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CNN Live Today

The American Sacrifice; Interview with Debra Messing

Aired February 03, 2005 - 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: Newly sworn in as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice is embarking on her first diplomatic mission abroad. The week-long journey will take her to Europe and the Middle East. Rice's first stops will be in Great Britain, Italy and Poland, countries that have supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq. She'll then deliver her first major speech in France, which bitterly opposed the military action.
And will Texas vote kinky? A couple hours ago a musician-turned- mystery-writer Kinky Friedman through his cowboy hat into the ring for governor of the Lone Star State. He's going to run, not surprisingly, as an independent, and he dismissed the Republican and Democratic parties as, quote, "paper or plastic."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By the year 2042, the entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt. If steps are not taken to avert that outcome, the only solutions would be dramatically higher taxes, massive new borrowing or sudden and severe cuts in Social Security benefits or other government programs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: You may have heard that yourself if you were watching last night. Certainly a vocal response at the State of the Union Address. It was the sound of discord. Some Democrats saying that's not true. Democrats say they do disagree with the president's assessment that Social Security will go bankrupt in 37 years.

Our snap poll found that three of four speech watchers, though, felt that Mr. Bush made a convincing case on Social Security. For the record, the audience there was mostly Republican.

CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider is joining us now from Washington with his take on the speech and the reaction that it's been garnering thus far around the country.

It seems, Mr. Schneider, that most Americans like what they heard last night, does it not?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: Most Americans who watched it, but as you indicated, those who watched it were mostly Republicans. It was an audience that was about 2-1 Republican. A lot of Democrats said we really don't want to see this guy. There's still a lot of bitter partisanship in the electorate all the way since last November.

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about the specifics from last night, in fact, delve into some of the areas possibly, Bill, that the president did not engage in in his first four years. For example, the Middle East. He announced last night that he's going to be sending Condoleezza Rice to meet with Mahmoud Abbas and Ariel Sharon. How does that play in America?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think anything that looks like an opening for peace in the Middle East would be certainly welcome. I mean, obviously, something has changed. The thing is that Yasser Arafat is not alive anymore, and he was always seen by this administration as an obstacle to peace. There's a new president of the Palestinian electorate, the Palestinian community. He is ready to deal with Sharon. Sharon is going to meet with him. There is an opening here. So Condi Rice, like many secretary of state before her, going back to Henry Kissinger, is going to engage in a little shuttle diplomacy and try to see if she can exploit that opening to get some progress.

SANCHEZ: Also in the area of foreign policy, he did an interesting thing. He all but threatened Iran, as well as Syria, when it comes to support for terrorism, and in Iran's case with nukes. And then he almost castigated Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well, urging them to democratize -- Bill.

SCHNEIDER: That was really a surprise. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are allies of the United States. They've been supportive of American policy, particularly in the war on terror, and he went out of his way to say democracy is on the march throughout the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Egypt would be well advised to get with the program, because these are not countries that could be described as functioning democracies.

He also had strong warnings for Syria, which he said harbors terrorists. It almost sounded as if he was adding Syria to the "axis of evil."

And in the case of Iran, he clearly said the United States supports those Iranians who are trying to pressure for democracy, and it sounded like the United States really wants regime change in Iran, not just an end to their nuclear program, but beyond that, political reform.

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about this point as well, Bill, and this is one that hearkens us all back to the election, and it's the president coming out last night and saying to all who were listening, I support a constitutional amendment to insure a marriage between a man and a woman. What was the president doing? Did it have political overtones? And how will it affect Americans?

SCHNEIDER: Well, he has a staunch conservative base that delivered for him in the last election, and he needed to send them a signal, I'm with you. This is one of the most important issues to religious conservatives, that he's with them on the issue of same-sex marriage. He supports a constitutional amendment, which was brought up in Congress last year and did not pass the Senate, didn't get enough votes to pass the Senate.

He has indicated in the past, in an interview, that he thought it was a lost cause in the Senate. He wasn't going to spend a lot of his political capital on it. Religious conservatives got very upset. They said, wait a minute, we delivered for you, aren't you going to fight for this? So there was a signal last night, yes, he stands by his earlier commitment to support that amendment. But you know what, the president of the United States really plays no role at all in passing a constitutional amendment. He doesn't sign anything. His role is simply to promote it, to agitate for it, and to indicate that he supports, which is exactly what he did.

SANCHEZ: And that seems to be enough then for those people that are asking him to do just that?

