Laila Ali sure knows how to milk her 15 minutes of fame.
The former “Dancing with the Stars” finalist has yet another new job—–she’s joining CBS’s “The Early Show” as a contributing correspondent starting next week.
The boxing champ turned ballroom dancer recently got a new gig co-hosting “American Gladiators” and now she’s going big time by traveling the country for CBS in search of human-interest stories.
Basically, Ali is going to be doing for “The Early Show” what celeb chef and resident pregnant hottie Giada De Laurentiis is doing for NBC’s “Today” show.
CBS execs say the reason they chose the 30-year-old daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali is because she has been “a dedicated educator and author in areas of heath and fitness. She has a spiritual side, while being a fearless competitor.”
RACHAEL ON ICE
She’s the peppy celeb cook turned talk show host whose program follows “The Early Show” in many TV markets and now Rachael Ray is making news of her own.
The “30 Minute Meals” diva is making like Nancy Kerrigan and hitting the ice for a new episode of her daytime cooking-slash-talk-slash-self-help show. If you live in the New York area and have always wanted to meet the vivacious chef in person, now’s your chance. “The Rachael Ray Show” will be shot from New York’s Bryant Park Ice Rink on Friday, January 18th.
According to show producers, they are going all out for the theme episode. Along with furniture sculpted out of ice and a custom-made ice cook top for Ray to make dinner on, the hostess will reportedly be arriving to the winterized set on a Zamboni machine and her celeb guests (who will be announced at a later date) will be on skates.
ELLEN ON GLITTER
We know she can’t dance (though she tries very hard), but who knew how much Ellen DeGeneres hated glitter?
If you caught her daytime talk show the other day you would have gotten an unexpected earful on how much the comedienne detests the sparkly dust that my daughter adores putting on all of her art projects.
Apparently, the actress feels so strongly about ridding the world of the shimmery stuff that she vowed to lobby the next President to push a bill through Congress banning glitter.
And now she’s got a section on her show’s website where visitors can vote on whether glitter should be outlawed.
Where are those Hollywood writers when you need them?