American Notes NEW YORK CITY

The prosecution insists that she was in on the plot to use a fortune in bribes and plunder to buy a piece of Manhattan worth more than $160 million. Her lawyers paint a different Imelda Marcos. The First Lady of the Philippines, they say, was a woman innocently cooling her thousands of pairs of heels as the machinations of Malacanang Palace buzzed around her.

Jury selection for her trial on racketeering and other charges carrying up to 50 years in prison started last week in the same courtroom that saw the bravura performances of Leona Helmsley and Bess Myerson. For sheer Wagnerian greed, the tale of Imelda could put the Hotel Queen to shame. Jurors will have to decide whether a wife always knows what her husband is up to -- in this case, deposed President Ferdinand Marcos, who died last September. "The Marcoses were masters of deception," said prosecutors. "They elevated three- card monte ((a form of shell game)) to an art form." Scoffed Marcos' lawyer, Gerry Spence: "In this country one doesn't become a criminal by sleeping with one's husband."