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What's Expected in Pope's Final Message of Faith for the World?; Can City of Rome Handle Flood of Mourners Still Coming into City?

Aired April 07, 2005 - 08:00   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Pope John Paul II, a spiritual teacher again this morning. What is expected in his final message of faith for the world? That's about to be revealed any moment now.
And, also, can the city of Rome handle the flood of mourners still coming into the city by the thousands?

All that ahead this hour, here on AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien at the CNN Broadcast Center in New York and Bill Hemmer in Rome.

HEMMER: Hello, again, everybody.

I'm Bill Hemmer in Vatican City -- Soledad, good morning to you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, Bill.

I'm reporting this morning from New York, of course.

Let's get to tell you what's happening this morning here on this side of the country -- the world, rather. We're going to talk to Jane Fonda a little bit later this morning. She's got a new autobiography out. It's getting lots of attention because it is very frank. She talks about her relationships, she talks about sex, she talks about her movies and also that infamous trip that she made to North Vietnam. We're going to talk to her about all of that this morning.

Mr. Cafferty with us, as well, with the "Cafferty File."

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You'll know we'll be counting on you to ask the tough questions in that interview.

O'BRIEN: Jack, I'm going to do my all, as I always do each and every day.

CAFFERTY: All right.

Coming up in -- well, one of us has to.

Coming up in "The Cafferty File," millions of dollars are being spent to train squirrels to crack nuts for a movie. A man's Chapstick may have saved his life. And tiaras fly as scandal rocks the wheelchair pageants world. All coming up in "The File" in less than an hour. O'BRIEN: Was it the one that just last week, where it said news of the weird on "The File?" And here we are coming back again.

CAFFERTY: Yes, it's what we look forward to.

O'BRIEN: All right.

CAFFERTY: Yes, a little diversion.

O'BRIEN: Whatever makes you happy.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: That's all that matters to me.

CAFFERTY: Did you know they had wheelchair beauty pageants?

O'BRIEN: I didn't.

CAFFERTY: Well, they do.

O'BRIEN: But I mean why -- don't squirrels crack nuts generally anyway?

CAFFERTY: Well, yes, but not on command.

O'BRIEN: Oh.

CAFFERTY: This was for a movie. You know, you can't go into the forest and say hey, squirrel, there's a nut, hit it. You know, they just -- I mean that's not how squirrels do it.

O'BRIEN: Again, I am looking forward to "The File" with bated breath, as I do each and every day.

CAFFERTY: We have it all.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.

Let's get back to Bill in Rome -- hey, Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad.

Hello again here.

Rome getting ready for this papal funeral tomorrow and what a sight it will be. Here's what we're learning. Details of the pope's will will be made public any time. And when that happens, we'll bring it to you live here from the Vatican.

Also, officials trying to wrap up this procession of mourners coming to view the pope's remains. Late yesterday, pilgrims trying to get in line. Many were turned away. However, earlier today we were down there and still many flowing in there, jumping the queue. It'll close later tonight, though, the church will, at 10:00 local time. That's about eight hours from now. Public viewing will end then. St. Peter's Basilica then is closed for final preparations for the funeral on Friday. Estimates of visitors to Rome for the funeral now as high as five million over a week's time. And authorities trying to deal with massive health and security challenges throughout this city.

President Bush and the U.S. delegation prayed yesterday in front of the pope's bier. And with some 200 world leaders in town, security continues to ratchet up. Fifteen thousand security personnel expected to be on crowd control by the start of the funeral tomorrow.

And now with so many world leaders in Rome, protocol is a big issue for planners, inside the church and also in St. Peter's Square. Right down to these very minor details -- who is sitting where and why.

Robert Moynihan is editor-in-chief of "Inside the Vatican."

He's my guest again here at the Vatican.

Good afternoon to you.

You call this, first of all, a funeral Mass, a global revival.

In what sense?

ROBERT MOYNIHAN, EDITOR, "INSIDE THE VATICAN": Well, all over the world people are watching this on TV and we've got a Mass and a funeral which is involving people from Italy, from Poland. A fellow stopped me in the street last night and he said do you know that 1,300 buses from Poland in the last few hours passed over the border?

The city is a global magnet right now and yet there is nothing in it that is -- it's very serene. It's very tranquil. And I went down last night, which would be the last morning that this line will continue, just to see what it was like. I met a woman from Poland standing in the darkness just before dawn on the Villa de la Conciliacion and I said, "Why are you here? Sum it up in one word."

She said, "Gratitude."

HEMMER: Wow!

MOYNIHAN: She said, "I'm from Poland. I was not free. This man made my country free and I'm here willing to stand for 12 hours and inch along and go to see him and pay my final respects, and what I feel is gratitude."

HEMMER: It is stunning that they wait for so many hours and get so few seconds in front of the pope's body inside of St. Peter's.

MOYNIHAN: Yes.

HEMMER: More on the funeral here for a moment.

There is an incredible scenario shaping up here. The president of the United States could be sitting right near the president of Iran, right near the president of Syria, right near the leader of the Palestinian people, right next to the Jewish leaders sent here from Jerusalem.

Have you thought about that just yet?

MOYNIHAN: Yes, I've been wondering whether this might be a cathartic moment, more than we even expected. When you have those people together, they are in a different relationship than when they're on a hot line or when they're on diplomatic protocol. They're all in a moment of prayer. This brings them to a different level than when they're diplomatically negotiating or when they're declaring war on each other.

I wonder if out of this could become an opportunity to make some -- to give peace a chance.

HEMMER: How critical or perhaps how sensitive do you think the Vatican is of protocol?

MOYNIHAN: Very sensitive. I know the chief of protocol in the Vatican, Monsignor James Harvey -- who's from Milwaukee, by the way, an American. And he said my job is a terrible job. He said I'm always having to get bank presidents and ambassadors and I'm -- and they're always wanting special privileges, bishops, cardinals, and I have a terrible time. It's a terrible job because there's only a limited number of spaces.

HEMMER: At what point will we know who's sitting where? Will there be a seating chart that's handed out at some point?

MOYNIHAN: I'm not sure they'll hand out a chart. They're organizing that right now and there's going to be about five main classes of people -- political leaders, religious leaders -- I'm not sure if they'll be on the same side or not. The main altar is right in front of the doors of the basilica. On each side, there's several hundred seats. The political leaders may be on one side and the Vatican leaders, the bishops, the cardinals will be in the Curiae and in the conclave maybe on the other side, several rows of red.

Then there'll be the malati, the handicapped people, the ill people. They will have a special place right next to world leaders. The pope always gave special privileges to the sick. Then there will be the Poles. There's got to be a big section for the Polish pilgrims here. The Italians, of course, will be the majority. And then there will be the embassies and other groups here, political groups here in Rome.

HEMMER: We'll watch for it.

Robert Moynihan, thanks.

MOYNIHAN: Thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: Behind us, in fact, we're watching the chairs go up there. They've been going up for hours now. By the thousands, gathering now in St. Peter's Square for the funeral tomorrow. Our special coverage of the funeral starts at 3:00 a.m. Eastern time here on CNN. I will be here to watch it for you.

Back to Italy in a moment, but first here's Carol Costello back in New York now with the headlines -- and good morning there, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, too, Bill.

A bit of history in Iraq. Now in the news, Iraq is pushing ahead with that new government. The Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani, was just sworn in, just a few moments ago. We just turned this tape around for you. He was sworn in as the new president of Iraq. A new Iraqi prime minister also expected to be named very soon. The ousted leader, Saddam Hussein, apparently watched a videotape of Talabani's election from his prison cell. Observers say he appeared upset. More details about his reaction could be released today.

Also, new details about a controversial unsigned memo linked to Terri Schiavo. In it, the Schiavo dispute is called "a great political issue." According to the "Washington Post," the memo originated with a legal aide in the office of Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez. The senator says the aide is fully responsible for the document. The staffer offered his resignation and it was accepted.

A caravan of peace -- that's the name of a historic journey kicking off across Kashmir today. Two buses are setting off from opposite ends, one from the Indian-controlled side, the other from the other side, the Pakistani side. The route is meant to reunite families separated when the bus service was stopped more than half a century ago. The buses are under heavy guard after a Wednesday attack targeting dozens of the passengers.

House Republicans are supporting Majority Leader Tom DeLay, dismissing new criticism of him and his family as partisan politics. The "New York Times" has reported DeLay's wife and daughter received more than $500,000 from political action and campaign committees. And the "Washington Post" has raised questions about funding for DeLay's 1997 trip to Moscow. DeLay says the reports twist the truth to make him look "seedy."

And a massive brush fire in the West Miami-Dade area in South Florida. Large plumes of smoke seen over the area. These pictures just into us. Some 400 acres are reportedly ablaze. Luckily, the fire is not near any residential areas, so we have no reports of injuries so far -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Pretty amazing pictures, though.

All right, thanks, Carol.

Residents in the South began cleanup after the tornadoes tore through that region. State officials say that nearly 25 homes were destroyed in Rankin County in Mississippi as tornadoes touched down throughout Wednesday. Many mobile homes, as you can see right here, completely blown apart -- fallen trees, downed power lines also led to extensive power outages.

Emergency officials are working to get residents now some shelter and some food.

In Louisiana, twisters and high winds cut through much of the state, damaging homes, knocking down power lines. Flood watches have been issued for parts of Louisiana.

That brings us right to the weather and Chad Myers, who is at the CNN Center for us -- Chad, this is obviously very consistent, what we're seeing on the videotape, with what you were predicting yesterday and more for today.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. In fact, it was already happening at this point in time yesterday, Soledad. The severe weather had fired up here in Mississippi. Now that weather has charged into parts of Georgia, all the way down even into the Florida Panhandle.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: We're also going to take you back out to the Vatican in just a moment.

