‘Gladiator’ to wed

Sydney, Australia – Oscar-winning “Gladiator” star and reputed bad boy Russell Crowe plans to settle down.

The 38-year-old actor is to wed his longtime girlfriend, musician Danielle Spencer, Crowe’s Australian publicist Wendy Day told Australian Associated Press on Saturday. No date was announced.

Tabloids had reported that Crowe recently bought Spencer a $100,000 diamond ring and proposed.

The New Zealand-born, Australian-raised actor met Spencer in the late 1980s.

Dolly spreads literacy effort

Pigeon Forge, Tenn. – Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program has turned a new page, welcoming hundreds of American Indian youngsters.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs partnered with Parents as Teachers and the National Center for Family Literacy to pay $27 per child to expand the program to 92 American Indian communities.

Imagination Library sends age-appropriate hardcover books to preschool children in 183 communities in 25 states every month for free.

“You know, I feel my Imagination Library is now truly a national gift,” Parton said Friday.

Parton’s program began in 1996 to promote reading among children in Sevier County, a rural community in the Great Smoky Mountains where she grew up.

Popping the question to Pink

Las Vegas – Extreme motocross rider Carey Hart is hinting that he might be headed down the aisle with pop singer Pink.

“That’s where it’s going to lead to,” Hart told the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the Hard Rock Hotel, where he attended a party after the Billboard Music Awards.

Pink’s publicist, Tice Merriweather, confirmed Friday that the two were dating, but said there were no marriage plans.

“They are not engaged, but they have been dating for over a year,” he told The Associated Press. “They are definitely together.”

Skater finds fame in song

Hackensack, N.H. – Sarah Hughes’ friends finally recognize her fame. All it took was a mention in Adam Sandler’s latest “Hanukkah Song.”

“All my friends were saying it: I’m forever immortalized,” Hughes said with a laugh recently. “They said, ‘A gold medal? Eh – Sarah, we knew you could skate. But this …’

“I couldn’t believe how many people heard that song. I can’t believe how popular that song is. He sang it on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and all my friends heard it.”

Hughes has never met Sandler, but the skater said she would find a part for him in her upcoming TV special if he was interested. She’d even have the already-completed show taped again to fit him in.

The 17-year-old skater was scheduled to compete in two events this weekend, her first competitions since a leg injury forced her out of the entire Grand Prix circuit.

Her TV special, “Sarah Hughes: A Life in Balance,” is set to air Dec. 25 on NBC.