SCHNEIDER: Well, we'll see if it's enough because they're still frustrated that in a Republican Congress, there's still not enough Republicans to pass a constitutional amendment that requires a supermajority to pass.

SANCHEZ: Interesting political question.

Bill Schneider, as usual, always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Want to show you a moment that took place just as Bill and Rick were talking, taking place. There is Condoleezza Rice. She is leaving on her first major trip as secretary of state. Her first stop is going to be Britain. That of course is the staunchest ally to the United States during the war in Iraq. She also is going to offer an olive branch to France, choosing Paris as the site of her first major speech, on U.S. goals in Europe and beyond. She'll also visit Jerusalem and the West Bank between stops at eight European capitals and the Vatican as well.

Let's get back to the State of the Union Address. Last night's most emotional moment didn't even come from the president's speech, but it did symbolize Mr. Bush's Iraqi policy. The president was speaking about the sacrifices of U.S. forces and their families. He introduced the parents of Marine Corps Sergeant Byron Norwood, who was killed in action in Falluja last November. Let's listen and watch.

Now, the reason everyone is getting so choked up. Janet Norwood, that is her leaning over to embrace the Iraqi woman who's father was assassinated during Saddam Hussein's regime. Norwood wears her son's dog tags. They became briefly entangled in the Iraqi woman's suit, an inadvertent sign of the bond between the two women and the two nations.

Like Janet Norwood, Sue Niederer lost a son in Iraq. Norwood got Bush's attention with a letter. Niederer also has a message for the administration.

But as CNN's Maria Hinojosa reports, she is having a tough time delivering it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a frigid, blustery morning the day Sue Niederer marched on the Pentagon with a group of parents. Their children died fighting the Iraq war. But even the worst winter storm can't cool their emotions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop right here. Stop right here.

HINOJOSA: Sue Niederer wants to pass pictures of the children they lost to secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld.

SUE NIEDERER, SON KILLED: This is my son. I'd like to show him what he has done and what I have lost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And here is my son also.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my brother.

HINOJOSA: Sue's Niederer's son, Lieutenant Seth Dvorkin, with a boyish smile and his mother's eyes, was killed almost one year ago. In New Jersey, his relatives dedicated a bench to him, a place for his mother to seek solitude and meditate on her loss.

NIEDERER: I said, don't be a hero, don't be a hero, son. And he promised me he wouldn't be a hero. But I knew in my heart that if something happened to him, it was because he saved others. And he did. He did. What do you say to a kid like that?

HINOJOSA: Just days before he died the boy she calls a brave soldier, had doubts about the war he was fighting.

NIEDERER: He says, mom, you know, I don't want to go to Iraq, it's a worthless, senseless war, we don't even know who the enemy is over there, but I'm a commander, I'm a lieutenant, I have 18 men that I'm in charge of; I've got to bring these men home safely.

HINOJOSA: Seth's mission, to bring his troops home, has now become his mother's. So the days of being a subdued suburban real estate agent are gone.

NIEDERER: I have to speak out. I can't allow this government to continue to do what they want to do and not care and not even face us. They refuse to even see or acknowledge us. I have to speak. I have to be in their faces.

HINOJOSA: When Laura Bush came to New York, Sue Niederer was there, and to ask pointed questions.

NIEDERER: Why aren't the senators, the legislators, the Congressmen, her children serving in this war? If this is a war that they agree with, there are only three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, you need to come with us, ma'am.

NIEDERER: You want to arrest me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I really don't want to arrest you, ma'am.

HINOJOSA: Don't take my arm!

Go ahead, come on. Arrest me, right here in front of everybody. Go ahead!

HINOJOSA: Her activism now is with potential recruits for the U.S. military -- teenagers.

NIEDERER: Pull over, sit down.

HINOJOSA: She calls herself a "counter-recruiter."

NIEDERER: If the war allowed for counter-recruiters to come in, would you feel differently?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the allowed counter-recruiters to come in?

NIEDERER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would feel better about it because it's equal access.

NIEDERER: Exactly. Exactly. That's what we're fighting for.

HINOJOSA: At home, she is left only with reminders of her boy.

NIEDERER: This is his name and also in, I guess it's Arabic.

HINOJOSA: On her son's unused bed the confrontational T-shirt she wears.

NIEDERER: I just want him to see what he's done and face the people behind the shirts and behind the grief, not just the ones who agree with him at all times.

