Prejean

– Beauty queens, unite! Fallen Miss California Carrie Prejean told Florida Republicans gathered in Orlando over the weekend how enamored she is with former presidential hopeful Sarah Palin. “I love Sarah Palin,” the family values advocate Prejean said. “I think she’s amazing.” So, could we imagine an empty-headed-but-nice-to-look-at twosome for in 2012? Well, here’s something else Prejean said, according to tampabay.com: “I definitely have a high interest in politics!” Prejean, 21, came thisclose to winning Miss USA in April after she told a national television audience she doesn’t believe in gay marriage. She then was stripped of her Miss California crown. In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla pageant in Alaska.

Trump and Mazzucchelli in 1995

– This must be the equivalent of running into Ivana Trump at Walmart. The Palm Beach jet-setter’s third husband, Riccardo Mazzucchelli, just bought a place in the un-hip West Palm working class suburb of Royal Palm Beach. The bizman, to whom Trump was married for 22 months in 1995, paid $408,000 for a 5,200-square-footer off Belvedere, property records show. The house is at the Parkwood Estates, within a Tiger Woods drive from the Mayacoo Lakes Country Club. Ivana’s ex-Italian Stallion got it for a steal: The original owners paid $729,000 for the crib three years ago! (Revisit Ivana’s fourth wedding last year here.)

– Dancing With The Stars, Florida edition. There’ll be three local angles to watch for in the upcoming ABC series, whose pairings were announced this morning. Aaron Carter, 21, the Marathon Key-based teen idol brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, will dance with the fleet-footed show favorite Karina Smirnoff; and Ashley Hamilton, the 34-year-old idle actor son of West Palm Beacher George Hamilton, will dance with the same pro as his ole’ pop did in Season 2, Edyta Sliwinska. And then, who could forget former Dallas Cowboy star Michael Irvin, a Fort Lauderdale resident. He’ll try to equal his former teammate, the 2006 winner Emmitt Smith, with newcomer Anna Demidova. Other stars on the show, set to premiere on WPBF-Channel 25 Sept. 21, include model Kathy Ireland; singer Macy Gray; Kelly Osbourne, the clutsy daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne; and Entourage actress Debi Mazar.

– First up, the July cover of GQ. In case you’re wondering, that naked guy already ran through the hallways of a hotel in the same state in his previous flick, Borat. This time, Sacha Baron Cohen turns into a flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter whose purpose is to make heterosexual males uncomfortable for Bruno, set to release on July 10.

– Is it just me or is David Letterman the ultimate late-night wimp? The fading comedian issued a second apology for a joke about former vice-president wannabe Sarah Palin’s daughter getting knocked up by Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. Palin has milked this thing for more than a week now, getting just enough publicity out of it to get back into the public’s consciousness. By apologizing not just once, but twice, Letterman has played right into her game.

– It feels like Palm Beach Gardens tennis champ Venus Williams has been on top for ever, but she turns only 29 Wednesday.

– Just when you thought that the professional investigators looking into the recent crash of the Air France Rio-Paris flight were sucking wind, Palm Beach’s own Donald Trump has figured it all out. In a recent entry on his blog, The Donald writes that the composite material used for the Airbus’ rudders is just no-good. How does he know? He quotes a friend who owns a hand-cart company. “The carts are made of the same composite material as the Airbus 330’s vertical stabilizer/rudders . . . and he gets about 10 calls each year that details how a cart will disintegrate with very little physcial abuse.” Oh, we feel much better knowing!

Legislative hunks: Dave Aronberg, left, and Joseph Abruzzo.

When, about 10:55 p.m., the presidential race was deemed over and Barack Obama a winner, the lobby at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in West Palm Beach erupted.

Haitian waiters threw their arms into the air. An Asian woman cried. State Sen. Dave Aronberg jumped up and down as if to celebrate a touchdown. West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, who wore six Obama buttons, grinned from ear-to-ear.

Now, they had a party — a historic occasion led by a rendition of the Isley Brothers’ Shout.

