Sideshow: Britain's 11 million-hit singing star

YouTube really can make you into a star.

Just ask Susan Boyle, 47, a Scottish lass who has risen to become an international singing sensation.

Susan, whose YouTube performance has generated more than 11 million hits, made her U.S. debut yesterday on CBS's The Early Show. She wowed hosts Maggie Rodriguez and Harry Smith with her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. So wow! was she that Broadway legend Patti LuPone, who first sang the tune in '85, told her live over the phone, "You've got pluck, girl."

The warbler's breakout performance came on Britain's Got Talent. Her dowdy look inspired jeers from a rude audience, but they soon shut up. Even Simon "Darth Vader" Cowell was impressed, dubbing her turn "extraordinary."

Susan, an unemployed charity worker, said she did it all for her mother, who recently died.

"I wanted to make this a tribute to my mother. I knew this was something I had to do."

Christian Colson

, producer of the surprise smash hit movie

Slumdog Millionaire

, says the film's makers have collectively donated $747,000 to the international charity Plan. The money is to help educate 5,000 needy kids in India over the next five years.

"The bottom line is that some of the beneficiaries of the film's success have got together to make a donation which will be channeled into relatively small communities where it can hopefully have a tangible and lasting impact," Colson says.

American Idol

diva

Fantasia Barrino

has signed to star in a reality show for VH1 set for early next year, the Hollywood Reporter says.

The subject matter? Fantasia, of course!

"Fantasia has one of the most fascinating stories in show business, from her tough upbringing to her meteoric rise on the national scene thanks to American Idol," VH1 exec v.p. Jeff Olde tells the Reporter.

Fantasia must have so much to say about herself: The nine-time Grammy nominee already has written an autobiography, Life Is Not a Fairy Tale - and she's starred in the Lifetime TV movie adaptation. VH1 says the show will chronicle her life as a recording artist, woman, young person, single mother, and human being.

"Fantasia's life has been an open book, but at 24 years old, her story has just begun," exec producer Randy Barbato says.

Salma Hayek

, who wed French gazillionaire

Francois-Henri Pinault

, 46, in a super-secret private do at city hall in Paris on Valentine's Day, has denied reports that she plans to throw a $2 mil wedding bash at the end of April - or ever.

"I think a wedding is about love, friends, family, and fun," Hayek, 42, tells People mag.

"I think spending millions of dollars on a wedding is ridiculous and it has never been my dream. I would never do that."

Why did

Ryan Adams

leave his beloved New York City for Lalaland?

It's a question that haunts my dreams.

The truth is finally out, thanks to Gawker.com, which reports that singer/songwriter Adams' feelings were so badly hurt by the New York Times he had to flee the metropolis.

"I got [badly treated] by the New York Times for long enough so I moved," Ryan tells book publishing publication Shelf Awareness.

"I will always love David Letterman and 2nd Ave Deli forever."

The evidence? In November, the Times said Ryan's tune "Sylvia Plath" was "lame." And in a concert preview, the paper said Ryan was sometimes "overblown . . . an artist who does not believe strongly in self-editing."

Gawker notes that Ryan is not just a whiny jerk. After all, he says, the book that changed his life was Roget's Thesaurus, which is kind of cool, in a geeky sort of way.

Yes, yes,

Katie Couric

admits. She does Twitter.

But Katie says she finds the latest overhyped bit of communicative distraction lacking.

Variety says the CBS Evening News anchor, who was at the University of Southern California on Wednesday to receive a Walter Cronkite award, spoke up at a USC panel discussion that also featured George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC's This Week.

"I Twitter and blog very selectively. . . . I don't think anybody gives a rat's [posterior] whether I am about to eat a tuna sandwich. I don't even care," Katie said. "Some of it is so inane and narcissistic and bizarre I don't quite get it. I don't know why anyone would want to read it, much less why I would want to write it."

Katie then committed the cardinal sin for journalists: She told the truth about the public's awareness of issues. (It defeats the whole idea that the customer knows best.)

"I read the comments section on Internet sites and I am absolutely appalled by the level of ignorance," Katie said, calling some of the commentators lunatics.

"I think some of that is really damaging to civil discourse and our ability to have a civil conversation about certain issues."