HINOJOSA: When Seth was alive she baked cookies for the troops and sent them an American signed by school kids to let them know people cared.

NIEDERER: Just seeing these boots and knowing my son's feet were in them, these may have been the boots that he died in, I don't even know.

HINOJOSA: The day President Bush was inaugurated, Sue Niederer placed her son's boots on the steps of a Washington church, her sadness laced with anger.

NIEDERER: Forty-million dollars spent on today's inauguration, because he had to have a big party.

HINOJOSA (on camera): What does sacrifice mean to you now?

NIEDERER: I don't have an answer. To me, sacrifice was my son died for nothing. My son died in vain. Prove to me he didn't. This is the ultimate sacrifice -- his life. HINOJOSA (voice-over): Maria Hinojosa, CNN, Pennington, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Talking about a movie coming up, a lot of singles girls relate to this. She only wanted to date. Is that too much to ask for? Just a date, but she got a little bit more than she bargained for.

SANCHEZ: What is it? The story of a date, with what?

KAGAN: With a professional male escort. Headed to the box office next weekend. Coming up, Debra Messing of "Will & Grace" joining us to talk about her latest project.

SANCHEZ: Professional male escort?

KAGAN: Yes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBRA MESSING, ACTRESS: I fly all the time. The reason I can't feel my legs is that any second my date is going to sit down in 3-B, and I need him to look really, really, really, really good today.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Hello 3-B.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Kat Ellis (ph) has just met her hired man, a professional escort, a played by Dermot Mulroney. His job is to be a perfect wedding date, and that is where the fun begins.

Our fun begins this morning live from Los Angeles, the award winning star of "The Wedding Date," Debra Messing, of course. She'll be recognized as "Kat," but also known to millions of television fans as Grace Adler from "Will & Grace."

Good morning.

MESSING: Good morning.

KAGAN: It's great to have you here with us.

MESSING: Well, thank you for having me.

KAGAN: The premise of this movie is something that every single girl can relate to. The invitation comes for the wedding and it says "and guest." And you panic because there is no "and guest."

MESSING: That's right. And the thing that makes this even worse is that the love of my life, who called off our wedding two years earlier, is the best man at this wedding and I'm the maid of honor.

KAGAN: Perfect.

MESSING: So all of us can relate to the fear of seeing someone who has broken your heart and wanting to let them know that you're OK and you've moved on. And when you're a single girl at a wedding, people can pity you pretty quickly, unfortunately.

KAGAN: That can happen.

MESSING: So Kat (ph), my character, hires a professional male escort to pretend to be her boyfriend. And then, of course, comedy ensues and love ensues. So...

KAGAN: Now you hire only one of the cutest actors in Hollywood, Dermot Mulroney, who people...

MESSING: I'm no dummy. I'm no dummy.

KAGAN: When people aren't as familiar with him, all you have to say is my "Best Friend's Wedding," this is the guy that Julia Roberts was in love with.

MESSING: That's right.

KAGAN: With good reason.

MESSING: Yes, indeed. He's very dreamy. He's a fantastic actor. A fantastic person. Very dreamy. You get to see his bare behind in this film.

KAGAN: OK. Worth the ten bucks right there.

MESSING: It is worth the price of admission.

KAGAN: Sign me up.

MESSING: And I think that, you know, this is a fun romantic comedy. And it's fun also because it's a twist on a familiar theme. Some people have sort of said it's a reverse "Pretty Woman." We see often a woman being objectified and this time we get to see the man objectified. And it was quite fun doing it.

KAGAN: If someone's got to do it, it might as well be you, right?

MESSING: That's right.

KAGAN: Now he -- the story line is dreamy, but as I understand it, making this movie was a little bit of a nightmare. Give us a behind-the-scenes kind of, it's not always so glamorous to make movies for Hollywood story. MESSING: That's right. It was very challenging. This was a tiny little independent film that was thrown together very quickly. We shot it in London and the English countryside in, I think, 31 days. So we had to contend with rain in the middle of shooting every day. We had a drunk woman sitting on the street cat-calling during a romantic interlude outside. And she would be like, yes, woo, I like it, and ruin the take. Take after take after take.

I mean, every day something happened where we thought, OK, we're not going to get this scene done, we're not going to finish this movie. It's impossible. So we're very grateful that we did and Universal liked it so much that they picked it up to distribute it. And here we are. It opens tomorrow.

