Tabloids Tackle Astor's Son, Daughter-In-Law

With Anthony Marshall found guilty of looting the $200 million estate of his mother—the late philanthopist Brooke Astor—the tabloids are reveling in the drama of it all. Heck, the Post goes for the gusto with the headline "Tony's Miss Piggy skewered in Astor verdict," referring to Marshall's wife Charlene.

The Post also reminds us that Brooke Astor once called daughter-in-law Charlene "that bitch" and noted that the former minister's wife (she dumped the man of the cloth for Marshall) had "no neck and no class." A friend of Astor's said, "Brooke would say to her, 'See? See what you've done to yourself?'... She'd be terribly sorry for Tony. She'd never want to see him go to jail. But she'd remind Charlene that 'this you brought on yourself. This you've done to yourself.'" Ouch! Then there's the Andrea Peyser column.

Peyser noticed after the verdict was read "Charlene walked into the hallway toward an uncertain future, leaning for dear life on her frail husband, who looked as if he'd prefer to lean on his stout and healthy spouse," and admits Charlene's been "uncharitably compared to a porcine creature." But she still ends things with "Don't mess with Miss Piggy. She loves Anthony so."

And the Daily News' Joanna Molloy looks at how Astor, beloved as a society grand dame, was "an ambivalent mother at best," and musters up some sympathy for Marshall, "It seems Brooke Astor, for all the millions she gave New York, didn't give her only child what he'd always sought - approval... It's sad that Charlene, in the words of her friend, artist Richard Osterweil, was likely 'the only one who ever really loved him for who he was.'"