LOS ANGELES — Kanye West and one of his bodyguards were arrested yesterday at Los Angeles International Airport after an altercation with paparazzi in which the rapper allegedly smashed a camera on the floor.

The pair were scheduled to board a flight to Honolulu, said LAX spokesman Marshall Lowe said.

Airport police arrested West and his road manager, Don Crowley, who also serves as a bodyguard, on suspicion of felony vandalism shortly before 8 a.m., Lowe said. He said early reports indicated that a camera valued at more than $10,000 was broken.

The incident happened before West and his bodyguard passed a security checkpoint at an airport terminal that houses American Airlines. West's publicist declined to comment yesterday.

The arrest was first reported by TMZ, which posted video showing a man in a gray hooded sweatshirt, identified by the celebrity gossip site as West. The man throws a camera to the ground.

Another man in a red jacket grabs the shooter holding the video camera. The next frames show security intervening.

TMZ reported that it was its videographer who was attacked.

'THE TWIST' RULES SINGLES CHART

According to Billboard, rock pioneer Chubby Checker's classic tune "The Twist," which helped inspire a global dance craze, is the single most popular No. 1 hit single of the past half century.

"I'm glad they've finally recognized it," Checker, 66, said of his song, which ruled the charts twice, in 1960 and 1962. C.C. said the tune was as important to history as the creation of the telephone.

Santana's "Smooth" is the No. 2 most popular, followed by Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live," and the perpetrator of that other dance craze, "The Macarena" by Los Del Rio.

AUTHOR WINS HONORARY AWARD

Maxine Hong Kingston, 67, the Chinese-American author famed for her fictionalized memoir, "The Woman Warrior," has won an honorary National Book Award for "distinguished contribution to American letters."

The National Book Foundation has also awarded a second honorary medal to publisher Barney Rosset, 86, who helped overturn U.S. censorship laws by championing Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and other controversial works.

"This year's distinguished honorees broke new ground in American literary publishing," said foundation exec director Harold Augenbraum. Nominations for competitive categories will be announced Oct. 15, and awards will be presented Nov. 19 in New York.

REALITY STAR LANDS 3-BOOK CONTRACT

Literature is about to have its final reckoning, its bloody apocalypse: Lauren Conrad, charitably described by www.Gawker.com as "the pleasantly vacant star of scripted reality show 'The Hills,' " has signed a three-book deal with HarperCollins to pen a series of novels for young adults.