Talk of the Town

When former United States Attorney General John Ashcroft addresses Naples/Fort Myers Town Hall on March 17, Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce president Mike Reagen and his wife, Susan, will be at the Naples Grande Resort & Club to welcome the family friend. Reagen, who was Missouri's secretary of social services when Ashcroft was the state's governor, says the two bonded over their love of bow ties. Ashcroft liked wearing one because he could yank it off between official appearances. It will be the first time Reagen has seen Ashcroft since an emotional cabinet reunion in St. Louis, just after Sept. 11.

Author, author: Novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford always works for her supper when she comes to Naples to see Jane Ogden, her friend of more than 40 years. Ogden says Bradford has always pitched in to help her pet causes, including doing kitchen duty at Immokalee's Guadalupe Center a couple of years ago. On her most recent visit, Bradford signed her latest bestseller, Just Rewards, at the Naples Art Association's von Liebig Art Center. Lonnie Ostrow, at Bradford's offices in New York, says the author was shocked at the damage sustained by her friend's Pelican Bay high-rise during Hurricane Wilma, but was "tickled" by Neapolitans' response to her book. More than 160 fans showed up for a signing at Barnes & Noble, the biggest turnout of her 14-city tour.

Carolyn Bell's first charity event several years ago brought friend and lifestyle author Alexandra Stoddard to Naples for the Immokalee Foundation. So it's only fitting that Bell and her husband, Doug, said goodbye to their Naples home at The Dunes with a publication party for Stoddard's latest book, Time Alive. The Bells are moving back to the Lonestar State, where Carolyn will pursue advanced Pilates training. Good-hearted Carolyn, who was also on the boards of Fun Time and the Education Foundation of Collier County, will leave a Texas-sized hole in local charitable circles.

First they'll take Manhattan:

Denise Cobb, Connie Galloway, Kim Long, Retta Singer and Ann Bain hit Double Seven, a club in NYC's meatpacking district, for a cocktail party with The Devil Wears Prada author Lauren Weisberger. The adorable 28-year-old author was promoting her new book, Everyone Worth Knowing, and Galloway says the Naples group lobbied hard for invites to Prada's summer movie premiere with Meryl Streep. Stay tuned. .

Somewhere in Port Royal: Mystery writer Janet Evanovich, who bought a $6.2 million waterfront estate in Naples last year, is already a member of a certain beachfront club on Gordon Drive, but is apparently cheerfully unaware of the club's reluctance to see its name appear in print. A description of the venerable institution, leavened with Evanovich's trademark wit, appears in her mystery Metro Girl.

If it's St. Patrick's Day, we must be Irish: You and 20,000 of your closest friends can reminisce about the green isles of home when Naples' 28th annual St. Patrick's Day parade takes off from St. Ann's Catholic Church on March 18. Betty and John Finnegan of Naples are chairing and Capital Wealth Advisors is underwriting much of the cost of what's believed to be Florida's largest private St. Pat's parade. The very Irish Phil McCabe is holding a parade fund raiser at his Inn on Fifth on March 9, and there is a pre-parade Pub Crawl by trolley on March 11.

Boston connection: The Boston Red Sox are visible supporters of Lee Memorial Health System Foundation, but few people know that the funds raised by their celebrity Classic are matched by John and Shelley Blais. The Fort Myers residents recently gave $16.5 million for research at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Tuning up: That red-headed Irish-man Larry Ford, a Grammy-winning gospel singer, will sing the national anthem for his beloved Red Sox at their afternoon spring training games in Fort Myers on March 29 and 30.

Turning it around: The irrepressible Barbara Hill, who left Naples' von Liebig Art Center in a highly publicized board coup a couple of years ago, has landed happily at the Edison-Ford Foundation in Fort Myers. Hill, who grew up on Fort Myers Beach, says she is now working with people she remembers from her days at Fort Myers High, including board members Sidney Ann Brinson, Sam Galloway Jr. and Tom Smoot. The private foundation has a little less than a million to raise by the end of 2006 toward the restoration of the city's Edison & Ford Winter Estates.

Seen and heard on the Gulfshore: A spiffy blue Lexus convertible with the vanity license The Phil meandering north on Pelican Bay Boulevard. Peeking over the wheel? Mrs. Myra Janco Daniels.

"There is such a thing as the luck of the draw."-winning poker player and Naples Mayor Bill Barnett, protesting that he's nowhere near as good as pal and Texas Hold 'Em champ Bruce Yamron.

"I'm cultural Irish, not professional Irish."-Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce president Mike Reagen on why he has no plans for St. Pat's Day (although he does have a daughter named Erin).

"Women dressing for themselves or women dressing for men. Not women dressing for other women."-Bill Blass designer Michael Vollbracht, visiting Naples' Saks Fifth Avenue, on the audience for his ultra-feminine couture.