RICHARD JOHNSON: Howard Stern eyeing retirement

Howard Stern is looking forward to retirement, sources say.

The SiriusXM host is a self-professed homebody and germaphobe, who has hunkered down in his mansions in the Hamptons and Palm Beach since COVID.

“COVID has turned him into a semi-recluse. He feels safer at home,” said one insider.

Stern’s ratings have taken a beating since he told Trump supporters to stop listening to him. And Stern gets paid $90 million a year.

“Howard feels like he has gone as far as he can go, and wants to go out on a high note,” the source said.

Stern told Chaunce Hayden for his book, “Was It Something You Said?,” that he doesn’t think he’s “ever really been recognized for the impact” he’s had on the entertainment community.

“I have always been disrespected, my entire career,” he said. “I’ve influenced an entire generation of people who are now in the television industry. I probably am the single most important factor in modern entertainment today.”

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Dr. Stephen Greenberg can’t go to a Hamptons party without noticing work that’s been done. Not to the homes, to the people — he’s a plastic surgeon.

“The biggest mistake is overdoing things. Over-pulling, over-injecting. In this day and age it’s easier to make someone look natural,” he said at a recent Calissa party in Watermill. “You don’t want someone saying, ‘What did you do?’ You want them saying, ‘You look so much better.’ And not really know.”

So can he even go to a party and just relax? Not really.

“In the back of my mind I’m sometimes thinking ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “The Hamptons is a hotbed for plastic surgery and recovery. A lot of people out here are doing things minor and major.”

OK, so who’s doing it right?

“I think Kris Jenner looks good. She had a facelift recently. I do a lot of the celebrities but I can’t mention names.”

Hamptonites at the party included Jill Brooke and Ann Liguori. Greenberg was celebrating his cover story for Social Life magazine.

A mini-lift or eye work isn’t just for the ladies, Greenberg said: “Thirty percent of my procedures are for guys. It’s very common. CEOs want to look refreshed. I have them back on TV in a week.”

And for the rest of us?

“Light laser peels and sun spot removal can take 10 years off without surgery,” he recommended, then went to stand in the shade.

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Melissa Errico, married to Patrick McEnroe for 26 years, loves to sing love songs.

“I met Patrick when I was 5 years old,” she told me. “We were kids together in school.”

The mother of three daughters will perform “I Can Dream, Can’t I? — Songs of Love, Longing & Summertime” on Aug. 31 at the Southampton Arts Center with jazz pianist Tedd Firth.

Expect fresh arrangements of songs by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Joni Mitchell and more.

The busy belter just teamed up with Alec Baldwin on Saturday night to portray Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald in a sold-out reading of “The Fitzgeralds” at Guild Hall in East Hampton.

“They struggled badly with life itself,” Errico said. “Alec puts a stamp on F. Scott Fitzgerald the same way Daniel Day Lewis put a stamp on Abraham Lincoln.”

McEnroe, a former professional tennis player who’s been on ESPN for 30 years, is preparing for the U.S. Open tournament in Queens starting Tuesday.

He’ll help induct Maria Sharapova and the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike — the best men’s double team in history — into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Asked if Jannik Sinner would repeat as this year’s U.S. Open champion, McEnroe, who broadcasts with his older brother, John McEnroe, said, “I think we’ll be in for a surprise.”

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It was a stiff martini moment at Michael’s restaurant on West 55th St. as Michael Della Femina, joined by his father, advertising icon Jerry Della Femina, pitched his new comedy series “In the Weeds.”

Filming for his banner StoreFront Productions is already underway on both coasts. The series features a chaotic restaurant with eccentric staff, demanding investors and intrusive neighbors.

During the Michael’s meeting, the younger Della Femina — also co-owner of Los Angeles restaurant Croft Alley and the cocktail club Martini Confidential — enlisted his pal Michael Mailer to join the cast.

Mailer, son of Norman, is a director and producer, who told me, “I’m always looking to get away from being behind the camera! So I said yes!”

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Griffin Dunne got a big laugh promoting his memoir, “The Friday Afternoon Club,” in East Hampton.

Dunne, who took Carrie Fisher’s virginity, said, “Carrie called me from London and said ‘I’m in this piece of s–t called ‘Star Wars’ and they have me wearing two bagels on my head.’ Then it opened and they were all bigger than The Beatles.”

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Want to see politicians walk the runway dressed as fashion models?

During New York Fashion Week on Sept. 10, more than 30 elected officials, including Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will strut the catwalk in Style Across the Aisle at Manhattan Surrogate’s Court.

The bipartisan group of models will also include former Gov. David Paterson, City Council Majority Leader Amanda Farias, Minority Leader Joann Ariola, Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar and Assemblymember Eddie Gibbs, the first formerly incarcerated person elected to the NY State Legislature.

The event’s founder, Skye Ostreicher, said, “We create the rare space where government can be seen in a positive light, elevating local talent, and united across political party lines.”

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When the AppleTV+ hit “Your Friends & Neighbors” finished its first season in that fictitious Connecticut ‘burb, PBS critic Bill McCuddy turned to his wife and said, “Jon Hamm is coming to rob the Hamptons next season.”

Sure enough, the show about a former Wall Streeter-turned-cat burglar shot scenes in the popular Bridgehampton restaurant Almond last week.

“I rolled up on my bike,” McCuddy tells me. “And they were all unloading. One employee told me Hamm was incredibly nice.”

The actual plotlines of whose toney East End digs get looted won’t be revealed until next spring when season 2 debuts.

“I don’t have any Picassos or Rothkos, and all my Rolexes are from China, but I locked our doors that night just to be safe,” McCuddy joked.

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Lorraine Bracco, who starred in “Goodfellas” and “The Sopranos,” led a parade of VIPS, including designer Andrea Stark, to the Hearing the Ovarian Cancer Whisper (H.O.W.) benefit at Louise and Joe Isidori’s restaurant Arthur & Sons in Bridgehampton.

The Speak Up and Speak Loud luncheon honored Louise, whose ovarian cancer is currently in remission.

On Aug. 23, Jennifer Aydin, of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” will host a brunch to support H.O.W. at Amalfi Coastal Kitchen in the Hamptons.

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Out & About: Neil Patrick Harris and James Corden were spotted power lunching at Haven Rooftop above The Sanctuary Hotel amid rehearsals for the Broadway play “Art,” which the two will star in alongside Bobby Cannavale.