NEWS LITE\Michael drops in.

Byline: News Lite is compiled by Audrey Prest from Daily News staff and wire reports.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Michael Jackson descended in a helicopter Sunday into one of Brazil's most miserable slums and filmed scenes of a music video that has drawn praise from the city's poor but the ire of civic leaders.

Jackson strolled through the alleys of the hilltop Dona Marta slum, talked with residents and hugged babies while filmmakers shot footage for the video of "They Don't Care About Us."

Dorothy J. Cain of Freeport, N.Y., yearned to do something special for her son, Airman 1st Class Sean Cain, 20, and his fiancee, Loretta Dixon, 19, who is from Murray, Neb.

When the mom learned in December that the couple, who live in North Pole, Alaska, would be visiting her this week, she wrote a letter to the director of her son's favorite show, "Grease."

As a result, they will be married on stage at the Eugene O'Neill Theater in Manhattan at Tuesday evening's performance of "Grease."

"I don't know what possessed me to write that letter," Dorothy Cain said the other day. "It was as if a light bulb went off in my head."

In the letter, she wrote: "Sean has become a wonderful young man serving his country and this would be beyond his wildest dream. I feel that he deserves something very special and I can't do it alone."

During the pre-curtain show, Joe Piscopo, who plays the disc jockey Vince Fontaine, will introduce New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who will officiate. The orchestra will play the "Wedding March" as the bride walks down the aisle and Al Jarreau will sing "Love Me Tender."

After the ceremony, the newlyweds will return to their seats, and at the curtain call, the bride will go back on stage to toss her bouquet into the audience.

Zhirinovsky, the crowd pleaser

MOSCOW - He was in black tie. She wore a white, off-the-shoulder dress and gold shoes. They arrived for the Russian Orthodox ceremony in a carriage pulled by three gleaming white horses.

Well-wishers filled the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and 1,500 others watched huge screens outside as ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovskyand his wife, Galina, renewed the wedding vows they made 25 years ago in a civil ceremony.

In an event that appeared to be as much a campaign stop as a romantic celebration, Zhirinovsky's handlers threw money to the crowd and distributed free vodka, cabbage pies and other treats.

Mounting a rostrum near the three-century-old, gold-domed church, Zhirinovsky bellowed that his aim was to "bring happiness into every Russian home!"

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Photo (1) LAND WHALE A bronze, life-size gray whale migrates Sunday through Las Vegas, one of three headed for the Scripps oceanographic institute in La Jolla. Associated Press (2) To his wife's right and his country's far, far right, Vladimir Zhirinovsky renews his vows. Associated Press