People talk

Oprah's 'higher calling' to help AIDS victims

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- American television host Oprah Winfrey cuddled South African children whose parents died from AIDS and promised to use her name to help humanize the pandemic that has ravaged sub-Saharan Africa.

Winfrey, who has been traveling in South Africa for the last three weeks, said in an interview published in the Saturday Star that she feels a "higher calling" to raise awareness of the plight of the children who are losing parents and dying of the disease themselves.

"What happens to a generation of children left to fend for themselves? Unless someone does something now the orphans will change the face of this country and the continent," Winfrey said.

Anti-AIDS drugs are not available in South African public hospitals, and Winfrey said she was taken aback that the woman did not have access to treatment.

Winfrey's foundation distributed $7 million worth of Christmas gifts to some 50,000 South African children during her visit.

Fonda visits West Bank, Jewish settlements

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Actress Jane Fonda visited a refugee camp and a hospital in the West Bank on Saturday, capping a three-day visit aimed at promoting peace.

She toured West Bank villages and nearby Jewish settlements and was led through a Palestinian refugee camp near Ramallah in a daylong tour by the Jerusalem Center for Women.

It was the final visit of a trip organized by a global movement to stop violence against women. The movement, called V-Day, was inspired by the off-Broadway hit "The Vagina Monologues." Its playwright, Eve Ensler, accompanied Fonda and led discussions with Palestinian women.

"This is the focal point of so many conflicts," Fonda said. "Both sides aren't hearing each other's narratives, and maybe that's our role as artists."

Strait earns spot in Cowboy Hall of Fame

SAN ANTONIO -- George Strait is known more for singing than roping skills, but he will be inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame on Jan. 10 in Fort Worth.

Strait, 50, is to be honored for starting the George Strait Team Roping Classic, which handed out nearly $300,000 in cash and prizes at the 20th annual competition this year in San Antonio, and for elevating the image of the cowboy around the world through his music.

The George Strait Team Roping Classic is scheduled for March 14-15 at the San Antonio Rose Palace. Strait, his brother Buddy and their wives started the roping event in 1982.

The hall of fame honors excellence in the support of the western lifestyle in Texas and in rodeo competition and business.

Swanky party kicks off LaBelle's new company

NEW YORK -- Patti LaBelle kicked off her new management company, Pattionium, on a high note -- with a swanky penthouse party at the home of friend Denise Rich.

LaBelle was joined by guests including Joan Collins, Star Jones, music producer Rodney Jerkins and others at the event, held Thursday at the songwriter's Manhattan apartment.

LaBelle, 58, says she got into the management business in part because she was so impressed by her backup singer, Mary Griffin, who is now one of her artists.

Bon Jovi throws benefit for medical clinic

RUMSON, N.J. -- Jon Bon Jovi took a break from his international tour to help a high school group raise $36,500 for a local medical clinic.

Bon Jovi, whose band played shows in Australia earlier this week, performed 10 songs during his appearance Thursday at Rumson-Fair Haven High School.

The show was a benefit performance for the Parker Family Health Center, a Red Bank-based free clinic.

"We're here to make a difference," the 40-year-old singer told the crowd that packed into the Monmouth County school's 750-seat auditorium.-- From wire reports

Former president's Nobel prize to go on display

ATLANTA-- Former President Jimmy Carter's Nobel Peace Prize medal is going on display at the Carter Library.

Carter received the medal in Oslo, Norway, earlier this month for "his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

After he returned to the United States, Carter said the medal should be shown publicly as soon as possible, said Jay Hakes, director of the library and museum in Atlanta.

The display, which opens Saturday, includes the diploma awarded to Carter at the Peace Prize ceremonies.

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BUCHAREST, Romania -- More than 20 years after he defected to the United States, famed gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi is launching a cable TV station promoting peace, love and family values in his homeland.

PAX TV was to go on the air Friday with the slogan: "No violence, horror or sex." Pax means peace in Latin.

"After all the years of repression I endured during communism, I wanted to do something new here," Karolyi, 60, told The Associated Press.

Karolyi defected to the United States from communist Romania in 1980, several years after star pupil Nadia Comaneci scored the world's first perfect 10 to take the gold medal at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

PAX TV will broadcast programs about family matters, religion, education and cultural shows. It will address adherents of Orthodox Christianity, embraced by nearly nine in 10 Romanians, as well as other religious communities. Karolyi, one of the shareholders, is a Protestant.

The new station has no links to a TV channel of the same name in the United States.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Grammy-winning jazz musician Jonah Jones has been selected as the newest member of the Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians.

A poster honoring Jones, who took up music as a youngster in a Louisville orphanage, will be unveiled by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights Jan. 7 at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Jones was born in 1909 and died in 2000.

Jones, who played with Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday, had a string of hits with swing favorites and show tunes such as "On the Street Where You Live."

The jazz trumpeter won a Grammy in 1959 for the album "I Dig Chicks."

The human rights commission introduced the gallery series in 1970 to recognize the achievements of blacks and to introduce black history into Kentucky classrooms. Educators and libraries use the posters as teaching tools.

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RUMSON, N.J. -- Jon Bon Jovi took a break from his international tour to help a high school group raise $36,500 for a local medical clinic.

Bon Jovi, whose band played shows in Australia earlier this week, performed 10 songs during his appearance Thursday at Rumson-Fair Haven High School.

The show was a benefit performance for the Parker Family Health Center, a Red Bank-based free clinic.

Bon Jovi, who lives in nearby Middletown Township, performed some of his best-known hits, a few numbers from his new CD, "Bounce," and his version of Elvis Presley's "That's All Right, Mama."

He was backed by a five-piece band that included two musicians -- keyboardist Dave Bryan and bassist Hugh McDonald -- who regularly perform with his group.

"We're here to make a difference," the 40-year-old singer told the crowd that packed into the Monmouth County school's 750-seat auditorium.

The $35 tickets for the event, sponsored by the school's Spanish Honor Society, were sold mostly to students.

-- From wire reports