Also ahead this morning, a candid conversation with Jane Fonda. She's going to talk about her career, her famous loves and the one person she says has more to apologize for than she does.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Pope John Paul II is often referred to as the people's pope, and maybe it's because of instances like this next story. It seems the pope was just a down-to-earth man with a heavenly calling and willing to sometimes break his own rules.

Here's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's the rector here at the Basilica of the National Shrine. In a small corner, the chapel where the new pope, John Paul II prayed when he came to Washington in 1979. But Monsignor Walter Rossi has a memory much more personal.

MONSIGNOR WALTER ROSSI, BASILICA OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE: This is what they call zucchetto.

FRANKEN: And not just any zucchetto.

ROSSI: And this is a white one. And this was Pope John Paul II's.

FRANKEN: In 1997, Monsignor Rossi took his mother to Rome and attended Sunday Mass celebrated by the pope at his summer residence outside Rome. He purchased the zucchetto hoping the pope would keep tradition and trade skullcaps. But Vatican officials are tired of that as overdone. Make sure, he was warned, to clear it.

ROSSI: This is one of those circumstances where you don't ask forgiveness later. You ask permission first.

FRANKEN: That came from the pope's personal secretary.

ROSSI: So we waited for the Holy Father and he entered the room. And when it came our turn to be introduced to him, I brought this box up with the top off. And he looked inside and he looked at me and winked and I said, "This is for you."

And so he took it out of the box, took the one off his head, put this one on, put his back in the box and everyone clapped and it was a great morning.

FRANKEN: The Monsignor keeps John Paul's skullcap in the cardinals' office here at the basilica. The cardinal is now in Rome helping choose who next wears the white zucchetto.

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HEMMER: Zucchettos are color-coded -- black for priests, purple for bishops, red for cardinals and the pope wears white. And exchanging zucchettos, we're told, with the pope is a custom that dates back about 400 years. And now you know.

A bit later this hour, the man the pope called my maestro. The pope's personal conductor reflecting on 17 years of memories and music, and also that practical joke the pontiff once played on him.

That's when we continue, live in Italy, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Although the pope had always been religious as a boy, his decision to enter the priesthood at the age of 22 surprised many of his friends. Several tried to talk him out of the action, as they believed his true talent lay in the field of acting. Quoting the parable in Matthew 25, they warned against the man who hid his talent in the ground.

The pope countered with a religious statement of his own. The Lord Jesus had called him to the priesthood, not to the theater.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

And we are back with Mr. Cafferty, who's got the Question of the Day.

CAFFERTY: Yes, interesting stuff.

What was that line from President Bush, better to err on the side of life?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

CAFFERTY: Yes. Well, down there in Florida, they've passed a bill, and Governor Bush is going to sign it, that allows a gun owner to shoot an attacker at home or on the street in self-defense. It's sponsored by the NRA. The so-called Stand Your Ground bill no longer requires a person to retreat before defending himself. If at home, a resident can now shoot an intruder whether or not the intruder had any intent to cause harm.

Similar laws are on the books in Oklahoma and Colorado. However, Florida's law is the first to extend into public spaces.

So the question is should it be legal for Florida residents to open fire when they perceive a threat?

And don't you know we're getting some interesting mail.

Paul in Florida writes: "I'm a Florida corrections officer and a proud gun owner, and I'm afraid. I go to the range, I practice in the hope that I never have to draw my weapon in defense. What I fear is this law might turn a normal law-abiding citizen into a killer by making it too easy to take a life."

Stephen in California : "Florida is already home on the range for all the cocaine cowboys. Why not have a few legalized shootouts at the not so O.K. Corral? It seems like a sneaky legal way to clean things up in the criminal and divorce courts."

Bob in Florida writes: "After a few meter readers are killed by armed geezers, the politicians will back off. By then, the campaign contributions from the gun lobbies will be spent."

And Samuel in Utah writes: "I'm all for Floridians shooting each other. Make room for the rest of us. I wish they'd institute something like this in Utah. There'd be fewer missionaries pushing the local religion on those of us who don't wish to be assimilated."

Samuel obviously is...

O'BRIEN: Has a sick sense of humor, is what...

CAFFERTY: ... kidding. Maybe he's kidding. Maybe he's not kidding, I don't know.

O'BRIEN: But let's hope he is kidding.

You know, you really could see a scenario where people are shooting their spouses if they're involved in, you know, domestic disputes kind of things...

CAFFERTY: I... O'BRIEN: And say, the partner, I thought they were going to, I didn't realize, a stranger, I thought they were going to attack me.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: I can.

CAFFERTY: Yes, no, I'm sure it'll happen and there'll probably be mistakes made. On the other hand, the criminal element might hesitate just for a nanosecond, wondering whether the person they're about to do harm to might pull a gun and do away with themselves. I, you know, I suppose it cuts both ways.

O'BRIEN: I guess it does.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: I guess it's one of those things that you won't know until you know when you look at the statistics a year out.

CAFFERTY: No, but it's great for this kind of stuff.

O'BRIEN: It is, absolutely. A good Question of the Day.

CAFFERTY: I don't care...

O'BRIEN: No...

CAFFERTY: I don't care...

O'BRIEN: Was there any question about that? Sorry.

CAFFERTY: I don't care how it turns out, this is terrific for the Question of the Day.

O'BRIEN: Moving on.

Thanks, Jack.

Nearly 14 million people in the U.S. abuse alcohol and for many alcoholics, controlling the cravings is an unending struggle. Well, now a new injection might provide some help in the battle to stay sober.

CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since the age of 15, alcohol addiction controlled John Baums' life, hurting his personal relationships and affecting his high-profile culinary career.

JOHN BAUMS, ADDICTED TO ALCOHOL: There was no possible way that after a heavy night of drinking, or even when I was sober, it was impossible for me to be at 100 percent. Every aspect of my being was affected.

GUPTA: He tried psychoanalysis, an intensive outpatient program, A.A. meetings and simply going cold turkey. None of them worked.

BAUMS: I didn't see a future for my relationship with myself and my wife. I didn't see a financial future. I saw my relationship with my family fading away. I saw my relationship with my, you know, with my friends fading away. I was afraid for my life. I thought I was going to die.

GUPTA: Finally, he tried the drug Naltrexone, a pill designed to curb the craving for alcohol by blocking the euphoric feeling alcohol can give. And for the last eight months, John has been sober.

Taking a daily pill has been working for John, but for many alcoholics, sticking to a schedule and taking a pill every day is an extraordinary challenge.

DR. JAMES C. GARBUTT, ADDICTION MEDICINE SPECIALIST: Alcoholism is a disease where individuals are very mixed about what they want to happen. One the one hand, many folks want to get better. On the other hand, there's a part of them that's driving them to consume alcohol and drink alcohol.

GUPTA: So researchers have now developed an injectable form of the drug, given once a month instead of once a day.

BAUMS: By having it only once a month, you don't have to worry about it anymore. You don't have to be concerned with going to the drugstore to get your refill of prescription. You don't have to worry about possibly forgetting to take the pill. And you can focus on the other aspects of your life, for example, healing family wounds, working on your job, working on your physical health in addition to your emotional and mental health.

GUPTA: Side effects of the drug are minimal but include nausea and mild headaches, as well as fatigue. If approved by the FDA, the injectable form of Naltrexone would join a short list of drugs designed to help control alcohol cravings.

For people struggling with alcohol, these drugs mean even more hope that they can recover from this disease.

RAYE LITTEN, PH.D., NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: They're not a magic bullet. They don't work for everyone. We are starting to develop medications to treat alcoholism that can have an effect.

GUPTA: For John, he's taking it one day at a time.

BAUMS: I see a bright future. By being on Naltrexone, my urge to drink is completely gone. So I see a wonderful future ahead of me. My life is getting so much better, my work is wonderful. My relationships with my family are healing. I see a great future ahead of me and better mental and physical health.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEO TAPE)

O'BRIEN: The study on Naltrexone can be found in this week's issue of the "Journal of the American Medical Association."

From sex kitten to Oscar winner and anti-war activist to workout guru, Jane Fonda takes a look back on her life, that's taken some pretty incredible twists and turns along the way. She'll join us to talk about her new autobiography in just a moment.

But first, what was Jane Fonda's first movie? Was it, A, "The Chapman Report?" Was it, B, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" Or was it, C, "Tall Story?"

The answer is right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: In a moment here, how a Jewish boy from Brooklyn ended up as the personal maestro for a Polish-born pope. Their unique relationship a bit later on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Before the break, we asked you what was Jane Fonda's first movie? The answer is C, "Tall Story." It was released in 1960. We'll talk to Jane Fonda live in this hour.

But now we want to get you back to Vatican City, which is where we find Bill Hemmer -- good morning again, Bill.

HEMMER: Hey, Soledad, getting a little bit of information right now about what is contained in the final will of Pope John Paul II. Not a lot coming out just yet, but we do want to point out that apparently he brings back a lot of memories of his own family. This is a man who lost his mother in 1929 at the age of nine. He lost a brother at a young age, a father at a young age. And it appears that much of this will reflects on the early days of his life and being reunited with his lost family members in heaven.

So we will bring you more as we get it here at the Vatican.

For now, we want to go back down to St. Peter's Square.

Jennifer Eccleston is down there now live and talking with the mourners, the lucky ones, too, because they will be the final ones to pass through and pay tribute -- Jennifer, good afternoon.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill.

Well, as you know, when Pope John Paul II's body was first laid out on Monday, the crowd was distinctly Italian. And then in the days to come, it became more diverse, more international -- from North America, South America and from across Europe.

But today, Bill, I can say the crowd is distinctly Polish. I'm going to ask the cameraman, Martin, now to pan over and you can see the vast array of Polish flags now waving throughout the crowd, some 30, 40 wide, and countless tens of thousands behind me.

