What an April … no foolin’.
Briny Breezes General Manager Theresa Pussinen has a prize photo with actor Robert De Niro, in town to shoot The Comedian. Photo provided
First comes word that Robert De Niro is hanging around Briny Breezes. OK, OK, it’s a stretch, but Briny is a hot little neighborhood/town. And at 72, De Niro could be its poster boy, but no, he’s not buying and, no, he wasn’t hanging out with some distant cousin from the Village. Nor was he scouting deals for son Raphael, who works in the New York real estate market.
De Niro was doing what he does best — making movies — and Briny may have a minor role in his next one, The Comedian. That’s right, the guy who played a dying baseball player, a psychotic taxi driver, a bullish boxer, a mob boss and other assorted tough guys, stars as an “acerbic” stand-up comic.
“They weren’t here long, maybe 20 minutes,” Briny administrative assistant Sharon Holden said. “Just a couple of shots in front of the clubhouse.”
A crowd of some 30 residents gathered, she said, and General Manager Theresa Pussinen did manage to score a two-shot with the actor, but otherwise it was no big deal. Brinyites, after all, are pros at this. First there was Folks! with Tom Selleck and Don Ameche way back in 1991 and In Her Shoes (2004) with Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine.
De Niro, of course, is no stranger to the area. He terrorized much of the Glades in the 1991 thriller Cape Fear and last year he played Zac Efron’s Dirty Grandpa.
Actress Helen Mirren celebrates Easter with two hostesses at Caffe Luna Rosa in Delray Beach. Photo provided
Director Taylor Hackford likes the area, too. Three years ago he had cars screeching around Boca for Parker. This time the Oscar-winner brought along his wife, also an Oscar-winner. He and Helen Mirren even took time out for Easter brunch at Caffe Luna Rosa in Delray Beach.
Mirren has won her Academy Award, two Golden Globes and four Emmys largely for playing English queens. In her latest outings she takes serious turns as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Trumbo) and as a military officer ordering drone strikes against terrorists (Eye in the Sky). But on Easter Sunday, when two Luna Rosa hostesses asked if she would mind a photo, she not only obliged but asked if she, too, could don a set of bunny ears.
“Neither has any pretenses,” Palm Beach County Film Commissioner Chuck Elderd said of Mirren and Hackford. “They’re just regular people. When he was shooting Parker, we couldn’t have had a better relationship.”
And it’s good, clean business, although the state may lose some of that cash since Gov. Rick Scott declined to renew the $200 million-plus in tax credits for film projects. By comparison, Georgia claimed $6 billion in film revenue last year, and expects to see more if HBO’s Ballers (Miami) and Netflix’s Bloodline (the Keys) head north, as promised.
Hackford and company stayed only four days but spent $400,000, Elderd said. The company also shot along the Intracoastal at Seagate Manor condos in Delray, on A1A in a princely yellow Corvette and at the studios of WXEL in Boynton. The cast includes Leslie Mann, Cloris Leachman and Edie Falco plus funny men Danny DeVito, Gilbert Gottfried and Jimmie Walker.
De Niro’s “grandson” Efron was back in March with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to film scenes at Boca’s South Inlet Park for a Baywatch flick. That large tent across the inlet at the Boca Raton Resort & Club’s beach was erected to accommodate the crew, which stayed on site. The two-week gig added $7 million to the local economy.
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Growing up on the streets of Pittsburgh, Bobby Campbell tried just about every sport that could be played between the parked cars and streetlights. But he was hardly a jock.
In fact, he was a musician. “I played trumpet. I still have a great trumpet at home, but I don’t use it,” the Boca Raton resident admitted, because he’s hooked big time on collegiate sports in Boca Raton and can’t wait to see them hit the big time.
The kickoff took place at Lynn University in 2012 when Campbell donated $1.2 million to help build what is now Bobby Campbell Stadium, the home ground for soccer and lacrosse.
Early on, Campbell had little to give. When he was 15 his mom sought better prospects in Detroit. Campbell landed a job at Kinney, first stocking shoes, then selling them. He liked coming home that first week with $35 in his pocket. Eventually he made store manager, then district manager and so on, ultimately going corporate with Kinney’s parent company, Woolworth.
But Campbell had the hot foot, and in 1975, he hit the ground running with his own company. He built BBC International into a worldwide leader in footwear, especially for kids. Among the brands: Cole Haan, Teva, Polo Ralph Lauren, Heelys.
BBC has been based in Boca since 1998 and Campbell has made many friends, such as Dick and Barbara Schmidt. Following their lead, he began donating millions to Lynn, Boca Raton Regional Hospital and dozens of other causes.
The latest is $5 million for FAU’s Schmidt Family Complex for Academic and Athletic Excellence. Dick Schmidt baited the hook, and FAU President John Kelly, with help from football coach Charlie Partridge and athletic director Pat Chun, reeled him in.
