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American Morning
Book Bigger and Glossier Than Ever Compiles Tabloids Over the Years
Aired January 30, 2002 - 07:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're back at seven minutes before the hour now. Come on, admit it, admit that when you're waiting on the supermarket checkout line, you're checking out the headlines on the tabloids. You know, the headlines about your favorite stars having adulterous relationships with married aliens. Well, now CNN's Jeanne Moos reports some of them are available for your private pleasure in a book bigger and glossier than ever.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Inquiring minds want to know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.
MOOS: What's making these folks go ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.
MOOS: If you've ever been tempted to peek at "The National Enquirer", but felt it was too trashy, here's your chance, a coffeetable book full of 30 years of unforgettable images. Who could forget Julia Roberts unshaven?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Oh my God.
MOOS: Or Jackie Kennedy smoking a cigarette, or Brook Shields breaking a nail and breaking into a grimace.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Oh.
MOOS: From JFK Jr. in love to Geraldo in bandages after a fight with skinheads.
BARRY LEVINE, NY BUREAU CHIEF, NATIONAL ENQUIRER: It's a record of their lives, the good, and the bad, and the ugly.
MOOS: Ugly like the woman with the Guinness record for piercings, 290 holes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's disgusting.
MOOS: Some might think this is disgusting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Elvis in his casket.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yuck.
MOOS: "The Enquirer" paid one of Elvis' cousins to take this picture.
LEVINE: Our editors were so tickled pink over the photo that he received a bonus and ended up with $18,000 for the picture.
MOOS: That issue of "Enquirer" sold more than any other. Some of the photos have inspired envy among the mainstream media, from the snapshot that ended Gary Hart's presidential campaign to the one that tied OJ Simpson to a brand of shoe that left bloody footprints.
LEVINE: OJ said that this photo of him in the Borough Mantley (ph) shoes never existed and we went through thousands of negatives and finally found an image of him in the shoes.
MOOS: Jack Nicholson tried to be the butt of jokes.
LEVINE: That was Jack wearing the swim trunks on purpose, just to have a bit of fun with the Paparazzi.
MOOS: But not all celebs appreciate having their picture taken. That's Frank Sinatra in his PJs. Guards at Don Johnson's wedding fired buckshot at the helicopter Barry Levine was in.
LEVINE: It was like being in a pinball machine. The buckshot ended up coming into our open cockpit.
MOOS: Cher had to bail out a boyfriend who got into a fight with photographers.
What's the worst thing Cher has ever said to you?
LEVINE: She said how can you live with yourself Barry?
MOOS: "The Enquirer's" nose for news extends to Paula Jones' nose job and Michael Jackson's. Jackson's manager actually sent the tabloid this photo of Michael sleeping in a hyperbaric (ph) chamber, apparently for health reasons.
LEVINE: And he basically gave us this picture with the caveat that we had to refer to him in this photo as bizarre.
MOOS: "The Enquirer" loves embarrassing moments. Mel Gibson with lettuce in his teeth. Donald Trump caught on the slopes with then-girlfriend Marla Maples and wife Ivana. Those who remember Charlie Chaplan like this might not want to think of him like this. Liz with wrinkles; Liza looking beat.
Is it OK to show people looking so bad?
LEVINE: I think it is. I think it is, and I think that our readers at "The National Enquirer" expect us to have photos like this.
MOOS: "The New York Times" called "The Enquirer" book brain Candy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they meant it as sort of junk food.
LEVINE: Well I - we - you know we think that this is you know meat and potatoes, that there's a lot of steak in here.
MOOS: Some of the steak is a little too raw for us to show.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Whoa.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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