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CNN Live At Daybreak

Dan Rather Resigns; Gift Card Giving; At The Movies

Aired November 24, 2004 - 06:30   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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers. Let's get right to the headlines now.
A new offensive in Iraq's battled province south of Baghdad this morning. U.S., British and Iraqi troops have launched an operation. It's called Plymouth Rock, and it's aimed at rooting out insurgents.

In Florida, a judge upholds the living will of a man who is on life support over the pleas of his wife. The man said in the will he would prefer to die if he were terminally ill or incapacitated. The ruling trumps his wife's power of attorney.

In Washington State, a race that never ends. We could learn today just who has won the recount for governor. So far, the Republican has a 316-vote lead over the Democrat.

People in Texas may be seeing something this morning they haven't seen in four days, and that would be sunny skies. A wave of thunderstorms has been soaking the state. The storm spawned about a dozen tornadoes. The twisters killed a woman and destroyed homes in East Texas, but there is nasty weather over the rest of the country.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: You've probably heard by now Dan Rather is leaving as anchor for the "CBS Evening News."

Here's what he said in announcing that decision, and I quote: "I have been lucky and blessed over these years to have what is to me the best job in the world and to have it at CBS News. Along the way I've had the honor of working with some of the most talented, dedicated professionals in the world. And I'm appreciative of the opportunity to continue doing so in the years ahead."

Love him or hate him, Dan Rather has been in the business for a very long time. Has leaving the anchor desk -- his leaving the anchor desk, rather, is about to have some sort of impact. But what?

For the answer, we go to Al Tomkins with the Poynter Institute.

Good morning.

AL TOMKINS, POYNTER INSTITUTE: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hello. It wasn't long ago Rather apologized for a report in which he questioned President Bush's National Guard service. I mean, is this really the reason he stepped down?

TOMKINS: Well, I think there are a lot of things that sort of fit into the puzzle. One of them is that here he is, 73 years old, and this is a huge job, as you well know, a 73-year-old guy who has been at CBS for 43 years.

I was just thinking about that. You know, if somebody started anchoring at CNN right now or if somebody started at the network right now, as Rather did 43 years ago, they would retire from the anchor chair at 2047. I can't imagine anyone in today's television environment, Carol, actually running 43 years as he did.

And the thing that I guess I'm saddest about is that so much of the reporting in the last 24 hours has been about this National Guard scandal, and it is. Look, I know that CBS is going to continue the investigation. It will report the investigation results theoretically in a month or so. But so many people have forgotten a lot of the big work that Dan Rather did.

In '75, two months after he joined "60 Minutes" after finishing almost 10 years as a White House correspondent, he did a piece for "60 Minutes" on a company called Allied Chemical. That piece revealed that the company was dumping insecticides, resulted in 153 indictments, $14 million in fines.

COSTELLO: Oh, it is...

TOMKINS: Can you imagine -- I mean, most journalists would look back at that one story and see it as the capstone to a career. That's not even a footnote in his career.

COSTELLO: You know, he did do many great things through his career. And some in the broadcast industry might call him, you know, a thing of the past; that journalists like him aren't appreciated so much anymore.

TOMKINS: Well, I'm worried about that. As we look now across the landscape, particularly in the 24-hour cable environment, we don't see people with the kind of pedigrees as reporters that we see in Brokaw, who is retiring a week from today, in people like Rather, who has 43 years at the network. And CNN (sic) has lost a number of senior correspondents just in the last two or three weeks. Fred Frances and Bob Hager, very senior correspondents at NBC, took retirement.

I mean, I'm really worried about who will be covering the news in the future, and whether they actually have the experience in covering the kinds of things that the anchors of today have covered. Peter Jennings has vast experience covering the Middle East and Europe. He's covered a lot. Look across the landscape. We do have people like Judy Woodruff and Wolf Blitzer and Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer, who have been around for a long time. But...

COSTELLO: And we'll be here for many years to come.

TOMKINS: Yes. COSTELLO: There's a lot of...

