Title: Anderson Cooper 360 - It's hard to talk when you're tea-bagging (CS'er Alert) Source:
'tube URL Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6TecmKi_Hg Published:Apr 15, 2009 Author:ErlangerTruth Post Date:2009-04-16 12:03:25 by Rotara Keywords:None Views:3169 Comments:115
Gloria Vanderbilt, fashion designer and granddaughter of rail tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt (for whom Vanderbilt University is named and to whom such companies as Conrail trace their roots). Gloria’s father died of alcohol poisoning when she was an infant and the young heiress became the subject of a bitter custody case that dominated the headlines. Gloria’s son Carter Cooper (brother of CNN’s Anderson Cooper) leapt to his death from a 14th-floor penthouse in his mother’s presence. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith is said to have remarked on the Vanderbilt family’s ability to make — and spend — vast amounts of money; one direct descendant of Cornelius even managed to die penniless.
The Astor family (furs, real estate, banking) spawned John Jacob Astor IV, who scandalized society with his marriage to a woman less than half his age; the two were on an extended honeymoon when he died aboard the Titanic. His son from a previous marriage would eventually wed the woman the world now knows as socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor, a centenarian at the core of a family feud over her care (elder abuse has been alleged by some parties.)