Satan protecting the vodka bar? A good call with this crowd! (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Nearly 400 people — culled mostly from local young society — passed the gates of party hell Friday night for the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden’s yearly bash known as Devil’s Night.

Devil’s Night is, bar none, one of the best Halloween-themed event in SoFla. I’m told students from the Dreyfoos School of the Arts spent most of the week decorating with ghouls and skeletons and graves and spider webs a garden that seems to have been designed only for this party.

And as they do every year, the dark nooks and crannies filled up, on the late side, with those seeking a little privacy.

At $160-per, the affair is the Gentlemen of the Garden’s richest fundraiser of the year. Proceeds go to the waterfront sculpture museum.

Check out Page2Live’s largest ever party photo-gallery, by Michele Sandberg:

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Roger Daltrey in the surf near the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan this week (Mavrixphoto.com/Special to Page2Live)

For all the evil at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach earlier this week, when a Holocaust denier’s lecture was disrupted by a bloody fight between two followers, there was plenty of good will.

That came courtesy of Roger Daltrey, the voice of the British rock band The Who.

The pop culture icon, 65, who’s been resting here while on break from his solo tour, met a couple from New Jersey staying in the hotel lobby and ended up in a hour-long conversation that the duo, Joe and Joan Vrola, won’t soon forget.

The topic was the Vrolas’ 22-year-old son, Joey, who just came out of a bout with cancer. Teen cancer happens to be what Daltrey calls his life’s work. He started the Teenage Cancer Trust in England and funds the work of the foundation yearly with a week-long series of concerts at the famous Royal Albert Hall in London.

By the end of the chat, Joan Vrola was in tears in Daltrey’s arms. Finally, someone understood!

“This was probably the most therapeutic conversation we had with anyone since our son was diagnosed (three years ago),” Joe Vrola said. “Our son is doing much better physically, but he’s not the same kid. There’s an anguish associated with the disease that teens, especially, need to deal with.

“Bad things happen to them when it comes to drinking and drugs and isolation. The hospital may be good at curing, but they provide no psychological counseling. No one in this country seems to understand that, but Roger Daltrey does.”

Daltrey’s Trust indeed provides counseling and moral support to afflicted teens.

Hours later, Daltrey was on the phone with the Vrolas’ son, who at first didn’t know anything about Daltrey. Hope, Vrola said, is what Daltrey was passing on.

“Besides close family, there aren’t too many people who actually care,” Joe Vrola said. “But here you have this total stranger who does.”

“That’s Roger,” said his friend in West Palm Beach, Realtor Leslie Linder. “He wants to change the world one person at a time.”

Joe Vrola wanted to know why Daltrey made teenage cancer his cause, so he asked the singer of Behind Blue Eyes, Who Are You and Pinball Wizard if any of his nine children ever had the disease.

“He said no,”Vrola said,“but his answer had the hair on the back of my neck stand straight. He said teens made him what he is. They were his biggest fans. He said he just wants to give back to those who supported him all these years.”

Picower

Billionaire Jeffry Picower, who died of a heart attack in the pool of his $28 million Palm Beach mansion Sunday, was laid to rest Tuesday before an intimate gathering at the Mount Ararat Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.

Picower, 67, was under investigation in the Bernie Madoff swindle when he died. Picower is said to have made $7 billion on his investments with Madoff — cash that Madoff victims want to recover.

A spywitness tells me Picower’s body was accompanied to the gravesite by a dozen people, including his wife, Barbara, and an undercover security guard. Funeral arrangements for the 2 p.m. ceremony were kept secret.

Picower’s new address: Section 60, Range C, Lot 15.

Mount Ararat Cemetery (Courtesy www.findagrave.com)

(Courtesy www.findagrave.com)

Looking like he was dressed by Anne Rice, American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert performed at the Boca Raton Resort over the weekend at the Party City Halloween Bash and Industry Awards. Seizing on the glampire fad, Lambert wore fangs to sing Johnny Cash’s classic Ring of Fire. Lambert was arguably the greatest runner-up ever on the Fox show. He lost to Kris Allen earlier this year.

