Former astronaut John Glenn, the first American in space, sent these books to The Little Auction That Could (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

The list of those who signed their favorite childhood books and shipped then to Stuart for a charity auction reads like a pop culture Top 100: Poet Maya Angelou; The Apprentice’s Donald Trump; golfer Tiger Woods; former First Lady Barbara Bush; her son, former Gov. Jeb Bush; chimp lover Jane Goodall; former Miami Heat star Shaquille O’Neal; Pres. Barack Obama; Nike’s Phil Knight; Hollywood stars Sean Connery, Steve Martin and Robert Wagner; TV news readers Katie Couric and Brian Williams; Palm Beach musician Jimmy Buffett; and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, among others.

In all, a total 60 A-listers contributed. It took time, nearly two years, said organizer Karla Preissman. The first to respond to her requests was Jeb Bush, who shipped her The Travels of Babar. The last? The prez. Obama rush-mailed a pop up book of the White House two weeks ago.

Dubbed The Little Auction That Could (after the children’s book The Little Engine That Could), the event ends Nov. 20 with the auctioning of the books at the Lyric Theatre. Proceeds go to the Hibiscus Children’s Center, a shelter for abused and neglected children. Until then, the books are exhibited at Stuart’s Elliott Museum.

For more info about the auction and the celebs, and what they liked to read, check out this website.

And see Page2Live’s photos by Michele Sandberg of Thursday night’s preview of what’s for sale:

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Palmer at Wednesday's party, with wife Susan and Spencer (Meghan McCarthy/The Palm Beach Post)

It was surprising to run into baseball Hall-of-Fame pitcher Jim Palmer out in Palm Beach, just minutes before the first pitch of last night’s Game 6 of the World Series.

Jim, shouldn’t you be in your Jockeys and on your couch watching the Yankees duke it out with the Phillies?

“Well, I’ll be home, but what we’re doing here is more important,” he said. He wouldn’t call a winner of the series (the Bronx Bombers whooped the Phillies to win their 27th title). “All I’ll say is that (Philly’s starting pitcher) Pedro Martinez is tough. Doesn’t matter that he’s 38!”

Palmer, the former Baltimore Orioles standout, lent some of his star appeal to draw a crowd to Nick & Johnnie’s for a fund-raiser for the Renaissance Learning Center. The West Palm Beach charter school caters to autistic children, and it so happens that Palmer’s new wife, store owner Susan, is the mom of a 12-year-old student at the school, Spencer.

In the end, the group raised well over $25,000, thanks in part to the autographed baseballs that Palmer, an Orioles TV analyst, collects during the season.

“I brought 12 of the balls and they did well,” he said.

One signed by Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia went for $500.

Gary Carter, the retired New York Mets star catcher and Palmer’s fellow hall-of-famer, Florida Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad and golfer Ernie Els also showed up.

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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American Idol star Kris Allen chills backstage on the parking lot of Land Shark Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Minutes later, Allen debuted three tracks from his upcoming album as NFL fans gathered for the Miami Dolphins’ loss to the New Orleans Saints. Strange venue, but Allen, winner of the Fox show’s eighth season, did Before We Come Undone, Written All Over My Face and Can’t Stay Away. The football fans’ favorite: A cover from Britney Spears‘ Hit Me Baby One More Time.

Greg Norman and Chris Evert at last year's event (Alan Eyestone/The Palm Beach Post)

Aussie golf legend Greg Norman’s name was quietly dropped from the list of the stars scheduled to appear at the Chris Evert Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic next week.

As Evert’s husband of a little more than a year, the Great White Shark was a lock for the 20th annual Delray Beach/Boca Raton fundraiser. But now that Norman and Evert are splitsville, the lineup for the Nov. 7-8 tournament was altered.

With Norman out, the prettier, and younger, actor Jeffrey Donovan is in. He’ll play tennis at the Delray Beach Tennis Center and should walk the red carpet at the black-tie gala at the Boca Raton Resort.

Jeffrey Donovan, on the set of Burn Notice (Courtesy USA Network)

It’ll be a first appearance at Evert’s wingding for Donovan, the star of USA Network’s Miami-based Burn Notice. His previous first appearance was in a Miami court in July. DUI!

The pros, ex-pros and wannabe pros enrolled: former tennis great Martina Navratilova, Navratilova’s doubles partner Pam Shriver, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles, Justin Gimelstob and Vince Spadea. The show biz celebs: actress Elisabeth Shue; comic Jon Lovitz; reality TV stars Bruce and Kris Jenner (Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian’s mom and her Olympic hero husband); rocker Gavin Rossdale; and Today host Matt Lauer.

The popular Norman, after all, may not be missed.

“It’s one of the freshest lineups in years,” said event publicist Tip Nunn. “Among the tennis players, you have four former women’s No. 1 players. And there are several new names on the entertainers’ side. Donovan and the Jenners have never been here before. And it’s been years since we saw Matt Lauer.”

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Love at first bite? (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

It was Beetlejuice meets high society at Saturday night’s pre-Halloween party in Boca Raton, on the $4.5 million Intracoastal property of shoe king Bob Campbell. One popular guest: The fresh-out-of-prison, tax evading land baron Jim Batmasian, who looked like a poor man’s version of Dracula. More than 200 people paid $175-a-head to visit the Love at First Bite soiree, and bought auction items to benefit The ARC of Palm Beach County. The non-profit is dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities. The party kicked off a wild Halloween week in Palm Beach County. The big one is Friday at West Palm Beach’s Ann Norton Sculpture Garden, where the Gentlemen of the Garden hold their yearly Devil’s Night. Until then, check below for the Page2Live gallery of Campbell’s spooky party, by Michele Sandberg:

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Chris Brown at a court hearing in June (AP Photo)

Chris Brown can be saved.

