Tattle: Kanye West has high opinion of his latest album

THIS THANKSGIVING,

Kanye West

may partake in the apple, butter pecan and pumpkin, but you can be darn sure he won't be eating humble pie.

West's latest testament to his own supreme talent is that he's not concerned about whether his new album, "808s & Heartbreak," is a blockbuster, because he's made "great art."

Kinda makes Tattle think of Michelangelo looking up at the Sistine Chapel and saying, "I don't care if the pope likes it - that is a great ceiling. "

Says West: "You know people sometimes don't understand great art when they first hear it, but I am very confident in it. Whether it sells as much as the last one, or way more, I feel like I am just successful in doing something I felt really good about."

* Speaking of Michelangelo, a

62-pound handmade tome depicting his life and work has arrived at the New York Public Library, fresh from publication in Italy.

Bound in velvet and marble, it's billed as the world's most expensive, most beautiful new book and priced at $100,000. It goes on display Tuesday.

Publisher Marilena Ferrari jokes that she created the book because she's "crazy." It takes six months to make each copy, using Italian artisan skills dating from the Renaissance. The one at the library was donated, but more than 20 books have been sold. Not everyone's broke.

* Pitching a book to sell at a much

lower price is Laura Bush.

"I've been talking to some publishers, but nothing has happened yet - just a few visits," the first lady said in a phone interview yesterday to discuss her upcoming special about the White House on the History channel.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported on her proposed book, citing three publishing executives with knowledge of the discussions who asked not to be identified because talks were in the early stages and highly confidential. Laura Bush is being represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose many clients include former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Selling a book knows no party affiliation.

A Laura Bush book deal - even during a recession - would likely be worth at least as much as Hillary Clinton's $8 million for the memoir "Living History." Books by recent first ladies, including Laura Bush's mother-in-law, Barbara Bush, have had more appeal than those by former presidents.

President Bush said recently that he, too, wants to write a book, but has yet to shop a proposal. Publishers, noting his poor approval ratings, have urged him to wait.

* President Bush, however, has done

something Tattle-worthy.

Billboard.com reports that yesterday he commuted the sentence of rapper/producer John Forte, who worked closely with the Fugees before being sent to prison on drug charges.

Forte was arrested at Newark Airport in 2000 carrying two briefcases filled with liquid cocaine. Police estimated it was worth $1.4 million.

He was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 14 years in Fort Dix, but will be released Dec. 22, after serving just over seven years.

No idea why the president took pity on Forte. Maybe he's a closet Fugees fan. Or a Carly Simon fan. Simon and her son, Ben, who attended Exeter Academy with Forte, advocated his release.

Tattbits

* The Great Green Way?

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg - with the help of green friends like "Wicked" witch Elphaba - launched the "Broadway Goes Green" initiative yesterday that includes plans to use energy-saving bulbs and recycle stage sets. The campaign aims to reduce Broadway's carbon footprint, a measure of greenhouse gases produced by human activity.

Ten theaters already have replaced some 10,000 bulbs with more energy-efficient ones. And within the next 12 months, all of Broadway's theaters will have made the switch.

And think how much energy they'll save when they turn out the lights on Wall Street.

* John Updike, who has a long and

graphic history of writing about nookie, won a lifetime-achievement award yesterday from judges of Britain's Bad Sex in Fiction Prize, which celebrates crude, tasteless or ridiculous sexual passages in modern literature.

The judges, editors of Literary Review magazine, said Updike had been shortlisted for the prize four times in its 16-year history. "Good sex or bad sex, he has kept us entertained for many years," they said in a statement.

The magazine said it was attempting to contact Updike to tell him the good news.

This year's winner was British writer Rachel Johnson, who won for a passage in her satirical novel "Shire Hell."

"All the passages this year are equally awful, but Rachel Johnson's struck us because of the mixture of cliche and euphemism," said the magazine's deputy editor, Tom Fleming. "There were a couple of really bad animal metaphors in there."

Johnson was due to receive the prize - which comes with a bottle of champagne and a plaster foot - from actor Dominic West, star of "The Wire," at a ceremony in London. Fleming said the foot is intended as "an abstract representation of sex."

* Jordan's Queen Rania has re-

ceived YouTube's first Visionary Award for a daily video webcast and blog in which she sought to challenge stereotypes of the Arab and Muslim world and encourage dialogue across cultures. Rania has said she wants people to "know the real Arab world . . . unedited, unscripted and unfiltered."

YouTube created the Visionary Award to recognize people who use the video-sharing Web site as a platform for positive social change. Like the monkey who projectile-vomits bananas.

Happy Thanksgiving! *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.