People in the news

The latest news on today's hottest celebrities ...

OPRAH WINFREY: U.S. media mogul Oprah Winfrey has announced she will be the chief executive officer and chief creative officer of her OWN cable network starting this fall.

Winfrey wrapped up the 25th and final season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in May so she could focus on OWN.

USA Today said she is to replace Peter Liguori, who has been serving as interim CEO since Christina Norman left the fledgling network in the spring.

OWN also confirmed Erik Logan and Sheri Salata, current presidents of Winfrey's Harpo Studios, have been named presidents of OWN, with Logan based in Los Angeles and Salata in Chicago, the newspaper reported.

"We are in this boat TOGETHER in a very real way now," USA Today quoted Winfrey as telling employees in a memo. "I am ready to dedicate my full creative energy and focus as the full time CEO of OWN."

TED DANSON: Actor Ted Danson has joined the cast of the Las Vegas-set television series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS announced Wednesday.

The multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner will make his first appearance during the show's Season 12 premiere Sept. 21. Series star Laurence Fishburne left last season to return to his film career.

Danson will play the new CSI supervisor for the grave shift after heading the crime lab in Portland. He comes to the team as they are still grappling with the professional and personal fallout from last season's takedown of serial killer Nate Haskell, the network said in a news release.

"You can create a new character on the page, but until the perfect actor comes along and breathes life into it, it's just words," Executive Producer Carol Mendelsohn said in a statement. "We're very excited Ted Danson came along."

"From the moment we all started talking about the role, it was clear he couldn't be more perfect," added Executive Producer Don McGill. "Intelligence, wit, warmth, depth of character and emotion, he brings it all. And now he'll have to bring latex gloves, too."

Despite his new role on "CSI," Danson will remain a series regular on the HBO series "Bored to Death," CBS noted.

The actor is best known for his roles in TV's "Damages," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Becker" and "Cheers."

BRANGELINA: Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who are the parents of six children, are planning to wed within a few months, Us Weekly reported.

The "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" co-stars have been together for about six years.

One insider close to the pair told the magazine Jolie and Pitt plan to exchange vows in an "intimate and informal" ceremony.

Pitt told USA Today in May their children have been pressuring them to get married.

"The kids ask about marriage," Pitt told the newspaper. "It's meaning more and more to them."

'GLEE' STARS: Ryan Murphy, the co-creator of "Glee," says Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer won't return for a fourth season of the music-themed U.S. TV series.

Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter Wednesday the trio's popular characters will graduate at the end of the upcoming third season, which is to begin in September.

"You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticize you for not being realistic, or you can be really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year," Murphy told the entertainment industry trade newspaper. "We made that decision and I involved Chris and Lea and they thought that was a good idea. They both trust the writing and trust me and felt that it would be great to have an open and closed experience for them to go out while they were on top."

Murphy said he has not yet discussed the move with Monteith.

Michele, Monteith and Colfer are all in their 20s in real life.