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By Ned Zeman

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Some neighbors bicker over their lawns. But if your neighbor is American Express, it's a bit different. The saga begins deep inside New York's World Financial Center, where the classy Rizzoli bookstore hosted a book-signing last week by Wall Street Journal reporter Bryan Burrough, author of "Vendetta: American Express and the Smearing of Edmond Safra." The book is the store's hottest-selling title, but the event bombed. Why? Maybe because the hundreds of promotional fliers usually passed around the area before a signing were not distributed this time. Sources say AmEx, which occupies much of the skyscraper above Rizzoli, complained to the building's management company that the promotion was "not neighborly." Rizzoli sources also told Burrough and NEWSWEEK that they removed a window display featuring crumpled AmEx receipts after being told AmEx "didn't appreciate" the display.

An AmEx spokesman confirmed making a "casual" complaint about the signing but said, "There's no muscle here. We don't have any stake" in Rizzoli. Later, a Rizzoli spokesman said AmEx "had no influence on the event at all--it went fine." He declined to comment on the window.

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