A portrait of Michael Jackson is up for auction online. The eBay.com auction of the fantastical 50-by-40-inch painting by Australian artist Brett-Livingstone Strong began last night, the portrait's owner said Tuesday.

Titled "The Book," the colorful work is reportedly the only painting for which the King of Pop ever posed.

The painting originally was sold to Japanese businessman Hiromichi Saeki for $2.1 million in 1990. Toy inventor Marty Abrams and his partner John Gentilly acquired the painting from Saeki in 1992 as payment for a debt. Abrams hopes it will fetch more than $3 million in the auction, which is scheduled to end April 17. The minimum starting bid will be $2.75 million.

FRANCE'S FIRST LADY TURNS PAGE ON RUMORS

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy yesterday dismissed as "insignificant" rumors of infidelity by her and her husband, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and brushed off theories that lies were planted in a plot to bring down the glamorous couple.

She said in an interview that she and Sarkozy "have turned the page" and suggested the media to do the same.

CLANCY'S NEW THRILLER FEATURES OLD FRIENDS

Tom Clancy is bringing together such favorite characters as Jack Ryan and John Clark for "Dead or Alive," a thriller set in the post-Sept. 11 age of terrorism.

Publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), announced yesterday that it plans a first printing of 1.75 million copies when the book comes out in December.

Clancy is known for such best-sellers as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Patriot Games."

ACTORS PROTEST SCHOOL CUTS IN VIDEO

Megan Fox and her sometime boyfriend, actor Brian Austin Green, are protesting California school budget cuts in a new video online.

In a video posted yesterday on the comic Web site FunnyorDie.com, Fox urges viewers to "call, write and annoy the governor until he cries for his mommy."

She said more than $17 billion has been cut from state educational programs over the past two years, and Green said the "terminators in Sacramento" plan to cut another $2.5 billion.

— Advertiser News Services