Campbell is convinced that Kelly has FAU on the path to national prominence. The Schmidts also like FAU’s prospects and in 2014 started the ball rolling with a $16 million gift. To be built next to FAU’s new stadium, the 12,000-square-foot center will include an indoor training facility and areas for strength training and conditioning, sports medicine, health and wellness. Within the complex, the Bobby and Barbara Campbell Academic Success Center will offer tutoring suites, a career center, computer labs and two study halls.
The centers will cost $50 million. Campbell’s gift brings the total raised to $28 million.
“I’ve been going to games for a long time,” Campbell explained. “More and more I got involved. I even went to the Super Bowl with Charlie.
“Beside, Boca is my community. There are three things I really like. Lynn, the people at the hospital, and FAU. It’s a real community school. … And it was time to do something for the kids.”
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Oh, what a night! This was no time for cutoffs, baggies, T-shirts and flip-flops. Decked out in flowing gowns, tuxes, even some madrigal costumes, dozens of students from Florida Atlantic and Lynn and a large contingent of supporters mostly from South County were truly in awe as they first entered the ornate ballroom at The Mar-a-Lago Club. Say what you will, but Donald Trump’s little club can stage an awesome party … in this case the 34th Red Rose Gala to benefit the National Society of Arts and Letters.
NSAL’s mission is to provide a springboard for rising young talent through scholarships and performance opportunities. The chapter, presently serving college and high school students in Boca Raton, has a fairy godmother in Alyce Erickson. She lined up philanthropists Marilyn and Mark Swillinger to co-chair the gala and Palm Beacher Patrick Park to serve as honorary chairman.
Political rhetoric was easily forgotten as FAU’s Cantemos Singers served the first musical course, the perfect complement to the virtuosity of the NSAL scholarship winners from Lynn — oboist John Weisberg, pianist Darren Matias and violinist Yasa Poletaeva — backed by the Lynn Philharmonia under Maestro Guillermo Figueroa.
In accepting a lifetime achievement award for leadership and community service, Maestro Gerard Schwarz cited research that shows music in schools can improve academic performance by as much as 30 percent.
“There is a great need for cultivating talent,” Schwarz said. “It improves not only your life, but everything about your life.”
Both Lynn and FAU have developed exceptional music programs that attract students from across the globe. The Philharmonia’s cellists, for example, hail from Venezuela, Iran, Uzbekistan, Chile, Brazil and the United States. Many hail from countries that are historical enemies, yet all must work together or music becomes noise.
Boca Raton native Weisberg will soon complete his degree in performance at Lynn, but his skills go deeper than notes on a page: He builds instruments — guitars, violins, even an oud, one of civilization’s first instruments. By summer’s end, he must finish a harpsichord.
“This is what I do,” he says.
Poletaeva, who graduated from Russia’s St. Petersburg Conservatory, blew the audience away as featured performer in Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody, then showed how forceful she could be at the podium:
“Four years ago, I left my home to follow my dream. I left behind not only my family, but the city where I was born and where I fell in love for the first time. I left much more — the culture I inherited, the native language I spoke for 20 years … and my entire understanding of the world.
“They say in order to be born again, you have to die first. For me, moving to the United States, to Florida, was like a small death. In the time I’ve lived here, I have transformed into a new person. I have built a beautiful community of friends. I’ve become an open, smiling and trusting person — and I’ve found a new home.
“Through your support of NSAL, I am able to bring my ideas … and my beliefs … to people from other countries and continents all over the world.”
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The 21st edition of the Palm Beach International Film Festival is history, but aside from lots of photos on Facebook — most including festival Executive Vice President Larry Richman — little information has been released about attendance, awards or accolades.
Names? Let’s see. Former Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio and Entourage’s Rex Lee (Guys Reading Poems). A screening of Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru did, in fact, attract the motivational speaker, personal finance instructor and self-help author. The film is scheduled for a July release through Netflix in 170 countries.
Among the award winners, The House at the End of Time from Venezuela won Best Horror Picture. (It was not about the Hugo Chavez regime.) Best Documentary Feature went to When Elephants Were Young, narrated by William Shatner.
The festival’s new boss, Jeff Davis, suggested the next Star Wars might be in the lineup. Despite their noble efforts, how can the filmmakers succeed if festival organizers don’t spread the word a little better?
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The film fest opened April 6 at Muvico Parisian in West Palm Beach with the world premiere of Money, a caper film from Spain. Next night in Boca as The Pickle Recipe played at Cinemark Palace, The Dubliner in Mizner Park was coming alive with “Randi’s Festival of Friends,” or as former PBIFF Executive Director Randi Emerman actually preferred: “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to party.”