TOMKINS: And my worry is that in today's television environment whether we're going to have people with 20 and 30 and 40 years of experience who are working the anchor desks. And I think that's...

COSTELLO: Well...

TOMKINS: I think that's a serious concern.

COSTELLO: Well, I think we're making a turn back to the way it was where we value hard-core journalism. Al Tomkins from the Poynter Institute joining DAYBREAK this morning.

Thinking about giving someone a gift card this holiday season? There are some pitfalls you might not be aware of. We'll tell you what they are at 42 minutes past.

And then Sarah Jessica Parker gets a bit of a makeover in Israel. At 47 minutes past, we'll tell you why the "Sex and the City" star rubbed some people the wrong way.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Let's head down the street to the "AMERICAN MORNING" studios and check in with Bill and Soledad for a look at what's coming up.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Carol, good morning to you.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: You don't have to fly to get to this studio, by the way, Carol. Because that's...

COSTELLO: I usually jog.

HEMMER: That would be a sight. We're going to talk about holiday travel, Carol, and everyone is taking to the air today and the roads as well. The transportation security chief about what to expect today at checkpoints across the country; also this story out there, too, Soledad, about some women believing that the pat-down process at the airports is...

O'BRIEN: Overenthusiastic?

HEMMER: Overly enthusiastic is the phrase we will go with for now.

O'BRIEN: That's a good phrase.

HEMMER: So we'll talk about that and what the policy is. O'BRIEN: Also this morning, we're looking at the Pentagon and that flailing intelligence bill. Donald Rumsfeld says, no, no, no, he's not the one standing in the way of it. But is the Pentagon holding up intelligence reform? We'll take a look at that. We're going to hear from former 9/11 commissioner Bob Kerrey this morning.

HEMMER: Also, a victim fights back in a big way, too. Muggers rob a man, threaten his daughters. The man hops in his car, chases them down on the road, in the end shots are fired. He runs over one of the muggers and kills him. He'll be here today to talk about that. He's bringing his two daughters as well.

O'BRIEN: That's an unbelievable story.

HEMMER: Oh, yes, it is, too. And he has not been charged. There is some concern from the man that he may be. But he'll tell us his story this morning. He says he's very concerned about Americans not fighting back when it comes to crime. He did.

O'BRIEN: Yes, in a big way...

HEMMER: So we'll hear his story, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: ... I think it's fair to say. All of that and much, much more this morning, Carol. We'll see you in just a few minutes.

COSTELLO: Fascinating stuff. Thanks, Bill and Soledad.

There's only one sure way to work off those Thanksgiving calories. Start your holiday shopping.

Ali Velshi tells us what we need to know before we buy one very popular present.

This is sort of the easy way out for me, but I can't do it anymore.

ALI VELSHI, CNN DAYBREAK CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. You know, it's fascinating, because I have -- nobody can buy me anything. I'm very particular about my shirts and the vests and the ties and all of those kinds of things. And my arms are remarkably out of proportion to my torso, strangely. I have longer arms, an earlier stage in evolution. Some people just stopped giving me gifts. Well, now you can come back giving me gifts, because gift cards are huge; $45 billion or something last year.

And it's sort of -- gift cards have taken the I'm-not-very- creative thing out of giving people gift certificates or cash. They're now kind of nifty.

I remember last Christmas, last Christmas Eve, I volunteered to work, because I was at the King of Prussia Mall outside of Philadelphia, just so I could do some shopping. And now when you buy a gift card like at Coach or at the Cheesecake Factory, it comes in sort of a presentation. So, you're giving somebody something. You've giving them what appears to be a gift. And in the end, it's just a card that has some money on it.

Now, they're good for retailers, because you don't have to sell everything in the Christmas season and then worry about all of the returns in January, because most people, 90 percent of people use their gift cards within 30 days, which is what you should do, yes. You go -- just take it, because it's like cash.

Now, 90 percent of them use it within a month. Gift cards this year for the 2004 holiday season will be the No. 1 single biggest thing given. It's actually outranking apparel. And it's taking sales away from CDs, from DVDs, from books and things like that, typical last-minute shopping.

