Eisenberg, here with PBC Commish Burt Aaronson (The Palm Beach Post)

A respected Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office captain is under Internal Affairs investigation today for firing a gun in his cramped office, in the presence of two other people.

No one was hurt, but PBSO spokeswoman Teri Barbera tells me Capt. Matt Eisenberg, 49, a 25-year veteran of the agency and the commander of a district west of Boca Raton, is the target of the incident review.

“We still don’t know exactly what happened, but it appears there was an accidental discharge,” Barbera said. “I.A. will have to determine if procedures were properly followed.”

A PBSO source tells Page2Live that the captain was at his desk at District 7 on 441 with two Glock handguns. One was loaded and the other empty.

I’m told the captain mentally lost track of the loaded firearm when he received a phone call. After he hung up, Eisenberg supposedly picked up one weapon and placed it between his legs to dry fire it towards the floor.

A round went off — startling the commander and two others, a deputy and a civilian crime analyst.

Eisenberg remains at his post pending the I.A. report.

Romney, tasting the spaghetti sauce

The next presidential election is three years away, but a contender in the race that saw U.S. Sen. John McCain emerge as the Republican’s candidate last year is already working on unseating Pres. Barack Obama. Mitt Romney, a conservative former governor of Massachusetts, was in Boca Raton this weekend for a dinner at the $2 million-home in east Boca of real estate investor Mark Guzzetta. Guzzetta cooked — Italian, of course — and a dozen local swells wrote checks for a total $25,000 to Romney’s political action committee, Free and Strong America. Also in da house: Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater. Check out Page2Live’s gallery:

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Boca businessman Mark Guzzetta with Romney

Sammy Sosa (left) during his Cubs days, and Sosa at the Latin Grammys last week (AP Photo right; Getty Images left)

– Believe it or not, these are pictures of the same man: retired steroid-injecting slugger Sammy Sosa. Thing is, that’s him as a Chicago Cub circa 2004 on the left, and last week at the Latin Grammys on the right. Is he bleaching his skin? Did he take up moonwalking, too? Que pasa, amigo? A friend of Sosa’s told the Chicago Tribune that the Dominican Republic native, who turns 41 on Thursday and now lives in a $4.4 million penthouse in Aventura, is in the process of undergoing some form of skin rejuvenation. From the looks of it, there must not be much skin left on Sosa’s face. Said Palm Beach dermatologist Layne Nisenbaum: “It looks like he is using a prescription bleach. If it were skin rejuvenation, it’d look better than this. This is terrible.”

Steve Abrams

– It’s good to see that Palm Beach County Commish and attorney Steve Abrams has kept his sense of humor despite resigning from the Fort Lauderdale law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt and Adler as it collapsed last week. Founder Scott Rothstein is believed to have been running a $100 million Ponzi scheme. Abrams, a former mayor of Boca Raton, opened his remarks to a Rotary Club gathering the other day with this: “I’ll get this out of the way immediately. You’ve been reading about it in the papers, and it’s been worrying me, actually keeping me up at night. My Philadelphia Phillies are losing to the New York Yankees.”

Jeffrey Donovan arrives at the gala Saturday night (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Some of the talk on the red carpet at the Boca Raton Resort on Saturday showed that stars, too, don’t mind a second job in this economy.

Among the celebs who answered the call from Chris Evert to help raise cash for childrens’ charities by playing tennis and partying in Boca, Burn Notice’s Jeffrey Donovan said he started a new business recently.

And so did area Olympic swimmer Dara Torres, who walked into fellow famous jock Evert’s ball using a crutch. She recently had knee surgery.

Said L.A. hunk Donovan, whose USA Network spy series is filmed mostly in the Miami area: “I’ve become a lover of Florida. I even went up to Tallahassee last week to ask the legislature for more incentives for film companies to shoot here. And even though I’ve been renting an apartment for the last few years, I’m looking to buy somewhere near Miami. I even started a new business.

“When producers come here to film, they always want to hire local actors. Fact is, local actors sometimes aren’t as good as Hollywood actors. So, I started acting classes.”

Torres, meanwhile, told reporters it’ll take her up to 18 months to recover from arthritis surgery. How does she spend the time? Speaking engagements, of the motivational kind. And according to her booking agency’s Web site, she commands between $35,000 and $45,000. Private planes are her preferred mode of transportation, according to the site.

For more, and Page2Live’s photo gallery, look below or click (Read more…)

Between The Karate Kid, Back to the Future II and III, and Leaving Las Vegas, few Hollywood actresses were as hot as Elisabeth Shue through the ’80s and ’90s. Guess what she looks like now? Look below or click (Read more…)

Chris Evert in a red dress Saturday night at the Boca Raton Resort (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Just a month after tennis legend Chris Evert said she was “fine” with her split from her husband of 18 months, Aussie golfer Greg Norman, Evert told Page2Live that she misses the Great White Shark.

Looking elegant in a red dress, Evert made the startling admission Saturday night at the Boca Raton Resort, as she walked into the gala of her fund-raising tennis tournament.

She was asked: “Are you a happy woman?”