It had been feared that most of the Polish pilgrims that had arrived in the last 24 hours would not be able to make it to the viewing because last night Rome officials said that they would cut off the line at 10:00 p.m. Now, I've been talking to a number of these pilgrims and also to a number of police, who said that those rules have been relaxed slightly, that some of the tourists that came into town were now able to get in, some of them coming as early as 8:00 this morning. And they will be able to come in and see the pope.

Now we are being told that the Basilica will close at 10:00 p.m., and it's a not clear at this stage whether all the pilgrims who are in line right now will make it to the basilica at that stage. And we don't know what the police and civilian authorities will say to them when they actually shut those massive bronze doors at the basilica and make way for the preparations for tomorrow's funeral -- Bill.

HEMMER: They are the lucky ones. We can see that. Jennifer, thanks again in St. Peters Square.

Back to New York in a moment to here, actually right now. Talk to you again in a moment.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks.

Let's get right to Carol Costello. She's got a look at some of the stories that are making headlines this morning.

Good morning again, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I do. Good morning, Soledad. Good morning to all of you.

Now in the news, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani is now the official new president of Iraq. Talabani being sworn in during a Baghdad ceremony just within the past half hour. Two vice presidents also taking office. The first order of business will be to name a new prime minister. And Iraqi official says Saddam Hussein did watch a videotape of Talabani's election Wednesday, and he apparently was upset.

A search-and-recovery mission under way in southern Afghanistan right now. U.S. military sources say a Chinook helicopter went down in bad weather, killing at least 16 people, most of them American forces. Two people are still missing this morning.

NASA moving closer to its first shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster more than two years ago. The Space Shuttle Discovery was rolled out on to its launch pad overnight after a two- hour delay. Technicians found a crack in the foam insulation around the fuel tank. The Discovery expected to lift off next month.

And more severe weather expected in the Southeast today. More than 30 homes were damaged, and power knocked out as several tornadoes touched down in parts of Mississippi. The storm system sweeping through northwestern Louisiana. Strong winds tossing around cars and mobile homes. At least eight people have been hurt in the southern storm, one critically.

Back to you, Soledad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Back in 1987, Gilbert Levine became the conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra. His appointment there was news in the pope's native Poland. A few months after becoming maestro, the pope asked to meet with Maestro Levin. And for the next 17 years, Gilbert Levine would become known as the pope's maestro. The maestro is with me now.

Good afternoon to you. I know you miss your friend a great deal.

GILBERT LEVINE, POPE'S PERSONAL CONDUCTOR: I do, deeply. The world does. And that's what's remarkable, is Catholics do, surely -- Jews do, Muslims do, Buddhists do. You hear that the Dalai Lama commemorating the pope yesterday. The chief rabbi of Israel misses this man. He reached out to all of us. It's really remarkable.

HEMMER: Let's tell some stories. In 1991, you approached the pope with this idea. You wanted to hold a concert in remembrance of the Holocaust. How did he react to that?

LEVINE: Instantly yes. I invited him to a concert that I would organize in Rome. It was my idea to have a concert to commemorate the Holocaust in Rome and to invite the pope. He said, no, why not have it in the Vatican, why not make it a papal event. It will then be, as it was, a world event. And he says, if I do this, I will do this, but will there be a hand too reach mine? Will Jews come? Will Holocaust survivors come to the Vatican? And in the event in 1994, they came, and they honored his gesture; and his willingness and his courage to make that gesture was just remarkable.

HEMMER: I understand Larry King asked you if you were nervous for that. Perhaps the pontiff came to you, too, at that point and said, you a bit nervous doing this? And what were you, terrified?

LEVINE: No that was actually for the first concert I conducted for him in 1988 after the rehearsal. He invited me up to his private library. And I wondered why, because I was going to see him that night. And he said, have you had enough rehearsal for this concert? I said, why? Because I head the pope's coming tonight. You must be well prepared.

HEMMER: What is it about that sense of humor that you were able to pick up on, because I think at one point you were about to come out to this concert, and they kind of changed the songs on you. How did that happen?

LEVINE: In 1993, I was on conducting for him a World Youth Day, and liturgists in the Vatican arranged the program for the papal concert a year in advance with incredible detail spelled out. And instead of following that, his private secretary, Monsignor Dziwisz called me over and said change 26 to 27. And as I was conducting and told the orchestra to switch the two numbers, the bases stopped playing and the cello stopped playing, and the whole right side of the orchestra, and I'm getting frustrated. And finally I look over my shoulder, and there's the pope with a really impish grin on his face, and he comes over, he puts his arm around me, and said, did I disturb you, maestro? And I wanted to give him the baton, because by then, he had stolen the show.

HEMMER: As you talk, you're face is lighting up with many great memories.

LEVINE: I loved him. I thought he was a remarkable human being. He cared for my family. He cared my Jewishness. He nurtured my Jewishness. When people hear that, they say, oh, no, he was the pope. Yes, he was a great Catholic leader, but he honored people of faith, and he honored people of my faith, and he nurtured me so that I went from being a reformed secular Jew at the beginning of my relationship to the fact that my son was bar mitzvah-ed in an orthodox synagogue two weeks ago. He deepened my Jewish faith.

HEMMER: This man had no walls, did he, when it came to faith, or politics, religion, none of that.

LEVINE: He climbed to the top of the mountain and saw what there was to see, and said, I believe that people can be united, and he had the ability with all his heart and all his soul to do that, and I have to say it's not easy. There were people in the church and the Jewish community, for instance, that didn't want it, but he wouldn't give up; he wouldn't let go.

HEMMER: As you're talking, this image comes to mind during this funeral, you will have the leader of Iran, the leader of Syria, the leader of the Palestinian people, the Jewish leader will come here from Israel, the U.S. president will be here, President Clinton, the first President Bush as well. I would think looking down from him tomorrow, down here on Earth, this would make him quite proud.

LEVINE: He's extremely pleased sitting up there, and I know where he is and you know where he is, and he's up there and smiling and saying, this legacy, hopefully the church will grasp and in the future will look for a leader who will grasp those people, and I will be among them smiling back up saying a little bit of that history I was able to share. But for millions of people here, I've been to Rome many times; I've never seen anything like this.

HEMMER: If you could play one final song for him, what would you choose?

LEVINE: The finale of the "Beethoven Ninth Symphony." All of us are brothers under God. All of us are brothers -- Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist -- and he believed that firmly.

HEMMER: Great to see you.

LEVINE: Thank you.

HEMMER: Gilbert Levine, Maestro, thank you for your time.

Our coverage will continue in the middle of the night here from Vatican City tomorrow. As the funeral gets under way about 4:00 a.m. back in New York, our coverage starts an hour earlier, 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time. They expect this funeral to last upwards of three, maybe four hours, so we'll have it all for you tomorrow here on CNN -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks.

Still to come this morning, Jane Fonda bears her soul, from the infidelities of her famous husbands to the controversy she caused during the Vietnam War. Fonda tells all in her new autobiography. She joins us live, up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: I'm Bill Hemmer live back here in Vatican City. We are learning more details now on the pope's final will.

Delia Gallagher, our Vatican analyst, has been on the phone here at the Vatican. She joins me again now and good afternoon again to you. First, what are you learning? And then I'll tell you what I'm getting off the wires.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: OK. Well, first of all, it's five-page typed document, 15-page handwritten -- last updated 15 page handwritten, last updated in 2000. No reference to a lot of things we were speculating on. So I think that's the first point...

HEMMER: Such as?

GALLAGHER: ... to make no reference to his heart going to Poland. No reference to a secret cardinal. No reference to a papal successor. So it is a spiritual testament. He does say with regard to his personal effects -- which, as we said before, are few -- that will be decided by his private secretary. You mentioned he was already giving away some of the daily items of the pope. So that was according to his wishes.

As regards to the funeral rite, we already know that he wanted it according to Paul VI's funeral rite, which is what will happen tomorrow, and be buried in the ground. And then he says that at this time, he is thinking of his brother and sister, whom he never knew, and his parents, who died. That was in 2000. By the way, the pope says that he reviewed this testament at every spiritual exercise, so...

HEMMER: Which would have been how often?

GALLAGHER: Spiritual exercises happen just before Lent every year. So he reviewed his will. And he says that some indications for -- he doesn't give indications directly for the future of the church, but he does say the next pope will have the job to carry the church into the third millennium. Let's remember, this was in the year 2000 that he was writing, so and he probably didn't realize he'd be already five years into it.

And he said that they will have to continue on the great gift of Vatican II. That is something which to those people who know the church will be significant. He thanks, also, non-Catholics for their support of him. He remembers meeting them. He thanks the rabbi of Rome, for example. And, of course, all of the people that he met throughout his...

HEMMER: Okay now, Delia, as you're talking there, let me tell you what I'm picking up here on the AP Wires, just crossing here. They're suggesting also that he considered retirement in the year 2000. If true, that would be significant, as he was considering his own health.

GALLAGHER: That would be significant.

HEMMER: Because he would have been about what, 79 years old in the year 2000.

GALLAGHER: Well, yes, I'd like to know where exactly they're quoting that. Some of that's a possibility. This is a five-page document which we just have in, so we still have to go through it very thoroughly. Again, it's in Italian, so we're also depending on our good Italian.

HEMMER: Let me pass along two more things here. He's requesting the personal notes to be burned, it reports, and also no material goods in his final will, either, which is something you referred to last hour.

GALLAGHER: The personal notes being burned doesn't surprise me, because Paul VI requested the same thing, that any of his writings be destroyed.

