US News

A NIGHT OF POMP-ADORE

Cheers, mate!

Some 400 friends and colleagues of legendary Post columnist Steve Dunleavy marked the retirement of the tabloid titan at a big bash in the Theater District – calling him a “man of the people” who’d do anything to score a scoop.

Dunleavy, famous for his oversized pompadour and trademark cigarette, called it quits following a 55-year career that included chronicling the famous and infamous while collecting big bar tabs and even bigger stories. “I’ll miss you all,” Dunleavy, 70, told the crowd packed inside Bourbon Street Bar and Grille on Wednesday night.

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Those who honored Dunleavy included News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy and former “A Current Affair” host Maury Povich, accompanied by his wife, Connie Chung.

“Your dedication to your work, your inspiration to others and loyalty to the paper defies description,” Murdoch said as Dunleavy and wife Gloria looked on. “It’s exceptional. I’ve never seen anything like it my whole life.”

A defender of cops and firefighters, the Australian-born scribe famously arrived in New York on New Year’s Eve 1966 with 10 bucks in his pocket and joined The Post a decade later.

Although he covered presidents and dictators, Dunleavy made a name for himself as the defender of the little guy. In his columns, Dunleavy pulled no punches – lambasting liberals and sticking up for cops. “He’s larger than life,” Kelly said of Dunleavy. “Everyone in uniform loves him.”

Dunleavy, who traded newsprint for TV in 1986 to work as a reporter for “A Current Affair,” returned to The Post in 1995.

Cassidy, who presented Dunleavy with a fire helmet, said, “your success is related to the fact that you’ve never forgotten the common man.”

clisi@nypost.com