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Diva Celine Dion: I’m no water hog!

Posted by Jose Lambiet | Cribs |
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| Wednesday 25 June 2008 11:31 am Print This Post

She may be touring Europe, but Celine Dion’s mind at times has been on her Jupiter Island homestead.

So much so that her staff just provided Page 2.1 with a spread sheet showing her property’s water usage to prove she didn’t become the area’s heaviest potable water user during a drought by choice.

dion150.jpgHer people tell Page 2.1 that the diva took umbrage with a recent story in The Palm Beach Post that branded her a water hog.

The article ranked Martin County’s heaviest water consumers between April 2007 and March 2008, as water throughout South Florida became scarce. What’s more, Dion and her tribe weren’t even living at the beachside property. Construction is still on-going.

According to South Martin Regional Utility stats obtained by the paper, more than 6.5 million gallons of the precious liquid flowed through her property. That’s 250 times more that the average homeowner.

La Dion plunked down a whopping total $36,343.13 for water during that period.

“Except for a few new trees that need heavy watering, barely any landscaping was done during that time,” said the Canadian star’s local lawyer, Michael Weeks. “Something went wrong.”

It did.

A water main underneath the $12.5 million property was broken by heavy equipment in May 2007 when crews demolished the existing home.

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Click here for full bill

But it was weeks until someone at Renlec, the Montreal-based company owned by Dion and hubby Rene Angelil, discovered that the 5.7-acre property’s consumption tripled to 1.6 million gallons in July 2007, a $8,986 bill.

“Once the underground pipe was located and repaired, water usage subsided back to normal levels,” said Weeks. “By January 2008, the property was using an amount of water that I would expect to be one of the lowest on Jupiter Island.”

In March, Dion paid a mere $216.75 for water.

MICKEY ROURKE PLAYS ‘PARIS HILTON’ AT TOMMY LEE’S BAR IN SOUTH BEACH

Posted by Jose Lambiet | Sex sells |
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| Wednesday 18 June 2008 5:17 pm Print This Post

Leather night at the local pub?

Nope. It’s just actor Mickey Rourke’s Fathers Day.

The star of Sin City and Angel Heart hosted a “karaoke-your-momma-warned-you-about” shindig Sunday night in Miami Beach. In his entourage: A thong-wearing, handcuffs-wielding bearded man with an old German army officer’s hat.

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And even the usually stone-faced Rourke lost it when the chubby friend (above) hopped on the bar for his rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Who’d expect anything less at the intimate nightspot ROKBAR, when the place is fronted by Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee?

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The soiree actually filled up the watering hole on a night that’s usually not so crowded, so organizers signed up the 51-year-old Rourke for all Sundays through the summer.

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Later that night, Rourke got ticked off when someone in the crowd tried talking him into singing. Needless to say, he remained silent.

In the wake of finishing The Informers, the big-screen fall release adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, Rourke is now a party-hosting male counterpart of Paris Hilton?

“Mickey ain’t talking,” said his assistant at Rourke’s Miami Beach condo. “He’s really busy.”

Photos by Fred Montana.

What do DeNiro, DeVito and Estefan have in common? Kitchen inspections!

Posted by Jose Lambiet | Cribs |
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| Wednesday 11 June 2008 5:51 pm Print This Post

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Danny DeVito poses outside his South Beach eatery DeVito with Delray Beach restaurateur David Manero and Michael Brauser.

Is a celebrity’s name on the marquee of a restaurant a guarantee of cleanliness?

Could be!

Page 2.1 checked out recent state health inspection reports on some of Florida’s highest-profile celebrity-owned restaurants, and there’s good news: Even if some kitchens may need a good cleaning, none is a threat to public health!

Few names prop up eateries better than those of movie stars. In these parts, big-screen actors involved in the restaurant business include Robert DeNiro, Danny DeVito and, straight from the past, Kelly McGillis.

mcgillis.jpgThe actress from Witness and Top Gun owns an American cuisine emporium, Kelly’s Caribbean Bar & Grill, in Key West. Every so often, the still-stunning blonde plays hostess for star-struck guests.

But while the grill passed its yearly inspection in January, it was written up 29 times — including for 19 violations deemed “critical.” If not corrected immediately, “critical” violations can cause illnesses or place customers in danger, according to state documentation.

