Chris Evert, Saturday night at the Boca Resort (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Just a month after Tennis legend Chris Evert said she was “fine” with her split from her husband of 18 months, Aussie golfer Greg Norman, Evert told Page2Live that she misses the Great White Shark.

Looking elegant in a red dress, Evert made the startling admission Saturday night at the Boca Raton Resort, as she walked into the gala of her fund-raising tennis tournament.

She was asked: “Are you a happy woman?”

“I’m happy with this event,” Evert first said. Then, after a brief silence, she added: “Greg is missed. I miss him. He was always a big part of this.”

She didn’t discuss what the future holds for her and Norman, whom she married in June 2008 after both divorced their long-time spouses. They announced in early October that they were splitsville.

A dozen celebrities, meanwhile, put on their best outfits and dancing shoes for the gala, which marked the 20th anniversary of the event. Songbird Natalie Cole sang for the 500-plus who’d paid $750-a-pop to get in. Among other celebrities: Burn Notice hunk Jeffrey Donovan; tennis great Martina Navratilova, Navratilova’s old doubles partner Pam Shriver, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles, Justin Gimelstob and Vince Spadea; TV and the movies’ Elisabeth Shue, comic Jon Lovitz and soap opera star Maeve Quinlan. Most of them will be playing tennis at the Delray Tennis Center Sunday.

Late Thursday, West Palm Beach nursing assistant Icilda Cole called her son to firm up their Thanksgiving plans.

Otis "Nickalous" Beckford and girlfriend Daneicka Coley (Courtesy Orlando Sentinel)

Otis Beckford, 26, promised the 44-year-old woman he’d bring his girlfriend and their 7-month-old daughter, Danielle, to his grandmother’s home in Palm Bay for turkey and ham.

Cole said he looked forward to the four-generation gathering at her mother’s house.

“Now, he won’t be there,” Cole said, repeating Beckford’s nickname, Nickalous. “Such a shame! I had two children. Otis and my daughter. I have one left. I never thought something like this would happen to him.”

Beckford was killed by a crazed gunman Friday at the offices of the engineering firm RS&H, downtown Orlando. Beckford, a Royal Palm Beach High School graduate who left West Palm Beach two years ago after being laid off, did architectural work of the firm.

He had given himself a few more months to pile up money before going to college to finish his bachelor’s degree, Cole said.

“He wanted to be an architect,” Cole said by telephone from Orlando, where she’s claiming the body. “He loved that job but he couldn’t find any in West Palm Beach.”

Was she worried to see Otis leave?

“No,” she said. “I never feared that something would happen to him. He was a very good person, quiet too, and he got along with everyone. He wasn’t the type to be in trouble. And then, he was an adult. What could I do?”

Shortly before noon Friday, a former employee who’d been fired by the firm, Jason Rodriguez, burst into the RS&H office, pulled a handgun from a holster under his shirt and fired at Beckford. Beckford stood by the reception area, Orlando cops said. Rodriguez, 40, a draftsman, shot five other people, injuring them all, before vanishing. Authorities caught up with Rodriguez at his mother’s home two and a half hours later.

After he graduated from high school, Cole told me, Beckford worked odd jobs before he attended classes at the New England Institute of Technology in West Palm Beach.

“He worked for a small engineering firm in West Palm, but he was laid off,” said mom. “He searched everywhere for a job. There was nothing for him here. He really didn’t want to leave, but he had to.

“You know what,” said the soft-spoken Cole, who brought her son into the United States from Jamaica when he was 15, “every time you turn on the news these days, there’s another shooting like this one. It’s high time for this country to change many things, including how it deals with all the crazy people out there.”

Cole said Beckford will be buried in West Palm Beach.


Related links:
Slain worker was well-liked family man

Lawyer: office shooting suspect mentally ill

Photos from Orlando shooting

Former astronaut John Glenn, the first American in space, sent these books to The Little Auction That Could (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

The list of those who signed their favorite childhood books and shipped then to Stuart for a charity auction reads like a pop culture Top 100: Poet Maya Angelou; The Apprentice’s Donald Trump; golfer Tiger Woods; former First Lady Barbara Bush; her son, former Gov. Jeb Bush; chimp lover Jane Goodall; former Miami Heat star Shaquille O’Neal; Pres. Barack Obama; Nike’s Phil Knight; Hollywood stars Sean Connery, Steve Martin and Robert Wagner; TV news readers Katie Couric and Brian Williams; Palm Beach musician Jimmy Buffett; and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, among others.

In all, a total 60 A-listers contributed. It took time, nearly two years, said organizer Karla Preissman. The first to respond to her requests was Jeb Bush, who shipped her The Travels of Babar. The last? The prez. Obama rush-mailed a pop up book of the White House two weeks ago.

Dubbed The Little Auction That Could (after the children’s book The Little Engine That Could), the event ends Nov. 20 with the auctioning of the books at the Lyric Theatre. Proceeds go to the Hibiscus Children’s Center, a shelter for abused and neglected children. Until then, the books are exhibited at Stuart’s Elliott Museum.

For more info about the auction and the celebs, and what they liked to read, check out this website.

And see Page2Live’s photos by Michele Sandberg of Thursday night’s preview of what’s for sale:

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Norman (AP Photo)

Double bogey for Jupiter Island golfer Greg Norman!

Not only is he dealing with his separation from new wife Chris Evert, the Boca Raton-based former tennis star, but now he’s got a ticked off ex-wife to deal with.

Palm Beacher Laura Andrassy says the Great White Shark stiffed her in his yearly payment of their divorce settlement.

She contends in new paperwork filed in the Martin County courthouse in Stuart that his $2 million wire transfer to her June 15 was about $72,000 short. She asked a judge to force Norman to pay up, or order arbitration.

