Lohans hit with court papers over Long Island manse

A process server slapped Lindsay and Dina Lohan with court papers today — part of Chase Bank’s years-long battle to foreclose on their Long Island mansion, sources said.

The server tacked the court papers on the front gate of the troubled Starlet’s childhood house in Merrick — where Dina and Lindsay brawled in October.

Today’s court documents — which a source said names both Lindsay, 26, and her mom, Dina, 50 — were inside an envelope notes that simply: “Important Information Enclosed.”

The delivery man confirmed to The Post that he was a process server and that the papers were related to a “Chase Bank” mortgage issue.

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Lindsay Lohan arriving at amfAR gala.

Financial woes run in the family.

Hard-partying Dina has racked up over $1 million in debt in the past decade, barely avoiding foreclosure on the $1.3 million house in 2005 and 2012, court documents show.

In October, Lindsay helped her mom pay the loans, plunking down a reported $40,000.

That set off an October brawl between Lindsay and her mother — which took place in the driveway at the house — there the starlet demanded Dina pay back the huge loan.

“I was like, ‘Give me my money back! Give me my 40 grand back, that I just gave you!’” the actress said, recounting the fight to her father, Michael, in a phone conversation he recorded.

“You gave Mom $40,000?” Michael asked.

“Because she needs to keep her house,” Lindsay responded.

Lohan owes more than $200,000 in back-taxes — which Charlie Sheen reportedly help her pay in November 2012.

“Thank you Charlie Sheen for having Lindsays back!” Dina tweeted today.

But in December, the IRS froze Lindsay’s accounts.

In 2005, Dina Lohan took out a loan totaling more than $700,000 and now holds a $422,723 mortgage on the property, records show.

In 2008, she was forced to pay off a $301,715 lien for money borrowed from another lender, records show.

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Miami startup that turns text to video receives $1 million in seed funding

Guide, a new technology startup based in Miami, announced Tuesday it has closed a $1 million round of seed funding from investors including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp., MTV founder Bob Pitman, actor and producer Omar Epps, and early Google employee Steve Schimmel. The Knight Foundation is supporting Guide through its new early-stage venture fund, the Knight Enterprise Fund.

Led by CEO and founder Freddie Laker and COO Leslie Bradshaw, Guide’s team of seven is focused on turning online news, social streams and blogs into video for users who may be cooking, exercising, commuting or getting ready in the morning. The free application offers consumers a selection of about 20 “anchors” — including a dog, a robot and an anime character — that will read the article and present the accompanying photos, pull-out information and video clips in its video presentation. Revenue drivers for Guide could include in-app purchases, advertising-based anchors and customizations from publishers, said Laker, a former vice president at SapientNitro.

Laker and his team plan to launch a public beta next month, which they plan to do with a splash at the huge technology conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Read more about Guide here on the Starting Gate blog. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg

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Lauderhill seniors are the model of elegance

Gert Packman has never looked her age.

During the Great Depression, movie theaters wouldn’t let her in to see some films, because she didn’t look 16. (She was older).

After retiring and moving to Florida, she got skeptical looks when she asked for the senior citizen discount. (She qualified).

At 96, Packman showed a room full of people Wednesday that you don’t have to be young to be glamorous.

She was joined by six other resident-models, all in their 80s or 90s, in an informal fashion show at Forest Trace, a Lauderhill senior living community. The event also welcomed New York author Ari Seth Cohen, who has written “Advanced Style,” a pictorial book on elegance and aging.

The seven models decked out in fashions furnished by Sondro Boutique, sashayed across a ballroom at Forest Trace for an audience of about 75 people.

There were no shapeless shifts or housecoats here — the women wore slim-cut pencil skirts, sparkly tailored jackets and jewel-toned evening gowns. They strutted proudly, showing off their style and panache.

“It’s uplifting,” Forest Trace executive director Campbell Epes said of the show. “The attitude, the power and the strength — it makes you forget the age. You see her and say, ‘She’s gorgeous.’”

Cohen, 31, has long been fascinated with stylish older women. Growing up in San Diego, he spent long afternoons with his grandmothers, Bluma and Helen, who introduced him to the films and fashions of Old Hollywood beauties like Marlene Dietrich.

Bluma always told Cohen he should move to New York to pursue his creativity, and when she died seven years ago, he did.

On the streets of Manhattan, he found older women who reminded him of his grandmothers.

They dressed in furs and feathers, capes and caftans, with animal prints and bold colors. Cohen began photographing them, and eventually, befriending them.

“It was a way to connect with older people,” he said. “I wanted it to be a celebration of age and a celebration of style.”

When “Advanced Style” hit the shelves last spring, Cohen said he got a lot of different reactions.

Older women told him they were glad to see themselves represented in fashion, an industry that tends to forget about women over a certain age. Likewise, younger women told Cohen they weren’t afraid of growing older after seeing the women he photographed.

“I think it’s important not to give up, and I think it’s important to not feel like you have to give up,” Cohen said. “Style, for me, is a reflection of how vital [the women] are.”

On Wednesday, the senior models were a picture of vitality.

Phyllis Ellsweig, 85, donned a bright orange jacket for the fashion show. She usually opts for a more understated look — her favorite clothing shop is Talbot’s — but she said the colorful jacket from Sondro is something she would wear.

“I like to look nice,” the retired psychologist from Pennsylvania said.

Packman sported a black sequined evening jacket and stretch pants that “only Gertrude could get away with,” the announcer said as the nonagenarian sauntered past, her copper hair perfectly coiffed.

The secret to staying young, she said before the show, is mostly in the genes — but it helps to eat healthy, watch your blood pressure, and above all, maintain a sense of humor.

“I’m a free spirit,” Packman said. “My sense of humor has gotten me through. Without that I think I would fail miserably.”

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Supermodel Victoria's Secret Angels Share Valentine's Day Tips

Victoria's Secret Angels Lily Aldridge and Candice Swanepoel shared Valentine's Day tips with ET's Brooke Anderson and Rob Marciano via ooVoo's video chat service. Read on to learn how you can make this Valentine's Day a memorable one for your special lady.

PICS: Hollywood's Most Dateable Stars

When asked for advice on how to sweep a woman off her feet, Aldridge replied with a laundry list of trickets: "I'd say flowers, rose petals, chocolates, bags, candles, lingerie ... go crazy!"

Aldridge also named the Victoria's Secret fragrance Temptation as another sexy gift to get your significant other in the mood.

While Aldridge and Swanepoel have made a living out of wearing sexy outfits, their off-time is spent a little more casual.

"For me, it's about comfort," said Swanepoel, describing her attire for lounging around the house. "I'm in my sweats or just cotton underwear."

Click the video for more.

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Inwood man confesses to setting wife's head on fire with blowtorch

First he bought his wife coffee. Then he set her head on fire.

Officials today released the confession of the Inwood man charged in last month's blowtorch revenge attacks on his wife and ex-boss -- admissions eerie in their mix of the mundane and the maniacal.

"I woke up this morning around 6 a.m. with the plan already made," Carlos Diaz, 35, told cops of the morning he doused wife Cathy Zappata in the face with accelerant, than blasted her with a blow torch as she sat in her car in a Pathmark parking lot.

"I went to Dyckman Bakery to buy her coffee," he told cops in the confession, released as Diaz pleaded not guilty through an interpreter to two counts of attempted murder.

Steven Hirsch

Carlos Diaz, 35, hit his estranged wife in the head with the blowtorch, poured a liquid accelerant in her hair and lit her on fire.

"I did that to buy more time so that I could take my kid to school and then there wouldn't be as many people in the mechanic's shop," he said.

Diaz told cops he'd wanted to lure his wife to the 10th Avenue garage, so that he could attack both her and his ex-boss, shop owner Helson Marachena, at the same time.

"She suspected something," though, he told cops of his wife, so he doused her on the spot in his car, he said.

"I sprayed her with starting fluid in her face and everywhere and lit her with a blow torch," Diaz told cops.

Lead prosecutor Scott Leet was asked today by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro to recount the facts of the case, and the prosecutor told the judge that Zappata suffered second degree burns throughout her neck and face.

"Parts of her hair were singed down to the scalp," Leet told the judge, who set Diaz's next date for April 10.

The ex-boss, Marachena, fared better, the prosecutor told the judge. Diaz admittedly walked to the nearby mechanic's shop and doused Marachena with accelerant too, according to police and Diaz's own confession.

"But the torch wouldn't light," Diaz told cops.

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Miami startup that turns text to video receives $1 million in seed funding

Guide, a new technology startup based in Miami, announced Tuesday it has closed a $1 million round of seed funding from investors including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp., MTV founder Bob Pitman, actor and producer Omar Epps, and early Google employee Steve Schimmel. The Knight Foundation is supporting Guide through its new early-stage venture fund, the Knight Enterprise Fund.

Led by CEO and founder Freddie Laker and COO Leslie Bradshaw, Guide’s team of seven is focused on turning online news, social streams and blogs into video for users who may be cooking, exercising, commuting or getting ready in the morning. The free application offers consumers a selection of about 20 “anchors” — including a dog, a robot and an anime character — that will read the article and present the accompanying photos, pull-out information and video clips in its video presentation. Revenue drivers for Guide could include in-app purchases, advertising-based anchors and customizations from publishers, said Laker, a former vice president at SapientNitro.

Laker and his team plan to launch a public beta next month, which they plan to do with a splash at the huge technology conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Read more about Guide here on the Starting Gate blog. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg

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Lawmakers want major changes in fixing long voting lines

TALLAHASSEE --
Some lawmakers are considering strengthening state officials’ authority to remove county supervisors of elections after voting snafus in November led to long lines and voter anger.

Details are sketchy; supporters haven’t come forward with a specific proposal yet, and at times seemed to be thinking out loud at a Tuesday meeting of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee.

But there were clearly at least a few Republican senators interested in putting pressure on elections supervisors — with the Legislature having come under fire for changes to the state’s voting laws pushed through by the GOP in 2011.

Supervisors in five counties — Broward, Lee, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie — have been singled out as having performed poorly during the November elections. Florida was the last state in which a winner was projected in the presidential race, with a final call coming long after President Barack Obama was projected to have won re-election, and voters sat in line for several hours in some places to cast their ballots.

The Florida Constitution currently allows for suspension in cases of "malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, or commission of a felony."

Among those strongly promoting the idea of cracking down on supervisors is Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, who pushed the 2011 law through the Senate. Diaz de la Portilla suggested that the current standard for removing a supervisor in the constitution didn’t give the governor enough room to suspend supervisors who haven’t done their job.

"The only circumstance shouldn’t be gross negligence, well, that’s the only time they can do anything," he said.

Instead, Diaz de la Portilla said supervisors should be required to closely coordinate their elections plans with the secretary of state and then be held to them -- "to have some kind of stick, if you will, to be able to enforce that."

Lawmakers are wary of infringing on the governor’s authority to suspend supervisors, who are constitutional officers, and might instead ponder whether the secretary of state should make a recommendation to the governor.

"So I think the only question would be whether there would be some sort of mechanism to do a critical report on them in some fashion," said Ethics and Elections Chairman Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, who didn’t take a position on the issue.

Latvala, who will take the lead in crafting an elections bill for the Senate, was noncommittal about whether new standards for supervisors would be part of the measure.

Even with the current system, Secretary of State Ken Detzner said, he almost did refer some cases to Gov. Rick Scott for possible suspension before ultimately deciding not to do so.

"Without pointing any fingers and without calling out names, I would say that there were situations, both in the general election and prior to that, that the administration of an election in a county came very, very, very close in my opinion to a decision to have somebody relieved of their duties," he said.

Any move to give the state more power over local elections chiefs is likely to be opposed by the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.

"I have an issue with an elected official being kind of mandated from an appointee in Tallahassee [about] how to do my job," said Pasco County Supervisor Brian Corley, legislative chairman of the association.

He told lawmakers that would be like giving the Florida Department of Law Enforcement the power to tell local sheriffs what to do. Corley also said there was already a check on supervisors.

"I think we’re accountable to the citizens of our county," he said.

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Carpet Countdown: Oscars Luncheon

In today's Carpet Countdown, ET's Nancy O'Dell sits down with the Oscar frontrunners (including Hugh Jackman, Quevenzhane Wallis, Bradley Cooper, Naomi Watts and Jennifer Lawrence) after the Motion Picture Academy's Nominees Luncheon.

PICS: Hot Looks of the Oscar Luncheon

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Car swiped in Bronx -- with baby in back seat

A 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee left idling outside a cell-phone store in The Bronx was swiped tonight — with an 8-month-old baby in the back seat, cops said.

Police are now frantically scouring the area for the silver Jeep, which has blue fog lights, tinted windows and the Pennsylvania license plate RR84L2.

The child’s dad had hopped out of the car — leaving it running with the mom and his baby daughter still inside — after pulling up to the store at Morris Avenue and East Knightsbridge Road around 6:18 p.m., authorities said.

The mom then got out for just a minute, she told cops — and the thief hopped in.

The crook then sped off. It's unclear if he knew there was a child inside.

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Report calls Florida business incentives “corporate welfare’’

TALLAHASSEE --
A government watchdog group and a conservative advocacy group blasted Florida’s government Tuesday for the hundreds of millions of dollars it gives to corporations, blaming the state’s public-private jobs agency for “pay-to-play” cronyism and “corporate welfare.”

A new report by Integrity Florida and Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity highlights several problems with the state’s economic incentives program, which gives tax breaks to companies that set up shop in Florida.

“We’re concerned about the appearance of pay-to-play,” said Dan Krassner, director of Integrity Florida, outlining a number of tax breaks that have gone to politically connected companies and other deals that have failed.

Enterprise Florida Inc. and Gov. Rick Scott, its chairman, immediately hit back, claiming that the organization has been instrumental in bringing high-paying jobs to the state. Enterprise Florida CEO Gray Swoope slammed the report as tainted because it was funded by Americans for Prosperity.

“Integrity Florida has claimed to be a non-partisan, non-profit organization with no policy agenda,” Swoope wrote. “However, a report on economic incentives for job creation funded by a group that so publicly opposes these incentives is deeply troubling.”

Martin Dyckman, a former St. Petersburg Times associate editor and a board member at Integrity Florida, resigned after finding out that the report was funded by Americans for Prosperity. He also said it was “deeply troubling” that AFP sponsored the report, stating that it created “the perception that a well-researched report is an attack by Americans for Prosperity.”

Integrity Florida brushed aside concerns about the funding of its report, saying all of its funders are publicly listed. On Tuesday, the good-governance group focused on the findings of the report during a news conference.

Among the findings:

• Enterprise Florida has failed to meet its job-creation objectives, with companies creating only 103,544 jobs after receiving tax breaks, far short of the 200,000 envisioned by the Legislature in 1992 when EFI was created.

• Enterprise Florida has failed to get 50 percent funding from the private sector, instead relying on 85 percent taxpayer funding to support the public-private partnership

• Enterprise Florida has “the appearance of pay-to-play,” since it receives an average of $50,000 from some of its corporate board members. Those board members also get private contracts to do work on EFI’s behalf as well as tax-break deals processed by EFI.

Slade O’Brien, Florida director of Americans for Prosperity, said Florida’s practice of doling out economic incentives amounts to government manipulation of the free marketplace.

“What’s wrong here is the policy that’s in place,” he said. “Too often, we create winners and losers.”

Several bills in the Florida House and Senate seek to demand more transparency from Enterprise Florida and the economic incentives program. A bill voted out of committee Thursday morning would make Enterprise Florida submit to a slew of new performance reviews moving forward.

Enterprise Florida responded to what it called “troubling accusations” in the report by sending legislative leaders a lengthy letter about the virtues of its operation.

“Through the legislation that you supported two short years ago, Florida now has a seamless economic development team focused on creating jobs for Florida families, increasing capital investment in our communities and providing a significant return on the investment made by the state’s taxpayers,” reads a letter signed by the company’s board.

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