Talk ain’t cheap in politics

Hillary Clinton — long purple coat, black slacks sipping water — schmoozing the Jane Hotel in the Village. It’s near where Letitia James’ aide lives. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. I also don’t know why if I know this nobody else should know it.

She said that when pregnant with Chelsea, she worked at a law firm in Arkansas “and I kept getting bigger and bigger, but no one said anything.” She also said: “I’m happy to be anywhere right now. And see faces without masks!” If she said more it wasn’t why she was on Jane Street.

Former A.G. Bill Barr had a party — small — for his new cranky book at Ristorante Tosca in DC. McConnell and Graham inhaled tuna tartare, meatballs, rice balls and BS while this low Barr droned: “Trump lost to Biden because he could never control himself.”

That’s basically the entire book so now you don’t have to blow money buying it.

Wait. More. Brady. Before publicly announcing his temporary unretirement, things smelled fishy to several sports bettors. Sniffing game pros picked up a scent that makes things smell smelly. As in they believe bets placed last week on the Buccaneers arose from “inside information” — whatever that’s supposed to tell us. They want regulators to regulate deeper. Known is that a close team manages Brady’s press. Another known is he focuses on what’s written about him.

Betty airs her memories

Betty Buckley, who the Grammys love, everyone’s loved for 40 years, is now at Joe’s Pub. So how did she become the original Grizabella in “Cats”:

“I auditioned twice. They turned me down saying they needed someone to radiate death and dying. Six months later they called back. I sang ‘Memory’ three times. I was turned inside out. Finally I said, ‘Nobody can do this better.’ Then they looked at me strangely and offered me the job.

“I’ve sung ‘Memory’ so often that at one concert I actually lost my memory of it. The band kept replaying the same chord until I finally remembered the word.

“Listen, things happen. In Feinstein’s at the Regency two scary-looking guys, like from the mob, sat front row. I was talking about once selling my BMW and buying a Ford truck to drive to Texas to live on a ranch. And out loud one guy goes, ‘Why would you do that?’ ”

Singing eight times a week when you’re on Broadway, how do you protect your voice?

“Wear a scarf, drink lots of water, hot tea, stay quiet, don’t talk much, get a little personal steamer. And don’t push. Don’t belt. I was actually opening at the Carlyle when COVID hit. We got closed down. My assistant and I ended up driving home, three days, to Texas.”

Joe’s Pub is closer. Go see Betty Buckley.

Up your alley?

1947, Tyrone Power crept down a dark “Nightmare Alley.” Now Bradley Cooper’s creeping down this same dark alley. Only this alley’s darker.

Director Guillermo del Toro: “We’re doing things you couldn’t do then. More surreal, tragic. More noir. A character portrait. We’re showing what ‘noir’ is. This talk about truth, lies, the almost mercuric, unstoppable rise of a liar and the way we are cruel to each other. Feels right for the moment we’re in as a society.”

Yeah, great. Sunday’s Oscars — leave us nobody saying it’s a “noir” show, and that includes “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” — have this film up for four, including Best Picture. But try to find someone who’s seen it.

So, this guy asked the secret of his new assistant’s success as a door-to-door salesman. Answered the assistant: “It’s easy. The minute a woman opens the door I say, ‘Miss, is your mother in?’ ”

Only in New York, kids, only in New York.