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.

Mr. Bean lookalike David Irving says Hitler was an OK guy (Photo courtesy irvingbooks.com)

Unlike run-of-the-mill publicity book tours, British author David Irving’s is the stuff of spy novels.

There’s a good reason for that.

An Adolf Hitler apologist, Irving denies the Holocaust existed. His fans usually run the gamut from skinheads to white supremacists. And protesters often stand outside.

Irving’s coast-to-coast circus passes through West Palm Beach tonight, according to his Web site www.irvingbooks.com.

Thing is, only a chosen few know where he’ll be at 7 p.m.

Irving, a military historian by trade, reads from his books and meets followers in hastily rented hotel meeting rooms or restaurant back rooms. The establishments’ owners are kept in the dark about his beliefs.

Those who’ll attend the West Palm gathering need to sign up online, and pay $15, before being told where to go.

“Each person is vetted by his local contacts,” said a WPB activist who only gave his first name, Nick. “We’ve called just about every hotel in the area and he hasn’t reserved a meeting room. We were hoping to protest, but we can’t find him.”

This time Irving, who owns a home in Key West, is pushing Banged Up, a book in which he writes about spending 400 days in solitary confinement in Austria for spewing his rhetoric in that country.

If someone knows where Irving will be tonight, please post it on a comment. I’d like to interview the dude.

Larry King

The crummy economy has put the big hurt on Palm Beach’s philanthropy biz , but someone’s thinking ahead.

Lois Pope, who’s using quite of bit of her deceased husband Generoso Pope’s National Enquirer fortune on a slew of charitable causes, has found a way to sell a few extra tables at her upcoming Life Foundation gala.

She’s offering those who have something to celebrate — say, a wedding, retirement, anniversary or birthday — to do it at her gala, Dec. 4 at Mar-a-Lago.

Some may find it tacky to celebrate anything personal at a fancy dinner with folks they’ve never met before. But, Pope says, it’s a win-win situation. Someone who couldn’t otherwise afford it is able to party in a private club with an open bar, classy food and world-class entertainment … and her charity benefits, too.

Lois Pope

CNN host Larry King is scheduled to emcee and comedian Rich Little will perform at Pope’s 16th annual Lady in Red gala, which raises money for the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., among other causes.

Is it working?

So far, so good. Pope says she sold 10 tables to a wedding party and another three for a 30th wedding anniversary. With tickets going for $500 per, that’s an extra $65,000 for Pope’s foundation.

“There’s going to be a giant cake at the entrance of the ballroom to celebrate,” Pope said. “We’re very excited. And I hope it’s going to give other organizations ideas. With the economy, it’s going to be a tough season.”

In case you’re wondering, the lucky bride on Dec. 4 is Manalapan widow Terry Ebert, who will officially marry Joseph Mendozza at Mar-a-Lago an hour before the ball. Elissa and Dominic Papparone are set to celebrate their 30th.

As for long-ago SoFla radio personality King, Pope said she landed him after he visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C.

“You can’t visit that place and leave without feeling for our veterans,” she said.

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Can’t blame some TV viewers for getting a little confused. Krista Marx, the judge in the recently ended, high-profile Dunbar Village rape trial, and WPBF-Channel 25’s Terri Parker, who covered the trial gavel to gavel, look like they could be sharing the same DNA.

Krista Marx (left) and Terri Parker: Do they share similar DNA?

(Kevin Kolczynski/Special to Page2Live)

I guess we can forgive Ghost Hunters stars Steve Gonsalves (left) and Dave Tango for looking like they’re about to get sick. For the first time in years of trying to capture ghostly sounds and sights in the world’s most haunted locations for cable’s SyFy Channel, Gonsalves and Tango are actually surrounded by demons. Well, sorta. The spirits-hunting duo passed by Universal Orlando yesterday, and stepped smack dab in the middle of Halloween Horror Nights.

This definitely beats the snarling Serena Williams the world saw last month at the U.S. Open.

The Palm Beach Gardens tennis star got naked for the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s first ever “Body” issue. The glossy comes out Friday.

The dozens of world-class athletes photographed in various stages of undress for the issue include former Florida Marlins catcher Pudge Rodriguez, Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain, Orlando Magic tallhead Dwight Howard and Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.

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Out: Jamie Holmes (Courtesy WPTV)

The talent faucet is still dribbling at WPTV-Channel 5.

Weekend anchorman Jamie Holmes, who was once seen as an heir apparent to star news reader Jim Sackett, quit this week, according to several sources.

Holmes’ last day is supposed to be tomorrow, but insiders are telling me he blew off work today and called in sick Monday and Tuesday.

Holmes, 34, gave his two weeks notice the day after he was dissed in a staff shuffling sparked by the 23-year veteran Chandra Bill announcement that she, too, is leaving.

Holmes was made a full-time street reporter and lost his weekend anchoring desk instead of being picked to replace Bill on the highly-rated 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. newscasts.

In like Flynn: Jay Cashmere (Courtesy WPTV)

That job was handed to boyish Jay Cashmere, whose star hasn’t stopped rising for months.

