[the Whitney Worship Webpage does not support the name "Jacko" for Michael Jackson]

Monday night, Houston was due to present His Gloveliness with something called a New Millennium Visionary Award at a benefit concert here for Houston's Foundation for Children.

But even though he was in town, Jackson was a no-show.

That, according to several guests at the $20,000-a-table fund-raiser, didn't please Houston's hubby, Bobby Brown.

"Bobby was visibly upset," one guest tells us. "He was saying things like, 'Who the hell does he think he is?'"

Another guest said she was told by an organizer that Jackson was scared off by photographers who found out about the party, which was held at the W. 67th St. penthouse of record exec David Gest.

The King of Pop, whose rep didn't return phone calls, has been busy laying down tracks for his next album. Whatever his reasons, Houston's rep, Nancy Seltzer, insists that the singer and her husband aren't mad at him.

"Whitney and Bobby were disappointed and sad that he could not be there," says Seltzer. "They were not angry. Whitney was pleased with the event. She focuses on the positive."

Certainly, the evening didn't want for entertainment.

Houston, rested up after missing a recent concert date, showed she's ready to head off on a two-month European tour that begins Sunday in Poland. The diva belted out "I Will Always Love You" and joined Trisha Yearwood and The Four Tops on "I Believe in You and Me."

Also performing were Gloria Gaynor, Monica, Denise Williams and, making her musical debut, "Hart to Hart" star Stephanie Powers, who dueted with Phoebe Snow.

Among those on hand were Charles Bronson, Ramsey Lewis, Clive Davis, Jane Powell, Freda Payne and honorees Diane Warren, Tonja Walker Davidson and Ed Davidson.

All told, Houston's bash raised more than $300,000 for her charity, as well as for the American Cinema Awards Foundation and the Actors Fund of America.

For sheer soulfulness, the only party that could have come close to Whitney's was the backyard bash that Aretha Franklin hosted the night before at the Southampton spread she's renting.

Franklin had done her own singing there Saturday to raise money for the Millennium Kids Foundation, so, on Sunday, she handed over the mike to a few of her friends. Making the First Lady of Funk shake her booty were R&B legends like The Temptations, Lloyd Price and Carla Thomas. Also on the dance floor were Christie Brinkley, Freddie Jackson, Star Jones, Rolonda Watts, Geoffrey Holder, Sister2Sister publisher Jamie Foster Brown and songwriter Denise Rich, who just gave Aretha and Mary J. Blige their new duet, "Don't Waste Your Time."