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CNN Connie Chung Tonight
Interviews With Andrea Bocelli, Clive Davis, Rod Stewart, Kevin Kline, Carrie Fisher
Aired December 25, 2002 - 20:00 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.
This is CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT. From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York: Connie Chung.
CONNIE CHUNG, HOST: Good evening. Merry Christmas. Hope you had a good one.
We are going to do a little stargazing tonight. No, we're not looking for the star of Bethlehem. We are going to go up close and personal with some stars right here on earth.
We start with our interview with Andrea Bocelli and a special performance by him. Plus, we are going to take a look back at some stars who have already come by to visit and find out why Rod Stewart isn't singing that old time rock 'n' roll on his latest album, and Kevin Kline, and then the unpredictable, outrageous Carrie Fisher.
But first: Andrea Bocelli. The superstar tenor has been slowing down his pace to spend some time with his family, but that didn't stop his new album from going right up to No. 1 on the classical charts and beating stars such as Nelly and the Rolling Stones on the "Billboard" top 200.
You may know Bocelli as the blind tenor. He lost his sight at the age of 12 due to glaucoma and a soccer accident. He prefers to not talk about his blindness. But when he came to our studio recently, he talked about just about everything else.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Andrea, thank you so much for being with us.
ANDREA BOCELLI, MUSICIAN: Thank you. It's a pleasure.
CHUNG: It's our pleasure.
You are such a heartthrob. Women are throwing themselves at your feet. They're everywhere.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: Do you think to yourself, so many women, so little time?
BOCELLI: I think that it's not true. You are...
CHUNG: Am I exaggerating?
BOCELLI: No. You journalists, you say this, but it is not true.
(LAUGHTER)
BOCELLI: It's true that I suffered a lot, especially when I was younger. Often, I went in love with some friends in school. And, no, I suffered. Only later, things went better.
CHUNG: But there are so many women out there who love your music. They buy your CDs. And you're very romantic for them. So, that's a lovely feeling, isn't it?
BOCELLI: Yes, I think so. I sing, basically, romantic music. Very often, opera tells romantic stories, no?
CHUNG: Yes, indeed.
You have said that there's a distinction between singing for opera and singing popular songs. How do you distinguish?
BOCELLI: They are completely two different language, no? Because, in opera, I have to sing for people that are very far from me, instead of, when I sing a song, I try to imagine to sing like in an ear of a child.
CHUNG: In the ear of a child.
BOCELLI: Do you want an example?
CHUNG: Yes.
BOCELLI: Because I practice often with my children at home.
CHUNG: Yes. You have two boys.
BOCELLI: I sing for them. I try to be very sweet, something like (SINGING IN ITALIAN) Now, in this period that I try to sing for them some songs for Christmas.
CHUNG: Yes, that's beautiful. What were the words?
BOCELLI: It's "my dear Jesus Christ."
CHUNG: So, basically, you sing very loudly for opera, but for romantic, popular songs very softly, correct?
BOCELLI: Yes. But when I start it at home, I shout, of course. I have to shout.
CHUNG: Why? Why do you have to?
BOCELLI: Because I'm practicing it for practice music.
CHUNG: Practice?
BOCELLI: Every day. And my children, they come to me and they say to me, "Daddy, stop it.
CHUNG: Oh, really?
(LAUGHTER)
BOCELLI: It's boring for them, of course.
CHUNG: Of course it is.
The opera purists are not very kind to you. They don't like the fact that you are singing popular music and opera.
BOCELLI: They forget that the best tenor in the last century, beginning with Caruso, every tenor sung songs. I've done nothing special.
And I think also, to be the most purist possible, because I hate the amplification for opera music and the other things.
CHUNG: So you think you are a purist?
BOCELLI: I think so.
CHUNG: An opera purist?
BOCELLI: I think so.
CHUNG: Do you see a difference in your voice today than five years ago or 10 years ago? Or is it a very gradual...
BOCELLI: Yes, but also from one year ago.
CHUNG: Really?
BOCELLI: Because the sensation is different. Now I'm more sure and I feel myself more comfortable singing.
CHUNG: When you perform on stage, are you nervous?
BOCELLI: Oh, it's difficult to explain how much. I have big, big stage fright.
CHUNG: Stage fright?
BOCELLI: And I can't do anything, I think.
CHUNG: What do you mean you can't do anything? You can't do anything about it?
BOCELLI: Yes. I think I don't want to use drugs or medicine, so nothing. The only way is to go on stage and to hope.
CHUNG: Do it, huh?
BOCELLI: Yes.
CHUNG: Then, do you settle down as soon as you go into your first song?
BOCELLI: No, not very much until at the end, when I -- I have a difficulty. I feel fear.
CHUNG: You feel fear until the end?
BOCELLI: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Not like at the beginning, but it's difficult, yes.
CHUNG: I appreciate your honesty, but I really do believe that it's very common. Don't you?
BOCELLI: I think so. I think, also, many of my colleagues have the same problem.
CHUNG: Yes. Do you think you're shy?
BOCELLI: On stage, yes, but outside, very less, not really very much.
CHUNG: I know that you got a law degree in the event that you would not become a singer.
BOCELLI: Yes.
CHUNG: Will you ever practice?
BOCELLI: I think so. I tried it.
CHUNG: You did?
BOCELLI: Well, because it was interesting. I began to do this for a short period. And it was interesting.
CHUNG: You mean, you were a lawyer for a short period?
BOCELLI: Yes. Yes.
CHUNG: How long?
BOCELLI: A few months, because then I began to go around the world for singing and I stopped.
CHUNG: So, now that you're slowing down your schedule, what do you find yourself doing?
BOCELLI: I study. I read. I try to organize something for my friends. And I try to find some time for my horses. I began when I was a child, because I was born and grew up in a little village. And many people ride the horses. So, it was a big -- it has been a big passion for me.
CHUNG: Wonderful.
If I ask you, would you sing for us today?
BOCELLI: Yes, I will.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: I appreciate that.
BOCELLI: It's the first track of my new album, this album that I have recorded with Maestro Maazel, of which I am very proud.
CHUNG: And what is the album called?
BOCELLI: The album is "Sentimento." But the track is called "Aranjuez."
CHUNG: And what does that mean?
BOCELLI: It's the name of a place in Spain.
CHUNG: I see.
And "Sentimento," of course, we know what that means.
BOCELLI: Sentimental, naturally, you know?
CHUNG: Yes.
BOCELLI: But in this album, there are 16 areas of love. And I love it very much.
CHUNG: Well, when we come back, Andrea Bocelli will have a special performance for us.
BOCELLI: OK. I will.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: And, as I promised, we are back with a performance by Andrea Bocelli. He performed "Aranjuez" for us off his new album, "Sentimento."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(ANDREA BOCELLI SINGS "ARANJUEZ")
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Bravo.
Andrea Bocelli's album "Sentimento" had the highest classical chart debut since "Three Tenors in Concert."
And when we come back, I will confront actor Kevin Kline with the list.
Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: In the world of acting, Kevin Kline is what you call a renaissance man. His roles have ranged from the unforgettably hilarious "A Fish Called Wanda," when he played a moron warning everyone to not call him stupid, and to his latest movie, "The Emperor's Club," in which he plays a teacher who is anything but stupid.
I spoke with him recently about "The Emperor's Club," but I started off talking with him about a very different kind of club.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CONNIE CHUNG, HOST: I want you to see something that I don't even know if you've seen it. This is E Online, alright? When I was reading the research, it has significant others, and it has your wife here first, but it has all these other women that you've dated.
KEVIN KLINE, ACTOR: A list?
