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Mother of victim in polo boss John Goodman’s crash lawyers up

Wilson

Wilson

Attorneys representing the mother of a recent college graduate who died after his car was struck by Wellington polo mogul John Goodman’s Bentley are launching their own investigation into the crash that killed her son.

Jack Scarola, a partner at the high-profile West Palm Beach law firm Searcy, Denney, Scarola, Barnhart and Shipley, said the firm is starting from scratch its own probe into the death of Scott Wilson, 23.

International Polo Club Palm Beach founder Goodman suffered minor injuries in the Feb. 12 accident. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney are conducting a criminal investigation. They’re not expected to decide before May whether charges will be filed against Goodman.

Said Scarola: “We will independently and thoroughly investigate. It’s highly unlikely that there’ll be a single lead that we won’t follow.”

Scarola said the firm has been representing Wilson’ mom Lili in other matters. He said the firm’s involvement “could include civil action arising from the death.”

Goodman visited two parties before the crash, and authorities seized credit card receipts showing Goodman paid for 18 shots of booze less than an hour before he allegedly blew through a stop sign and struck Wilson. And Page2Live revealed Monday that fire rescue workers failed to find Wilson’s body in his car, which was partly submerged in a canal after the Bentley hit it.

Cuba Gooding Jr., ShamWow guy shine at breast surgeon’s fiesta

Posted by Jose Lambiet | Hookups, Miami Beach, Parties, Photo Gallery |
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| Wednesday 10 March 2010 6:31 pm Print This Post

(Click on the photo for more)

(Click on the photo for more)

The fringe benefits of being one of South Florida’s best-known breast augmentation specialists apparently include having celebs show up at your bash! Dr. Lenny Roudner, who considers himself a breast artiste, threw one of his famous blowouts at his $5 million-Hibiscus Island pad near Miami the other day. Among the guests: actor Cuba Gooding Jr. (American Gangster, Jerry Maguire), Latin singer Julio Iglesias Jr. and the ShamWow guy, Vince Shlomi. Click here or on the photo for more.

Tiger Woods mistress Rachel Uchitel goes bye-bye

Posted by Jose Lambiet | Island’s Finest, Jocks, Parties, Photo Gallery, Splitsville, Stars, Tiger Woods Map |
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| Wednesday 10 March 2010 12:17 pm Print This Post

Rachel Uchitel, a.k.a. golfer Tiger Woods‘ No. 1 mistress, must have really liked Palm Beach.

Uchitel, the first woman outed in the scandal of Woods’ busy busy extra-marital sex life shortly after Thanksgiving, finally packed her bags and left town after three months of sucking in The Island’s calm lifestyle.

“We had her going away party on Saturday and she’s gone,” said one of her good friends here, club owner Gus Renny. “She’s headed for Las Vegas. She said she landed a great job as correspondent on (tabloid tv’s) Extra.”

Uchitel, in January in Palm Beach (Click on the photo for more)

Uchitel, in January in Palm Beach (Click on the photo for more)

In her time among us, the former club hostess who allegedly was flown by Woods’ corporation to Australia to be with him: stopped traffic outside Publix; was photographed in a skimpy bikini on the beach (above) ; chain-smoked while chatting up the boys at 251 PB Lounge; allegedly dated Hooters heir Chris Harding; celebrated her 35th birthday, and refused to go on satellite radio king Howard Stern’s pageant of Woods girlfriends.

“She really liked it here,” Renny said. “But I don’t think she’ll be coming back for a long time.”

South Florida steams up reality TV screens

Not just one, but four reality television shows based in South Florida could be polluting the airwaves by fall.

“I guess that makes us the reality TV capital of America,” said Miami-Dade County Film Commish Jeff Peel. “We’ll take it.”

The Real Housewives of Miami, a Bravo production that’s been on and off for months, is definitely back on, Page2Live has learned.

And if you like your boob-tube really trashy, then you’ll be happy to know that the new season of Jersey Shore — the MTV show starring yutes, I mean youths, who would’ve made great extras on The Sopranos — is going to be filmed in Miami Beach.

The cast of Jersey Shore

The cast of Jersey Shore

And then, the Kardashian sistersKourtney & Khloe Take Miami is well into production of its second season. And Oxygen’s Bad Girls Club is scheduled to kick off production of its new season in Miami next month.

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

Oh no, he didn’t!!!!!

hairybackYou nasty thing, Charlie Crist!

The guv went on Greta Van Susteren’s On The Record on Fox News Monday night wondering if his opponent for the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio, used the Republican party’s credit card to get his back waxed.

Yikes!

Crist is behind in the polls, but still!

Crist matter-of-factly threw that line at Greta while the two discussed the recent revelations that Rubio had used a party card for personal expenses. Check out the exchange, and vote in the poll below.

Is a man's hairy back fair game in a political campaign?

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Fanjul theft: “He took very little,” says Emilia Fanjul — just $45 Gs worth of bling

The Fanjuls

The Fanjuls

Emilia Fanjul, the wife of Palm Beach sugar mogul Pepe Fanjul, told Page2Live today that the thief they allowed into their suite at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills “didn’t take much.”

