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Le Cirque was French for “circus.” Circo was Italian for “circus.” Barnum & Bailey closed when its four-legged headliners retired. When two-legged types did the same, Le Cirque and sister ship Circo followed.

Gone over the holidays, I missed the stories written about them — so I ask forgiveness. I need to say my own belated thank yous to Sirio, wife Egi, sons Mario, Mauro and Marco. I’ve holiday’d with them in Montecatini. They must never think I don’t remember.

Le Cirque was once magic. Jacket and tie. Ladies in hats and gloves. Starched tablecloths. Tuxedo’d waiters. Customers waiting for tables. Sirio always hollering at some waiter. Chefs were Boulud, Bouley, Sailhac, Zakarian. Branches opened in Vegas, Dubai, Mexico, Paris, India, on steamships.

The James Beard Awards. Lifetime achievement awards. Presidents, prime ministers, reigning royals, Hollywood stars, mayors, governors. Trump, Reagan, aces, kings, queens, even Jacks like Kennedy and Paar. So many celebs. When Ron Wood wanted a table, Sirio didn’t even know who he was.

A clientele ages. Years helped do them in. One can’t eat salt. One’s MD says no gravy. One winters in Florida. One’s second wife hated the husband’s first wife’s places. One moved. One thinking he still has movement moved downtown. One European can’t smoke there.

The last Le Cirque opened ’06. Months ahead, I helped inspect the place. Rushing to arrive, Sirio left his phone in the cab. He called it. A lady answered. He invited her — on his cellphone — for dinner as his guest.

New York can never forget Le Cirque.

A Peek at the Antiques

Park Avenue Armory’s Winter Antiques Show. Invitees were worth more then the antiques: Mike Bloomberg with his decorator Jamie Drake; Nicky Hilton Rothschild with husband James Rothschild; Sec’y of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who probably doesn’t buy retail.

Drew Barrymore noticed those King George-the-who-knows silver candlesticks. Wedding gift maybe for Prince Harry? Not something Miss Markle already has two of.

And everyone loved the Civil War’s handmade presidential Quaker ladies’ quilt embroidered with candidates Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant’s names and the phrase: “Reunion Forever.” Maybe a nice little throw for the stone wall in Democratic headquarters.

Marriage advice

Pay Attention. Police Athletic League (PAL) landed His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan for its next luncheon.

Last week’s lunch event starred NYC Public Advocate Letitia James, who told me: “Prospect Heights was my backyard as a kid. When I’d get lost, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building was my guideline.

“I wanted to be a lawyer. My father, a maintenance man, said, ‘Lawyers are liars. Marry a plumber.’ He told one gas-station attendant, ‘She’s smart, single and available.’ Mortified, I made a run for the car.”

Forget the car. Her next run could be for mayor.

In the pictures

D. Dinkins, inhabitant of Gracie Mansion a few elections ago, showed off a cellphone photo of his 1953 wedding plus 1945 pictures of himself in the Marine Corps plus a photo of “my little son, who’s now 63” plus: “God willing and the creek don’t rise — as they say in Alabama — I may become a great grandfather.”