Limo

CHECK IT OUT. At Florence Township High School in Burlington County, class president Lou Folmer (center) and three fellow seniors arrive in style for the first day of classes. Folmer, 17, instigated the excellent adventure yesterday because he isn't going to college and wanted to celebrate "my last first day of school. " For the limo, he wore coat, tie and high-tops.

Three starters for the Miami Hurricanes took a limousine ride the night before the NCAA announced sanctions against the school, and police are investigating a sports agent's role in the matter. The limo was ordered through the office of Jim Ferraro, a Miami-based attorney, agent and university booster. If the NCAA determines Ferraro paid for the limo, the players - running back Danyell Ferguson and wide receivers Jammi German and Yatil Green - would be declared ineligible.

The burden of proving Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and two friends guilty of murdering two men appeared to become more difficult yesterday when the state's first witness testified that all the assailants fled in the opposite direction of Lewis' limousine. Melissa Keeler said she watched from her bedroom window and called 911 as Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker were savagely beaten in the early morning of Jan. 31 following the Super Bowl in Atlanta. But she could not identify any of the half-dozen or so attackers.

It is a rare gray day in LA, made even grayer by the tint of the limo windows. Eric Lindros, 19, a rookie superstar still learning how to be famous, is excited. He has never been here before. He wants to see everything. The limo is his, at least for the morning. It fetched him from the LA Airport Marriott for a taping session with ESPN's Roy Firestone, in a smallish, drab studio at Afton and Vine, in Hollywood, across the street from a vegetarian fast food restaurant. On the way over, the limo stops at a light, next to a big, new Mercedes.

When Dasha Yermakova drives her black Land Rover LR3, it is equal parts office, lounge, and entertainment center: It offers hands-free calling and texting; plug-in capability for her children's iPhones, iPods, and iPads; and a navigation system the family named James. (Says Yermakova: "There's something very refined about that voice asking, 'Where are we going today?' with that proper British accent. ") If parents are superheroes, consider their cars Bat headquarters. Sure, Mom always has been somewhat of a limo driver - racing from soccer practice to Sweet Sixteens, play rehearsal to play dates.

ROBERT PATTINSON is moving on. At least moviewise. He uses "Cosmopolis" to obliterate his "Twilight" persona, that of the chaste, PG suitor who sublimates physical desire and, for the sake of love, waits until marriage (before turning his wife into a vampire). In the deeply R-rated "Cosmopolis," he's Ed Packer, a hedge-fund guy and a predatory philanderer who pesters his wife for sex, and, getting nowhere on that front, proceeds to engage women in the back seat of his limo, in full view of his security detail, one of whom he also beds.

A West Point cadet has filed suit against Patti LaBelle claiming the R&B singer commanded her body guards to viciously beat him at an airport in Texas. The incident, captured on surveillance video, was posted to YouTube yesterday and shows a violent altercation followed by police posing for pictures with the Philadelphia soul singer. A publicist for LaBelle could not immediately be reached for comment. Richard C. King, 23, a senior at the U.S. Military Academy, was on Spring Break on March 11 when he flew home to Houston.

Florence Inhoffer of Leisuretowne sits in her living room with her prayer rug and tiara and recalls over and over her 91st birthday party in December. "It was unbelievable," she said. No doubt about it. It was a corker. First, there were the three days at Bally's Park Place Casino Hotel. (OK, so a lot of folks go to casinos for three days, and more.) Then, there were the two limo rides. (Big deal. Casinos are free with their limos - if you throw a little business their way.)

QUOTE "Stay away from shrinks. You don't have anything that can't be cured with a little Prozac and a polo mallet. " - Woody Allen, in his upcoming "New York Murder Mystery" ADVENTURE OF THE RICH & FAMOUS As you sit in your stultifying urban heat and shake your head over how a simple mother-daughter outing to see fireworks from Belmont Plateau can end with stray gunfire, consider this: Gun-wielding bandits stopped a limo carrying...

One day after missing a practice he had not been excused from, Tim Thomas was cool and calm and collected a fine upon returning to the 76ers yesterday. Thomas, who was in New York City over the weekend for All-Star Game festivities - he played Saturday in the rookie game - practiced for two hours yesterday, then apologized for failing to return home for Monday's practice. "It all boils down to I just missed practice. It was stupid," said Thomas, who was fined an unreported amount that could be as high as $1,000 under the collective-bargaining agreement.