So says SoFla’s member of the Kennedy clan, Anthony Shriver.

Shriver, whose Best Buddies International raises hundreds of thousands in Palm Beach each spring, is having the man convicted of beating pop star Rhianna headline the non-profit’s Miami gala Nov. 20.

R&B singer Brown, who pleaded guilty to assault and is serving five years probation, is touring intimate clubs nationwide. He’s scheduled to play Shriver’s private shindig at the Mondrian Hotel on his way to a Richmond, Va., concert.

Shriver, the son of Sargent and Eunice Shriver and a nephew of former Pres. John F. Kennedy, founded Best Buddies 20 years ago as a college student. The group matches children with disabilities with mentors.

Is a Best Buddies gala really a good venue for Brown?

Shriver at the Best Buddies gala at The Breakers (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Absolutely, says Shriver. Especially since Brown joined Shriver’s cause and is donating some of the proceeds of his tour to Best Buddies.

““I support Chris Brown’s efforts to show the world why he deserves a second chance, given that the commitment he has made to Best Buddies – not only to perform at our Miami Gala, but also to join the Best Buddies family as a volunteer – is a huge step in the right direction,” Shriver told Page2Live in a e-mail.

“I also appreciate Chris’ generous offer to donate a portion of the proceeds from his tour to Best Buddies. I believe Chris’ fans will be equally inspired to support Best Buddies’ mission to provide opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities once they see his enthusiasm and commitment to the cause – and just how much his efforts mean to our participants.”

It’s unclear whether Brown actually will mentor handicapped youths.

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Local gal Brooke Mueller Sheen with Charlie Sheen at Saturday's bat mitzvah in Mar-a-Lago

TV star Charlie Sheen, he of the CBS hit sitcom Two and a Half Men, quietly slipped into Palm Beach over the weekend for a bat mitzvah, of all things.

Well, 13-year-old Sydney Wolofsky’s soiree wasn’t just any old bat mitzvah.

Gov. Charlie Crist and first lady Carole Rome tore up the dance floor with dozens of pubescent teens.

And there were nearly 300 guests in the grand ballroom of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Saturday night for the Jewish rite-of-passage. Guests, including 70 of Sydney’s classmates at the Palm Beach Day Academy and family friends from Australia, Hungary, Puerto Rico, Aspen and the Hamptons, munched on filet mignon while gawking at Sheen.

The themes: Hollywood! The color: pink!

“Sydney wants to be an actress,” said mom, Moira Fiore. “She’s such a drama queen that we just had to have that theme.”

Instead of a red carpet, guest walked on a pink one into the banquet. Sydney was carried in on a pink throne before being serenaded by professional singer John Fiore, Moira’s hubby.

Sheen’s co-star on Two and a Half Men, Jon Cryer, send his regards by video along with: Apocalypse Now’s Martin Sheen, Trump, TV host Regis Philbin, big screen hottie Rebecca Gayheart (Urban Legends) and her husband, Grey’s Anatomy’s Eric Dane.

Up-and-coming dancer/actress Rachele Brooke Smith, star of a Bring It On cheerleading film, performed her dance routine as the surprise entertainment.

Wolfosky is the sister of Sheen’s wife, Brooke Mueller Sheen, a former Benjamin School cheerleader.

Check out Page2Live’s exclusive photo gallery of the party, by Christopher Fay:

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Would be U.S. Senator Charlie Crist with the missus

Kaya Jones, who’s working on a solo career after her three years on the burlesque/pop act Pussycat Dolls, poses with young fans in Port St. Lucie. Jones, 25, recently performed at the new nightclub La Zen before a packed house. She’s touring to support her single, Hollywood Doll.

Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade and his mistress, C-list actress Gabrielle Union, have tried desperately to keep their relationship a secret, but this week has been a coming out party of sorts for them.

Either that, or they’re getting careless.

First, the lovebirds were spotted in full on canoodles in a private club level suite at Land Shark Stadium during Monday Night Football, and missed long stretches of an epic game.

Then last night, although she sneaked in through the back door, Wade took Union to the yearly Miami Children’s Hospital gala — one of Miami’s biggest social rendez-vous of the year.

Wade and Union at Friday's Miami Children's Hospital gala (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Wade and Union, who has a recurring role in the ABC scifi series FlashForward, giggled like school kids at the table of Miami philanthropist Juan Carlos Mas. They held hands under the table, when Wade didn’t rest his left paw on her lap or sneak an occasional peck.

Wade later in the evening pronounced himself honored to be inducted in the famed hospital’s hall of fame.

Who gets in?

Wade and Union at Friday's Miami Children's Hospital gala (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

“People who have gone above and beyond for children,” said the hospital’s VP for marketing, Jamie Holt.

Wade joins in the hall the likes of songbird Beyonce, legendary University of Miami QB Jim Kelly and actress Kelly Preston (John Travolta’s missus).

Holt tells me Wade, who obviously forgot his dinner jacket on his way to the black-tie, first came on the fund-raisers’ radars two years ago. As Wade nursed a serious injury, he quietly spent hours watching Heat basketball on television with ill children treated at the facility. Holt also cited Wade’s own charity for at-risk children, Wade’s World, as another reason for his induction.

“I was floored when I was picked,” Wade said. “A lot of people helped me when I was growing up. Helping children is in my DNA.”

Wade’s nasty divorce from wife Shiovaughn, by the way, is still pending in a court in the couple’s native Chicago. Allegations in the case include that last season’s top scorer hasn’t been seeing much of his own three young boys and repeatedly cheated on Shiovaughn. Wade is also entangled in a legal battle with a business partner who claims he rented a pad in Miami Beach for Wade where sex parties took place.

Wade's publicist, Lisa Joseph, try to hide what the world knows (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

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