CHUNG: You didn't know that, did you?
KLINE: No, I did not.
CHUNG: This actress that you dated in the 1970s. See, I can't see it. It's...
KLINE: Oh, no -- yes, I can make it out.
CHUNG: Can you see it?
KLINE: Yes, I get the rough outline, yes.
CHUNG: And then you dated this actress. What does it say?
KLINE: Once.
CHUNG: Dated briefly.
KLINE: One night.
CHUNG: One night, OK.
KLINE: One date.
CHUNG: One date?
KLINE: Yes. It wasn't -- yes. Yes.
CHUNG: All right. And then this one dated from 19 -- together, it says, 1971 to 1978. True?
KLINE: '71 to '78. It's all a blur, but it sounds accurate, yes.
CHUNG: Isn't that amazing that they put that in? Also one other thing that I read about you, Kevin...
KLINE: What's amazing is what they left out.
CHUNG: Exactly. Because listen to this. "In press reports over the years, Kline has been linked romantically to so many women that his publicist once pointed out he'd be dead by now if he'd done half of it."
KLINE: That's true. That's true. Yes, I have been linked with people I have never met.
CHUNG: Did all of that finally end when you married Phoebe Cates?
KLINE: Yes. Now I've just been linked with her continually, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: And you've got two children.
KLINE: Yes.
CHUNG: And how old are they now?
KLINE: They're 11 and 8.
CHUNG: Great. They were actually in one of your movies.
KLINE: Well, yes.
CHUNG: And I'm actually a little surprised because you...
KLINE: I was shocked.
CHUNG: Oh...
(LAUGHTER)
KLINE: No, I was against the whole idea. But this was "Anniversary Party" that Phoebe's best friend, Jennifer Jason Lee wrote, and Phoebe actually came out of retirement because she's effectively retired from acting at the moment, and -- but because it was done so quickly -- it was done during the summer, did not disrupt school -- and because it was about having children and because Jennifer knew my son and daughter, she thought, well -- and because we wanted it to -- or they wanted it to not be like making a film, but sort of like going to a party, so they were included.
But I thought, "Well, no, they have to use other names. We don't want them" -- but then I got over that. And I thought, "Oh, they're having fun."
CHUNG: I've read before actually that you believe acting does not come naturally to you. KLINE: I think it's finally begun to, but in the beginning it did not come easily to me. It was virtually impossible. I was really bad at it in college when I first started.
CHUNG: How could you be? I mean, what was wrong?
KLINE: Oh, I was very stiff, very physically -- I was kind of an athlete when I was in high school, and when I -- you know, you're suppose to not be terribly expressive with your body. So I wasn't. I was kind of rigid. And then when I got to Juilliard to really study in a focused way, they kind of beat that out of me, and I started to become more expressive.
CHUNG: Well, that's incredible because on -- I read some of the reviews of the plays which you won Tonys for, and one of them said you were like a jack in the box and you put acrobatics into your character.
KLINE: Yes. I made up for the paucity of lines with physical schtick.
CHUNG: All right. Tell us about this new movie, "The Emperor's Club." Quick synopsis.
KLINE: Dedicated teacher at a boy's academy. Very serious teacher about his work. Rather strict school. Into this classroom comes a disruptive, overly entitled, charismatic, attractive kid who kind of leads the class away from my authoritative position into a more, an archaic situation. And I -- there's a sort of battle between this kid and me. And I actually win him over and get him to apply himself. He starts studying.
But then, his true character emerges. And it becomes a lifelong thing, because the movie cuts to 25 years later. All these kids who are in this class have grown up and become movers and shakers.
CHUNG: You went to a prep school, right, from sixth grade to twelfth grade. It was an English-Catholic school run by Benedictine monks.
KLINE: Benedictine monks, yes. From Ampleforth Abbey in York, England. It was a bit stricter and bit more classical in its orientation than the other schools from St. Louis, where I grew up.
CHUNG: Do you think that was good for you?
KLINE: Yes, I do. I needed discipline. I think every adolescent needs some -- well, a good deal of discipline. And when you have very rigid rules, some of them make a military school, but there were certain things that were expected of you: certain decorum in the classroom, certain ways of behaving that showed respect to what was called the master, which we call today the teacher. But when the master came in the room, you stood up...
CHUNG: Right. KLINE: ... never spoke out of turn, you wore a tie and you wore a jacket. And if you were bad, you were subject to corporal punishment of varying degrees...
CHUNG: Oh, dear.
KLINE: ... which is no longer the case at the school.
CHUNG: Right, right.
KLINE: But, yes, I think it's important.
Doing the movie was kind of an homage to my school. Aside from the story that the movie tells, there is a kind of homage to the dignity and the nobility of the teaching profession, especially the vocational teachers for whom it's not merely a job, but a lifelong devotion, which I was fortunate to have as my teacher.
CHUNG: All right, so career is going great. You've been married 13 years?
KLINE: What does it say there?
CHUNG: I think so.
KLINE: Yes, about -- yes, it seems like it.
CHUNG: I think that's a long time for a...
KLINE: I was in L.A., and I was doing an interview, and somebody said, "You have one of the longest marriages in Hollywood."
Really? That's long? It doesn't seem that long to me, but that's I think something -- there's something to be said for longevity.
CHUNG: It's a good thing.
KLINE: I feel quite fortunate, yes.
CHUNG: All right. I thank you so much for being with us.
KLINE: My pleasure.
CHUNG: Kevin Kline in "The Emperor's Club."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Kevin Kline's next big project will be a production of "Henry IV" at Lincoln Center here in New York next fall.
And when we come back: A rock star shocks his fans with unpredictable behavior. Now, it's not who you think. It's Rod Stewart -- right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHUNG: Rock 'n' roll legend Rod Stewart dropped by last month with the equally legendary music producer and executive Clive Davis to talk about something Rod has done that few rock stars have ever even attempted. And, you know, there's not much that rock stars aren't willing to try.
What is it that Rod Stewart did after 40 years in the business? One word: retro.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): This is the Rod Stewart you probably recognize. But after selling 120 million records, what does a rocker do at age 57? For Rod Stewart, he goes back to the music he remembered hearing as a boy, the standards his parents listened to in Scotland.
ROD STEWART, SINGER: It's an album of all the great Gershwin, Cole Porter songs, an Ella Fitzgerald song, Billie Holiday, all the great standards. It will never sell, but some of these things you've just got to do and get them off your chest.
CHUNG: But it has sold. And this week, "It Had to be You" entered the album charts at No. 4, completing another career comeback.
STEWART: I think, with suits and clothes, if you keep them long enough, they all come back in fashion. It's like me. I've been around long enough and I've come back in fashion.
CHUNG: Since his first solo album in 1971, Rod Stewart has been the British rocker with the sandpaper voice, the spiked blond hair, with songs like "Some Guys Have All the Luck, "Forever Young," and "Downtown Train."
STEWART: There's no reason why I should retire. And I don't intend to. I thoroughly enjoy it. And I shall keep singing as long as I've got air in my lungs.
CHUNG: But in 2000: two major setbacks. First, he split with Rachel Hunter, his wife of nine years and mother of two of his five children. Then, in April 2000, during a routine checkup, doctors found a cancerous lump on his throat. He had surgery the next day.
STEWART: It was a small, very slow-growing cancer on the thyroid. You never think it's going to happen to you. And then someone says, "Guess what?" It's absolutely earth-shattering.
CHUNG: For nine months, he couldn't sing or even talk. He recovered, regained his voice, and, in February, signed with Clive Davis' new record company and finally recorded those old American standards he remembers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And he joins me now to talk about that labor of love. He's the one that's nodding -- "It Had to be You: The Great American Songbook" -- along with the man who made it all possible, the legendary Clive Davis, on his new label, J Records.
Gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us.
STEWART: Thanks for having us.
CHUNG: It's an honor. And when I began listening to your CD, all I wanted to do was dance.
STEWART: Well, why don't we?
CHUNG: Will you?
STEWART: Yes, indeed. I'd love to have a little dance with you. I've never done this before on the television, you know.
CHUNG: Neither have I.
Tell me, how did this retro record come about, because you've got some great oldies.
STEWART: Yes.
Well, I've been planning to do it for a long time, not just now. I plucked up the courage and also found the record label, J Records. And they were interested in doing it. So, it's all come together with time.
CHUNG: And...
STEWART: So we...
CHUNG: Yes.
STEWART: Just by way of a change.
CHUNG: But you know what? You actually started -- you started recording this with a synthesizer a long time ago, about three years ago, right?
STEWART: Three years ago, yes.
CHUNG: But it was awful?
STEWART: Well, I sort of liked it, but Clive didn't like it. Clive had a totally different approach, didn't you, Clive?
CHUNG: What was wrong with it?
(CROSSTALK)
CLIVE DAVIS, PRODUCER, J RECORDS: ... the two of you are doing right now.
CHUNG: What was wrong with that version?
DAVIS: It was a little somber. CHUNG: Somber?
DAVIS: It was a little somber. He was singing it great, but it was not the lilt that I think that he's come upon with this incredible album.
STEWART: Is this putting you off, Clive, us dancing together?
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: You can't talk and dance with us at the same time.
STEWART: I've seen Clive dance.
CHUNG: Oh, really?
STEWART: He's an excellent foot.
CHUNG: He's probably much better than you.
STEWART: He is. You want to give him a try?
CHUNG: Oh.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVIS: No, no, no.
CHUNG: Sit down.
So, Clive, why do you think that his album has gone to No. 4 in the first week?
DAVIS: I think, first of all, he sings these songs like no one else.
He grew up with the material. You can feel that he grew up with the material. And he's chosen the copyrights. I mean, it's a brave thing to do to stand for great songs that parents want their kids to hear, that kids know their parents will love -- and so 14 great classics as sung like no one else can sing them.
CHUNG: Was it a touch intimidating to do it?
STEWART: Well, yes, it was really scary, because you never know what the outcome was going to be. I've sung rock 'n' roll all my life. And to make this extreme left turn, it could have gone down the toilet. But it didn't. And I am overjoyed, overjoyed.
CHUNG: Quite a shock, would you say?
STEWART: It certainly was to me. I mean, Clive had more confidence in it than I did.
CHUNG: So why did you do it? STEWART: Because, as Clive said, I've lived with these songs. They've been the backdrop to my life. My parents played them. My brothers and sisters played them. And I just always wanted to sing them, because they're beautifully-crafted songs that you can get so much song into. You can really breathe some song into them.
CHUNG: Are those the kinds of songs that you actually sing in the shower, or do people who sing for a living not sing in the shower?
STEWART: Well, I've sung them in the shower.
CHUNG: You have?
STEWART: I just love these songs.
CHUNG: These?
STEWART: Yes.
CHUNG: You don't sing your songs in the shower?
STEWART: No.
CHUNG: No, you don't?
STEWART: No, no, no. I sing these songs and a few of mine. Then I'll go out and do "Hot Legs" and "Maggie May " and "Do You Think I'm Sexy?"
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: So now I can do these songs and those other songs. It's such a wonderful difference between the two.
DAVIS: You might have to do a sequel at some point.
STEWART: Well, I would love to. I really would.
CHUNG: So the both of you had been with other companies for an eternity, more than 20 years. And then you came together.
Certainly, you, with the golden ear, discovered Alicia Keys. Do you think that this was sort of meant to be, that you would come together, you would do something very unusual, and it would be such a big hit?
STEWART: Yes, I tell you, because, when we started this three years ago with the co-producer, Richard Perry, he said: "We've got to get this to Clive Davis. Clive Davis will want this."
CHUNG: That's when he was with Arista?
STEWART: Yes.
DAVIS: For me, it's an incredible story to see someone like Rod be an inspiration now to young musicians, to established artists, to show how a timeless old-timer really can have a career that goes on for years and breathe fresh excitement into the greatest songs really written in American history.
So, this is a very inspirational story, I think, far beyond what an album is. It really sends out a signal for copyrights, for great songs to live on for hundreds of years. And for a rock 'n' roller like Rod, it's brave. It's courageous. And that's why the payoff is so huge right now.
CHUNG: I have a request. Would you sing one of the songs from your CD? Which would you like to sing?
STEWART: Now?
CHUNG: Yes.
STEWART: OK.
CHUNG: Will you sing a cappella for us?
STEWART: Yes. I can sing on my own as well, if you wish.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: Badda-bing.
STEWART (singing): Some day, when I'm awfully low and the world is cold, I will feel a glow, just thinking of you and the way you look tonight.
That's enough.
CHUNG: No!
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: I was singing a lot last night, so I'm a little fragile in the voice.
CHUNG: It was great.
Rod Stewart, thank you so much.
STEWART: Thank you, Connie.
CHUNG: And thank you, Clive Davis, for being with us.
DAVIS: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Since we spoke, Rod Stewart's new album, "It Had to be You," now has something in common with his hair. It's gone bloody platinum.
And we'll be right back with a woman you may not realize has done a lot more for Hollywood than just play Princess Leia.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: Carrie Fisher was born to a showbiz family, but the world of Hollywood wasn't her only inheritance. She says she had a genetic predisposition toward manic depression.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG (voice-over): Manic depression, stardom, drug addiction. To say Carrie Fisher has had her ups and downs is like saying the Earth is round. It all began well enough, born the daughter of celebrity couple Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.
CARRIE FISHER, WRITER/ACTRESS: Looks like you managed to cut off our only escape route.
CHUNG: By age 19, this child of Hollywood royalty was playing a princess in one of the most successful films of all time, and roles followed in the next two "Star Wars" sequels.
FISHER: I remained celibate for you.
CHUNG: But by the time Fisher made the 1980s movie "Blues Brothers," she was frequently drunk on the set, evidence of what would become a long-term struggle with alcohol and drugs.
She chronicled her problems in the autobiographical novel "Postcards from the Edge," the start of a rewarding literary career.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My drinking does not interfere with my work.
CHUNG: Fisher wrote the screenplay for the movie version, later taking great pains to point out the erratic mother depicted in the film was not completely based on her own mom.
She followed "Postcards" with "Surrender the Pink" based on her failed marriage to singer Paul Simon, and "Delusions of Grandma," based on her relationship with the father of her daughter.
But it was a literary effort by her father that caused more strife, his recent autobiography, "Been There, Done That."
Carrie Fisher called the book "nasty," and said it made her want to "fumigate her DNA." Genetics may explain what Fisher has come to realize as the root of her personal struggles, severe manic depression. Untreated for many years, Fisher now takes medication for the illness. That has allowed her to take occasional acting jobs, and continue her writing career. One of those writing projects, last year's "These Old Broads."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THESE OLD BROADS")
DEBBIE REYNOLDS, ACTRESS: I was perfectly capable of losing Freddy on my own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: The TV movie co-starred Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, the woman who broke up the Reynolds-Fisher marriage. In one of the many ironies in Carrie Fisher's life, she is now pals with Taylor, and doesn't speak to her father, Eddie.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And Carrie Fisher's latest appearance is right here, right now.
Thanks for being here with us.
FISHER: Thank you for having me.