KAGAN: Perfect. Just in time for Valentine's Day.

MESSING: That's right.

KAGAN: Perfect. And "Will and Grace," give us an update on what we can expect on one of the hottest series on television.

MESSING: Oh, well, now, because it's, again, Valentine's Day, Grace has a new potential love interest played by the actor Ed Burns.

KAGAN: Another hottie.

MESSING: I know. It's such a hard job these days. I'm having a tough time.

KAGAN: I'd love to hear how you explain to your husband, OK, today I'm going to go to work with Dermot, and then it's Ed.

MESSING: Well, you know, I've been with my husband -- we've been together 14 years, married 4. And he has nothing to worry about.

KAGAN: Very good.

MESSING: So it's fun. And "Will and Grace," we're still having a blast.

KAGAN: Well, you continue. Good luck with that and good luck with the movie.

MESSING: Thank you.

KAGAN: Debra Messing. We'll look for the movie. "The Wedding Date." You can keep an eye on entertainment 24/7 by pointing your Internet browser to cnn.com/entertainment. Today catch a sneak peek of the Super Bowl ads and find out whether Paula Abdul has been "idol" too long?

SANCHEZ: I can't believe you two. All this girl talk about men's bare behinds. I'm going to get Miles O'Brien. I'm going to sit here and grunt for the next segment.

KAGAN: Just don't show us like we're seeing with Dermot Mulroney and we'll be fine.

SANCHEZ: We're going to call it "Guy Talk." Oh that was good, that was good.

KAGAN: Let's take a look at the time. It's 10:53 on the East Coast. How about that? 7:53 on the West. And 5:54 in Hawaii, where tourists can now take in a fiery show.

SANCHEZ: What a picture. What's new about this red hot flow? And what's next in your sleather? It's coming up?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Want to show you some pictures now. Can you believe this? these are pictures from Hawaii that we're getting in. It's lava from the Kilauea volcano. It's burning two new paths to the ocean. Look at this.

KAGAN: Crowds are hiking long distances to the natural show. Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983. Don't hike too closely, though.

SANCHEZ: Exactly. You know what it does, it literally forms new land. It makes it a bigger island than it already is.

KAGAN: All the more real estate in Hawaii. Good thing.

(WEATHER REPORT)

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Aired February 3, 2005 - 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: Newly sworn in as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice is embarking on her first diplomatic mission abroad. The week-long journey will take her to Europe and the Middle East. Rice's first stops will be in Great Britain, Italy and Poland, countries that have supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq. She'll then deliver her first major speech in France, which bitterly opposed the military action.
And will Texas vote kinky? A couple hours ago a musician-turned- mystery-writer Kinky Friedman through his cowboy hat into the ring for governor of the Lone Star State. He's going to run, not surprisingly, as an independent, and he dismissed the Republican and Democratic parties as, quote, "paper or plastic."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By the year 2042, the entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt. If steps are not taken to avert that outcome, the only solutions would be dramatically higher taxes, massive new borrowing or sudden and severe cuts in Social Security benefits or other government programs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: You may have heard that yourself if you were watching last night. Certainly a vocal response at the State of the Union Address. It was the sound of discord. Some Democrats saying that's not true. Democrats say they do disagree with the president's assessment that Social Security will go bankrupt in 37 years.

Our snap poll found that three of four speech watchers, though, felt that Mr. Bush made a convincing case on Social Security. For the record, the audience there was mostly Republican.

CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider is joining us now from Washington with his take on the speech and the reaction that it's been garnering thus far around the country.

It seems, Mr. Schneider, that most Americans like what they heard last night, does it not?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: Most Americans who watched it, but as you indicated, those who watched it were mostly Republicans. It was an audience that was about 2-1 Republican. A lot of Democrats said we really don't want to see this guy. There's still a lot of bitter partisanship in the electorate all the way since last November.

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about the specifics from last night, in fact, delve into some of the areas possibly, Bill, that the president did not engage in in his first four years. For example, the Middle East. He announced last night that he's going to be sending Condoleezza Rice to meet with Mahmoud Abbas and Ariel Sharon. How does that play in America?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think anything that looks like an opening for peace in the Middle East would be certainly welcome. I mean, obviously, something has changed. The thing is that Yasser Arafat is not alive anymore, and he was always seen by this administration as an obstacle to peace. There's a new president of the Palestinian electorate, the Palestinian community. He is ready to deal with Sharon. Sharon is going to meet with him. There is an opening here. So Condi Rice, like many secretary of state before her, going back to Henry Kissinger, is going to engage in a little shuttle diplomacy and try to see if she can exploit that opening to get some progress.

