This courtroom indignity was worse than any sentence.
A Manhattan judge mocked the obscurity of an actor who plays a vampire on the TV show “The Strain” as he was brought in on charges of cocaine possession.
“Does he perform for money?” Justice Edward McLaughlin asked in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“Yes, he performs for money,” Jack Kesy’s attorney answered as the Brooklyn-based actor rolled his eyes at the defendant’s table.
“If he were Clark Gable, I would know Clark Gable’s face,” the judge said, referring to the late “Gone With the Wind” star. “I would know Ron Howard’s face, but he [the defendant] is faceless as far as I’m concerned.”
Attorney Anthony DiFiore, standing beside his embarrassed, B-list client, tried to blunt the blow.
“No, he’s not Clark Gable, but he might aspire to be,” he said. “He’s on a series on FX called ‘The Strain.’ ”
Kesy, 31, plays vampire Gabriel Bolivar, “a world famous rock star with a penchant for women and drugs,” according to the show’s website.
Prosecutor Lucy Cutolo said Kesy — whose legal name is Jacek Kesey — was intercepted on wiretaps ordering cocaine three times from a Manhattan drug delivery service dismantled by the District Attorney’s Office earlier this month.
“He ordered cocaine at the bar Pianos, on Ludlow and Rivington streets,” the prosecutor said of the Lower East Side hot spot.
Kesy exited the trendy watering hole on Jan. 2 after his dealer sent him a text message saying he was out front in a Honda — but the undercover cops watching the actor were in a similar vehicle.
“It’s my understanding Mr. Kesy tried to get into the car with detectives, not realizing they were not there to deliver his cocaine,” Cutolo said.
DiFiore told the judge that Kesy only learned there was a warrant out for his arrest when he saw an article about the bust in the New York Post last week. He surrendered to the Manhattan DA’s Office on Tuesday morning.
The judge set bail at a high $10,000 bond for the misdemeanor rap, but celebrity bondsman Ira Judelson immediately posted it.
As the handsome actor left court, wearing jeans, a white shirt and black boots, he discounted the judge’s unfavorable comparison of him to Gable: “I’m far more talented!”
Kesy, who pleaded not guilty, was one of 10 accused clients indicted for allegedly using the cocaine delivery service.