The Fanjuls were on the Left Coast to attend the Oscars when a polite, well-groomed man they thought was a hotel worker weaseled his way into the suite Friday afternoon, saying he needed to repair the AC.

While the couple milled about their expansive suite, the man helped himself to their bling.

“At least, there was no violence, nobody was hurt, and very little taken,” Emilia said. “He went into our bedroom and he took what was on the bed. A gold chain that my great-grandmother gave me before we left Cuba and some pearl earrings.

“It was more sentimental than valuable. But the police asked me how much it was worth.”

She told them: 45 Gs.

Pepe Fanjul is, along with his brothers, one of the owners of the West Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals and one of the biggest landowners in the state.

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

Akon to play Wellington’s equestrian center

Akon, at a concert in Boca's Mizner Park in October

Akon, at a concert in Boca's Mizner Park in October (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

It’s like bringing Tiger Woods to a family values conference.

R & B superstar Akon, singer of Locked Up, is slated for a March 19 concert in the arena of the Wellington’s Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.

There’ll also be a showjumping competition that night — the Puissance International, with a $25,000 purse.

The rapper caused a worldwide storm when he simulated a sex act on stage with the 15-year-old daughter of a preacher. The stunt cost him the sponsorship of Verizon.

Let’s see: highbrow and lowbrow in the same place? That could be fun!

Health care scare: Rush Limbaugh leaving the USA?

Palm Beach radio talker Rush Limbaugh is pulling an Alec Baldwin!

Ten years after the staunch Democrat star of 30 Rock swore he’d leave the country if George W. Bush won the White House, GOP leader Limbaugh said on his show Monday that he, too, would leave — if Prez. Barack Obama’s health care reform becomes law of the land!

Limbaugh with galpal Kathryn Rogers Saturday at Mar-a-Lago

Rush Limbaugh with galpal Kathryn Rogers Saturday at Mar-a-Lago

Limbaugh said on his show (WJNO-1290 AM) Monday that he’d hightail it outtahere if doctors were banned from seeing private patients under the new health care plan.

“If it passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I’m leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica,” Limbaugh said.

But like Baldwin, who never made good on his promise even after two terms of Bush, Rush seems hesitant, and clarified his statement in this e-mail to Page2Live this morning: “If U.S. doctors aren’t allowed by law to see patients in private practice outside the coming government health care monopoly, I will consider leaving the country for any major medical treatment.”

Costa Rica?

El Rushbo tells me that insurance companies are already bankrolling clinics in that Central American country in anticipation of the reform.

What would you tell Rush?

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Source: Polo boss John Goodman passed out at the wheel

Goodman with actress Hillary Duff last year at a polo club function (Click on the photo for more on Goodman)

John Goodman with actress Hillary Duff last year at a polo club function (Click on the photo for more on Goodman)

International Polo Club Palm Beach founder and polo team owner John Goodman may have passed out at the wheel of his Bentley on Feb. 12 before crashing into a Hyundai at a speed that could have reached 70 mph, a source familiar with the hush-hush investigation into the crash told Page2Live.

That’s the theory that crash investigators with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office are using as they piece together the events that led to the death of the Hyundai driver, 23-year-old fresh college graduate Scott Wilson, in rural Wellington.

The source asked to remain anonymous because authorities, who aren’t commenting, are trying to keep their work secret until they decide if they’ll bring charges against the 46-year-old multi-millionaire Goodman.

But I’m told PBSO sleuths believe Goodman passed out as the car traveled south on 120 Avenue South. The car gathered speed then overshot a right turn for a shortcut leading to his $4.5-million home. It blew through the stop sign at the corner of Lake Worth Road and crashed into Wilson’s Sonata, sending his car into a canal.

Even with the Bentley totaled, Goodman sustained only a broken wrist — indicating, the source said, that Goodman’s body was somewhat relaxed at the time of impact.

Goodman, who hired Miami attorney Roy Black, hasn’t been talking to investigators and has been living in Miami Beach hotels since the crash.

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

Palm Beach sugar baron Pepe Fanjul robbed at Oscars

Pepe Fanjul and Emilia, in a recent Palm Beach outingPalm Beach sugar and land baron Pepe Fanjul and his wife Emilia were robbed in their room at the fancy Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills Friday night, shortly after the couple arrived in the Los Angeles area to attend the Oscars.

Fanjul, 65, a generous donor to the Republican Party, is one of the owners of the West Palm Beach-based sugar grower and manufacturer Florida Crystals.

According to several reports from the West Coast, the Cuban-born Fanjul and his missus, 63, struck a conversation in Spanish with a man as they rode up in a hotel elevator. The Fanjuls went to their room, then heard a knock on their door.

It was the man from the elevator, wearing a blue uniform with the word “hotel” written on it. He claimed he needed to fix their air-conditioning.

As he pretended to work around the room, the suspect allegedly helped himself to Emilia’s extensive jewelry collection, which Pepe described to police as “valuable.”

Hotel staffers have been going through security videos to identify the suspect. There’s been no arrest. The Fanjuls weren’t injured.

The Fanjuls, who are highly-visible on Palm Beach’s do-gooder circuit, were on their way back today and couldn’t be reached for comment.

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