Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Death Toll From Hurricane Ivan Now Stands at 13; Update on Golf's Ryder Cup Championship; Weekend Movies

Aired September 17, 2004 - 10:30   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A grand jury has closed a third investigation into the Columbine school massacre in Colorado. A document showed one gunman, Eric Harris, had been accused of building bombs and making death threats two years earlier.
Families of some of the 13 victims have maintained that authorities failed to recognize the danger posed by Harris and his accomplice Dylan Klebold. The grand jury also said that it, quote, "is troubled by other documents missing from the case."

We go back to our coverage on Ivan. The death toll from that storm now stands at 13, with more than half of the fatalities found in the wreckage of the Panhandle. Early estimates are in the billions of dollars. And President Bush has already made plans for a weekend tour.

Our Chris Lawrence is in Pensacola with the latest.

Chris, good morning.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, Governor Jeb Bush was scheduled to start his tour of the damaged areas about 30 minutes ago, beginning with the Pensacola Civic Center, where some 1,500 people had to take shelter. Now this will be the governor's third such tour after hurricanes Charley and Frances. But this time, Hurricane Ivan destroyed an entire section of Interstate 10 over Escambia Bay.

Some of the witnesses say it almost looks like a giant hand scooped up the highway and jerked it hard. Officials tell us that it's going to be a significant amount of time before that's reopened. And with I-10 being the main east-west route through the panhandle, that's going to have a big effect on the entire state of Florida.

Now when you get away from the highway and get off into the neighborhoods and some of the other areas, the damage is just as bad. More than 100 mile-per-hour winds and a huge water surge destroyed homes, splintered trees, and snapped some of the power lines. Right now, the electricity is out, the water is out, and some of these families have literally been left with nothing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, some of us don't have a home to go to, it looks like. I lost everything, everything. Like three walls are gone out of the house. Everything's thrown down the neighborhood. We had the boat in the garage, and it's like four houses down off its trailer. It's just a mess. And I'm sure there's a million more stories out there much worse than mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Like the more than one dozen people who lost their lives in this storm. You're looking live at the damage to I-10 over Escambia Bay. That's the back half of a trailer that's been torn in two. Now the cab of the truck and its driver are missing, and police say there is an oil slick in the water right at the edge of the break. The divers have been in the water searching for that driver, but so far with all that muck and debris in there they've only been able to see about five feet down -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Chris, that does not sound promising for that truck driver at all.

I also understand that a number of hospitals in the Pensacola area were damaged.

LAWRENCE: Yes, one pretty extensively. The West Florida Hospital literally on one part of it, the auxiliary area, the wall was literally tearing off the building. Some of the people were working in there. They had to hustle out of there. And with the winds smashing some of the windows in the patient area, they had to push the patients into the hallway and try to take care of them out in the hall.

KAGAN: All right, Chris Lawrence in Pensacola. More from you later in the day.

The power of Ivan may also be measured in the powerlessness of those languishing in its wake. There are more than 1.7 million homes and businesses without electricity. More than a million of those customers are in Alabama. The other states that are impacted in order of outages: Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Santana Sullivan is one of the many people whose lives have been changed by Hurricane Ivan. Sullivan and her fiance left their Blountstown, Florida trailer to take shelter with her mother. A tornado spun from Ivan hit their mobile home park, destroying their home and killing some of their friends. Sullivan spoke with CNN's Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": What do you do now?

SANTANA SULLIVAN, HURRICANE VICTIM: I don't -- start over. Just pick up what we can, and just start over from the beginning, and thank God that we're still here, and that we weren't in our house, and because our neighbors are dead all around us. We have neighbors to the right of us and to the back of us, and five of those were dead, and two came out OK.

KING: You're saying, Santana, that five of your neighbors lost their lives?

SULLIVAN: Yes, five of the neighbors, two to my right and three in the back didn't make it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Let's escape from all of this for a moment, thinking about the Ryder Cup. It's getting underway. Two of the top U.S. players, get this pairing, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. They're not known to be the best of friends. That's Davis Love III actually. But Phil and Tiger playing together against Europe's defending champs. A live report with Larry Smith is coming your way.

And will it match? Will it be match-love with Kirsten Dunst and her new film about Wimbledon? Find out what Mr. Moviefone thinks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Now let's take a look at other stories making news.

