RICHARD JOHNSON: Trump, Cuomo brothers the brunt of jokes at Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is back in New Orleans.

The pre-Lent festivities, canceled last year because of COVID, have resumed and the mood, while joyous, is anti-politics.

Among the dozens of floats separated by marching bands and costumed knights on horseback were parodies mocking President Biden, former President Donald Trump, top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, plus former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his ex-CNN host brother, Chris.

Mardi Gras group Krewe of Chaos seemed nicer to Biden, depicted in sunglasses with two thumbs up — and hair on his head — than to Trump, who was in a straitjacket.

The Trump float was titled “The Back Nine Sore Loser Retirement Country Club.”

Observant viewers noticed a rendition of Biden’s son, Hunter, on the back of the president’s float smoking a crack pipe.

The cheering crowds caught necklaces of plastic beads, made in China, as another float rolled by showing Fauci with two mouths. A sign on one side said “10 Days” while a sign on the other said “5 Days.”

The Cuomo brothers were ridiculed, as well, with former CNN star Chris Cuomo in the front saying, “Oh, brother,” and Andrew Cuomo behind the bars of “Me Too Jail.”

The last Mardi Gras in 2020, held just before COVID closed things down, was a superspreader event leading to 50,000 infections.

But it’s already a fading memory for celebrants who just want to let the good times roll.

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The hanging deaths in prison of both Jeffrey Epstein and his former partner in MC2 Model Management, Jean-Luc Brunel, should be worrisome for Ghislaine Maxwell, sources say.

Maxwell, Epstein’s former lover, is set to be sentenced in June on sex-trafficking charges.

But the alleged jail cell suicides of Epstein and Brunel, who was imprisoned in France, don’t bode well for her.

“A Vegas oddsmaker should create a betting pool on this,” Michael Gross, author of “Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women,” told me. “I hope MI6 doesn’t get their hands on her.”

The odds of two prisoners in related cases offing themselves is .00093, a mathematician told me. And there is plenty of motive.

When Maxwell, 60, is sentenced to hard time, she could write a book that would name the rich and powerful men who partied with her and Epstein.

“The music pounds, the champagne flows,” went the opening lines of Gross’ 1995 book. “There is brimstone in the air … It is the smell of a factory that feeds on young girls.”

Gross’ story, “The Modeling’s Miscreants” due out in PARK magazine in March, quotes Brunel saying, “You (sleep) with a model, is that a crime?”

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Media mavens will love “F*ck Off, Chloe: Surviving the OMGs and FMLs in your Media Career” (Skyhorse) by first-time author Jeremy Murphy.

The book, out March 1, skewers wokeism in media and Gen Zers with prewritten value statements.

Murphy, founder of 360bespoke, a New York-based customized media agency, and longtime VP at CBS, calls the title a “pocket b—ch, because it fits in your pocket and it’s b—chy.”

Among the chapters are “How to be Literally Woke,” “Reasons why PR People Drink,” and “How to Interview with Anna,” meaning Condé Nast boss Anna Wintour.

The author’s advice: Be early; Wintour will wear sunglasses but you should not; wear color; and be yourself, even if you are uninteresting.

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Bruce Springsteen and Harrison Ford are among the VIPs who have participated in Kelly Sullivan’s FingerSmears paintings. Sullivan is expanding her business and has just bought the historic Strand Theatre in Lambertville, N.J., to reopen as a performance space.

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Chuck Schumer can sing? New York’s senior senator took the stage at Nebula nightclub in Times Square on Thursday night and performed a painless version of “I’m a Believer” by The “Monkees.

One onlooker said that he was “actually good.”

“I was pleasantly surprised at how well it landed and he had a really good voice … who knew. If it was Showtime at the Apollo he wouldn’t have been pulled off stage!”

The Community Capacity Development for the Human Justice Network was honoring its leader K. Bain and celebrating Black History Month.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams didn’t have to cover his ears.

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Philanthropist Jean Shafiroff has been spotted in Palm Beach riding around on a custom-made black scooter while recovering from foot surgery. Jean “drove’' right into the Colony Hotel for lunch at Swifty’s, startling other diners.

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Giuseppe Franco, the Beverly Hills hair guru and good friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger, has a daughter, Tatiana, 23, who just signed with Ford Models. “She’s a beauty,” said my source. “Move over, Gigi and Bella Hadid.”