Fergie: Adult diapers, please!

Under congressional fire: Miami Dolphins’ celebrity owners!

U.S. Rep. Steve King, a Republican from the boondocks — I mean Iowa — asked NFL Commish Roger Goodell a pertinent question in a Capitol Hill hearing yesterday.

If Palm Beacher Rush Limbaugh is too offensive to be a part-owner of the St. Louis Rams, then why are Fergie and singer/actress Jennifer Lopez?

King, who hijacked a hearing about football injuries, said: “I don’t think anything that Rush Limbaugh said was offensive, but with Fergie and with J-Lo, they have, between the two of them, alleged that the CIA are terrorists and liars. They’ve promoted sexual abuse of women. They’ve used the N-word, verbal pornography, recreational drug use, etc. And they are owners of the Dolphins. And it’s also ironic that Fergie was approved as an owner on the very day that you made your statement on Rush Limbaugh.”

JLo

And King left out a few things.

He didn’t seem to remember the time when Fergie was so drunk she peed on herself during a show. And he left out Dolphins part-owner Serena Williams, the Palm Beach Gardens tennis titan whose obscene tirade at a line judge at this year’s U.S. Open was seen by a worldwide audience.

And he’s got the JLo thing wrong. Her hubby, salsero Marc Anthony, is an owner — JLo isn’t listed on the team’s media guide as one. She does accompany him to games and often ends up in game photos.

As for Fergie, the sale of her shares into the team is pending.

Still, Goodell’s response was little else than a typical D.C. topic-shifting ploy. He talked about Donovan McNabb, the Philadelphia Eagles QB whom Limbaugh once called “overrated.”

On his Web site Wednesday, Limbaugh called Goodell a “total weasel.”

King ended his questioning by telling Goodell to listen to JLo and Fergie songs and report back.

“I’d ask you to go back and take a look at the owners of the Dolphins, and . . . the songs that they recorded, review those lyrics, and I’ll provide some of those lyric songs to you,” he said, “and I’ll ask you to come back and respond to that question after the hearing as to whether you’ll put the same scrutiny on those owners who have really shined a negative light on the NFL as opposed to somebody that the NFL apparently just doesn’t agree with his politics.”

The Limbaugh controversy erupted earlier this month when star conservative radio talker was dropped from a group of investors who bid on the hapless Rams. Goodell spoke against Limbaugh becoming an investor, as did players and current team owners — mostly for things Limbaugh may or may not have said concerning race.

Meanwhile Dolphins majority owner Stephen M. Ross, whose Palm Beach home is two miles south of Rush’s, has stocked the team’s ownership with celebrities. The roster includes tennis star Venus Williams, Serena’s sister, and Miami singer Gloria Estefan and husband Emilio. The Dolphins signed a commercial deal with Palm Beach troubadour Jimmy Buffett and had hip-hopper T-Pain redo the team’s fight song.

Said Dolphins spokesman Harvey Greene: “We have no comment, except to reaffirm that our limited partners were approved through the appropriate process by the NFL.”

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(Courtesy Mattel)

There are, in Palm Beach, dozens of dandies that could have served as the inspiration for the new, $81.99-Ken doll.

The must-have toy goes on the market in April — Fools Day, although it’s no joke. And yes, as the certificate of authenticity will show, the doll’s name really is Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken.

The newbie by Matel, maker of Barbie, comes complete with a George Hamilton tan, apple-green jacket, white pants and shoes, swim trunks, tea-cup white pooch with a pink leash and, it’s understood, an attractive bank account.

Sugar Daddy is the latest addition to the popular line of Palm Beach Barbie, which already includes Palm Beach Coral Barbie and Palm Beach Caftan Barbie.