SANCHEZ: Also in the area of foreign policy, he did an interesting thing. He all but threatened Iran, as well as Syria, when it comes to support for terrorism, and in Iran's case with nukes. And then he almost castigated Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well, urging them to democratize -- Bill.

SCHNEIDER: That was really a surprise. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are allies of the United States. They've been supportive of American policy, particularly in the war on terror, and he went out of his way to say democracy is on the march throughout the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Egypt would be well advised to get with the program, because these are not countries that could be described as functioning democracies.

He also had strong warnings for Syria, which he said harbors terrorists. It almost sounded as if he was adding Syria to the "axis of evil."

And in the case of Iran, he clearly said the United States supports those Iranians who are trying to pressure for democracy, and it sounded like the United States really wants regime change in Iran, not just an end to their nuclear program, but beyond that, political reform.

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about this point as well, Bill, and this is one that hearkens us all back to the election, and it's the president coming out last night and saying to all who were listening, I support a constitutional amendment to insure a marriage between a man and a woman. What was the president doing? Did it have political overtones? And how will it affect Americans?

SCHNEIDER: Well, he has a staunch conservative base that delivered for him in the last election, and he needed to send them a signal, I'm with you. This is one of the most important issues to religious conservatives, that he's with them on the issue of same-sex marriage. He supports a constitutional amendment, which was brought up in Congress last year and did not pass the Senate, didn't get enough votes to pass the Senate.

He has indicated in the past, in an interview, that he thought it was a lost cause in the Senate. He wasn't going to spend a lot of his political capital on it. Religious conservatives got very upset. They said, wait a minute, we delivered for you, aren't you going to fight for this? So there was a signal last night, yes, he stands by his earlier commitment to support that amendment. But you know what, the president of the United States really plays no role at all in passing a constitutional amendment. He doesn't sign anything. His role is simply to promote it, to agitate for it, and to indicate that he supports, which is exactly what he did.

SANCHEZ: And that seems to be enough then for those people that are asking him to do just that?

SCHNEIDER: Well, we'll see if it's enough because they're still frustrated that in a Republican Congress, there's still not enough Republicans to pass a constitutional amendment that requires a supermajority to pass.

SANCHEZ: Interesting political question.

Bill Schneider, as usual, always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Want to show you a moment that took place just as Bill and Rick were talking, taking place. There is Condoleezza Rice. She is leaving on her first major trip as secretary of state. Her first stop is going to be Britain. That of course is the staunchest ally to the United States during the war in Iraq. She also is going to offer an olive branch to France, choosing Paris as the site of her first major speech, on U.S. goals in Europe and beyond. She'll also visit Jerusalem and the West Bank between stops at eight European capitals and the Vatican as well.

Let's get back to the State of the Union Address. Last night's most emotional moment didn't even come from the president's speech, but it did symbolize Mr. Bush's Iraqi policy. The president was speaking about the sacrifices of U.S. forces and their families. He introduced the parents of Marine Corps Sergeant Byron Norwood, who was killed in action in Falluja last November. Let's listen and watch.

Now, the reason everyone is getting so choked up. Janet Norwood, that is her leaning over to embrace the Iraqi woman who's father was assassinated during Saddam Hussein's regime. Norwood wears her son's dog tags. They became briefly entangled in the Iraqi woman's suit, an inadvertent sign of the bond between the two women and the two nations.

Like Janet Norwood, Sue Niederer lost a son in Iraq. Norwood got Bush's attention with a letter. Niederer also has a message for the administration.

But as CNN's Maria Hinojosa reports, she is having a tough time delivering it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a frigid, blustery morning the day Sue Niederer marched on the Pentagon with a group of parents. Their children died fighting the Iraq war. But even the worst winter storm can't cool their emotions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop right here. Stop right here.

HINOJOSA: Sue Niederer wants to pass pictures of the children they lost to secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld.

SUE NIEDERER, SON KILLED: This is my son. I'd like to show him what he has done and what I have lost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And here is my son also.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my brother.

HINOJOSA: Sue's Niederer's son, Lieutenant Seth Dvorkin, with a boyish smile and his mother's eyes, was killed almost one year ago. In New Jersey, his relatives dedicated a bench to him, a place for his mother to seek solitude and meditate on her loss.

