DIVAS FACE OFF FOR THE MTV'S VMA'S!

It's the sleek beauty queen versus the superfreak machine at this year's MTV Video Music Awards.
Beyoncé — the high priestess of booty — will face off against Lady Gaga — the new queen of weird — on tonight's extravaganza, starting at 9 p.m. and lasting until kamikaze host Russell Brand can stop thinking of ways to make all the stars in attendance squirm.

Last year, he had just that effect on Britney Spears, who, regardless, wound up beginning her comeback from cuckooland by sweeping all the big awards that night. Without singing a single note (or even lip-syncing one) Spears stole the headlines and wound up using the show as a springboard for her whole "Circus" resurrection.

This year, Britney boasts another ample clutch of nominations (seven). But she can't hope to compete with the of-the-moment wattage cast by this year's flagrant she-queens.

Both Beyoncé and gag-me-with-a-­Gaga boast no fewer than nine nominations each, including Best Female Video, Best Pop Video and the night's big deal, Video of the Year.

More attention than usual will fall on tonight's VMAs since they're returning to the media capital, New York, for the first time in three years (to Radio City, specifically).

But what will give MTV's show its drama is the fact that its two leading mistresses couldn't be more different — both in their characters and in the content of their clips.

Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" finds her demanding love and commitment — or else. It's an ultimatum delivered in rhythm: Marry me or no more whoopee.

Gaga's clip for "Poker Face" has no such bourgeois concerns. As she vamps and leers through various orgasmic scenes, her lyrics make clear she's all about sex for its own sake.

Madonna couldn't have said it better — even if she has said it with far catchier music, many times over, in fact.
Still, so-so songs hardly stopped Gaga from becoming a gawk-worthy phenomenon in the last year, scoring hits on both the dance and the pop charts.

Her willingness to pull seemingly any visual stunt to get attention (including looking like a human-size piece of bubble gum on the cover of Rolling Stone) hasn't exactly hurt her pursuits.

The fact that she usually dresses like a an intergalactic drag queen on the way to a David Bowie look-alike contest makes perfect sense in our anything-for-attention age of reality TV. In the process, Gaga has pushed fashion to the brink, a boon to lovers of camp while a mere irritation to those who feel they've been down this "outrageous" road one too many times before.