Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
90-Second Pop, Culture Watch
Aired July 28, 2003 - 07:49 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: "90-Second Pop" is our take on what's happening in the world of pop culture. If it were a movie, we'd be called too fast, too furious.
With us this morning -- pretty good, huh, you like that. Toure is a contributing editor for "Rolling Stone" magazine. B.J. Sigesmund is an entertainment reporter for "Newsweek." And Andy Borowitz is the author of "Who Moved my Soap: the CEO's Guide to Prison."
Good morning, and welcome to all of you.
TOURE, "ROLLING STONE": Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Let's start by talking about "American Idol." You spent the last four days or so touring with Ruben.
TOURE: Yes. Yes, very almost famous. It's so much fun backstage.
O'BRIEN: I was going to say, this is like the movie.
TOURE: They play fight. They sit on each other. Every night Ruben ties Clay's tie before they go out. It's very sweet. Out in the audience, it's mostly people 35 to 55, people coming to the hotels at 5:00 a.m., waiting in the rain two hours after the show, 45-55 years old. It looks like Beatle mania. It's like your mom running past security to get a touch of Ruben. It's amazing.
O'BRIEN: The visual on that, my mother running past security on anything?
B.J. SIGESMUND, "NEWSWEEK": Am I the only one, though, who is disturbed by the idea -- the image of Clay Aiken having panties thrown at him?
TOURE: No, not just the panties. Depends.
O'BRIEN: Oh, no!
TOURE: I kid you not.
O'BRIEN: No.
TOURE: I did you not. And the panties that came with them said, "These are from me and the Depends are from my mom."
ANDY BOROWITZ, AUTHOR, "WHO MOVED MY SOAP": SIGESMUND: To me, the real entertainment isn't the concert. It's picturing Toure at the concert.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I was going to say that. That's true.
BOROWITZ: That's what I want to do.
O'BRIEN: Is it -- OK. So, the audience loved it, but you got the -- you know, behind the...
TOURE: And their grandmas and their small children.
O'BRIEN: What's going on behind the scenes? Fill us in.
TOURE: Behind the scenes, they're so nice and so sweet.
O'BRIEN: Cat fights.
TOURE: They love each other. They're like performer kids who are always smiling even when they're happy. And they sit on each other, and they hug each other, just the way that they want you to think it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not telling this very well. I don't really want to go.
O'BRIEN: Oh, moving on now to our next segment. Let's talk about the box office, "Spy Kids," B.J., which is the series that I have loved, and Robert Rodriguez is a wonderful director, and I think has done a really good job with this. It did pretty well this weekend.
SIGESMUND: Yes, no one expected "Sky Kids 3-D" to do this well and be the No. 1 movie. It was seen as a gimmick by critics, but out of nowhere, it made more money than "Spy Kids" 1 and "Spy Kids 2." And this was going to be the last movie in the series, but I wouldn't expect so. I would think that...
O'BRIEN: No, it's not.
SIGESMUND: Yes, we can call that right now. The sequel, though, that didn't do well this weekend, of course, was "Tomb Raider," though. This is a huge Charlie Angels-style disappointment, even worse than "Charlie's Angels."
BOROWITZ: But, you know, this doesn't surprise me, because I've been reading a lot of interviews with Angelina Jolie, and she actually said that her dimensions were 30 percent smaller in this film than the original. I think they're going to bring them back if there's a part 3.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, the people who run the movie are, like, sshhh, don't tell anybody (UNINTELLIGIBLE) sell the movie.
BOROWITZ: Yes, that's true. Well, I mean, for her fan base that's got to hurt.
O'BRIEN: Yes. SIGESMUND: The other movie that we should talk about is "Seabiscuit," though, this weekend, which was...
O'BRIEN: How did it do?
SIGESMUND: Well, it was No. 5, but it did -- it was in about as third as many as theaters as "Spy Kids 3," and it took in...
O'BRIEN: Weren't you the one using "admirable" when you were describing this movie?
SIGESMUND: No, it was another pick. I hadn't seen it, but now I've seen it and I'm here to give you my personal opinion, which is that it's thin and stiff, and I don't think people are going to be recommending it to their friends. So, I don't think it's going to do better this weekend.
TOURE: We don't like the Kentucky Derby anymore. I mean, like, horse racing is dead in this country. Why do we want to see it for two hours?
SIGESMUND: Yes.
O'BRIEN: A movie about horse racing is probably not going to do...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not if they're longer than two hours?
