administration has been cultivating the Beltway social elite behind the scenes. Earlier this year, the Obama administration invited top editors of three of Washington's local luxury lifestyle magazines — Capitol File, DC magazine and Washington Life — to a meeting where they discussed, among other things, how President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama can embrace Washington's glittery social scene. The White House is "identifying taste makers in order to help create grass-roots interest in some of the programs they are working on," said Washington Life's Michael Clements, who attended the...

NEW YORK - Brooke Astor, the civic leader, philanthropist and high society fixture who gave away nearly $200 million to support New York City's great cultural institutions and a host of humbler projects, died Monday. She was 105.