Tattle: MARIAH vs. MINAJ IN 'IDOL' SWEAR-FEST

IN HIS NEVER-ENDING quest to make "American Idol" seem relevant again, host Ryan Seacrest said Wednesday that things got intense between new hosts Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey during a tryout taping the previous day in Charlotte, N.C.

Amid a dispute over a contestant, Nicki announced that she was no longer putting up with "her [bleepin'] Highness," in a reference to Mariah.

The entire expletive-laden rant can be seen at TMZ.com.

Another new judge, Keith Urban, was in the unenviable position of sitting between the pair, wondering why he ever chose to take the gig.

On his radio show, Seacrest said that "Idol" needs some passionate debate.

(Uh, no, Ryan, the presidential election needs some passionate debate. "Idol" needs to hope that another Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson or Carrie Underwood shows up to audition.)

"It did get intense," Ryan said. "We want that. We want them to be on this panel together. This is a good team, a great team, to go out and look for the next American Idol . . . the feedback that they give is very good."

The show's new season premieres in January.

A traveling ABBA exhibit is to get a permanent home in a new museum dedicated mostly to the Swedish quartet that has sold nearly 400 million records since its heyday in the 1970s.

Former band member Bjorn Ulvaeus said Wednesday that "ABBA The Museum" will be part of a Swedish music hall of fame to be inaugurated in Stockholm next spring.

Ulvaeus said he hoped that all four former ABBA members would attend the opening, set for April or May, but again ruled out any chance of a stage comeback.

"We are the only group of that status that has never been reunited. I think that is cool," Ulvaeus, 67, told the Associated Press after a news conference in Stockholm. "It is a strength for ABBA that you remember those young, ambitious, energetic people during the '70s rather than some feeble old folks who feel compelled to get up and play all the time."

* Garth Brooks is ending his

run in Las Vegas.

The country-music superstar will play six more dates this fall at Wynn Las Vegas, concluding the three-year run Nov. 16-17.

Brooks slipped out of retirement to take the gig in 2009. It came with the gift of a jet from Steve Wynn.

* Tyler Perry is donating a new

van to Alicia Day, a Georgia woman with cerebral palsy, after her specially equipped 2000 Chrysler Town and Country was stolen outside Atlanta.

Perry told WSB-TV that he heard news reports about Day's van being stolen this week in Decatur.

Day uses a wheelchair and tells the station that she prides herself on being independent, working part time as a greeter at Home Depot. Her mother relied on the van to take Day to work and to doctor appointments.

Day says that her "mouth just dropped" when she heard Perry's voice on the phone.

* J.K. Rowling's first adult

novel, The Casual Vacancy, has sold 375,000 copies so far, a figure which includes hardcovers, e-books and audio books. That makes Rowling's novel among the fastest-selling new releases of the year.

But . . . her last Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, came out in 2007 and sold more than 8 million copies in the U.S. alone in its first 24 hours.

* BANGShowbiz.com reports

that Lady Gaga loved singing with Tony Bennett so much on his "Duets II," she's planning a jazz album with the ageless crooner.

"She called me from New Zealand," Tony said, "and said, 'I want to do a jazz album with you' and I said, 'You got it!'

"We're gonna do a jazz album with Marion Evans, a big swing band, and I'm looking forward to it because a lot of people don't know it, but she's a phenomenal jazz singer."

* Jimmy Kimmel, Kristin

Chenoweth, Steve Harvey and Lily Tomlin have signed on to honor Ellen DeGeneres with tribute performances as she wins the nation's top humor prize.

The Kennedy Center in Washington is awarding DeGeneres the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Oct. 22. The show will be broadcast on PBS stations Oct. 30.

* People magazine says that Lark

Voorhies of "Saved By the Bell" is battling bipolar disorder.

So says her mom.

Lark disagrees.

* Philly gal Amber Rose has

persuaded boyfriend Wiz Khalifa to stop smoking pot at home now that she's pregnant.

Wiz (a/k/a Cameron Jibril

Thomaz), who already has two weed arrests this year, has agreed because it "irritates" Rose.

It probably doesn't do much for the fetus either.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.