Recall hopefuls to visit Leno

Los Angeles — There’ll be an appreciative audience Monday for Jay Leno’s jokes about the California recall — 90 candidates will join the TV talk-show host.

On “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” in August, the host issued an invitation to all those vying to replace Gov. Gray Davis. Ninety of the 135 candidates confirmed they’d be on hand, NBC said Friday.

“And Gary Coleman, don’t worry — we will have a booster seat,” Leno said in August, joking about the diminutive actor who’s among those running.

There was no indication any of the front-runners would appear. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy to Leno on the show this summer.

Clinton to speak at conference

Greenville, S.C. — New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will speak next month at the Riley Institute’s “Women & Politics: Transforming Public Leadership” conference at Furman University.

Clinton and CBS News correspondent Lesley Stahl will kick off the two-day conference Oct. 6. Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, will speak at the final lecture Oct. 7.

The event is sponsored by the Richard W. Riley Institute of Government, Politics and Public Leadership. Riley served as South Carolina governor and U.S. Secretary of Education.

“It’d be certainly significant that Hillary Clinton is coming here and will participate,” Riley said last week.

Cash earns posthumous honor

Nashville, Tenn. — A week after his death, Johnny Cash was honored with artist, song and album of the year awards at the Americana music awards show.

Friday’s show was the second for the Americana Music Assn., a group that promotes more traditional country music than much of the contemporary pop-oriented sounds of Nashville.

Cash won song of the year for “Hurt,” a stirring anti-drug song written by Trent Reznor of the rock group Nine Inch Nails, and album of the Year for “American IV: The Man Comes Around,” the latest in a series produced by rock-rap producer Rick Rubin.

Cash was selected artist of the year for his work on the song and album.

Show takes rich back to basics

New York — “The Simple Life,” a new reality series that “chronicles two affluent socialites as they make the transition from filthy rich to just plain filthy,” will premiere in December, the Fox network announced.

Fox said the show follows hotel heiress Paris Hilton and her friend Nicole Richie, daughter of Lionel Richie, as they leave the comforts of their lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles and move in with the hardworking Leding family in Altus, Ark.

“The Simple Life” will premiere on Dec. 2, Fox said Thursday.