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…)

The grandson of clothier Lilly Pulitzer is back behind bars this week after failing a court-mandated drug test earlier this month, according to court records.

He’s undergoing monthly urine tests because of a drug arrest in 2008.

Underwater photographer Christopher Pulitzer Leidy, son of Liza Pulitzer and Palm Beach old guard stalwart Bob Leidy, spent Monday and Tuesday in the county slammer.

He’s going back for two more days Thursday.

“I asked to take a break today because I hate that place,” Christopher Leidy told Page2Live. “It sucks being in jail. I sit around and try to keep to myself. They put me with other drug people. Just when I’m trying to get away from that reputation.” (Read more…)

Actress Lisa Rinna at the Four Seasons Tuesday. For a more intimate view, check out May's Playboy

“I did it so women my age realize they, too, still look good.”

That’s altruistic TV star Lisa Rinna telling Page2Live why she posed for Playboy again recently, for a nudie spread scheduled to appear in the May issue. The veteran of Melrose Place and Days of our LIves, by the way, is a sizzling 45 years old.

“I look better than I did at 24,” the retouched Rinna says. She was last seen covering the Oscars for cable’s TV Guide network. “I keep my body in shape through dancing and exercising. I’m a health nut. And I’m more comfortable posing naked for pictures than I am at events like this one. So why not?”

I caught up with Rinna, and her TV actor hubby Harry Hamlin, Tuesday night at the opening of the revamped spa at the Four Seasons Palm Beach.

“The (nude) pictures aren’t like anything Playboy’s ever had. It’s very artistic. And it’s not like I’ve never been naked before.”

Yep. In the September 1998 Playboy. And she was 6 months pregnant at the time.

So, Harry Hamlin, do you mind all those sweaty -palmed magazine readers ogling your woman?

“I support my wife in everything she does,” said Hamlin, who’s on the upcoming CBS series Harper’s Island. “I’m proud that Lisa’s able to do this.”

Angst at the office of rookie State Attorney Mike McAuliffe?

More than 10 percent of McAuliffe’s stable of lawyers seem to want out. They’ve applied for two open county judgeships.

Along with 68 other candidates, 12 of McAuliffe’s 100 prosecutors are in the running for the seats vacated by judges Cory Ciklin and Don Hasele.

And among the 12, four prosecutors are well-known major violent crimes specialists with high-profile jobs, including Craig Williams and Angela Miller. That’s half the unit.

What’s going on? (Read more…)

Almost a year to the day he left his 10-year job as WPTV-Channel 5 morning weatherman, Dean Tendrich is rock’n’rolling.

Help the family develop new senior-living community in Wellington?

Check. Devonshire at Wellington Green should open in 2011.

Enter the restaurant franchising game?

Check! Along with two other investors, Gail Meyer (as in Meyer Amphitheatre) and big Dennys franchisee John Metz, Tendrich bought the assets of the Hurricane Grill & Wings chain from Hoffman’s Chocolate CEO Fred Meltzer.

How ‘bout putting some cash in showbiz?

Check! “Deano” just invested in two art-house flicks, Handsome Harry with Steve Buscemi and Sweet 15, probably with Mulholland Dr. hottie Laura Harring.

Recession? What recession? (Read more…)

M.J. and Yvette Prieto at the All Star weekend (photo deadspin.com)

What’s the matter? Jupiter’s not good enough for Michael Jordan?

Instead of building on the two lots he bought at the Bears Club last year, the retired basketball superstar took a 30-year mortgage and is playing house in modest suburban Miami with his new galpal, Cuban model Yvette Prieto.

Must be love!

According to Miami-Dade County records, the 30-year-old hottie and Air Jordan now co-own a home in the Highlands at Kendall gated community near the Magic City.

It’s a small humble thing, compared to what the 46-year-old Jordan is used to. Property appraiser records list the three- bedroom home at 5,500 square feet.

But it’s anonymous enough. None of the neighbors called by Page2Live realize that the six-time NBA champion is on the deed of the two-story villa on SW 92^nd Terrace.

(Read more…)