FASHION PLATE: David Petraeus pal Jill Kelley (above) hobnobbed with top brass at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida and flaunted her honorary “diplomatic” status (inset left). (
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The social-climbing military groupie at the center of the David Petraeus sex scandal has been banned from MacDill Air Force Base.
Jill Kelley — who played unofficial hospitality hostess to Gen. Petraeus, Gen. John R. Allen and a stream of top military brass at the powerful Tampa, Fla., Central Command base — lost her unfettered base access after her claims that she had received threatening e-mails from Petraeus’ mistress, Paula Broadwell.
“She did have base access but does not currently because of her involvement in an ongoing investigation,” a military official told the Tampa Tribune.
The vivacious Kelley — who met Petraeus and his wife, Holly, when the general arrived at Central Command in 2008 — was allowed to travel around the base under a “Friends of MacDill” program for high-profile locals.
Kelley acted as the base’s unpaid “social liaison,” and with her surgeon husband, Scott Kelley, hosted glamorous parties with string quartets, free-flowing champagne and lavish food spreads. Their guests were a parade of military brass.
Kelley also was a “self-appointed” go-between for Central Command officers with Middle Eastern government officials, according the Washington Post.
One officer told the Washington Post that Kelley’s “made-up” titles appeared to be “a polite way of saying ‘rich Tampa socialite who likes to hang with four-star generals.’ ”
Kelley is also an honorary consul general of South Korea, a symbolic post that means she helps set up meetings between Tampa businessmen and South Korea’s US ambassador.
The Philly-born daughter of Lebanese immigrants embraced her role — and got a specialized license plate for her Mercedes that reads: “Honorary Consul 1JK.”
Officials are investigating how Kelley qualified for the plate. Applicants must show they are members of the Honorary Consular Corps to receive one, a state DMV spokesperson said.
Kelley made several calls to police this week regarding the media outside her $1.5 million waterfront manse.
“You know, I’m an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability,” Kelley said in one call. “I don’t know if you want to get diplomatic, uh, protection involved as well.”