RICHARD JOHNSON: Harry Belafonte was a true heartthrob, Russia’s Putin said to use lookalikes to avoid danger

Harry Belafonte was a heartthrob women dreamed about.

Roger Smith is a Time Warner veteran who is so unknown he titled his podcast, “Who the F*** Is Roger Smith?”

When Belafonte died Tuesday at 96, Smith recalled how, when he was at Harvard in 1962, he got a postcard from his mother.

“Your father and I are on a wonderful trip to Italy,” she wrote.

“We are staying at the Hassler in Rome and I have just discovered that Harry Belafonte is just a few doors down from us. I am trying to give your father the slip and, with any luck, you will never hear from me again.”

Smith told me, “My mother was not given to making jokes — she was, I suspect, only slightly exaggerating.”

Ten years later, Smith was leaving the Russian Tea Room when he spotted his friend Bobby Short, the cabaret singer, in a banquette with Belafonte.

“I stopped to say a brief hello to Bobby, who then introduced me to his lunch guest,” Smith said.

“I quickly told him the story of my mother’s unrequited passion for him, quoting her postcard almost word for word. He listened, flashed his megawatt smile, and said in a sexy intonation, ‘Tell your mother I am back from Rome!’”

In the 18 episodes of RogerSmithPodcast.com, Smith has stories about Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Sly Stallone and many others.

****

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin isn’t so strong. He’s been battling cancer for years — but he has several healthy doubles filling in for him, sources say.

Putin is copying Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who used doubles to avoid assassination and lived to be 90, and North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-Un, whose less-hefty doubles led to stories about his weight loss.

Kremlin spies scout provincial theaters for Putin lookalikes, who then get plastic surgery and training.

“Putin sends doubles on trips he deems dangerous, like his last two visits to the Ukraine,” said one Russian source.

****

Hailee Steinfeld has heart.

The “True Grit” star heard about Annaliese Šuljić, a 12-year-old who donated her long locks of hair for cancer, and recorded a video for her.

The girl’s aunt, As If magazine editor-in-chief Tatijana Shoan, who lost her mother and her niece’s mother to cancer last year, told me, “These tragedies have been creating anxiety and depression in my 12-year-old niece.

“To battle these feelings she chose to donate her hair to cancer, which is huge for a young girl who had long, thick hair.

“When I told Hailee about this she recorded a video for me to send. It meant the world to my niece.”

****

Beware of surgically created six-packs.

More men are getting liposuction on their abdomens, but they won’t admit it.

“People think Drake had it done, but he denied it,” said Dr. Scott Blyer.

There is speculation that Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino got his impressive stomach muscles from surgery, but his abs were there on “Jersey Shore” before the surgery was popular and before he could have afforded it.

Sorrentino’s co-star Ronnie Ortiz-Magro had the surgery in 2019 after fathering a baby and halting his two and a half hour a day workouts.

Dr. Blyer, who has performed hundreds of abdominal surgeries, said, “If you are massively overweight it doesn’t work.”

But with a normal sized man, “you can carve out a six-pack in an hour and a half. It’s like sculpting.”

And it’s a lot less work than natural muscles, Blyer said. Without surgery, “You have to eat so clean and work out like a maniac to get a six-pack.”

****

The Russo brothers, Joe and Anthony, picked an Italian restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to celebrate “Citadel,” their new TV series on Amazon Prime.

Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci and Priyanka Chopra — with hubby Nick Jonas — came last Saturday to Antica Pesa Rome.

Tucci ended the evening by visiting the kitchen to thank chef Simone Panella and his crew for the feast.

“Citadel” features Madden and Chopra as two spies who travel the world fighting evil “while contending with a relationship built on secrets, lies, and a dangerous-yet-undying love,” according to the promo.

****

Matt Damon is either very slow, or very fast.

He gave a 46th birthday party for his wife, interior designer Luciana Barroso, although her birthday is July 31, at the downtown club Casa Cipriani last Saturday.

Damon arranged for a table of 12 friends including Ben Affleck’s brother, Casey Affleck, and President George W. Bush’s daughter, activist Barbara Pierce Bush.

The Damons held hands and kissed affectionately through the party, which went until midnight.

****

Coinciding with the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute Ball honoring designer Karl Lagerfeld on Monday, Isabelle Bscher’s Galerie Gmurzynska on E. 78th St. will open “30 Years of Exhibiting Karl Lagerfeld” on May 10.

The exhibition will feature Lagerfeld’s favorite photos he took of Nicole Kidman, Ryan Gosling, Pamela Anderson and Sylvester Stallone.

In London, actor George Hamilton will help Bscher open a show June 22 of Lagerfeld’s photos of New York fire escapes, flowers and celebrities at the Treasure House Fair.

****

Grammy Award-winner Stephen Marley, the son of Bob Marley, has confided that he will perform as part of the Babylon by Bus Summer Tour at The Clubhouse in East Hampton on July 29.

Marley’s newest single “Old Soul” just dropped on his 51st birthday on April 20.

The event, produced by Murmrr and MRR Productions, will give a portion of the ticket sales to Ghetto Youths Foundation.

****

Drew Barrymore just had D’yan Forest, the 88-year-old comedienne, on her TV show.

Barrymore is also among Forest’s legion of fans invited to Joe’s Pub to see her one-woman show on May 2.

Forest has been hailed as the “naughty version of Betty White,” and has worked with Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan and the late Joan Rivers.