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American Morning

Michael Jackson's Defense Case Now Entering Third Week; Doctors Excited About Promising New Treatment in Fight Against Breast Cancer

Aired May 16, 2005 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And to get another look at the headlines, Carol Costello is in for us this morning.
Hey, Carol, good morning.

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

Now in the news, aid workers are fanning out across Uzbekistan border to check on refugees after a violent weekend. An estimated 450 people were killed in anti-government demonstrations with police. New video in this morning shows families digging graves. Relief workers say hundreds, possibly thousands, of others fled the clash, as most are said to be in good condition.

In Tampa, a former University of South Florida professor goes on trial today, charged with helping to fund terrorism. Sami El Ariane (ph) and three other men are accused of using Islamic organizations as fronts to raise money for suicide bombings in Israel. The man calls himself, quote, "a prisoner of conscience." If convicted, he could face life in prison. In Los Angeles, two longstanding rivals for the mayor's seat are scrambling for votes on the eve of the election. Incumbent Mayor James Hahn (ph) spent time campaigning in churches in south L.A. His opponent, Antonio Villarosa (ph) took the same campaign path. Tomorrow is a rematch for the pair. Four years ago, Hahn defeated Villarosa by a seven-percent margin. If Villarosa wins, he would be L.A.'s first Hispanic mayor.

And the force is with London today, as "Star Wars" fans attend a long-awaited movie marathon. Hundreds of fans are watching the entire series back to back, culminating with premier of "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." The tickets for the marathon were sold out in just five minutes last week. "Episode III" opens in the United States, minus the marathon, this Thursday.

But you can bet many people are going to have marathons in their homes.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: That Chewy thing, I mean, really, 12 hours-plus, doing the math in that.

COSTELLO: Yes, I think you're right.

M. O'BRIEN: You see them all? COSTELLO: No, I don't get it.

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: Well, Michael Jackson's defense case is now entering its third week. As court wrapped on Friday, jurors in the molestation trial heard from the pop star's former attorney Mark Geragos. Attorney Anne Bremner in was in the courtroom and she's in Seattle for us this morning.

Hey, Anne, nice to have you back. Thanks for talking with us. Good morning.

ANNE BREMNER, ATTORNEY: Thanks for having me. Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: OK, so we hear from Geragos that he, in fact, was the one who had the private detective following around the accuser's family, also that he was the one who ordered the surveillance videotape. How significant are these two points, and how did the jury take it?

BREMNER: Very significant. Debbie Rowe described all of the people that surrounded Michael Jackson as opportunistic vultures.

And Mark Geragos said there was yet another group of vultures, and that was the accuser's family, and he researched them, and what he found gave him great pause, so he ordered the surveillance, not Michael Jackson. It's legal in California, and he looked into whether or not there were people out to get Michael Jackson. He was a good witness. When he was asked to give his background, he said, I went to college, I went to law school, I passed the bar, and that got a big laugh, because most lawyers would go on further about their backgrounds.

S. O'BRIEN: A lot of this of course goes to the conspiracy part, because if they can distance Michael Jackson from the conspiracy, you've already gotten rid of 50 percent of the case.

BREMNER: Absolutely. Absolutely. And keep in mind, in terms of the timeline, the molestation purportedly occurred after this videotape of Martin Bashir, and during the time that all these lawyers were involved in terms of trying to do damage control, and Michael Jackson, so far, appeared to have nothing to do with false imprisonment or trying to get this family to do certain things to respond to the documentary.

S. O'BRIEN: The conspiracy part of it, let's get back to the other part of the case, which is essentially, the root of it, is sleeping in the same bed with children, namely small boys. What did Geragos have to say about that? And how was that received by the jury?

BREMNER: Well, he was the first witness, Soledad, in this case to address that issue, and when the prosecutor talked about, well, didn't you know he was sleeping with boys? Geragos said wait a minute. What do you mean by sleeping with boys? That has a sexual connotation. What I saw was a child-like person, Michael Jackson, who loved to be around children, and sleeping with children was innocent, and that Michael Jackson denied any molestation to Mark Geragos, and Mark Geragos believed him.

It's the first time someone really addressed this whole, what is sleeping with children? Is it innocent, or is it something that's criminal? And I think the jurors are really listening.

S. O'BRIEN: OK, something that's a little bit confusing to me is the attorney/client privilege that was waived for some of the testimony for Mark Geragos, but not all of it. What exactly is going on here?

