A literary catfight has erupted between a socialite author and her out-of-work sister over an upcoming novel called “Hedge Fund Wives.”
Writer Tatiana Boncompagni Hoover claims in court papers that her sneaky sibling stole the work-in-progress from her computer, then secretly copyrighted it as “co-author.”
Hoover also alleges that her older sister, former Wall Streeter Natasha Boncompagni, set up an unauthorized Web site where she fraudulently takes top billing for the tome.
The site also shows the sisters posing side by side at the September launch party for Hoover’s first novel, “Gilding Lily” – less than two months before their family feud spilled into Manhattan federal court yesterday.
Hoover – whose hubby, Maximillian, is an heir to the Hoover vacuum-cleaner fortune – alleges her 33-year-old sister downloaded drafts of the new novel off her laptop every night while Hoover spent a week at her family’s Milwaukee home in August.
Two other “surreptitious copying episodes” took place while Boncompagni stayed with Hoover, 31, on trips to New York in September and October, according to the lawsuit.
Hoover’s suit says she turned down her unemployed sister’s offer of “research assistance” for a $500 fee, but concedes that Boncompagni “nevertheless occasionally provided ideas relating to ‘Hedge Fund Wives.’ ”
The suit also alleges that Boncompagni “barraged” top execs at publisher HarperCollins, which bought the book last week, with repeated e-mails claiming co-authorship.
Hoover, who writes under her maiden name, refused to comment yesterday outside her Upper East Side apartment. Her lawyer, Alan Fisch, said Hoover was disappointed to have to sue her sister, but that Boncompagni left her “no alternative.”
Boncompagni, reached by phone at her parents’ home, spoke briefly with The Post while her mom shrieked in the background about Page Six.
Boncompagni later sent The Post several e-mails claiming that the main character in “Hedge Fund Wives” was based on her life, and that her sister faked connections to Italian royalty to sell her first novel.
Boncompagni also said she had been planning her own lawsuit, and refused a $5,000 offer from her sister’s agent “to essentially buy me off.”
A HarperCollins spokeswoman didn’t return a call for comment.