CHUNG: Over the years, you have been so straightforward, nothing but the truth, honesty, your life is all out there for us to know about.
FISHER: Well, there were some lying years.
CHUNG: Oh, yes? OK.
FISHER: Yes. But I've recovered now.
CHUNG: All right. So you have said, and I think this is, obviously, a fascinating part for you to talk about, because most people keep it to themselves. You have said you are mentally ill.
FISHER: I have?
CHUNG: Yes.
FISHER: That must be so difficult for me sometimes. I know...
CHUNG: Is it curable?
FISHER: ... my -- no, it's not curable. They're coming up with an antibiotic for it soon, but -- no, my mother says...
CHUNG: That is a joke.
FISHER: Yes, it is a joke. My -- but it's manageable with medication, and so my mother says, Dear, you're not mentally ill, you're manic depressive. So, mentally ill...
CHUNG: Debbie, Debbie, Debbie.
FISHER: It does sound -- well, it does sound so dramatic, but it can be that way, so...
CHUNG: Is -- Debbie Reynolds, of course. Is manic depressive bipolar?
FISHER: It is.
CHUNG: What is this thing -- it's hypomania? Hypomania?
FISHER: Well, that is a lesser version of it.
CHUNG: And that is what you have?
FISHER: No, no. No, no. I have the -- I have the full shot, I'm proud to say. You know, when I get something, I want to get the whole thing, and I'm volleying for a bipolar pride day, and bipolar bars, which obviously would be open 24 hours.
CHUNG: Of course. Have you ever been to a bipolar restroom?
FISHER: You liar!
CHUNG: No? OK. I haven't.
FISHER: No, but I -- the parades. Don't you think they would be good...
CHUNG: Yes, yes.
FISHER: ...with sort of the depressive floats, with people on mattresses...
CHUNG: Yes. You are...
FISHER: ... staring off into nothing, frantic, maniac.
CHUNG: You are being sick.
FISHER: Well, we just established that I was sick.
CHUNG: Oh, did I say that? OK. We'll continue along these lines.
FISHER: Well, I joke about it.
CHUNG: Yes, I know you do.
FISHER: It is a -- if I didn't, then it would simply be something that was true.
CHUNG: But it is.
FISHER: It is. Absolutely.
CHUNG: OK. What I want to know, though, is you take medication?
FISHER: Yes, I do.
CHUNG: I had read six different types?
FISHER: Oh, God, I hope not. But, yes, it's probably that much.
CHUNG: All right. So, are you ever tempted to not take the medication?
FISHER: Oh, absolutely. Well, yes, because -- and it's also -- any, I think, illness of the mind, your mind will always tell you, you don't have it. So I will still say this is not possible.
CHUNG: Right.
FISHER: I'm, you know, as sane as -- well, not you, but, you know, some of your friends. So I still will think I don't have it. But also, because the manic side of it is so great, it's fantastic. So I would want that back again. It just -- there is a negative fallout. Also, I -- you know -- so, yes, I would want it back but I would not want to put my daughter through that because it's very chaotic.
CHUNG: Were you ever concerned -- I'll just ask you one more question about this. Do you mind? Is that OK?
FISHER: No.
CHUNG: All right. Were you concerned that you had passed it along to your daughter, because I believe there is a belief that it's genetic?
FISHER: Yes, there is a huge one. Yes. Well, I would have that concern, but she doesn't, you know, show -- my father, who is the one that has it, he has four children. I'm the one that got it. I got it for all of us.
CHUNG: Was he diagnosed? Was Eddie Fisher actually diagnosed with manic depression? But he claims he doesn't.
FISHER: I know. Like that is a bad -- that is the bad thing, not the alcoholism and the 75 marriages and the -- I mean, if you look at sort of the behavior, it's very kind of manic depressive. You cannot diagnose manic depression, though, if someone is not sober because active alcoholism and drug addiction looks like manic depression.
CHUNG: I see. And, actually, you suffered from both too?
FISHER: Yes. Absolutely.
CHUNG: Drugs, pills, snorting heroin, all of that, whole nine yards, LSD, right? OK, we're done with that subject.
FISHER: But it was so fun.
CHUNG: I want to talk about this program that you do on Oxygen. You're doing what I'm doing for a living. You're interviewing people.
FISHER: And I've always said that that is one of the signs that the world is ending when two talk show hosts interview each other.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: Right. FISHER: But I don't consider myself a talk show host particularly.
CHUNG: OK. And I'm not either, so there you go.
FISHER: Well, then the world is going to go on and on forever.
CHUNG: Absolutely.
FISHER: We can relax.
CHUNG: I want to show a little clip of you interviewing Robin Williams.
FISHER: Oh, no.
CHUNG: Yes.
FISHER: OK, but I don't have to look, do I?
CHUNG: Yes, you do. Look at this. Look at it.
FISHER: Oh, no. No, I can't.
CHUNG: Carrie...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FISHER: The weirdest woman in the world, not really, talked about sex.
ROBIN WILLIAMS, COMEDIAN: We will be right back.
FISHER: She's so normal, though.
WILLIAMS: In many ways.
FISHER: My mother tells my daughter, the good night story. My daughter told it the other night. She said, you know, we used to have a beach house and a Palm Springs house, but my second husband lost both of them. I don't care about the Palm Springs house, but I miss the beach house. Garry Marshall has it. This is to my nine-year- old daughter. That is a good night story.
WILLIAMS: You know, most kids get, good night moon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: Hey, hey, you know what? When you interview someone, you're supposed to let them talk. No, you're not supposed to talk.
FISHER: You only took a part of it out. He...
CHUNG: I will just blast through the whole thing!
FISHER: How could Robin Williams not talk? Have you ever tried to...
CHUNG: No, no, no. Right.
FISHER: Believe me, you took out the one thing that I said.
CHUNG: Are you sure?
FISHER: I swear. Are we going to go on with me then? This is an intervention, isn't it? I'm in trouble with the talk show, like hierarchy. Oh, no!
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: All right. We will go to another subject. Are you writing another book?
FISHER: I am. I'm almost done, I think.
CHUNG: And what is it, fiction?
FISHER: Who knows with me. Do we ever know? It's faction.
(CROSSTALK)
CHUNG: Faction. That means there is a little bit of truth.
FISHER: It means there is probably more than a little bit of truth.
CHUNG: A whole lot of truth?
FISHER: Yes.
CHUNG: Like "Postcards From the Edge?"
FISHER: I'm -- it's sort of the sequel to that one, I'm afraid.
CHUNG: Really, about the second stage in your life?
FISHER: Is that the one I'm in?
CHUNG: I think so.
FISHER: Is the -- only the second one? It seems there has been so many.
CHUNG: Well, no, you're kind of in your...
FISHER: I'm exhausted. You can say it. It's fine.
CHUNG: I think almost 45, 44.
FISHER: Almost -- I'm 45. No, it's called "The Best Awful There Is."
CHUNG: That is the name of the book? FISHER: I think so.
CHUNG: "The Best Awful There Is?"
FISHER: Mm-hmm. There you go.
CHUNG: That would be OK.
FISHER: It depends on your slant.
CHUNG: Of awful?
FISHER: That's right. And that day.
CHUNG: All right. When is it going to be published?
FISHER: In the winter.
CHUNG: OK, great.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: She's cool.
Stay with us for a quick word about tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: Tomorrow: Pete Sampras, Magic Johnson, Martina Navratilova and more. It's going to be fun. Join us.
"LARRY KING LIVE" is next.
