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.

“We are excited to work with TLC to profile the lives of these strong-willed women,” True Entertainment president Steven Weinstock says. “With most praise in religious communities directed towards male preachers, we are thrilled to give these remarkable ladies the spotlight they crave and deserve.”

The series will follow the women as they play out their role as preacher’s wives in the congregation, and also give a snapshot of how the ladies balance their home lives.

An airdate has yet to be announced.

Social psychologists at University of California, Berkeley, found that gossiping about unethical behavior helps reduce stress and maintain social order. It can even calm the racing heart of someone who knows another person is up to no good.

The researchers invited their subjects to play games of economic trust. When a player cheated, subjects who saw the dishonesty experienced stress and increased heart rates. But when permitted to send a “gossip note” warning fellow players about the cheater, the subjects exhibited relief and a decreased heart rate. In another phase of the study, subjects even sacrificed their own money to players who had been swindled.

“We shouldn’t feel guilty for gossiping if the gossip helps prevent others from being taken advantage of,” said Matthew Feinberg, the study’s lead author. His co-authors further clarified that the study showed benefits relating only to “prosocial” gossip – sending warnings about dishonest people – and not to spreading lies or ill-informed rumors.

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.”

The genial trainer got to see his old friend, and reminisce about good times. It was almost as if they were together in their prime again, and what a time that was.

Dundee died in his apartment in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday night at the age of 90, and with him a part of boxing died, too.

He was surrounded by his family, said his son, Jimmy, who said the visit with Ali in Louisville, Ky., meant everything to his Dad.

“It was the way he wanted to go,” the son said. “He did everything he wanted to do.”

Jimmy Dundee said his father was hospitalized for a blood clot last week and was briefly in a rehabilitation facility before returning to his apartment.

“He was coming along good yesterday and then he started to have breathing problems. My wife was with him at the time, thank God, and called and said he can’t breathe. We all got over there. All the grandkids were there. He didn’t want to go slowly,” the son said.

Dundee was the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Ali in his greatest fights, willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, and coached hundreds of young men in the art of a left jab and an overhand right.

“To me, he was the greatest ambassador for boxing, the greatest goodwill ambassador in a sport where there’s so much animosity and enemies,” said Bruce Trampler, the longtime matchmaker who first went to work for Dundee in 1971. “The guy didn’t have an enemy in the world.”

How could he, when his favorite line was, “It doesn’t cost anything more to be nice.”

Dundee was best known for being in Ali’s corner for almost his entire career, urging him on in his first fight against Sonny Liston through the legendary fights with Joe Frazier and beyond. He was a cornerman, but he was much more, serving as a motivator for fighters not so great and for The Greatest.

Promoter Bob Arum said he had been planning to bring Dundee to Las Vegas for a Feb. 18 charity gala headlined by Ali.

“He was wonderful. He was the whole package,” Arum said. “Angelo was the greatest motivator of all time. No matter how bad things were, Angelo always put a positive spin on them. That’s what Ali loved so much about him.”

Arum credited Dundee with persuading Ali to continue in his third fight against Joe Frazier when Frazier was coming on strong in the “Thrilla in Manilla.” Without Dundee, Arum said, Ali may not have had the strength to come back and stop Frazier after the 14th round in what became an iconic fight.

Dundee also worked the corner for Leonard, famously shouting, “You’re blowing it, son. You’re blowing it” when Leonard fell behind in his 1981 fight with Tommy Hearns — a fight he would rally to win by knockout.

A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport’s great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.

“He had a ball. He lived his life and had a great time,” Jimmy Dundee said. “He was still working with an amateur kid, a possible Olympic kid, down here. When he walked into a boxing room he still had the brain for it.”

Dundee will always be linked to Ali as one of the most successful fighter-trainer relationships in boxing history, helping Ali become the first to win the heavyweight title three times. The pair would travel around the world for fights to such obscure places as Ali’s October 1974 bout in Zaire against Foreman dubbed “The Rumble in the Jungle,” and Ali’s third fight against Frazier in the Philippines.

“I just put the reflexes in the proper direction,” Dundee said in a 2005 interview with The Associated Press.

He did much more than that, said Gene Kilroy, who was Ali’s business manager for much of his career.

“There were people who tried to push him out, and Ali would never let it happen,” Kilroy said. “Ali knew he kept everyone in harmony, kept everything in check. More than that, he found good in everybody. We used to joke that he could find something good in Charles Manson. He was just that way with everyone.”

The partnership with Ali began in Louisville, Ali’s hometown, in 1959. Dundee was there with light heavyweight Willie Pastrano when the young Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, called their room from a hotel phone to ask if he could have five minutes. Clay, a local Golden Gloves champion, kept asking the men boxing questions in a conversation that lasted 3½ hours, according to Dundee’s autobiography, “My View From the Corner: A Life in Boxing.”

