"I was just frigging devastated," she recalls. "It was a real sad day. I don't get how people can have all these facts and still turn away from them."

But FEMA's failure in New Orleans gives her hope that voters now see him as nakedly as, say, she was in her 1992 book, "Sex." She tells Rolling Stone: "9/11 was too ambiguous. You couldn't prove how the government was somehow in on the deal.... You could say, 'Oh, that's just Michael Moore.'... New Orleans was undeniable irresponsibility."

She's more charitable toward Tom Cruise. "(Tom and I are) both in the take-a-lot-of- (expletive) club together," says Her Madgesty, who feels they're both persecuted for their fringe faiths.

"I don't really know what Scientology is," says the dedicated kabalist. "But I don't think anybody else knows, either. They need to shut the (bleep) up."

She also forgives husband Guy Ritchie for the behavior he displays in her documentary "I'm Going to Tell You a Secret," in which we see him slapping her behind, missing her concerts and boring her with his pub songs.

"I feel like we are sort of 'The Honeymooners,' only I'm the Jackie Gleason character," she tells interviewer Neil Strauss. "Obviously, he irritates me on a significant basis, as everyone's significant other does."

Meanwhile, remember last month when Jon Bon Jovi scolded Madonna for exposing her kids to the prying media at movie openings? Madonna's rep Liz Rosenberg told us at the time, "Madonna has never brought her children to a film premiere."

Rosenberg argues that it was Lourdes' first premiere, "as far as I know," and that she's "a huge Harry Potter fan." She adds that Madonna even got a letter from pediatric legend Dr. Benjamin Spock's widow, Mary, "applauding (her) for the wonderful way she raises her children."

Fantasia seemed to have had a lock on the part, which turned Jennifer Holliday into a Broadway star. Jamie Fo, already cast for the movie, was pulling for her. Denzel Washington directed her screen test, reportedly promising that he'd do a cameo if she were cast.

But in the end, director Bill Condon and co-producer David Geffen picked Jennifer to team with Beyonce in the story of a soul trio pressured to go pop.

"I was sure Fantasia got it," Jennifer tells New York Daily News contributor Jawn Murray. "But they said they wanted me. They said I was born for this."

Still unclear is who'll play the third member of the Dreamettes (Vivian Green, Kerry Washington, Kelly Price and Jill Scott are among those said to have tried out) and Effie's brother, C.C. White (singer Omarion is said to have replaced Usher).

Angelina Jolie may be able to do without her estranged father, Jon Voight, but he's certainly grown on Diana Ross. Voight and Ross came together to the recent 20th annual Motion Picture Ball in Hollywood. A few days later, he was her date at a special screening of "Lady Sings the Blues."

They've known each other for years. But mutual friend and Motown founder Berry Gordy is being credited with playing cupid for the 66-year-old Oscar-winner and the 61-year-old former Supreme.

One friend tells us there's less than meets the eye between the two. "They probably do love each other, but not in a romantic way," says the pal, adding that they're collaborating on a movie project. "She's also working on a song for him."

Meanwhile, Voight, who won fame as a hayseed gigolo in "Midnight Cowboy," has made himself comfortable in the role of Pope John Paul II for a CBS miniseries.

Having left Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, he admits, "Free love -- what a poison that was. Free love, the destruction of family life and loyalties and the responsibilities of parents, and I've gone through that."

As the 25th anniversary of his father's death approaches, Sean Lennon is taking a bow for a horror satire about a cult that uses antique cameras to "capture the souls" of its victims. Lennon co-wrote the script and a song for "Smile for the Camera" with pal Jordan Galland. The filmmakers attended a recent screening of the 29-minute flick at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.

Hillary Clinton's press secretary, Philippe Reines, got an unexpected memento at Jerusalem's Western Wall when an Israeli soldier dropped a couple of ammo magazines. The News' Mike McAuliffe reports that Reines later found something odd in his right pant cuff -- a bullet. "It would have made a great souvenir, but traveling around Israel or getting back into the U.S. with live ammo in my pocket didn't seem especially smart," says Reines.

Fans of Green Day were getting impatient Nov. 12 as they waited for the Grammy winners to perform at the studio of the Fuse music network. So what was the holdup? Front man Billie Joe Armstrong wanted to wear a Ralph Lauren skull-and-bones bow tie -- but nobody knew how to tie it. Heading to the band's dressing room, we used the little we've learned from too many black-tie galas. After all the sartorial drama, Armstrong yanked the tie loose after one song. The ripping show airs Dec. 4 on Fuse.

Paris Hilton's boyfriend, Stavros Niarchos, is getting the blame for an expensive late-night pillow fight at Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel. Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke reports that during the horseplay, someone threw a table that sheared off the sprinkler, causing water damage to least four rooms. But Hilton, who came to Vegas to party with Kelly Osbourne, insists she and Niarchos were asleep and had nothing to do with the mayhem.

Nightlife eminence Johnny Calvani, who's been fighting scleroderma, got a standing ovation when he rolled onstage in a wheelchair at Bed to do a set of "sitdown comedy." Calvani said he filled up so many specimen bottles during his various hospital stays "I felt like Howard Hughes in 'The Aviator.'"

Publishing powerhouse Judith Regan has parted ways with Paul Crichton, her head of publicity. Crichton quit suddenly Nov. 11, but says, "I bear her no ill will."

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