Recently, “Extra” correspondent AJ Calloway traveled all the way to South Africa to help Oprah Winfrey celebrate the first graduation ceremony of Oprah’s Leadership Academy for Girls.

Oprah marveled, “Can you believe it? And not only are 100 percent graduating, 100 percent are also going to college!”

Unfortunately, building her OWN cable network has had more challenges.

Although Oprah was already a billionaire and a household name, she says she wanted to create OWN to further her inspirational vision.

“The reason I did OWN was I wanted to continue the platform to speak to people in a way that made them feel inspired,” she told Calloway. “And that’s been harder than I thought it would be, but it’s also been as exciting as I thought it would be.”

After her network showed garnered disappointing ratings, Oprah became more visible hosting life classes with Iyanla Vanzant and introducing her latest show, Oprah’s Next Chapter, which has been a hit with viewers. But will it save OWN?

That remains to be see, but Oprah thinks it’s a good start.

“Yes, that’s nice, a good start. Now I just need 23 more hours a day, but that’s a good start. What I know now is you start one show at a time, one night at a time… building your nights instead of trying to do it all at one time.”

Oprah said she’s “always looking” for new shows. “Every time I meet somebody now I’m like, ‘Do you want a show?’ I’m looking for everybody who has great ideas.”

Debra Sledge, Joan Sledge, Kathy Sledge Lightfoot and Kim Sledge Allen filed suit in federal court on Thursday claiming that Warner Music’s method for calculating digital music purchases as “sales” rather than “licenses” on songs (such as the band’s chart-topping “We Are Family”) cheats artists out of money due to them under recording contracts, many of them signed decades before music was sold digitally via iTunes, Amazon, ringtones and other outlets.

“Rather than paying its recording artists and producers the percentage of net receipts it received–and continues to receive–from digital content providers for ‘licenses,’ Warner wrongfully treats each digital download as a ‘sale’ of a physical phonorecord…which are governed by much lower royalty provisions than ‘licenses’ in Warner’s standard recording agreements.”

If that claim sounds familiar, it’s one of the most hotly-disputed issues in the music business. Songwriters typically make much less money when an album is “sold” than they do when their music is “licensed”. But record labels have taken the position that music sold through digital stores, such as iTunes, should be counted as “sales” rather than licenses.

The difference in revenue can be significant. The Sister Sledge members claim their record deal promises 25% of revenue from licenses but much less from sales.

Rapper/Actor Eminem brought a nearly identical claim against Universal Music Group and won a fairly important decision at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010. At the time, UMG downplayed the ruling as specific to Eminem’s contract, but music lawyers believe more of these cases are going to be filed by legacy artists (newer contracts have specific language precluding such suits).

Sister Sledge has a 35-page class action lawsuit seeking to bring together many artists in one proceeding, calling Warner Music’s actions “wide-spread and calculated.” Hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue is at stake, the complaint alleges.

It should be interesting to see which artists come forward.

Ja Rule says former New York State Controller Alan Hevesi and corporate greed poster-boy Dennis Kozlowski took him under their wings.

From Kozlowski, he got stock tips. From Hevesi, he heard about the perennial impasse in Albany. They watched Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert together.

“Outside, you don’t meet guys like this every day. This place is amazing,” Ja Rule told the NY Daily News during an exclusive interview at Mid-State Correctional Facility in upstate Oneida, N.Y.

Ja Rule (real name Jeffrey Atkins) has been in prison since June 2011 for gun possession and tax evasion.

He’s not scheduled to get out until February 2013, but he’s getting ready for his new album, “Pain is Love 2,” to drop later this month — and networking.

“Koz just got out on work release. Not to say I wish he was still here,” he said. “But they’re both great, smart guys.”

Kozlowski, 65, is serving 8 to 25 years for using the coffers of Tyco Inc. as a piggy bank.

He’s infamous for splurging on a $6,000 shower curtain and a $2 million party in Sardinia with an ice sculpture of Michelangelo’s David urinating vodka.

Ja Rule, 36, a married father of three, knows something about the luxury life, too.

When he was arrested on a gun charge in 2007, the weapon was in a $250,000 Maybach.

