Justin Bieber — joking for the first time about the now-dropped paternity charges a California woman lodged against him — said it would have been a better scandal had he run off with a supermodel.

“If it was up to me, it would be a better story, like ‘Justin Bieber went off to South America with this 27-year-old supermodel,’ ” he said, drawing laughs on radio’s “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show” yesterday.

PHOTOS: JUSTIN BIEBER

Bieber also shrugged off the threat of a lawsuit by his alleged baby mama, Mariah Yeater.

“People make false accusations,” he said. “But things happen in this industry, and you just have to keep your head high.”