Oprah Winfrey and other producers behind the Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker film “The Great Debaters” will receive an award from the Producers Guild of America for illuminating provocative social issues. A hearty congratulations!! 

Truth is, there’s more than glamour to showbiz. Since summer, Fantasia, the occasional star of “The Color Purple,” has missed nearly 50 performances, production sources say. Following a three-week vacation caused by the strike, she dropped last Friday’s performance, causing pandemonium in the lobby of the Broadway Theatre.  

“I was really nervous and really had no clue who they were going to pick.”  Saleisha Stowers, 21, who hails from L.A., beat Chantal to cop the “Top Model” crown, which includes a $100,000 CoverGirl contract and a six-page fashion spread in Seventeen magazine. Congratulations. You were my favorite to win. 

Roger Clemens turned out be Exhibit A in the long-awaited Mitchell Report, an All-Star roster linked to steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Barry Bonds, already under indictment on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroids, Miguel Tejada and Andy Pettitte also showed up Thursday in the game’s most infamous lineup since the Black Sox scandal. 

Diversity Awards. Hollywood often gets painted with a “liberal” political and social brush, but director Kenny Ortega knows differently. Although he has witnessed significant changes during a career that brought him to helm the 2006 Disney Channel phenomenon “High School Musical” (plus its sequel this year and an upcoming third installment), he can personally recall times when the industry was far from enlightened. 

A core cast to die for: George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Eriq La Salle, Julianna Margulies, Sherry Stringfield and Noah Wyle, all of whom were nominated for Emmys in the show’s first season and are now revered around the “ER” set as the pioneers who made it all happen. That ‘it’ is being television’s longest-running medical drama. 

Former model-turned-reality TV star Janice Dickinson is desperately back-tracking after calling retired catwalk favorite Tyra Banks “fat” on TV. The two beauties clashed when Dickinson was a judge on Banks’ ‘America’s Next Top Model’ show, and the former was asked to leave. 

Thousands of family and friends said farewell Thursday to Pimp C, whose raspy Southern drawl and raw lyrical prowess attracted legions of fans. 

Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard (“Hustle & Flow”) will make his stage and Broadway debut in Debbie Allen’s Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Tony-winning trio James Earl Jones (“The Great White Hope,” “Fences”), Phylicia Rashad (“A Raisin in the Sun”) and Anika Noni Rose (“Caroline or Change”) also star in Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Southern drama about “mendacity” and greed in a Mississippi family.  

Michael Bolton and Patti LaBelle dish on NBC’s new Clash of the Choirs. The reality show will begin to air Monday. 

Patrick Robinson has been at Giorgio Armani, Anne Klein, Perry Ellis, and Paco Rabanne. Now, the 40-year-old will try his hand at the Gap. Gap Inc. today named Robinson executive vice president of design for Gap Adult and Gapbody. 

Denzel sees double. “Can you tell? I’m just happy all the way around,” said Denzel Washington just hours after learning that two of his projects had scored key Golden Globe nominations. The two-time Oscar winner was nominated for best actor in a drama for “American Gangster,” in which he plays real-life Harlem drug dealer and killer Frank Lucas, while “The Great Debaters,” which Washington directed, was nominated for best film drama. 

“Success is not measured by what you accomplish but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” [Orison Swett Marden]

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