After Ali returned from Rome with a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics, Dundee ran into him in Louisville and invited him to come to Miami Beach to train. Ali declined. But that December, Dundee got a call from one of Ali’s handlers, seeking to hire Dundee. After Ali won his first pro fight, Dundee accepted.

He helped Ali claim the heavyweight title for the first time on Feb. 25, 1964, when Sonny Liston quit on his stool after the sixth round during their fight in Miami Beach.

In an age of boxing when fighter-manager relationships rarely last, Dundee and Ali would never split.

When Cassius Clay angered white America by joining the Black Muslims and become Muhammad Ali, Dundee never wavered. When Ali defied the draft at the height of the Vietnam war, losing 3 1/2 years from the prime of his career, Dundee was there waiting for the heavyweight’s return. And when Ali would make bold projections, spewing poetry that made headlines across the world and gave him the nickname “The Louisville Lip,” Dundee never asked him to keep quiet.

“Through all those days of controversy, and the many that followed, Angelo never got involved,” Ali wrote in the foreword to Dundee’s book. “He let me be exactly who I wanted to be, and he was loyal. That is the reason I love Angelo.”

Born Angelo Mirena on Aug. 30, 1921, in south Philadelphia, Dundee’s boxing career was propelled largely by his older brother, Chris, a promoter. After returning from World War II — “We won, but not because of anything I did” — he joined Chris in the boxing game in New York, serving as his “go-fer” and getting the tag “Chris’ kid brother.” Angelo and Chris followed another brother Joe, who was a fighter, in changing their surname to Dundee so their parents wouldn’t know they worked in boxing.

He learned to tape hands and handle cuts as a corner man in the late 1940s, building his knowledge by watching and learning as a “bucket boy” in New York for trainers like Chickie Ferrara, Charlie Goldman and Ray Arcel, among others. Word of Dundee’s expertise spread, and seasoned fighters lined up to have him in their corner.

He worked major boxing scenes with Chris, with stops at the famed Stillman’s Gym in New York and Miami Beach’s 5th Street Gym. Dundee’s fun-loving attitude, combined with his powerful Philly accent, made him a joy to be around. His lifelong love and respect for the sport earned him praise from those across the boxing world.

“He is the only man in boxing to whom I would entrust my own son,” the late sportscaster Howard Cosell once said of Dundee.

In the late 1970s, with Ali nearing retirement, Dundee quickly jumped into the corner for an emerging star named Sugar Ray Leonard, whom Dundee called “a smaller Ali.” Dundee trained Leonard for many of his biggest fights — including bouts against Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns — and helped him become one of the most recognized welterweight champions in history.

Dundee later teamed with Foreman in 1994 to help him become the oldest heavyweight champion at age 45 when he beat Michael Moorer. In one last attempt to help a big fighter win a big fight, Dundee helped train Oscar De La Hoya for his Dec. 6, 2008, fight with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao. Dundee did not work the corner on fight night; perhaps the 35-year-old “Golden Boy” could have used him. De La Hoya declined to answer the bell for the ninth round.

Always a slick strategist and fierce competitor, Dundee developed countless tricks to help his fighters win.

If he thought a referee might stop a fight because of a gash on his fighter, Dundee would stretch his butt so the referee couldn’t peek into the corner, allowing him to conceal the wound before the bell. If a fighter was tired, Dundee would do anything he could to buy time, once untying a boxer’s shoes after every round only to slowly retie the laces each time.

Dundee also went well beyond the usual tricks of smelling salts to revive fighters.

If his man was dazed, Dundee would often drop ice down the fighter’s shorts to take their attention off injuries. During Ali’s 1963 fight against Henry Cooper, Dundee pulled off a stunt that took him decades to publicly acknowledge.

After Cooper dropped Ali and left him dizzy at the end of the fourth round, Dundee alerted the referee to a small rip on Ali’s gloves — a split Dundee would later admit he noticed before the fight — and the search for replacement gloves that never came gave Ali a few extra seconds to recover. Ali pounded Cooper’s cuts in the fifth and the fight was stopped, keeping Ali’s title shot alive. Many boxing commissions would soon require extra gloves to be kept at every fight.

Dundee never held back the one-liners in the corner, either, saying anything he could to get his fighters charged.

Dundee also loved to tell the story of the night he was in the corner for a little-known heavyweight named Johnny Holman. Remembering that Holman’s dream was to buy a house, Dundee tried to motivate Holman when he said, “This guy’s taking away your house from you. He’s taking away those shutters from you. He’s taking away that television set from you.” Holman would come back to win — and get that house.

After living in the Miami area for decades, Dundee moved to the Tampa suburb of Oldsmar in 2007 to be closer to his two children after his wife of more than 50 years, Helen, fell ill. She died three years later.

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