Astor Pal Gives Jurors a Taste of the High Life

Socialite takes stand, leads 'tour' of heiress' $29M apartment
By A Ali,  Newser Staff
Posted May 7, 2009 11:02 AM CDT
Astor Pal Gives Jurors a Taste of the High Life
Annette de la Renta and David Rockefeller enter St. Thomas Episcopal Church for the funeral services for Brooke Astor in New York in 2007.   (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano)

Socialite Annette de la Renta—clad in a cashmere dress probably designed by hubby Oscar—gave jurors in the Anthony Marshall trial a virtual tour of Brooke Astor's properties yesterday, which sparked the imagination of Joanna Molloy of the New York Daily News. "You could just read their thought bubbles," she writes. "'Wow! Brooke Astor's foyer is bigger than my apartment!'"

De la Renta, a prosecution witness, pointed out rooms where paintings disappeared as Astor's mental health deteriorated, speaking of visitors like David Rockefeller "in a deep confident voice bred from years of entitlement," Molloy writes. She was uncharacteristically talkative, but "no matter. None of the jurors could relate to anything she said anyway." (More Brooke Astor stories.)

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