NEW YORK — The elegant woman in the forest green frock held up a slender right hand and swore to tell the truth. She was matter-of-fact as she described herself as unemployed, just "an average housewife" taking care of her husband, Henry, and their home.
"Average" to herself perhaps, but not to the jurors and spectators watching Nancy Kissinger testify last week in the trial of Anthony Marshall, who is accused of stealing millions from his mother -- the late philanthropist and socialite Brooke Astor -- in the twilight of her 105-year life.
The testimony inside a chilly Manhattan courtroom over the last two weeks has offered a close-up look at the lives of the fabulously rich and famous, and underscored the disconnect between them and most of America, especially nowadays. Theirs is a world where lavish jewels are handed out as party gifts, where private homes have names, where caterers-to-the-stars cancel ski trips in order to bake dreamy birthday cakes for special clients, and where million-dollar art hangs on the drawing room (don't call it the living room) walls.
"At how many trials are gold and diamond necklaces passed among the jurors to look at?" said Meryl Gordon, whose book "Mrs. Astor Regrets: The Hidden Betrayals of a Family Beyond Reproach" dissects the scandal that erupted in 2006.
That is when Astor's grandson, Philip Marshall, accused his father, Anthony, of letting Astor live in squalor in an unheated, dirty Park Avenue apartment while he pilfered her estate. As a result, a judge removed Anthony Marshall as Astor's legal caretaker and replaced him with her longtime friend Annette de la Renta, wife of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. Astor died the next year.
But just as the case is fascinating for its peek into the ugly side of beautiful people's lives, it also touches on issues average Americans can relate to: parental neglect, financial scams, inheritance squabbles.
One spectator, who would give her name only as Judy, said the trial reminded her of the difficulties faced by her own mother in the years before her death -- when, she said, greedy landlords tried to push her out of her Brooklyn rental. "That's what this whole trial is about, an older woman who was vulnerable. It's sad. It's very sad," Judy said, showing off snapshots of her late mother: a slender woman with carefully coiffed, copper-colored hair who bore a resemblance to Astor.
