Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey are to host the annual Nobel Peace Prize concert in Norway on Saturday.

Joss Stone and Andrea Bocelli will sing at the event in honor of this year’s peace prize winner, Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, 64.

Diana Krall, Cyndi Lauper and Patti LaBelle will also perform in Oslo.

Cruise said he was “exceptionally proud” to pay tribute to Maathai, who set up a movement to plant some 30 million trees in Africa.

“Wangari is a real example of what one person, determined to help her fellow man, can accomplish,” he said.

“She has demonstrated that change in conditions can occur simply by one’s willingness to roll up their sleeves and do something about it,” he added.

Winfrey said it was a “great pleasure” to celebrate “the first African woman recipient of one of the most meaningful awards of our time.”

The performers appear for free and the concert will be shown live in more than 100 countries.

Last year’s event was hosted by Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas.

Live with Regis- and Alicia?

Alicia Keys will join Regis Philbin as guest host Dec. 22 on Live With Regis and Kelly while the daytime talk show’s co-host, Kelly Ripa, is on vacation, The Associated Press reports.

On Tuesday, Keys was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, including album of the year for “The Diary of Alicia Keys.” Her 2001 debut album, “Songs in A Minor,” won the R&B singer five Grammys.

Keys, 23, recently published “Tears for Water: Songbook of Poems and Lyrics.”

JAGGER AWARDED “ALTERNATIVE NOBEL’

Bianca Jagger was among the winners of this year’s Right Livelihood Awards – dubbed the “alternative Nobels” – presented by Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf in a ceremony at parliament, The Associated Press reports.

The awards include a $297,160 cash prize. They are funded by an endowment established by Jakob von Uexkull in part to honor what he said were oversights by the annual Nobel Prizes.

Jagger, a former model and ex-wife of Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, was honored Thursday for showing how a celebrity can help the exploited and disadvantaged, organizers said.

“The financial award will allow me to set up a foundation to continue my human rights work,” she said. “Everything I do has its theme, which is justice – social and economic justice.”

Jagger will share the cash prize with Argentina’s Raul Montenegro, who won for showing how much one committed scientist and activist can do to raise ecological awareness and prevent environmental degradation, and Memorials, a group that works to protect civil liberties in Russia and surrounding countries.

HUSTON FOLLOWING IN DAD’S FOOTSTEPS

The daughter of legendary director John Huston has been doing more directing herself lately, CBS.com reports.

“I had the pleasure of directing Rosie O’Donnell in a movie last summer called “Riding the Bus with My Sister,”‘ Anjelica Huston mentioned on CBS’ The Early Show.

Asked if she is more comfortable at this point behind or in front of the camera, Huston replied, “Well, I’m growing more comfortable behind. I think, obviously, since I’ve been acting now for over 25 years, it probably comes a little easier to me, or I have less trepidation about it, I should say.”

Huston is back in front of the camera in her latest effort, playing Bill Murray’s wife in “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” which debuts in theaters on Christmas Day.

Copy the Story Link