COSTELLO: But all of this sounds good. What are the drawbacks?

VELSHI: The drawbacks are that there are some companies and malls -- you can also buy mall gift cards -- which have time limits on using the card. So, if you don't use it within a year or maybe two years, they'll go away.

There is also -- and these are some of the companies on the screen -- that charge you dormancy fees. If you don't use it in a year, they start charging you a percentage of an amount. Giant Foods will charge you $2 every month after 18 months of not using it. KB toys, $1.50 a month after two years. Kmart charges $2.10 a month after two years.

COSTELLO: Oh, that's just greedy. That's greedy.

VELSHI: Yes. But what are you doing for two years? I'm not -- it's like cash.

COSTELLO: Yes. But still...

VELSHI: Carol, if someone gives you 100 bucks, are you going to keep it in a drawer? Because you're going to lose money on that anyway.

COSTELLO: Yes, but I paid $100. For me as the gift-giver...

VELSHI: You're right. It's not...

COSTELLO: ... that makes me mad.

VELSHI: You're absolutely right. If you choose not to put your money in the bank, that's your own bad judgment. But sure, somebody pays for a gift and gives it to you, or you pay for it and give it to someone, it shouldn't be theirs to take it away from you. And that's what's happening.

It's not entirely clear when you buy a gift card what the rules are. Ask. Check the Web site. They sometimes come in a little sleeve. Check the sleeve and find out whether there are rules on it. If the rules seem too restrictive, don't buy it. Go somewhere else. There are lots of them available.

COSTELLO: All right. Ali Velshi...

VELSHI: And it works for me because of the arms thing, too long.

COSTELLO: All right, I'll get you a gift card.

VELSHI: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 6:45 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Freezing weather isn't keeping thousands of Ukrainians from protesting their presidential election. Authorities plan to release the final results in a few hours amidst allegations of fraud.

In money news, Nasdaq gets Sirius. Sirius Satellite Radio stock was the hottest thing going on Nasdaq yesterday. Shares rose 74 cents after the company announced it now has more than 800,000 subscribers.

In culture, a copy of Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai" is costing one man $300,000. A former member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences was fined that much for leaking screener copies of "Samurai" and the movie "Mystic River."

In sports, Steve Spurrier is the new head football coach at the University of South Carolina. He signed a seven-year deal worth more than a million each year. Spurrier replaces the retiring Lou Holtz.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.

Fans of "Sex and the City" know her as Carrie. Fans of fashion know her as Sarah Jessica Parker, red carpet royalty. In Israel, ultra orthodox Jews don't care who she is. She was showing too much skin in billboards for Lux soap. So you can see the before and after here. The top is the before, and after you can see the workers gave her sleeves and a longer skirt.

Some people are calling it "queer eye for the Macedonian guy." We'll see if "Alexander" is really all that great.

You are watching DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: After stuffing ourselves with Thanksgiving dinner, what better than to head to the nearest box office for the newest holiday blockbusters like this, "Alexander?"

Tom O'Neil with "In-Touch Weekly" is here to talk about two of the new ones at the movies.

Let's talk about "Alexander" first.

TOM O'NEIL, EDITOR, "IN-TOUCH WEEKLY": Speaking of turkey.

COSTELLO: I'm telling you, we saw this thing with Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie.

O'NEIL: Right.

COSTELLO: I thought they were lovers, but it's mother and son. Oh, come on!

O'NEIL: That is amazing. That's how poorly conceived this movie is. That's his mother.

COSTELLO: She's five years older than he is.

O'NEIL: I know, in real life. But this movie is so preposterous. Did you also hear Colin's Irish accent in this movie? Who knew Alexander was from County Kilkett (ph)?

COSTELLO: You know, I interviewed Oliver Stone a couple of days ago, and he's very passionate about this movie. And he even hired a historian to help him with the factual stuff in the movie. But you saw it. What did you think?

O'NEIL: Well, this "Alexander" is not so great, unfortunately. The question is: How will it do at the box office over the next few days?

