A second life for ‘Act’?

Michael Riedel

BROADWAY MATINEE

The most enjoyable evening I've spent in the theater recently was at the Encores! production of "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road," which wrapped up a brief run at City Center last weekend.

I didn't know this 1978 show at all, but the score, by lyricist Gretchen Cryer and composer Nancy Ford, was terrific, especially the ballads. My new favorite song is "Old Friend," which Renée Elise Goldsberry sang with touching simplicity. Not a single person stirred during the song — though several women were weeping at the end. And then there was sustained, thunderous applause.

Joan Marcus

Renée Elise Goldsberry (right, with Christina Sajous) is surely a star.

That Goldsberry isn't yet a star is mystifying. But mark my words: She will be.

Before I get too carried away, let me deliver the news: "Act" will likely have a life after Encores! Producer Erin Craig, who runs La Vie Productions, has the rights and will soon be meeting with Kathleen Marshall, who directed the show, to figure out what to do next.

There's talk of Broadway, of course, but "Act" is an intimate show and would probably fare better off-Broadway, maybe in a nightclub. (The show is set in one.)

A hiccup might be Charles Isherwood's cool review in the Times. But my good friend Charles is an austere hipster, and this show is for middle-aged, liberated and open-hearted feminists such as myself.

The Post's Elisabeth Vincentelli called it "a heartfelt celebration of woman's liberation."

And there is no doubt this show, about a singer-songwriter trying to make a comeback on her own terms, resonates with women of a certain age — who, incidentally, buy the vast majority of theater tickets.

An "old friend" of mine, who saw the show, wrote: "I loved it . . . I memorized every word [of the original cast album], as many teenage girls in 1978 did. 'Old Friend' makes me cry every time. Most songs in the score do."

Rare is the musical today that moves people like that.

A transfer in the fall will be in Marshall's capable hands, and I trust she'll keep Goldsberry and the rest of the excellent cast — including Frederick Weller — together.

I'll be at the opening night with Charles. I'm going to hypnotize him with my lava lamp so that he gives it a good review.

While "I'm Getting My Act Together" is for ladies in a wistful state of mind, "Magic Mike" is for girls who just want to have fun.

The popular movie about male strippers is being adapted as a Broadway musical, Channing Tatum, who starred in it, confirmed on Twitter yesterday.

Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, who wrote "Next to Normal," are doing the songs, and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who attempted to fix "Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark," is writing the script.

A director has yet to beannounced.

But what all the women in my office want to know is: Will Channing Tatum be in it?

Not a chance.

He's a major movie star, and major movie stars seldom appear in Broadway musicals.

To return its investment, a musical that is star-dependent requires, at the very least, a commitment of at least a year from the star.

"Do you have any idea how much money Channing Tatum would be giving up if he spent a year on Broadway?" a veteran agent points out.

So, girls, if and when "Magic Mike" does arrive on Broadway, you'll have to content yourselves with Jeremy Jordan ("Newsies") or Andy Karl ("Legally Blond") or, perhaps, Sebastian Stan and his chest ("Picnic") — or any one of Broadway's reigning hunks.

I wonder if Nathan Lane is available.

michael.riedel@nypost.com

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Take off, Gipper!

THEATER REVIEW

I FORGIVE YOU, RONALD REAGAN
Beckett Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St.; 212-239-6200. Through Aug. 25. Running time: 120 minutes, one intermission.

In 1981, President Reagan famously fired some 11,000 air traffic controllers after they went on strike in defiance of their contract.

Now, "I Forgive You, Ronald Reagan" is doing to hapless theatergoers what Reagan did to those rebellious federal employees, screwing them for at least two hours.

John S. Anastasi's drama concerns one of those men whose life was destroyed when he lost his vocation. It begins that fateful August, when the fired-up Ray (PJ Benjamin) is confident that the strikers will bring Reagan to his knees.

"Air traffic can't happen without us," he tells his dubious colleague Buzz (Robert Emmet Lunney). "Who are you gonna believe — the best lawyers in the country or a B-actor who took second billing to a monkey?"

Carol Rosegg

Patricia Richardson and PJ Benjamin: Try to forgive them.

Flash-forward 23 years, when Ray — now a construction worker — is still bitter over the fact that Buzz was among the many who broke the strike and returned to work. Ray also suspects him of carrying on with his wife, Jane (Patricia Richardson, of TV's "Home Improvement").

And so, when Ray's 26-year-old daughter (Danielle Faitelson) reveals she's been dating Buzz's son, it spurs strife of Montague- versus-Capulet proportions. Meanwhile, Ray retreats to the attic, where he enacts air traffic control fantasies. In case we haven't realized just how emotionally disturbed he is, he does it in front of a defaced poster of Reagan.

The play tries — and fails — to blend family drama with Arthur Miller-style social commentary. Under Charles Abbott's ineffective direction, the actors are unable to make the ham-fisted dialogue even remotely convincing.

A news clip shown during the play has New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie saying that Reagan's decision was what he admired most about the late president. But even if the former president can be forgiven, it's just about impossible to excuse a play this woefully inept.

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New Yorkers cash in on the Cronut craze

Dominique Ansel isn't the only one reaping the benefits of the city's Cronut mania. Some enterprising neighbors to Ansel's bakery are working to cash-in.

Joey Goodwin, 28, lives across the street from the Soho bakery. He's also the founder, along with business partner John Gagliano, of Good Days Marketing, a mobile marketing company that promotes its clients, which have included Focus Features and New Balance, with an advertising-wrapped truck that drives and parks around the city.

On a recent morning, one of their trucks sat parked on Spring Street next to the Cronut line with a sign reading "CATCH THE CRONUT CRAZE ADVERTISE ON THIS TRUCK." Goodwin says the truck, and the Cronut line location, will soon be used in promotions for Poland Spring water and an Anthony Weiner's Weiner truck.

Anne Wermiel/NY Post

Joey Goodwin (left) and John Galliano of Good Days Marketing sell advertising space on their truck in front of the Cronut line.

Anne Wermiel/NY Post

This small, sweet treat has defined summer in the city.

He says he's also working to get permits to sell advertisement on wallspace near the bakery and is in talks with both Crunch and Seamless for the space.

"The [Cronut line] audience is great, it's comprised of two demographics — transients tourists ... and young professionals who work in marketing or finance," says Goodwin. "Both of those audiences have money, spend money and are looking to buy into a product."

Goodwin says he's also the one who encouraged two neighborhood homeless men, Joe and Danny Bird, to scalp Cronuts — much to Ansel's chagrin. The two men have since been banned from buying Cronuts, so now they get the first seats in line each morning and sell the prime slots.

"I've passed on some marketing savvy to them, now they provide the first person with a seat and a bottle of water for $30," Goodwin boasts.

This past Friday morning, those waiting in line were none too happy with the fact that a couple of people had paid their way to the front, but the muscular middle-aged man at the front of the line, who bruskly refused to give his name or any identifying details, wasn't apologetic. "My is time is very valuable," he said.

Meanwhile, Ansel and his team have decided to exploit the Cronut's popularity in a less cynical manner. Starting tomorrow, they'll be selling t-shirts online, with proceeds benefitting Food Bank For New York City.

The shirts read "Crolanthropy — Making the world better, one Cronut™ at a time." Customers wearing them will be able to buy four Cronuts at a time, instead of being limited to the usual two.

Helping the hungry is a cause that is close to Ansel's heart.

"I grew up in a very poor family with three other siblings. I remember counting coins from my mom for just a piece of bread," he says. "Hunger is a problem I have experienced myself."

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Domestic sex goddess

Sheila Kelley remembers the day she got Martha Stewart to twirl around a stripper pole.

It was in 2010 and Kelley was on "The Martha Stewart Show" to show off moves from her pole dance workout class, S Factor.

"Martha came into the green room before the segment, and I could tell she was a little nervous," recalls Kelley. "She said, 'I'm not going to do the pole and I'm not going to do the movement . . . I do yoga. This is not the thing I do.' "

"I took that as a challenge," says Kelley, who had met Stewart once before and found her to be "stern and contained."

WireImage

WILD LIVING: Martha's recent string of headline-grabbing antics is shaking up her image.

Once the cameras started rolling, Kelley convinced the domestic diva to join in.

Uneasy at first, Stewart slowly began to swirl her hips.

"Her face started to flush, and she started to giggle, and I saw a young, girlish, sexy, erotic creature," says Kelley. "Once she gave in and kind of let the floodgates open, oh my God, I thought she was really hot and sexy. She really let herself go."

That was only the beginning.

Stewart, who turns 72 on Saturday, is no longer the stiff-upper-lipped doyenne famous for tasteful tablescapes, perfect chicken recipes and a bit of jail time back in the early aughts. As she settles into her golden years, she's letting her hair down, publicly boasting about threesomes, her talent for rolling joints and her cavalier attitude toward men: "I miss the yacht. I don't miss the guy," Stewart cooed about a former flame a few weeks ago on "The Late Show With David Letterman."

Stewart's empire may be shrinking — yesterday, it was reported Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia's second-quarter revenue fell 12 percent — but her "cool" cred is growing, thanks to her online dating antics and friendship with "Gossip Girl" alum Blake Lively, who lives near the lifestyle queen in tony Bedford, NY.

Earlier this month, she even teased fans when she tweeted: "Yeah. I am driving at 60mph, talking on my phone and tweeting at the same time!!! Its fun!!! Think I am really???????"

Friends say it's the Martha they've always known. And it's about time the public sees this side of her.

"It's the one thing I even said to Martha: 'I wish the public got to know you like we all know you,' " says East Hampton friend and neighbor Harry Slatkin, the so-called "king" of home fragrance.

"But people haven't. They think of Martha as a bit cold and pulled back. But Martha isn't that at all. She's hilariously funny."

