Philanthropist Patrick Park dug deep in his legendary wine collection, and some of his world-class bottles went up for auction Thursday at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.

The bottles of rare Chateau Lafite, Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Margaux brought in thousands, although organizers were still counting the loot late Thursday. And it was all for charity: National Enquirer heiress Lois Pope’s Disabled Veterans LIFE Memorial Foundation. Pope is raising money to build a memorial to wounded warriors in Washington, D.C.

Check out Page2Live’s gallery by Michael Price by clicking here, or on the photo below:

Wine consultant Dennis Foley shows off a bottle of Staglin Family Cabernet Thursday night at Mar-a-Lago (Click on the photo for more)

– Want more? Check this out, from the wine-drinking Swirl Girls at pbpulse!

Man, things must be slow these days in kiwi land!

The national lottery of New Zealand is putting out a new game called Trump Up Your Life.

Trump, as in The Apprentice’s Donald Trump!

The New Zealand winner, announced later this month, will get $100,000 plus a trip to NYC with an entourage of three.

According to several of New Zealand’s newspapers, the lottery will also throw in top-flight luggage, a six-night stay at the soon-to-be-openTrump SoHo, $10,000 per person for petty cash, a round of golf at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, a chauffeur-driven limo on-call and a meet-and-greet with the owner of Palm Beach’s Mar-a-Lago.

Trump is reported to have gotten a few bucks for his participation but it’s unclear how much!

Donald Trump and Geri Morrow at the Jan. 15 gala. (Click on the photo for more)

Tensions at Alzheimer’s Community Care.

The popular chairs of the non-profit’s yearly Palm Beach gala, Frank and Geri Morrow, resigned last week after they were told that they’d have to have all features of future events approved by the group’s full-time staff.

Usually, the chair of Palm Beach galas exert tremendous control. They pick the entertainment, decorations, menus and the seating arrangements with little, or no, staff involvement. And attendance depends on a chair’s popularity.

“We resigned when they told us we’d have to get everything approved,” Frank Morrow said. “They are not really giving us a reasons why the policy changed. This year’s event (click here) was very successful.

“But one thing that (CEO) Mary Barnes indicated is that she thinks the gala had become ‘too societal,’ too much of a party and not enough of a fund-raiser. Well, if they want full control, now they’ve got it.”

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

Welcome to the fifth annual Caron Renaissance gala! (Click on the photo for Michael Price's gallery)

Petra Levin, the chairwoman of Friday’s fifth annual Caron Renaissance gala, said the economy forced her to think outside the box.

How would she attract people to Palm Beach’s Mar-a-Lago willing to pay between $1,000 and $500 for a charity dinner on one of the busiest gala weekends of the year?

“I figured I’d make it less formal than the average Palm Beach gala, and more laid back,” Levin, a former Miss Germany, said during Friday’s wingding.”I thought that’d bring back the husbands, who no longer like the pomp and circumstance by the middle of the season.”

And then, she reached out to Miami singer Jon Secada, who performed for a hour.

Result: Levin had 300-plus helping themselves to fine foods around the pool, then moving to the grand ballroom for Secada’s show.

And by the time the receipts were tallied, the Boca addiction treatment center Caron Renaissance was $1 million richer — money that’ll go mostly to pay for rehab for those who can’t afford it.

Check out the guests by clicking here or on the photo.

Melania Trump and Petra Levin, co-chairs of the Heart Ball (Michael Price/Special to Page2Live) Click on the photo for more

The Heart Ball, which benefits the American Heart Association, is one of the biggest charity galas of the Palm Beach season. More than 500 guests attended the shindig at Mar-a-Lago, Saturday night. Donald Trump arrived with wife Melania, who was co-chair with socialite Petra Levin. It was one of the first times this season that the Trumps were together. This, a week after stories started to spring up that there’s trouble in their marital paradise. Still, the ball was tremendously successful, raising a whopping $1.5 million in one night. Check out the Michael Price’s gallery by clicking on the photo, or here.

Trump at the convention center Saturday (Special to Page2Live)

With rumors swirling that there’s unhappiness in his marriage to model Melania, something he forcefully denies, Mar-a-Lago owner Donald Trump spent Saturday afternoon shopping for St. Valentine’s Day at the Palm Beach Jewelry Art and Antique Show. The event, at the convention center downtown WPB, ends tonight. I’m told The Donald, who looked like a vulgar tourist, hovered quite a bit near the Sherry Sheaf Private Jewelers booth and eyed a 46-carat aquamarine necklace and pendant circled by 5.45 carats of diamonds (see below). The star of The Apprentice didn’t buy it (Boooo!) but promised he’d be back today.

There was a plethora of well-known locals poolside at Mar-a-Lago Saturday night, for the preview of the upcoming Heart Ball, also at Donald Trump’s private club.

Philanthropist Patrick Park, honorary chair of the Valentine’s Day affair, whet the appetites of about 225 would-be Heart Ball guests with cocktails and a Michael Kors/GRAFF fashion show.

And judging from those gawking at jet-setting fashionista Kors’ models, including a couple of billionaires, it seems a given that the American Heart Association will get close to the 2008 record take for a Palm Beach party, $2.38 million.

Michael Kors' model get ready to show off their wares Saturday night at Mar-a-Lago (Michele Sandberg/Special to Page2Live)

Seen along the impromptu catwalk: corporate raider Wilbur Ross and wife Hilary; Netscape founder Jim Clark, who set aside his dislike of Palm Beach society to take his much-younger bride, Australian model Kristy Hinze Clark to the party; beer mogul Stephen Levin and his wife, former Miss Germany Petra Levin; TV host Regis Philbin and wife Joy; and more.

Check out Michele Sandberg’s gallery by clicking here, or click on the photo.

Hoping to raise more than $600,000 in what’s becoming one of the social season’s must-be-seen-at rendez-vous, more than 500 people jam-packed the Alzheimer’s Community Care black-tie gala Friday night in Palm Beach’s Mar-a-Lago.

The event showed signs that there’s light at the end of the tunnel for area non-profits, whose budgets for big deal fundraisers have been stretched thin.

The Alzheimer’s entertainment ( salsa demonstrations), decorations, food (including lobster and a salad named after Mar-a-Lago owner Donald Trump), drinks and the atmosphere all looked and felt “pre-Madoff,” when it wasn’t rare for a charity to spend $300,000-$500,000 on such things.

“We didn’t order fresh flowers,” said gala Chairwoman Geri Morrow. “But for everything else, we went all out.”

Alzheimer’s Community Care is a West Palm Beach organization that provides care to patients and caretakers dealing with the debilitating disease.

Check out Michele Sandberg’s 68-photo gallery of the fiesta by clicking here or on the photo.

While few and far between, famous folks hit Palm Beach on New Year’s Eve, and especially Mar-a-Lago. Filmmaker Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Manhattan),  fresh from his jazz concert at the Kravis Wednesday, made a late-night appearance at Donald Trump’s club with wife Soon-Yi (above). And so did TV personality Regis Philbin (Live With Regis and Kelly), who boogied down (sorta) in the ballroom with wife Joy (below).

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…)