Heartbreakers, a popular new Hollywood movie, is playing to full houses in New York. It is based on the principle that there is no fool like an old fool. In Heartbreakers a mother and daughter set out to relieve an elderly millionaire of his riches. The mother entices him to marry her; the daughter turns up and seduces him, and by pre-arrangement his new wife arrives on the scene, demands a divorce and receives a large settlement.

Marrying an old person for money is not a new theme but in America it can take sensational forms. Last year the country watched enthralled the unfolding melodrama of Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy centrefold model, fighting in court for a share of the estate of the 90-year-old Texan oilman she courted and married shortly before his death.

Now New York is witness to another real-life "heartbreaker" story. It concerns the "romance" between Patrick Ward, a 45-year-old optometrist, and one of New York's least loved celebrities, Leona Helmsley, an 80-year-old hotel heiress reputed to be worth $4 billion and a part owner of the Empire State Building.

Mrs Helmsley was dubbed by the tabloids the "Queen of Mean" for her penchant for firing employees on a whim, and is still remembered for her notorious remark that "only the little people pay taxes," which she made in 1989 just before she was sentenced to 18 months in prison for evading $1.7 million in income taxes.

The seriously rich old lady is still so unpopular that when TV funny-man David Letterman last week compiled for his viewers a list of 10 ways for the American Inland Revenue Service to improve its image, number two was "Put Leona Helmsley in jail again."

But the octogenarian heiress is still a remarkably well-preserved woman, and a regular figure at social events in New York and Florida. She has been linked romantically with a number of men since becoming New York's richest widow in 1997. These included Roger Watkins, a 51-yearold developer who, she later discovered, was arrested three times for assault and harassment of ex-girlfriends. The New York dailies chronicled the end of that affair, reporting gleefully that Mr Watkins's 87-year-old mother said Mrs Helmsley was too old for him.

Mrs Helmsley met Mr Ward at a dinner party last August at the Tuscan-styled mansion overlooking Biscayne Bay of one of Miami's most prominent businesswomen, Adrienne Arsht, the head of TotalBank. The couple began appearing at social functions together. Soon she gave him control of the day-to-day operations of New York-based Helmsley Enterprises, the huge real-estate empire which her husband Harry left her, though Mr Ward lacked any experience in this field.

Mr Ward took up residence in New York and apparently worked hard at the newly created job of chief operating officer, working out budgets and plans for the staff, and hiring new general managers for the Park Lane and Carlton hotels which she owned.

Soon there was talk of marriage. Ms Helmsley was clearly smitten by her new bachelor executive officer. They were photographed kissing at the Rita Hayworth Alzheimer's gala in October, where they were also seen "playing footsie", according to the New York Post. He gave her a sapphire ring. She lavished presents on him.

Then late in January her world fell apart. An associate told her that Ward was gay. She quickly ended the association. Their separation became complete when she agreed to give him $1 million in return for 60 apartments on New York's upper east side which she had agreed to sell him at a big discount. By one account he had persuaded her to part with the apartments for $800,000, despite an offer of $5.6 million from a realty and equities group. Mr Ward's friends said it was her way of luring him from his home in Miami to New York.

"Was Helmsley swindled or was she just oblivious?" asked one of New York's tabloid newspapers at the time. Mr Ward did not comment but his lawyer denied that the optometrist had played the role of `heartbreaker". "He could not have made it more clear in his public and private statements that he had no romantic interest in Mrs Helmsley," the lawyer said. Mr Ward had been fired "wrongfully, maliciously and for discriminatory reasons".

Hell hath no fury like a woman taken for an old fool. Mrs Helmsley decided to tell her story to the Wall Street Journal, which on Monday published the first detailed account of the affair. Verbally at least, it was quite torrid.

"Dearest Leona, A note to say thank you for the beautiful gift, and for caring about me enough to go to such efforts," Mr Ward wrote in a note to Mrs Helmsley, just a few days before she learned that he did not have any romantic designs in mind. "You do not know how much you are loved and I am at the top of the list. I care deeply for you and will stand in front of any moving train before I will let that train hit you."

Some time earlier he had written: "I have been thinking about you day/noon and night and you have been making me very happy." In a letter in October he wrote, "Good morning my love. I wake up and thank God you are in my life."

THE HEAD of Mrs Helmsley's security staff was not so sure about Mr Ward, however. He investigated and discovered that the new man in her life was romantically linked with a male estate agent with whom he shared a house in Miami. When she was informed Mrs Helmsley felt "betrayed" and the parting came soon after.

Mrs Helmsley's attorneys refused to let Mr Ward keep the 60 apartments, arguing that they were the legal equivalent of a prewedding present which had to be returned if the marriage did not happen.

In the case of the Texas oilman the buxom young suitor lived to claim his money. (To reveal what happened in the Heartbreakers movie would be unfair to those who have yet to see the film.) At least Mrs Helmsley survived her affair, minus a million or so.

She now lives alone with Trouble, her little white Maltese dog, in a penthouse overlooking Central Park in New York, mostly watching television.

She denied to the Wall Street Journal that she contemplated marrying Mr Ward. "I can't marry anyone," she said. "I have too much money."