"I HAVE A REALLY SUPERB SENSE OF HUMOR," Stewart agrees, in an all-capital-letter e-mail to The Post. "I LOVE TO LAUGH, I LOVE FUNNY STORIES, I LOVE COMEDY."

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Sleepy in Smurf-ville

MOVIE REVIEW

The Smurfs 2
Smurf this. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG (mild crude humor and action). At the E-Walk, the Kips Bay, the 34th Street, others.

In the '80s, I hated Ronald Reagan, Bob Dylan and the Smurfs. It's comforting to know I got one thing right.

It's not often that a film deposits you back into childhood (OK, surly teen years), but "The Smurfs 2" refreshed all my uncomprehending youthful outrage that any network would air such sweet, simpering rubbish in a world that contained my satiric idol, Bugs Bunny.

Carrying on with the legacy of inanity, "The Smurfs 2" stumbles from one dumb pratfall to the next as evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria), who has a gig as a magician in Paris, plots to use Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry) to steal from the little dolls their goodness-supplying "Smurf essence" and turn them into colorless trolls called Naughties, a k a Frankensmurfs.

Lame jokes and puerile cuteness doom this silly sequel, which takes the Smurfs to Paris.

Except the Naughties aren't that naughty, Gargamel is bumbling instead of scary — one toddler burst into screams at the screening I attended, though probably because he'd have preferred a nice nap — and the movie mainly consists of one set piece after another of harmless, wit-free mischief such as trashing a sweet shop, soaring around the gargoyles of Notre Dame or falling off the Eiffel Tower. How to substitute in "Smurf" for one syllable of any word is the major challenge facing the five screenwriters. There's "total Smurfageddon!" and "complete Smurftastrophe!" and "Smurfnapped by the ghastly Gargamel!"

Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays are back as Patrick and Grace, a couple of New Yorkers whose apartment the Smurfs stumbled into in the first film (they named their son Blue in homage). This time, Patrick has some mild daddy issues with his ebullient stepfather, Victor (Brendan Gleeson), who shows up unexpectedly and insists everyone join the Smurfs in battling Gargamel in Paris.

DMV-level boredom reigns throughout as Smurfette, sucked through a portal into a fountain in Paris, frolics around town with her supposed enemies the Naughties, Azaria mugs and Harris mostly looks as engaged as if he's waiting for a bus.

Occasionally, there's a contemporary or grown-up reference to freshen up this moldy blue cheese — one of the little critters is referred to as "Passive-Aggressive Smurf," and Gargamel randomly offers a nutty review of an iPad-like tablet: "I'm enamored of this swiping motion!"

But equally often the attempts at nightclub repartee are embarrassing: When a talking duck proclaims he's "free at last," Harris says, "What are you, Martin Luther Wing?" It's depressing to think that 5-year-olds are going to remember this movie as their first acquaintance with the phrase "Free at last."

With names like Grouchy and Clumsy, the Smurfs are essentially Shrinky Dink-ed Seven Dwarfs run through a Windex bath and injected with the lame blandness of their native Belgium, where they were unleashed on the world in 1958. They're as lethally uninteresting as Barney the Purple Dinosaur, though a Godzilla-style "Barney vs. Smurfs" is a movie I would pay to see, provided maximum destruction were promised. No matter which side loses that one, I win.

kyle.smith@nypost.com

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Flagging at ground zero

Here we go again: The folks running the 9/11 Memorial Museum are trying to downplay America's patriotism and resilience after the 2001 terrorist attack — much as officials did a decade ago at another facility planned for the site.

According to a new report, officials tried to nix the famous photo of three firemen raising the stars and stripes over the rubble at Ground Zero.

Why? It was too "rah-rah America."

As first reported in The Post, a new book quotes the museum's creative director as saying he preferred material that was not "so vigilantly" and "vehemently" American. In the end, the chief curator suggested including three others of the same event so as to "undercut the myth of 'one iconic moment'" that the firemen photo represents.

AP

The iconic photo

They still don't get it. To the terrorists, the Twin Towers symbolized America, its freedoms and triumphs. To the victims and survivors, it heralded our resilience.

But this isn't the first time Ground Zero planners succumbed to lefty political correctness: The International Freedom Center, recall, was booted from Ground Zero after a Post campaign decried efforts to put the attacks in a "broader context" — by fomenting a potentially anti-US debate on "the meaning of freedom."

Now, the 9/11 museum's director tells The Post he's concerned that a "too simple" image like the firefighter photo would "distort the complexity of the event."

Let's be blunt: No complexity can overshadow the simple fact that America was attacked by people motivated by their extremist ideology and their hatred of everything this nation stands for.

Sometimes it really is all about symbols. Too bad the folks at the Ground Zero museum don't seem to understand that.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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A fracking anniversary

Five years ago last week, then-Gov. David Paterson, citing environmental concerns, temporarily banned large-scale fracking, the natural-gas extraction process that can spur thousands of jobs for New York. Today, alas, there's no sign the state will lift the ban anytime soon — despite a lack of evidence that fracking is unsafe.

Indeed, fracking's foes have used the time since the start of the ban to step up efforts to outlaw it permanently. Their latest offensive: demanding that Gov. Cuomo's anti-corruption Moreland Commission probe political donations by fracking proponents.

AP

David Paterson

The critics cite a study by Common Cause showing that since 2007 a total of 183 groups and entities that support fracking have donated a combined $14 million to legislators and political parties.

It's misleading, to say the least. As the pro-fracking Independent Oil and Gas Association notes, the group "cherry-picked data to fit an anti-drilling narrative," by including companies with other lobbying interests and only remote ties to fracking.

The irony is that Common Cause's own national parent group has itself gotten significant donations from the Park Foundation, a well-known opponent of fracking. At the same time, foes are brimming with resources and enjoy mega celebrity support. And Cuomo's repeated extensions of the ban have given the critics plenty of time to gear up — and gain the upper hand.

Cuomo could end the charade and gin up jobs almost in a heartbeat. But he's more interested in the political points he gets by appeasing enviros than boosting the economy.

Hmm. Now that might make a good case for the Moreland Commission.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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A danger to New York

Anthony Weiner is waging a scorched-earth strategy: He might lose the mayoral race, but he'll make the city suffer in the meantime.

What else to make of his defiant refusal to bow out of the race in the face of growing calls for him to do so and vanishing voter support?

Weiner, it seems, shares the same hubris that's got the state's hooker-tarnished ex-governor, Eliot Spitzer, vying for comptroller: Neither cares a whit about how his candidacy makes the city a laughingstock.

Yesterday, a Quinnipiac University poll showed Weiner nose-diving to fourth place in the primary, with just 16 percent support. It also shows likely primary voters want him out by a 53-40 margin.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Elliot Spitzer

Meanwhile, David Axelrod, an adviser to Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, insists Weiner "go away." Reports suggest Clinton and his wife, Hillary, want Weiner to end his bid. And even his campaign manager, Danny Kedem, quit.

None of this fazes Carlos Danger: "You're stuck with me," Weiner told New Yorkers in a weekend interview.

Why such obstinance? Put it this way: It's not because Weiner thinks New York is doomed without him.

No, what Anthony Weiner cares about most is what he sees when he looks at his selfies — that is, Anthony Weiner.

It's the same kind of motivation behind Spitzer's desperate bid for comptroller — in which he's actually vowing to drive away core city businesses if elected.

Most cynical is Client 9's claim in a recent ad that he's running to make it up to New Yorkers for his call-girl scandal — even if they never asked him to.

If Weiner or Spitzer want to atone, surely there's no shortage of charitable causes for them to take up. Their first good step would be to end their campaigns — and then quietly slink away from the public eye.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Saks sold to owner of L&T

Saks Fifth Avenue has a new corporate parent — and will be sharing it with a couple of famous retail siblings.

The swanky luxury chain has struck a deal to be acquired by Hudson's Bay, the Canadian department-store chain that owns Lord & Taylor, sources told The Post.

The deal, first reported late yesterday on nypost.com, is expected to be announced as soon as today.

"It's a done deal — Baker has won his prize," said one source briefed on the negotiations, referring to Hudson's Bay chairman Richard Baker, a savvy New York real-estate tycoon said to have coveted Saks even before scooping up Lord & Taylor in 2006.

The agreement appears to have won the blessing of Saks' two largest shareholders, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and Italian luxury magnate Diego Della Valle, who together own 30 percent of the company.

Saks Chairman and CEO Steve Sadove, who has won praise for slashing debt and closing laggard stores, is expected to leave the company.

Baker, who has been in talks with Saks execs for weeks on combining operations, plans to make better use of the companies' combined real estate by converting some Saks locations to Lord & Taylor, sources said.

Likewise, Baker is particularly keen to introduce Saks Fifth Avenue into Canada, according to insiders. That's partly because Baker is concerned about Nordstrom's plans to enter the Canadian market.

Baker has taken The Bay, his company's namesake chain, upscale during the past few years. Nevertheless, sources said Baker sees room for more Canadian outlets that cater to luxury shoppers.

While the price of the deal couldn't be learned, insiders speculated the chain fetched between $17 and $18 a share, although Hudson's Bay was said earlier to have offered between $15 and $16 a share.

Saks shares on Friday added 13 cents to close at $15.31.

Spokespersons for Saks and Hudson's Bay declined to comment yesterday. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs, which was hired by Saks this spring to sell the company, declined to comment.

As reported Friday by The Post, real-estate mogul Barry Sternlicht dropped out of the race for Saks after his bidding partner, the buyout firm Catterton Partners, bowed out.

Saks had also recently attracted a third bidder, believed to be a Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth fund, possibly from Qatar.

jcovert@nyppost.com

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Royal ‘Queen’ slam

Best-selling novelist Philippa Gregory — whose book, "The White Queen" premieres as a Starz miniseries Aug. 4 — is not impressed with the royal baby, Prince George.