“It was really just getting together with my friends that would have been at the festival. Taking my mind off what was happening up the road,” explained Emerman, who guided the festival through nearly two decades. Emerman, who was next off to Cinema Con in Vegas, is busy. As marketing boss for Coconut Creek-based Silverspot Cinema, she’s opened multiplexes in Naples and Chapel Hill, N.C., with more on the way.
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William Shatner’s 2004 Volkswagen Phaeton went for $29,700 at Barrett-Jackson’s auction at the South Florida Fairgrounds. The gavel struck at a bargain $55,000 for his 2002 Aston-Martin DB7, autograph included. The convertible retailed for about $150,000. Photo provided
The original Captain Kirk didn’t make the festival, but Shatner did stop by the South Florida Fairgrounds to watch the sale of two personal automobiles at Barrett-Jackson’s 14th annual auto auction.
“I am selling them because I have too many cars and I am ready to go onto another phase,” explained Shatner, who breeds horses in Kentucky and breathes high-octane gasoline on the road.
His 2004 Volkswagen Phaeton, essentially 12-cylinder Bentley in “volksy” clothing, went for a bargain $29,700. In 2002 an Aston-Martin DB7 convertible, beige on beige, V-12 with 420 horses retailed for about $150,000. At Barrett-Jackson, the gavel struck at a bargain $55,000, Shatner’s autograph included.
Eight special vehicles, including a first off the line 2017 Corvette and a similar Camaro, raised more than $1 million for charities. Top choice was a 2015 Jeep Wrangler Commando that raised $225,000 for the Patriot Foundation. The auction took in $23.2 million, a record.
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Chef turned country rocker Zac Brown offered up a 2004 Hummer. Not just any Hummer, this baby came with a full custom-built kitchen, roof storage and two air compressors. It raised $30,000 for Brown’s Camp Southern Ground for special needs children.
Brown was lucky he didn’t need the cash for bail.
In the early hours of April 8, Palm Beach police responded to complaints about a strange car in the parking lot and a noisy party at The Four Seasons Resort. Cops found cocaine in the car and charged the driver and the two women he brought to the party — employees of Pure Platinum, a Lauderdale strip club — with felony drug possession.
Brown told police he was invited to the party by a friend and didn’t know drugs were involved until the police arrived 10 minutes later. The cops didn’t charge Brown, but they did ask for his autograph.
Brown last month had the No. 1 single on the country charts, his 13th. Titled Beautiful Drug, it’s a love song.
“My dad always said nothing good ever happens when you stay out late,” the chastened Brown wrote on Facebook. “It’s a lesson I learned the hard way … being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Everyone is responsible for their actions, and I regret using poor judgment and putting myself in that position.”
Brown’s “friend” was likely one of two North Carolinians whom police questioned: Dale Ledbetter and Kenny Habul, both of whom were connected to the auto auction. Ledbetter (10 to 1 he was named for Dale Earnhardt) was charged with marijuana possession. He works for Hendrick Motorsports, the legendary auto racing operation and donor of the top-grossing charity Jeep. Born in Australia, Habul, 37, has been racing cars since he was a teenager and currently drives for JR Motorsports, which is owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Hendrick.
Maybe for his next single, Brown could release a cover of Dr. John’s Right Place Wrong Time.
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If all goes to plan, Lake Worth may have something that Delray doesn’t: a rooftop bar, with a view. The City Commission has approved zoning changes that will allow Hudson Holdings to renovate the Gulf Stream Hotel — $60 million worth, including a restaurant, a champagne room and a rooftop bar. From six stories up, you can see the ocean and feel the breeze. At Hudson’s Sundy House in Delray, the view is shrubbery.
By the time work is done, the Gulf Stream will be nearly a century old, which gives Hudson plenty of time to resolve some historical and geographical issues. Hudson’s website refers to “The Gulfstream Hotel, Circa 1925 … located two hundred yards from the ocean.”
It’s Gulf Stream. Lake Worth history buff and consultant Wes Blackman has reported that construction began in May 1923 at the height of the first land boom, but two months later financial problems halted work for eight months. With design changes, a new board and new contractor, work resumed in March 1924.
Three months later it was being billed as the “Gulf Stream, Lake Worth’s $400,000 fireproof hotel.” After a soft opening on Dec. 10, it was finally dedicated on Jan. 20, 1925, even as the boom was busting.
While it may sit 200 yards from the body of water known as Lake Worth, the Atlantic Ocean is three-quarters of a mile east. The building was designed by Atlanta-based architect G. Lloyd Preacher, who later designed Atlanta’s neo-Gothic City Hall. The online New Georgia Encyclopedia notes that “the El Nuevo Hotel (1923; later Gulf Stream Hotel) … visible for miles, is especially noteworthy as the town’s only skyscraper.”
