Buttafuoco Recognized in L.A.--and Accused of Soliciting : Undercover sting: The mechanic rose to celebrity after his affair with ‘Long Island Lolita’ Amy Fisher. His publicist calls the arrest on Sunset Strip ‘a joke.’

Joey Buttafuoco, the Long Island auto mechanic whose affair with teen-ager Amy Fisher turned him into a made-for-TV celebrity, was arrested late Wednesday night for allegedly trying to buy sex from an undercover police officer on Sunset Boulevard.

In Hollywood to film the upcoming Fox TV series “Liars,” Buttafuoco approached a vice squad officer posing as a prostitute and solicited her, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Paul Tingirides said.

Uniformed officers swiftly arrested Buttafuoco, booked him and released him on his own recognizance, Tingirides said. He will be arraigned June 15.

Buttafuoco, 39, flew back to New York early Thursday--not even sticking around for a long-scheduled news conference to hype a series of $12,500 portraits depicting him straddling a motorcycle. He left behind a cluster of public relations experts to handle his defense.

Calling the prostitution charge “pathetic,” publicist Sherri Spillane said Buttafuoco had just been “clowning around” with the undercover officer outside a convenience store on the Sunset Strip.

“Joey Buttafuoco does not need to buy sex,” she said, chuckling at the very idea. “I’ve been with him for three days, and women have been throwing themselves at him. He’s in love with his wife, and he wouldn’t do anything [to deceive her], but if he did, the last thing he would do would be to buy sex. It’s a joke.”

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Buttafuoco’s tryst with “the Long Island Lolita” blasted into the news when Fisher shot his wife, Mary Jo, in the head in 1992. Buttafuoco served four months in jail after pleading guilty to statutory rape. And Fisher is now imprisoned on a 5- to 15-year sentence for assaulting her romantic rival.

Throughout the affair, Mary Jo Buttafuoco loyally stuck by her husband. On Thursday, she defended him once again, saying she believes the police set him up.

But Tingirides said the undercover sting was not aimed at Buttafuoco. In fact, he said, the lone officer working Sunset Boulevard logged six other arrests Wednesday night. None of the suspects have received as much attention as Buttafuoco, however.

A spokeswoman for “Liars,” which is billed as a “relationship show” that mixes confessional chat and competitive games, said she could not comment on whether Buttafuoco’s arrest might force him off the network--or, conversely, boost his appeal.

She did acknowledge that “we hired him because of his name recognition.”