He’s sold 40 million records and gone platinum with nothing but a juggernaut voice and a talent for lyrics that resonate in neighborhoods like his own Hollis, Queens.

Ja Rule dropped out of high school. Hevesi, who has a Ph.D. from Columbia, and Kozlowski, who graduated from Seton Hall University, urged him to pursue higher education.

“I was studying for my GED and Koz came in and talked to me and said, if you need any help, let me know,” he said, two weeks after getting the degree.

The ex-CEO told him to buy airline stock and study business. He starts taking college-level courses this month.

His friendship with Hevesi, who began serving one to four years in April for a “pay to play” corruption scheme, centers around politics.

“Hevey’s a Democrat like me, so that helps,” Ja Rule said. “He told me how it’s like pulling teeth with the two parties trying to get bills passed.”

Hevesi, 72, isn’t the first power player Ja Rule has met in prison: At Hudson Correctional Facility he played cards and basketball with Hank Morris, the strategist who pocketed $18 million in the pension scandal that doomed Hevesi.

“Hank was my Spades partner, and we were undefeated in basketball,” Ja Rule said. “Hank had a jumpshot, man.”

Ja Rule, famous for feuds with other rappers, mused about the unlikely friendships he’s forged.

“It’s funny,” he said. “We’re from totally different walks of life. But when you’re here, you’re here.”

“I’ll pay higher taxes. I look at it this way I can pay higher taxes and people can have jobs or I can pay lower taxes and I have my kid’s teacher asking me for a loan because she’s going to lose her house, which is true,” Rock said. “So I’m going to lose the money no matter what.”

In 2009, Forbes estimated Rock’s yearly earnings at $42 million. President Barack Obama has said individuals making more than $1 million a year should not pay a lower tax rate than middle class families, a position that has earned him charges of “class warfare” by Republicans.

In December, rapper Jay-Z declared “most people with a conscience” shouldn’t have a problem paying higher taxes.

The challenge began on Wednesday when daytime TV host Ellen DeGeneres asked the First Lady on her show, “How many push-ups can you do? Because I like to do a push-up.”

“I don’t know. I can do some – can you? I know you’ve got these back issues,” Mrs. Obama teased.

To which Degeneres stood-up and took off her jacket, and a smiling Michelle Obama, who has completed push-ups with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, stood-up ready to take on the challenge.

Ellen and the First Lady started doing the push-ups on the studio floor with the audience counting along – Mrs. Obama completed an impressive 25.

“I thought it wouldn’t be good to show off the First Lady so I stopped,” joked DeGeneres after quitting. “I thought this looks bad that I’m going to beat her. I’m 54 and you’re 48.”

During the show, Michelle Obama also revealed some bedroom secrets regarding her husband, President Barack Obama.

“He doesn’t pick up his socks,” she said. “He thinks he’s neat, but he has people who help him. I’m like it’s not you that’s neat, it’s the people who pick up your socks. Those are the neat people,” she told DeGeneres.

She also joined Ellen in a dance for the benefit of the audience.

On Tuesday, First Lady Michelle Obama revealed that the President loves to serenade her by singing songs from Al Green, Marvin Gaye and other R&B greats.

“He does have a beautiful voice, and he sings to me all the time,” Mrs. Obama told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.

The President gained attention in January for breaking out a bar of an Al Green song during a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in New York City.

But he also sings Marvin Gaye and even ‘a little Stevie.’ That’s Stevie Wonder, for the uninitiated. “He likes the classics,” she explained.

Michelle Obama also convinced Jay Leno to nibble on apples, sweet potato fries and a pizza made with eggplant, green peppers and zucchini, breaking his long-held aversion for all-things-healthy in his diet.

Leno once told a magazine, he hadn’t eaten a vegetable since 1969, and he insisted he tasted his last apple in 1984. That didn’t dissuade the First Lady, who’s promoting her ‘Let’s Move!’ campaign to get kids excited about fitness and healthy eating habits.

She convinced Jay Leno to dip an apple in honey made from beehives in the White House garden.”It will help it go down easier,” she assured him.