Sports news, actually -- a swing, a miss, and an err in judgment for a baseball fan. Back in March, an L.A. investment banker shelled out $25,000 to buy thousands of seats at Dodgers Stadium. He figured Bonds would hit home run number 700 into those bleachers, and he would be all alone to snatch the memento.

Well, calculation's off a bit; Bonds now has 12 games to hit the magical dinger before the L.A. series. Knowing Barry Bonds, probably going to happen.

On to Golf: The 35th Ryder Cup is underway near Detroit, Michigan. Top American golfers taking on their European counterparts. The Europeans have, in fact, firmly planted their flag in U.S. soil. They've won 16 of the last 19 Ryder Cups.

Our sports correspondent Larry Smith joining us from Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Ooh, there is some interesting news coming out of this competition, Larry. Good morning.

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS: Good morning to you, Daryn. There really is. Some 40,000 expected here at Oakland Hills, expecting an American win this weekend. But so far, they have been disappointed, as right now the U.S. is losing all four of the four best-ball matches this morning as the Americans try to come up with a way to win for just the second time in the past five Ryder Cups.

Now, the big matchup is the one that went out at 8:10 local Eastern time this morning -- that including Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, the dynamic duo for the Americans, the first-ever pairing of the two. And Tiger Woods, 5-8-2 in his Ryder Cup play and is winless on day one in the last two Ryder Cups. But certainly, he remains the key to U.S. success. Mickelson, by the way, joining David Toms as the only U.S. players on this year's American team with a winning record in Ryder Cup play. He's enjoying his best year after winning the Masters in April. But again, he has kind of struggled pretty much early on.

As -- but the Woods/Mickelson duo versus Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington. They alternated winning holes, the last 5 holes -- 5 through 9. And so, right now, Woods and Mickelson are down only one through nine holes as they try to come up.

Hal Sutton, the captain, came out this morning with a huge black 10-gallon cowboy hat. But it took it off very quickly as things got serious and his team fell behind. Back to just a regular golf cap now as he's trying to get a win here.

Very interesting. By the way, Daryn, he chose to go the four- ball before the foursome competition this afternoon, even though the Americans in the last 10 Ryder Cups are 17 points down in four-ball competition. They have not fared well, and so far, not faring well this morning.

KAGAN: Well, and the pre-competition press, a lot of the media had the big knock on the Americans -- Larry, of course you know this -- that the Americans aren't good at pulling together as a team. And somehow the Europeans, who come from all these different countries, somehow can do it and go for national pride, even though they're playing for different nations.

SMITH: Well, and that's the great enigma is that this American team on paper, they are the superstars. They are the Dream Team. Twelve major championships for them; none for the Europeans -- of course, eight of them won by Tiger Woods. They're higher ranked than the European counterparts.

But the backbone of the team, keep in mind, is Colin Montgomerie. He was a captain's pick. He didn't qualify for the European team. Was a captain's pick by Bernhard Langer, but he is the top scorer for the European team in the last three Ryder Cups. Four-and-a-half points he was responsible for in 2002. And again, he is leading the way right now in that great matchup to lead the way with he and Harrington versus Woods and Mickelson.

KAGAN: All right. Larry Smith in Michigan. Thank you, watching Ryder Cup for us.

Going for the big 3,000? But will movie-goers go for Bernie Mac's new film. Stay with us for a preview.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Could the science-fiction blast from the past revolutionize the future of filmmaking? "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" leads our preview of movies at the box office this weekend. Mr. Moviefone Russ Leatherman joining us from L.A.

Hello, Russ.

RUSS LEATHERMAN, MR. MOVIEFONE: Daryn, I can't believe I'm here!

KAGAN: You're telling me.

LEATHERMAN: These hurricanes and this war thing are hell on a movie man, I'm telling you.

KAGAN: I'm telling you. Well, a lot of people want to head to the movies to get away from it all.

So, let's talk "Sky Captain." Can you give me a movie that has no sex, no locations, a lot of big stars, though.

LEATHERMAN: Yes, a lot of big stars -- Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Angelina Jolie. This is really a pretty amazing movie. It was shot entirely in front of a blue screen, which means there were no sets, just actors, and graphics. That's really all it is.

And it's an amazing movie. It a retro, sci-fi, futuristic action adventure. And what that means is it's set in the '30s, but as you can see, there are robots. There's all of this futuristic stuff going on.

