We've been covering the controversy over Brooke Astor's estate for over two years now. And though a lot of the publicly released evidence and testimony is pretty damning to Anthony Marshall regarding his mother's late-in-life alterations to her will, we're not willing to dismiss the fact that the octogenarian deeply loved his legendary mother, in spite of it all. In the end, it doesn't make a difference either way in the trial, really. Which is why it's probably wise that that's the last-ditch plea his lawyers are making after weeks and weeks of damaging testimony over Marshall's treatment of her. "Underlying this case is the love of Brooke Astor for her son, Tony Marshall," one of Tony's lawyers argued today. "Make no mistake about it. Brooke Astor loved her only son, Tony Marshall. Tony Marshall loved his mother."

We're not on the jury, so we'll never know the whole story about what happened between the two of them — and there's lots of evidence on both sides. But we know what we heard, over two years ago, when we listened to Marshall's eulogy at his mother's funeral. And that was a boy, aged and tired though he was, who loved his mama.

Lawyer says Astor loved her son and was competent [NYP]