HEMMER: OK. We'll keep look going through it. Thank you, Delia. Back to the Vatican in a moment. Here's Soledad now -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks. Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award winner, a workout guru, an anti-war activist and now a self-described feminist Christian. She talks about all of that in her new autobiography. It's called "My Life So Far."

Nice to see you. Thanks to for talking with.

JANE FONDA, AUTHOR, "MY LIFE SO FAR": Oh, it's good to see you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: You cover so much ground, and I read that you actually had to cut out a lot. I mean, this is not a skinny book. But I'm curious to know why -- why some things made it in. For example, you talk about your husbands, your movies, obviously, your relationship with your dad, the visit to North Vietnam, which we'll get to in a little bit. Roger Vadim, you talk about threesomes with him. And I'm wondering why is that -- why did that make it into -- what lesson do you think came out of that?

FONDA: The lesson that -- the reason I put it in and I think the lesson that comes out of it is how even a strong woman like me, who didn't depend on her husbands financially, was willing to give up her heart and betray her body in order to please a man because I felt I wasn't good enough.

O'BRIEN: Did he force you into have sex with other...

FONDA: No. Nobody ever -- see, that's what interesting. Nobody ever forced me or anything. I just, you know, I felt that I wasn't enough and so I did what I felt I needed to do to make them love me.

O'BRIEN: You talk about going into to some degree the world with not the right tools. To what degree do you blame your upbringing for that and dad? And you write a lot about...

FONDA: I hate blame, I don't blame anybody. But the fact is, as a young mother, you know -- I know you know this and will appreciate it -- if a child doesn't grow up feeling that they're good enough, if they feel that they have to be perfect to be loved, that's going to cause them to behave in a certain way, especially a girl. And I was stricken with what Oprah calls the disease to please. It had me in its thrall until I was 60.

O'BRIEN: You describe "On Golden Pond," the producing of that, the acting in that, the story of the elderly couple and their relationship -- very complicated relationship, really with the father and the adult daughter now, who's got a young son herself, the son sort of a metaphor for the woman as a girl, blah blah blah, we could go on about it. But is it really a story of your relationship with your dad?

FONDA: Yes, there were a lot of parallels. I mean, if people say, what was your dad like, I'll say, think about Norman Thayer in "On Golden Pond." He was withdrawn, he had a hard time expressing feelings. Not that they weren't there, he just -- it was partly a generational thing. And it was such a blessing for me to be able to produce that movie for him when he was so close to the end of his life, to have it win him his Oscar, and to be able say to him and ask him to love me in ways that I never could in real life. It was amazing.

O'BRIEN: The character has a resolution with her father, but you never did with your father?

FONDA: Well, I did, on my end. I was able, before he died, to tell him how much I loved him and that I forgave him and you know, that I was sorry that I hurt him sometimes. And it was closure for me. I don't know to what extent he felt closure. I think not.

O'BRIEN: He was not a big fan of your politics.

FONDA: Well, no, that's not quite true. I learned...

O'BRIEN: The headlines.

FONDA: ... that some of the controversy, it frightened him. But I learned my values at his -- watching his movies, Tom Joad, "Clarence Darrow," "Young Abe Lincoln" (sic).

O'BRIEN: You write that he says he would turn you in -- if he discovered you were a communist, he would have turned you in?

FONDA: Yes, I was defending someone who was a communist and he thought maybe I was. I was never an ideological person. And he said, if I ever found out, I'd turn you in. And you know, it just devastated me because I thought Tom Joad wouldn't turn his daughter in -- you know, the characters that he played wouldn't turn their daughter in. What does this mean? We had some rough years. Of course, that was endemic in America in those days, the generational splits over the Vietnam War. Very hard for families.

O'BRIEN: Of course, there's been much discussion of the last 30 years, about Hanoi Jane and why you did what you did, which was to pose on the anti-American aircraft Gunner smiling and laughing. And you write about it, you dedicate a lot of the book, actually, to it. And you say, "My only regret about the trip was that I was photographed sitting in a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun site. What the image suggested had nothing to do with what I was doing or thinking or feeling at the time, as I hope this chapter will show." Is that an apology?

FONDA: Oh, I've apologized for that image for decades. It was the most horrible lapse of judgment imaginable. I went to Vietnam to try to help end the war and to expose the Nixon administration's lies. We were being lied to and men were dying and I wanted to try to stop it. And the last day there, I just -- I had made this terrible mistake. And I just wasn't thinking.

And the terrible irony for me is I had spent two previous years immersed in working with soldiers, active duty soldiers and returning Vietnam veterans. I was brought was into the anti-war movement by them. I opened an office in Washington to try to help them, the G.I. office.

O'BRIEN: Does it surprise you? I mean, even the election, this past election, it still was an issue.

FONDA: Well, no, that doesn't surprise me. You know, there are people, unfortunately, who will lie, just plain mendacity -- lie to try win their campaign.

O'BRIEN: But it's an emotional issue. I mean, if you talk...

FONDA: Doesn't surprise me, no. I'll tell you what's an emotional issue. What's an emotional issue is when the soldiers -- not ideologues, not political hacks, but just the soldiers -- when the soldiers feel hostility to me. I understand why that's true, but I think it's misdirected. It should be directed to the men who lied to them and sent them there.

But I understand it. There is still a lot of rage about Vietnam. We've never resolved the wound that is Vietnam, and as long we don't, I will be a lightning rod.

O'BRIEN: You end the book with the beginning, which I think is interesting. You're dealing -- doing a lot of work with mothers and young women.

FONDA: Teach what you need to learn.

O'BRIEN: Yes. The book is called "My Life So Far." So I guess there will be a volume two?

FONDA: I don't know about that. But I'm very proud of the book, and I'm working real hard, because I think it has something to say to people.

O'BRIEN: Thanks for coming in to talk with us.

FONDA: It's very good to see you, Soledad. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

Break. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

CAFFERTY: McDonald's doing right by their CEO's, even the dead ones.

Andy Serwer's here "Minding Your Business." Good morning.

SERWER: Good morning, Jack.

You don't often hear of businesses being thoughtful or generous, but I think in this context, McDonald's qualifies. It had the misfortune of having two CEO's pass away in the same nine-month period, Jim Cantalupo in April of '04, and Charlie Bell just this January. The company just announcing it would pay both gentlemen multi-million dollar bonuses -- or their estates, I should say -- multi-million dollar bonuses they would have received, had they served for their full years. Interesting stuff there.

Eliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general, in a bit of advertising flap. Let me explain. This has to do with Google. When you go to Google and you typed in the word "AIG," which is the name of the embattled New York insurance company that he has been investigating, up on the right side of the Google page, what is known as a sponsored link would pop up, and this sponsored link would say "Eliot Spitzer for governor." And if you pressed the link, it went to Eliot Spitzer, 2006.

Now it's sort of tacky, I think, to do that, because he's been accused of grandstanding, Jack, going after some of these companies for political purposes, and this would sort of reinforce that notion. They have pulled the ad and of course suggested it was a low-level staffer who was responsible.

O'BRIEN: Who has been fired, I'm sure, right? They always say that.

CAFFERTY: Is he going to run for governor?

SERWER: Indeed he is. He's announced that he is.

CAFFERTY: That connection of political purposes had some...

SERWER: Well, and that ad would seem to reinforce that.

CAFFERTY: Certainly would.

Thanks, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

CAFFERTY: Time for the "File." The director of the upcoming film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" said he spent a fortune training squirrels to crack nuts. This is something they already know how to do, but not for the movies. According to the British newspaper, "The Sun," Tim Burton is determined to recreate a scene from Ronald Dahl's novel in which hundreds of squirrels crack nuts and then put them on a conveyor belt. Burton says he used actual rodents, quote, "sending them from birth to training school for six months." How'd you like to be an investor in this film?

The first version of the scene starring Gene Wilder just had the squirrels cracking the nuts with a machine. This new one is scheduled for release of July. We think of this year. Unbelievable.

A New York medical worker has his Chapstick to thank for saving his life. Steven Jacobs (ph), working at a rehab center in Brooklyn Wednesday, when a gunfight erupted outside. These things happen in Brooklyn periodically. A bullet ricocheted, went through a window of Jacob's office. He had just bent over to pick up his fallen Chapstick when he heard the glass shatter. He wasn't seriously hurt, but he thinks the bullet would have hit him right square in the chest if he hadn't bent over to pick up that Chapstick.

Controversy rocks the pageant world. High school teacher Janeal Lee has been stripped of her pageant title of Miss Wheelchair Wisconsin after pageant organizers saw a photo of her in a local newspaper standing up in her classroom. She's a math teacher. She has muscular dystrophy. She says she can walk up to 50 feet on a good day, and sometimes does stand up in her classroom. The rest of the time she uses the chair. But the Wheelchair America board of directors says the pageant cannot have title holders walking around in public. It would offend other women who are in wheelchairs all the time.

And there's fallout to this story. Her sister has stepped down as Miss Wheelchair Minnesota. And the Miss Wheelchair Wisconsin runner-up has declined to take Lee's title. But the second runner-up, Kim Jerman, says, give me that tiara.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: That's ridiculous. It's not like she's not in her wheelchair.

SERWER: She's not handicapped enough.

O'BRIEN: Disabled is the word we like to use. Thank you.

CAFFERTY: There's a difference between handicapped and disabled?

O'BRIEN: I think disabled is more politically correct. Maybe you're not aware of more politically correct terms. But yes, our understanding is the word is disabled, or otherly abled.

She's not walking around in public.

CAFFERTY: In her classroom.

SERWER: Disabled enough.

CAFFERTY: You think they should have left the title in her lap?

O'BRIEN: Yes. And, number two, whatever runner-up who grabbed the tiara, girl, you're going to pay for that.

Thanks, Jack.

