Cruising with the Kids

CNGRTZ (that'd be congrats) to Mike Salomon, an Acton native and graduating senior at Northwestern University, who on Thursday night won a yearlong mentorship with the Manhattan Theatre Club. Salomon snagged the prize by winning the club's "REALationships" competition, which had college students writing plays about how relationships are affected by the digital age. Salomon scripted "RMEO+JULEZ," his theatrical interpretation of how "Romeo and Juliet" would play out with text messages and Twitters. Competition judges included "Proof" writer David Auburn.

Scott Weider, a competitive indoor kite flier from Coventry, R.I., travels to Los Angeles tomorrow to be a contestant on the Simon Cowell-produced variety competition, "America's Got Talent." Weider sent the show a tape of his kite-flying skills last month, and almost immediately producers were clamoring to get him on the upcoming season. "They've been, every day, calling me and calling me," said Weider, who told us he plans to perform an indoor kite routine to the Sarah McLachlan song "Angel." Weider's audience should include the show's three judges - Sharon Osbourne, David Hasselhoff, and Piers Morgan. New "Talent" host Nick Cannon should also be on hand for the taping. Weider was delighted when we told him that Cannon is married to Mariah Carey. The kite guy admits that he drew a portrait of the singer years ago and would "love to get it in her hands."

Call it the sisterhood of the traveling sperm. Carey Goldberg, Pamela Ferdinand, Beth Jones - who've all written for various sections of the Globe - have been offered a mid-six-figure advance from publisher Little, Brown for a book they've co-authored about their shared experience with a sperm donation. As Goldberg explains it, it's "the true story of three Boston-area girlfriends who pass along some anonymous donor's sperm from one to the next." Before actually using the donated sperm to try to get pregnant, each woman winds up meeting a partner. The story's working title is "Inconceivable Happiness." The book, which is already written, is scheduled to be released next May. Goldberg tells us that the book will give a shout-out to Marty Baron, the Globe's editor. No, he's not the donor. He just happened to hire Goldberg at the Globe when she was a new, single mother. . . . Longtime Globe tennis writer and International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee Bud Collins received an honorary degree from Boston University yesterday. Collins attended BU, but dropped out 54 years ago, just shy of a diploma. The school decided that Collins's book, "The Bud Collins History of Tennis," would make up for the one thing that stood between the writer and graduation - an unwritten thesis paper.

They didn't win "Top Chef," but Nikki Cascone and Dale Talde were the faces of the "Top Chef: The Tour" at the Prudential Center yesterday. The fourth-season castoffs did cooking demonstrations and handed out samples throughout the afternoon as part of a tour put on by the Bravo network. Cascone, who runs the restaurant 24 Prince in New York City, was quick to show her true colors. "I'm not a Red Sox fan," she told the crowd. "Don't throw things at me."

The newest member of the Joslin Diabetes Center Board of Trustees will be Ray Allen. The center announced the news yesterday, just before Allen and his wife, Shannon, hosted a dinner party to kick off planning for the Joslin Diabetes Center's High Hopes Gala, which is held annually in November. The guest list for the dinner party included this year's High Hopes Gala chairs Anna and Rich Levitan, Kevin Garnett's wife, Brandi, Bain exec and Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca and wife Judy, Forest Whitaker's wife, and Lynn native, Keisha, and Wheelock College president Jackie Jenkins-Scott. The Allens have worked closely with Joslin since their son was diagnosed with diabetes last year.

'I'm not griping; I'm just letting it be known that what's fair is fair, and I haven't been treated fairly.' Rapper Yung Joc, telling Billboard he plans to sue Diddy's Bad Boy Records and Block Entertainment for contractual discrepancies, including failure to pay royalties