Helmsley's Dog Gets $12 Million in Will

[Gordon Gekko]

NEW YORK (AP) - Leona Helmsley's dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley's grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire's estate.

Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.

She also left millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, as well as two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer - so long as they visit their father's grave site once each calendar year.

Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5 million she left for each.

Helmsley left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer's other children - Craig and Meegan Panzirer - for "reasons that are known to them," she wrote.

But no one made out better than Trouble, who once appeared in ads for the Helmsley Hotels, and lived up to her name by biting a housekeeper.

"I direct that when my dog, Trouble, dies, her remains shall be buried next to my remains in the Helmsley mausoleum," Helmsley wrote in her will.

The mausoleum, she ordered, must be "washed or steam-cleaned at least once a year." She left behind $3 million for the upkeep of her final resting place in Westchester County, where she is buried with her husband, Harry Helmsley.

She also left her chauffeur, Nicholas Celea, $100,000.

She ordered that cash from sales of the Helmsley's residences and belongings, reported to be worth billions, be sold and that the money be given to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Her longtime spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, had no comment.

Helmsley died earlier this month at her Connecticut home. She became known as a symbol of 1980s greed and earned the nickname "the Queen of Mean" after her 1988 indictment and subsequent conviction for tax evasion. One employee had quoted her as snarling, "Only the little people pay taxes."

[Brutus]

5 million out of billions for two grandchildren?
and nothing for the other two?

they are probably wishing they would have killed her before she died.

a generation ago, people left almost all their money to children and grandchildren. not so today. the kids that inherited big have other ideas about how they themselves got weathy.

could anyone explain this to me? seriously, I dont get it.

[FUHGEDABOUDIT]

Let 'em eat cake!

[Gordon Gekko]

I guess she got the last laugh.


gg

[rogue1]

No,the grandkids will have the last laugh when they take a whiz on the mausoleum.

[Brutus]

the grandkids (I'm sure) got all of her attitude, and nothing to support it with.

even 5 million is barely a gesture, compared to the rest of the pie.


humble pie
http://www.pippahunnechurch.com/humble_pie_recipe.php

who dreams up these big ideas of leaving huge piles to charities?

and another thing... why didnt she slide a little of that my way?

[Brutus]

Originally Posted by rogue1

No,the grandkids will have the last laugh when they take a whiz on the mausoleum.

what I'm getting at is the growing trend against leaving money and assets in the family.

what really pisses me off, is these a-holes have been a-holes, for a lifetime. when one of the kids protests the tyranny, they are out of the will.

its not a black and white business descision.

these kids and grandkids are deserve an opportunity to increase family wealth.

Leona Helmsley was not in the least charitable toward her employees, or her family. why the hell would she decide to start being charitable to strangers after her death?

after all, she created the hostility to begin with.

who got to her? some financial advisor?

maybe some of her girlfriends were talking it over during lunch... "Oh yes dear, my children deserve nothing, they are lazy, they contradict me constantly.... " more like their kids are completley confused by their parents selfish behavior. -and when the kids mimic the parents actions, that is when the trouble begins.

I would be willing to bet that this would not have happened when Harry was alive.

[Brutus]

(Sept. 3) - She has a thing for cream cheese and long walks in the park. Like many New Yorkers, she is well fed, well groomed and well medicated (for her thyroid and kidney troubles). At the age of 8, she has already been the star of a national advertising campaign and the subject of at least one messy lawsuit.

She has spent most of her days in pampered luxury, in a penthouse apartment at the top of the Park Lane Hotel, at the southern edge of Central Park. A hotel pianist once wrote a tune for her. A hotel chef cooked her meals, and a housekeeper served them, hand-feeding her steamed carrots and other vegetables with grilled chicken.

Life, in fact, got to be so good that some people had to watch what they said around her. They didn’t want to offend her — or her owner and best friend, Leona Helmsley — by calling her, of all things, a dog.

“Nobody could say ‘the dog,’ ” said Zamfira Sfara, 48, a former housekeeper for Mrs. Helmsley, who Ms. Sfara said preferred a more regal term for her beloved pet: Princess.

http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/rich...00010000000001


reminds me of that episode of the twilight zone where family members where required to wear masks until midnight. later, they found their faces had been permantly altered, as if the masks where were still on.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggj7ECeVM-Y

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mas..._Twilight_Zone)

[sagefr0g]

must be the richest dog in the world, i guess...

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by Brutus

Leona circa '81 -

That was before she came to look like a reptilian G. Edward Robinson -