Ingrid Hoffman, Wednesday on Hollywood Beach

– Food Network star, celebrity cookbook writer and South Florida resident Ingrid Hoffman has been called the Latin Rachael Ray. Must be because of how much she talks, not that we’re complaining. Hoffman, the Colombian star of Simply Delicioso, let Page2Live in on her PMS eating habits. “I’m a mood eater,” Hoffman said while dishing Breyers ice cream for tourists on Hollywood Beach. “My favorite food always depends on the time of the month. It it’s PMS week, it’s arroz con pollo. I’m actually dying to do a PMS cookbook. But my editor . . . didn’t think it would be a good idea for the Random House.” Hoffman went on to describe cooking as “emotional.” “To me, recipes are like songs.  Each recipe has a place, a person and time that reminds me of a time, like seeing grandma cooking or an ex- husband, an ex-boyfriend, or many ex-boyfriends, and counting.”

Damon

– When Matt Damon speaks, people usually listen, even if the words he says belong to a nobody. So the Miami Beach star of The Bourne Ultimatum is releasing The People Speak, a documentary set to air on the History Channel this fall. In it celebrities, including co-producer Damon, rocker Bruce Springsteen, singer John Legend, and actors Morgan Freeman, Viggo Mortensen and Kerry Washington, read letters and essays about democracy from regular Joes as well as famous Americans. Damon, for example, recites the Declaration of Independence. How does one make that exciting? “I just read it,” he tells the AP. “Seriously. It is an incredible document. I think people either forget about it or have been taught it too early in their lives. It’s a document worth reading and rereading every single year because it’s the principles in that document that we should be loyal to and fight for and struggle for, rather than whichever government is in power.” Damon stumped for Prez Barack Obama in West Palm Beach just before last year’s election.

– NFL defensive end Jason Taylor, who returns to the Miami Dolphins after plying his trade in Washington, is unloading some real estate investments. South Florida Blockshopper reports the head-knocker put up five wooded acres he had sitting vacant in Southwest Ranches, Broward, for $1.74 million. He’ll be lucky to eek out a couple bucks. Taylor bought it five years ago for $1.69 million.

Dr. Gary Burns, with Tracey Sonshine last night at LOLA (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Cuties. Guys with money. Fancy cars. Vodka poured through ice sculptures. Wood-fired oven.

Welcome to the swanky newbie on the nightscape of Delray’s west side, LOLA.

It’s actually an acronym for Love Often, Laugh Alot!

The eatery, in Gotham’s old space on Jog Road, is Bronx product Wendy Rosano’s newest. She must be out to corner the Italian food market in that area. She already owns the nearby Cucina Mio, and Bistro Mio, just south in Coral Springs.

Check out Michele Sandberg’s gallery of Thursday night’s VIP opening, just below:

Miami padre Alberto Cutie sure has a heck of a lot more marketing sense than the Catholic Church he once represented.

Check this out.

He turned what could have been a disaster into a picture-perfect media event.

Cutie sparked a firestorm earlier this year when, as a Catholic priest who had become the face of the church down south, he was photographed frolicking on a beach with a woman, Ruhama Canellis.

Since then, Cutie joined the Episcopal Church and married Canellis before 60 friends and family members — and People en Espanol’s shutterbugs.

The pix are in the current issue of the glossy, under the headline: Padre Alberto and Ruhama’s confession; The truth about the scandal!

The magazine even slipped in cool pictures from the couple’s honeymoon in Greece.

Cutie, 40, called the affair, at St. Bernard church in North Miami Beach, “my dream wedding.”

“I felt at peace,” he told the magazine. “I didn’t feel nervous.

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

Brinker at this year's Red Cross Ball

Palm Beach philanthropist Nancy Brinker, a former ambassador and White House Chief of Protocol, was named one of 16 recipients of this country’s highest civilian honor, The Medal of Freedom.

Brinker, 62, receives the award for her work as founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s largest grass root group dedicated to raising money for breast cancer research.

The organization has raised $1.3 billion for the cause since 1982, according to a White House press release.

“I’m speechless,” Brinker told Page2Live. “I’ve been trying to digest this for the last few days, but it’s without a doubt the biggest honor. But I don’t think it’s just for me. It’s for all my wonderful colleagues at Susan G. Komen.”

The non-profit is named after Brinker’s sister, and the award comes on the 30th anniversary of her death.

“I pray to God that it doesn’t take another 30 years to find a cure,” Brinker said.

She was about to walk out of her Palm Beach home last week when the call from the White House came in.

“I thought it was a joke,” Brinker said. “I hung up and called them back because I thought it wasn’t real.”

President Barack Obama will present the medals in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., Aug. 12.

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

Palm Beach bizman Thanos Papalexis told jurors gathered in London’s Old Bailey for his murder trial that he was fibbing when, during pillow talk with his porn star galpal at the Four Seasons Palm Beach, he admitted to killing a man.

Papalexis, 37, who was extradited to England in November, said he was just trying to create a fantasy world in which he was a James Bond-style spy.

The Palm Beach/Miami porn star and escort, Rebecca DeFalco, testified earlier this month Papalexis told her he once killed someone who “stood in his way.”

Charalambos (Courtesy BBC)

This much is not fantasy. Papalexis and two “henchmen” stand accused of killing a 55-year-old man who lived in a warehouse that Papalexis wanted to redevelop into luxury lofts. The victim, Charalambos Christodoulides, wouldn’t leave. The suspects all denied their involvement in the 2000 homicide.

Wednesday, according to the BBC, Papalexis said in court: “I wanted her (DeFalco) to feel loved and to feel that I was a super-spy and that we would have great sex and great fun together. I have regaled her with stories which would make a screenwriter envious - but I have never mentioned anything to do with this murder. I told her about missions, explosions, car chases, gun battles in the desert, stories that you would see in a movie.

“But nothing to do with the murder of a 55-year-old gentleman in a warehouse in London.”

He also said he had a colleague tell DeFalco he had been injured in an explosion and lost his memory.

Papalexis, whose other mistress was found dead in her Riviera Beach apartment two weeks ago, said wife, Karina, had agreed to let him have sex with other women because she had fertility issues.