Thank you so much for joining us. And for all of us at CNN, hope you had a great Christmas. Hope you have a great Christmas tonight. And we'll see you tomorrow night.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Kevin Kline, Carrie Fisher>
Aired December 25, 2002 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
This is CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT. From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York: Connie Chung.
CONNIE CHUNG, HOST: Good evening. Merry Christmas. Hope you had a good one.
We are going to do a little stargazing tonight. No, we're not looking for the star of Bethlehem. We are going to go up close and personal with some stars right here on earth.
We start with our interview with Andrea Bocelli and a special performance by him. Plus, we are going to take a look back at some stars who have already come by to visit and find out why Rod Stewart isn't singing that old time rock 'n' roll on his latest album, and Kevin Kline, and then the unpredictable, outrageous Carrie Fisher.
But first: Andrea Bocelli. The superstar tenor has been slowing down his pace to spend some time with his family, but that didn't stop his new album from going right up to No. 1 on the classical charts and beating stars such as Nelly and the Rolling Stones on the "Billboard" top 200.
You may know Bocelli as the blind tenor. He lost his sight at the age of 12 due to glaucoma and a soccer accident. He prefers to not talk about his blindness. But when he came to our studio recently, he talked about just about everything else.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Andrea, thank you so much for being with us.
ANDREA BOCELLI, MUSICIAN: Thank you. It's a pleasure.
CHUNG: It's our pleasure.
You are such a heartthrob. Women are throwing themselves at your feet. They're everywhere.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: Do you think to yourself, so many women, so little time?
BOCELLI: I think that it's not true. You are...
CHUNG: Am I exaggerating?
BOCELLI: No. You journalists, you say this, but it is not true.
(LAUGHTER)
BOCELLI: It's true that I suffered a lot, especially when I was younger. Often, I went in love with some friends in school. And, no, I suffered. Only later, things went better.
CHUNG: But there are so many women out there who love your music. They buy your CDs. And you're very romantic for them. So, that's a lovely feeling, isn't it?
BOCELLI: Yes, I think so. I sing, basically, romantic music. Very often, opera tells romantic stories, no?
CHUNG: Yes, indeed.
You have said that there's a distinction between singing for opera and singing popular songs. How do you distinguish?
BOCELLI: They are completely two different language, no? Because, in opera, I have to sing for people that are very far from me, instead of, when I sing a song, I try to imagine to sing like in an ear of a child.
CHUNG: In the ear of a child.
BOCELLI: Do you want an example?
CHUNG: Yes.
BOCELLI: Because I practice often with my children at home.
CHUNG: Yes. You have two boys.
BOCELLI: I sing for them. I try to be very sweet, something like (SINGING IN ITALIAN) Now, in this period that I try to sing for them some songs for Christmas.
CHUNG: Yes, that's beautiful. What were the words?
BOCELLI: It's "my dear Jesus Christ."
CHUNG: So, basically, you sing very loudly for opera, but for romantic, popular songs very softly, correct?
BOCELLI: Yes. But when I start it at home, I shout, of course. I have to shout.
CHUNG: Why? Why do you have to?
BOCELLI: Because I'm practicing it for practice music.
CHUNG: Practice?
BOCELLI: Every day. And my children, they come to me and they say to me, "Daddy, stop it.
CHUNG: Oh, really?
(LAUGHTER)
BOCELLI: It's boring for them, of course.
CHUNG: Of course it is.
The opera purists are not very kind to you. They don't like the fact that you are singing popular music and opera.
BOCELLI: They forget that the best tenor in the last century, beginning with Caruso, every tenor sung songs. I've done nothing special.
And I think also, to be the most purist possible, because I hate the amplification for opera music and the other things.
CHUNG: So you think you are a purist?
BOCELLI: I think so.
CHUNG: An opera purist?
BOCELLI: I think so.
CHUNG: Do you see a difference in your voice today than five years ago or 10 years ago? Or is it a very gradual...
BOCELLI: Yes, but also from one year ago.
CHUNG: Really?
BOCELLI: Because the sensation is different. Now I'm more sure and I feel myself more comfortable singing.
CHUNG: When you perform on stage, are you nervous?
BOCELLI: Oh, it's difficult to explain how much. I have big, big stage fright.
CHUNG: Stage fright?
BOCELLI: And I can't do anything, I think.
CHUNG: What do you mean you can't do anything? You can't do anything about it?
BOCELLI: Yes. I think I don't want to use drugs or medicine, so nothing. The only way is to go on stage and to hope.
CHUNG: Do it, huh?
BOCELLI: Yes.
CHUNG: Then, do you settle down as soon as you go into your first song?
BOCELLI: No, not very much until at the end, when I -- I have a difficulty. I feel fear.
CHUNG: You feel fear until the end?
BOCELLI: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Not like at the beginning, but it's difficult, yes.
CHUNG: I appreciate your honesty, but I really do believe that it's very common. Don't you?
BOCELLI: I think so. I think, also, many of my colleagues have the same problem.
CHUNG: Yes. Do you think you're shy?
BOCELLI: On stage, yes, but outside, very less, not really very much.
CHUNG: I know that you got a law degree in the event that you would not become a singer.
BOCELLI: Yes.
CHUNG: Will you ever practice?
BOCELLI: I think so. I tried it.
CHUNG: You did?
BOCELLI: Well, because it was interesting. I began to do this for a short period. And it was interesting.
CHUNG: You mean, you were a lawyer for a short period?
BOCELLI: Yes. Yes.
CHUNG: How long?
BOCELLI: A few months, because then I began to go around the world for singing and I stopped.
CHUNG: So, now that you're slowing down your schedule, what do you find yourself doing?
BOCELLI: I study. I read. I try to organize something for my friends. And I try to find some time for my horses. I began when I was a child, because I was born and grew up in a little village. And many people ride the horses. So, it was a big -- it has been a big passion for me.
CHUNG: Wonderful.
If I ask you, would you sing for us today?
BOCELLI: Yes, I will.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: I appreciate that.
BOCELLI: It's the first track of my new album, this album that I have recorded with Maestro Maazel, of which I am very proud.
CHUNG: And what is the album called?
BOCELLI: The album is "Sentimento." But the track is called "Aranjuez."
CHUNG: And what does that mean?
BOCELLI: It's the name of a place in Spain.
CHUNG: I see.
And "Sentimento," of course, we know what that means.
BOCELLI: Sentimental, naturally, you know?
CHUNG: Yes.
BOCELLI: But in this album, there are 16 areas of love. And I love it very much.
CHUNG: Well, when we come back, Andrea Bocelli will have a special performance for us.
BOCELLI: OK. I will.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: And, as I promised, we are back with a performance by Andrea Bocelli. He performed "Aranjuez" for us off his new album, "Sentimento."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(ANDREA BOCELLI SINGS "ARANJUEZ")
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Bravo.
Andrea Bocelli's album "Sentimento" had the highest classical chart debut since "Three Tenors in Concert."
And when we come back, I will confront actor Kevin Kline with the list.
Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: In the world of acting, Kevin Kline is what you call a renaissance man. His roles have ranged from the unforgettably hilarious "A Fish Called Wanda," when he played a moron warning everyone to not call him stupid, and to his latest movie, "The Emperor's Club," in which he plays a teacher who is anything but stupid.
I spoke with him recently about "The Emperor's Club," but I started off talking with him about a very different kind of club.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CONNIE CHUNG, HOST: I want you to see something that I don't even know if you've seen it. This is E Online, alright? When I was reading the research, it has significant others, and it has your wife here first, but it has all these other women that you've dated.
KEVIN KLINE, ACTOR: A list?
CHUNG: You didn't know that, did you?
KLINE: No, I did not.
CHUNG: This actress that you dated in the 1970s. See, I can't see it. It's...
