Expect word shortly that actress CCH Pounder (Capt. Claudette Wyms on FX's The Shield) will host this year's Marian Anderson Award gala on Nov. 17, as Maya Angelou and Norman Lear get their humanitarian prizes at the Kimmel Center.

Harry Belafonte, who received the first Anderson in 1998, is due, too.

Besides the Philadelphia Orchestra under Thomas Wilkins, entertainers include opera singer Nicole Cabell, song-and-dance man Ben Vereen, gospel singer Kirk Franklin, and spoken-word artists Steve Connell and Sekou tha Misfit.

TV folks

Fox29 sports director Don Tollefson did sideline reporting from Sunday's Eagles-49ers game in San Francisco. Tollefson, let go this summer, told me that he got the call from Fox Sports on Thursday. Tollefson, whose shoulder was banged up in a car crash in March, said that he was aching Sunday night after work and that the Eagles training staff helped pack him up with ice. "Gooood guys," he said, adding that he expected to do another game for Fox in a couple of weeks.

NBC10 reporter/anchor John Blunt will be out through next month after knee surgery, says a station rep.

CBS3 will send Susan Barnett, Chris May, Kathy Orr, Beasley Reece and Jim Donovan, plus general manager Michael Colleran, tonight to the Far Northeast for a community meeting about digital television. It'll be from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Archbishop Ryan High School, 11201 Academy Rd. See if they get back by 11 p.m.

Locally connected

The reunited LaBelle - Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash - will talk and sing between noon and 1 p.m. tomorrow on Patty Jackson's show on WDAS (105.3).

Job cuts, in the name of efficiency, are in the works at Philadelphia Style mag. In the process, the pub schedule will move to eight times a year from the current six.

MTV bad boy Bam Margera, whose club-eatery The Note opened last month on East Market Street in West Chester, knows the price of fame. And the Philly area's litigious nature. He told Inked magazine in November's issue: "It seems like just because people know that [The Note] is my thing, some idiot will purposely dump his beer down the stairs and fall down it and say, 'I slipped on beer at Bam's place. I want a million dollars.' " No!

Prince Albert's Philly cousins are whispering persistently that nuptials are in the works for Monaco's monarch and South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock. No one will say when, though. Albert, 50, son of Prince Rainier and the former Grace Kelly, and Wittstock, 30, have been an item since early 2006.

Behind the scenes

Before her Saturday puck-drop at the Flyers game at the Wachovia Center, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin heard PA announcer Lou Nolan announcing the Flyers coaches. Palin looked up at Ike Richman, a vice president for Comcast-Spectacor, and remarked: "These fans are tough. They even boo the coaches." Richman says he replied: "Governor, they're not booing. They're 'ruuuing' for assistant coach [and former Flyers player] Craig Berube."

A 9-year-old girl buttonholed Jon Bon Jovi before he played Friday night at a $10,000-a-head Barack Obama fund-raiser in Mount Airy. "Can you perform at my bat mitzvah?" she asked. Bon Jovi gently explained that he didn't do 'em anymore. "Livin' on a Prayer," indeed.

Erratum

To correct a note in Sunday's column: The tax assessment (not the annual tax bill) of Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb rose to $1,332,100 from $628,800. New Jersey taxes aren't quite that bad.

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Contact staff writer Michael Klein at 215-854-5514 or mklein@phillynews.com. "INQlings" also appears Thursdays and Sundays. See his other work at http://go.philly.com/michaelklein and http://go.philly.com/insider.