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A few blocks away, another space with Roaring ’20s roots — Bamboo Room — has a new tenant, and not exactly the type you would expect to find in a nightclub. But then Common Ground Church isn’t your typical house of worship and Pastor Mike Olive isn’t your typical minister.
Olive initially held services at Common Grounds Coffee Bar, also on South J Street, but a few months ago he moved Sunday services to Bamboo, paying rent on a day-to-day basis. Now Olive and co-owner Ryan Mueller have agreed to a lease. Terms are not final, and should Mueller get his asking price — it’s listed at $1.5 million — Olive would have to move his pulpit again.
Common Ground has had a few run-ins with city officials, in part because of public proselytizing and because many of its parishioners are dealing with drug problems. But Olive claims all is well. In addition to Sunday services, he will add another on Wednesdays and hopes to launch a Thursday comedy night, yoga and exercise classes, a juice bar and a vegan kitchen.
Mueller intends to keep the nightclub running on Fridays and Saturdays.
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Some win, some lose, some change.
How could it not be a winner! On Atlantic Avenue. A deck overlooking a dock on the Intracoastal. Plenty of parking. Lots of managerial experience. Owners with deep pockets. Yet less than a year and a half after it opened, Hudson has closed. Restaurant broker Tom Prakas has listed the 7,000-square-foot eatery for sale at $7.9 million or lease at $450,000.
According to news reports, Bryce Statham, who owns Blue Moon Fish Co. in Fort Lauderdale, backed out at the last moment because the lease was too steep to override concerns about slow off-season business. Other suitors are calling, an optimistic Prakas reports, and a deal could be cut in a matter of days.
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Less than a year after Gary Rack opened his second Fat Rooster, at the corner of Atlantic and Second Avenue in Delray, he’s changed it. Faster than you can say farm to table, GR Restaurant Management Group is converting the Rooster to Gary Rack’s Farmhouse Kitchen. Opening is expected this month, with the same guilt-free, farm-fresh dishes offered for two years at the first Farmhouse Kitchen in Boca.
Gone is the Frito Pie — layers of corn chips smothered in chunky chili, topped with cheddar cheese, red onions, and pickled jalapeños in a steel pan. Instead try roasted chicken and apple with almonds, Vermont cheddar, dates and ricotta or perhaps bison meatloaf with a cheddar gouda mash and red wine jus.
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Anthony Pugliese is out of jail … after four months. Claiming he’s claustrophobic, the Gulf Stream-based developer, wheeler-dealer and memorabilia collector had hoped to serve no time after copping a plea on fraud charges, but the judge decided six months — could have been 18 — in an 8-by-12 was appropriate. With good behavior he was out in four.
For what?
Pugliese, 69, took Subway founder Fred DeLuca for more than $1 million in a scheme to develop Destiny, a massive real estate venture in Central Florida. Never happened. Pugliese also was ordered to reimburse DeLuca more than $1 million, but it won’t do DeLuca any good. He died last September from leukemia, but at least he knew that Pugliese would pay for his deeds.
Pugliese is perhaps best known as a collector of memorabilia, some of which he has used to finance his philanthropy and business ventures. An auction to raise money for Destiny brought in $57,500 for the bullwhip Harrison Ford used as Indiana Jones, and $110,000 for the steel-rimmed bowler tossed by the villain Oddjob in Goldfinger. Pugliese perhaps is best known as the owner of the pistol Jack Ruby used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald.
Nobody asked me, but …
The Atlanta Braves have a lot of nerve. For years they were the only Major League Baseball team in the Southeast, and even before moving to Atlanta from Milwaukee they spent the spring at West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium — 4,200 seats for $1 million. Palm Beach County adopted the Braves and later the Montreal Expos, but with the arrival of the Marlins and the Rays, allegiances changed.
Two decades ago, the Braves ditched the Palm Beaches for Disney. No big deal. The county built Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter for $28 million, and whaddaya know, the Expos and Cardinals flew in. In 2002, however, the Expos and Marlins worked a trade, with the Marlins leaving Viera near Melbourne for Roger Dean.
Next year new allegiances will form as the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros (please, no floods) move into the $148 million Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.
Following the money, the Braves seem to be attempting a double steal. Not wanting to sign a new lease at Disney, they’ve been talking with Sarasota, St. Pete, Fort Myers and, yes, maybe they could play at John Prince Park. Palm Beach County Commissioner Hal Valeche, who represents North County, doesn’t see a problem with the Braves building on half of the county’s showcase park.
Who will put up the money? How many additional fans would a fifth team actually attract?
“I can’t imagine it,” one county parks employee said. “They take all that land and when the lease is up, they go somewhere else. That park is a such a gem.”
Reach Thom Smith at thomsmith@ymail.com.
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