You nasty thing, Charlie Crist!

The guv went on Greta Van Susteren’s On The Record on Fox News Monday night wondering if his opponent for the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio, used the Republican party’s credit card to get his back waxed.

Yikes!

Crist is behind in the polls, but still!

Crist matter-of-factly threw that line at Greta while the two discussed the recent revelations that Rubio had used a party card for personal expenses. Check out the exchange, and vote in the poll below.

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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…)

Stephanie Labarga's booking mug after her DUI arrest Monday (Courtesy PBSO)

A Palm Beach Gardens couple and their lawyer weren’t shocked when the 23-year-old daughter of rookie Florida Supreme Court Justice Jorge Labarga was picked up for DUI earlier this week.

That’s because the couple, Valmir and Irma Santos, were sleeping soundly at dawn one morning in November when they heard a huge crash.

Stephanie Labarga, Jorge’s daughter, had driven her car into the Santos’ modest, 1,200-square-foot home.

“It was at, like, at 5 a.m.,” said Stuart Goldenberg, the Santos’ lawyer. The couple is suing Stephanie Labarga because their insurance company hasn’t been able to reach a settlement with Stephanie’s. “She drove into their living room through the wall. Who does that?”

No one was injured, Goldenberg said, but the damages amounted to more than $20,000.

Labarga, according to court records, was cited for reckless driving. She paid a $166-fine and was ordered to take a safe driving class — which she completed Feb. 5.

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

Sting arrives at Friday's Everglades Foundation gala in Palm Beach (click on the photo for the full gallery)

The Everglades Foundation, which raises cash to preserve the River of Grass, brought a big fish to its small pond Friday night at Palm Beach’s Breakers hotel.

Sting, the environmentally-conscious Brit superstar singer of The Police, was the guest of honor and also entertained about 840 guests. Each paid $1,000 to be jam-packed in the foundation’s yearly gala, but hey!, there’s only one Sting.

And, I’m told, the singer songwriter played the gig free of charge!

The icing on the celeb cake was provided by: Retired tennis bad boy John McEnroe, who emceed well after originally coming in with a sour puss; golf legend Jack Nicklaus, a board member of the foundation; and members of the state cabinet appearing with Gov. Charlie Crist, including Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and CFO Alex Sink.

Needless to say, security may have been unprecedented at a Palm Beach charity gig. The background was heavy with FDLE agents in addition to local lawmen.

Wearing a black jacket and thin cotton scarfs — he looked like the rocker’s version of a lord, but then he was knighted by the Queen in 2003 — Sting explained why he was there. Sting’s pet issue has been for years the protection of rainforests throughout the world.

“You can’t really separate the two issues (the Everglades and rainforests),” Sting told Page2Live. “All of these ecosystems are interrelated and we need to work to protect them now.”

But the conversation changed when Page2Live’s lensman, Mike Jachles, told Sting he was at The Police’s first North American gig in the late 1970s, at a Syracuse, N.Y., bar named Firehouse Tavern.

Sting’s face lit up and he replied: “I remember it well!”

Also at the hotel’s lavish Ponce de Leon ballroom: local environment legend Nat Reed; author Carl Hiaasen; Netscape founder Jim Clark with his child bride, I mean, much younger wife, Aussie model Kirsty.

For more, and what Sting played, click (Read more…)

Crist with political sugar daddy Donald Trump Saturday at Mar-a-Lago (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

The guv’s people say not much should be made of this, but here’s the cold hard fact: Gov. Charlie Crist attended the March of Dimes’ yearly “Glitz” fund-raiser Saturday at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago — without First Lady Carole Crist.

On their first anniversary!

“Oh, she’s waiting for me at home,” Crist told Page2Live’s shutterbug. “It is our anniversary.”

Crist stayed at the Palm Beach club until about 9:15 p.m.

Crist was hitched to the then-Carole Rome in his hometown of St. Petersburg on Dec. 12, 2008, before a plethora of political operatives and GOP supporters.