NIEDERER: I said, don't be a hero, don't be a hero, son. And he promised me he wouldn't be a hero. But I knew in my heart that if something happened to him, it was because he saved others. And he did. He did. What do you say to a kid like that?

HINOJOSA: Just days before he died the boy she calls a brave soldier, had doubts about the war he was fighting.

NIEDERER: He says, mom, you know, I don't want to go to Iraq, it's a worthless, senseless war, we don't even know who the enemy is over there, but I'm a commander, I'm a lieutenant, I have 18 men that I'm in charge of; I've got to bring these men home safely.

HINOJOSA: Seth's mission, to bring his troops home, has now become his mother's. So the days of being a subdued suburban real estate agent are gone.

NIEDERER: I have to speak out. I can't allow this government to continue to do what they want to do and not care and not even face us. They refuse to even see or acknowledge us. I have to speak. I have to be in their faces.

HINOJOSA: When Laura Bush came to New York, Sue Niederer was there, and to ask pointed questions.

NIEDERER: Why aren't the senators, the legislators, the Congressmen, her children serving in this war? If this is a war that they agree with, there are only three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, you need to come with us, ma'am.

NIEDERER: You want to arrest me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I really don't want to arrest you, ma'am.

HINOJOSA: Don't take my arm!

Go ahead, come on. Arrest me, right here in front of everybody. Go ahead!

HINOJOSA: Her activism now is with potential recruits for the U.S. military -- teenagers.

NIEDERER: Pull over, sit down.

HINOJOSA: She calls herself a "counter-recruiter."

NIEDERER: If the war allowed for counter-recruiters to come in, would you feel differently?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the allowed counter-recruiters to come in?

NIEDERER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would feel better about it because it's equal access.

NIEDERER: Exactly. Exactly. That's what we're fighting for.

HINOJOSA: At home, she is left only with reminders of her boy.

NIEDERER: This is his name and also in, I guess it's Arabic.

HINOJOSA: On her son's unused bed the confrontational T-shirt she wears.

NIEDERER: I just want him to see what he's done and face the people behind the shirts and behind the grief, not just the ones who agree with him at all times.

HINOJOSA: When Seth was alive she baked cookies for the troops and sent them an American signed by school kids to let them know people cared.

NIEDERER: Just seeing these boots and knowing my son's feet were in them, these may have been the boots that he died in, I don't even know.

HINOJOSA: The day President Bush was inaugurated, Sue Niederer placed her son's boots on the steps of a Washington church, her sadness laced with anger.

NIEDERER: Forty-million dollars spent on today's inauguration, because he had to have a big party.

HINOJOSA (on camera): What does sacrifice mean to you now?

NIEDERER: I don't have an answer. To me, sacrifice was my son died for nothing. My son died in vain. Prove to me he didn't. This is the ultimate sacrifice -- his life. HINOJOSA (voice-over): Maria Hinojosa, CNN, Pennington, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Talking about a movie coming up, a lot of singles girls relate to this. She only wanted to date. Is that too much to ask for? Just a date, but she got a little bit more than she bargained for.

SANCHEZ: What is it? The story of a date, with what?

KAGAN: With a professional male escort. Headed to the box office next weekend. Coming up, Debra Messing of "Will & Grace" joining us to talk about her latest project.

SANCHEZ: Professional male escort?

KAGAN: Yes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBRA MESSING, ACTRESS: I fly all the time. The reason I can't feel my legs is that any second my date is going to sit down in 3-B, and I need him to look really, really, really, really good today.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Hello 3-B.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Kat Ellis (ph) has just met her hired man, a professional escort, a played by Dermot Mulroney. His job is to be a perfect wedding date, and that is where the fun begins.

Our fun begins this morning live from Los Angeles, the award winning star of "The Wedding Date," Debra Messing, of course. She'll be recognized as "Kat," but also known to millions of television fans as Grace Adler from "Will & Grace."

Good morning.

MESSING: Good morning.

KAGAN: It's great to have you here with us.

MESSING: Well, thank you for having me.

KAGAN: The premise of this movie is something that every single girl can relate to. The invitation comes for the wedding and it says "and guest." And you panic because there is no "and guest."

MESSING: That's right. And the thing that makes this even worse is that the love of my life, who called off our wedding two years earlier, is the best man at this wedding and I'm the maid of honor.

KAGAN: Perfect.

