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.

Allegations that one of the top-ranking women at the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office had improper sexual relations with subordinates, at times on duty, has prompted Sheriff Ric Bradshaw to order an investigation.

Internal Affairs is also looking into accusations that PBSO brass chose to ignore her sometime public indiscretions, and protected and kept promoting her.

Twelve-year veteran Lt. Paula Kronsperger, the investigation’s target, has not been put on administrative leave or reassigned, said PBSO Spokeswoman Teri Barbera.

But Barbera confirmed the probe by a lieutenant at Internal Affairs — where Kronsperger once was assigned. Barbera said Bradshaw’s decision came after he received an anonymous complaint about the lieutenant.

The investigation could take several months as it is expected to ensnare higher-ups.

Kronsperger, 41, who’s married to another PBSO lieutenant, once was considered a rising star. She’s second in command at the warrant squad, a highly-sought job she stepped into in January.

The first details of what threatens to become one of the agency’s biggest sex scandals ever were revealed by Page2Live in April.

At the time, the wife of anti-gang Deputy Tim Keith, Maguis Lopez, reported to her husband’s bosses that she caught him cheating. She discovered him in their bedroom with a fellow deputy’s wife, while he was supposed to work the streets.

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

Oxygen

– He once felt really bad about losing $7 billion of other people’s money to swindler Bernie Madoff. But the feeling probably is a distant memory for Andres Piedrahita. Piedrahita ran the Fairfield Greenwich Group founded by his father-in-law, Palm Beacher Walter Noel. Over the years, FGG became a feeder fund for fellow Palm Beacher Madoff. So, where is Piedrahita these days? Crying in his beer on a distant island? Working hard to recoup some of the losses? Hell, no. Business Insider reports Piedhahita is sailing the deep blue Adriatic Sea on his brand spanking new yacht, Oxygen. So far, he’s visited places like St. Tropez and Venice. Seemingly not too worried that he lost cash from Colombian entrepreneurs, Piedrahita took delivery of the $30 million toy in June, just as Madoff was getting sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Kim

– We didn’t see that one coming. Miami Beach clothing store owner Kim Kardashian and New Orleans Saints star running back Reggie Bush have called it quits. By reality TV standards, they were at it for a long time. Two years. She must be mad, because there’s talk Kardashian is about to sell the fine threads that Bush left behind on eBay. The two cited distance as the contributing factor for this disaster.

– Sightings: Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, host of England’s No. 1 cooking show, Hell’s Kitchen, sampling the chow at the Boca Resort . . . Comedian Joe Rogan, sitting down at a table at, where else, The Improv at West Palm Beach’s CityPlace, with martial arts expert Jason Chambers (who hosted Human Weapon on the History Channel) and Fort Lauderdale artist Larissa Meek . . . Rapper Pitbull’s staying at the Catalina Hotel in Miami Beach . . . Supermodel Niki Taylor, having sushi at Kung Fu Sushi in Miami Beach with a camera crew . . .

This season’s Miami Dolphins aren’t half bad.

Land Shark Stadium will be hosting the next Super Bowl.

And the cheerleaders‘ 2010 calendar looks devine.

Get a load of Page2Live’s exclusive sneak peek.

The calendar is set to be officially unveiled Aug. 7 at a sexy party at the old Versace mansion in Miami Beach. I’m told the gals will be on hand to model swimsuit fashion.

Clemons with Springsteen July 2 in Germany (AP Photo)

E Street Band sax player Clarence Clemons has been part of the area’s landscape for so long, we think we know him.

But do we really?

The 67-year-old Singer Island resident, arguably one of the world’s most recognizable backup musicians, has never been forthcoming about his private life.

Until now.

Is it his age, now that he’s old enough for Social Security checks?

Does he want the spotlight instead of his usual place in Bruce Springsteen’s shadow?

Regardless, all you always wanted to know about the Big Man but were too chicken to ask will be in a book he just co-authored with TV producer Don Reo (Blossom).

The tome, Big Man, is expected to be on the shelves a few weeks after Clemons and Springsteen blow through South Florida for a BankAtlantic Center concert, Sept. 13.

Still, Page2Live found an advance copy.

If you want dirt about Clemons’ boss, The Boss, save your $26.99.

Clemons is famous thanks to Springsteen, and he isn’t about to bite the hand that’s fed him all these years.

But Clemons’ elephant memory of the E Street Band, the early days, makes the book. And his breezy conversational prose places the reader next to him at the counter of a local watering-hole, say the Tiki Bar in Riviera Beach.

For the book’s shockers, the juicy stuff, look below or click (Read more…)

Sierra's ministry

– Miss Florida 2008, Sierra Minott, has re-enrolled at Palm Beach Atlantic University. But it’s unclear how she’ll keep her head in the psych program at West Palm Beach’s Christian school. Minott, according to the university’s website, is working on a book for teens and developing her own talk show for a Christian TV network. Of course, the school also will squeeze Minott for all’s she got. She’s appearing on radio and TV commercials touting the institution (check them out here, here and here). “I’ve always been an advocate for inner beauty. Your beauty has to start from the inside out, not the outside in,” said Minott. The majority of her appearances as Miss Florida so far centered on youth, at churches and schools. “It was a ministry until the very end,” Minott said of her just-ended reign.

Jackson

– Big-deal SoFla restaurateur Jack Jackson is joining the Boca-based restaurant chain the BOVA Group as president, the group announced this week. BOVA is co-owned by Anthony Bova and Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott Rothstein, aka Gov. Charlie Crist’s moneybags. Rothstein owns the lawfirm that employs rookie Palm Beach County Commish Steve Abrams. Jackson, meanwhile, is best-known as actor Burt Reynolds’ partner in Fort Lauderdale’s long ago destination restaurant Burt and Jacks. Jackson has owned a steakhouse named after him on Las Olas for a decade, and a nearby seafood place. Both are being gobbled up by BOVA as part of the deal. In addition to now owning four major eateries in Boca and Fort Lauderdale, BOVA is looking for more. It’s negotiating to take over another Boca place, the sports bar named after Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade that closed last year.

– Hightailing it outtahere: Four-time NFL pro-bowler Darren Sharper. The New Orleans Saints safety has put his off-season home in Aventura on the market for $3.3 million, according to South Florida Block Shopper. He bought the four-bedroomer two years ago for $2.8 million.