Gov. Paterson Canoodling With Mystery Woman?

Was Governor David Paterson of New York canoodling with a mystery woman at a New Jersey steakhouse yesterday for lunch? Well, fellow patrons seem to think something was up.

"I saw him kissing her neck," said Sharon Farrell, a lawyer sitting two tables away from Paterson and his mystery gal pal at the River Palm Terrace in Edgewater. "He was right on her neck, nudging, like back and forth."

Paterson's spokeswoman later said the governor's dining partner was just a friend, and that he never got romantic with her.

The governor himself told The Post that the woman "works with me."

But Farrell said, "No way it was a business meeting . . . It was very intimate."

Farrell's friend and dining companion, special-ed teacher Carol McGuirt, said Paterson and his lady friend, a leggy Latina in her 20s, were ensconced in a cozy, curved banquette for several hours during lunch, and clearly were enjoying each other's company -- immensely.

"A young, young girl was with him," McGuirt said of Paterson, who was stylishly accoutered in a shiny purple dress shirt and slacks. "I would say they looked like a young couple who are very into each other . . . and enjoying themselves."

"She was very attractive," McGuirt said of Paterson's friend. "They were very close together. He was leaning over and very touching. They were like teenagers."

After Paterson was sworn into office to replace the disgraced Governor Eliot Spitzer, Paterson admitted to extramarital affairs and that he misused campaign funds to pay for the romps. This isn't exactly breaking any new ground, but it appears that Paterson's fallen back into old habits.