"I know this is awful news. It's terrible. It's like blasphemy," Gregory told reporters at the annual TV Critics meeting in LA. "I couldn't care less. Except, of course because I want to get home I'm very glad they had a baby.

" I'm very glad they had a good birth. I'm very glad it's all right," she said. "And I'm extremely glad for its sake that it's a boy, because it's going to have a terrible life. And if it had been a girl, it would have been a nightmare."

Reporters erupted into nervous laughter at Gregory's remarks.

She's written 25 historical novels about the backstabbing ways of the British monarchy — putting the royal birth into historical perspective.

"In terms of the importance of having a boy, yes, the rule was in England in the medieval period that a woman could not inherit the throne," she said. "Which is why the first queen on the throne married a Tudor.

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Bloomberg moves Lack, taps Smith

Andy Lack is getting kicked upstairs at Bloomberg.

The financial news-and-data firm has replaced Lack, CEO of its media division for the past five years, with Atlantic Media President Justin Smith, according to reports.

Lack has been named chairman of Bloomberg Media Group, while Smith is now CEO.

Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler — who lately got smacked in a scandal over the firm's reporters spying on its clients, as first reported by The Post — appears to have survived the tumult thus far.

Smith has aggressively developed the Atlantic's website since arriving at the stodgy magazine in 2007.

At Bloomberg, Smith will be tasked with overcoming the firm's pointy-headed, data-driven corporate culture.

"We know that every part of media is being disrupted by technology, and we need someone who understands that," Bloomberg CEO Daniel Doctoroff told the New York Times.

"Justin can drive things forward here because he has an incredibly digital sensibility with a unique understanding of the confluence of journalism and multiple platforms."

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Chill factor

Most popular songs

1. Blurred Lines, Robin Thicke

2. We Can't Stop, Miley Cyrus

3. Radioactive, Imagine Dragons

4. Holy Grail, Jay Z

5. Get Lucky, Daft Punk

6. Cups, Anna Kendrick

7. Same Love, Macklemore + Ryan Lewis

8. Can't Hold Us, Macklemore + Ryan Lewis

9. Treasure, Bruno Mars

10. Come & Get It, Selena Gomez

Tivo favorites

1. Under the Dome

2. Big Brother, Sun.

3. NBC Nightly News, Mon.

4. NBC Nightly News, Tues.

5. The Bachelorette

Top video downloads

1. Anna Hendrick-David Letterman

2. Watergun bumper hack

3. SNL actors break character

4. Jimmy Fallon baby monologue

Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Selena Gomez

Jeff Daly/Invision/AP

Miley Cyrus

5. US airman does crazy dunk

Google trends

1. Johnny Manziel

2. Kidd Kraddick

3. JJ Cale

4. Alfonso Soriano

5. Ariel Castro

NY Post hot topics

1. Miley Cyrus gets naked

2. Porn star bares all on LiLo

3. A-Rod ban looms

4. $53M Cannes jewel heist

5. Jeter returns to lineup

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It’s Tonya vs. Nancy again

Get ready for dueling Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan documentaries to mark the 20th anniversary of "The Whack Heard 'Round the World."

But the ESPN and NBC takes on the infamous Harding-Kerrigan ice-skating rivalry will be told from different points of view.

ESPN's doc, "Tonya and Nancy" — to air in November — will include an interview with Harding, but not Kerrigan.

NBC's documentary, narrated by Mary Carillo, will air in February during its coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and will include interviews with both skaters, according to the network. The women are not expected to appear on-camera together.

ICY RELATIONS: Skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding (above) will be the subjects of rival TV documentaries.

Nancy Kerrigan

Both docs will cover the headline-grabbing incident in January 1994 when Kerrigan, the favorite going into the Winter Olympics that year in Lillehammer, Norway, was clubbed in the knee with a police baton at a Detroit ice rink.

Video of Kerrigan crumpling to the ground, sobbing, "Why? Why? Why?!" was seen around the world — and the troubled, hardscrabble Harding was immediately suspected of being involved in the attack.

It was later revealed that Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, had hired a pal to whack Kerrigan's knee, hoping to knock her out of the Olympics.

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Waitress $erved self: suit

Eggs and bacon, please — with a side of bribes and kickbacks.

The owners of the Cosmic Diner in Midtown say a longtime waitress, Judith Mejia, reduced customers' tabs in exchange for cash.

Mejia's self-serving cost them at least $75,000 over the years, says a lawsuit the owners filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week.

Mejia "fraudulently and secretly reduced the amount of the check" and then "demanded, received and retained from the customers . . . bribes and kickbacks," says the suit, which includes four allegedly altered checks.

Mejia, who is still working at the diner at Eighth Avenue and West 52nd Street, denied the allegations.

JUDITH MEJIA Allegedly cut tabs for bribes.

"How am I going to do something like that?" she asked.

Mejia claims the suit is retaliation for discrimination complaints that she and two other workers have made against their employer.

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An itsy ‘bitesy’ teeny Sharkini

Survive the Sharknado — and look good doing it!

A cutting-edge San Francisco designer is taking the beach — and TV's annual Shark Week — by storm with the campy-cool "Sharkini."

"It's a design with a sense of humor. It's ridiculous but also kind of endearing," Aby Rulloda, 29, who not only designed the swimsuit but is modeling it here, told The Post.

Rulloda said she has sold 150 of the $100 swimsuits in the past two weeks.

"They've spread like wildfire," she said, admitting to one drawback.

"There's absolutely no preventing a funky tan line," she lamented.

Douglas Zimmerman

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‘Mini’ Hillary in TV reel life

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — NBC says it's planning a four-hour miniseries about Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The project, titled "Hillary," will star Diane Lane, the network announced yesterday at a session of the Television Critics Association. The role of former President Bill Clinton has yet to be cast, NBC said.

The miniseries will recount the life and career of the former first lady from 1998 to the present.

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65 dead in Cairo rioting

At least 65 people were killed in Cairo yesterday when supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi clashed with security forces and armed men.

Tear-gas canisters, bird shot and live rounds were fired at the crowds, witnesses said, in the deadliest bout of violence since the military ousted Morsi on July 3.

"There were snipers on rooftops, I could hear the bullets whizzing by me," said Ahmed el Nashar, 34. "Man, people were just dropping."

"They are not shooting to wound, they are shooting to kill," Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad, said. "The bullet wounds are in the head and chest."

Authorities say the violence erupted when pro-Morsi demonstrators tried to expand their sit-in camp onto a main street and were confronted by cops and armed civilians.

Ahmed Aref, another Brotherhood spokesman, said the death toll was almost double the military's estimates and added that 61 people on life support were declared "brain dead."

On Friday, nine people were killed in clashes in Alexandria — putting the death toll at 74 in two days. The clashes came after the country's army chief asked the public to support a mass crackdown on "terrorism."

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The gift of graft

Political corruption in Albany takes many forms. The most noxious is the kind that goes around the law.

Take Dov Hikind. Crain's New York Business reports the Brooklyn assemblyman has set up an advertising company that, among other clients, collects $65,000 a year from Maimonides Medical Center — which Hikind then regularly plugs on his radio show and in his official newsletters.

Two problems here: First, Hikind is taking money from an institution that regularly lobbies him and other legislators for cash. Indeed, some 80 percent of Maimonides' government grants come from the state Health Department.

Dov Hikind

Second, Hikind has never reported a penny of this outside income, as is required. Only after being questioned by Crain's did he suddenly file amended disclosure forms dating back to 2006.

Maimonides, incidentally, appointed Hikind's relatively inexperienced son-in-law as its director of medical education for gastroenterology.

Hikind, of course, is no stranger to the "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" Albany game. It's also been disclosed that he arranged jobs for his two sons with other Brooklyn Assembly members at nominal salaries, allowing them to receive taxpayer-funded health care.

Winks, nods, accommodations and favors — that's the way Albany does business. And it is arguably even more corrosive than the kind that lands people behind bars.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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The good Weiner

It appears the national pastime has higher standards than our local politics.

Like our race for mayor, Major League Baseball has a man named Weiner. This is Michael Weiner, who runs the players union. But unlike our sexting mayoral candidate, this Weiner is about raising standards, not lowering them.

The issue is steroids, which have made a mockery of home-run records and raised an asterisk over the entire sport. This week, the hammer came down on Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun — the 2011 National League Most Valuable Player. And it appears something similar will soon hit New York when we learn the fate of the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez.

AP

Michael Weiner

Braun's punishment is telling. He's been suspended for the remainder of the season — 65 games in total — for his involvement with the Miami Biogenesis lab that's ground zero of the latest performance-enhancing-drug scandal. After contesting results that showed him testing positive for banned substances last year and accusing others of railroading, it turned out that Braun was indeed guilty.

The tough sentence handed down indicates that even star power will not protect players who use PEDs. But it probably wouldn't have happened without a change in the attitude of the players union. For years, the union resisted serious testing for its members.

That's where the honest Weiner comes in. Recently, he said the union has no interest in having players on the field who cheat. It's a recognition of two things that had been lacking: that players have a vital stake in the integrity of the sport that pays their salaries and that a union for players ought to protect the honest ones over the cheats.

The latter would appear to include A-Rod. Multiple reports suggest that baseball's investigators have even more evidence against him than they did against Braun. Not only did he use, but he's also alleged to have encouraged others to cover it up.

It doesn't look good for A-Rod. Some say he may even be facing a lifetime ban. As we look at the farce two sexcapading candidates have made of this year's city races, maybe New York's political leaders could learn a thing or two from baseball.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Executive producer for Showtime's 'Ray Donovan' pleads guilty for role in high-stakes sports betting business

A Hollywood producer has pleaded guilty in New York for his role in a high-stakes sports betting business run by an organized-crime enterprise.

Bryan Zuriff is executive producer of the Showtime series "Ray Donovan."

He pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to accepting a financial instrument in connection with unlawful Internet gambling.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced the plea today, saying Zuriff operated an illegal gambling enterprise in Los Angeles and helped run one in New York.

Zuriff faces five years in prison when sentenced in November. He's agreed to forfeit $500,000. His lawyer hasn't returned a message seeking comment.

Authorities in April indicted 34 people accused of being part of a scheme by two Russian-American organized-crime enterprises. They say the enterprises laundered $100 million from illegal gambling including poker games attended by celebrities and pro athletes.

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This week with Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg may be on his way out. But this week his better angels were at work, and we do well to pay attention. Here are just a few highlights:

* The irresponsibility of Eliot Spitzer. In reaction to a campaign based on putting a bullseye on Wall Street, the mayor pointed out the obvious: It's not helpful to have a candidate targeting for political purposes our leading industry, one whose taxes effectively pay for our cops and firefighters.

* Retroactive pay raises for city workers. Unions representing the city's 300,000 government workers are demanding $7.8 billion in retroactive raises. Bloomberg says "reasonable" raises going forward are fine, but the next mayor must not be bullied into giving in to demands that would hurt our economy and possibly double our already sky-high income taxes.

AP

Mayor Bloomberg

* Crime. Though successful policing has brought crime to record lows, the City Council has passed two bills that threaten our safety — one mandating an inspector general to second-guess police, the other opening cops to more lawsuits. Bloomberg vetoed both this week. Even if overridden, he's at least forcing accountability.

* Immigration. Yesterday, the mayor again spoke about how much the city's economy depends on immigrants — who run, for example, nearly half our small businesses and make up half our doctors and surgeons. So while all America will benefit from immigration reform, New York stands to benefit most.

The mayor's wisdom suggests that one of his greatest contributions to New York could be ensuring that the candidates hoping to succeed him aren't allowed to ignore the vital issues he's raised here.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Cohen has pros and cons in Conn.

Despite donating plenty of money to hospitals and other local institutions, Steve Cohen wasn't getting the benefit of the doubt from all his neighbors in leafy Old Greenwich, Conn.

"It's a shame," said Bobo Delia, a bartender at the Beach House Café, a short drive from Cohen's SAC Capital, in nearby Stamford. "You would like to think that people in his position got to where they are by doing things right, not by cheating."

"It's strange that he's not indicted," said Peter Streich, a retired sales manager who was shopping at Bennett Jewelers, located a few doors down Sound Beach Ave. from the café. "You might assume that he knows the details."

"I think he should be punished for his transgressions," he added.

Some were more cautious in assigning blame. Staff at the local Coldwell Banker pointed out that the case is in its early stages — but quickly added that if SAC were forced to lay off many of its 1,000 employees, the town would feel it.

One young mother, who identified herself as an employee of SAC, appeared not to let the indictment keep her from a round of golf. Asked about the indictment as she approached, toddler in tow, the lavish Greenwich Country Club around 3 p.m. — just two hours after the indictment was announced by US Attorney Preet Bharara — she said, "I work there but I can't comment — and you're not going to get anyone else here to talk either."

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Talk show guests

WEDNESDAY

GIADA DE LAURENTIIS, HOWIE MANDEL, BARRY MANILOW - Today, 7 a.m., Ch. 4

HUGH JACKMAN - LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, 9 a.m., Ch. 7

RICHARD HAASS - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 9 a.m. and 7:28 p.m., (COM)

KENNETH GOLDSMITH - The Colbert Report, 9:31 a.m. and 6:57 p.m., (COM)

HOWIE MANDEL, BRANDON T. JACKSON - The Wendy Williams Show, 10 a.m., Ch. 5 and 4 p.m., Ch. 9

JO FROST - Rachael Ray, 10 a.m., Ch. 7

SHAILENE WOODLEY- The View, 11 a.m., Ch. 7

LARRY KING, DUFF GOLDMAN, CHI-LAN LIEU - The Talk, 2 p.m., Ch. 2

KATHIE LEE GIFFORD, HODA KOTB, ABBY LEE MILLER - Steve Harvey, 3 p.m., Ch. 4

SHIRLEY JONES - Katie, 3 p.m., Ch. 7

ERIC STONESTREET - The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 4 p.m., Ch. 4

SHAILENE WOODLEY - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11 p.m., (COM)

MICHAEL B. JORDAN, BOBBY LEE, ARDEN MYRIN - Chelsea Lately, 11 p.m., (E!)

AARON PAUL, NICK FROST - Conan, 11 p.m., (TBS)

ANANT AGARWAL - The Colbert Report, 11:31 p.m., (COM)

JASON SUDEIKIS - Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 2

ASHTON KUTCHER, JAYMA MAYS - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 4

JEFF BRIDGES, JEFF LEWIS - Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 7

HUGH JACKMAN, NATASHA LYONNE, FRANK PELLEGRINO - Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:36 a.m., Ch. 4

MATT SMITH, TERI POLO - The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37 a.m., Ch. 2

THURSDAY

MARK BITTMAN - Today, 7 a.m., Ch. 4

SHAILENE WOODLEY - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 9 a.m. and 7:28 p.m., (COM)

STANLEY TUCCI - LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, 9 a.m., Ch. 7

SUNNY ANDERSON, PETER WALSH - Rachael Ray, 10 a.m., Ch. 7

ANTHONY ANDERSON, FAMKE JANSSEN - The Wendy Williams Show, 10 a.m., Ch. 5

MARGARET CHO, CHRISTINA RICCI - The View, 11 a.m., Ch. 7

FRAN DRESCHER, MARILU HENNER - Anderson Live, 12 p.m., Ch. 9

RACHAEL RAY, GEORGE WALLACE - The Talk, 2 p.m., Ch. 2

JUSTIN BIEBER, ROSIE ALLEN, SOPHIA GRACE - The Ellen DeGeneres Show, 4 p.m., Ch. 4

BOB BRADLEY - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11 p.m., (COM)

STEVEN HO, PETER SARSGAARD - Conan, 11 p.m., (TBS)

OIYMPIA SNOWE - The Colbert Report, 11:31 p.m., (COM)

REGIS PHILBIN, TERRY FATOR - Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 2

KEVIN NEALON, MICHAEL B. JORDAN - Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 7

CATE BLANCHETT, MICHAEL B. JORDAN - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35 p.m., Ch. 4

ANDY SAMBERG, MARCINE WEBB, NITA LOU WEBB - Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:36 a.m., Ch. 4

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Joke’s on us in this mediocrity

Linda Stasi

If you tune into ABC's new hidden-camera series expecting the big laughs you used to get from, say, "Candid Camera" or the hilarious Canadian series "Just For Laughs," chances are good you probably won't fall for "Would You Fall For That?"

The series, from the producers of "What Would You Do?" isn't as good as it should or could be. For one thing, we're talking psychological jokes, not practical jokes, so it's all taken sort of seriously. And seriously, if you pull a hidden-camera trick, I want at least one person to end up on the bad side of a banana peel.

'FALL' SEASON: Zamata (left), Watt and Rogowsky.

Cast members — ABC reporter Nick Watt and actors Scott Rogowsky and Sasheer Zamata — are more concerned with testing people's gullibility than in making viewers laugh — finding unsuspecting folks in and around NYC (parks, studios and public spaces).

In one skit, Rogowsky asks strangers in Central Park to take his picture. A couple of men come by carrying a big sign. Will the photographer notice? Most don't.

In another skit, they use an old psychological study showing how people are tricked into believing a general horoscope is specific to them. Watt plays an astrologer filming a TV pilot, giving fake private readings to the six participants. Each is told the same thing and they all fall for it. Watt then tells them that they were duped. Uncomfortable. More uncomfortable is how, between skits, the cast members do the old, fake "spontaneous" chat. And, no, I wasn't tricked into believing it's real.

Look, we New Yorkers already have enough to be psychologically uncomfortable about with the terrible twins lurking about — Trick & Tweet — aka Eliot Spitzer and Carlos Danger. They're all the serious jokes we can take.

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‘Carrie’ on

Lindsey Gort, who'll play young Samantha Jones on the second season of "The Carrie Diaries," is a dead-ringer for Kim Cattrall (inset) — who originated the role of Samantha on HBO's long-running series, "Sex and the City."

In the upcoming season of "Diaries," premiering Oct. 25, Carrie Bradshaw (AnnaSophia Robb) will encounter Samantha, who ends up being one of the most important people in Carrie's life.

Young Sam, who's described as a "beautiful and sexy young woman," hails from the Florida panhandle — and has already made a name for herself in wild and woolly '80s-era New York City.

TALE OF TWO SAMS: Lindsey Gort (above) and "Sex and the City" star Kim Cattrall.

Patrick Harbron/The CW

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UK soap beats royal kid news

British TV viewers gave a big meh to news of the royal baby Monday night.

Long-running British soap "Coronation Street," which airs on ITV, beat the combined royal baby viewership on BBC One, BBC News and Sky News from 8 to 9 p.m. — when the big news was announced in England.

"Coronation Street" averaged nearly 8 million viewers for the hour — compared to 4.9 million viewers who watched coverage on the other three networks, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

ITV's royal baby special, which aired at 9 p.m., also beat the BBC's special, drawing 3.5 million viewers to 2.9 million for the BBC special on the baby boy born to Kate Middleton and Prince William.

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A big ‘Road’ trip for Jason

Jason Mamoa will co-star in the upcoming Sundance Channel series "The Red Road."

The series centers on a sheriff who's struggling to keep his family together while dealing with two disparate communities: his small hometown and the nearby Ramapo Mountains, home of the Ramapo Mountain Indians.

The plot will also include a tragedy involving the sheriff's wife, and what's being called "an unholy alliance" forged between the sheriff and "a dangerous member" of the Ramapo Indian tribe.

Mamoa will play Philip Kopus, who's described as a "key" member of the Indian tribe.

The six-episode series was created by Aaron Guzikowski and will be produced by Sarah Condon (HBO's "Bored to Death").

