Muhammad Ali Center dedicated in Louisville

Louisville, Ky. – The Muhammad Ali Center was dedicated Sunday in a ceremony celebrating the values of the boxing great and his ties to his hometown.

The dedication capped a weekend of hoopla surrounding the opening of the $80 million, six-story center on the edge of downtown Louisville. A Hollywood-style event Saturday night at a nearby performing arts center drew President Clinton as well as athletes, actors and singers.

Ali didn’t speak during the ceremony on a plaza overlooking the Ohio River. He stood with his family in front of the flags of 141 nations whose children have contributed to the Ali Center.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that while Ali is revered around the world, “Louisville loved him first.”

Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville in 1942, Ali learned to fight after having his bicycle stolen as a boy. He won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics and went on to win the heavyweight title three times as a professional until retiring in 1981. He changed his name after converting to Islam.

Singer reschedules Australian tour after fighting cancer

Sydney, Australia – Pop diva Kylie Minogue will hold her homecoming Australian tour at the end of next year, after canceling the event earlier this year when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, her promoter said Sunday.

The London-based, 37-year-old singer had returned to her hometown of Melbourne in southern Australia to perform her “Showgirl: The Greatest Hits” tour in May when she was diagnosed.

Minogue underwent surgery in a Melbourne hospital to remove the cancer, and doctors declared the operation a success.

On Sunday, her Australian tour promoter, The Frontier Touring Company, announced the tour would begin at the end of 2006.

Usher offers dating tips, sizes up rap competition

New York – Need some dating tips? Ask Usher.

The R&B singer, who is starring in his first lead role in “In the Mix,” shared his secrets with Time magazine.

“Women love compliments, you know what I mean? Buy her a drink,” he said. “Talk to her about whatever it is that she wants to talk about. As long as you keep her laughing, you got it.”

The film features the 27-year-old musician as Darrell, a playboy New York City disc jockey who finds himself in an interracial relationship with co-star Emmanuelle Chriqui.

Usher, whose 2004 “Confessions” had huge critical and commercial success, isn’t the only musician with a movie these days. Rapper 50 Cent has his own movie, too. Both show the stars baring some skin. But does Usher think he’s the better man?

“I’m a smaller guy. 50’s got the arms, I got the abs,” he says.

Actor returns to Broadway as ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrel’

New York – The last time he was on Broadway, nearly 15 years ago, Jonathan Pryce played a manipulating con man in the musical “Miss Saigon” – and won a Tony Award for his performance.

Now, Pryce is coming back to the New York stage to portray a similar if more stylish swindler in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” the musical about a pair of French Riviera scam artists.

Pryce replaces the show’s original star, John Lithgow, who leaves the musical Jan. 15. The actor begins performances Jan. 17.

Pryce has starred in such movies as “Brazil,” “The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen, “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Evita” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

Producer: Seeing stars’ budding romance was a gift

New York – For the producer of “Brokeback Mountain,” a real-life romance between Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams was a gift.

The film stars Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as ranch hands who fall in love, then hide their affair from their wives and families for years. Williams, best known for her years on the teen drama “Dawson’s Creek,” plays Ledger’s wife, Alma.

“It was a big gift to have two people falling in love in our midst,” producer James Schamus told Time magazine in a story about the movie. “You forget how lovely that is.”

Ledger, 26, and Williams, 25, are engaged and recently had their first child, Matilda.