Coming up in a moment, a look at today's top stories, including new details on the pope's will. The Vatican released new information within the last few minutes. Bill's going to bring us the very latest live from Rome. That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired April 7, 2005 - 08:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Pope John Paul II, a spiritual teacher again this morning. What is expected in his final message of faith for the world? That's about to be revealed any moment now.
And, also, can the city of Rome handle the flood of mourners still coming into the city by the thousands?

All that ahead this hour, here on AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: This is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien at the CNN Broadcast Center in New York and Bill Hemmer in Rome.

HEMMER: Hello, again, everybody.

I'm Bill Hemmer in Vatican City -- Soledad, good morning to you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, Bill.

I'm reporting this morning from New York, of course.

Let's get to tell you what's happening this morning here on this side of the country -- the world, rather. We're going to talk to Jane Fonda a little bit later this morning. She's got a new autobiography out. It's getting lots of attention because it is very frank. She talks about her relationships, she talks about sex, she talks about her movies and also that infamous trip that she made to North Vietnam. We're going to talk to her about all of that this morning.

Mr. Cafferty with us, as well, with the "Cafferty File."

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You'll know we'll be counting on you to ask the tough questions in that interview.

O'BRIEN: Jack, I'm going to do my all, as I always do each and every day.

CAFFERTY: All right.

Coming up in -- well, one of us has to.

Coming up in "The Cafferty File," millions of dollars are being spent to train squirrels to crack nuts for a movie. A man's Chapstick may have saved his life. And tiaras fly as scandal rocks the wheelchair pageants world. All coming up in "The File" in less than an hour. O'BRIEN: Was it the one that just last week, where it said news of the weird on "The File?" And here we are coming back again.

CAFFERTY: Yes, it's what we look forward to.

O'BRIEN: All right.

CAFFERTY: Yes, a little diversion.

O'BRIEN: Whatever makes you happy.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: That's all that matters to me.

CAFFERTY: Did you know they had wheelchair beauty pageants?

O'BRIEN: I didn't.

CAFFERTY: Well, they do.

O'BRIEN: But I mean why -- don't squirrels crack nuts generally anyway?

CAFFERTY: Well, yes, but not on command.

O'BRIEN: Oh.

CAFFERTY: This was for a movie. You know, you can't go into the forest and say hey, squirrel, there's a nut, hit it. You know, they just -- I mean that's not how squirrels do it.

O'BRIEN: Again, I am looking forward to "The File" with bated breath, as I do each and every day.

CAFFERTY: We have it all.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jack.

Let's get back to Bill in Rome -- hey, Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad.

Hello again here.

Rome getting ready for this papal funeral tomorrow and what a sight it will be. Here's what we're learning. Details of the pope's will will be made public any time. And when that happens, we'll bring it to you live here from the Vatican.

Also, officials trying to wrap up this procession of mourners coming to view the pope's remains. Late yesterday, pilgrims trying to get in line. Many were turned away. However, earlier today we were down there and still many flowing in there, jumping the queue. It'll close later tonight, though, the church will, at 10:00 local time. That's about eight hours from now. Public viewing will end then. St. Peter's Basilica then is closed for final preparations for the funeral on Friday. Estimates of visitors to Rome for the funeral now as high as five million over a week's time. And authorities trying to deal with massive health and security challenges throughout this city.

President Bush and the U.S. delegation prayed yesterday in front of the pope's bier. And with some 200 world leaders in town, security continues to ratchet up. Fifteen thousand security personnel expected to be on crowd control by the start of the funeral tomorrow.

And now with so many world leaders in Rome, protocol is a big issue for planners, inside the church and also in St. Peter's Square. Right down to these very minor details -- who is sitting where and why.

Robert Moynihan is editor-in-chief of "Inside the Vatican."

He's my guest again here at the Vatican.

Good afternoon to you.

You call this, first of all, a funeral Mass, a global revival.

In what sense?

ROBERT MOYNIHAN, EDITOR, "INSIDE THE VATICAN": Well, all over the world people are watching this on TV and we've got a Mass and a funeral which is involving people from Italy, from Poland. A fellow stopped me in the street last night and he said do you know that 1,300 buses from Poland in the last few hours passed over the border?

The city is a global magnet right now and yet there is nothing in it that is -- it's very serene. It's very tranquil. And I went down last night, which would be the last morning that this line will continue, just to see what it was like. I met a woman from Poland standing in the darkness just before dawn on the Villa de la Conciliacion and I said, "Why are you here? Sum it up in one word."

She said, "Gratitude."

HEMMER: Wow!

MOYNIHAN: She said, "I'm from Poland. I was not free. This man made my country free and I'm here willing to stand for 12 hours and inch along and go to see him and pay my final respects, and what I feel is gratitude."

HEMMER: It is stunning that they wait for so many hours and get so few seconds in front of the pope's body inside of St. Peter's.

MOYNIHAN: Yes.

HEMMER: More on the funeral here for a moment.

There is an incredible scenario shaping up here. The president of the United States could be sitting right near the president of Iran, right near the president of Syria, right near the leader of the Palestinian people, right next to the Jewish leaders sent here from Jerusalem.

Have you thought about that just yet?

MOYNIHAN: Yes, I've been wondering whether this might be a cathartic moment, more than we even expected. When you have those people together, they are in a different relationship than when they're on a hot line or when they're on diplomatic protocol. They're all in a moment of prayer. This brings them to a different level than when they're diplomatically negotiating or when they're declaring war on each other.

I wonder if out of this could become an opportunity to make some -- to give peace a chance.

HEMMER: How critical or perhaps how sensitive do you think the Vatican is of protocol?

MOYNIHAN: Very sensitive. I know the chief of protocol in the Vatican, Monsignor James Harvey -- who's from Milwaukee, by the way, an American. And he said my job is a terrible job. He said I'm always having to get bank presidents and ambassadors and I'm -- and they're always wanting special privileges, bishops, cardinals, and I have a terrible time. It's a terrible job because there's only a limited number of spaces.

HEMMER: At what point will we know who's sitting where? Will there be a seating chart that's handed out at some point?

MOYNIHAN: I'm not sure they'll hand out a chart. They're organizing that right now and there's going to be about five main classes of people -- political leaders, religious leaders -- I'm not sure if they'll be on the same side or not. The main altar is right in front of the doors of the basilica. On each side, there's several hundred seats. The political leaders may be on one side and the Vatican leaders, the bishops, the cardinals will be in the Curiae and in the conclave maybe on the other side, several rows of red.

Then there'll be the malati, the handicapped people, the ill people. They will have a special place right next to world leaders. The pope always gave special privileges to the sick. Then there will be the Poles. There's got to be a big section for the Polish pilgrims here. The Italians, of course, will be the majority. And then there will be the embassies and other groups here, political groups here in Rome.

HEMMER: We'll watch for it.

Robert Moynihan, thanks.

MOYNIHAN: Thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: Behind us, in fact, we're watching the chairs go up there. They've been going up for hours now. By the thousands, gathering now in St. Peter's Square for the funeral tomorrow. Our special coverage of the funeral starts at 3:00 a.m. Eastern time here on CNN. I will be here to watch it for you.

Back to Italy in a moment, but first here's Carol Costello back in New York now with the headlines -- and good morning there, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, too, Bill.

A bit of history in Iraq. Now in the news, Iraq is pushing ahead with that new government. The Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani, was just sworn in, just a few moments ago. We just turned this tape around for you. He was sworn in as the new president of Iraq. A new Iraqi prime minister also expected to be named very soon. The ousted leader, Saddam Hussein, apparently watched a videotape of Talabani's election from his prison cell. Observers say he appeared upset. More details about his reaction could be released today.

Also, new details about a controversial unsigned memo linked to Terri Schiavo. In it, the Schiavo dispute is called "a great political issue." According to the "Washington Post," the memo originated with a legal aide in the office of Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez. The senator says the aide is fully responsible for the document. The staffer offered his resignation and it was accepted.

A caravan of peace -- that's the name of a historic journey kicking off across Kashmir today. Two buses are setting off from opposite ends, one from the Indian-controlled side, the other from the other side, the Pakistani side. The route is meant to reunite families separated when the bus service was stopped more than half a century ago. The buses are under heavy guard after a Wednesday attack targeting dozens of the passengers.

House Republicans are supporting Majority Leader Tom DeLay, dismissing new criticism of him and his family as partisan politics. The "New York Times" has reported DeLay's wife and daughter received more than $500,000 from political action and campaign committees. And the "Washington Post" has raised questions about funding for DeLay's 1997 trip to Moscow. DeLay says the reports twist the truth to make him look "seedy."

And a massive brush fire in the West Miami-Dade area in South Florida. Large plumes of smoke seen over the area. These pictures just into us. Some 400 acres are reportedly ablaze. Luckily, the fire is not near any residential areas, so we have no reports of injuries so far -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Pretty amazing pictures, though.

All right, thanks, Carol.

Residents in the South began cleanup after the tornadoes tore through that region. State officials say that nearly 25 homes were destroyed in Rankin County in Mississippi as tornadoes touched down throughout Wednesday. Many mobile homes, as you can see right here, completely blown apart -- fallen trees, downed power lines also led to extensive power outages.

Emergency officials are working to get residents now some shelter and some food.

In Louisiana, twisters and high winds cut through much of the state, damaging homes, knocking down power lines. Flood watches have been issued for parts of Louisiana.

That brings us right to the weather and Chad Myers, who is at the CNN Center for us -- Chad, this is obviously very consistent, what we're seeing on the videotape, with what you were predicting yesterday and more for today.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. In fact, it was already happening at this point in time yesterday, Soledad. The severe weather had fired up here in Mississippi. Now that weather has charged into parts of Georgia, all the way down even into the Florida Panhandle.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: We're also going to take you back out to the Vatican in just a moment.