Thing is, it’s not unusual these days to see the first lady and the governor alone at separate functions. A week ago, Carole Crist appeared alone at The Colony in Palm Beach to help raise cash for the National Center on Family Homelessness.

This time around, Crist was spotted having dinner with Carole at the Colony Hotel Friday night. But Carole’s absence at the March of Dimes the following evening was even more surprising because she was an event chairwoman last year. She’s also a close friend of local chapter benefactors Annie Falk and Lori Stoll. Both socialites attended.

For more on the party, and the photo gallery, look below or click (Read more…)

Saving lives, Lindsay Lohan

– What has she been smoking? Troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan claims she saved 40 lives since she arrived in India two days ago. The oft-rehabbed star of Mean Girls is in that country to make a documentary for the BBC about the trafficking of young girls and women. Here’s what she just tweeted: “Over 40 children saved so far… Within one day’s work. This is what life is about… Doing THIS is a life worth living!!!” Say what? Lohan, who says she wants to distance herself from L.A.’s party life, is flying home Saturday.  By then, she’ll have saved another 60 lives!

– Former Nightline star Ted Koppel is scheduled to be the guest of honor at the Jan. 23 Weizmann Institute of Science fund-raiser at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach in Manalapan.

Heyniger with Crist, in 2007

– And finally, former gubernatorial galpal Kelly Heyniger apparently isn’t making enough money selling bathing suits that look like negligees and foam pads that are supposed to save women the embarrassment of “camel toes.”  Heyniger just told her Facebook friends she needs “some extra cash.” So, she’s going back to being a hairdresser. The 39-year-old hottie dated Gov. Charlie Crist for several months before he met and married first lady Carole Crist. Oh yes. Carole’s a millionaire.

(Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Strange bedfellows indeed! West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel (the staunch liberal democrat on the left) hung out with Carole Crist, the otherwise solo wife of Gov. Charlie Crist, a GOPer, last night at the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach. Crist and former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Murphy Healey served as chairs of a fundraiser for the National Center on Family Homelessness. Palm Beach County Commish Steve Abrams was also among 300-plus in attendance. Check out Michele Sandberg’s gallery:

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Dobbs

No-nonsense former CNN star Lou Dobbs wants to throw his hat in the New Jersey political world as a third party candidate.

Joisey?

You can do better than that, Mr. Independent!

How about trying the corrupt world of Florida politics?

Because he owns a $2 million-home at Ibis Country Club in West Palm Beach, according to county property records, Dobbs could easily become eligible to run for political office in Florida. And there’s enough populist anger and resentment against the political establishment down here to pave the path to office for the grumpy anti-immigration advocate with a red carpet.

If Dobbs wants to aim high, there’s the U.S. Senate seat that Gov. Charlie Crist thinks he’s got a lock on. The vote is in november 2010.

For a dog fight is what he’s looking for, there’s a mayoral election in West Palm Beach in 2011. And the fancy western community in which Dobbs bought in 2005 would love nothing more than having a member become mayor.

Dobbs to replace Lois Frankel? Imagine that!

“Lou Dobbs is a constituent?” WPB Commish Kimberly Mitchell asked, surprised. “Well, if he ran here, that’d put us on the map. I’d sure elevate the dialogue in this city!”

Dobbs is spending Thanksgiving at Ibis. He is expected to spend weeks at a time here this winter as his daughter, Hillary, competes in Wellington’s Winter Equestrian Festival.

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This picture would be cute, sorta, if the guy on the right weren’t Scott Rothstein, and the guy on the left, Gov. Charlie Crist, weren’t trying to distance himself from his former friend. The photo, courtesy of wedding shutterbug Stephan Maloman, was taken Jan. 28, 2008 inside the old Versace Mansion in Miami Beach, at a reception before Rothstein’s wedding to the lady in the middle, Kim. Scott Rothstein is allegedly responsible for one of the largest financial swindle in SoFla history, after Bernie Madoff. And the guv has been monotone and short in his answers about his relationship with Rothstein.

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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