NEW YORK -- She wears torn nightgowns and sleeps on a couch that smells of urine. Her bland diet includes pureed peas and oatmeal. Her dogs, once a source of comfort, are kept locked in a pantry.

A court filing alleges that this is the life of 104-year-old Brooke Astor, the multimillionaire Manhattan socialite who dedicated much of her vast fortune to promoting culture and alleviating human misery.

Astor married into a family that at one time was among America's wealthiest and most prominent. Her late husband's father, John Jacob Astor IV, died in the sinking of the Titanic; his grandmother, Caroline Astor, led New York society for 25 years during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century; and his great-great-grandfather, John Jacob Astor, became America's wealthiest man by 1840.

The court papers -- filed last week and reported on Wednesday by the Daily News -- blame the alleged misery and squalor inside Astor's Park Avenue duplex on her only child, Anthony Marshall, who controls her $45 million portfolio.