The Hawaiian-born Mamoa, 33, played Khol Drogo in HBO's "Game of Thrones" and has also appeared in "Baywatch," "The Game" and "Stargate: Atlantis."

He has two children with former "The Cosby Show" co-star Lisa Bonet.

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Girls serve up angst

THEATER REVIEW

VOLLEYGIRLS
Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St.; 212-352-3101. Through Saturday. Running time: 120 minutes, one intermission.

After the cheerleader musicals "Bring It On" and "Lysistrata Jones," it's nice to see girls finally take the court. And they do so — winningly — in "Volleygirls," about a high school girls' volleyball team.

Written by Rob Ackerman ("Tabletop"), this New York Musical Theatre Festival production explores adolescent angst in a way that's refreshingly free of clichés. Several of the teenage players are struggling with personal issues: Marisol (Gerianne Perez) with her sexuality, as made clear in the song, "I Like Girls"; Katie (Juliane Godfrey) with her academic studies and Jess (Allison Strong) with her domineering P.T.A. mom (Jennifer C. Johnson, who stops the show with a killer song titled "Animal in Our Midst").

Kevin Thomas Garcia

Volleyball players tackle their issues in the pop-rock musical.

But their problems pale in comparison with those of Kim (Susan Blackwell, of "[title of show]"), the English teacher pressed into coaching them. A former college volleyball star nicknamed "The Beast," she's still traumatized by the memory of choking at the Olympics.

Enlisted by Katie's father (Benjamin Howes), the headmaster who harbors a not-so-secret crush on her, Kim addresses her anxieties in the number "Don't Say a Word," spoken "Cast Away"-style to a volleyball: "Frailty, thy name is Wilson!"

The sole male student figuring in the action is Xavier (PJ Adzima), the school webcam reporter whose infatuation with Katie is expressed in the pretty ballad "You're Beautiful When You Play."

In fact, the whole pop-rock score — music by Eli Bolin, lyrics by Sam Forman — is terrific. Director Neil Patrick Stewart keeps the action moving at a nice clip, and choreographer Ryan Kasprzak puts the young performers through their energetic paces.

"Volleygirls" doesn't score many points for originality, and its small-scale charms make it unlikely for mainstream success. But more often than not, it gets the ball over the net.

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Wrong Direction

Michaelangelo Matos

Downloads of the Week

ONE DIRECTION

"Best Song Ever"

★ 1/2

BRITAIN'S biggest boy band rolls out this song from their new biopic, "This Is Us," out next month — and an upcoming album — and it sounds ready to be one of the summer's most overbearing hits. The chorus' forced "fun" ("Oh-OH-oh! Yeah-YEAH-yeah!") makes the Spice Girls sound like Billie Holiday. Points for ripping off The Who's "Baba O'Riley" on the opening few seconds, though.

KINGS OF LEON

"Supersoaker"

★★

THE Southern rockers preview September's "Mechanical Bull" with something brighter than usual — very Beach Boys, rather than their usual '70s crunch. Decent chorus, too: "I don't mind/Sentimental girls sometimes." But once Caleb Followill calls himself "a supersoaker, red, white and blue all the way," it's hard to take him seriously.

Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Despite its title, One Direction's latest single is decidedly not the "Best Song Ever."

SELENA GOMEZ

"Slow Down"

★★

ON this cut from "Stars Dance" — her first real album following years of Disney fame — Gomez goes for squeaky-bright dance music, full of sonic tricks and with a liquid rhythm. The effects are grabby, as when the syllables of the title are stre-e-e-tched out. But they earn more attention than the singer.

MARC ANTHONY

"Vivir Mi Vida"

★★★

THE first single from the Latin pop icon's new salsa album, "3.0," is bold and stately, with Anthony's 44-year-old pipes still in startling form. That it's a cover of Algerian singer Khaled in a different style shows how wide Anthony's range is.

EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS

"Better Days"

★★ 1/2

THE 10-piece LA rock troupe led by Alex Ebert (there's no Edward Sharpe in the band) has never sounded as purely paisley-'60s as they do in the lead-off from their third, self-titled album. The pitter-patting drums and chamber-orchestration are spot-on, even if the song itself remains dippy.

MOBY Feat. COLD SPECKS

"A Case for Shame"

★★ 1/2

THIS preview of electronic-dance star Moby's next album, out in October, sounds like much of his work since 1999's mega-selling "Play" — down-tempo, melodic, a little inert. But the Canadian Goth-soul singer Cold Specks gives it her all, and he responds with his lushest track in a while.

WEEKEND

"Mirror"

★ 1/2

The Brooklyn-via-San Francisco rock trio Weekend knows one trick — sound as much as possible like trebly, echoey English bands like Echo and the Bunnymen. The first single from Weekend's second album, "Jinx," does this to a T; they just don't write a particularly memorable song to go along with the sound.

F - - K BUTTONS

"The Red Wing"

★★ 1/2

ENGLISH instrumental duo F - - k Buttons play experimental rock that touches on noise, jazz, psychedelic music and electronic-dance, without quite fitting into any of those categories. Basically, if you like the Flaming Lips when they get trippy — but not too trippy — this slithering jam should suit you fine.

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Royal baby fever

Hovering over monarchy merchandise at British cafe Tea & Sympathy in the West Village yesterday, Wendy Kohlenberg was in the mood to celebrate.

"I'm just excited because Kate Middleton is a breath of fresh air," says Kohlenberg, 52, a tourist from Michigan. "I think her and William have a true love as opposed to Princess Diana, who I still feel sad about. The royals love dogs, and I'm a new dog owner, too, so I bought a china cup and saucer."

Welcome to royal baby madness. While Brits celebrated the birth of a baby prince into the wee hours last night, New York City — which you might presume is too cool for such Anglo trivia — is experiencing its own jolt of excitement.

Brian Zak

At West Village British grocery Myers of Keswick, owner Jennifer Myers-Pulidore, with her own baby, Olivia, is selling British baby onesies for $14.

Photos: PHOTOS: NYC gets royal baby fever

In New York, expats and Americans alike are doing their part to welcome the future king. Cubicle drones have formed betting pools wagering on various details of the birth, while restaurants, bars and shops across town report a flurry of sales related to the new prince, who was born yesterday weighing a healthy 8 pounds, 6 ounces.

It's proof that heir hysteria is not confined to the United Kingdom, where baby-happy Brits are expected to spend $400 million on celebratory souvenirs, food and booze.

"I think people really need something that is fun, with all of the crazy news in the world," says Sharon Hershkowitz, owner of the Balloon Saloon in Tribeca. In the last week, Hershkowitz says she's sold about 40 elaborate, baby-themed arrangements — at about $100 a pop — to NYC-based offices looking to decorate their royal baby betting pools. "It's a funny phenomenon," she says.

At M&C Saatchi Public Relations in the Flatiron District, 15 employees bet $5 apiece on the baby's gender and birth time. Account exec Marissa Adamo guessed 4 p.m. because it was close to British teatime and took the pot. "Everyone was super-excited about it," says Sandra Carreon-John, a partner at the agency.

At Ideeli, an online fashion company with offices in Midtown, employees were in a royal frenzy yesterday morning. After the Duchess of Cambridge went into labor, one "royal obsessive" in the office organized a betting pool on what the baby would be named. By the time the birth had been announced, the pool stood at $240. (The winner might need to wait awhile to claim the prize, as the baby's name may not be announced for several days.)

Everyone "was very enthusiastic and it gave a nice Monday morning vibe in the office because the weather was dreary," says Amanda Glick, the head of p.r. and brand marketing at Ideeli.

New Yorkers not looking to gamble have found sweeter ways to get their royal fix. A week ago, Sprinkles Cupcakes in Midtown East started selling "gender reveal" cupcakes — some concealing a pink frosting center, others a blue one — to those anticipating the royal tot's arrival.

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Is this man too sexy to win an Emmy?

As Don Draper, the dark and stormy ad executive from "Mad Men," Jon Hamm has won millions of fans and critical acclaim, as well as six Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

But, despite his talent and critical raves, he has never clinched the prize.

And fans are concerned that Hamm — who was tapped by Emmy again last week — won't win this September and probably never will. "Mad Men" ends next year, giving Hamm just two more chances, and predictors say his odds aren't great.

Why? Some say he's too gorgeous.

"It's called 'Slap the Stud Syndrome,' " says Tom O'Neil, creator of goldderby.com, an awards prediction Web site.

Hot Hamm! He's mysterious and intense, but Jon Hamm's Don Draper will have to come up with his best ad campaign ever to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor.

Photos: PHOTOS: Most famous Emmy snubs

"Hollywood is run by a bunch of old geezer guys who say to these handsome leading men, 'You have good looks, money, the babes, the whole world at your feet. Here's the one thing you can't have. We have power to withhold this one thing.' "

Hamm, 42, is the latest victim of a pattern of handsome leading men getting snubbed by the Emmys.

George Clooney, nominated two times for his role on "ER," lost to the avuncular Mandy Patinkin of "Chicago Hope" in 1995, and to bald Dennis Franz of "NYPD Blue" in 1996. Rob Lowe, nominated for "The West Wing" in 2001, was bested by a hefty James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos." David Duchovny, nominated twice for "The X Files," was beaten by Franz in 1997 and in 1998 by Andre Braugher for "Homicide: Life on the Street," in a role that never smouldered.

Jared Harris, who played Lane Pryce on "Mad Men" from 2009 to 2012, admits his former co-star was hit by the sexy stick.

"He is a good-looking bastard, isn't he?" Harris tells The Post.

But unbelievably, Harris says, Hamm nearly missed out on the career-changing role because he didn't have the looks.

"What's funny about that is ['Mad Men' creator] Matt Weiner had to convince the money people, the studio or the network, because they didn't think he was good-looking enough!" Harris says. "They had to fight for him."

