Shock: Mark Shand, the great British adventurer and environmentalist, died at age 63 this morning in New York after falling late last night and hitting his head.

Let me tell you why I am so shocked. Before Mark and some friends went over to the Diamond Horseshoe club on West 46th St., he hosted a benefit fundraiser at Sotheby’s for his elephant charity. Jamie Niven helped auction off dozens of Faberge-produced “eggs” designed by artists. One of them, by Jeff Koons, sold for $850,000. The night was a total success.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame legend Sam Moore, at Shand’s request, brought his whole band including the Uptown Horns, and did a 30 minute set. The whole place was dancing. I was there. Shand danced to “Soul Man” and Moore’s other hits, took the microphone, and sang Sam’s praises. He showed us the elephant tattoo on his right forearm and said, “I got this when I first went to save the elephants.”

One of the eggs was signed by Prince Charles and Shand’s sister,  Camilla Parker -Bowles. The artist turned it into Humpty Dumpty. Everyone wanted it.

It was the one and only time I ever spent in the company of Mark Shand. Even if he hadn’t died, suddenly and tragically, today, I would have told he was one of the most charming, down to earth, nicest people I’d ever met.  The fact that he died in accident a short time later is just stunning. I’m sure everyone who was at Sotheby’s, including his daughter, is in shock.

Lesson that can never be over-stated: Life is precious. Live every day to the fullest.

Poor Justin Bieber. Wherever he goes, social problems follow. Remember when he went to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam? He wrote that he knew the most famous victim of the Holocaust would have been a “Belieber.”

Now Justin’s in Japan, where he stopped by a shrine to World War II military criminals. Of course, he offered prayers– to criminals– then sent the whole thing out on Instagram.

He later replaced the picture of him bowing his head in front of the shrine with a snapshot of a Time magazine headline.

Bieber then wrote on Instagram:

“While in Japan I asked my driver to pull over for which I saw a beautiful shrine. I was mislead to think the Shrines were only a place of prayer. To anyone I have offended I am extremely sorry. I love you China and I love you Japan”

The first sentence is not written in grammatical English. “For which I saw”– what is that? Then “I was mislead”? Does he mean “misled”? Sayonara, Justin.

Japanese fans were not amused by all this.

Here’s one example:

charlene_yeo @rara0691 I think when he already knew the picture offended so many people all over the world, he should apologize.but he just deleted it and posted another pic with some guy in the shrine. That s the point that I think we are mad about him

And:

moeishida that particular shrine honours all the people who lost their lives because of the war…its not just for the war criminals. among the many people honoured are children and women, people who didn’t directly take part in the fighting.

Last night’s Friars dinner for legendary comics Freddy Roman and Stewie Stone made history.

Nasal comedian Gilbert Gottfried told a joke “so dirty and disgusting” — according to sources– that legendary comic Shecky Greene up and left. He left not only the Pierre Hotel ballroom, but possibly the Friars Club as well. Joy Behar, who was in the audience, was asked to sub for him. “And she did a great job,” my source said.

I’m waiting now for Shecky to check in.

But sources say Greene was on deck after Gottfried finished up. Gottfried, relieved of his duties as the voice of the AFLAC duck after another controversy, couldn’t resist. Apparently the joke he told was much much worse than the “Aristocrats,” a joke so filthy that a whole documentary was made about it.

I can’t really reprint the joke here. It has to do with hemorrhoids. And something else.

“People were throwing up, especially the older people,” says my source.

Greene, in his late 80s, was horrified. He’s so mad that he left the hotel and vowed to quit the Friars. Today he missed eating lunch with another legend, Larry Storch, 91, and former star of “F Troop.”

Storch was consoled by pals Stewie Stone, and the great Norm Crosby, who were already lunching at the Friars.

Other comic greats at the dinner included Robert Klein, Dick Capri and Lainie Kazan. Sopranos star Dominic Chianese and singer Tony Orlando also attended.

EXCLUSIVE I know. You’re thinking: Is this possible? But in the mid 90s Michael Jackson went into business with Gary Goddard, now one of the defendants announced today in the so-called “X Men” pedophile cases. The business was Landmark Entertainment, and it was designed to build theme parks. Jackson, Goddard, and Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia were all partners in it.

Goddard has a picture of himself, Jackson and the Prince in a three way handshake at the time of the consummation of their deals.

This was during a time also in the mid 1990s when the Prince and his main aide, Tarak Ben Ammar, were managing Michael’s career. It’s the same time, coincidentally, when Goddard, then working with the Prince and Michael Jackson, is accused of allegedly being involved in parties with underage boys.

At that time, Jackson was in a kind of career limbo, between his scandals and the 2001 release of “Invincible.” He was also going broke quickly and hoping the Prince would bail him out. Kingdom Entertainment–an outgrowth of the Prince’s Landmark Entertainment– was supposed to do that but it didn’t.

Soon after all this, Michael’s best friend and adviser became Marc Schaffel, a producer of gay pornography.

Simply by coincidence, Michael Jackson was arrested for, and acquitted of, child molestation a few years later. Rumors even in the mid 90s of Jackson’s problems with boys never fazed Prince Alwaleed.

Now Goddard– who according to his website is still in business with Prince Alwaleed– is accused by Michael Egan III of plying him with drugs and participating in sex parties, even though Egan was about 14 or 15. The events are alleged to have taken place in the homes of a convicted child molester.

 Here’s a video well worth watching of Jackson, et al:

Attorney Jeff Herman at presser today at Four Seasons Hotel. He filed lawsuits today against three men who allegedly gave Michael Egan III drugs and threw sex parties where he was attacked. The men are Garth Ancier, Gary Goddard, and David Neuman. All of the allegations concerning sex and drugs at Hawaii parties where Egan was abused are alleged.

Ancier is the biggest name. He ran two of the three biggest broadcast networks. He’s former chairman of BBC America.  David Neuman is a former Disney president and chief programmer at CNN. Goddard has an entertainment company. He produced the Broadway revival of “Hair” and several other Broadway shows. His original company was Landmark Entertainment.

Obviously, in these lawsuits everyone named is innocent until proven guilty. But Herman has created a tsunami in Hollywood. He brought Egan’s mother, Bonnie Mound, a very believable potential witness who has a lot of evidence and ammunition not only against the defendants but about FBI agents whom she says ignored her.

The allegations and lawsuit against Singer are so bad that 20th Century Fox has removed Singer from all “X Men” publicity.

Herman told the press that threats of lawsuits from Marty Singer, professional Hollywood bulldog. “I won’t be bullied and I’m not going to be scared,” he said.

Last week Herman sued “X Men” director Bryan Singer (no relation to his lawyer, Marty) for allegedly raping and giving drugs to Egan when he was a teenager. The events took place at parties in Los Angeles and Hawaii, at a home owned by convicted pedophile Marc Collins-Rector.