MESSING: So all of us can relate to the fear of seeing someone who has broken your heart and wanting to let them know that you're OK and you've moved on. And when you're a single girl at a wedding, people can pity you pretty quickly, unfortunately.

KAGAN: That can happen.

MESSING: So Kat (ph), my character, hires a professional male escort to pretend to be her boyfriend. And then, of course, comedy ensues and love ensues. So...

KAGAN: Now you hire only one of the cutest actors in Hollywood, Dermot Mulroney, who people...

MESSING: I'm no dummy. I'm no dummy.

KAGAN: When people aren't as familiar with him, all you have to say is my "Best Friend's Wedding," this is the guy that Julia Roberts was in love with.

MESSING: That's right.

KAGAN: With good reason.

MESSING: Yes, indeed. He's very dreamy. He's a fantastic actor. A fantastic person. Very dreamy. You get to see his bare behind in this film.

KAGAN: OK. Worth the ten bucks right there.

MESSING: It is worth the price of admission.

KAGAN: Sign me up.

MESSING: And I think that, you know, this is a fun romantic comedy. And it's fun also because it's a twist on a familiar theme. Some people have sort of said it's a reverse "Pretty Woman." We see often a woman being objectified and this time we get to see the man objectified. And it was quite fun doing it.

KAGAN: If someone's got to do it, it might as well be you, right?

MESSING: That's right.

KAGAN: Now he -- the story line is dreamy, but as I understand it, making this movie was a little bit of a nightmare. Give us a behind-the-scenes kind of, it's not always so glamorous to make movies for Hollywood story. MESSING: That's right. It was very challenging. This was a tiny little independent film that was thrown together very quickly. We shot it in London and the English countryside in, I think, 31 days. So we had to contend with rain in the middle of shooting every day. We had a drunk woman sitting on the street cat-calling during a romantic interlude outside. And she would be like, yes, woo, I like it, and ruin the take. Take after take after take.

I mean, every day something happened where we thought, OK, we're not going to get this scene done, we're not going to finish this movie. It's impossible. So we're very grateful that we did and Universal liked it so much that they picked it up to distribute it. And here we are. It opens tomorrow.

KAGAN: Perfect. Just in time for Valentine's Day.

MESSING: That's right.

KAGAN: Perfect. And "Will and Grace," give us an update on what we can expect on one of the hottest series on television.

MESSING: Oh, well, now, because it's, again, Valentine's Day, Grace has a new potential love interest played by the actor Ed Burns.

KAGAN: Another hottie.

MESSING: I know. It's such a hard job these days. I'm having a tough time.

KAGAN: I'd love to hear how you explain to your husband, OK, today I'm going to go to work with Dermot, and then it's Ed.

MESSING: Well, you know, I've been with my husband -- we've been together 14 years, married 4. And he has nothing to worry about.

KAGAN: Very good.

MESSING: So it's fun. And "Will and Grace," we're still having a blast.

KAGAN: Well, you continue. Good luck with that and good luck with the movie.

MESSING: Thank you.

KAGAN: Debra Messing. We'll look for the movie. "The Wedding Date." You can keep an eye on entertainment 24/7 by pointing your Internet browser to cnn.com/entertainment. Today catch a sneak peek of the Super Bowl ads and find out whether Paula Abdul has been "idol" too long?

SANCHEZ: I can't believe you two. All this girl talk about men's bare behinds. I'm going to get Miles O'Brien. I'm going to sit here and grunt for the next segment.

KAGAN: Just don't show us like we're seeing with Dermot Mulroney and we'll be fine.

SANCHEZ: We're going to call it "Guy Talk." Oh that was good, that was good.

KAGAN: Let's take a look at the time. It's 10:53 on the East Coast. How about that? 7:53 on the West. And 5:54 in Hawaii, where tourists can now take in a fiery show.

SANCHEZ: What a picture. What's new about this red hot flow? And what's next in your sleather? It's coming up?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Want to show you some pictures now. Can you believe this? these are pictures from Hawaii that we're getting in. It's lava from the Kilauea volcano. It's burning two new paths to the ocean. Look at this.

KAGAN: Crowds are hiking long distances to the natural show. Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983. Don't hike too closely, though.

SANCHEZ: Exactly. You know what it does, it literally forms new land. It makes it a bigger island than it already is.

KAGAN: All the more real estate in Hawaii. Good thing.

(WEATHER REPORT)

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