Ok, so, Bai Ling may not be the greatest actress ever. And except in her role as a senator in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, her stuff is easily forgettable. But when she’s one-on-one on South Beach with Page2Live’s preferred shutterbug, there’s definitely something about Bai Ling. Check out the photo gallery below:

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Three months after Woodstock, the hippie scene shifted south.

To the boondocks west of West Palm Beach.

On Thanksgiving weekend, 40 years ago.

See anyone you know in the crowd? (Courtesy Ken Davidoff)

And the local ruling class didn’t like it one bit.

Then-Palm Beach County Sheriff Bill Heidtman vowed to make life miserable for the free-loving, pot-smoking, anti-establishment youngsters who gathered at the Palm Beach Pop Festival. He threatened to herd alligators toward the crowd, gathered at the Palm Beach International Raceway. And he swore he’d have his good ole’ boys dig out fire ant colonies and relocate them at the venue.

Yet, 50,000 people showed up for the three-day event, the only one of its kind ever in this area. And they got to calling Heidtman “Sheriff Eichmann,” after Hitler’s henchman, Adolf Eichmann.

Mick Jagger at the 1969 Palm Beach Pop Festival (Courtesy Ken Davidoff)

The lineup of bands was nearly the same as the earlier New York state rendezvous. Except that Jimi Hendrix couldn’t make it. He was replaced by a little band known as The Rolling Stones. Janis Joplin belted out a few tunes, as did The Byrds, Sly and the Family Stone, Johnny Winter, Grand Funk Railroad, Spirit and Jefferson Airplane.

Florida rocker Tom Petty was there, too, after hitch-hiking south from his hometown of Gainesville.

Palm Beach society shutterbug Ken Davidoff remembers the festival well. At 19, he scored a gig as the event’s official photographer.

Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter at the 1969 festival (Courtesy Ken Davidoff)

“It was rainy and freezing cold and people were ankle deep in mud,” Davidoff said. “There were 50,000 at the beginning, but by the time the Stones got on stage on Sunday, there were maybe 3,000 left. The weather and delays just drove people away.”

Among the delays, Davidoff cited the Stones’ arrival after authorities forced the band to wait on their jet on the tarmac for six hours, sorta, kinda, on purpose.

Davidoff recently built this Web site for the anniversary and stuffed it with some of the 600-plus pictures he took that weekend. He’s also interviewing festival-goers, roadies and promoters for a documentary.

“The festival was definitely a historical event that very few residents knew about,” Davidoff said.

For more photos, click here. And for some of the sounds, click here.

Dame Celia Lipton Farris is already a historic figure in Palm Beach … and this has nothing to do with her age.

When it comes to the arts, there isn’t much she hasn’t done. There was Broadway, the London stage, the movies and early television, singing and painting. And when it comes to charity, she’s one of the most visible donors on the do-gooder scene.

It’s fitting, therefore, that the great dame is to be honored by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County on Dec. 9 at its yearly fund-raiser. The pre-party was Saturday, at the palatial digs of Cleveland lumber magnate Patrick Park at the Bears Club in Jupiter. It usually takes a lot to lure Palm Beachers to the northern confines of the county, but more than 200 people came to the Tuscan mansion.

“Dame Celia keeps Palm Beach moving,” Park said. “She’s the driving force behind many charities.”

Check out the pre-party photos, by Lucien Capehart:

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Howard Kessler with Dame Celia Lipton Farris and Michelle Kessler

The unveiling of the Sex2Sea swimwear line Friday night on lower Clematis (Ray Graham/The Palm Beach Post)

There’s so much construction that downtown West Palm Beach looks like a war zone, again.

But the place suddenly was beautified late Friday — and it didn’t cost the city a penny.

Twelve Elite and Wilhelmina swimsuit models gave about 500 local swells an eyeful on a 60-foot runway built outdoors near the French restaurant Pistache. The occasion: The unveiling of a line of swimwear dubbed Sex2Sea, “pretty enough for the bedroom, but made for the water.”

The lacy bikinis were designed by local entrepreneurs Christy Sugrue and former gubernatorial galpal Kelly Heyniger, a former contestant on America’s Hottest Mom who dated Gov. Charlie Crist just before his met the First Lady, Carole Rome.

The swimwear, I’m told, is specially designed to avoid embarrassing views while still providing a curve-revealing fit.

Needless to say, Page2Live had a grand ole’ time in the front row. Check out Ray Graham’s photo gallery:

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Swimsuit designer Kelly Heyniger, with fans

It’s that time of year. Millionaires at the helm of mega-yachts pulled into town for their yearly rendez-vous at Rybovich Marina on West Palm Beach’s north side. Three dozen 100-footers will be docked through the weekend, and their owners are paying up to $20,000 to be there. That money is going to the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County. The event includes, among plenty parties, a yacht hop and Saturday’s gala at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, featuring a concert by disco diva Donna Summer. Parts of the event are open to the public. To see who’s there, check out Palm Beach Post lensman Ray Graham’s photos of last night welcome party:

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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

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…)

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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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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Trista Rehn was the first star of the wildly successful reality TV series The Bachelorette, an ABC show in which viewers got to watch a woman pick a potential husband. In the end, she picked Ryan Sutter, a Colorado firefighter and model. This is what they looked like then:

(Courtesy ABC)

A year later, the two were married during one of reality TV’s most watched specials. It seems theirs is one of the only relationships made for TV that actually endured. Wanna see them now? Look below or click (Read more…)