O'BRIEN: OK, I don't know if you guys heard the news. Liza Minelli and David Gest, it's over. I, for one, shocked. That 16- month marriage...
BOROWITZ: I think most Americans are asking, what happened? I mean, they were so right for each other and so much in love. I had much the same feeling a few weeks ago when Kid Rock and Pam Anderson split up.
TOURE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's real, though.
BOROWITZ: That is real.
TOURE: That's real. They love each other. I wonder if we could start calling these, like, alleged relationships.
O'BRIEN: Even when they're married.
SIGESMUND: Right.
TOURE: We have no proof that these are real things, so, like, you know, those who...
O'BRIEN: You know, actually, in all seriousness, there was in Cindy Adams' (ph) column, there was a really interesting article. She is a very good friend, apparently, of Liza Minelli and was her bridesmaid as well. And it gave a little insight, more than you usually get from an actual sort of inside story.
SIGESMUND: Yes, she did. And one of the things that you read there that you didn't see anywhere else was that David Gest forced her to eat yogurt only every day for breakfast, and she lost 109 pounds.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SIGESMUND: One hundred and nine pounds. I mean, she was big, but I don't remember her having that much...
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: You know, we could have seen this coming on, because four months ago, they cancelled their anniversary party and they had invited 1,200 of their closest friends. And any time that David and Liza passed up a chance to get more gifts, that's an ominous sign.
O'BRIEN: Is the lawsuit still on? Weren't they suing VH1 about a whole deal that...
SIGESMUND: And they were also being sued by VH1.
BOROWITZ: You know, usually a lawsuit will keep these romances together, and that's why we're so shocking with that.
SIGESMUND: I can't wait to see these divorce proceedings on Court TV.
O'BRIEN: Well, I have to say, I mean, that's what Cindy Adams (ph) sort of alluded to in her column saying that David Gest, I think it sounds like he told her it's going to get ugly.
SIGESMUND: It's going to get ugly.
O'BRIEN: Because apparently, according to her...
BOROWITZ: It already is ugly.
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: Who gets custody of Tito Jackson?
O'BRIEN: All right, you guys, thank you to our pop panel. We certainly appreciate it, Toure, B.J. and Andy, as always.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired July 28, 2003 - 07:49 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: "90-Second Pop" is our take on what's happening in the world of pop culture. If it were a movie, we'd be called too fast, too furious.
With us this morning -- pretty good, huh, you like that. Toure is a contributing editor for "Rolling Stone" magazine. B.J. Sigesmund is an entertainment reporter for "Newsweek." And Andy Borowitz is the author of "Who Moved my Soap: the CEO's Guide to Prison."
Good morning, and welcome to all of you.
TOURE, "ROLLING STONE": Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Let's start by talking about "American Idol." You spent the last four days or so touring with Ruben.
TOURE: Yes. Yes, very almost famous. It's so much fun backstage.
O'BRIEN: I was going to say, this is like the movie.
TOURE: They play fight. They sit on each other. Every night Ruben ties Clay's tie before they go out. It's very sweet. Out in the audience, it's mostly people 35 to 55, people coming to the hotels at 5:00 a.m., waiting in the rain two hours after the show, 45-55 years old. It looks like Beatle mania. It's like your mom running past security to get a touch of Ruben. It's amazing.
O'BRIEN: The visual on that, my mother running past security on anything?
B.J. SIGESMUND, "NEWSWEEK": Am I the only one, though, who is disturbed by the idea -- the image of Clay Aiken having panties thrown at him?
TOURE: No, not just the panties. Depends.
O'BRIEN: Oh, no!
TOURE: I kid you not.
O'BRIEN: No.
TOURE: I did you not. And the panties that came with them said, "These are from me and the Depends are from my mom."
ANDY BOROWITZ, AUTHOR, "WHO MOVED MY SOAP": SIGESMUND: To me, the real entertainment isn't the concert. It's picturing Toure at the concert.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I was going to say that. That's true.
BOROWITZ: That's what I want to do.
O'BRIEN: Is it -- OK. So, the audience loved it, but you got the -- you know, behind the...
TOURE: And their grandmas and their small children.
O'BRIEN: What's going on behind the scenes? Fill us in.
TOURE: Behind the scenes, they're so nice and so sweet.
O'BRIEN: Cat fights.
TOURE: They love each other. They're like performer kids who are always smiling even when they're happy. And they sit on each other, and they hug each other, just the way that they want you to think it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not telling this very well. I don't really want to go.
