THE city’s rich young things are fleeing New York for the sunnier clime of Los Angeles.Fed up with the constant scrutiny of their parents, childhood friends and, of course, the press, socialites Samantha Kluge, Paris Hilton, Casey Johnson, Samantha Phipps and Arianne Tunney are packing their Louis Vuitton bags and heading west.
“Los Angeles has a better day life, with the beach and driving – which is what I’m into right now,” Hilton told The Post.
“New York is just cold and depressing right now. I want to get into acting, so my work is in L.A. And a lot of people like that there’s no Page Six in Los Angeles.”
Unlike New York, “Hollywood is about celebrities and they don’t focus on ‘socialites’ – they couldn’t care less,” says Kluge, who landed in Beverly Hills last year after a messy, very public divorce.
“People don’t bother Pamela Anderson shopping, so why would they bother me?”
Now an interior designer living far from the ex-husband who made off with her friend, Kluge also designs a clothing line and runs a jewelry business – and stays out of the press.
“In Los Angeles, you have to drive everywhere, so it’s not like you are going to bump into someone. You have to make plans and can go for months without seeing anyone. In New York, you can’t just run out of your house in sweats.”
Plus, says Kluge, Los Angeles is a good place for young socialites to “go from wild and crazy cocktail parties to settling down and sorting out their life.
“It’s an easy environment to be sober and healthy in. Even most rock stars are in 12-step programs.”
New York ex-pats include Carnegie heir Tunney, who quit her job as an Esquire fashion editor last year to become a freelance Hollywood stylist, and Johnson, who left her Upper East Side apartment last month for L.A.
The 24-year-old Johnson & Johnson heir has since dropped out of the gossip columns.
Liz Cohen, a 29-year-old fashion publicist who runs with the socialites, called the exodus a phase.
“Everyone goes through a Hollywood phase and wants to get away from the scrutiny of New York and the gossip columns,” she said. “Out there, they can do stuff and not have to be reported on and just live their lives.”
Publicist Jessica Meisels, 26, is leaving on Saturday for L.A. to oversee Lizzie Grubman’s West Coast office – but plans to return every few months for “a New York fix.”
“Everyone wants to get away because they need a change,” she says. “But they’ll be back, like me. We’re all New Yorkers at heart.”