She plays a newspaper reporter who discovers that these researchers are trying to take over the world, and they built these robots and these crazy things. Jude Law is the Sky Captain. He's flying around an old World War I plane, and he's the only guy who can really put these creatures down and get to the bottom of what's going on.

Now, I thought this movie was amazing to look at. The effects are spectacular. You've probably never seen anything like it. And I thought the story was pretty good.

Now, the studio would like this movie to be its "Indiana Jones" franchise. They really think this thing is going to be huge. I don't know if that's the case. I think the fact that it is retro might not get the younger audiences that much into it. But for my money, I thought it was well worth the $10. I thought it was a really interesting movie.

KAGAN: OK. I'm surprised you didn't save your 10 bucks for your favorite genre: romantic comedy. You know how we both enjoy those so much, Russ.

LEATHERMAN: We do. We love going to the movies and holding hands, don't we, Daryn?

KAGAN: Oh, not you and me together.

LEATHERMAN: We do!

KAGAN: No, no, no. That's your fantasy movie there. LEATHERMAN: Oh, OK.

KAGAN: We're talking "Wimbledon" -- "Wimbledon."

LEATHERMAN: OK, "Wimbledon." Now this is a romantic comedy. It stars Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, and it's another sports movie. We have a couple sports movies this week. She plays an up-and-coming star. She's going to win Wimbledon. Everything's happening for her.

Paul Bettany plays a washed-up tennis player. He's 125th in the world, something like that. The two meet at Wimbledon. They have sex. Her career tanks, and his career is to the moon. That's basically the premise of the movie.

KAGAN: You're talking romance. You've got to stress the romance.

LEATHERMAN: Well, you've got a little romance right there. I have to say, Daryn, this is a by-the-numbers romantic comedy. Everything you think is going to happen happens. Everything you don't want to happen doesn't happen. And so, if you like this sort of thing...

KAGAN: Perfect.

LEATHERMAN: ... if you don't demand too much, you probably are going to like this movie. It's OK.

KAGAN: OK. Let's look at a different type of sports movie. "Mr. 3,000," Bernie Mac -- hard not to like Bernie Mac.

LEATHERMAN: Bernie Mac is a very funny man. And if you like Bernie Mac and you like his TV show, you're going to like this movie. He does play Mr. 3,000. He's a guy who's had 3,000 hits. He's a big celebrity, the talk of the town. And some nerd discovers that he actually only has 2,997 hits. So, he has to go back into the majors to get the last three hits to get into the Hall of Fame.

Now, I like this movie. I thought it was funny. It's not a home run, but it's not a strikeout. It's probably a double.

KAGAN: OK.

LEATHERMAN: And if you like Bernie Mac and if you like his style of comedy, you're going to like this movie. So, for the first time in what seems like weeks, we have a few good movies in theaters. There's something to go check out, and that's pretty exciting stuff.

KAGAN: Three for three. That's you batting 1,000.

LEATHERMAN: Three for three.

KAGAN: How about that.

LEATHERMAN: Fantastic.

KAGAN: Russ Leatherman -- thank you, Mr. Moviefone.

LEATHERMAN: Good to see you again, Daryn.

KAGAN: Always good to see you. Thank you.

And you can keep your eye on entertainment 24/7 by pointing your Internet browser to cnn.com/entertainment. You'll find in-depth movie reviews, previews of the new fall TV season, and a new kind of reality show for some of the Brady kids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Well, I know this is a special event, covered it myself a couple of years ago. You have the smell of barbecue mingling with salt spray. The air is filled with all that jazz. It's the Monterey Jazz Festival swinging into its 47th year this weekend, and our Maria Hinojosa has a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM JACKSON, MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL: We're the oldest continuous jazz festival in the world. We've been going 47 years right here on the Monterey Fairgrounds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to the first annual Monterey Jazz Festival.

JACKSON: The challenge every year is to try and add something to the legacy of what's gone on before. We have some of our great jazz masters with Clark Terry and Marian McPartland, and a lot of the younger musicians like Charlie Hunter and Luciana Sosa.

We get it from A to Z -- jazz from A to Z.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jazz from A to Z. Well, under B you'll find Bill Charlap. B is also for Bobby McFerrin. The virtuoso vocalist will perform with drummer Jack DeJohnette.

JACKSON: I think putting those two creative minds together, the sparks will fly.

HINJOSA: Moving along the alphabet, C is for Chaka Khan. D for Don Byron. T, that would have to be for Terence Blanchard on trumpet. Put the letters together and what you have is a spell cast over the audience for the three days of the festival.