O'BRIEN: Oh, moving on now to our next segment. Let's talk about the box office, "Spy Kids," B.J., which is the series that I have loved, and Robert Rodriguez is a wonderful director, and I think has done a really good job with this. It did pretty well this weekend.
SIGESMUND: Yes, no one expected "Sky Kids 3-D" to do this well and be the No. 1 movie. It was seen as a gimmick by critics, but out of nowhere, it made more money than "Spy Kids" 1 and "Spy Kids 2." And this was going to be the last movie in the series, but I wouldn't expect so. I would think that...
O'BRIEN: No, it's not.
SIGESMUND: Yes, we can call that right now. The sequel, though, that didn't do well this weekend, of course, was "Tomb Raider," though. This is a huge Charlie Angels-style disappointment, even worse than "Charlie's Angels."
BOROWITZ: But, you know, this doesn't surprise me, because I've been reading a lot of interviews with Angelina Jolie, and she actually said that her dimensions were 30 percent smaller in this film than the original. I think they're going to bring them back if there's a part 3.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, the people who run the movie are, like, sshhh, don't tell anybody (UNINTELLIGIBLE) sell the movie.
BOROWITZ: Yes, that's true. Well, I mean, for her fan base that's got to hurt.
O'BRIEN: Yes. SIGESMUND: The other movie that we should talk about is "Seabiscuit," though, this weekend, which was...
O'BRIEN: How did it do?
SIGESMUND: Well, it was No. 5, but it did -- it was in about as third as many as theaters as "Spy Kids 3," and it took in...
O'BRIEN: Weren't you the one using "admirable" when you were describing this movie?
SIGESMUND: No, it was another pick. I hadn't seen it, but now I've seen it and I'm here to give you my personal opinion, which is that it's thin and stiff, and I don't think people are going to be recommending it to their friends. So, I don't think it's going to do better this weekend.
TOURE: We don't like the Kentucky Derby anymore. I mean, like, horse racing is dead in this country. Why do we want to see it for two hours?
SIGESMUND: Yes.
O'BRIEN: A movie about horse racing is probably not going to do...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not if they're longer than two hours?
O'BRIEN: OK, I don't know if you guys heard the news. Liza Minelli and David Gest, it's over. I, for one, shocked. That 16- month marriage...
BOROWITZ: I think most Americans are asking, what happened? I mean, they were so right for each other and so much in love. I had much the same feeling a few weeks ago when Kid Rock and Pam Anderson split up.
TOURE: Whoa, whoa, whoa, that's real, though.
BOROWITZ: That is real.
TOURE: That's real. They love each other. I wonder if we could start calling these, like, alleged relationships.
O'BRIEN: Even when they're married.
SIGESMUND: Right.
TOURE: We have no proof that these are real things, so, like, you know, those who...
O'BRIEN: You know, actually, in all seriousness, there was in Cindy Adams' (ph) column, there was a really interesting article. She is a very good friend, apparently, of Liza Minelli and was her bridesmaid as well. And it gave a little insight, more than you usually get from an actual sort of inside story.
SIGESMUND: Yes, she did. And one of the things that you read there that you didn't see anywhere else was that David Gest forced her to eat yogurt only every day for breakfast, and she lost 109 pounds.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SIGESMUND: One hundred and nine pounds. I mean, she was big, but I don't remember her having that much...
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: You know, we could have seen this coming on, because four months ago, they cancelled their anniversary party and they had invited 1,200 of their closest friends. And any time that David and Liza passed up a chance to get more gifts, that's an ominous sign.
O'BRIEN: Is the lawsuit still on? Weren't they suing VH1 about a whole deal that...
SIGESMUND: And they were also being sued by VH1.
BOROWITZ: You know, usually a lawsuit will keep these romances together, and that's why we're so shocking with that.
SIGESMUND: I can't wait to see these divorce proceedings on Court TV.
O'BRIEN: Well, I have to say, I mean, that's what Cindy Adams (ph) sort of alluded to in her column saying that David Gest, I think it sounds like he told her it's going to get ugly.
SIGESMUND: It's going to get ugly.
O'BRIEN: Because apparently, according to her...
BOROWITZ: It already is ugly.
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: Who gets custody of Tito Jackson?
O'BRIEN: All right, you guys, thank you to our pop panel. We certainly appreciate it, Toure, B.J. and Andy, as always.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
