ANOTHER CHAPTER CLOSED

Sunny von Bülow, 76, has died. When my uncle was a patient at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in NYC, his room was next to hers. Was she ever the focus of society drama! Her life and the film about the Claus von Bülow trial - Reversal of Fortune with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close - was sheer parody.

A 1985 article in Vanity Fair described their life together. Typically Sunny rose around 11, phone her mother for an hour, was chauffeured to her exercise class, did a little shopping, had lunch, changed into her pyjamas, and watched television with Claus. Occasionally she appeared at parties, fabulously gowned. She went to bed early, sharing a bed with Claus and their four Labradors.