Among the no-nos: The presence of “small flying insects” at the bar and kitchen; foods not cooled properly; torn packages exposing food to contamination; improper separation of raw foods from ready-to-eat stuff; and food stored on the floor.

deniro.jpgDeNiro’s Nobu, a pricey sushi joint in Miami Beach’s Shore Club, had just eight violations in February. The worst: Kitchen employees with no hair restraints and a sink earmarked for cooks’ handwashing used to clean raw foods.

As for the lemoncello-swilling DeVito, who opened DeVito South Beach in Miami Beach last year with Delray restaurateur David Manero, it’s pretty clean, too.

Better be. It was inspected four times in its first nine months.

Among the eight violations found in March at the fancy place of the diminutive star of Twins: Slime in the ice machine and butter stored on the floor.

“The state is very strict, and with Danny’s name and mine on this restaurant, you bet that we are double careful about that stuff,” Manero said. “All the business partnership contracts I have with Danny say that employees of DeVito must apply the strictest standards of hygiene. Otherwise, he won’t be involved.”

bongos.jpgMusicians, meanwhile, relish lending their names to restaurants and reaping the benefits. Latin songbird Gloria Estefan and tropical troubadour Jimmy Buffett are among them.

Estefan has five different Bongos restaurant throughout the state, including a small one at Miami International Airport. Inspectors gave the manager at that location until June 1 to provide hot water for employees to wash their hands.

Estefan’s large restaurant at the Miami Heat arena in downtown Miami was cited for just four violations in April, including for using a dirty slicer.

margforjose.jpgInsects were also observed three weeks ago at one of Buffett’s four Margaritaville watering holes in  Florida, in Panama City, according to the records.

Sports figures historically have been keen on opening their own food joints, with diverse fortunes. Former Dolphins Coach Don Shula and his former QB, Dan Marino, are chief among them.

The legendary coach owns five meat-lovers’ restaurants. His Shula’s On The Beach in Fort Lauderdale was recently tagged for 19 violations, including “criticals” like chicken thawing in standing water, cutting boards in disrepair and uncovered garbage cans in the women’s bathrooms.

At Dan Marino’s Tavern On The Lake in Orlando, there wasn’t enough detergent in the dishwashing machine.

Baseball great Pete Rose’s Ball Park Café in Boyton didn’t fare that well in its March inspection, according to records. An inspector has scheduled a follow-up visit after marking down 11 critical violations, including an “insect control device” over a food preparation area and a lack of proof of employee training.

Bikini teacher files for divorce and declares: ‘I need a boyfriend!’

Posted by Jose Lambiet | Hotties, Splitsville |
Tags: , ,
| Wednesday 4 June 2008 5:09 pm Print This Post

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More: Photo gallery of Tiffany Shepherd

Well, boys, the aptly-nicknamed “bikini teacher” is back in circulation!

Tiffany Shepherd, the Port St. Lucie High biology teacher who caused a media frenzy when she said she was fired over her skin-revealing side-job, filed for divorce on the third birthday of her youngest boy, May 27.

On Wednesday, the soon-to-be Playboy model proclaimed: “Yep, I’m single, and I could use a boyfriend. I hope there’s someone for me out there. I need $6,000 for my lawyer’s bills.”

Citing “irreconcilable differences,” she’s asking a St. Lucie County court in Fort Pierce to order construction superintendent Benny Shepherd to pay child support for their two children and divide up their marital assets.

According to records, the couple was married in Fort Pierce in 2001, nine months after she sued a former boyfriend to determine the paternity of a son born in 1999. The Shepherds had two more sons of their own, now 5 and 3.

“I always have the same problem with guys and it happened with my husband,” said Tiffany Shepherd when asked about the split. “At first, it’s all sweet and exciting even when other guys pay attention to me. But then, it gets old to whomever I’m with.

tiffany2.jpg“My husband once told me I was too pretty to be his wife. His new girlfriend’s bikini size is a 13 … I’m a 3.”

Benny Shepherd couldn’t be contacted.

Photogenic Tiffany, 30, exploded onto the Web in April when her firing led computer users to pictures of her taken on the Fort Pierce-based Smokin’ Em Charters. She had become a maid on the boat, serving amateur fishermen their booze in a teeny bikini.

St. Lucie County school officials, by the way, claim she was fired for missing work, nothing else.

In addition to agreeing to pose for the aging girlie-magazine-that’s-purchased-for-its-stories, Shepherd this week retained a lawyer to make sure the state doesn’t go after her teaching certificate.

“My health insurance is running out,” she said. “I need a job. I have a feeling I’m blackballed by schools in the state, but I’ll give it the good old college try.”