Other insiders say Hamm's missed out because of the "Mad Men" curse: Even though different actors have been Emmy-nominated a collective total of 25 times for their work on the show, not one of them has ever won.

"As far as Jon Hamm's nomination, he's an Emmy winner in my eyes every year," says Robert Morse, who plays agency partner Bert Cooper and is hoping to win an Emmy himself for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series after three failed bids. "He's just sensational, and we just love him and we certainly hope that it's his year."

(It's worth noting that Hamm doesn't just suffer from a "Mad Men" curse; he was nominated and lost three times as a guest star on "30 Rock" as Liz Lemon's boyfriend, too.)

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Wrong Direction

Downloads of the Week

ONE DIRECTION

"Best Song Ever"

★ 1/2

BRITAIN'S biggest boy band rolls out this song from their new biopic, "This Is Us," out next month — and an upcoming album — and it sounds ready to be one of the summer's most overbearing hits. The chorus' forced "fun" ("Oh-OH-oh! Yeah-YEAH-yeah!") makes the Spice Girls sound like Billie Holiday. Points for ripping off The Who's "Baba O'Riley" on the opening few seconds, though.

KINGS OF LEON

"Supersoaker"

★★

THE Southern rockers preview September's "Mechanical Bull" with something brighter than usual — very Beach Boys, rather than their usual '70s crunch. Decent chorus, too: "I don't mind/Sentimental girls sometimes." But once Caleb Followill calls himself "a supersoaker, red, white and blue all the way," it's hard to take him seriously.

Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Despite its title, One Direction's latest single is decidedly not the "Best Song Ever."

SELENA GOMEZ

"Slow Down"

★★

ON this cut from "Stars Dance" — her first real album following years of Disney fame — Gomez goes for squeaky-bright dance music, full of sonic tricks and with a liquid rhythm. The effects are grabby, as when the syllables of the title are stre-e-e-tched out. But they earn more attention than the singer.

MARC ANTHONY

"Vivir Mi Vida"

★★★

THE first single from the Latin pop icon's new salsa album, "3.0," is bold and stately, with Anthony's 44-year-old pipes still in startling form. That it's a cover of Algerian singer Khaled in a different style shows how wide Anthony's range is.

EDWARD SHARPE & THE MAGNETIC ZEROS

"Better Days"

★★ 1/2

THE 10-piece LA rock troupe led by Alex Ebert (there's no Edward Sharpe in the band) has never sounded as purely paisley-'60s as they do in the lead-off from their third, self-titled album. The pitter-patting drums and chamber-orchestration are spot-on, even if the song itself remains dippy.

MOBY Feat. COLD SPECKS

"A Case for Shame"

★★ 1/2

THIS preview of electronic-dance star Moby's next album, out in October, sounds like much of his work since 1999's mega-selling "Play" — down-tempo, melodic, a little inert. But the Canadian Goth-soul singer Cold Specks gives it her all, and he responds with his lushest track in a while.

WEEKEND

"Mirror"

★ 1/2

The Brooklyn-via-San Francisco rock trio Weekend knows one trick — sound as much as possible like trebly, echoey English bands like Echo and the Bunnymen. The first single from Weekend's second album, "Jinx," does this to a T; they just don't write a particularly memorable song to go along with the sound.

F - - K BUTTONS

"The Red Wing"

★★ 1/2

ENGLISH instrumental duo F - - k Buttons play experimental rock that touches on noise, jazz, psychedelic music and electronic-dance, without quite fitting into any of those categories. Basically, if you like the Flaming Lips when they get trippy — but not too trippy — this slithering jam should suit you fine.

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Humans unwelcome

Bob McManus

It's been half a century since New York's Hamilton County — scene of today's whitewater-rafting throwdown between Mayor Mike and Gov. Andrew of the Adirondacks — voted Democratic in a presidential election.

So imagine the joy among the North Country locals at the arrival of a platoon of big-time Democrats, by affiliation or affection, all seeking to be of "help."

Somebody could end up inside a bear. (Just kidding.)

The raftlapalooza is to celebrate the 6.1-million-acre Adirondack Park as a premium destination for outdoor-oriented tourism — which it certainly is. And it follows by a day a similar competition between Gov. Cuomo and state legislators.

Solent News / Splash News

Yes, it's gorgeous — too bad the state won't let anyone create jobs there: Freshwater rainbow trout leaping out of a lake in the Adirondack State Park.

Actually, the last time Hamilton County got such attention was 40 years ago next month — when Hilary LeBlanc, a local boy grown up to be a conservation officer, shot and captured the sadistic serial killer Robert Garrow.

And that's not fair, for the Adirondacks deserve attention. In the summer, they're as close to vacation perfection as can be found anywhere.

Sure, there are mosquitoes so fierce they don't bite, but rather latch on and suck you dry as a cornhusk. And it's a long haul to a good pizza. But there are compensations.

The High Peaks radiate beauty in 50 shades of green, flecked with wildflower blues and yellows and reds; crystal-pure lakes and ponds and streams sparkle everywhere.

Mountain shadows mute the sunsets as night descends — and the sun doesn't come up next day so much as the dark gradually softens and suddenly it's dawn.

The morning sounds are best: Waterfowl always have something to say, and the songbirds, and could maybe that clipped barking off in the brush have been a fox? It is not until later that the rented Jet-Skis come out on the lakes to annoy the purists — but also to inject a little cash into the economy.

Which sorely needs the dough.

Hiking and camping and biking and canoeing and kayaking — muscle-powered tourism, the point of the weekend exercise — are fine, as far as they go. But if that's all there is — and it is all there is — then there's not much money in it for the locals.

They understand all too well that for decades it has been the (unstated) policy of New York state to squeeze most of the people out of the Adirondack Park — a constitutionally created forest preserve larger than the state of Vermont, incorporating scores of villages, hamlets and towns across 11 North Country counties.

In 1971, then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller created the Adirondack Park Agency, to put some heft behind the park's motto — "Forever Wild" — and he succeeded with a vengeance.

Ever since, to propose dropping so much as a pebble into a pond for commercial purposes is to invite a visit from the Hounds of Hell — first up, APA bureaucrats, and then the activists and their lawyers.

In this respect, Hamilton County — smack in the middle of the park — is very much representative. There's not one permanent stop light in the entire county — not enough traffic to warrant one. Maybe someday soon broadband Internet will arrive, or maybe not.

Salvation of sorts, a development that could mean hundreds of jobs at Tupper Lake, 40 miles north of today's raft-fest, has been sunk in regulatory muck for a decade — even as the county lost more than 10 percent of its permanent population.

Many of the remaining 4,800 bitter-enders endure a proud, self-sufficient sort of poverty, taking much of what they need from the land. It's a hard-knock life by any standard, but not without its rewards. Still, people leave and simply don't return.

And this is sad. Study village memorials commemorating service in America's major wars, and certain surnames predominate. This speaks to a presence that crosses the generations; surely such families warrant standing in the debate. No?

But they're not likely to be mentioned today. A governor who can't say the word "fracking" without setting his hands to shaking isn't likely to broach this issue. Not today, not ever.

Certainly the Adirondacks are a vast treasure in need of intelligent protection, and the park must have it. But Vermont deals with similar challenges in ways that protect its forest heritage while reasonably promoting its economy.

No need of rafting stunts there.

But there's not a news outlet in New York strong enough to resist an image of Mayor Mike in a Day-Glo life vest with a matching helmet plopped on his head. Or the governor, either.

So may the best raft win.

Yet tomorrow it's back to cold porridge for the locals. Not to worry, though; they're tough, and they're used to it.

rmcmanus8@gmail.com

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Business briefs

RadioShock

RadioShack brought on investment bank Peter J. Solomon to raise new financing as the one-time popular electronics chain works to reverse falling sales and repair its image, WSJ.com reported, citing sources. Shares have plummeted about 90 percent since 2010.

Debtroit

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder told CBS' "Face the Nation" yesterday that he would not seek a US government bailout for Detroit, saying bankruptcy was a necessary path to rebuilding the once-proud city that filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, saddled with $18 billion in debt and a tax base depleted by decades of population loss and urban blight.

China arrest

Shanghai police have detained British fraud investigator Peter Humphrey, who had worked with drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, which is being probed by China for alleged bribery, according to sources. Glaxo CEO Andrew Witty plans to detail what action the company is taking in response to the allegations when he presents quarterly results on Wednesday, sources said. Police are probing fishy deals with travel agencies worth about $489 million.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click For Restrictions

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Out networking

Call her "Show Me the Money, Honey."

CNBC's No. 1 star, Maria "Money Honey" Bartiromo, with her hefty five-year contract set to expire late this year, is in play and is shopping herself around to rival networks, sources familiar with the situation tell The Post.

Bartiromo, 45, whose hustle and knack for landing exclusive interviews with newsmakers hasn't been able to stem the steady decline in ratings for CNBC overall and her show in particular, is taking advantage of an open "negotiating window" and has talked to Fox Business Network and CNN, among others, sources said.

The business TV dynamo reached out and hired mega-talent agency CAA earlier this year. She is working with the agency's boss, Richard Lovett, considered one of the top TV and Hollywood agents, and Olivia Metzger, a former CNBC talent scout, who heads CAA's Big Apple office.

The Brooklyn-born Bartiromo famously was the first woman to report live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She has been with CNBC since 1993 and is said to earn between $2 million and $3 million a year.

A spokeswoman for FBN said: "There are no serious discussions going on." CNN had no comment. A spokesman for CNBC said: "She is under contract with CNBC."

Reached Friday as she was flying back from Lake Tahoe, where she reported from the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament, Bartiromo, in an email, told The Post: "I don't have any comment on anything right now."

The intrepid brunette referred further questions to CAA.

It is an interesting time to be negotiating a new deal at ratings-challenged CNBC.