Also ahead this morning, a candid conversation with Jane Fonda. She's going to talk about her career, her famous loves and the one person she says has more to apologize for than she does.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Pope John Paul II is often referred to as the people's pope, and maybe it's because of instances like this next story. It seems the pope was just a down-to-earth man with a heavenly calling and willing to sometimes break his own rules.

Here's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's the rector here at the Basilica of the National Shrine. In a small corner, the chapel where the new pope, John Paul II prayed when he came to Washington in 1979. But Monsignor Walter Rossi has a memory much more personal.

MONSIGNOR WALTER ROSSI, BASILICA OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE: This is what they call zucchetto.

FRANKEN: And not just any zucchetto.

ROSSI: And this is a white one. And this was Pope John Paul II's.

FRANKEN: In 1997, Monsignor Rossi took his mother to Rome and attended Sunday Mass celebrated by the pope at his summer residence outside Rome. He purchased the zucchetto hoping the pope would keep tradition and trade skullcaps. But Vatican officials are tired of that as overdone. Make sure, he was warned, to clear it.

ROSSI: This is one of those circumstances where you don't ask forgiveness later. You ask permission first.

FRANKEN: That came from the pope's personal secretary.

ROSSI: So we waited for the Holy Father and he entered the room. And when it came our turn to be introduced to him, I brought this box up with the top off. And he looked inside and he looked at me and winked and I said, "This is for you."

And so he took it out of the box, took the one off his head, put this one on, put his back in the box and everyone clapped and it was a great morning.

FRANKEN: The Monsignor keeps John Paul's skullcap in the cardinals' office here at the basilica. The cardinal is now in Rome helping choose who next wears the white zucchetto.

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HEMMER: Zucchettos are color-coded -- black for priests, purple for bishops, red for cardinals and the pope wears white. And exchanging zucchettos, we're told, with the pope is a custom that dates back about 400 years. And now you know.

A bit later this hour, the man the pope called my maestro. The pope's personal conductor reflecting on 17 years of memories and music, and also that practical joke the pontiff once played on him.

That's when we continue, live in Italy, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Although the pope had always been religious as a boy, his decision to enter the priesthood at the age of 22 surprised many of his friends. Several tried to talk him out of the action, as they believed his true talent lay in the field of acting. Quoting the parable in Matthew 25, they warned against the man who hid his talent in the ground.

The pope countered with a religious statement of his own. The Lord Jesus had called him to the priesthood, not to the theater.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

And we are back with Mr. Cafferty, who's got the Question of the Day.

CAFFERTY: Yes, interesting stuff.

What was that line from President Bush, better to err on the side of life?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

CAFFERTY: Yes. Well, down there in Florida, they've passed a bill, and Governor Bush is going to sign it, that allows a gun owner to shoot an attacker at home or on the street in self-defense. It's sponsored by the NRA. The so-called Stand Your Ground bill no longer requires a person to retreat before defending himself. If at home, a resident can now shoot an intruder whether or not the intruder had any intent to cause harm.

Similar laws are on the books in Oklahoma and Colorado. However, Florida's law is the first to extend into public spaces.

So the question is should it be legal for Florida residents to open fire when they perceive a threat?

And don't you know we're getting some interesting mail.

Paul in Florida writes: "I'm a Florida corrections officer and a proud gun owner, and I'm afraid. I go to the range, I practice in the hope that I never have to draw my weapon in defense. What I fear is this law might turn a normal law-abiding citizen into a killer by making it too easy to take a life."

Stephen in California : "Florida is already home on the range for all the cocaine cowboys. Why not have a few legalized shootouts at the not so O.K. Corral? It seems like a sneaky legal way to clean things up in the criminal and divorce courts."

Bob in Florida writes: "After a few meter readers are killed by armed geezers, the politicians will back off. By then, the campaign contributions from the gun lobbies will be spent."

And Samuel in Utah writes: "I'm all for Floridians shooting each other. Make room for the rest of us. I wish they'd institute something like this in Utah. There'd be fewer missionaries pushing the local religion on those of us who don't wish to be assimilated."

Samuel obviously is...

O'BRIEN: Has a sick sense of humor, is what...

CAFFERTY: ... kidding. Maybe he's kidding. Maybe he's not kidding, I don't know.

O'BRIEN: But let's hope he is kidding.

You know, you really could see a scenario where people are shooting their spouses if they're involved in, you know, domestic disputes kind of things...

CAFFERTY: I... O'BRIEN: And say, the partner, I thought they were going to, I didn't realize, a stranger, I thought they were going to attack me.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: I can.

CAFFERTY: Yes, no, I'm sure it'll happen and there'll probably be mistakes made. On the other hand, the criminal element might hesitate just for a nanosecond, wondering whether the person they're about to do harm to might pull a gun and do away with themselves. I, you know, I suppose it cuts both ways.

O'BRIEN: I guess it does.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

O'BRIEN: I guess it's one of those things that you won't know until you know when you look at the statistics a year out.

CAFFERTY: No, but it's great for this kind of stuff.

O'BRIEN: It is, absolutely. A good Question of the Day.

CAFFERTY: I don't care...

O'BRIEN: No...

CAFFERTY: I don't care...

O'BRIEN: Was there any question about that? Sorry.

CAFFERTY: I don't care how it turns out, this is terrific for the Question of the Day.

O'BRIEN: Moving on.

Thanks, Jack.

Nearly 14 million people in the U.S. abuse alcohol and for many alcoholics, controlling the cravings is an unending struggle. Well, now a new injection might provide some help in the battle to stay sober.

CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since the age of 15, alcohol addiction controlled John Baums' life, hurting his personal relationships and affecting his high-profile culinary career.

JOHN BAUMS, ADDICTED TO ALCOHOL: There was no possible way that after a heavy night of drinking, or even when I was sober, it was impossible for me to be at 100 percent. Every aspect of my being was affected.

GUPTA: He tried psychoanalysis, an intensive outpatient program, A.A. meetings and simply going cold turkey. None of them worked.

BAUMS: I didn't see a future for my relationship with myself and my wife. I didn't see a financial future. I saw my relationship with my family fading away. I saw my relationship with my, you know, with my friends fading away. I was afraid for my life. I thought I was going to die.

GUPTA: Finally, he tried the drug Naltrexone, a pill designed to curb the craving for alcohol by blocking the euphoric feeling alcohol can give. And for the last eight months, John has been sober.

Taking a daily pill has been working for John, but for many alcoholics, sticking to a schedule and taking a pill every day is an extraordinary challenge.

DR. JAMES C. GARBUTT, ADDICTION MEDICINE SPECIALIST: Alcoholism is a disease where individuals are very mixed about what they want to happen. One the one hand, many folks want to get better. On the other hand, there's a part of them that's driving them to consume alcohol and drink alcohol.

GUPTA: So researchers have now developed an injectable form of the drug, given once a month instead of once a day.

BAUMS: By having it only once a month, you don't have to worry about it anymore. You don't have to be concerned with going to the drugstore to get your refill of prescription. You don't have to worry about possibly forgetting to take the pill. And you can focus on the other aspects of your life, for example, healing family wounds, working on your job, working on your physical health in addition to your emotional and mental health.

GUPTA: Side effects of the drug are minimal but include nausea and mild headaches, as well as fatigue. If approved by the FDA, the injectable form of Naltrexone would join a short list of drugs designed to help control alcohol cravings.

For people struggling with alcohol, these drugs mean even more hope that they can recover from this disease.

RAYE LITTEN, PH.D., NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: They're not a magic bullet. They don't work for everyone. We are starting to develop medications to treat alcoholism that can have an effect.

GUPTA: For John, he's taking it one day at a time.

BAUMS: I see a bright future. By being on Naltrexone, my urge to drink is completely gone. So I see a wonderful future ahead of me. My life is getting so much better, my work is wonderful. My relationships with my family are healing. I see a great future ahead of me and better mental and physical health.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEO TAPE)

O'BRIEN: The study on Naltrexone can be found in this week's issue of the "Journal of the American Medical Association."

From sex kitten to Oscar winner and anti-war activist to workout guru, Jane Fonda takes a look back on her life, that's taken some pretty incredible twists and turns along the way. She'll join us to talk about her new autobiography in just a moment.

But first, what was Jane Fonda's first movie? Was it, A, "The Chapman Report?" Was it, B, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" Or was it, C, "Tall Story?"

The answer is right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: In a moment here, how a Jewish boy from Brooklyn ended up as the personal maestro for a Polish-born pope. Their unique relationship a bit later on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Before the break, we asked you what was Jane Fonda's first movie? The answer is C, "Tall Story." It was released in 1960. We'll talk to Jane Fonda live in this hour.

But now we want to get you back to Vatican City, which is where we find Bill Hemmer -- good morning again, Bill.

HEMMER: Hey, Soledad, getting a little bit of information right now about what is contained in the final will of Pope John Paul II. Not a lot coming out just yet, but we do want to point out that apparently he brings back a lot of memories of his own family. This is a man who lost his mother in 1929 at the age of nine. He lost a brother at a young age, a father at a young age. And it appears that much of this will reflects on the early days of his life and being reunited with his lost family members in heaven.

So we will bring you more as we get it here at the Vatican.

For now, we want to go back down to St. Peter's Square.

Jennifer Eccleston is down there now live and talking with the mourners, the lucky ones, too, because they will be the final ones to pass through and pay tribute -- Jennifer, good afternoon.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill.

Well, as you know, when Pope John Paul II's body was first laid out on Monday, the crowd was distinctly Italian. And then in the days to come, it became more diverse, more international -- from North America, South America and from across Europe.

But today, Bill, I can say the crowd is distinctly Polish. I'm going to ask the cameraman, Martin, now to pan over and you can see the vast array of Polish flags now waving throughout the crowd, some 30, 40 wide, and countless tens of thousands behind me.

