Ventriloquism skills help Texan win Outstanding Teen crown

Orlando, Fla. – A 17-year-old who used two ventriloquist dummies to sing Walt Disney tunes won the inaugural Miss America’s Outstanding Teen competition.

Tears streamed down Meghan Miller’s face Saturday as Miss America 2005 Deidre Downs crowned her on stage. As the winner, she’ll get $30,000 in scholarship money.

Miller, of Beaumont, Texas, said she was inspired to learn ventriloquism after watching a pageant contestant perform when she was 3 years old. Now she uses the method to speak in schools.

“I sat in front of the mirror for hours on end trying to figure it out. I started performing at 7, and I’ve been going strong ever since,” Miller said.

‘NSync singer Joey Fatone and Downs co-hosted the event. The pageant was not televised, though organizers hope it will find a home on CMT, the new carrier for the Miss America pageant.

They also hope the junior version of the event held in Atlantic City since 1921 will stem years of declining viewership – which hit a record low 9.8 million last year.

Oscar-nominated actor visits site of real ‘Hotel Rwanda’

Los Angeles – Don Cheadle has finally visited “Hotel Rwanda.”

The 40-year-old actor toured the Hotel des Milles Collines in Rwanda’s capital Kigali last month, speaking with several of the more than 1,000 people who were sheltered there during the country’s 1994 genocide.

“All of their experiences were the stuff of epic films – things they had to go through in those 100 days,” Cheadle told The Associated Press in an interview this past week. “It was amazing.”

Cheadle earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, but the movie was filmed primarily in South Africa.

During his 2 1/2-week visit in late July, Cheadle met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, attended the premiere of “Hotel Rwanda” in Uganda and toured displaced-person camps in the country’s northern provinces.

More than 1.5 million Ugandans have fled their homes to avoid a campaign of murder, rape and abduction waged by rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army. Cheadle met with young girls who said they were taken as wives by rebel soldiers.

“That was amazing, to hear these stories of these kids and what they had been forced to do, and trying to imagine … I don’t have that frame of reference,” he said.

Cheadle said he’s writing a book with John Prendergast of the nonprofit International Crisis Group about how ordinary Americans can respond to Africa’s problems.

Trump to bring capitalist show to communist China

Hong Kong – Communist mainland China will soon have its own version of “The Apprentice” – Donald Trump’s reality TV tribute to capitalism.

Trump will be the executive producer of the Chinese show, which will be hosted by Beijing property mogul Pan Shiyi, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported Sunday.

The newspaper said China’s version would closely follow the U.S. original, in which contestants compete for a job with Trump. Details of the deal are under negotiation.

The show will run in direct competition with “Wise Man Takes All” – which was inspired by “The Apprentice” and backed by Trump’s business partner, Vincent Lo Hong-sui. That show offers a cash prize of about $123,400.

Reality TV star reveals real-life fight with cancer

New York – When Victoria Gotti learned she had breast cancer, she kept the news to herself – hiding her draining treatments from her three sons and the producers of their reality show, “Growing Up Gotti.”

With the show set to begin its third season on the A&E network this week, the daughter of late mob boss John Gotti revealed the details of her struggle to the New York Daily News.

The 42-year-old said she learned she was sick after a mammogram in November. She told her sons about the cancer earlier this month, after going through months of cancer treatments in silence.

“I lost 25 pounds,” she said. “I was so exhausted, I could barely lift my arms. My producers were asking questions,” as were her sons – Carmine, 18, John, 17, and Frank, 14.

“I wasn’t able to tell them,” she said. “I just wanted the boys to be OK and not get crazy and think that Mommy is dying.”