Sideshow | 2 exes pummel over Pam

Some women have launched a thousand ships.

Some, like That Mona Lisa Girl, have such a sublime, mysterious smile, they change the history of art.

And some, like Joan of Arc, are burned at the stake but granted sainthood belatedly (after only 489 years).

But Pam Anderson - Oh Pammy! - it seems, inspires chest-pounding melees between her two metalhead ex-husbands.

Yesterday Vegas cops said rap-rocker Kid Rock, who was Pam's heavenly decreed soul mate for four months, was cited for misdemeanor battery for an incident during Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards. Allegedly he walked over to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, and, in the words of MTV VJ Sway, "decked him." Pam, who was at the event, didn't get involved. Witnesses say Tommy, who sired two boys in his three-year marriage with Pam, instigated the smackdown by antagonizing Kid. If found guilty, Kid could get six months in jail, but police say a lighter sentence is more likely. No word from the naughty boys.

Extra

reached out to

Britney Spears

yesterday, inviting that wounded housepet to redeem herself - and give

Extra

a ratings boost - by performing live on the syndicated celeb show.

(Hmm, no response . . .

yet

.)

Poor Brit: Every news outlet, blog and hand-scrawled zine is dissing her attempt to reclaim her career by faking her new single on MTV's Video Music Awards on Sunday. (The N.Y. Post: A "totally lame, pathetically lip-synched" performance.)

oh brit, some of us still u.

Terry Gross

, the Philly-based guru of National Public Radio's

Fresh Air

, has won the National Book Foundation's Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

The foundation is also gifting an honorary National Book Award medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to Joan Didion, author of Slouching Toward Bethlehem and The Year of Magical Thinking, which won the National Book Award in '05.

"These two women are icons in the literary world and their contributions are now legendary," said Harold Augenbraum, exec director of the foundation.

Both women will be honored Nov. 14 at a Fran Lebowitz-hosted Manhattan do.

Meanwhile, the Philly-born composer and lyricist J. Michael Friedman, 31, has won a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. Named after Mary MacKall Gwinn Hodder, the fellowship "was created specifically for humanists in the early stages of their careers," who can use the "studious leisure afforded" by the grant to create new work, says a statement from Princeton.

It was about 2 a.m. Sunday, at one of a trillion after-VMA parties in Vegas, when

Paris Hilton

grabbed the mike at LAX Nightclub in the Luxor and heaped much love and praise on the party's host,

Christina Aguilera

.

"Congratulations to the most beautiful pregnant woman in the world. You're gorgeous," Paris said. Oops.

Aguilera has been avoiding speculation she's with child. She looked shocked. So did the crowd, which included Adrian Grenier, Melanie Brown, Criss Angel, and a bunch of cast members from The Hills. Aguilera's rep offered a no comment.

. . . continues.

The N.Y. Post has obtained pages from Rosie O'Donnell's book Celebrity Detox, due out Oct. 2, in which the former View contrarian gets all nasty about . . . Donald Trump.

Terms Rosie uses to describe The Donald: "torn scarecrow" and "a slug." As for The Donald's appearance? "Wrinkled, old and empty, with a Jell-O orange combover."

The Donald tells the Post, "I devote some time to Rosie in my book," Think Big and Kick A-, also due out next month.

Will that lambent flame, that sublime will-o'-the-wisp

Nicole Kidman

, sully herself with the style-is-substance world of Vanity Fair by portraying the mag's style maven,

Amy Fine Collins

? The N.Y. Daily News says Kidman has all but signed to star in an adaptation of Collins' memoirs,

The God of Driving: How I Overcame Fear and Put Myself in the Driver's Seat With the Help of a Good and Mysterious Man

, which details how Collins learned how to drive with the help of a most sensitive,

un

-

Hun

-like Turk named

Attila

.

Nicole's rep tells the News the actress is still mulling over the book.

Where did

James Mangold

's box-office killer,

3:10 to Yuma

, come from? Why 1957, of course. See the original version of the

Elmore Leonard

-scripted western starring

Glenn Ford

with Sony Pictures' special-edition DVD.

Lucasfilm Ltd. yesterday said the new Indiana Jones film will be titled

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

. It'll be directed by

Steven Spielberg

and will feature

Shia LaBeouf

- who Sunday night leaked the title on the

Video Music Awards.

Shia's costars include the 65-year-old Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone and John Hurt. But Indiana's dad, Sean Connery, will sit this one out. The flick is due out May 22. Info www.indianajones.com.

The much-anticipated guest appearance by late-night talk-show assassin

David Letterman

on daylight talk-show healer

Oprah

's show came off yesterday without a hitch -

and

without any serious injuries.

Letterman, who in the past has mocked and teased America's high priestess of the new age and pope-ette of positivity, was avuncular on the premiere of The Oprah Winfrey Show's 22d season, staged at New York's Madison Square Garden. He talked about his 3-year-old son Harry (with his gf Regina Lasko).

Letterman admitted that Harry doesn't always get his dark (and hurtful? Oh, David!) sense of humor. "Mommy has to tell him a lot that I'm just teasing," he said.

The Late Show host said Harry had made a "huge difference" in his life.

Oprah, who has tried to get the New York-based comic on her show for a number of years, asked whether he's "interview-phobic."

"It's just that, you know, when you have your own show, you have plenty of time to talk about whatever you want to talk about anyway," said the 60-year-old first-time daddy.

- Tirdad Derakhshani