Flamboyant chanteuse Lady Gaga swept the U.K.'s Brit Awards yesterday winning three categories and offering an emotional tribute to Alexander McQueen, the British fashion designer who died last week.

Gaga collected awards for best international female artist, best international breakthrough act and best international album for "The Fame," and performed at the ceremony wearing a towering white wig and lace veil — complete with ornate lace eyebrows.

The awards are the British equivalent of the Grammys, with most winners selected by a vote of more than 1,000 industry members.

U.S. rapper Jay-Z also claimed an award, for best international male, during a ceremony at London Earl's Court arena. Other international nominees had included Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Michael Buble and Shakira.

BLUES HALL OF FAME INDUCTING 3 ARTISTS

Singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt, Chicago bluesman Lonnie Brooks and harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite are among the artists selected to be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis, Tenn.

Raitt, whose 1989 album "Nick of Time" rose to the top of pop charts, has had far more commercial success outside the blues. But the Blues Hall of Fame committee said yesterday it was recognizing her for her devotion to the genre and its musicians.

The induction ceremony will be May 5 in Memphis, the evening before the Blues Music Awards.

OBAMA KIDS GET NO TV ON SCHOOL NIGHTS

President Obama, who is spending billions of dollars to overhaul the U.S. public education system, says there's one sure thing parents can do to help their kids learn: Forbid them from watching television on school nights.

Of his own daughters, Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, Obama told Essence magazine: "The girls don't watch TV during the week. Period."

The first thing they do after school is homework. If they haven't finished by dinnertime, around 6:30 p.m., they pick up where they left off after the meal. And after that, they can read until they hit the sack. Malia's bedtime is 9 p.m.; Sasha's lights go out a half hour earlier, he said.

CACHE OF JFK LOVE LETTERS UP FOR SALE

Compared to modern political scandals, the recently unveiled love letters and telegrams reportedly written by John F. Kennedy to a young Swedish woman in the 1950s may seem antiquated and almost chaste.

But the Chicago-area auction house that put the correspondence up for sale on its Web site Monday is hoping that bidders will be drawn more by the collection's historic significance than by the promise of juicy details.

The collection includes 11 handwritten letters and three telegrams reportedly sent from Kennedy to Gunilla von Post while he was a U.S. senator.

— Advertiser News Services