Thousands come to this idyllic setting on the Monterey peninsula for a weekend devoted to jazz.

JACKSON: It is a music of the heart, the music of the soul, and to hear it live with a lot of your brethren around you and the great artists onstage, it's a magical feeling. And our goal every year is just to make that happen again and again and again.

HINOJOSA: Maria Hinojosa, CNN, Monterey, California. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And we move just a little bit farther south down the central coast to Santa Maria, California. Michael Jackson expected to show up here any moment. A live picture there from Santa Maria. Stay with us with live coverage of his face-to-face court encounter with the mother of his accuser. We'll tell you -- we're going to explain how Michael Jackson's attorneys are going to be able to question the woman.

And Ivan unleashes a flurry of floods on some zoo animals. Jack Hanna of the Columbus Zoo will explain what officials are likely doing to track down Chuckie, a 1,000-pound alligator -- a hungry alligator.

The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

Let's take a look at what is happening now in the news.

Another deadly car bombing in Iraq. Authorities say at least eight Iraqis were killed today when a car detonated near an Iraqi police checkpoint. Hours earlier, U.S. forces opened fire on another vehicle packed with explosives, killing the two people inside.

As we were just mentioning, pop star Michael Jackson expected in court this hour. The mother of the boy who accuses Jackson of molesting him is scheduled to testify. The hearing is to determine whether some evidence in the case should be thrown out. We'll go live to the courthouse in Santa Maria in just a moment.

Democrat John Kerry is on the campaign trail in New Mexico. He's holding a town hall meeting in Albuquerque this hour. Kerry is launching a new ad campaign that criticizes the Bush administration for its no-bid contracts with Halliburton. It accuses the administration of ignoring waste by the company Vice President Dick Cheney once ran.

A new poll released today shows that President Bush is widening his lead over John Kerry. The Gallup poll puts the president ahead by 13 points among likely voters. Another poll by the Pew Research Center, though, shows the race is now a dead heat. The president holds a rally next hour in Washington, D.C.

We're coming up on 11:00 a.m. on the east coast, 10:00 a.m. in Gulf Shores, Alabama. From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.

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 September 17, 2004 - 10:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A grand jury has closed a third investigation into the Columbine school massacre in Colorado. A document showed one gunman, Eric Harris, had been accused of building bombs and making death threats two years earlier.
Families of some of the 13 victims have maintained that authorities failed to recognize the danger posed by Harris and his accomplice Dylan Klebold. The grand jury also said that it, quote, "is troubled by other documents missing from the case."

We go back to our coverage on Ivan. The death toll from that storm now stands at 13, with more than half of the fatalities found in the wreckage of the Panhandle. Early estimates are in the billions of dollars. And President Bush has already made plans for a weekend tour.

Our Chris Lawrence is in Pensacola with the latest.

Chris, good morning.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, Governor Jeb Bush was scheduled to start his tour of the damaged areas about 30 minutes ago, beginning with the Pensacola Civic Center, where some 1,500 people had to take shelter. Now this will be the governor's third such tour after hurricanes Charley and Frances. But this time, Hurricane Ivan destroyed an entire section of Interstate 10 over Escambia Bay.

Some of the witnesses say it almost looks like a giant hand scooped up the highway and jerked it hard. Officials tell us that it's going to be a significant amount of time before that's reopened. And with I-10 being the main east-west route through the panhandle, that's going to have a big effect on the entire state of Florida.

Now when you get away from the highway and get off into the neighborhoods and some of the other areas, the damage is just as bad. More than 100 mile-per-hour winds and a huge water surge destroyed homes, splintered trees, and snapped some of the power lines. Right now, the electricity is out, the water is out, and some of these families have literally been left with nothing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, some of us don't have a home to go to, it looks like. I lost everything, everything. Like three walls are gone out of the house. Everything's thrown down the neighborhood. We had the boat in the garage, and it's like four houses down off its trailer. It's just a mess. And I'm sure there's a million more stories out there much worse than mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Like the more than one dozen people who lost their lives in this storm. You're looking live at the damage to I-10 over Escambia Bay. That's the back half of a trailer that's been torn in two. Now the cab of the truck and its driver are missing, and police say there is an oil slick in the water right at the edge of the break. The divers have been in the water searching for that driver, but so far with all that muck and debris in there they've only been able to see about five feet down -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Chris, that does not sound promising for that truck driver at all.

