COVER TO COVER On April 16, the day the book is published, an excerpt will run in the May issue of O'Donnell's Rosie magazine. Though the excerpt will not address her sexual orientation, she will mention it in a letter from the editor, New York magazine reports. Her publisher, G+J USA, doesn't expect the revelation to hurt circulation or ad sales of the once-traditional women's magazine (it was McCall's before she took it over last year). ''I don't believe there are advertisers in this day and age who are so homophobic to care one way or another,'' G+J USA president Dan Brewster tells Mediaweek. ''Let's face it -- this is not the first magazine that has had a gay editor.''
O'Donnell apparently hasn't ruled out coming out even sooner, on her morning show. ''It's a daily, live chat show, and we never know what Rosie is going to talk about,'' her publicist, Cindi Berger, tells the New York Post. ''She speaks spontaneously.''
TROPHY TIME Until this morning, the last time as many as three black actors received Oscar nominations for leading roles was in 1973, when ''Lady Sings the Blues''' Diana Ross and ''Sounder'''s Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson were nominated. There's a reason for that, says Angela Bassett, who (before Halle Berry's nod for ''Monster's Ball'' this morning) was the last African-American woman nominated for best actress, for playing Tina Turner in 1993's ''What's Love Got to Do With It.'' ''There's just not a great deal of diversity in the voting ranks for the Academy Awards, and that has a great deal to do with who wins,'' said Bassett, doing promotional duty for CBS' ''The Rosa Parks Story'' in which she stars as the civil rights heroine. ''If 80 percent of those who vote are male and white and over 60 years old, that's not a lot of diversity.'' But Academy spokesman John Pavlik tells the New York Daily News that Bassett is just speculating, since the Academy doesn't ask its members to divulge their race. ''Anybody who comes up with a figure like that is guessing, because something like that can't be determined.'' In any case, Berry joins best actor nominees Denzel Washington (''Training Day'') and Will Smith (''Ali'') as black contenders for top acting Oscars this year. For EW.com's full coverage of the 2001 Oscar nominations, click here
SOUND BITES On Sept. 11, Spanish singing star Alejandro Sanz was supposed to perform on the Latin Grammy telecast with Destiny's Child, singing his hit ''Quisiera Ser.'' Of course, that show was scrapped and never rescheduled, though Sanz eventually picked up four trophies when the winners were announced nearly two months later at a press conference. Now, however, he'll have another shot, as he and the R&B trio will perform the song at the main Grammy awards show on Feb. 27. They were officially added to the roster yesterday, as was Alan Jackson. They'll join such previously scheduled performers as U2, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews Band, the unlikely combo of 'N Sync and Nelly, and the artists from the ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' soundtrack.
Speaking of U2, Bono has been making the rounds lately, talking with world leaders and business bigwigs (most recently, at the World Economic Forum in New York a couple weeks ago) about his pet cause, forgiveness of third-world debt in order to spur economic growth in poor countries. Unlike some celebrities, the ''Beautiful Day'' singer actually knows what he's talking about. So says no less an authority than U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. He says he scheduled a half-hour meeting with the Irish rocker last year, and though he feared Bono was ''just another rock star who wants to use me for something,'' they ended up talking for 90 minutes on such issues as development aid for Africa. ''He's a serious person,'' O'Neill said. ''He cares deeply about these issues and you know what? He knows a lot about them.'' O'Neill says he and Bono had even planned to visit Africa together on a factfinding tour, but the trip was sidelined by the events of Sept. 11. They may still go, however, and they would bring TV cameras to make a documentary.
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