It’s Always Better To Stay Alive Than Be Dead

Because those of us still here can do whatever the hell we want. Leona Helmsley’s bitchy will that left $12 million to her dog named Trouble is gutted by the courts, providing for a nice Post headline — “Screw the Pooch”:

A Manhattan judge quietly reduced the notoriously ill-tempered canine’s $12 million trust fund and signed off on a deal to pay the late billionaire’s two disinherited grandchildren $6 million amid allegations that Helmsley wasn’t mentally competent when she signed her will.

Trouble now will have to get by for the rest of her life on a measly $2 million.

While Helmsley, who died last August, was exceedingly generous to her 9-year-old Maltese in her will, she pointedly excluded grandkids Craig Panzirer, 40, and Meegan Panzirer Wesolko, 37, “for reasons which are known to them.”

In bombshell papers filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court, the siblings say the so-called Queen of Mean was not of sound mind or memory and did not have the mental capacity to make a will when she signed the document on July 15, 2005.

She died at 87.

. . .

Trouble is living in Florida with Carl Lekic, the general manager of the Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel.

In an affidavit, Lekic says Trouble appears to be very happy in her new permanent home and is doing well in all respects, and the extra cash wouldn’t buy her more happiness.

“Two million dollars . . . would be enough money to pay for Trouble’s maintenance and welfare at the highest standards of care for more than 10 years, which is more that twice her reasonably anticipated life expectancy,” he said.

Lekic put her annual expenses at $190,000, which includes his $60,000 guardian fee, $100,000 for ’round-the-clock security, $8,000 for grooming, $3,000 for miscellaneous expenses, $1,200 for food and anywhere from $2,500 to $18,000 for medical care.