Entertainment

‘CAT’S’ OUT OF THE (GUCCI) BAG!

THEY share a love of pricey shoes, a smattering of semi-famous New York friends, and a tendency to booze it up at of-the-moment boites.

But when it comes to outrageous adventures, “Sex and the City” siren Carrie Bradshaw has nothing on Cat McAllister, the impeccably dressed, amusingly shallow heroine of “Cat’s Meow” (Simon & Schuster), the first novel by Melissa de la Cruz.

In the book, Cat, a former child actress and model (she was a hit in Japan), finds herself in all kinds of fashionable jams. She blows her inheritance (Barneys is her weakness), adopts an abandoned Chinese baby (for the sake of impressing a faux royal with a soft spot for social causes), and, in order to get through it all, considers pursuing a job as a modern Messiah (hey, a girl’s gotta eat!), but takes a job as a fashion critic instead.

It’s the kind of kooky, gossip-fueled story that’s crazy enough to appear in a Vanity Fair exposé – or an episode of “Sex and the City.”

“There’s definitely an interest in women leading these trendy lives right now,” says de la Cruz, senior fashion editor at fashion Web site hintmag.com. “But Cat’s life is a fantasy version of Manhattan life. In Carrie, I see more of myself.”

Nonetheless, de la Cruz admits to dropping a few of her own experiences on the New York fashion scene into “Meow.”

For instance, Cat works as a writer for Arbiteur, a (fictional) online fashion site that has more than a few things in common with hintmag.com, where “Meow” first appeared three years ago as a serial novelette.

Cat gets snubbed by publicists manning the door at fancy N.Y.C. fashion parties, where she rubs cashmered shoulders with bold-faced locals like Calvin Klein, Ivana Trump, the sisters Sykes, Boardman and Miller – even Page Six’s Richard Johnson. De la Cruz admits to being asked to stand with paparazzi instead of inside, with the “invited guests.”

Cat binges on Manolos, Miguel Adrover and Commes des Garcons at haute department stores. The author’s a bit of a master shopper, as well.

Cat steals front-row seats at SRO Parisian couture shows; de la Cruz – well, every fashion writer’s done it at some point in their career.

De la Cruz often borrows the more outrageous of Cat’s personal quirks and experiences – from the very best sources, of course.

Cat has a closet full of dead celebrities’ clothes because de la Cruz once read in Vogue that photographer/stylemaker Lisa Eisner purchased the late Sammy Davis Jr.’s wardrobe with the intention of wearing it.

Mercedes-Benz sponsors the non-famous Cat’s “fourth annual 25th birthday party,” which initially sounds too strange to be true. But just last week, demi-socialite twins Charlotte and Samantha Ronson celebrated their birthday – at a party co-sponsored by PlayStation 2 with invitations courtesy of J.Crew.

Like the Ronsons’, Cat’s life is really just too fabulous.

“I read a lot about parties and socialites, and I know that the way the media portrays them isn’t necessarily based on their true nature,” de la Cruz says.

“But that’s the kind of women I’m writing about: These party girls who are aiming to be famous – the kind of people who are really into Botox.”

Melissa de la Cruz will read from “Cat’s Meow” Wednesday at 7.30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Astor Place, 4 Astor Place, 212-420-1322.