I also understand that a number of hospitals in the Pensacola area were damaged.

LAWRENCE: Yes, one pretty extensively. The West Florida Hospital literally on one part of it, the auxiliary area, the wall was literally tearing off the building. Some of the people were working in there. They had to hustle out of there. And with the winds smashing some of the windows in the patient area, they had to push the patients into the hallway and try to take care of them out in the hall.

KAGAN: All right, Chris Lawrence in Pensacola. More from you later in the day.

The power of Ivan may also be measured in the powerlessness of those languishing in its wake. There are more than 1.7 million homes and businesses without electricity. More than a million of those customers are in Alabama. The other states that are impacted in order of outages: Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Santana Sullivan is one of the many people whose lives have been changed by Hurricane Ivan. Sullivan and her fiance left their Blountstown, Florida trailer to take shelter with her mother. A tornado spun from Ivan hit their mobile home park, destroying their home and killing some of their friends. Sullivan spoke with CNN's Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": What do you do now?

SANTANA SULLIVAN, HURRICANE VICTIM: I don't -- start over. Just pick up what we can, and just start over from the beginning, and thank God that we're still here, and that we weren't in our house, and because our neighbors are dead all around us. We have neighbors to the right of us and to the back of us, and five of those were dead, and two came out OK.

KING: You're saying, Santana, that five of your neighbors lost their lives?

SULLIVAN: Yes, five of the neighbors, two to my right and three in the back didn't make it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Let's escape from all of this for a moment, thinking about the Ryder Cup. It's getting underway. Two of the top U.S. players, get this pairing, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. They're not known to be the best of friends. That's Davis Love III actually. But Phil and Tiger playing together against Europe's defending champs. A live report with Larry Smith is coming your way.

And will it match? Will it be match-love with Kirsten Dunst and her new film about Wimbledon? Find out what Mr. Moviefone thinks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Now let's take a look at other stories making news.

Sports news, actually -- a swing, a miss, and an err in judgment for a baseball fan. Back in March, an L.A. investment banker shelled out $25,000 to buy thousands of seats at Dodgers Stadium. He figured Bonds would hit home run number 700 into those bleachers, and he would be all alone to snatch the memento.

Well, calculation's off a bit; Bonds now has 12 games to hit the magical dinger before the L.A. series. Knowing Barry Bonds, probably going to happen.

On to Golf: The 35th Ryder Cup is underway near Detroit, Michigan. Top American golfers taking on their European counterparts. The Europeans have, in fact, firmly planted their flag in U.S. soil. They've won 16 of the last 19 Ryder Cups.

Our sports correspondent Larry Smith joining us from Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Ooh, there is some interesting news coming out of this competition, Larry. Good morning.

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS: Good morning to you, Daryn. There really is. Some 40,000 expected here at Oakland Hills, expecting an American win this weekend. But so far, they have been disappointed, as right now the U.S. is losing all four of the four best-ball matches this morning as the Americans try to come up with a way to win for just the second time in the past five Ryder Cups.

Now, the big matchup is the one that went out at 8:10 local Eastern time this morning -- that including Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, the dynamic duo for the Americans, the first-ever pairing of the two. And Tiger Woods, 5-8-2 in his Ryder Cup play and is winless on day one in the last two Ryder Cups. But certainly, he remains the key to U.S. success. Mickelson, by the way, joining David Toms as the only U.S. players on this year's American team with a winning record in Ryder Cup play. He's enjoying his best year after winning the Masters in April. But again, he has kind of struggled pretty much early on.

As -- but the Woods/Mickelson duo versus Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington. They alternated winning holes, the last 5 holes -- 5 through 9. And so, right now, Woods and Mickelson are down only one through nine holes as they try to come up.

Hal Sutton, the captain, came out this morning with a huge black 10-gallon cowboy hat. But it took it off very quickly as things got serious and his team fell behind. Back to just a regular golf cap now as he's trying to get a win here.

Very interesting. By the way, Daryn, he chose to go the four- ball before the foursome competition this afternoon, even though the Americans in the last 10 Ryder Cups are 17 points down in four-ball competition. They have not fared well, and so far, not faring well this morning.

