WASHINGTON — John Ridley doesn’t see anything wrong with paying $9,800 for a martini he didn’t particularly like.

“You hear about it, and it’s so insane that you have to try it,” he said. “Some people jump out of a plane for an adventure; I bought an expensive drink.”

But his real explanation is that sometimes writers do crazy things for a good story. Ridley, who penned the big screen hits “Three Kings” and “U-Turn,” chronicled his humorous $490-per-sip experience for National Public Radio last month.

It’s the ice, not the drink, that’s expensive. At the Algonquin Hotel in New York, each of the special-ordered martinis contains a several-carat diamond submerged in the vodka, and requires the drinker to meet with a jeweler a day in advance to discuss the cut and clarity of the stone.

So far, only two of the Algonquin’s diamond-laden drinks have been ordered. The first, purchased in December, was used by a New York man to propose to his girlfriend (He spent $13,000; she said yes).

Ridley’s high-society stunt had a different but still noble cause. He sold his 1.5-carat diamond and donated the proceeds to the Walter Reed Society, which assists relatives of troops under care at the Army hospital, to bring awareness to the charity.

“When it comes to war, most people get in their heads one of two outcomes: Either the troops will come back to their loved ones, or they’ll be killed,” he said.

“But it gets out of people’s minds the number of people injured. No matter how you feel about the war, you have to think of these soldiers.”

The NPR commentary, Ridley said, offered a way to get that message to millions of listeners.

And it only cost him the price of a small car.

“I didn’t tell my wife about it ahead of time,” he said, laughing. “I thought once it was all done and they ran the piece, I could explain it to her.”

Ridley said she has been very understanding, but has been calling him an idiot.

His drink order was a vesper martini — the drink of choice for James Bond in Ian Fleming’s spy novels, before Sean Connery replaced the gin and Lillet with vermouth for his onscreen, unstirred cocktail.

That literary angle, the debonair Bond image and the mystery of a cocktail less-ordered seemed perfect for the adventure Ridley was seeking.

Instead, it was stronger than he expected — good, but not what he would have preferred.

And the drink was plunked down on the bar unceremoniously, just like any other alcoholic offering.

Worse still, the diamond was nearly thrown out by an overanxious waiter clearing the bar.

That’s not exactly the experience one would expect for a drink with a $9,000-plus markup.

“You could tell the presentation was lacking,” he said. “And, clearly, there’s nothing in it that makes it taste better. But I did get a nervous thrill as it came to me. You keep thinking, ‘Is it worth writing out this check for?’

“The next day, I kept asking myself if that was the most insane thing I’ve ever done. It’s a different kind of hangover.”

Still, the donation justified the experience in Ridley’s mind. He sold the diamond for $7,000, got another $1,000 from the hotel, and earmarked the money for the Operation Iraqi Freedom Family Support Fund.

So in the end, his martini and story ended up costing only $1,800.

“People think I’m a goofball, but it was a fun thing to do,” he said. “I’ll be out looking for the next thing soon. But I have a feeling for the rest of the year, it’s going to be on the cheap.”

Migrated