KLINE: Oh, no -- yes, I can make it out.
CHUNG: Can you see it?
KLINE: Yes, I get the rough outline, yes.
CHUNG: And then you dated this actress. What does it say?
KLINE: Once.
CHUNG: Dated briefly.
KLINE: One night.
CHUNG: One night, OK.
KLINE: One date.
CHUNG: One date?
KLINE: Yes. It wasn't -- yes. Yes.
CHUNG: All right. And then this one dated from 19 -- together, it says, 1971 to 1978. True?
KLINE: '71 to '78. It's all a blur, but it sounds accurate, yes.
CHUNG: Isn't that amazing that they put that in? Also one other thing that I read about you, Kevin...
KLINE: What's amazing is what they left out.
CHUNG: Exactly. Because listen to this. "In press reports over the years, Kline has been linked romantically to so many women that his publicist once pointed out he'd be dead by now if he'd done half of it."
KLINE: That's true. That's true. Yes, I have been linked with people I have never met.
CHUNG: Did all of that finally end when you married Phoebe Cates?
KLINE: Yes. Now I've just been linked with her continually, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: And you've got two children.
KLINE: Yes.
CHUNG: And how old are they now?
KLINE: They're 11 and 8.
CHUNG: Great. They were actually in one of your movies.
KLINE: Well, yes.
CHUNG: And I'm actually a little surprised because you...
KLINE: I was shocked.
CHUNG: Oh...
(LAUGHTER)
KLINE: No, I was against the whole idea. But this was "Anniversary Party" that Phoebe's best friend, Jennifer Jason Lee wrote, and Phoebe actually came out of retirement because she's effectively retired from acting at the moment, and -- but because it was done so quickly -- it was done during the summer, did not disrupt school -- and because it was about having children and because Jennifer knew my son and daughter, she thought, well -- and because we wanted it to -- or they wanted it to not be like making a film, but sort of like going to a party, so they were included.
But I thought, "Well, no, they have to use other names. We don't want them" -- but then I got over that. And I thought, "Oh, they're having fun."
CHUNG: I've read before actually that you believe acting does not come naturally to you. KLINE: I think it's finally begun to, but in the beginning it did not come easily to me. It was virtually impossible. I was really bad at it in college when I first started.
CHUNG: How could you be? I mean, what was wrong?
KLINE: Oh, I was very stiff, very physically -- I was kind of an athlete when I was in high school, and when I -- you know, you're suppose to not be terribly expressive with your body. So I wasn't. I was kind of rigid. And then when I got to Juilliard to really study in a focused way, they kind of beat that out of me, and I started to become more expressive.
CHUNG: Well, that's incredible because on -- I read some of the reviews of the plays which you won Tonys for, and one of them said you were like a jack in the box and you put acrobatics into your character.
KLINE: Yes. I made up for the paucity of lines with physical schtick.
CHUNG: All right. Tell us about this new movie, "The Emperor's Club." Quick synopsis.
KLINE: Dedicated teacher at a boy's academy. Very serious teacher about his work. Rather strict school. Into this classroom comes a disruptive, overly entitled, charismatic, attractive kid who kind of leads the class away from my authoritative position into a more, an archaic situation. And I -- there's a sort of battle between this kid and me. And I actually win him over and get him to apply himself. He starts studying.
But then, his true character emerges. And it becomes a lifelong thing, because the movie cuts to 25 years later. All these kids who are in this class have grown up and become movers and shakers.
CHUNG: You went to a prep school, right, from sixth grade to twelfth grade. It was an English-Catholic school run by Benedictine monks.
KLINE: Benedictine monks, yes. From Ampleforth Abbey in York, England. It was a bit stricter and bit more classical in its orientation than the other schools from St. Louis, where I grew up.
CHUNG: Do you think that was good for you?
KLINE: Yes, I do. I needed discipline. I think every adolescent needs some -- well, a good deal of discipline. And when you have very rigid rules, some of them make a military school, but there were certain things that were expected of you: certain decorum in the classroom, certain ways of behaving that showed respect to what was called the master, which we call today the teacher. But when the master came in the room, you stood up...
CHUNG: Right. KLINE: ... never spoke out of turn, you wore a tie and you wore a jacket. And if you were bad, you were subject to corporal punishment of varying degrees...
CHUNG: Oh, dear.
KLINE: ... which is no longer the case at the school.
CHUNG: Right, right.
KLINE: But, yes, I think it's important.
Doing the movie was kind of an homage to my school. Aside from the story that the movie tells, there is a kind of homage to the dignity and the nobility of the teaching profession, especially the vocational teachers for whom it's not merely a job, but a lifelong devotion, which I was fortunate to have as my teacher.
CHUNG: All right, so career is going great. You've been married 13 years?
KLINE: What does it say there?
CHUNG: I think so.
KLINE: Yes, about -- yes, it seems like it.
CHUNG: I think that's a long time for a...
KLINE: I was in L.A., and I was doing an interview, and somebody said, "You have one of the longest marriages in Hollywood."
Really? That's long? It doesn't seem that long to me, but that's I think something -- there's something to be said for longevity.
CHUNG: It's a good thing.
KLINE: I feel quite fortunate, yes.
CHUNG: All right. I thank you so much for being with us.
KLINE: My pleasure.
CHUNG: Kevin Kline in "The Emperor's Club."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Kevin Kline's next big project will be a production of "Henry IV" at Lincoln Center here in New York next fall.
And when we come back: A rock star shocks his fans with unpredictable behavior. Now, it's not who you think. It's Rod Stewart -- right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHUNG: Rock 'n' roll legend Rod Stewart dropped by last month with the equally legendary music producer and executive Clive Davis to talk about something Rod has done that few rock stars have ever even attempted. And, you know, there's not much that rock stars aren't willing to try.
What is it that Rod Stewart did after 40 years in the business? One word: retro.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): This is the Rod Stewart you probably recognize. But after selling 120 million records, what does a rocker do at age 57? For Rod Stewart, he goes back to the music he remembered hearing as a boy, the standards his parents listened to in Scotland.
ROD STEWART, SINGER: It's an album of all the great Gershwin, Cole Porter songs, an Ella Fitzgerald song, Billie Holiday, all the great standards. It will never sell, but some of these things you've just got to do and get them off your chest.
CHUNG: But it has sold. And this week, "It Had to be You" entered the album charts at No. 4, completing another career comeback.
STEWART: I think, with suits and clothes, if you keep them long enough, they all come back in fashion. It's like me. I've been around long enough and I've come back in fashion.
CHUNG: Since his first solo album in 1971, Rod Stewart has been the British rocker with the sandpaper voice, the spiked blond hair, with songs like "Some Guys Have All the Luck, "Forever Young," and "Downtown Train."
STEWART: There's no reason why I should retire. And I don't intend to. I thoroughly enjoy it. And I shall keep singing as long as I've got air in my lungs.
CHUNG: But in 2000: two major setbacks. First, he split with Rachel Hunter, his wife of nine years and mother of two of his five children. Then, in April 2000, during a routine checkup, doctors found a cancerous lump on his throat. He had surgery the next day.
STEWART: It was a small, very slow-growing cancer on the thyroid. You never think it's going to happen to you. And then someone says, "Guess what?" It's absolutely earth-shattering.
CHUNG: For nine months, he couldn't sing or even talk. He recovered, regained his voice, and, in February, signed with Clive Davis' new record company and finally recorded those old American standards he remembers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And he joins me now to talk about that labor of love. He's the one that's nodding -- "It Had to be You: The Great American Songbook" -- along with the man who made it all possible, the legendary Clive Davis, on his new label, J Records.
Gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us.
STEWART: Thanks for having us.
CHUNG: It's an honor. And when I began listening to your CD, all I wanted to do was dance.
STEWART: Well, why don't we?
CHUNG: Will you?
STEWART: Yes, indeed. I'd love to have a little dance with you. I've never done this before on the television, you know.
CHUNG: Neither have I.
Tell me, how did this retro record come about, because you've got some great oldies.
STEWART: Yes.
Well, I've been planning to do it for a long time, not just now. I plucked up the courage and also found the record label, J Records. And they were interested in doing it. So, it's all come together with time.
CHUNG: And...
STEWART: So we...
CHUNG: Yes.
STEWART: Just by way of a change.
CHUNG: But you know what? You actually started -- you started recording this with a synthesizer a long time ago, about three years ago, right?
STEWART: Three years ago, yes.
CHUNG: But it was awful?
STEWART: Well, I sort of liked it, but Clive didn't like it. Clive had a totally different approach, didn't you, Clive?
CHUNG: What was wrong with it?
(CROSSTALK)
CLIVE DAVIS, PRODUCER, J RECORDS: ... the two of you are doing right now.
CHUNG: What was wrong with that version?
DAVIS: It was a little somber. CHUNG: Somber?
DAVIS: It was a little somber. He was singing it great, but it was not the lilt that I think that he's come upon with this incredible album.
STEWART: Is this putting you off, Clive, us dancing together?
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: You can't talk and dance with us at the same time.
STEWART: I've seen Clive dance.
CHUNG: Oh, really?
STEWART: He's an excellent foot.
CHUNG: He's probably much better than you.
STEWART: He is. You want to give him a try?
CHUNG: Oh.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVIS: No, no, no.
CHUNG: Sit down.
So, Clive, why do you think that his album has gone to No. 4 in the first week?
DAVIS: I think, first of all, he sings these songs like no one else.
He grew up with the material. You can feel that he grew up with the material. And he's chosen the copyrights. I mean, it's a brave thing to do to stand for great songs that parents want their kids to hear, that kids know their parents will love -- and so 14 great classics as sung like no one else can sing them.
CHUNG: Was it a touch intimidating to do it?
STEWART: Well, yes, it was really scary, because you never know what the outcome was going to be. I've sung rock 'n' roll all my life. And to make this extreme left turn, it could have gone down the toilet. But it didn't. And I am overjoyed, overjoyed.
CHUNG: Quite a shock, would you say?
STEWART: It certainly was to me. I mean, Clive had more confidence in it than I did.
CHUNG: So why did you do it? STEWART: Because, as Clive said, I've lived with these songs. They've been the backdrop to my life. My parents played them. My brothers and sisters played them. And I just always wanted to sing them, because they're beautifully-crafted songs that you can get so much song into. You can really breathe some song into them.
CHUNG: Are those the kinds of songs that you actually sing in the shower, or do people who sing for a living not sing in the shower?
STEWART: Well, I've sung them in the shower.
CHUNG: You have?
STEWART: I just love these songs.
CHUNG: These?
STEWART: Yes.
CHUNG: You don't sing your songs in the shower?
STEWART: No.
CHUNG: No, you don't?
STEWART: No, no, no. I sing these songs and a few of mine. Then I'll go out and do "Hot Legs" and "Maggie May " and "Do You Think I'm Sexy?"
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: So now I can do these songs and those other songs. It's such a wonderful difference between the two.
DAVIS: You might have to do a sequel at some point.
STEWART: Well, I would love to. I really would.
CHUNG: So the both of you had been with other companies for an eternity, more than 20 years. And then you came together.
Certainly, you, with the golden ear, discovered Alicia Keys. Do you think that this was sort of meant to be, that you would come together, you would do something very unusual, and it would be such a big hit?
STEWART: Yes, I tell you, because, when we started this three years ago with the co-producer, Richard Perry, he said: "We've got to get this to Clive Davis. Clive Davis will want this."
CHUNG: That's when he was with Arista?
STEWART: Yes.
DAVIS: For me, it's an incredible story to see someone like Rod be an inspiration now to young musicians, to established artists, to show how a timeless old-timer really can have a career that goes on for years and breathe fresh excitement into the greatest songs really written in American history.
So, this is a very inspirational story, I think, far beyond what an album is. It really sends out a signal for copyrights, for great songs to live on for hundreds of years. And for a rock 'n' roller like Rod, it's brave. It's courageous. And that's why the payoff is so huge right now.
CHUNG: I have a request. Would you sing one of the songs from your CD? Which would you like to sing?
STEWART: Now?
CHUNG: Yes.
STEWART: OK.
CHUNG: Will you sing a cappella for us?
STEWART: Yes. I can sing on my own as well, if you wish.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: Badda-bing.
STEWART (singing): Some day, when I'm awfully low and the world is cold, I will feel a glow, just thinking of you and the way you look tonight.
That's enough.
CHUNG: No!
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: I was singing a lot last night, so I'm a little fragile in the voice.
CHUNG: It was great.
Rod Stewart, thank you so much.
STEWART: Thank you, Connie.
CHUNG: And thank you, Clive Davis, for being with us.
DAVIS: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Since we spoke, Rod Stewart's new album, "It Had to be You," now has something in common with his hair. It's gone bloody platinum.
And we'll be right back with a woman you may not realize has done a lot more for Hollywood than just play Princess Leia.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: Carrie Fisher was born to a showbiz family, but the world of Hollywood wasn't her only inheritance. She says she had a genetic predisposition toward manic depression.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG (voice-over): Manic depression, stardom, drug addiction. To say Carrie Fisher has had her ups and downs is like saying the Earth is round. It all began well enough, born the daughter of celebrity couple Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.
CARRIE FISHER, WRITER/ACTRESS: Looks like you managed to cut off our only escape route.
CHUNG: By age 19, this child of Hollywood royalty was playing a princess in one of the most successful films of all time, and roles followed in the next two "Star Wars" sequels.
FISHER: I remained celibate for you.
CHUNG: But by the time Fisher made the 1980s movie "Blues Brothers," she was frequently drunk on the set, evidence of what would become a long-term struggle with alcohol and drugs.
She chronicled her problems in the autobiographical novel "Postcards from the Edge," the start of a rewarding literary career.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My drinking does not interfere with my work.
CHUNG: Fisher wrote the screenplay for the movie version, later taking great pains to point out the erratic mother depicted in the film was not completely based on her own mom.
She followed "Postcards" with "Surrender the Pink" based on her failed marriage to singer Paul Simon, and "Delusions of Grandma," based on her relationship with the father of her daughter.
But it was a literary effort by her father that caused more strife, his recent autobiography, "Been There, Done That."
Carrie Fisher called the book "nasty," and said it made her want to "fumigate her DNA." Genetics may explain what Fisher has come to realize as the root of her personal struggles, severe manic depression. Untreated for many years, Fisher now takes medication for the illness. That has allowed her to take occasional acting jobs, and continue her writing career. One of those writing projects, last year's "These Old Broads."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THESE OLD BROADS")
DEBBIE REYNOLDS, ACTRESS: I was perfectly capable of losing Freddy on my own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: The TV movie co-starred Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, the woman who broke up the Reynolds-Fisher marriage. In one of the many ironies in Carrie Fisher's life, she is now pals with Taylor, and doesn't speak to her father, Eddie.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And Carrie Fisher's latest appearance is right here, right now.
Thanks for being here with us.
FISHER: Thank you for having me.
CHUNG: Over the years, you have been so straightforward, nothing but the truth, honesty, your life is all out there for us to know about.