It had been feared that most of the Polish pilgrims that had arrived in the last 24 hours would not be able to make it to the viewing because last night Rome officials said that they would cut off the line at 10:00 p.m. Now, I've been talking to a number of these pilgrims and also to a number of police, who said that those rules have been relaxed slightly, that some of the tourists that came into town were now able to get in, some of them coming as early as 8:00 this morning. And they will be able to come in and see the pope.

Now we are being told that the Basilica will close at 10:00 p.m., and it's a not clear at this stage whether all the pilgrims who are in line right now will make it to the basilica at that stage. And we don't know what the police and civilian authorities will say to them when they actually shut those massive bronze doors at the basilica and make way for the preparations for tomorrow's funeral -- Bill.

HEMMER: They are the lucky ones. We can see that. Jennifer, thanks again in St. Peters Square.

Back to New York in a moment to here, actually right now. Talk to you again in a moment.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks.

Let's get right to Carol Costello. She's got a look at some of the stories that are making headlines this morning.

Good morning again, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I do. Good morning, Soledad. Good morning to all of you.

Now in the news, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani is now the official new president of Iraq. Talabani being sworn in during a Baghdad ceremony just within the past half hour. Two vice presidents also taking office. The first order of business will be to name a new prime minister. And Iraqi official says Saddam Hussein did watch a videotape of Talabani's election Wednesday, and he apparently was upset.

A search-and-recovery mission under way in southern Afghanistan right now. U.S. military sources say a Chinook helicopter went down in bad weather, killing at least 16 people, most of them American forces. Two people are still missing this morning.

NASA moving closer to its first shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster more than two years ago. The Space Shuttle Discovery was rolled out on to its launch pad overnight after a two- hour delay. Technicians found a crack in the foam insulation around the fuel tank. The Discovery expected to lift off next month.

And more severe weather expected in the Southeast today. More than 30 homes were damaged, and power knocked out as several tornadoes touched down in parts of Mississippi. The storm system sweeping through northwestern Louisiana. Strong winds tossing around cars and mobile homes. At least eight people have been hurt in the southern storm, one critically.

Back to you, Soledad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Back in 1987, Gilbert Levine became the conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra. His appointment there was news in the pope's native Poland. A few months after becoming maestro, the pope asked to meet with Maestro Levin. And for the next 17 years, Gilbert Levine would become known as the pope's maestro. The maestro is with me now.

Good afternoon to you. I know you miss your friend a great deal.

GILBERT LEVINE, POPE'S PERSONAL CONDUCTOR: I do, deeply. The world does. And that's what's remarkable, is Catholics do, surely -- Jews do, Muslims do, Buddhists do. You hear that the Dalai Lama commemorating the pope yesterday. The chief rabbi of Israel misses this man. He reached out to all of us. It's really remarkable.

HEMMER: Let's tell some stories. In 1991, you approached the pope with this idea. You wanted to hold a concert in remembrance of the Holocaust. How did he react to that?

LEVINE: Instantly yes. I invited him to a concert that I would organize in Rome. It was my idea to have a concert to commemorate the Holocaust in Rome and to invite the pope. He said, no, why not have it in the Vatican, why not make it a papal event. It will then be, as it was, a world event. And he says, if I do this, I will do this, but will there be a hand too reach mine? Will Jews come? Will Holocaust survivors come to the Vatican? And in the event in 1994, they came, and they honored his gesture; and his willingness and his courage to make that gesture was just remarkable.

HEMMER: I understand Larry King asked you if you were nervous for that. Perhaps the pontiff came to you, too, at that point and said, you a bit nervous doing this? And what were you, terrified?

LEVINE: No that was actually for the first concert I conducted for him in 1988 after the rehearsal. He invited me up to his private library. And I wondered why, because I was going to see him that night. And he said, have you had enough rehearsal for this concert? I said, why? Because I head the pope's coming tonight. You must be well prepared.

HEMMER: What is it about that sense of humor that you were able to pick up on, because I think at one point you were about to come out to this concert, and they kind of changed the songs on you. How did that happen?

LEVINE: In 1993, I was on conducting for him a World Youth Day, and liturgists in the Vatican arranged the program for the papal concert a year in advance with incredible detail spelled out. And instead of following that, his private secretary, Monsignor Dziwisz called me over and said change 26 to 27. And as I was conducting and told the orchestra to switch the two numbers, the bases stopped playing and the cello stopped playing, and the whole right side of the orchestra, and I'm getting frustrated. And finally I look over my shoulder, and there's the pope with a really impish grin on his face, and he comes over, he puts his arm around me, and said, did I disturb you, maestro? And I wanted to give him the baton, because by then, he had stolen the show.

HEMMER: As you talk, you're face is lighting up with many great memories.

LEVINE: I loved him. I thought he was a remarkable human being. He cared for my family. He cared my Jewishness. He nurtured my Jewishness. When people hear that, they say, oh, no, he was the pope. Yes, he was a great Catholic leader, but he honored people of faith, and he honored people of my faith, and he nurtured me so that I went from being a reformed secular Jew at the beginning of my relationship to the fact that my son was bar mitzvah-ed in an orthodox synagogue two weeks ago. He deepened my Jewish faith.

HEMMER: This man had no walls, did he, when it came to faith, or politics, religion, none of that.

LEVINE: He climbed to the top of the mountain and saw what there was to see, and said, I believe that people can be united, and he had the ability with all his heart and all his soul to do that, and I have to say it's not easy. There were people in the church and the Jewish community, for instance, that didn't want it, but he wouldn't give up; he wouldn't let go.

HEMMER: As you're talking, this image comes to mind during this funeral, you will have the leader of Iran, the leader of Syria, the leader of the Palestinian people, the Jewish leader will come here from Israel, the U.S. president will be here, President Clinton, the first President Bush as well. I would think looking down from him tomorrow, down here on Earth, this would make him quite proud.

LEVINE: He's extremely pleased sitting up there, and I know where he is and you know where he is, and he's up there and smiling and saying, this legacy, hopefully the church will grasp and in the future will look for a leader who will grasp those people, and I will be among them smiling back up saying a little bit of that history I was able to share. But for millions of people here, I've been to Rome many times; I've never seen anything like this.

HEMMER: If you could play one final song for him, what would you choose?

LEVINE: The finale of the "Beethoven Ninth Symphony." All of us are brothers under God. All of us are brothers -- Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist -- and he believed that firmly.

HEMMER: Great to see you.

LEVINE: Thank you.

HEMMER: Gilbert Levine, Maestro, thank you for your time.

Our coverage will continue in the middle of the night here from Vatican City tomorrow. As the funeral gets under way about 4:00 a.m. back in New York, our coverage starts an hour earlier, 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time. They expect this funeral to last upwards of three, maybe four hours, so we'll have it all for you tomorrow here on CNN -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks.

Still to come this morning, Jane Fonda bears her soul, from the infidelities of her famous husbands to the controversy she caused during the Vietnam War. Fonda tells all in her new autobiography. She joins us live, up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: I'm Bill Hemmer live back here in Vatican City. We are learning more details now on the pope's final will.

Delia Gallagher, our Vatican analyst, has been on the phone here at the Vatican. She joins me again now and good afternoon again to you. First, what are you learning? And then I'll tell you what I'm getting off the wires.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: OK. Well, first of all, it's five-page typed document, 15-page handwritten -- last updated 15 page handwritten, last updated in 2000. No reference to a lot of things we were speculating on. So I think that's the first point...

HEMMER: Such as?

GALLAGHER: ... to make no reference to his heart going to Poland. No reference to a secret cardinal. No reference to a papal successor. So it is a spiritual testament. He does say with regard to his personal effects -- which, as we said before, are few -- that will be decided by his private secretary. You mentioned he was already giving away some of the daily items of the pope. So that was according to his wishes.

As regards to the funeral rite, we already know that he wanted it according to Paul VI's funeral rite, which is what will happen tomorrow, and be buried in the ground. And then he says that at this time, he is thinking of his brother and sister, whom he never knew, and his parents, who died. That was in 2000. By the way, the pope says that he reviewed this testament at every spiritual exercise, so...

HEMMER: Which would have been how often?

GALLAGHER: Spiritual exercises happen just before Lent every year. So he reviewed his will. And he says that some indications for -- he doesn't give indications directly for the future of the church, but he does say the next pope will have the job to carry the church into the third millennium. Let's remember, this was in the year 2000 that he was writing, so and he probably didn't realize he'd be already five years into it.

And he said that they will have to continue on the great gift of Vatican II. That is something which to those people who know the church will be significant. He thanks, also, non-Catholics for their support of him. He remembers meeting them. He thanks the rabbi of Rome, for example. And, of course, all of the people that he met throughout his...

HEMMER: Okay now, Delia, as you're talking there, let me tell you what I'm picking up here on the AP Wires, just crossing here. They're suggesting also that he considered retirement in the year 2000. If true, that would be significant, as he was considering his own health.

GALLAGHER: That would be significant.

HEMMER: Because he would have been about what, 79 years old in the year 2000.

GALLAGHER: Well, yes, I'd like to know where exactly they're quoting that. Some of that's a possibility. This is a five-page document which we just have in, so we still have to go through it very thoroughly. Again, it's in Italian, so we're also depending on our good Italian.

HEMMER: Let me pass along two more things here. He's requesting the personal notes to be burned, it reports, and also no material goods in his final will, either, which is something you referred to last hour.

GALLAGHER: The personal notes being burned doesn't surprise me, because Paul VI requested the same thing, that any of his writings be destroyed.

HEMMER: OK. We'll keep look going through it. Thank you, Delia. Back to the Vatican in a moment. Here's Soledad now -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks. Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award winner, a workout guru, an anti-war activist and now a self-described feminist Christian. She talks about all of that in her new autobiography. It's called "My Life So Far."

