He once eyed the Hollywood film industry’s top job. But when it comes to showbiz, the scandal-prone former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley will have to start at the grass-roots level.

Mark Foley

Several sources are telling Page2Live that Foley, 54, is being considered to take over the board of the Palm Beach International Film Festival.

“I met Mark at a party and we started talking about the festival,” said the current chair, Boca businesswoman Yvonne Boice. “We’re just in the talking stages right now, but Mark’s always expressed an interest in the festival. He’s got great connections in Hollywood.

“I made a five-year commitment. This is my fifth year, and it’s time for me to move on. Mark would be great as chairman.” (Read more…)

We’re now smack-dab in the social season’s equivalent of hump-day.

The shine of opening weekend has worn off, but there are 30-something big shindigs left over the next six weeks.

Bling, anyone?

Yet, Friday night’s black tie at Palm Beach’s Mar-a-Lago for the Boca Raton addiction-treatment center Caron Renaissance netted $770,000. That makes the loot one of the richest of the season so far. Even more impressive is that some tickets went for a “mere” $500.

“We groveled and we begged for sponsors and we got some,” said ball chairwoman Petra Levin. I reached her in her Caribbean hideaway because Levin, a former Miss Germany, high-tailed it out of town at a time when the night crew at  Donald Trump’s private club were still cleaning the ballroom.

“I’ve had a big smile on my face since yesterday because in this economy, believe me, we had to work for it.”

Among the guests: U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.); former Minnesota U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad; and Kennedy clan writer/actor/activist Chris Lawford.

(For more pictures of the wingding by Michele Sandberg, click below)

(Read more…)

MADD's Laura Dean-Mooney

Sheriff Dracula is going to get help drawing blood from motorists at DUI checkpoints throughout Palm Beach County this weekend. The national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Laura Dean-Mooney, is scheduled to visit. She just wants to see how PBSO and local departments pull off their seeking search warrants to obtain blood from motorists who refuse a breath test. “She’s just coming as a citizen supporting the police,” said MADD’s statewide boss, Don Murray. And the checkpoints will get even more crowded when a member of State Attorney Mike McAuliffe’s inner circle, longtime prosecutor Liz Parker, shows up to see if the blood drawing really is constitutional . . . 

. . . It’s all very hush-hush, but a video crew of the ABC fish-out-of-water show Wife Swap has been all over Delray this week. Producers won’t tell the name of the local woman who’s being sent to live with another man and his family for two weeks in Iowa, while the Iowa wife lives in the Delray household . . .

. . . Late-night comedy TV star Conan O’Brien spent some time at WPTV-Channel 5 downtown West Palm Beach Thursday to tape promos for his upcoming takeover of The Tonight Show on NBC . . .

The theft of a pool-side sculpture at disgraced hedge-fund manager Bernie Madoff’s Palm Beach home is so yesterday. Out come the signs. Less daring, and just as efficient. Here’s the latest silent protest at Madoff’s mansion on North Lake Way, captured on film earlier this week:

Rush Limbaugh has got himself a stalker, a mysterious blonde named Melanie.

The caretaker of the conservative mouth’s compound on the north side of Palm Beach called 911 about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday to report that the woman in a car tried to drive onto the property when the stately gates opened to let in Rush’s Maybach.

The caretaker, Edwin Domingo, described the stalker as white, between 30 and 40 years old. She’s named Melanie. No last name is available.

According to 911 dispatch records, the woman drives a new white sedan of undetermined make. She vanished before Palm Beach cops arrived. (Read more…)