“I’m happy with this event,” Evert first said. Then, after a brief silence, she added: “Greg is missed. I miss him. He was always a big part of this.”

She didn’t discuss what the future holds for her and Norman, whom she married in June 2008 after both divorced their long-time spouses. They announced in early October that they were splitsville.

A dozen celebrities, meanwhile, put on their best outfits and dancing shoes for the gala, which marked the 20th anniversary of the event. Songbird Natalie Cole sang for the 500-plus who paid $750-a-pop to get in. Among other celebrities: Burn Notice hunk Jeffrey Donovan, tennis great Martina Navratilova, Navratilova’s old doubles partner Pam Shriver, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles, Justin Gimelstob and Vince Spadea, TV and the movies’ Elisabeth Shue, comic Jon Lovitz and soap opera star Maeve Quinlan. Most of them will be playing tennis at the Delray Tennis Center on Sunday.

Norman (AP Photo)

Double bogey for Jupiter Island golfer Greg Norman!

Not only is he dealing with his separation from new wife Chris Evert, the Boca Raton-based former tennis star, but now he’s got a ticked off ex-wife to deal with.

Palm Beacher Laura Andrassy says the Great White Shark stiffed her in his yearly payment of their divorce settlement.

She contends in new paperwork filed in the Martin County courthouse in Stuart that his $2 million wire transfer to her June 15 was about $72,000 short. She asked a judge to force Norman to pay up, or order arbitration.

According to their contract, the ex-missus, a former flight attendant, will be $103 million richer by 2023 as a result of the agreement they signed when they were divorced two years ago.

So, what’s $72,000?

“It’s a substantial sum of money,” said Andrassy’s lawyer in West Palm Beach, Jack Scarola. “I have no desire to annoy Mr. Norman. But he has an obligation to meet his contractual commitments. If someone owes $72,000, just pay up.”

Andrassy, leaving a divorce hearing with lawyer Jack Scarola in 2007 (The Palm Beach Post archives)

Norman’s divorce attorney, Jeff Fisher, declined comment. But in his response filed in court, Fisher wrote that Norman and his ex promised they’d seek arbitration for disputes instead of the court system.

Andrassy’s recent motion to enforce is nothing more than a “method to feed information (usually of a disparaging nature) about the former husband to the media.”

The $72,000 alleged shortfall, according to court papers, comes from the calculation of Andrassy’s share in Norman’s Colorado ranch, Seven Lakes Lodge. She’s supposed to get close to $780,000 a year for the ranch, but got much less.

Incidentally, Norman recently put the property on the market for $55 million.

The motion reopens the saga of golfer/vintner’s divorce, which was filed in June 2006 after Andrassy accused him of cheating on her with tennis champ Evert. Although Norman and Andrassy were officially divorced when he married Evert in June 2008, they’ve been ironing some of their differences since.

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Bova received the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Leader of the Year award in 2004 (Palm Beach Post archives)

The scandal that engulfed the well-known Fort Lauderdale law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler has spilled into the Boca Raton restaurant biz.

Tony Bova, 58, a Boca resident and the high-profile owner of a string of area restaurants, counts disgraced attorney and political power broker Scott Rothstein among his partners in at least a half-dozen ventures.

And chief among those are Bova Ristorante, Bova’s pride and joy on Boca’s Federal Highway, and the chain Bova Restaurant Group.

Bova Ristorante, where older guys with slicked-back hair loved to hook up with women too young for them, mysteriously closed its doors shortly before Rothstein took off for North Africa last month.

And no one’s talking.

“Tony Bova has no comment at this point,” a spokeswoman said.

Bova’s association with Rothstein, who’s believed to be the principal in a $500 million Ponzi scheme and just returned to Florida to face the music, surprised observers.

“Tony was a very successful restaurant owner in his own right,” said Tom Prakas, a hospitality-business broker. “I don’t know why he needed Scott Rothstein.”

One strange thing regarding Bova and Rothstein is that their businesses last year spent more than $200,000 on political causes, mostly in a heated race across the Palm Beach County line.

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

Palm Beach County Commissioner Steve Abrams

Rookie Palm Beach County Commissioner Steve Abrams was called to the Fort Lauderdale headquarters of his private employer, the law firm of Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler, for a 9 a.m. meeting today. The meeting is about the future of the 76-attorney company founded by the flamboyantly rich and politically connected Scott Rothstein.

Abrams is one of three attorneys at the firm’s Boca Raton offices. Hired 18 months ago, Abrams specialized in governmental law until he was picked by Gov. Charlie Crist to replace disgraced commissioner Mary McCarty on the commission.

“I’m just part-time now and I don’t do governmental law,” Abrams said. “I don’t know anything about what’s going on. I’m in a satellite office in Boca. We don’t hear anything.”

Abrams said he doesn’t know if he still has a job there. Several lawyers were recently laid off.

Rothstein, a tight buddy of Crist’s and other Republican heavy-hitters like U.S. Sen. John McCain, skipped town last week amid allegations that money borrowed from legal settlements was missing.

Rothstein was known to hire lawyers involved in politics, including Abrams, a former mayor of Boca Raton, and disgraced former Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne.

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.