Haylie Duff joins ‘E News’ team for Nickelodeon awards

New York — Haylie Duff will be a special correspondent for “E! News” at the 18th annual “Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards.”

The awards will air live at 7 tonight on Nickelodeon, Sunflower Broadband Channel 37, from the Pauley Pavilion at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ben Stiller will be the host.

Duff, 20, starred in “Napoleon Dynamite.” She will interview celebrity presenters, performers and attendees. She is the sister of Hilary Duff (“The Lizzie McGuire Movie,” “A Cinderella Story”).

Will Smith’s 12-year-old son Trey also will be on the orange carpet — as a special correspondent for “Access Hollywood.”

WWE Hall welcomes Hogan

Los Angeles — Hulk Hogan, relishing his weekend induction into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame, figures he’s earned it.

“To me, it’s huge to be part of the Hall of Fame because I was there from day one when this business went from small-time to big-time,” Hogan said.

He had tough times starting out in the 1970s, he said, even sleeping in his car. Then he joined Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation as it expanded from local to national TV distribution in the early ’80s.

Hogan’s induction will be today at the Universal Amphitheatre, with Sylvester Stallone set to do the honors.

Hogan’s glory years with the WWE didn’t come without a price. Wrestling is deemed entertainment and not sport because the outcome is predetermined, Hogan said, but that doesn’t lessen the demands.

“I can’t remember one night when I ever came out the same way I went in,” he said. “I’m usually hurt some way or another physically.”

Columnist rumored to be on the way out at Newsday

New York — Liz Smith is making news of her own.

Newsday says her contract has expired, but the gossip columnist disagrees.

In a memo Thursday to Newsday employees, editor John Mancini said Smith’s March 31 column was her last for the Long Island newspaper.

“Liz, who joined Newsday in March 1991, did not exercise her option to extend her contract, which has expired,” the memo read. “We subsequently attempted to negotiate a new arrangement with her but could not come to mutually agreeable terms.”

Smith contends she always intended to stay with the paper and to exercise that option for two more years.

The earlier negotiation consisted of an offer to cut her salary by 95 percent, which was immediately rejected, and “we were just waiting for them to get serious,” Smith said Friday.

Newsday has been facing cost-cutting pressures after a scandal in November involving overstated circulation.

“They’re making all their employees pay for their mistakes,” Smith says.

Smith claims she missed the deadline because of the disorder at the paper. “I didn’t even know who the publisher was, in the middle of that turmoil,” she said.

Recording studio to serve as Ray Charles museum

Los Angeles — The studio where Ray Charles recorded his final album will become a museum to the late music legend.

Organizers said Thursday they planned to convert the 20,000-square-foot, three-story building on Washington Boulevard near downtown into a museum housing recordings, awards and even a tour bus. It is expected to be completed by late 2007.

“We didn’t want it in Beverly Hills or a monument to Ray Charles anywhere but right where it is,” said Charles’ longtime manager, Joe Adams.

Charles, 73, died in June at his home in Beverly Hills. He used the studio to record his final, Grammy Award-winning album, “Genius Loves Company.” The studio was declared a city historic landmark last year.

The building will house an education center and working recording studio, Adams said.

Teen surfing star launches ocean-theme fragrances

New York — Teen surfer Bethany Hamilton is bottling her passion: She’s launching two fragrances — Stoked and Wired — that aim to capture the smell of the ocean.

Stoked is for girls and Wired is for boys. Stoked blends notes of clementine, pineapple, tropical orchids, lotus blossoms, sandalwood and coconut. Wired includes notes of orange and Asian pear, jasmine, juniper, cedar wood and sandalwood.

The fragrances, available later this year, will be produced by Revelations Perfume and Cosmetics.

Hamilton has been surfing competitively since she was 11. In 2003, she lost her left arm in a shark attack off Kauai, Hawaii. She has since returned to surfing.

Parton promises more growth for Tennessee theme park

Pigeon Forge, Tenn. — Singing “Hurray for Dollywood,” Dolly Parton marked the 20th anniversary of her Smoky Mountain theme park Friday with goals of doubling attendance and investing $160 million into it during the next two decades.

“We are just getting started,” she told the opening-day crowd. “We are going to keep dreaming and continuing to grow … and prove that we are one of the best theme parks in the whole wide world.”

The 125-acre Dollywood features more than 30 mountain-themed rides and attractions, musical shows and native craftsmen. It drew more than 2.2 million visitors in 2004, making it the top paid tourist attraction in Tennessee, with nearly four times as many visitors as Graceland in Memphis.

Birthdays

Actor Dabbs Greer is 88. Singer Leon Russell is 63. Jazz musician Larry Coryell is 62. Singer Emmylou Harris is 58. Actress Pamela Reed is 56. Singer Keren Woodward (Bananarama) is 44. Country singer Billy Dean is 43. Rock musician Greg Camp (Smash Mouth) is 38. Rock musician Tony Fredianelli (Third Eye Blind) is 36. Country singer Jill King is 30. Actor Jeremy Garrett is 29.