Blame "Gladiator." Ever since that swept the box office and the Oscars, they're trying to bring back these ancient world epics. You were saying at the break you saw "Troy" this summer. This looks a lot like that with Brad Pitt, except Colin Farrell. That's exactly what this is.

The problem is "Troy" actually made 130 million. This cost 150 to make. They're only going to make 80 back even if it squeaks through. The critics are crucifying this.

COSTELLO: Yes, the controversy about this movie is the alleged gay theme. In fact, some are calling it "queer eye for the Macedonian guy," because Colin Farrell just looks so pretty. And there is his best buddy in the movie is Jared...

O'NEIL: Leto, right.

COSTELLO: Jared Leto. He also looks quite pretty. And some people are concerned about that.

O'NEIL: Well, in real life, Alexander loved Hephaestion so much he built cities to him and made his armies worship him as a god. They toned that down actually in this movie. You would expect more. In this film, all we do is see him profess his love for Hephaestion. And in separate scene he kisses a Uniq (ph) boy, who becomes another lover.

The big sex in this movie is with Rosario Dawson, who plays his wife. Wow, wow, wow! What a steamy scene that is.

COSTELLO: And she's actually younger than him. O'NEIL: Yes.

COSTELLO: That's crazy. OK, let's talk about "Christmas with the Kranks." Before we do, let's show you a clip.

O'NEIL: OK.

COSTELLO: Oh, that's typical Tim Allen fair.

O'NEIL: Unfortunately without the laughs. That's the problem.

COSTELLO: Oh.

O'NEIL: The last time we saw Tim Allen in a Christmas movie it was the "Santa Clause."

COSTELLO: It was funny.

O'NEIL: It was funny. And at Thanksgiving we expect the big holiday movie, which usually does well, but this is Christmas without joy. There are no laughs here, Carol. It's unbelievable.

This movie initially was called "Skipping Christmas," and they changed the title because they didn't want it to sound like "Surviving Christmas" that Ben Affleck did. This is worse than Ben Affleck's movie!

It's based on John Grisham's novel, who is, of course, famous for the courtroom thrillers. And it was quite a successful novel, but unfortunately bah humbug.

COSTELLO: Not a successful movie. All right, so we'll get some DVDs and watch "Santa Clause" at home.

O'NEIL: OK. "Finding Neverland" is opening a little bit in 500 theaters this weekend. I'd say go see that instead.

COSTELLO: OK. Thanks for the advice. Tom O'Neil from "In-Touch Weekly."

DAYBREAK will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: I know many of you are in the airport right now. So, here's an optimistic thought about the holiday travel season, not the security lines, but this: One out of four Americans get on a plane this time of year, hoping the passenger seated next to them may be a future date or spouse. Fourteen percent just hope to make a new business contact in flight. This is according to polling done by Chase United Mileage Plus Visa Card.

Don't know how many are successful in finding those things, but just thought you'd like to know while you're stuck in the airport, because we're going to have to talk about your holiday travel plans right now with Chad. And it's nasty.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're going to have a lot of time to meet somebody there in the airport gates today as you're waiting for your plane.

It is nasty, Carol. There is a huge area of rain, of snow, of stormy weather. We have 10 counties right now across parts of the South that have tornado warnings all the way from the eastern parishes of Louisiana right on back even into Alabama.

Here's what it looks like now for your travel cast. Florida, you're great. I-75 is in really good shape, all the way up to almost Atlanta. If you get farther up to the north, the rain is not into the I-95 yet, but it will be by about 2:00. Then you get farther west than that and obviously the rain and the snow and all of that ugly stuff, I-80, I-70 are really going to be tough today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Chad. I know you have a busy morning ahead. So happy Thanksgiving in advance.

MYERS: You too.

COSTELLO: Before we toss it over to "AMERICAN MORNING," a DAYBREAK programming note. We will not be on the air tomorrow for Thanksgiving, because we figure you probably will be cooking your Thanksgiving Day turkey. But DAYBREAK does return on Friday at the usual time, 5:00 a.m. Eastern.

