I can find no corroboration, but I've always wondered whether the song was about Leona Helmsley. Born Lena Rosenthal into humble beginnings, she married her way into being a rich, and infamous NY hotelier (known as the Queen of Mean). By the time Joel wrote the song (released in 1980), she was quite well known, and the broad outlines of her life to that point were public knowledge. The song was written before Helmsley's convictions on financial crimes in 1989, so there couldn't be an reference to those events.
I can find no corroboration, but I've always wondered whether the song was about Leona Helmsley. Born Lena Rosenthal into humble beginnings, she married her way into being a rich, and infamous NY hotelier (known as the Queen of Mean). By the time Joel wrote the song (released in 1980), she was quite well known, and the broad outlines of her life to that point were public knowledge. The song was written before Helmsley's convictions on financial crimes in 1989, so there couldn't be an reference to those events.