Exline (The Palm Beach Post)

Look who’s back in the political process!

Former West Palm Beach City Commissioner Jim Exline, who served 10 months in a federal prison for tax evasion, has volunteered to gather signatures for a petition to keep term-limited Mayor Lois Frankel in office.

Exline, 45, tells Page2Live he’s been asked to lobby his neighbors and acquaintances to sign the petition. It’s designed to force a referendum on the November ballot asking voters to allow West Palm Beach Mayor Frankel to run for a third consecutive term — something currently banned by the city charter.

“I’ve had a handful of them signed up so far,” Exline said. “I believe that the ultimate term limit is called an election. If a mayor doesn’t do a good job, the citizens can vote her out. I believe the voters want the option.”

For more, and the poll, look below or click (Read more…)

Newlywed and preggers but no less sexy than before, Mexican superstar singer Paulina Rubio gathered some of her musical friends, including Ricky Martin, for the Paulina Rubio and Friends concert at the Fillmore Miami Beach Saturday night. The “Chica Dorada,” golden chic, married Spanish public relations man Nicolas Colate Vallejo-Najera in May after getting pregnant.

Rubio, Saturday at the Paulina Rubio and Friend show (Click on the photo for more)

Cantens in his Florida Crystals West Palm Beach office (Bill Ingram/The Palm Beach Post)

Former State Rep. Gaston Cantens, the high-profile spokesman for the Fanjul family’s West Palm Beach-based sugar empire, has agreed to pay $340,000 to creditors of his parents’ bankrupt company, which the Securities and Exchange Commission says ran a Ponzi scheme.

Cantens, 48, a Florida Crystals vice president, and his brother, Bernardo, according to last month’s SEC filing, received more than $1 million from their 71-year-old father, also named Gaston, and mom Teresita.

The gifts were listed as “consulting fees” even though no work was performed, and came as mom and dad’s Royal West Properties tanked.

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

Remember the little Cuban boy who, in late 1999, drifted to shore near Fort Lauderdale after his mother died at sea? Then 6, Elian quickly became the prize in a tug-of-war between his dad (who liked it in Cuba) and Cuban strongman Fidel Castro on one side, and his mom’s Miami relatives in the other. After months of legal and diplomatic wrangling that divided South Florida, in April 2000, gun-totting Border Patrol agents extracted Gonzalez from a Miami home. His relatives had refused to surrender Elian to authorities. Within days, the boy was returned to his dad in Cuba. So, what does Elian look like now? Check it out: (Read more…)

Lopez and Anthony, March 7 at the Oscars (AP Photo)

Jenny from Vero may not be as catchy as Jenny from the Block, but the Vero part could come true.

Bootyful Latin diva Jennifer Lopez and her salsero hubby, Marc Anthony, share time between Los Angeles, New York and Miami. But now they’re looking for a beachfront weekend home on the Treasure Coast.

La Lopez and her little guy are particularly interested in the north side of Orchid Island, a barrier island near Vero Beach. She has concentrated her search in the area where Miami sound moguls Gloria and Emilio Estefan’s $1.5 million crib in the dunes.

For more, and the poll, look below or click (Read more…)

Can’t turn on a talk show these days, or open a magazine, without seeing Wellington polo star Nacho Figueras staring right back at you.

And now you can even see where the pretty face of Ralph Lauren lives when he’s not riding at International Polo Club Palm Beach.

With Figueras: wife Delfina Blaquier and kids Hilario, Aurora and Artemio (Courtesy Elle Decor/Click on the photo for more)

Figueras’ modern crib near Buenos Aires, Argentina, is featured in the April issue of Elle Decor. The spread opens with this picture of a picture-perfect family, and continues with Figueras’ paintings on the walls and the furniture that wife Delfina Blaquier designed.

Yep. She’s hot and she designs her own furniture!

Click on either photo or here for more.

(Courtesy Elle Decor/Click on the photo for more)

International Polo Club Palm Beach founder John Goodman, whose alleged killing of a 23-year-old man in a car crash last month is still under investigation, was nowhere to be found among those who paid homage to high-profile South Florida attorney Roy Black.

Funny thing, because when it comes to celebrities attending The Blacks’ Annual Gala in Miami Beach Saturday night, Black and his wife Lea can always count on those he extracted from the criminal justice system. And yes, there may be some of future clients of Black’s there, too.

Girls Gone Wild’s Joe Francis was one of them. He once had tax and public morals problems, but Black made it all better. So he came to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach for the big party.

“He wins every case,” Francis said. “His approach is different from other lawyers, partly because he never worked for the government as a prosecutor. He believes in your case 100 percent, and I don’t know any other who does that.”

Roy Black kicks off his yearly gala: "If you don't get drunk, . . . then this party has failed!" (Click on the photo for more Mike Jachles images of the party)

Three-time Indianapolis and Dancing With The Stars winner Helio Castroneves showed up. Black got him out of his little tax evasion issue last year.

Yet John Goodman, who could soon be facing DUI and manslaughter accusations but hasn’t been charged, was MIA.

And who could blame him?

Roy Black, after all, kicked off the open bar, three-course fiesta with this announcement to the 1,000-plus guests who’d paid up to $1,000 each: “If you guys don’t get drunk and dance on the tables, then this party has failed!”

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

Tiger Woods and his mom after his televised apology (Click on the photo for more)

Embattled golfer Tiger Woods is building a whole lot of homes for a whole lot of people these days.

Woods’ company, ETW, financed his public relations man Glenn Greenspan’s modest $1 million-dwelling in Stuart.

A Scandinavian-looking house is going up just south, on Jupiter Island, from blue prints bearing the specs of Woods’ wife, Elin Nordegren.

And, according to recent paperwork filed in Palm Beach County, the 22,000-square-foot crib he’s building for his mom, Tida, is moving along quite nicely.

Usually a quiet presence by her son’s side, Tida jumped into the fray with both feet at his made-for-TV apology Friday when she blasted the media treating Woods “like a criminal.”

Still, there’s nothing like the soon-to-be-reformed philandering fool to kick a down real estate market into gear!

For more about mom’s house, look below or click (Read more…)

The Super Bowl Fan Jam, a free concert in Miami Beach, brought more than 30,000 people on the sand off Deco Drive Thursday night. Headliner Rihanna performed every single one of her big tunes, including Disturbia and Russian Roulette, for fans who started lining up at 4 p.m.  Teen sensation Justin Bieber, Timbaland, Keri Hilson and Jojo also played to a young crowd in the traditional pre-Super Bowl festival. There’s more tonight on the same stage, with Nelly Furtado and Latin pop star Paulina Rubio. On Saturday, the Super Bowl music scene shifts to Fort Lauderdale, with headliners Barenaked Ladies. Check out Page2Live’s gallery of Thursday’s concert by clicking here, or on the picture.

Latin stars converged on the Miami studio of TV personality Don Francisco over the weekend for a telethon-style fundraiser for earthquake-stricken Haiti.

Paulina Rubio arrives at the telethon (Click on photo for more)

Colombian rock’n'roller Juanes, Mexican songbirds Paulina Rubio and Thalia, and Maria Elena Salinas, the Latin Barbara Walters, took to the airwaves for five hours. Some performed live while others worked the phone lines to ask viewers for cash.

Check out the gallery of the celebs’ arrivals to the studio here, or on the photo above.