So, from the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers. We leave you with a sneak peek of the creations in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

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 November 24, 2004 - 06:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers. Let's get right to the headlines now.
A new offensive in Iraq's battled province south of Baghdad this morning. U.S., British and Iraqi troops have launched an operation. It's called Plymouth Rock, and it's aimed at rooting out insurgents.

In Florida, a judge upholds the living will of a man who is on life support over the pleas of his wife. The man said in the will he would prefer to die if he were terminally ill or incapacitated. The ruling trumps his wife's power of attorney.

In Washington State, a race that never ends. We could learn today just who has won the recount for governor. So far, the Republican has a 316-vote lead over the Democrat.

People in Texas may be seeing something this morning they haven't seen in four days, and that would be sunny skies. A wave of thunderstorms has been soaking the state. The storm spawned about a dozen tornadoes. The twisters killed a woman and destroyed homes in East Texas, but there is nasty weather over the rest of the country.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: You've probably heard by now Dan Rather is leaving as anchor for the "CBS Evening News."

Here's what he said in announcing that decision, and I quote: "I have been lucky and blessed over these years to have what is to me the best job in the world and to have it at CBS News. Along the way I've had the honor of working with some of the most talented, dedicated professionals in the world. And I'm appreciative of the opportunity to continue doing so in the years ahead."

Love him or hate him, Dan Rather has been in the business for a very long time. Has leaving the anchor desk -- his leaving the anchor desk, rather, is about to have some sort of impact. But what?

For the answer, we go to Al Tomkins with the Poynter Institute.

Good morning.

AL TOMKINS, POYNTER INSTITUTE: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hello. It wasn't long ago Rather apologized for a report in which he questioned President Bush's National Guard service. I mean, is this really the reason he stepped down?

TOMKINS: Well, I think there are a lot of things that sort of fit into the puzzle. One of them is that here he is, 73 years old, and this is a huge job, as you well know, a 73-year-old guy who has been at CBS for 43 years.

I was just thinking about that. You know, if somebody started anchoring at CNN right now or if somebody started at the network right now, as Rather did 43 years ago, they would retire from the anchor chair at 2047. I can't imagine anyone in today's television environment, Carol, actually running 43 years as he did.

And the thing that I guess I'm saddest about is that so much of the reporting in the last 24 hours has been about this National Guard scandal, and it is. Look, I know that CBS is going to continue the investigation. It will report the investigation results theoretically in a month or so. But so many people have forgotten a lot of the big work that Dan Rather did.

In '75, two months after he joined "60 Minutes" after finishing almost 10 years as a White House correspondent, he did a piece for "60 Minutes" on a company called Allied Chemical. That piece revealed that the company was dumping insecticides, resulted in 153 indictments, $14 million in fines.

COSTELLO: Oh, it is...

TOMKINS: Can you imagine -- I mean, most journalists would look back at that one story and see it as the capstone to a career. That's not even a footnote in his career.

COSTELLO: You know, he did do many great things through his career. And some in the broadcast industry might call him, you know, a thing of the past; that journalists like him aren't appreciated so much anymore.

TOMKINS: Well, I'm worried about that. As we look now across the landscape, particularly in the 24-hour cable environment, we don't see people with the kind of pedigrees as reporters that we see in Brokaw, who is retiring a week from today, in people like Rather, who has 43 years at the network. And CNN (sic) has lost a number of senior correspondents just in the last two or three weeks. Fred Frances and Bob Hager, very senior correspondents at NBC, took retirement.

I mean, I'm really worried about who will be covering the news in the future, and whether they actually have the experience in covering the kinds of things that the anchors of today have covered. Peter Jennings has vast experience covering the Middle East and Europe. He's covered a lot. Look across the landscape. We do have people like Judy Woodruff and Wolf Blitzer and Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer, who have been around for a long time. But...

COSTELLO: And we'll be here for many years to come.

TOMKINS: Yes. COSTELLO: There's a lot of...

TOMKINS: And my worry is that in today's television environment whether we're going to have people with 20 and 30 and 40 years of experience who are working the anchor desks. And I think that's...

