Jimmy Kimmel, Kristin Chenoweth, Steve Harvey, and Lily Tomlin have signed on to honor Ellen DeGeneres with tribute performances as she wins the nation’s top humor prize. The Kennedy Center in Washington is awarding DeGeneres (inset) the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Oct. 22. The show will be broadcast on PBS stations Oct. 30. The lineup also includes John Krasinski, Sean Hayes, and Jason Mraz. DeGeneres began her career as a comedy club emcee in her native New Orleans. In 1997, she made history as the first prime-time TV lead character to reveal she’s gay. The prize honors Mark Twain’s tradition of satire and social commentary. (AP)

Minaj, Mariah at odds

Feuding divas on ‘‘American Idol”? Ryan Seacrest says that’s just great. The show’s host said Wednesday that things got intense between new judges Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey during a tryout taping the previous day in Charlotte, N.C. Amid a dispute over a contestant, Minaj announced that she was no longer putting up with ‘‘her . . . Highness,’’ in a reference to Carey and with a few expletives added in. Another new judge, Keith Urban, was in the unenviable position of sitting between the two of them. On his radio show, Seacrest said: ‘‘It did get intense. ‘We want that. We want them to be on this panel together.” ‘‘American Idol’’ is still the nation’s most popular show despite a dramatic falloff in ratings last season that led to three new judges joining Randy Jackson. The show’s new season will premiere in January. (AP)

Casual interest in ‘Casual’

Sales for J.K. Rowling’s first adult novel were hardly magical during its first six days. But the publisher isn’t complaining. Little, Brown and Company announced Wednesday that ‘‘The Casual Vacancy’’ has sold 375,000 copies so far, a figure which includes hardcovers, e-books, and audio books. That makes Rowling’s novel among the fastest selling new releases of the year, although not in the same league as her Harry Potter books. The last installment in the Potter series, ‘‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,’’ came out in 2007 and sold more than 8 million copies in the US alone in its first 24 hours. ‘‘The Casual Vacancy’’ was published Sept. 27 to high anticipation. Reviews have been mixed, but the book has been at or near the top of Amazon.com since coming out. (AP)

Walton memoir in 2013

Basketball great Bill Walton is ready to recap his amazing career and even more amazing recovery. Simon & Schuster announced Wednesday that Walton, 59, is working on a memoir that will come out in the fall of 2013. The book is tentatively called ‘‘Back From the Dead.’’ It will cover everything from Walton’s triumphs with UCLA to his overcoming a stutter and becoming a broadcaster to the collapsed spine that left him hardly able to move for three years. The book will be coauthored by veteran sportswriter John Papanek. Financial terms were not disclosed. Walton was represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose clients range from President Obama to singer/actress Barbra Streisand. (AP)

Perry helps theft victim

Filmmaker Tyler Perry is donating a new van to a Georgia woman with cerebral palsy after her specially equipped one was stolen outside Atlanta. Perry told an Atlanta television station Tuesday he heard news reports about Alicia Day’s van being stolen this week in Decatur. Police say Day’s 2000 Chrysler Town and Country van was taken from her driveway sometime Sunday night. Day uses a wheelchair and tells the station that she prides herself on being independent, working part-time as a greeter at Home Depot. Her mother relied on the van to take Day to work and to doctor appointments. Day says her ‘‘mouth just dropped’’ when she heard Perry’s voice on the phone. (AP)