NBC News Chairwoman Pat Fili-Krushel, on the job for about a year, has been looking to make her mark on the news division, bringing in Deborah Turness to run NBC News. While CNBC doesn't report to Turness, CNBC president Mark Hoffman, it is clear, has been shaking up his schedule, looking to refresh some of its nightly shows.

A June Nielsen ratings report revealed heavy declines at some dayside shows. A new early evening show is in the works, with Hoffman talking to Harry Smith as the possible host of a roundtable on stock moves of the day.

The network also commissioned a slew of reality shows to air in prime time, including "Car Chasers," about guys who flip cars, and "Treasure Detectives," about how to spot fakes.

Network ratings have been on the slide among the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, largely because people tend to watch less market news when the stock market is steady, and more when there are a series of peaks and troughs.

"It would be good news for Fox if she came over, but bad news for her," one business news source said, explaining that FBN's freer debate style is very different from CNBC's more organized teleprompter approach.

Bartiromo's teaming with high-powered Lovett at CAA could be a sign that after 20 years at CNBC she is yearning to take her career beyond business news. On CNBC, she currently hosts the two-hour "Closing Bell" and a syndicated show, "On the Money with Maria Bartiromo." She also writes a monthly column for USA Today.

catkinson@nypost.com

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$65M Sitt-uation set for Milford stores

The retail stores at the Milford Plaza Hotel are being sold to Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities for $65 million, The Post has learned.

Thor will buy the 27,456 square-foot slice of the mammoth Times Square-area hotel for $2,730 a square foot, sources said. The 27-story hotel, the city's largest when it was completed in 1928, has 1,331 rooms and amenities that are being upgraded by new owners.

The sale is in the form of a long-term lease through Feb. 29, 2112, and includes a partial lease-back by the hotel for a food court and gym.

In 2010, The Rockpoint Group and hotel owner Highgate Hotels bought the Milflord mainstay at 700 Eighth Ave. between West 44th and 45th streets for $200 million and hired Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies of Eastdil Secured to slice, dice and finance the parts and serve it up into portions to other investors.

Earlier this year, David Werner and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management's fund purchased the "fee," or ground under the hotel, for $325 million, leasing the hotel and retail back to Rockpoint and Highgate.

At the end of April, NorthStar Realty Finance originated a $255 million loan in return for an equity interest of 35 percent.

As The Post's Steve Cuozzo reported in 2010 when the building was being put up for sale by the Milstein family, the "Lullaby of Broadway" — the hotel used the song in TV ads for years — might become "The Lulla-buy of Broadway," and so far it has.

Along with the 11,862 square feet on the sublevel, 11,675 square on the ground and 3,919 square feet at the second-floor lobby level, the retail is entitled to "blade" signage — or signs that protrude from the facade — on the corners of the hotel, and a satellite dish if needed for the business on the roof.

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Tween the pages

Ok, you've tried everything to get your teen or pre-teen to keep up with their school summer reading list. How about tucking one or two of these titles into the book bag to get them started?

Let's cut to the chase: California-based BOP magazine is 109 pages of like, TOTAL nonsense. But it's the kind of stupid trash that tween girls lap up and we'd love to get paid to write this garbage. One Direction's Niall Horan talks about his first kiss. "I was really nervous," he spills, remembering a French student when he was 12. One Direction's Harry Styles says he "definitely" would kiss a girl on the first date. Yay! Elsewhere there are pictures of readers with celebrities, celebrities being silly, celebrities talking about how much they love their moms. There's a feature on how much time Justin Bieber spends thinking about girls. We think he spends more time thinking about animals. BOP, published by Laufer Media, is less interesting than the list of ingredients on a Skittles packet.

Tiger Beat is still in the teeny-bopper magazine elite, and it's better your kids learn about their favorite stars through this clean version of gossip than, say, through TMZ. There is no Beebs relieving himself in a mop bucket is all we're saying. In Tiger Beat he's visiting cancer patients. Parents are going to want to have a look at the magazine to see who their children are idolizing, and to stay up on the lingo. Like "1D" — if you don't know what that means you are not a cool parent. It is One Direction. Remember, Harry is the one with the floppy hair, and though Horan looks like Ross Lynch, they are not the same person. You'd know that if you read TB, and you'd understand what is going through your tween's mind all the better.

The one good thing we can say about this issue of J-14 is that it comes with a pack of stick-on tattoos and nail decals that are, like, totally cool! Seriously though, the mag is pure, unadulterated fluff, which isn't a bad thing — although we do wish the articles came with just a tad more heft. Yes, squeezed within the piles of the pretty boys (and some girls) are actual strings of words, including a story on how Ariana Grande of Sam & Cat (whatever the heck that is) is also insecure and wants girls to know she doesn't always look perfect. Awww? One can also read the bizarre and disturbing story about the 18-year-old British student Xenna Kristian who says she was beaten up at school, including a bruised jaw, because she is a Taylor Swift lookalike. Huh?

Bauer knows the recipe for a successful pre-teen magazine and this month's M covers all the bases. It'll certainly clue you in on what your tween daughter or granddaughter is mumbling about this summer. Part of Bauer's Teen Group, M and its editors know you have to splash all the current stars — One Direction, Swift, Selena Gomez and Bieber — on the cover, give some "exclusive" photo peeks into the "real" lives, call everyone by their first name and, most important, never show any blemishes, physical or emotional. It's a big happy world, just the way a pre-teen girl likes it. M scores on all fronts. For a little seriousness, the editors offer up "The Best Advice My Mom Ever Gave Me" and "I Want a Barbie With My Body Type." It's a must summer read for young girls, and their parents — who know the title is a gateway drug for Teen People and then the hard stuff, People.

The New Yorker contends airily that "human interaction is the key" to curbing death in childbirth in the third world. Likening the "puzzle" to the slow adoption of sterilization by doctors in the 19th century because of its inconvenience, writer Atul Gawande concludes the deaths of mothers and their newborns could be ended by better education. Maybe Gawande is just being polite, but it would seem obvious to us that all of these problems are less of a puzzle than they are about money. If you want to know what big money's thinking, check out how it's funding birth control in the Third World.

If New York's double issue on sex is any indication, we're all using smartphones to cheat on our fiancées and spouses in the kinkiest ways imaginable. Yes, it is a little tedious, and we especially wondered why more than two pages were devoted to the ramblings of a serial cheater, which added a tinge of the depressing to the package. Elsewhere in the what-else-is-new department, a gloomy essay asks whether "everything we've come to think of as American is predicated on a freak coincidence of economic history." Let's ask the recent college grads with their $1 trillion in debt.

Time puts the Trayvon Martin story on its cover, with a fairly good package that surveys the nation's black church leaders, among others, on the dicey aftermath. Meanwhile, another story that is of seismic significance gets a nice write-up, namely the phenomenon of Pope Francis. "Francis' unabashed championing of the poor and his criticism of the heartlessness of financial markets have had the effect of returning the church to its ancient strength: the pursuit of social justice," writes Howard Chua-Eoan. This is a story to watch, and Chua-Eoan has been out front every step of the way.

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Facebook page to 'save' cop who released Boston Bomber pics a hit — sarge faces firing

Reuters

A police officer faces firing for releasing this photo of Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev surrendering to police in Watertown, Mass. The cop was motivated by Rolling Stone's pretty-boy treatment of the fiend.

A "Save Sgt. Sean Murphy" Facebook page is catching on like wildfire.

"I just said to myself, 'You know, somebody has to stand up for him,' " the website's creator told The Post today, as the site neared its 40,000th visit within less than a day of going live.

The website is dedicated to the gutsy Massachusetts State Policeman who was relieved of duty this week for releasing gritty evidence photos of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — in protest of the pretty-boy closeup of Tsarnaev now on the cover of Rolling Stone.

The "Save Sgt. Sean Murphy" site — which urges leniency as Murphy's bosses weigh possible disciplinary action — features a mock-up of that same Rolling Stone cover, replacing Tsarnaev's glowingly-lit image with a photo montage of the faces of the bombing's victims.

"It just hit me very hard that this poor guy, Sgt. Murphy, is getting reprimanded and could lose his job," said the Facebook page's creator, a Massachusetts woman with ties to law enforcement who asked that just her first name, "Lisa," be used for fear of "all the crazies out there."

EPA

The controversial Rolling Stone cover.

"I couldn't stand seeing the picture of this slime bucket who hurt so many people -- I'm getting teary eyed just thinking of it," Lisa, who does not know Murphy personally, told The Post today.

"What Sgt. Murphy did was something all of us wish we could have done."

The magazine's glamorous cover photo of Tsarnaev is "an insult to any person who has ever worn a uniform," Murphy had explained this week in releasing photos of the "real" Tsarnaev -- bloodied and with the glowing red dot of a police sniper's red laser sight on his forehead.

A tactical photographer, Murphy had been unauthorized to release the photos he took of Tsarnaev as the scrawny monster crawled out from under the tarp of a boat parked in a Boston-area backyard.

But he did so out of outrage, and to set the record straight, he told Boston Magazine in giving them some 100 images. Murphy's duty status will be determined after a disciplinary hearing set for next week, according to Massachusetts State Police officials.

He faces anywhere from a day or two unpaid leave to termination. But many of those reaching out to Lisa through her Facebook page -- including some of his law enforcement colleagues -- are insisting that Murphy is a hero, and doesn't deserve to be punished.

"I'm getting support from England, from retired law enforcement, and confidentially from the State Police," she said. "I'm getting a lot of state police who are telling me, 'We're not saying he shouldn't be reprimanded, but he shouldn't lose his job.'"

"I'm getting people wanting to support his family or give him a job if he is fired, people offering free legal counsel," Lisa said, adding that the site is not accepting donations at this point, pending the outcome of next week's hearing.

"It's worth the fight to me," she said. "At least I can sleep at night knowing I tried."