FISHER: Well, there were some lying years.
CHUNG: Oh, yes? OK.
FISHER: Yes. But I've recovered now.
CHUNG: All right. So you have said, and I think this is, obviously, a fascinating part for you to talk about, because most people keep it to themselves. You have said you are mentally ill.
FISHER: I have?
CHUNG: Yes.
FISHER: That must be so difficult for me sometimes. I know...
CHUNG: Is it curable?
FISHER: ... my -- no, it's not curable. They're coming up with an antibiotic for it soon, but -- no, my mother says...
CHUNG: That is a joke.
FISHER: Yes, it is a joke. My -- but it's manageable with medication, and so my mother says, Dear, you're not mentally ill, you're manic depressive. So, mentally ill...
CHUNG: Debbie, Debbie, Debbie.
FISHER: It does sound -- well, it does sound so dramatic, but it can be that way, so...
CHUNG: Is -- Debbie Reynolds, of course. Is manic depressive bipolar?
FISHER: It is.
CHUNG: What is this thing -- it's hypomania? Hypomania?
FISHER: Well, that is a lesser version of it.
CHUNG: And that is what you have?
FISHER: No, no. No, no. I have the -- I have the full shot, I'm proud to say. You know, when I get something, I want to get the whole thing, and I'm volleying for a bipolar pride day, and bipolar bars, which obviously would be open 24 hours.
CHUNG: Of course. Have you ever been to a bipolar restroom?
FISHER: You liar!
CHUNG: No? OK. I haven't.
FISHER: No, but I -- the parades. Don't you think they would be good...
CHUNG: Yes, yes.
FISHER: ...with sort of the depressive floats, with people on mattresses...
CHUNG: Yes. You are...
FISHER: ... staring off into nothing, frantic, maniac.
CHUNG: You are being sick.
FISHER: Well, we just established that I was sick.
CHUNG: Oh, did I say that? OK. We'll continue along these lines.
FISHER: Well, I joke about it.
CHUNG: Yes, I know you do.
FISHER: It is a -- if I didn't, then it would simply be something that was true.
CHUNG: But it is.
FISHER: It is. Absolutely.
CHUNG: OK. What I want to know, though, is you take medication?
FISHER: Yes, I do.
CHUNG: I had read six different types?
FISHER: Oh, God, I hope not. But, yes, it's probably that much.
CHUNG: All right. So, are you ever tempted to not take the medication?
FISHER: Oh, absolutely. Well, yes, because -- and it's also -- any, I think, illness of the mind, your mind will always tell you, you don't have it. So I will still say this is not possible.
CHUNG: Right.
FISHER: I'm, you know, as sane as -- well, not you, but, you know, some of your friends. So I still will think I don't have it. But also, because the manic side of it is so great, it's fantastic. So I would want that back again. It just -- there is a negative fallout. Also, I -- you know -- so, yes, I would want it back but I would not want to put my daughter through that because it's very chaotic.
CHUNG: Were you ever concerned -- I'll just ask you one more question about this. Do you mind? Is that OK?
FISHER: No.
CHUNG: All right. Were you concerned that you had passed it along to your daughter, because I believe there is a belief that it's genetic?
FISHER: Yes, there is a huge one. Yes. Well, I would have that concern, but she doesn't, you know, show -- my father, who is the one that has it, he has four children. I'm the one that got it. I got it for all of us.
CHUNG: Was he diagnosed? Was Eddie Fisher actually diagnosed with manic depression? But he claims he doesn't.
FISHER: I know. Like that is a bad -- that is the bad thing, not the alcoholism and the 75 marriages and the -- I mean, if you look at sort of the behavior, it's very kind of manic depressive. You cannot diagnose manic depression, though, if someone is not sober because active alcoholism and drug addiction looks like manic depression.
CHUNG: I see. And, actually, you suffered from both too?
FISHER: Yes. Absolutely.
CHUNG: Drugs, pills, snorting heroin, all of that, whole nine yards, LSD, right? OK, we're done with that subject.
FISHER: But it was so fun.
CHUNG: I want to talk about this program that you do on Oxygen. You're doing what I'm doing for a living. You're interviewing people.
FISHER: And I've always said that that is one of the signs that the world is ending when two talk show hosts interview each other.
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: Right. FISHER: But I don't consider myself a talk show host particularly.
CHUNG: OK. And I'm not either, so there you go.
FISHER: Well, then the world is going to go on and on forever.
CHUNG: Absolutely.
FISHER: We can relax.
CHUNG: I want to show a little clip of you interviewing Robin Williams.
FISHER: Oh, no.
CHUNG: Yes.
FISHER: OK, but I don't have to look, do I?
CHUNG: Yes, you do. Look at this. Look at it.
FISHER: Oh, no. No, I can't.
CHUNG: Carrie...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FISHER: The weirdest woman in the world, not really, talked about sex.
ROBIN WILLIAMS, COMEDIAN: We will be right back.
FISHER: She's so normal, though.
WILLIAMS: In many ways.
FISHER: My mother tells my daughter, the good night story. My daughter told it the other night. She said, you know, we used to have a beach house and a Palm Springs house, but my second husband lost both of them. I don't care about the Palm Springs house, but I miss the beach house. Garry Marshall has it. This is to my nine-year- old daughter. That is a good night story.
WILLIAMS: You know, most kids get, good night moon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: Hey, hey, you know what? When you interview someone, you're supposed to let them talk. No, you're not supposed to talk.
FISHER: You only took a part of it out. He...
CHUNG: I will just blast through the whole thing!
FISHER: How could Robin Williams not talk? Have you ever tried to...
CHUNG: No, no, no. Right.
FISHER: Believe me, you took out the one thing that I said.
CHUNG: Are you sure?
FISHER: I swear. Are we going to go on with me then? This is an intervention, isn't it? I'm in trouble with the talk show, like hierarchy. Oh, no!
(LAUGHTER)
CHUNG: All right. We will go to another subject. Are you writing another book?
FISHER: I am. I'm almost done, I think.
CHUNG: And what is it, fiction?
FISHER: Who knows with me. Do we ever know? It's faction.
(CROSSTALK)
CHUNG: Faction. That means there is a little bit of truth.
FISHER: It means there is probably more than a little bit of truth.
CHUNG: A whole lot of truth?
FISHER: Yes.
CHUNG: Like "Postcards From the Edge?"
FISHER: I'm -- it's sort of the sequel to that one, I'm afraid.
CHUNG: Really, about the second stage in your life?
FISHER: Is that the one I'm in?
CHUNG: I think so.
FISHER: Is the -- only the second one? It seems there has been so many.
CHUNG: Well, no, you're kind of in your...
FISHER: I'm exhausted. You can say it. It's fine.
CHUNG: I think almost 45, 44.
FISHER: Almost -- I'm 45. No, it's called "The Best Awful There Is."
CHUNG: That is the name of the book? FISHER: I think so.
CHUNG: "The Best Awful There Is?"
FISHER: Mm-hmm. There you go.
CHUNG: That would be OK.
FISHER: It depends on your slant.
CHUNG: Of awful?
FISHER: That's right. And that day.
CHUNG: All right. When is it going to be published?
FISHER: In the winter.
CHUNG: OK, great.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: She's cool.
Stay with us for a quick word about tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: Tomorrow: Pete Sampras, Magic Johnson, Martina Navratilova and more. It's going to be fun. Join us.
"LARRY KING LIVE" is next.
Thank you so much for joining us. And for all of us at CNN, hope you had a great Christmas. Hope you have a great Christmas tonight. And we'll see you tomorrow night.
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Kevin Kline, Carrie Fisher>
