Galella’s gala gall got him in

LEGENDARY paparazzo Ron Galella got a friend to smuggle him into the Met Ball, he says.

Galella — who was famously tried in 1972 for “obsessively” snapping Jackie O — is publishing a book of his photography from the iconic gala, which he has shot since 1967.

The notoriously dogged fotog told us that in the first few years of the event, photographers just needed a press card to get into the annual party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But when it became a must-shoot for every snapper in town, organizers made photographers apply for credentials.

“I had a problem,” Galella told Page Six. “They turned me down. So I went to a friend of mine, [current NY1 reporter] George Whipple — he had a local TV crew. And he got me in as his still photographer.” A rep for Whipple didn’t get back to us.

Galella added, “Sometimes I even went through the back entrance to get in. There was an employees entrance at the museum, down at the end of the building.”

But, he said, “then I became famous because of the Jackie trial, and then I got invited!”

The slippery tactics were worthwhile, he says. Some of his favorite shots, which are included in the forthcoming “Costume Galas and Parties: 1967-2009,” include Richard Avedon with “Audrey Hepburn in a feather outfit”;

Paloma Picasso’s then-husband Rafael Lopez-Cambil “picking up Iman”; and Martha Stewart “looking down at her [own] boobs.” More recent shots in the book include Lady Gaga and Kylie Jenner.

Galella says he shot Jackie Oat the event several times, including one memorable occasion shortly after the trial. “She was smiling because I was there, and I had a restriction: I couldn’t photograph Jackie” from within 25 feet, he said, adding, “People think she’s my enemy — it’s not true.”

Galella still shoots the event every year, even though he now uses a wheelchair. “I’m lucky — they give me a good spot next to ‘Entertainment Tonight,’ ” he said. “I get great shots.”