This is how entertainmentearth.com describes Sugar Daddy, for which it’s already taking orders: “Cool sophistication in breezy Palm Beach! Sporting a dashing jacquard-patterned jacket with a light pink polo shirt and crisp white pants, Ken doll is ready for Palm Beach social season, sunning by the pool and a stroll with his little companion.”

Coming up next, Palm Beach Walker Ken!

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– Pensacola model Samantha Burke sold the first picture of her with Cold Mountain star Jude Law’s lovechild, but at least she’ll donate part of the proceeds — rumored to be around $1 million — to the Pensacola Ronald McDonald Houses. The British magazine Hello, which also circulates in the United States, landed the checkbook journalism exclusive. Baby Sophia was born Sept. 22. She’s the beautiful product of a brief but hot fling that Burke, 24, had with Law while he shot the new Sherlock Holmes in New York. The flick, in which Law plays Dr. Watson to Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes, is scheduled for release on Christmas Day.

Lewis. You sure you wanna mess with the guy?

– Baltimore Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis was spotted doing tequila shots in a private suite at Land Shark Stadium last weekend. I guess he couldn’t bear watching his alma mater, the University of Miami, lose to Clemson. But then some skinny knucklehead in the suite found nothing better to do than taunt Lewis. Why? Simply because Lewis quit throwing down. Even if the Ravens were off, Lewis is still in-season. “What’s with you?” the unconscious (and drunk) fan asked. “Are you a pussy or something?” Lewis, who’s 250 pounds and once was believed to have killed someone (he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge), looked at the dude in the eyes and told him: “And you’re a real funny guy!” Believe it or not, Lewis walked away. No one was hurt.

Harris

John Harris‘ claim to fame always was that he went on one of the most colorful assignments in the Boca-based National Enquirer’s colorful history.

Straight from the desk of Enquirer owner Generoso Pope, Harris received a form spelling it out: “Is there really a Utopia left in this world? What’s it really like to live in Tahiti and those other pipe-dream paradises? Let’s . . . write a series of articles.”

Harris ended up spending the next four-and-a-half months circling the world on his search for Utopia.

Said Harris’ colleague at the time, Malcolm Balfour: “He didn’t find Utopia!”

Maybe, Harris finally did, 36 years later.

Harris was found dead at his home in Boca’s University Park neighborhood Oct. 9. His death certificate lists a heart attack and hardening of the arteries as the cause. He was 76.

A rare bird in the newsroom because he didn’t drink, chain-smoke or fudge quotes, Harris was hired by the Enquirer out of Cincinnati Post in Ohio.

“He was known as ‘Honest John,’” said Iain Calder, a former editor-in-chief. “He was the ultimate southern gentleman. And he did get the greatest assignment ever given to any reporter in any newspaper.”

Within months, Harris embarked on the trip that took him to dozens of exotic, at times unknown, locales. At first, it was the Mediterranean, off Greece and Spain, and the Channel and North Sea near England and Scotland. Then he moved on to Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Fiji, Samoa, Molokai, Bali, Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, Mauritius, and many more.

Thing is, every time Harris thought he’d found something close to Utopia, Pope at home shot him down. Tahiti? No good. There was a rush hour and parking meters in the capital. Bora Bora? Too many hotels. American Samoa? Too dirty.

At one point, Harris is said to have called in he discovered Utopia, in the Western Samoa. But when Pope found out there were phones, it was decided that Utopia shouldn’t have phones, and Harris was ordered back to Lantana. He’d spent well over $100,000.

“Well, they did hire him because he’d do anything he was told, anything at all, with no questions asked,” Balfour said. “He was perfect for that assignment. Even if no story was ever published.”

“Utopia may be more a state of mind than a physical place,” Harris later wrote. “I found my Utopia when I got that around-the-world, all-expense-paid, assignment to search for it.”

Harris will be buried Saturday in his hometown of Morganton, N.C. He was divorced and had two step children.