Thousands of Michael Jackson fans flocked yesterday to the Indiana city where he spent the first 11 years of his life for a memorial celebration for the King of Pop.

Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were expected to attend the two-hour event, which was to feature area singers performing Jackson tunes, video tributes and a question-and-answer session with some of Jackson's former neighbors and teachers. An hour before the event started, about 4,000 fans were already at the Steel Yard minor-league baseball park, about 2.5 miles from Jackson's boyhood home.

UNDERWOOD TO PERFORM FOR TROOPS

Carrie Underwood will headline a Salute to the Troops Concert next month at Fort Campbell, Ky.

A spokeswoman for Underwood says the show is one of only a handful of live performances she is doing this summer as she works on a new album for later this year.

The Aug. 14 concert for the soldiers and their families will also feature John Rich and Jake Owen.

'BRUNO' FAULTED FOR 'HURTFUL STEREOTYPES'

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said yesterday that "Bruno," the new film starring Sacha Baron Cohen, reinforces negative stereotypes and "decreases the public's comfort with gay people."

GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios, who saw the film yesterday, said that "the movie was a well-intentioned series of sketches — some hit the mark and some hit the gay community pretty hard and reinforce some damaging, hurtful stereotypes."

In a style similar to his popular Borat character, Baron Cohen brings Bruno, a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista, into ridiculous situations with unsuspecting everyday people.

FORMER BEATLE GUESTS ON LETTERMAN

Paul McCartney is going back to the Ed Sullivan Theater.

The former Beatle will have his first appearance on David Letterman's "Late Show" on Wednesday.

He'll be interviewed and perform, part of a promotion for some shows he's doing this summer.

The theater is where McCartney and the rest of the Beatles made their famous American debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show" 45 years ago.

IN COURT, HILTON SAYS SHE PLUGGED FILM

Paris Hilton repeatedly fussed with her hair and makeup in a federal courtroom yesterday, sported 6-inch stiletto heels and a black dress and amused the judge with a little wave on the way to the witness stand.

Once on the stand, though, Hilton was businesslike when it came to defending herself against an $8 million lawsuit's claim that she didn't do her part to promote the 2006 box-office bomb "Pledge This!" She acknowledged in court the movie didn't turn out very well but insisted she plugged it for everything she was worth.