Neither Holmes nor the NBC affiliate’s news director returned calls.

Holmes wasn’t even out the door officially that the station’s website wiped his name and bio off the on-air talent list Thursday.

Born and raised in Fort Pierce, Holmes arrived at the top-rated local station 11 years ago and was nominated for an Emmy, the highest professional prize for TV news people, in 2003. As a reporter, Holmes was often assigned the newscast’s top story.

Last week, the West Palm Beach station also lost reporter Katie Brace to an Atlanta station.

While WPTV’s ratings are solid, the station and the other two network affiliates here have been hemorrhaging viewers and advertising income. Several budget cuts in the newsroom have led to a general malaise among the troops, according to several insiders.

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Ross (Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post)

For former radio personality Jennifer Ross, it’s really the mean season.

She was fired earlier this week from her popular morning show on West Palm Beach’s WRMF-97.9 FM.

And now this: Her husband filed for divorce!

The divorce, according to the paperwork in Martin County, is uncontested and their 15-year marriage deemed “irretrievably broken.”

“They’ve had issues for the past two or three years,” said a friend of Ross’. “They were going to do it before, but they got back together.”

The two – Ross, whose real name is Elena Whitby, and her soon-to-be-ex, airline pilot Harvie Whitby III – told the court they’ve worked out most details.

The former morning jock gets their $400,000-home in the Stuart West neighborhood of Palm City. She’ll be the primary caretaker of her daughter with Whitby, and her child from a previous marriage.

Harvie, who was out of work for several years, won’t ask for alimony.

A week ago today, after the show she co-anchored with sidekicks Danny Czekalinski and Deena Lang, Ross was called in by station managers and told she’d be fired. She had a year and a half left on her contract. Her replacement is Detroit out-of-work jock Chad Mitchell.

Ross didn’t return calls. Whitby couldn’t be reached. Neither is represented by an attorney.

Jenna Bush at Belle Glade Elementary Thursday morning (Brandon Kruse/The Palm Beach Post)

After a good night’s rest at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach, former first daughter Jenna Bush and her Today crew Thursday ended up in the unlikely location of Belle Glade.

Bush, who inhabited the White House for eight years with dad George W. Bush and mom Laura Bush, recently was hired as reporter on Matt Lauer’s NBC morning show.

Her mission on her second week: To interview and narrate a taped reportage on the plight of little Gisselle Gonzalez, a brain cancer-stricken pupil at Belle Glade Elementary School.

And if Bush had any difficulty navigating the gap between the posh $500-a-night Ritz — a rare treat for NBC crews in this economy — and the county’s poorest farming community an hour west, it didn’t show.

Wearing shapeless pants above her belly button, a purple top and black Chuck Taylors, the 27-year-old wasn’t immediately recognizable as she stood in the back of the school’s cafeteria as the school feted Gonzalez. The public, after all, mostly remembers her as the cute, mischievous teenager who shared the occasional bad girlz spotlight with twin Barbara.

“It’s not about me,” Jenna said when Page2Live approached her for a chat that ended up lasting 10 seconds. “It’s all about Gisselle today, not me.”

Bush appeared shocked when I told her that several TV stations were at the school partly because of her.

For more on this story, extra pictures and the poll, look below or click (Read more…)

Jay (Courtesy WPEC, I mean, NBC)

– Strange goings-on at WPEC-Channel 12. The CBS affiliate promoted Jay Leno’s new show despite the fact it airs on its arch-nemesis, the NBC affiliate WPTV-Channel 5. If you logged on to WPEC’s website Monday, you’d have seen a countdown clock on top of the page. Countdown to what? To the new prime-time 10 p.m. start of The Jay Leno Show! Newsroom folks at 12 who saw it are scratching their head in disbelief, wondering if the station was the victim of a hacker. The man in charge of website ads, Rich Engberg, is at a loss for an explanation. “I didn’t know,” he said. “I’ll check into it.” The clock hasn’t appeared since.

Hard to believe she's Donald Trump's spawn

– Got to give celebuspawn Ivanka Trump beaucoup credit. Word is that the hot co-star of dad Donald Trump on The Apprentice, will not sell to news organizations access to her October nuptials to New York trust-funder, I mean, publisher Jared Kushner. While both dad and mom, jet-setter Ivana Trump, made a mint on their latest weddings in Palm Beach, Ivanka isn’t inclined to immitate them — despite nice offers, according to the New York Post. The affair is slated for Oct. 25 at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey.

– CSI: Miami star David Caruso has finally made nice with his SoFla-based baby mama. Miami aerobics instructor Liza Marquez, with whom Caruso had two ninos, settled a lawsuit against the flame-haired actor. The settlement isn’t public, according to TMZ, but court documents show she didn’t get anything “of value.” Originally, Marquez sued because Caruso, who has an beachfront apartment in Miami Beach, didn’t make good on his promise to give her $1 million when they split.

Liza and Caruso (Courtesy stupidcelebrities.net)