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.

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This is a cellphone picture of a hand sanitizer in the men’s room at the Fort Lauderdale headquarters of the lawfirm Rothstein, Rosenfeldt Adler. The bottle bears the firm’s logo and these words: “OUR CLIENTS come to court WITH CLEAN HANDS.” The nerve! Let’s see if founder Scott Rothstein, one of Gov. Charlie Crist’s sugar daddies, has clean hands when he answers to allegations that he ripped off $500 million from investors to fund his champagne-and-caviar lifestyle! Check out the latest on Rothstein here.

Assailed by critics for his poor showing in previews of the Broadway play The Starry Messenger, actor Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Freshman) spent the weekend in Fort Lauderdale. He appeared at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival premiere of his new indie flick, Wonderful World, while his wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, is busy filming the Sex and the City movie sequel in Morocco.

Bueller! Bueller! Stop talking about yourself like that!

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.

(Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

If just about everyone out there is going broke, lovers of fine Italian cars haven’t heard. They packed the new Ferrari Maserati of Fort Lauderdale on North Federal Highway Thursday night for a look at some of the Bucking Horse’s most famous sets of wheels. Among them, a yellow 275 GTB Competizione, one of possibly three left in the world; a $3 million-FXX; and a $1.5 million-Enzo. Check out Page2Live’s Michele Sandberg’s photo gallery below.

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They were partying like it was 1979 at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise last night, but boy did it sound good! The superband KISS made the last of its tour’s three Florida stops in the Fort Lauderdale suburb for another dose of Rock’n'Roll All Night and I Was Made for Lovin’ You. Check out Page2Live’s gallery below.

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Gene Simmons

Standup comedian Robin Williams, who got his start in the late 1970s as Mork from Ork on Mork & Mindy, appeared Wednesday at the Seminole Hard Rock Resort in Hollywood.

Patti LaBelle is pretty in pink (Ralph Notaro/Special to Page2Live)

The great Patti LaBelle, a.k.a. Lady Marmalade, gave the Seminole Hard Rock Resort’s pink hotel rooms a try before her show at the Hollywood resort Tuesday. Labelle — believe it or not, she’s 65 — is helping publicize the fact that, through October, 25 percent of the $169-to-$389-a-day rental of special rooms with pink sheets, pink bathrobes, pink towels and pink roses goes to breast cancer research.

Frontman Chris Robinson and The Black Crowes took over a sold-out Pompano Amphitheatre Tuesday night on the band’s Stuck Inside Utopia tour. The bluesy hard rockers of She Talks to Angels are pushing their new album, Before the Frost. And yes, it’s hard to believe that Robinson was married for six years to big-screen cutie Kate Hudson, who’s now playing house with New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez.

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The Black Crowes' frontman Chris Robinson performs Tuesday night at Pompano Amphitheatre

Former WPBFer Lisa Hayward and hubby Derek at Lauderdale fiesta (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Remember Lisa Hayward?

The popular former WPBF-Channel 25 anchorwoman, who quit last year after her contract was up, popped up in Fort Lauderdale over the weekend. She and her hubby, WSVN-Channel 7 Miami street reporter Derek Hayward, were honored at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Finest Couples dinner.

More than 300 people attended the wingding, at the landmark hotel Pier 66. Among the conservative-colored crowd of honorees and guests: Florida Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp and his missus, Cyndie; Chip LaMarca, Broward’s GOP boss; Broward judges John Luzzo and Bill Haury; and Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti.

Check out the Page2Live gallery, by Michele Sandberg: