Blog with Jose! Can't get enough of Jose's tidbits? Got something to say? Give your feedback in Jose's new web log (blog), and read what others are saying. Al's A-Team Carolyn Drake / The Post Today weatherman Al Roker chats with reporters before an appearance at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach to benefit the Seagull Industries for the Disabled. Here's one thing you may not know about Today weatherman Al Roker: The ring tone of his cellphone plays the theme of the old shoot-'em-up series The A-Team, which aired from 1983-87. "I feel pretty silly," Roker says, "but I was a big fan." Roker was in good spirits when Page Two caught up with him Thursday, considering he flew into PBIA at 3 a.m., then did live segments for Today from the beach by The Breakers. Roker was keynote speaker at the Seagull Industries for the Disabled fund-raising luncheon at the Kravis. Three years after his well-publicized bariatric surgery, in which his stomach was trimmed down to reduce his weight by 120 pounds, Roker says that keeping his now athletic figure is still a daily struggle. "I still love to eat," he says, "and my stomach naturally is getting larger. I'm now 210 pounds. That's 15 too many, but it's a work in progress." Send your tips to Jose

Palm Beach Gardens developer Joel Channing sure takes his chess seriously.

Channing, 64, is suing a former friend and chess partner in Palm Beach Circuit Court for slander and libel. Seems that the ex-bud, fellow PBG resident Dick Mesirov, 78, bad-mouthed Channing on a chess Internet newsgroup.

Mesirov's bad move? He called Channing a clumsy player and said Channing "doesn't study and in general has no interest in chess," according to the suit.

Mesirov, the suit claims, also is trying to derail Channing's campaign for member of the board of directors of the United States Chess Federation, one of the game's governing bodies. Channing is running like a politician, buying ads in chess magazines and calling voters.

"These elections can get pretty political," said Don Schultz, a Highland Beach resident who's a USCF past president. "The USCF has 90,000 members. The livelihood of some professional players is affected directly."

In one e-mail, Mesirov allegedly wrote to another player: "Do whatever you can to spread the word that Joel Channing should not be elected. He has a terrible reputation personally and in business."

In another e-mail, Mesirov claims he witnessed Channing's wife, Susan, returning $4,000 of merchandise to a department store after she had used the items.

"I'm very sensitive about my reputation and my wife's," said Channing, a member of the PBG Planning Board who also was involved in the redevelopment of downtown Stuart. He is asking the court for damages "in excess of $15,000."

"The suit isn't about money. It's about settling a dispute in a civilized way." Mesirov declined to comment.

MGM's Origin on the Island

Palm Beachers like to believe that just about anything has a Palm Beach angle.

When it comes to the founding of American entertainment titan Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, they're actually right.

In his new biography, Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis. B. Mayer, Palm Beach Post books editor Scott Eyman reveals that the seeds of MGM were planted on The Island.

In January of 1924, Eyman tells me, New York movie-theater pioneer Marcus Loew was vacationing in Palm Beach when he was approached by fellow New Yorker Joe Godsol, who was also resting here.

So happens that Godsol was running Goldwyn. And Loew also owned Metro, a near-bankrupt studio that couldn't keep up with his theaters' demand. Neither studio was big time.

Together, however, they could be. They signed a deal before the end of their vacations, then brought in a third partner from the Left Coast. That was Louis B. Mayer, the tail end of MGM. In time, the studio produced more than 800 huge flicks.

Lion also dishes the historic dirt. Mayer, says Eyman, found wives for closeted gay thespians like Van Johnson. He temporarily exiled his biggest box-office draw, Clark Gable, to rival Columbia — at the time, a huge dis — because Gable had broken up Joan Crawford's marriage to Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

The very-married Mayer himself indulged in a little side action. Some women he auditioned ended up on his couch, including then-budding star Ann Miller.

Eyman also writes about some of the things Mayer never knew, including the pot-smoking den that staffers from The Wizard of Oz ran on the MGM lot. The book comes out May 1.

Seen & Heard

. . . Two of the area's richest men turned 50 recently, and both treated themselves to some parties. Insurance big Craig Lindner always wanted to meet singer Lionel Richie. Bingo! Wellington resident Lindner and 200 of his closest friends, who were flown in on a private jet, were treated to a pals-only Richie concert at The Harriet in CityPlace March 18. Lindner can afford it. As VP for American Financial insurance, Lindner makes $2.2 million a year, according to SEC filings. On The Island a couple of weeks earlier, Tom Quick — as in Quick & Reilly financial services — bought himself a Donna Summer concert at the Everglades Club. One old-timer said the stuffy joint had never boogied like it did that Summer night . . . Changes may be coming at Sunny 104.3's morning show. I'm told that station officials have been talking to Little Rock, Ark., morning jock Scott Thrower about jumping ship. Thrower isn't returning calls, and station boss Lee Strasser says he's never heard of him. Yet, with hosts Rachele Scholes and Rick Shockley stuck in fourth place by some audience measurements, sources in the biz tell me Sunny (WEAT-FM) secretly is trying to lure Thrower . . .