KAGAN: Well, and the pre-competition press, a lot of the media had the big knock on the Americans -- Larry, of course you know this -- that the Americans aren't good at pulling together as a team. And somehow the Europeans, who come from all these different countries, somehow can do it and go for national pride, even though they're playing for different nations.

SMITH: Well, and that's the great enigma is that this American team on paper, they are the superstars. They are the Dream Team. Twelve major championships for them; none for the Europeans -- of course, eight of them won by Tiger Woods. They're higher ranked than the European counterparts.

But the backbone of the team, keep in mind, is Colin Montgomerie. He was a captain's pick. He didn't qualify for the European team. Was a captain's pick by Bernhard Langer, but he is the top scorer for the European team in the last three Ryder Cups. Four-and-a-half points he was responsible for in 2002. And again, he is leading the way right now in that great matchup to lead the way with he and Harrington versus Woods and Mickelson.

KAGAN: All right. Larry Smith in Michigan. Thank you, watching Ryder Cup for us.

Going for the big 3,000? But will movie-goers go for Bernie Mac's new film. Stay with us for a preview.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Could the science-fiction blast from the past revolutionize the future of filmmaking? "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" leads our preview of movies at the box office this weekend. Mr. Moviefone Russ Leatherman joining us from L.A.

Hello, Russ.

RUSS LEATHERMAN, MR. MOVIEFONE: Daryn, I can't believe I'm here!

KAGAN: You're telling me.

LEATHERMAN: These hurricanes and this war thing are hell on a movie man, I'm telling you.

KAGAN: I'm telling you. Well, a lot of people want to head to the movies to get away from it all.

So, let's talk "Sky Captain." Can you give me a movie that has no sex, no locations, a lot of big stars, though.

LEATHERMAN: Yes, a lot of big stars -- Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Angelina Jolie. This is really a pretty amazing movie. It was shot entirely in front of a blue screen, which means there were no sets, just actors, and graphics. That's really all it is.

And it's an amazing movie. It a retro, sci-fi, futuristic action adventure. And what that means is it's set in the '30s, but as you can see, there are robots. There's all of this futuristic stuff going on.

She plays a newspaper reporter who discovers that these researchers are trying to take over the world, and they built these robots and these crazy things. Jude Law is the Sky Captain. He's flying around an old World War I plane, and he's the only guy who can really put these creatures down and get to the bottom of what's going on.

Now, I thought this movie was amazing to look at. The effects are spectacular. You've probably never seen anything like it. And I thought the story was pretty good.

Now, the studio would like this movie to be its "Indiana Jones" franchise. They really think this thing is going to be huge. I don't know if that's the case. I think the fact that it is retro might not get the younger audiences that much into it. But for my money, I thought it was well worth the $10. I thought it was a really interesting movie.

KAGAN: OK. I'm surprised you didn't save your 10 bucks for your favorite genre: romantic comedy. You know how we both enjoy those so much, Russ.

LEATHERMAN: We do. We love going to the movies and holding hands, don't we, Daryn?

KAGAN: Oh, not you and me together.

LEATHERMAN: We do!

KAGAN: No, no, no. That's your fantasy movie there. LEATHERMAN: Oh, OK.

KAGAN: We're talking "Wimbledon" -- "Wimbledon."

LEATHERMAN: OK, "Wimbledon." Now this is a romantic comedy. It stars Kirsten Dunst, Paul Bettany, and it's another sports movie. We have a couple sports movies this week. She plays an up-and-coming star. She's going to win Wimbledon. Everything's happening for her.

Paul Bettany plays a washed-up tennis player. He's 125th in the world, something like that. The two meet at Wimbledon. They have sex. Her career tanks, and his career is to the moon. That's basically the premise of the movie.

KAGAN: You're talking romance. You've got to stress the romance.

LEATHERMAN: Well, you've got a little romance right there. I have to say, Daryn, this is a by-the-numbers romantic comedy. Everything you think is going to happen happens. Everything you don't want to happen doesn't happen. And so, if you like this sort of thing...

KAGAN: Perfect.

LEATHERMAN: ... if you don't demand too much, you probably are going to like this movie. It's OK.

KAGAN: OK. Let's look at a different type of sports movie. "Mr. 3,000," Bernie Mac -- hard not to like Bernie Mac.

LEATHERMAN: Bernie Mac is a very funny man. And if you like Bernie Mac and you like his TV show, you're going to like this movie. He does play Mr. 3,000. He's a guy who's had 3,000 hits. He's a big celebrity, the talk of the town. And some nerd discovers that he actually only has 2,997 hits. So, he has to go back into the majors to get the last three hits to get into the Hall of Fame.