Nice to see you. Thanks to for talking with.

JANE FONDA, AUTHOR, "MY LIFE SO FAR": Oh, it's good to see you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: You cover so much ground, and I read that you actually had to cut out a lot. I mean, this is not a skinny book. But I'm curious to know why -- why some things made it in. For example, you talk about your husbands, your movies, obviously, your relationship with your dad, the visit to North Vietnam, which we'll get to in a little bit. Roger Vadim, you talk about threesomes with him. And I'm wondering why is that -- why did that make it into -- what lesson do you think came out of that?

FONDA: The lesson that -- the reason I put it in and I think the lesson that comes out of it is how even a strong woman like me, who didn't depend on her husbands financially, was willing to give up her heart and betray her body in order to please a man because I felt I wasn't good enough.

O'BRIEN: Did he force you into have sex with other...

FONDA: No. Nobody ever -- see, that's what interesting. Nobody ever forced me or anything. I just, you know, I felt that I wasn't enough and so I did what I felt I needed to do to make them love me.

O'BRIEN: You talk about going into to some degree the world with not the right tools. To what degree do you blame your upbringing for that and dad? And you write a lot about...

FONDA: I hate blame, I don't blame anybody. But the fact is, as a young mother, you know -- I know you know this and will appreciate it -- if a child doesn't grow up feeling that they're good enough, if they feel that they have to be perfect to be loved, that's going to cause them to behave in a certain way, especially a girl. And I was stricken with what Oprah calls the disease to please. It had me in its thrall until I was 60.

O'BRIEN: You describe "On Golden Pond," the producing of that, the acting in that, the story of the elderly couple and their relationship -- very complicated relationship, really with the father and the adult daughter now, who's got a young son herself, the son sort of a metaphor for the woman as a girl, blah blah blah, we could go on about it. But is it really a story of your relationship with your dad?

FONDA: Yes, there were a lot of parallels. I mean, if people say, what was your dad like, I'll say, think about Norman Thayer in "On Golden Pond." He was withdrawn, he had a hard time expressing feelings. Not that they weren't there, he just -- it was partly a generational thing. And it was such a blessing for me to be able to produce that movie for him when he was so close to the end of his life, to have it win him his Oscar, and to be able say to him and ask him to love me in ways that I never could in real life. It was amazing.

O'BRIEN: The character has a resolution with her father, but you never did with your father?

FONDA: Well, I did, on my end. I was able, before he died, to tell him how much I loved him and that I forgave him and you know, that I was sorry that I hurt him sometimes. And it was closure for me. I don't know to what extent he felt closure. I think not.

O'BRIEN: He was not a big fan of your politics.

FONDA: Well, no, that's not quite true. I learned...

O'BRIEN: The headlines.

FONDA: ... that some of the controversy, it frightened him. But I learned my values at his -- watching his movies, Tom Joad, "Clarence Darrow," "Young Abe Lincoln" (sic).

O'BRIEN: You write that he says he would turn you in -- if he discovered you were a communist, he would have turned you in?

FONDA: Yes, I was defending someone who was a communist and he thought maybe I was. I was never an ideological person. And he said, if I ever found out, I'd turn you in. And you know, it just devastated me because I thought Tom Joad wouldn't turn his daughter in -- you know, the characters that he played wouldn't turn their daughter in. What does this mean? We had some rough years. Of course, that was endemic in America in those days, the generational splits over the Vietnam War. Very hard for families.

O'BRIEN: Of course, there's been much discussion of the last 30 years, about Hanoi Jane and why you did what you did, which was to pose on the anti-American aircraft Gunner smiling and laughing. And you write about it, you dedicate a lot of the book, actually, to it. And you say, "My only regret about the trip was that I was photographed sitting in a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun site. What the image suggested had nothing to do with what I was doing or thinking or feeling at the time, as I hope this chapter will show." Is that an apology?

FONDA: Oh, I've apologized for that image for decades. It was the most horrible lapse of judgment imaginable. I went to Vietnam to try to help end the war and to expose the Nixon administration's lies. We were being lied to and men were dying and I wanted to try to stop it. And the last day there, I just -- I had made this terrible mistake. And I just wasn't thinking.

And the terrible irony for me is I had spent two previous years immersed in working with soldiers, active duty soldiers and returning Vietnam veterans. I was brought was into the anti-war movement by them. I opened an office in Washington to try to help them, the G.I. office.

O'BRIEN: Does it surprise you? I mean, even the election, this past election, it still was an issue.

FONDA: Well, no, that doesn't surprise me. You know, there are people, unfortunately, who will lie, just plain mendacity -- lie to try win their campaign.

O'BRIEN: But it's an emotional issue. I mean, if you talk...

FONDA: Doesn't surprise me, no. I'll tell you what's an emotional issue. What's an emotional issue is when the soldiers -- not ideologues, not political hacks, but just the soldiers -- when the soldiers feel hostility to me. I understand why that's true, but I think it's misdirected. It should be directed to the men who lied to them and sent them there.

But I understand it. There is still a lot of rage about Vietnam. We've never resolved the wound that is Vietnam, and as long we don't, I will be a lightning rod.

O'BRIEN: You end the book with the beginning, which I think is interesting. You're dealing -- doing a lot of work with mothers and young women.

FONDA: Teach what you need to learn.

O'BRIEN: Yes. The book is called "My Life So Far." So I guess there will be a volume two?

FONDA: I don't know about that. But I'm very proud of the book, and I'm working real hard, because I think it has something to say to people.

O'BRIEN: Thanks for coming in to talk with us.

FONDA: It's very good to see you, Soledad. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

Break. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

CAFFERTY: McDonald's doing right by their CEO's, even the dead ones.

Andy Serwer's here "Minding Your Business." Good morning.

SERWER: Good morning, Jack.

You don't often hear of businesses being thoughtful or generous, but I think in this context, McDonald's qualifies. It had the misfortune of having two CEO's pass away in the same nine-month period, Jim Cantalupo in April of '04, and Charlie Bell just this January. The company just announcing it would pay both gentlemen multi-million dollar bonuses -- or their estates, I should say -- multi-million dollar bonuses they would have received, had they served for their full years. Interesting stuff there.

Eliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general, in a bit of advertising flap. Let me explain. This has to do with Google. When you go to Google and you typed in the word "AIG," which is the name of the embattled New York insurance company that he has been investigating, up on the right side of the Google page, what is known as a sponsored link would pop up, and this sponsored link would say "Eliot Spitzer for governor." And if you pressed the link, it went to Eliot Spitzer, 2006.

Now it's sort of tacky, I think, to do that, because he's been accused of grandstanding, Jack, going after some of these companies for political purposes, and this would sort of reinforce that notion. They have pulled the ad and of course suggested it was a low-level staffer who was responsible.

O'BRIEN: Who has been fired, I'm sure, right? They always say that.

CAFFERTY: Is he going to run for governor?

SERWER: Indeed he is. He's announced that he is.

CAFFERTY: That connection of political purposes had some...

SERWER: Well, and that ad would seem to reinforce that.

CAFFERTY: Certainly would.

Thanks, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

CAFFERTY: Time for the "File." The director of the upcoming film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" said he spent a fortune training squirrels to crack nuts. This is something they already know how to do, but not for the movies. According to the British newspaper, "The Sun," Tim Burton is determined to recreate a scene from Ronald Dahl's novel in which hundreds of squirrels crack nuts and then put them on a conveyor belt. Burton says he used actual rodents, quote, "sending them from birth to training school for six months." How'd you like to be an investor in this film?

The first version of the scene starring Gene Wilder just had the squirrels cracking the nuts with a machine. This new one is scheduled for release of July. We think of this year. Unbelievable.

A New York medical worker has his Chapstick to thank for saving his life. Steven Jacobs (ph), working at a rehab center in Brooklyn Wednesday, when a gunfight erupted outside. These things happen in Brooklyn periodically. A bullet ricocheted, went through a window of Jacob's office. He had just bent over to pick up his fallen Chapstick when he heard the glass shatter. He wasn't seriously hurt, but he thinks the bullet would have hit him right square in the chest if he hadn't bent over to pick up that Chapstick.

Controversy rocks the pageant world. High school teacher Janeal Lee has been stripped of her pageant title of Miss Wheelchair Wisconsin after pageant organizers saw a photo of her in a local newspaper standing up in her classroom. She's a math teacher. She has muscular dystrophy. She says she can walk up to 50 feet on a good day, and sometimes does stand up in her classroom. The rest of the time she uses the chair. But the Wheelchair America board of directors says the pageant cannot have title holders walking around in public. It would offend other women who are in wheelchairs all the time.

And there's fallout to this story. Her sister has stepped down as Miss Wheelchair Minnesota. And the Miss Wheelchair Wisconsin runner-up has declined to take Lee's title. But the second runner-up, Kim Jerman, says, give me that tiara.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: That's ridiculous. It's not like she's not in her wheelchair.

SERWER: She's not handicapped enough.

O'BRIEN: Disabled is the word we like to use. Thank you.

CAFFERTY: There's a difference between handicapped and disabled?

O'BRIEN: I think disabled is more politically correct. Maybe you're not aware of more politically correct terms. But yes, our understanding is the word is disabled, or otherly abled.

She's not walking around in public.

CAFFERTY: In her classroom.

SERWER: Disabled enough.

CAFFERTY: You think they should have left the title in her lap?

O'BRIEN: Yes. And, number two, whatever runner-up who grabbed the tiara, girl, you're going to pay for that.

Thanks, Jack.

Coming up in a moment, a look at today's top stories, including new details on the pope's will. The Vatican released new information within the last few minutes. Bill's going to bring us the very latest live from Rome. That's up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

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