Janet Jackson will pay tribute to her late brother at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The network says she will open the show with a musical tribute to Michael Jackson, who died June 25.

Janet Jackson also honored her brother at the BET Awards in June, just days after his death.

The Video Music Awards will be presented Sunday at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

GAY FAN BEGS CLOONEY FOR A SMOOCH

A fan of actor George Clooney stripped to his boxer shorts in front of the Hollywood star and asked if he could "kiss him, just once."

"I am gay, George," the unidentified man said during a news conference at the Venice Film Festival yesterday. "Take me, choose me George, please. May I kiss you, just once?"

Clooney was unflappable in responding with a smile, "It's hard when you take a big chance and it doesn't really work."

Clooney was at the film festival in Italy to present his new movie "The Men Who Stare at Goats." The film, directed by Grant Heslov, was screened yesterday out of competition.

The actor arrived in Venice with Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis.

VIACOM CHANNELING PRO-SCHOOL ADS

Students who might be too glued to their televisions to keep up with homework are going to find channels like MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon prodding them to get on task and graduate.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is partnering with Viacom Inc.'s television networks, education leaders and celebrities in an awareness campaign to reduce the number of dropouts.

"All too often, the value and benefit of education are not real enough to kids," said Tony Miller, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

The Get Schooled initiative focuses on low graduation rates in college and high school. A student drops out of an American high school every 26 seconds, according to the Seattle-based Gates Foundation.

HIP-HOP HOMELESSNESS ALBUM YEAR'S BEST

Hip-hop songstress Speech Debelle won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize yesterday for her album "Speech Therapy," a work inspired by a period the young rapper spent homeless.

Debelle's warm vocals and clever lyrics won out over 11 other acts, including Kasabian and Bat for Lashes, to scoop the prize — a $33,000 award that typically goes to outsiders over more established acts.

The award has honored the best album of the year by a British or Irish band since 1992. Previous winners include the Arctic Monkeys, London rapper Dizzee Rascal, Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand and Antony and the Johnsons, fronted by British-born but U.S.-raised Antony Hegarsty.