Philip Marshall asks that Anthony Marshall be removed as Mrs. Astor’s legal guardian and replaced by Annette de la Renta, a friend of Mrs. Astor’s who is married to the designer Oscar de la Renta, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, according to an article published Wednesday in The Daily News that quoted the court papers. On Wednesday morning, Justice John E. H. Stackhouse of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ordered that the papers be sealed.

Image Brooke Astor with her son, Anthony Marshall, in 2003 on the way to the premiere of I Am My Own Wife, which Mr. Marshall produced. Credit... Bill Cunningham/The New York Times

The allegations shocked the circles in which Mrs. Astor once moved, simply because they involved Mrs. Astor, who, though she was one of the most public figures in New York, always guarded her privacy carefully. Her name alone denoted power and old wealth. She is said to have thrown a would-be mugger off balance by saying: “Excuse me, we’ve not been introduced properly. I’m Mrs. Astor.”

She became Mrs. Astor with her third husband. She had divorced the first, and the second had died. The third, Vincent Astor, was the son and heir of John Jacob Astor, who died on the Titanic, and whose fortune had begun in fur trading and real estate. Vincent Astor bequeathed Mrs. Astor $60 million for herself and an equal amount for a foundation “for the alleviation of human suffering.”

But it is her suffering that Philip Marshall describes in the court papers quoted by The News. There are allegations that her son vetoed purchases of a new outfit when she turned 104, of cosmetics, of hats and socks. There are allegations that he had curbed her physical therapy sessions and stopped her injections for anemia.

Included with Philip Marshall’s allegations were affidavits from David Rockefeller, who planned her 100th birthday party, and former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.

Philip Marshall could not be reached on Wednesday, despite many attempts. His lawyer, Ira Salzman, said the fight was being waged over concern for Mrs. Astor’s care. He said others might suggest it is a dispute over who would be Mrs. Astor’s heir. “The short answer,” Mr. Salzman said, “is it’s not.”

Anthony Marshall, reached last night by telephone, said he would not comment.

David Richenthal, who produced three Broadway plays with Anthony Marshall, defended him and disputed the allegations as “the most fabricated bunch of nonsense I’ve ever read.”