COSTELLO: Well...

TOMKINS: I think that's a serious concern.

COSTELLO: Well, I think we're making a turn back to the way it was where we value hard-core journalism. Al Tomkins from the Poynter Institute joining DAYBREAK this morning.

Thinking about giving someone a gift card this holiday season? There are some pitfalls you might not be aware of. We'll tell you what they are at 42 minutes past.

And then Sarah Jessica Parker gets a bit of a makeover in Israel. At 47 minutes past, we'll tell you why the "Sex and the City" star rubbed some people the wrong way.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Let's head down the street to the "AMERICAN MORNING" studios and check in with Bill and Soledad for a look at what's coming up.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Carol, good morning to you.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: You don't have to fly to get to this studio, by the way, Carol. Because that's...

COSTELLO: I usually jog.

HEMMER: That would be a sight. We're going to talk about holiday travel, Carol, and everyone is taking to the air today and the roads as well. The transportation security chief about what to expect today at checkpoints across the country; also this story out there, too, Soledad, about some women believing that the pat-down process at the airports is...

O'BRIEN: Overenthusiastic?

HEMMER: Overly enthusiastic is the phrase we will go with for now.

O'BRIEN: That's a good phrase.

HEMMER: So we'll talk about that and what the policy is. O'BRIEN: Also this morning, we're looking at the Pentagon and that flailing intelligence bill. Donald Rumsfeld says, no, no, no, he's not the one standing in the way of it. But is the Pentagon holding up intelligence reform? We'll take a look at that. We're going to hear from former 9/11 commissioner Bob Kerrey this morning.

HEMMER: Also, a victim fights back in a big way, too. Muggers rob a man, threaten his daughters. The man hops in his car, chases them down on the road, in the end shots are fired. He runs over one of the muggers and kills him. He'll be here today to talk about that. He's bringing his two daughters as well.

O'BRIEN: That's an unbelievable story.

HEMMER: Oh, yes, it is, too. And he has not been charged. There is some concern from the man that he may be. But he'll tell us his story this morning. He says he's very concerned about Americans not fighting back when it comes to crime. He did.

O'BRIEN: Yes, in a big way...

HEMMER: So we'll hear his story, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: ... I think it's fair to say. All of that and much, much more this morning, Carol. We'll see you in just a few minutes.

COSTELLO: Fascinating stuff. Thanks, Bill and Soledad.

There's only one sure way to work off those Thanksgiving calories. Start your holiday shopping.

Ali Velshi tells us what we need to know before we buy one very popular present.

This is sort of the easy way out for me, but I can't do it anymore.

ALI VELSHI, CNN DAYBREAK CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. You know, it's fascinating, because I have -- nobody can buy me anything. I'm very particular about my shirts and the vests and the ties and all of those kinds of things. And my arms are remarkably out of proportion to my torso, strangely. I have longer arms, an earlier stage in evolution. Some people just stopped giving me gifts. Well, now you can come back giving me gifts, because gift cards are huge; $45 billion or something last year.

And it's sort of -- gift cards have taken the I'm-not-very- creative thing out of giving people gift certificates or cash. They're now kind of nifty.

I remember last Christmas, last Christmas Eve, I volunteered to work, because I was at the King of Prussia Mall outside of Philadelphia, just so I could do some shopping. And now when you buy a gift card like at Coach or at the Cheesecake Factory, it comes in sort of a presentation. So, you're giving somebody something. You've giving them what appears to be a gift. And in the end, it's just a card that has some money on it.

Now, they're good for retailers, because you don't have to sell everything in the Christmas season and then worry about all of the returns in January, because most people, 90 percent of people use their gift cards within 30 days, which is what you should do, yes. You go -- just take it, because it's like cash.

Now, 90 percent of them use it within a month. Gift cards this year for the 2004 holiday season will be the No. 1 single biggest thing given. It's actually outranking apparel. And it's taking sales away from CDs, from DVDs, from books and things like that, typical last-minute shopping.

COSTELLO: But all of this sounds good. What are the drawbacks?

