Arf! Arf! Arf!

[B]

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20490933/?GT1=10252

Helmsley leaves her dog $12 million in trust
'Trouble' is top dog; 2 of her 4 grandkids get nothing; billions go to charity


NEW YORK - 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.

Chauffeur gets $100,000
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.”

Other headlines: Chinese miners survive on coal, urine diet Mmmm.

[jarvitronics]

Happy birthday B.S. Bee
4k stars from me to thee

-j

P.S.
0+8+2+9+5+0=24, and 2+4=6.
The sixth root of 082950 is 6.6.
You must be Letter Beelzebub.

[B]

All too true...

[Valis]

We got fourthousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin' in the free world
-Neil Young
;D

[B]

valis said:

We got fourthousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin' in the free world
-Neil Young
;D

;D

[LOVELYRITA]

Gee, it's a DOG's life.....how about that? Who makes out more? The dog, or the "guardian of the dog"?

And Trouble, what do you have to say about this?
Trouble: Arf, arf, arf arf. (Howls) Ruff ruff! (piddles on reporter's foot!)

The Trouble with "Trouble"....

[B]

www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/08/30/2007-08-30_housekeeper_slams_leona_helmsley_dog_who.html?print=1

Housekeeper slams Leona Helmsley dog who got $12M in will

BY KERRY BURKE AND JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, August 30th 2007, 4:00 AM

Leona Helmsley's former housekeeper said yesterday the Queen of Mean's pampered $12 million pooch made life miserable for the hired help.

"We had so much trouble with Trouble," Zamfira Sfara told the Daily News. "I was bitten dozens of times."
The Romanian housekeeper, who worked in Helmsley's posh apartment in the Helmsley Park
Lane Hotel, described the lavish life the 8-year-old Maltese shared with Helmsley.

The hotel queen, who died last week at age 87, showered love and money on the furball,
who snagged the largest individual trust from her fortune, which is worth at least $4 billion.
Helmsley believed her late husband, Harry, communicated with her through the dog.
"I never saw a human being so in love with an animal," said Sfara, 48.
"They were always together everywhere."

Helmsley even shared her double king-size bed with Trouble, Sfara said, and lots of kisses.
"She would lick the dog tongue to tongue," she said. "It was unnatural. It was unhealthy."
So it didn't surprise the maid that her old boss left $12 million to the pet while disowning two
grandchildren she had feuded with for years.
"Leona wanted everybody to love her, but she knew nobody loved her," Sfara said.
"This dog replaced that love."

Trouble was dressed in pricey outfits and sported a diamond collar. The dog's chef-prepared meals
- steamed vegetables and steamed or grilled chicken and fish - arrived in porcelain bowls
on a silver tray.
"The chef would have to leave all the [hotel] customers to make Trouble's food," Sfara said.
"After it was mixed, I would have to get down on my knees and feed the dog with my two fingers."

Trouble, apparently, didn't appreciate Helmsley's hired help.
"Everybody was bitten: bodyguards, the head of security, even customers got bitten," said Sfara,
who sued Helmsley in 2005 after, she said, Trouble bit her.
"You'd never know when she would bite you," she said. "One time when she bit me,
she was chewing on my fingers, and Leona said, 'Good for you, Trouble, she deserved it.' "
Sfara, who worked for Helmsley for several months, said she suffered permanent nerve damage
from Trouble's bites. She still wears a brace on her right hand.
Helmsley fought Sfara's suit, now on appeal, until the day she died.

Helmsley didn't think two of her own grandchildren, Craig and Meegan Panzirer, deserved any
of her money, either. She left them out of a will filed this week in Manhattan Surrogate's Court.
"She spends $12 million on a dog and nothing for her grandkids," said Sfara. "Forget about me,
what about her grandchildren? What about her blood?"
Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for Helmsley, declined to comment on the will
or what came between her and the two grandchildren.
Helmsley famously skipped Craig Panzirer's 1994 wedding. She also had a nasty falling-out
with daughter-in-law Mimi Panzirer, evicting the wife of her only son from a Helmsley property in Florida.
None of the grandchildren would comment on the will, which also provided billions for charities.
Helmsley's sister-in-law angrily shooed away questions about Trouble.
"It's nobody's business," growled Susan Rosenthal, whose husband, Alvin, inherits
Trouble in the will. He also was appointed a trustee of the Helmsley estate.

Sfara said the dog is in poor health. Once Trouble dies, she will be buried in the family crypt,
fulfilling one of Helmsley's final wishes.
Among the household help, only Helmsley's chauffeur seemed grateful. He was left $100,000
by his former boss - even if it was pennies compared with what Trouble got.
"I can tell you that I really appreciated her," said chauffeur Nicholas Celea outside
his Queens home.

With John Lauinger and Mike Jaccarino

[B]

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Ok, do I leave the 12 million with Trouble? Or do I leave it with Miss Romaine Johnson (lettucehead).
Poor Leona. Decisions, decisions....

[CoconutFudge]

Haha, that is so something I would do!

As for Miss South Carolina... oh wow, I'm embarrassed to be in that relative age group...

[B]

www.nytimes.com/2007/09/03/nyregion/03trouble.html?ex=1189483200&en=d86da76e70178622&ei=5053&partner=NYTHEADLINES_HP

Multimillionaire Dog Can’t Buy Herself a Friend

By MANNY FERNANDEZ
Published: September 3, 2007
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.

