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:

< Back

Next >

Picture 1 of 43

Norman (AP Photo)

Double bogey for Jupiter Island golfer Greg Norman!

Not only is he dealing with his separation from new wife Chris Evert, the Boca Raton-based former tennis star, but now he’s got a ticked off ex-wife to deal with.

Palm Beacher Laura Andrassy says the Great White Shark stiffed her in his yearly payment of their divorce settlement.

She contends in new paperwork filed in the Martin County courthouse in Stuart that his $2 million wire transfer to her June 15 was about $72,000 short. She asked a judge to force Norman to pay up, or order arbitration.

According to their contract, the missus, a former flight attendant, will be $103 million richer by 2023 as a result of the agreement they signed when they were divorced two years ago.

So, what’s $72,000?

“It’s a substantial sum of money,” said Andrassy’s lawyer in West Palm Beach, Jack Scarola. “I have no desire to annoy Mr. Norman. But he has an obligation to meet his contractual commitments. If someone owes $72,000, just pay up.”

Andrassy, leaving a divorce hearing with lawyer Jack Scarola in 2007 (The Palm Beach Post archives)

Norman’s divorce attorney, Jeff Fisher, declined comment. But in his response filed in court, Fisher wrote that Norman and his ex promised they’d seek arbitration for disputes instead of the court system.

Andrassy’s recent motion to enforce is nothing more than a “method to feed information (usually of a disparaging nature) about the former husband to the media.”

The $72,000 alleged shortfall, according to court papers, comes from the calculation of Andrassy’s share in Norman’s Colorado ranch, Seven Lakes Lodge. She’s supposed to get close to $780,000 a year for the ranch, but got much less.

Incidentally, Norman recently put the property on the market for $55 million.

The motion reopens the saga of golfer/vintner’s divorce, which was filed in June 2006 after Andrassy accused him of cheating on her with tennis champ Evert. Although Norman and Andrassy were officially divorced when he married Evert in June 2008, they’ve been ironing some of their differences since.

 Loading ...

Actress Pam Anderson may be a dirrrty girl, but at least, she smells good! Pammy took advantage of her early arrival for Saturday night’s Make-a-Wish Foundation gala in Miami to do a little selling. The former Baywatch babe, 42, hawked her own line of perfumes,  Malibu Day and Malibu Night,  at the W hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach Thursday. The day juice is described as fruity floral with a hint of honeysuckle. The night stuff is more oriental, with black orchids and lotus. And animal lover Anderson says she made sure no animal was harmed during production. Malibu retails in chain drugstores and discount outlets.

(Courtesy Mavrixphoto.com)

Roger Daltrey, frontman of The Who, enjoyed a perk of stardom on the Palm Beach sand recently: A white-haired gentleman named Gordon sprayed suntan lotion all over his 65-year-old body! And Roger seemed to appreciate the tan assistant’s work thoroughly! (Read more about Daltrey’s Palm Beach vacation 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!

Schmidt threw out the first pitch of the Phillies' World Series game against the New York Yankees Saturday (AP Photo)

Hall-of-fame third baseman Mike Schmidt has put on the market his home in the fancy Admiral’s Cove in Jupiter.

Schmidt bought the 8,500-square-foot home pre-construction in 1991 — just two years after he played his last game. He paid $425,000 for the land then another $1 million to build.

Now, he wants $4.5 million for it.

Realtor Rob Thomson, who has the listing with Admiral’s Cove Realty’s Dick Capozzi, said Schmidt, 60, and his wife, Donna, are looking for another home in Admiral’s Cove.

“They just want a change,” said Thomson, of Waterfront Properties. “The house was perfect for them and their two kids. Now the kids are gone, they want something that fits their lifestyle.”

With 548 career homers, Schmidt is No. 14 on the list of the top Major League homerun hitters.

Visit Schmidt’s home by clicking here, or check out the gallery below, courtesy of Waterfront Properties:

< Back

Next >

Picture 1 of 10

All leather and lace, Mexican cutie Paulina Rubio rocked the Gusman Center in downtown Miami over the Halloween weekend. Known for her daring outfits, the singer of the chart-busting Causa Y Efecto outdid herself. Not that anyone was complaining!

Celine Dion using some of the precious liquid

Calling Celine Dion a water hog did have some effect after all.

Now that she’s having a water park installed on her Jupiter Island property — that’s two giant pools (one for the guests, of course), several waterslides and a lazy river — Dion’s doing it somewhat sensitively.

(See exclusive pictures of the construction here)

Last year, as the area suffered through one of its worst droughts, the Canadian songbird became the area’s heaviest user of drinking water. About 6.5 million gallons flowed through her nest, and that was just during construction. Cost the singer of My Heart Will Go On $36,343, and beaucoup public scorn, even if it was partly due to a broken pipe.

Now, La Dion told Martin County she’s having American Drilling Services drill wells on her $12.5 million beachside property. That’s three wells to extract water, and three to re-inject some of it, post use, back into the ground, according to the paperwork.

The water will not only be used for the waterpark but also to cool the home’s air conditioning units.

By the way, Dion is having a reverse osmosis system installed to purify the water 98 percent on its way to her water park.

Water flowing without scrutiny? Priceless!

 Loading ...

Displaying tats in some strange places, including precariously close to the most sensitive part of her right breast, The Addams Family’s Christiana Ricci spent Halloween in the surf of Miami Beach with new beau Curtis Buchanan, an L.A. photographer.

Roger Daltrey in the surf near the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan this week (Mavrixphoto.com/Special to Page2Live)

For all the evil at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach earlier this week, when a Holocaust denier’s lecture was disrupted by a bloody fight between two followers, there was plenty of good will.

That came courtesy of Roger Daltrey, the voice of the British rock band The Who.

The pop culture icon, 65, who’s been resting here while on break from his solo tour, met a couple from New Jersey staying in the hotel lobby and ended up in a hour-long conversation that the duo, Joe and Joan Vrola, won’t soon forget.

The topic was the Vrolas’ 22-year-old son, Joey, who just came out of a bout with cancer. Teen cancer happens to be what Daltrey calls his life’s work. He started the Teenage Cancer Trust in England and funds the work of the foundation yearly with a week-long series of concerts at the famous Royal Albert Hall in London.

By the end of the chat, Joan Vrola was in tears in Daltrey’s arms. Finally, someone understood!

“This was probably the most therapeutic conversation we had with anyone since our son was diagnosed (three years ago),” Joe Vrola said. “Our son is doing much better physically, but he’s not the same kid. There’s an anguish associated with the disease that teens, especially, need to deal with.

“Bad things happen to them when it comes to drinking and drugs and isolation. The hospital may be good at curing, but they provide no psychological counseling. No one in this country seems to understand that, but Roger Daltrey does.”

Daltrey’s Trust indeed provides counseling and moral support to afflicted teens.

Hours later, Daltrey was on the phone with the Vrolas’ son, who at first didn’t know anything about Daltrey. Hope, Vrola said, is what Daltrey was passing on.

“Besides close family, there aren’t too many people who actually care,” Joe Vrola said. “But here you have this total stranger who does.”

“That’s Roger,” said his friend in West Palm Beach, Realtor Leslie Linder. “He wants to change the world one person at a time.”

Joe Vrola wanted to know why Daltrey made teenage cancer his cause, so he asked the singer of Behind Blue Eyes, Who Are You and Pinball Wizard if any of his nine children ever had the disease.

“He said no,”Vrola said,“but his answer had the hair on the back of my neck stand straight. He said teens made him what he is. They were his biggest fans. He said he just wants to give back to those who supported him all these years.”