Faded pop superstar Michael Jackson was crowned as America's most foolish person in 2006, narrowly beating out trigger-happy US Vice-President Dick Cheney for the title.

The 47-year-old "King of Pop," who is living in exile in Bahrain following his acquittal last June on child sex charges, snatched the dishonour for the fourth year running, according to a survey by a US public relations consultant.

Sixty-nine per cent of the 1,045 people polled in a random telephone survey ahead of Saturday's April Fool's day said in Los Angeles the singer had "done something foolish" in the past year that merited the title, the poll showed .

Cheney tied with US hotel heiress and socialite Paris Hilton for second place in Barge's seventh annual April Fool's poll, with 59 per cent of Americans saying that they had done "something foolish" in the past year.

The vice-president became the focus of a media firestorm and the butt of a barrage of jokes after he accidentally shot an elderly friend in the face and neck with a shotgun while quail hunting last month.

Cheney's boss, US President George W. Bush came in third in the 2006 survey, with 57 per cent of those polled saying he had done something foolish.

Bush had received a foolishness rating of only 48 per cent in the 2001, meaning that Americans believe he has become 19 per cent more foolish since then, Barge said.

Some 54 per cent of those polled said Cruise had been foolish in the last year.

The survey was conducted with the assistance of Opinion Research Corporation and had a margin of error of 3 per cent.

In addition to naming the year's celebrity fools, 50 per cent of those polled in the survey admitted that they themselves had done something foolish, down from a high of 64 per cent in last years survey.

Source:China Daily