But she is a canine — the richest, most talked about and most controversial dog in a city of dogs. Mrs. Helmsley, the hotel magnate who died last month at age 87, showed her enduring love for her dog, whose actual name is Trouble, by leaving the dog $12 million in her will. Mrs. Helmsley was not as generous to her chauffeur, who was awarded $100,000, or to two of her grandchildren, who received nothing, the 14-page will states, “for reasons which are known to them.”

The $12 million gift has sparked outrage and fascination, and supplied the headline writers of the world with once-in-a-lifetime material. “Trouble in paradise, but heirs in disgrace,” said The Australian. The New York Post and England’s Sun were in agreement: “Rich bitch.”

A friend of Mrs. Helmsley’s recently received two calls from dog owners who were interested in having their pets mate with Trouble. One of the callers was joking; the other was serious.

With her owner gone, Trouble has become an easy stand-in for New Yorkers’ less than generous feelings about Mrs. Helmsley, whose reputation for mistreating workers earned her a seat in the tabloid nobility as the “Queen of Mean.” The agitation over the dog’s fortune has overshadowed the fact that Mrs. Helmsley actually left the bulk of her billions to a charitable trust.

A cute-as-pie Maltese with white stringy hair and button eyes, Trouble is not easily embraced in a city of grinders, and her defenders are few. Much of what is publicly known about her comes from Ms. Sfara, who worked for Mrs. Helmsley for three months and sued her after she said she was bitten by the dog.

Trouble’s whereabouts remain unknown. Mrs. Helmsley’s longtime spokesman, Howard J. Rubenstein, declined to comment for this article.

The dog came into Mrs. Helmsley’s life as a puppy. Ms. Sfara said Mrs. Helmsley had told her that John Codey, a friend and adviser, went on a walk with Mrs. Helmsley one day, and they ended up at a pet store. Trouble approached Mrs. Helmsley, and they made an immediate connection. Mr. Codey bought the dog for her as a present. Mr. Codey did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The dog was featured in ads for the Park Lane, and in one she wears pink bows over her ears and puts on a pout next to the words: “It’s a sad day when you leave a Helmsley Hotel.”

Ms. Sfara, who said Mrs. Helmsley gave Trouble her name, recalled a day when Mrs. Helmsley had an eye appointment at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital in Manhattan. Trouble was refused entry. “She was making so much fuss and arguing with people,” Ms. Sfara said of Mrs. Helmsley, “that they let us go upstairs.” With Trouble.

One afternoon in 2003, Mrs. Helmsley went to Bravo Gianni, an Italian restaurant on East 63rd Street, for a lunch date. She brought Trouble with her, but she was told the dog would have to wait outside. She and her guest had lunch elsewhere. In February that same year, the former general manager of the Park Lane won a sexual discrimination suit against Mrs. Helmsley, after a jury found that she had fired him because he was gay. She sat down for an interview with The New York Post to discuss the case, with Trouble resting in her arms.

“But when I reached over to pet the pooch,” The Post’s Andrea Peyser wrote, “Trouble bared her teeth and threatened to rip off my finger.”

Trouble, despite her size, seemed to earn the name.

Ms. Sfara said Trouble bit her dozens of times during the three months she worked for Mrs. Helmsley in 2004. Once, when Mrs. Helmsley was returning from a trip to her home in Greenwich, Conn., Trouble rested on Ms. Sfara’s lap in the limousine. When she moved her right arm to get a tissue, Trouble lunged and bit her hand, drawing blood, she said. Ms. Sfara said Trouble had also bitten Mrs. Helmsley’s bodyguards, a dog groomer, a nurse and at least one hotel guest.
“Trouble didn’t let people get close to her,” Ms. Sfara said of Mrs. Helmsley. “She says, ‘She’s my first bodyguard.’ ”

Ms. Sfara sued her former boss over one of the dog bites. In 2005, a judge dismissed the case, agreeing with Mrs. Helmsley’s lawyers that she was insulated from liability under the Workers’ Compensation Law. Ms. Sfara said she still suffers pain from nerve damage from the bites and wears a brace on her right hand.

As would any New Yorker who comes into a ton of money, Trouble is going to need expert legal representation. Ms. Sfara’s son, Remus Pop, 27, said he and his mother were talking to a law firm about taking up their case again and going after Trouble’s inheritance. “That is the next step,” Mr. Pop said. “That dog got money. That money is going to be taken away from that dog.”

Besides the money, Mrs. Helmsley’s will has other clues about how fond she was of her pet. It says that Trouble is to be cared for by her brother, Alvin Rosenthal. The will further stipulates that when Trouble dies, “her remains shall be buried next to my remains” at the Helmsley mausoleum at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester County.

But Mrs. Helmsley may not get her wish. A spokesman for the Department of State’s Division of Cemeteries said that state law has been widely interpreted to forbid the interment of non-human remains at human cemeteries. The superintendent of Sleepy Hollow said it would abide by the regulations, and any questions about the law would need to be settled by the Division of Cemeteries.

Ms. Sfara said she did not think Trouble could survive long without her companion. “They were too close,” she said. When Mrs. Helmsley would leave her penthouse at the hotel and head down to the restaurant, Trouble would patiently wait. “Leona would be out for three hours,” Ms. Sfara said. “The dog would stay by the door, lying on the floor for three hours, waiting for her to come. It never moved.”