On the Road to Love (and Elsewhere) With JFK Jr.

Books come and go across the Social Climes desk, but we’re usually interested only in the ones that are about shopping, travel or food.

But who could resist the hubba-hubba color photo that adorns the cover of “Prince Charming: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story” by Wendy Leigh.

Since we didn’t have time to paw through every page, we decided to just read the index.

Under “Kennedy, John F., Jr.” we found “travels to . . . “ Africa, Aland archipelago, Antigua, Argentina, Aspen, Cambodia, Caroline Islands, Greece, Guatemala, Hawaii, India, Ireland, London, Mexico, Paris, Russia, St. Barthelemy island, St. Martin, South Africa and Switzerland.

Under “romance with . . . “ we found Christina Haag, Darryl Hannah, Jenny Christian, Julie Baker, Madonna and Sally Munro. Sounds like a pretty good life to us.

We also found one reference to “nude photo.” We had to check that one out and discovered that while on a trip to St. Bart’s, John Jr. was captured sans clothes by a travel agent.

Kind-hearted soul that she was, the woman, Leigh reports, rejected all financial offers from buyers and kept it for herself and few close friends.

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Scratch and Sniff: After spending six hours at South Coast Plaza recently on a marathon shopping spree, our legs ached and our head was spinning from merchandise overload. Yet something did manage to catch our eye at the fragrance counter at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Two casually dressed women were discussing something with a saleswoman. One of the women had a Fendi bucket bag slung across her body. And in the bag sat a very patient little white dog. Shopped out too, no doubt.

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Essentials: What you need to maneuver the L.A. scene: The respiratory ailment du jour. When someone says hello and follows it with, “How are you?” the correct response is no longer “Fine, thanks. You?”

With the Santa Anas kicking up, the flu about to engulf us all, and air that’s been tainted with ash and smoke, it is now considered proper to go on at length about your symptoms and treatments. The offering of a tissue is also considered good form.