“White House honey? That sounds bad,” Jay joked. “You know, with a different president that could mean a whole different thing, ‘a little White House honey.’”

My Fox Houston reports that two locals have launched an effort to erect a monument honoring the iconic singer in her Hometown of Houston, Texas.

“Our biggest thing is a lot of people get honored when they die,” said Marcus Mitchell, who together with Steve White and their company Armdeonce Ventures is campaigning for the effort, “so our goal why not honor people why they’re still here? We felt as though it’s her time to be honored.” Mitchell and White claim they have the support of the city’s mayor. Currently they are looking for a location and private donors for the project.

“We wanted to construct, like, a massive hall so as the doors open, if you donated to the monument,” said Mitchell, “you’ll have a separate nameplate.… There will be clips of Beyoncé with Destiny’s Child and wardrobe like a mini museum.”

The duo hope to unveil the site on Beyonce’s birthday, September 4. They also say part of the proceeds generated by the monument will benefit organizations like Music for America, Beyoncé’s Survivor foundation and the Grammy Cares foundation.

While there have been claims that the mayor of Houston, Annise Parker, supports plans for the monument, no such backing has been confirmed.

Despite the claims, a spokesperson denied the report via Twitter.

“Fox is wrong. The City of Houston is not behind, working with or having anything to do with an effort to build a monument honoring Beyonce,” Evans tweeted, adding that Houston does “heart Beyonce and her music.”

The day he shot himself dead, Cornelius called him, Tony Cornelius told “CBS This Morning” anchor Gayle King Thursday.

“It was a call of urgency, and I came to his home immediately,” Tony Cornelius told King, although he did not say whether he was the one to find the body.

Police were called to Don Cornelius’ Los Angeles home Wednesday morning and found him with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to Cedars Sinai Hospital, where has pronounced dead. He was 75.

There was no suicide note.

His son, a friend of Gayle King’s, said, “He had been very unhappy about things that had gone on in his life and his health.”

Tony Cornelius, who worked alongside his father, didn’t reveal specifics of what troubled Don.

Don Cornelius had suffered serious health problems, and in 2009 went through a bitter, and costly divorce.

“My father was extremely private,” his son said. “Unfortunately, when you’re a private person, you keep things inside.”

He said it was hard to imagine how badly his father felt.

“Me, being extremely close to him, I could tell he was uncomfortable,” Tony Cornelius said.

Asked to describe his dad, Tony said what came to mind was “a guy who really, really worked hard at being a professional. He taught me everything I know about TV, TV production, and he just really wanted to serve.”

He said his father wanted equality.

“I think his legacy will be that he really worked on the fine points,” Tony Cornelius told CBS This Morning. “He always taught me it’s the fine points that count.”

Leno once told a magazine he hadn’t eaten a vegetable since 1969, and he told the First Lady he gave up apples in 1984.

Earlier, Michelle Obama poked at him in a Twitter post, hinting she’d “get Jay to eat some veggies.”

The FLOTUS urged him to dip the apples in honey made from beehives in the White House garden: “It will help it go down easier,” she assured him.

“White House honey? That sounds bad,” Leno told her. “You know, with a different president that could mean a whole different thing, ‘a little White House honey.’”

The First Lady is on a two-day swing through California where she’ll promote her “Let’s Move!” campaign promoting fitness and healthy eating for kids, while helping Democrats raise money at two events for the upcoming elections.

She told Leno she’s not doing anything special to prepare for what’s expected to be a tough re-election campaign for her husband, President Barack Obama.

“You know, there’s really no way to mentally prepare for it. You take each day as it comes,” she said.

Republican Mitt Romney has been ridiculing the White House and might face the president in November, but the First Lady gave the former Massachusetts governor’s singing voice a diplomatic endorsement. Romney surprised supporters in Florida with an on-pitch version of “America the Beautiful” on Monday, and Leno asked the FLOTUS for her opinion.

“It’s beautiful,” she said with a laugh and raised eyebrows. “And it is America’s song, and it’s a song that’s meant to be sung by every American,” Michelle Obama said.

Leno told her, “That is right, regardless of political affiliation.”