According to their contract, the ex-missus, a former flight attendant, will be $103 million richer by 2023 as a result of the agreement they signed when they were divorced two years ago.

So, what’s $72,000?

“It’s a substantial sum of money,” said Andrassy’s lawyer in West Palm Beach, Jack Scarola. “I have no desire to annoy Mr. Norman. But he has an obligation to meet his contractual commitments. If someone owes $72,000, just pay up.”

Andrassy, leaving a divorce hearing with lawyer Jack Scarola in 2007 (The Palm Beach Post archives)

Norman’s divorce attorney, Jeff Fisher, declined comment. But in his response filed in court, Fisher wrote that Norman and his ex promised they’d seek arbitration for disputes instead of the court system.

Andrassy’s recent motion to enforce is nothing more than a “method to feed information (usually of a disparaging nature) about the former husband to the media.”

The $72,000 alleged shortfall, according to court papers, comes from the calculation of Andrassy’s share in Norman’s Colorado ranch, Seven Lakes Lodge. She’s supposed to get close to $780,000 a year for the ranch, but got much less.

Incidentally, Norman recently put the property on the market for $55 million.

The motion reopens the saga of golfer/vintner’s divorce, which was filed in June 2006 after Andrassy accused him of cheating on her with tennis champ Evert. Although Norman and Andrassy were officially divorced when he married Evert in June 2008, they’ve been ironing some of their differences since.

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Actress Pam Anderson may be a dirrrty girl, but at least, she smells good! Pammy took advantage of her early arrival for Saturday night’s Make-a-Wish Foundation gala in Miami to do a little selling. The former Baywatch babe, 42, hawked her own line of perfumes,  Malibu Day and Malibu Night,  at the W hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach Thursday. The day juice is described as fruity floral with a hint of honeysuckle. The night stuff is more oriental, with black orchids and lotus. And animal lover Anderson says she made sure no animal was harmed during production. Malibu retails in chain drugstores and discount outlets.

(Courtesy Mavrixphoto.com)

Roger Daltrey, frontman of The Who, enjoyed a perk of stardom on the Palm Beach sand recently: A white-haired gentleman named Gordon sprayed suntan lotion all over his 65-year-old body! And Roger seemed to appreciate the tan assistant’s work thoroughly! (Read more about Daltrey’s Palm Beach vacation here.)

Palmer at Wednesday's party, with wife Susan and Spencer (Meghan McCarthy/The Palm Beach Post)

It was surprising to run into baseball Hall-of-Fame pitcher Jim Palmer out in Palm Beach, just minutes before the first pitch of last night’s Game 6 of the World Series.

Jim, shouldn’t you be in your Jockeys and on your couch watching the Yankees duke it out with the Phillies?

“Well, I’ll be home, but what we’re doing here is more important,” he said. He wouldn’t call a winner of the series (the Bronx Bombers whooped the Phillies to win their 27th title). “All I’ll say is that (Philly’s starting pitcher) Pedro Martinez is tough. Doesn’t matter that he’s 38!”

Palmer, the former Baltimore Orioles standout, lent some of his star appeal to draw a crowd to Nick & Johnnie’s for a fund-raiser for the Renaissance Learning Center. The West Palm Beach charter school caters to autistic children, and it so happens that Palmer’s new wife, store owner Susan, is the mom of a 12-year-old student at the school, Spencer.

In the end, the group raised well over $25,000, thanks in part to the autographed baseballs that Palmer, an Orioles TV analyst, collects during the season.

“I brought 12 of the balls and they did well,” he said.

One signed by Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia went for $500.

Gary Carter, the retired New York Mets star catcher and Palmer’s fellow hall-of-famer, Florida Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad and golfer Ernie Els also showed up.

Straight out of the 1990s, but looking more beautiful than ever, singer/songwriter Jewel appeared as relaxed as if she were performing in a friend’s living room Tuesday night at the intimate Fillmore Gleason in Miami Beach. Now 35, the singer is on tour to support her latest album, Lullaby, which includes her a capella rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Bova received the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Leader of the Year award in 2004 (Palm Beach Post archives)

The scandal that engulfed the well-known Fort Lauderdale law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler has spilled into the Boca Raton restaurant biz.

Tony Bova, 58, a Boca resident and the high-profile owner of a string of area restaurants, counts disgraced attorney and political power broker Scott Rothstein among his partners in at least a half-dozen ventures.

And chief among those are Bova Ristorante, Bova’s pride and joy on Boca’s Federal Highway, and the chain Bova Restaurant Group.

Bova Ristorante, where older guys with slicked-back hair loved to hook up with women too young for them, mysteriously closed its doors shortly before Rothstein took off for North Africa last month.

And no one’s talking.

“Tony Bova has no comment at this point,” a spokeswoman said.

Bova’s association with Rothstein, who’s believed to be the principal in a $500 million Ponzi scheme and just returned to Florida to face the music, surprised observers.

“Tony was a very successful restaurant owner in his own right,” said Tom Prakas, a hospitality-business broker. “I don’t know why he needed Scott Rothstein.”

One strange thing regarding Bova and Rothstein is that their businesses last year spent more than $200,000 on political causes, mostly in a heated race across the Palm Beach County line.

For more, please look below or click (Read more…)

(Courtesy of CBLPI)

This portrait of the Palm Beach-based GOP dragon lady Ann Coulter fittingly adorns a winter month on the 2010 conservative women calendar. Yep, there is such a calendar, and it’s being put out by the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute. The group offers guidance and advice to young conservative women. This year, by the way, the calendar also features fallen Miss California Carrie Prejean and the comely conservative scribe Michelle Malkin. This must-have item can be yours for a mere $25.

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