VELSHI: The drawbacks are that there are some companies and malls -- you can also buy mall gift cards -- which have time limits on using the card. So, if you don't use it within a year or maybe two years, they'll go away.

There is also -- and these are some of the companies on the screen -- that charge you dormancy fees. If you don't use it in a year, they start charging you a percentage of an amount. Giant Foods will charge you $2 every month after 18 months of not using it. KB toys, $1.50 a month after two years. Kmart charges $2.10 a month after two years.

COSTELLO: Oh, that's just greedy. That's greedy.

VELSHI: Yes. But what are you doing for two years? I'm not -- it's like cash.

COSTELLO: Yes. But still...

VELSHI: Carol, if someone gives you 100 bucks, are you going to keep it in a drawer? Because you're going to lose money on that anyway.

COSTELLO: Yes, but I paid $100. For me as the gift-giver...

VELSHI: You're right. It's not...

COSTELLO: ... that makes me mad.

VELSHI: You're absolutely right. If you choose not to put your money in the bank, that's your own bad judgment. But sure, somebody pays for a gift and gives it to you, or you pay for it and give it to someone, it shouldn't be theirs to take it away from you. And that's what's happening.

It's not entirely clear when you buy a gift card what the rules are. Ask. Check the Web site. They sometimes come in a little sleeve. Check the sleeve and find out whether there are rules on it. If the rules seem too restrictive, don't buy it. Go somewhere else. There are lots of them available.

COSTELLO: All right. Ali Velshi...

VELSHI: And it works for me because of the arms thing, too long.

COSTELLO: All right, I'll get you a gift card.

VELSHI: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 6:45 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Freezing weather isn't keeping thousands of Ukrainians from protesting their presidential election. Authorities plan to release the final results in a few hours amidst allegations of fraud.

In money news, Nasdaq gets Sirius. Sirius Satellite Radio stock was the hottest thing going on Nasdaq yesterday. Shares rose 74 cents after the company announced it now has more than 800,000 subscribers.

In culture, a copy of Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai" is costing one man $300,000. A former member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences was fined that much for leaking screener copies of "Samurai" and the movie "Mystic River."

In sports, Steve Spurrier is the new head football coach at the University of South Carolina. He signed a seven-year deal worth more than a million each year. Spurrier replaces the retiring Lou Holtz.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you this morning.

Fans of "Sex and the City" know her as Carrie. Fans of fashion know her as Sarah Jessica Parker, red carpet royalty. In Israel, ultra orthodox Jews don't care who she is. She was showing too much skin in billboards for Lux soap. So you can see the before and after here. The top is the before, and after you can see the workers gave her sleeves and a longer skirt.

Some people are calling it "queer eye for the Macedonian guy." We'll see if "Alexander" is really all that great.

You are watching DAYBREAK.

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COSTELLO: After stuffing ourselves with Thanksgiving dinner, what better than to head to the nearest box office for the newest holiday blockbusters like this, "Alexander?"

Tom O'Neil with "In-Touch Weekly" is here to talk about two of the new ones at the movies.

Let's talk about "Alexander" first.

TOM O'NEIL, EDITOR, "IN-TOUCH WEEKLY": Speaking of turkey.

COSTELLO: I'm telling you, we saw this thing with Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie.

O'NEIL: Right.

COSTELLO: I thought they were lovers, but it's mother and son. Oh, come on!

O'NEIL: That is amazing. That's how poorly conceived this movie is. That's his mother.

COSTELLO: She's five years older than he is.

O'NEIL: I know, in real life. But this movie is so preposterous. Did you also hear Colin's Irish accent in this movie? Who knew Alexander was from County Kilkett (ph)?

COSTELLO: You know, I interviewed Oliver Stone a couple of days ago, and he's very passionate about this movie. And he even hired a historian to help him with the factual stuff in the movie. But you saw it. What did you think?

O'NEIL: Well, this "Alexander" is not so great, unfortunately. The question is: How will it do at the box office over the next few days?