AP

A sniper's laser is seen on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's head as he surrenders to police.

https://www.facebook.com/SaveSgtSeanMurphy

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Shot for going to the cops: Gunmen open fire on family, wound 5, because dad went to police to protect his daughter

Benny J. Stumbo

Police at the scene where gunmen opened fire on a family in Bushwick, wounding five people.

An enraged gunman opened fire on a Brooklyn park today in a senseless act of revenge — wounding five people, including two bystanders sitting on a nearby porch, witnesses and officials said.

The shooter, accompanied by three other males and two females, fired multiple times on the crowd at Hope Ballfield in Bushwick around 2:15 p.m., witnesses said.

Rolando Pizarro, 45, the intended target, was shot in the abdomen as he walked with his wife, Melody Amil, 37, and son, Rolando Jr, 22, who were both struck in the leg, witnesses said.

Wanda Espinoza, 52, was shot in the stomach as she sat outside her house. She was with Manuel Rivera, 62, who was hit in the leg. All of the victims were in stable condition.

Pizarro was targeted for filing a police report against the shooter on Friday. He was angry at the thug for harassing his daughter at the McDonald's where she works, his family said.

The gunman and several pals flirted with the 18-year-old girl while she was working behind the counter at the Knickerbocker Avenue location.

When the girl refused their advances, one man threw a milkshake in the girl's face, her family said.

"They were making advances and teasing her and harassing her," said another family friend, Ivette Miranda, 45.

"It got worse when they threw a milkshake in her face. She called her dad, Rolando, and he went there to the McDonald's and called the cops.

"He filed a police report right there. Those guys are bad men. They wanted to get back at Rolando for filing a report."

Pizarro told the man to stay away from his daughter, according to a manager at the restaurant.

Four of the victims were rushed to Elmhurst Hospital.

Melody Amil was taken to Kings County Hospital.

Amil's sister Lisa was in the park nearby as her 8-year-old son, Hector, was playing baseball with his Little League team.

"Melody was shot in the knee. She'll be okay," said Lisa.

"The others are in surgery right now," she said.

"I can't believe they would shoot into a street full of people. This is just over a girl or something. It's just so senseless."

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Brit Westwood holds leads, Woods two strokes back heading into final round of British Open

AP

Tiger Woods (l.) shakes hands with British Open leader Lee Westwood on the 18th green.

GULLANE, Scotland — To term British sport as flush with pride at the moment is an understatement akin to calling Ian Poulter's plaid pants loud.

With Lee Westwood leading Tiger Woods and Hunter Mahan at the British Open entering today's final round, British sport has perhaps never been in a more favorable place than the last year.

The nation is still buzzing from Andy Murray's Wimbledon victory — the first Brit to capture the prestigious tennis title since Fred Perry in 1936.

Englishman Justin Rose last month broke through with his first major championship victory at the U.S. Open.

English cyclist Chris Froome has a large enough lead in the Tour de France, ending today, he has time to stop on the Champs-Elysees for a cup of tea before he brings the title home to Great Britain.

And, of course, London still has its chest puffed in pride for its successful hosting of the Summer Olympics, which netted the city a reported $1 billion in profits.

What else in sports can go right for the Brits?

Westwood hoisting the Claret Jug on the 18th green at Muirfield might send this proud sporting nation into a party that would last the rest of the summer.

No one in the field is in better position entering the final round than Westwood, who is 3-under after shooting 70 yesterday. He has a two-shot lead over Woods and Mahan (both 1-under) and a one-shot lead over reigning Masters champion and 2012 British Open runner-up Adam Scott (even par).

Woods, 1-under and two strokes back, lost his chance to get in the final group with one swing.

Tied with Westwood as they played the par-5 17th into a stiff breeze off the Firth of Forth, Woods tried to hit 3-wood over a series of bunkers to allow for a simple wedge into the green. With his ball on the slightest slope, he got it up in the air just enough that the wind grabbed it and deposited the ball in the bunker. Woods had to blast out sideways and missed a 15-foot par putt.

Woods twice had at least a share of the 36-hole lead in majors a year ago and fell out of contention on Saturday. Despite the late bogey, he did well enough this time that he was only two shots behind. This is his best chance to end his five-year drought in the majors since the upheaval in his personal life at the end of 2009.

And while he has never won a major when trailing going into the last day, the outlook didn't look bleak from his vantage point.

"I've got 14 of these things, and I know what it takes to win it," Woods said. "He's won tournaments all over the world. He knows how to win golf tournaments. He's two shots ahead and we're going to go out there and both compete and play. It's not just us two. There's a bunch of guys who have a chance to win this tournament. And all of us need to really play well tomorrow to win it."

Still very much in contention are two-time major winner Angel Cabrera, who is seeking the third leg of a career Grand Slam, former Masters winner Zach Johnson, Henrik Stenson and Ryan Moore — all of whom are 1-over and just four shots off the lead.

Phil Mickelson, who shot a disappointing 74 yesterday, is on the cusp of contention at 2-over.

This, however, is as much Westwood's to win or lose as any of the 62 majors in which he has played.

"Hopefully I can give it,'' Westwood said of delivering more British sporting glory and becoming the first Englishman to win the Open since Nick Faldo in 1992 at Muirfield. "But the pressure comes from the expectation I put on myself. I don't really live my life outside-in. I don't live it and run it according to what other people think. I live it the other way around. So I have my own ideas and my own dreams and my own plans.''

The 40-year-old Worksop, England-born Westwood, a likeable chap with a brilliantly dry sense of humor, is as due to win a major as any player who has stepped to the first tee at this 142nd Open Championship.

In his 61 majors, Westwood has finished in the top-3 seven times (two runners-up), in the top-5 nine times and in the top-10 15 times. He has finished in the top-10 in eight of the last 17 majors in which he has played and has suffered some heartbreak along the way.

"I've had lots of chances,'' Westwood said. "Sometimes I've played well, other times I've played not too well. Even though I haven't won a major, I know what it takes to win one. It's just a case of going out there and having the confidence in my game, which I've got, and putting it to the test.''

Westwood, playing in front of his parents and son this week, will be paired in the final group with Mahan, whose 68 yesterday placed him in the final group for the second consecutive major with a chance to win the first of his career.

"I'll think about winning the Open Championship at some stage, I'm sure,'' Westwood said. "I don't see anything wrong with that — picturing yourself holding the Claret Jug at the final [green] and seeing your name at the top of the leaderboard.

"You try and picture yourself winning the Open Championship tonight, but forget about it tomorrow and go and tee off down the first, focus on it in the middle of the fairway with the first tee shot and then go from there.''

With AP

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Baghdad car bombs, other Iraq attacks kill 46

REUTERS

An Iraqi soldier inspects a Sunni mosque at the site of a suicide bomber attack in the town of Wajihiya. At least 46 more people were killed in Baghdad Saturday, as the Ramadan death toll continues to rise.

BAGHDAD — A coordinated wave of seven car bombs tore through bustling commercial streets Saturday night in Shiite areas of Baghdad, part of a relentless wave of violence that killed at least 46 inside and outside the capital.

The car bombs detonated after the iftar meal that breaks the daily fast of the holy month of Ramadan. Many people head out to shop or relax in coffee shops in the cooler evenings after fasting ends.

Bombings and other attacks have now killed more than 250 people since the start of Ramadan on July 10, according to an Associated Press count. The violence is a continuation of a surge of bloodshed that has rocked Iraq for months, reviving fears of a return to the widespread sectarian killings that pushed the country to the brink of civil war after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, coordinated bombings against Shiites are a favorite tactic of al-Qaida's Iraq branch.

Saturday's blasts began with an explosion in a busy shopping street that shook buildings in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada. Police say that attack killed nine and wounded 17, and left several shops and food stalls damaged.

"The evening is the busiest time of day when a lot of people pour into Karrada after iftar to shop or eat in restaurants," said clothes vendor Karim Sami, who was working just down the road from the site of the blast.

"We don't know who to blame for these security breaches, but we are sure of one thing: Our people are bleeding every day," he said.

Similar car bombs struck the northwestern Tobchi district, killing eight and wounding 29, and Baiyaa in western Baghdad, killing three and wounding 13, authorities said.

Another blast struck Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, killing six and wounding 15, officials said.

Two separate car bombs exploded in the New Baghdad neighborhood in the southeast, killing five people and wounding 17, authorities said.

Yet another car bomb exploded in a Shiite part of the religiously mixed western neighborhood of Shurta, killing four and wounding 12, authorities said.

A senior Iraqi intelligence official, who is not allowed to speak publically to journalists, said the coordinated nature of the car bombings strongly indicates al-Qaida is responsible.

Hours before the Baghdad blasts, gunmen in pickup trucks shot and killed the local leader of a local Sunni militia opposed to al-Qaida and two of his bodyguards near the city of Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of the Iraqi capital, according to police. Baqouba is the provincial capital of Diyala, which was once the site of some of the fiercest fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents in Iraq.

The official, Bassem Mahmoud, headed a Sunni group known as Sahwa, which joined the fight against al-Qaida during the height of Iraq war. He was killed a day after a deadly bombing at a Sunni mosque in Diyala killed 22 people and wounded dozens.

Like the capital Baghdad, Diyala is religiously mixed and witnessed some of the worst atrocities as Shiite militias battled Sunni insurgents for control in the years after the invasion.

Another Sahwa member was killed along with four others when a bomb went off late Saturday near his house in Madain, about 20 kilometers (14 miles) southeast of Baghdad, officials said. Four people were wounded in that attack.

In the restive northern city of Mosul, authorities said a suicide bomber blew himself up near a military post, killing one woman and wounding 25 people, many of them soldiers.

Gunmen near the city also kidnapped three off-duty policemen and their driver, killing two of the men and seriously wounding the other two, authorities said. Mosul is 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

Police provided details of all of the attacks, while hospital officials confirmed the death tolls. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.

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