What kind of sick puppy would neglect and abuse his own mother, and pay himself $2.3 million a year for his effort? Personally, I do believe newspaper accounts from the Daily Snooze, and the NY Slimes. Anthony Marshall, 82, had court papers filed against him by his own son, Philip. The goal of the filing was to revoke his father's guardianship of society doyenne Brooke Astor, 104, and turn it over to her protogee, the wife of Oscar De la Renta, Annette.

Is it just me, or is there something wrong with sons of rich people with the last name Marshall? I wouldn't call Anna Nicole Smith the sharpest tool in the shed, but her deceased hubby's son, E. Pierce Marshall, dragged her through court for many years over her inheritance. He wanted it all for himself. He died last month of some nasty infection; he was plenty old himself, and you can bet Anna Nicole had nothing to do with his death.

I smell a rat here, too, and it isn't Mrs. Astor's grandson. He doesn't even seek guardianship over her, so I really don't see a power play in this case. The grandson even got Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller to back him up in the court papers. Neighbors have backed up the guy's assertions anecdotally.

The one quote I love the most is from David Richtenthal, a business partner of Anthony Marshall's, who obviously has every incentive to contradict the grandson:

He said that Mrs. Astor had round-the-clock nurses. “It may be that the number of personnel doing the nursing is reduced, but her needs are reduced,” he said.

There's logic for you. The sicker an old lady gets, and the more medications she's on, the less care she needs. Fire some of the nurses, cut her doctor visits from one a week to one a month, and curtail her Rx drug supply, or substitute it with possibly less effective generics at much lower doses.

Son Anthony is obviously counting down the days until his mom dies. I can almost hear him thinking "Die already, bitch. You're 104, for chrissakes. Isn't that long enough? If you don't die soon, I may be too old myself to enjoy spending your fortune when you're gone."

I wonder whether he was planning to move into his mom's Park Avenue duplex on 79th St. after she died. He probably won't get away with it. By all accounts, the son's marriage to some much younger Baptist minister's daughter from New England scandalized high society, and he's been an outcast from it ever since. I don't think he cares one whit, as long as he lays his hands on the big money.

As we used to say when I was in college, the guy's a schweinhundt.