Now, I like this movie. I thought it was funny. It's not a home run, but it's not a strikeout. It's probably a double.

KAGAN: OK.

LEATHERMAN: And if you like Bernie Mac and if you like his style of comedy, you're going to like this movie. So, for the first time in what seems like weeks, we have a few good movies in theaters. There's something to go check out, and that's pretty exciting stuff.

KAGAN: Three for three. That's you batting 1,000.

LEATHERMAN: Three for three.

KAGAN: How about that.

LEATHERMAN: Fantastic.

KAGAN: Russ Leatherman -- thank you, Mr. Moviefone.

LEATHERMAN: Good to see you again, Daryn.

KAGAN: Always good to see you. Thank you.

And you can keep your eye on entertainment 24/7 by pointing your Internet browser to cnn.com/entertainment. You'll find in-depth movie reviews, previews of the new fall TV season, and a new kind of reality show for some of the Brady kids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Well, I know this is a special event, covered it myself a couple of years ago. You have the smell of barbecue mingling with salt spray. The air is filled with all that jazz. It's the Monterey Jazz Festival swinging into its 47th year this weekend, and our Maria Hinojosa has a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM JACKSON, MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL: We're the oldest continuous jazz festival in the world. We've been going 47 years right here on the Monterey Fairgrounds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to the first annual Monterey Jazz Festival.

JACKSON: The challenge every year is to try and add something to the legacy of what's gone on before. We have some of our great jazz masters with Clark Terry and Marian McPartland, and a lot of the younger musicians like Charlie Hunter and Luciana Sosa.

We get it from A to Z -- jazz from A to Z.

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jazz from A to Z. Well, under B you'll find Bill Charlap. B is also for Bobby McFerrin. The virtuoso vocalist will perform with drummer Jack DeJohnette.

JACKSON: I think putting those two creative minds together, the sparks will fly.

HINJOSA: Moving along the alphabet, C is for Chaka Khan. D for Don Byron. T, that would have to be for Terence Blanchard on trumpet. Put the letters together and what you have is a spell cast over the audience for the three days of the festival.

Thousands come to this idyllic setting on the Monterey peninsula for a weekend devoted to jazz.

JACKSON: It is a music of the heart, the music of the soul, and to hear it live with a lot of your brethren around you and the great artists onstage, it's a magical feeling. And our goal every year is just to make that happen again and again and again.

HINOJOSA: Maria Hinojosa, CNN, Monterey, California. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And we move just a little bit farther south down the central coast to Santa Maria, California. Michael Jackson expected to show up here any moment. A live picture there from Santa Maria. Stay with us with live coverage of his face-to-face court encounter with the mother of his accuser. We'll tell you -- we're going to explain how Michael Jackson's attorneys are going to be able to question the woman.

And Ivan unleashes a flurry of floods on some zoo animals. Jack Hanna of the Columbus Zoo will explain what officials are likely doing to track down Chuckie, a 1,000-pound alligator -- a hungry alligator.

The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

Let's take a look at what is happening now in the news.

Another deadly car bombing in Iraq. Authorities say at least eight Iraqis were killed today when a car detonated near an Iraqi police checkpoint. Hours earlier, U.S. forces opened fire on another vehicle packed with explosives, killing the two people inside.

As we were just mentioning, pop star Michael Jackson expected in court this hour. The mother of the boy who accuses Jackson of molesting him is scheduled to testify. The hearing is to determine whether some evidence in the case should be thrown out. We'll go live to the courthouse in Santa Maria in just a moment.

Democrat John Kerry is on the campaign trail in New Mexico. He's holding a town hall meeting in Albuquerque this hour. Kerry is launching a new ad campaign that criticizes the Bush administration for its no-bid contracts with Halliburton. It accuses the administration of ignoring waste by the company Vice President Dick Cheney once ran.

A new poll released today shows that President Bush is widening his lead over John Kerry. The Gallup poll puts the president ahead by 13 points among likely voters. Another poll by the Pew Research Center, though, shows the race is now a dead heat. The president holds a rally next hour in Washington, D.C.

We're coming up on 11:00 a.m. on the east coast, 10:00 a.m. in Gulf Shores, Alabama. From CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning once again. I'm Daryn Kagan.

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