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Jon Lovitz keeps his eyes open in the judge's chair.

Ever so diplomatically, so gingerly, Jon Lovitz – the man who once played presidential campaign roadkill Michael Dukakis – tells Page2Live that Tina Fey’s impersonation of V.P. wannabe Sarah Palin is the highlight of the political season.

“What are the odds that someone running for office would look just like a comedian, even to the glasses?” said Lovitz, like Fey a Saturday Night Life alumn. “Tina does such a brilliant impression, even to the kind of things she says and how she says it.

“Nothing against Sarah Palin,” Lovitz quickly added. “I mean, she’s the governor of Alaska and everything, and she deserves respect.” (Read more…)

You can’t turn around in SoFla these days without meeting a Barack Obama-loving celeb.
So, the GOP moved its pretty brigade to Central Florida.

The View’s Elizabeth Hasselbeck – whose opinions at the right of Ann Coulter often has the ABC show’s matriarch, Barbara Walters, cringe – introduced V.P. wannabe Sarah Palin at a Kissimmee rally Sunday.

As for Palin, can anyone tell me why there’s a case of what appears to be giant grapefruit next to the podium?

Photo gallery after the jump…

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So, what was it like inside the $500-a-head Sarah Palin fund-raiser Monday night in Boca?

As the guest of honor might say, darn pleasant — except for the hour-long check-in and security clearance line outside closed-to-the-small-fry Boca Raton Resort.

The food was A-OK with pasta salad; cold vegetables with dip; 25 kinds of cheeses; a carving station with prime rib and turkey; and fine pastries for dessert.

The drinks? Even better. Open bar for all.

Entertainment? For Republican political wonks, top flight.

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Diane Palermo (left) and Sarah Palin

The Sarah Palin look-alike that the pranksters (above) from the Paul & Young Ron show on FM radio’s The Gater used to impersonate the Alaska Governor in several Boca restaurants this morning is a staunch Palintologist.

She just can’t afford her favorite politician in in the flesh.

“I’d love to see her tonight in Boca,” said college instructor Diane Palermo, who lives in nearby Coral Springs. “She’s a straight shooter, and I love her platform.

“But I can’t pay to get into her event. It’s out of my price range.”

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Sales for Sarah Palin’s fund-raiser Monday must be going well.

Several wings of the swanky Boca Raton Resort & Club, where the governor of Alaska and vice presidential wannabe is set to appear Monday, are already booked solid.

There are no rooms available that night at the classic Mizner-style hotel’s $200-a-night Cloister or at the $10,000-a-night Beach Club.

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Florida retiree Tad Duke was a Sarah Palin groupie long before John McCain tapped the Alaska governor.

In fact, Duke was her only political support in the Sunshine State.

Duke, 67, a former trucking company owner, was the state’s lone donor to Palin’s 2006 victorious run for governor of the Union’s largest state, according to Alaska elections records.

Of Palin’s 324 donors that year, Jacksonville resident Duke stood among 11 from the Lower 48. He gave the most allowed: $1,000 for the primary, then another grand for the general election.

“I’ve known the family since 1969, Sarah since she was 6,” the lifelong Floridian says. “That year, I went mountain-goat hunting with her dad, Chuck. He was a guide. I’ve stayed in touch with him since. I went back about six years ago to shoot some caribou in the Brooks Range.

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Florida’s Republican women are ticked off, and they’re taking on TV’s most popular personality.

The Florida Federation of Republican Women are calling for a boycott of Oprah Winfrey’s afternoon talk show in retaliation for Oprah’s refusal to have VP candidate Sarah Palin on her high-profile program during the election.

Winfrey, who rarely got involved politically until now, has been a vocal candidate of Democratic presidential wannabe Barack Obama.

Winfrey, who made her fortune appealing to women, had Obama on her set before he announced his run for president, and she showed up at several Obama campaign stops.

The boycott call, which includes the cancellations of subscriptions to Winfrey’s O magazine, came from Linda Ivell in Central Florida. She’s the boss of the FFRW, one of the state’s largest political groups.

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