Blame "Gladiator." Ever since that swept the box office and the Oscars, they're trying to bring back these ancient world epics. You were saying at the break you saw "Troy" this summer. This looks a lot like that with Brad Pitt, except Colin Farrell. That's exactly what this is.

The problem is "Troy" actually made 130 million. This cost 150 to make. They're only going to make 80 back even if it squeaks through. The critics are crucifying this.

COSTELLO: Yes, the controversy about this movie is the alleged gay theme. In fact, some are calling it "queer eye for the Macedonian guy," because Colin Farrell just looks so pretty. And there is his best buddy in the movie is Jared...

O'NEIL: Leto, right.

COSTELLO: Jared Leto. He also looks quite pretty. And some people are concerned about that.

O'NEIL: Well, in real life, Alexander loved Hephaestion so much he built cities to him and made his armies worship him as a god. They toned that down actually in this movie. You would expect more. In this film, all we do is see him profess his love for Hephaestion. And in separate scene he kisses a Uniq (ph) boy, who becomes another lover.

The big sex in this movie is with Rosario Dawson, who plays his wife. Wow, wow, wow! What a steamy scene that is.

COSTELLO: And she's actually younger than him. O'NEIL: Yes.

COSTELLO: That's crazy. OK, let's talk about "Christmas with the Kranks." Before we do, let's show you a clip.

O'NEIL: OK.

COSTELLO: Oh, that's typical Tim Allen fair.

O'NEIL: Unfortunately without the laughs. That's the problem.

COSTELLO: Oh.

O'NEIL: The last time we saw Tim Allen in a Christmas movie it was the "Santa Clause."

COSTELLO: It was funny.

O'NEIL: It was funny. And at Thanksgiving we expect the big holiday movie, which usually does well, but this is Christmas without joy. There are no laughs here, Carol. It's unbelievable.

This movie initially was called "Skipping Christmas," and they changed the title because they didn't want it to sound like "Surviving Christmas" that Ben Affleck did. This is worse than Ben Affleck's movie!

It's based on John Grisham's novel, who is, of course, famous for the courtroom thrillers. And it was quite a successful novel, but unfortunately bah humbug.

COSTELLO: Not a successful movie. All right, so we'll get some DVDs and watch "Santa Clause" at home.

O'NEIL: OK. "Finding Neverland" is opening a little bit in 500 theaters this weekend. I'd say go see that instead.

COSTELLO: OK. Thanks for the advice. Tom O'Neil from "In-Touch Weekly."

DAYBREAK will be right back.

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COSTELLO: I know many of you are in the airport right now. So, here's an optimistic thought about the holiday travel season, not the security lines, but this: One out of four Americans get on a plane this time of year, hoping the passenger seated next to them may be a future date or spouse. Fourteen percent just hope to make a new business contact in flight. This is according to polling done by Chase United Mileage Plus Visa Card.

Don't know how many are successful in finding those things, but just thought you'd like to know while you're stuck in the airport, because we're going to have to talk about your holiday travel plans right now with Chad. And it's nasty.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're going to have a lot of time to meet somebody there in the airport gates today as you're waiting for your plane.

It is nasty, Carol. There is a huge area of rain, of snow, of stormy weather. We have 10 counties right now across parts of the South that have tornado warnings all the way from the eastern parishes of Louisiana right on back even into Alabama.

Here's what it looks like now for your travel cast. Florida, you're great. I-75 is in really good shape, all the way up to almost Atlanta. If you get farther up to the north, the rain is not into the I-95 yet, but it will be by about 2:00. Then you get farther west than that and obviously the rain and the snow and all of that ugly stuff, I-80, I-70 are really going to be tough today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Chad. I know you have a busy morning ahead. So happy Thanksgiving in advance.

MYERS: You too.

COSTELLO: Before we toss it over to "AMERICAN MORNING," a DAYBREAK programming note. We will not be on the air tomorrow for Thanksgiving, because we figure you probably will be cooking your Thanksgiving Day turkey. But DAYBREAK does return on Friday at the usual time, 5:00 a.m. Eastern.

So, from the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers. We leave you with a sneak peek of the creations in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

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