Many people have awkward, even downright bad relationships with their in-laws. But Vanity Fair writer Michael Wolff is actually being sued for $2.5 million by his mother-in-law, Edith Anthoine.

Anthoine, 85, claims Wolff and his wife, Alison Anthoine, are trying to boot her from her Upper East Side apartment. Their tactics have included sending "hostile messages" and have been so "upsetting," reports the New York Post, that they’ve caused the elderly woman to have a heart attack.

The suit was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in January. (You can read it here.) It says Wolff and his wife convinced Edith to let them buy the four-bedroom, rent-stabilized apartment in a building on East 74th street, which she had lived in since 1964, at a reduced price, and they would buy a smaller apartment in the neighborhood for her to live in. Edith agreed as a "gift" for "this young family" of five. She also continued to give them money for the kids’ tuition, among other things, for years to come. In May 1995, she divided her assets among her four kids, telling them the money should only be used for her benefit until she died. In 2007, Wolff and his wife told her they wanted her "out" of the apartment so they could sell it for their profit.

A source told the Post the family thinks Anthoine is a "batty," "difficult old lady" who instead should be in an old-age home. Yet another family friend defended Anthoine, saying it’s Wolff who is "creepy" and one of those "entitlement children."

This latest Post story about Wolff has led some to wonder whether the publicity represents another direct attack from News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch himself, in retaliation to Wolff’s book about him, The Man Who Owns the News; Wolff also has publicly blasted the Post’s controversial chimp cartoon that recently caused a stir. CityFile recently reported that the 55-year-old Wolff had an affair with 28-year-old writer Victoria Floethe, who he worked with at Vanity Fair and hired for his website, Newser.com. The Post picked up on that story and tried to question Wolff about it. And then there’s the March 3 Sean Delonas cartoon in the Post that shows a heavy and sagging Wolff in bed with another woman. Ouch.

Is it a feud between Murdoch and Wolff? We don’t know. But it certainly is getting a little nasty.