DANA TRIED DESPERATELY TO DODGE DRUG TEST

The day before she died of an overdose, Dana Plato privately begged shock-jock Howard Stern not to submit her hair for drug testing after boasting over the air she was drug-free. She said, I want my hair back. Thats when I knew she was lying, Stern said yesterday.

The day before she died of an overdose, Dana Plato privately begged shock-jock Howard Stern not to submit her hair for drug testing – after boasting over the air she was drug-free.

“She said, ‘I want my hair back.’ That’s when I knew she was lying,” Stern said yesterday.

“That’s when I knew she must have been on drugs.”

The 34-year-old star of the ’70s sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes” died of a drug overdose Saturday night after swallowing a mixture of Valium and the painkiller Loritab.

Her tragic death came just one day after she made an emotional appearance on Stern’s top-rated radio show, swearing her days of getting high were over forever.

When several listeners said Plato – who had battled drug addiction for years – sounded stoned, the actress, near tears, offered to submit locks of her hair to send off for testing.

Stern producer Gary Dell’Abate snipped a few hairs, and Plato bragged the results would vindicate her.

But yesterday, Stern said a dramatic tug-of-war for the hair developed moments after the show ended.

“She gave us the hair – then she said, ‘No, I want it back.’ And Gary wouldn’t give it back and it was a whole big mess,” Stern said.

Plato grabbed the hair momentarily, but then relented and returned it – again professing her sobriety.

“We still have her hair. Obviously, we don’t have to test it now,” Stern said.

“We had a lot of deception going on, I think.”

Authorities believe Plato’s death in Oklahoma was accidental, although a probe was continuing.

Stern’s bombshell came as several callers – and the mother of Todd Bridges, Plato’s TV co-star – blamed Stern for possibly driving her over the edge.

“After going on his show maybe she thought, ‘I need to take a Valium to calm me down because people think I’m on drugs,'” Betty Bridges told The Post.

“If you’re not taking drugs and they’re saying you are, then you’re tripping out. She’s very sensitive.”

Bridges suggested Plato turned to drugs after her mom, Kay, died in the 1980s of a blood disease that resulted in the amputation of her arms and legs.

Stern said he didn’t feel any blame, insisting Plato seemed to be enjoying herself on his show.

“Maybe we gave her her last good time. She thanked me afterward. She was sweet, very nice,” he said.

Meanwhile, Todd Bridges told TV’s “Inside Edition,” “I thought something was wrong … I was hoping I was wrong … You could see it on Dana’s face that she was hurting and she needed a lot of help.”

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