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CNN Live At Daybreak

International Wrap, Eye on World

Aired December 03, 2003 - 06:36   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to global issues. Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is here with a mixed bag of topics for us actually, from a Jesus movie to two wacky awards, one for bad sex and another for Donald Rumsfeld, but they're not connected.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Not connected. No.

Yes, a lot of big stories going on, but also a lot of sort of behind-the-scenes interesting stories that we're covering today -- one on this Mel Gibson movie. We've been looking at this for a long time now and the controversy surrounding this Mel Gibson movie that's going to come out next year on the "Passion of Christ."

There was a festival -- there is a festival going on at the Vatican this week, and last night we were told that Mel Gibson and his producers had planned to show this movie in an advance viewing to Vatican officials -- top, top Vatican officials -- who had asked to see the film. The reason the Vatican is concerned about this is because of the idea of the allegation that the film may fuel anti- Semitism or things like that because of its portrayal of the role of Jews in the death of Jesus.

Well, at the last minute, apparently Mel Gibson told the organizers of the festival and the Vatican the film is not ready for viewing.

COSTELLO: Which doesn't make any sense, because it's already been viewed.

CLINCH: Well, the final version, the version that will be released, Mel Gibson says he's still working on it. He told the festival organizers he's tweaking some of the scenes. We don't know...

COSTELLO: So, he might change it.

CLINCH: Perhaps. We don't know as yet whether these are the relevant scenes in terms of the role of the Jews, but we do know that he told them it's not ready to be shown. He did promise, though, to show the Vatican an advance viewing of this before its official release next year. So, we'll check at that point.

COSTELLO: When we say "Vatican," do we mean pope, the pope would watch it?

CLINCH: Well, the pope has apparently expressed interest. It was senior cardinals who had planned to be there last night, and they are quite upset, we're told, but hoping to still see it in advance.

COSTELLO: OK.

CLINCH: Now, these other awards. First of all, Donald Rumsfeld -- this actually came out a couple of days ago. We haven't had time to talk about it. Donald Rumsfeld was awarded the "foot in mouth" award by a British literary group for his statement this year, which was the very convoluted. Let me read it quickly: "Reports say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because, as we know, there known knowns. There are things we know we know. There are also things we know that are unknown. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know, but there are also unknown unknowns. The ones we don't know we know."

COSTELLO: Can you say that three times fast?

CLINCH: No. But, you know, the funny thing is I know exactly what he's talking about, because that day we had yesterday about whether Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri had been captured or not, it's all about what we know we don't know and that kind of thing. So...

COSTELLO: Who awarded him that award?

CLINCH: Well, very quickly, Donald Rumsfeld was also awarded again today by an EU -- European Union -- affairs paper a "non-EU citizen of the year" award for his comment on Old Europe and New Europe.

COSTELLO: I'm sure he's hurt by that.

CLINCH: No time for the bad sex award. I'll tell you more about that later.

COSTELLO: OK. Well, we're excited to hear about that. We are.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: Thank you, David.

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 December 3, 2003 - 06:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to global issues. Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is here with a mixed bag of topics for us actually, from a Jesus movie to two wacky awards, one for bad sex and another for Donald Rumsfeld, but they're not connected.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Not connected. No.

Yes, a lot of big stories going on, but also a lot of sort of behind-the-scenes interesting stories that we're covering today -- one on this Mel Gibson movie. We've been looking at this for a long time now and the controversy surrounding this Mel Gibson movie that's going to come out next year on the "Passion of Christ."

There was a festival -- there is a festival going on at the Vatican this week, and last night we were told that Mel Gibson and his producers had planned to show this movie in an advance viewing to Vatican officials -- top, top Vatican officials -- who had asked to see the film. The reason the Vatican is concerned about this is because of the idea of the allegation that the film may fuel anti- Semitism or things like that because of its portrayal of the role of Jews in the death of Jesus.

Well, at the last minute, apparently Mel Gibson told the organizers of the festival and the Vatican the film is not ready for viewing.

COSTELLO: Which doesn't make any sense, because it's already been viewed.

CLINCH: Well, the final version, the version that will be released, Mel Gibson says he's still working on it. He told the festival organizers he's tweaking some of the scenes. We don't know...

COSTELLO: So, he might change it.

CLINCH: Perhaps. We don't know as yet whether these are the relevant scenes in terms of the role of the Jews, but we do know that he told them it's not ready to be shown. He did promise, though, to show the Vatican an advance viewing of this before its official release next year. So, we'll check at that point.

COSTELLO: When we say "Vatican," do we mean pope, the pope would watch it?

CLINCH: Well, the pope has apparently expressed interest. It was senior cardinals who had planned to be there last night, and they are quite upset, we're told, but hoping to still see it in advance.

COSTELLO: OK.

CLINCH: Now, these other awards. First of all, Donald Rumsfeld -- this actually came out a couple of days ago. We haven't had time to talk about it. Donald Rumsfeld was awarded the "foot in mouth" award by a British literary group for his statement this year, which was the very convoluted. Let me read it quickly: "Reports say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because, as we know, there known knowns. There are things we know we know. There are also things we know that are unknown. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know, but there are also unknown unknowns. The ones we don't know we know."

COSTELLO: Can you say that three times fast?

CLINCH: No. But, you know, the funny thing is I know exactly what he's talking about, because that day we had yesterday about whether Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri had been captured or not, it's all about what we know we don't know and that kind of thing. So...

COSTELLO: Who awarded him that award?

CLINCH: Well, very quickly, Donald Rumsfeld was also awarded again today by an EU -- European Union -- affairs paper a "non-EU citizen of the year" award for his comment on Old Europe and New Europe.

COSTELLO: I'm sure he's hurt by that.

CLINCH: No time for the bad sex award. I'll tell you more about that later.

COSTELLO: OK. Well, we're excited to hear about that. We are.

CLINCH: OK.

COSTELLO: Thank you, David.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.