BREMNER: Thomas Mesereau, the defense attorney, stood up, and Mark Geragos said, has he waived the whole privilege? Mesereau said yes. Well, at a break, it turned out it had been limited, and the judge, steam was coming out of his ears. He was not happy to hear it had been limited. We're going to address that this morning in court as to whether or not the testimony would be stricken or they'll be some sanction against Thomas Mesereau, because the judge felt there had been something misleading about this representation about a blanket waiver.

S. O'BRIEN: The outtakes from Martin Bashir's documentary, were pretty much all that we're seeing of Michael Jackson, you know, on the stand or being interviewed. How are they coming across?

BREMNER: Michael Jackson took the stand last week. We'd hear about all of these stars that are going to testify. The star witness was Michael Jackson.

S. O'BRIEN: How was he?

BREMNER: He was like an innocent oddball. He was compelling. He was funny at times. He was weird. He talked about wanting to have celebrity animal parties with Lassie and Benji. He talked about how much he loves children and his own children. He talked about how he can't trust adults. You know, he's been said before, it hurts to be me, and that he doesn't trust anyone, even his mother. He only trusts children. So this went a long way toward proving the theory of the defense case, which is he's a child, not a child molester.

S. O'BRIEN: How do you think the defense case is shaping up so far in the three weeks in?

BREMNER: I think it's great in a lot of ways. They've rebutted this Bashir videotape, talking about Michael sleeping with children, but they've also rebutted the pattern evidence of five claimed victims in the past, three have testified for Michael Jackson. The third, MaCaulay Culkin, was excellent.

S. O'BRIEN: Well you know what, Anne, as we always say, it's not over yet.

BREMNER: Stay tuned. It's not over until it's over.

S. O'BRIEN: So not over yet. Attorney Anne Bremner for us this morning. Anne, thanks, as always.

BREMNER: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles?

BREMNER: Doctors are excited about a promising new treatment in the fight against breast cancer.

Elizabeth Cohen tells us about a drug that fights dangerous proteins and helps prevent cancer from coming back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She found the lump herself one morning.

ELIZABETH RUSSO, BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR: I was petrified.

COHEN: Then her doctor confirmed the worst.

RUSSO: I had only been married for about a year and a half, and I felt like my world was falling down around me. You know, the first question that goes through your head is, am I going to die? And that really was what I was thinking at the time. It was extremely frightening.

COHEN: At age 29, Elizabeth Russo had breast cancer, and there was more. Doctors told her she had a particular kind that grew quickly, and was more likely to come back. This happens to one out of every four patients.

But there was a twist. Because she had this particular type of tumor, she was a candidate for a study on a drug called Herceptin. Doctors knew it worked when the cancer spread to other parts of the body, but they weren't sure if it could help women like Elizabeth who were at the early stages. At first she wasn't sure what to do, because the drug, in a small number of women, had caused heart failure.

RUSSO: There was a little bit of fear there, but obviously, in my situation, the chances absolutely outweighed the frighteningness of the whole situation. I mean, I had to take the risk, because there was still the chance that I could die.

S. O'BRIEN: She took Herceptin along with chemotherapy and radiation, and a year after finding that lump, she's cancer-free. In the studies at the National Cancer Institute, when women did not take Herceptin, 30 percent of them had the cancer come back. When they did take Herceptin, only 15 percent had the cancer come back. It cut the recurrence rate in half, an extraordinary impact, experts say, meaning this drug is one of the most promising in a new generation of cancer treatments.

Unlike chemotherapy or radiation which attack healthy and unhealthy tissue, medicines like Herceptin are designed to attack only the specific protein that causes problems. DR. DAVID JOHNSON, VANDERBILT CANCER INST.: Targeted therapies, which we've talked a lot about for the last couple of years, are really coming to fruition.

COHEN: Now Elizabeth Russo, once afraid she would die, is alive for the big moments, like her godson's christening last month. The cancer could come back, but now, it seems that's less likely.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Now drugmaker Roche Holdings says it will work to make the treatment available to patients as quickly as possible after these positive new studies.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: There's a big problem with Toyota's hot Prius. Now the company says it knows what's wrong. Andy's got that story and more ahead.

S. O'BRIEN: Also up next this morning, Dave Chappelle speaks, tells he why he walked away from his hit TV show and $50 million. We're going to talk to the "Time" reporter who chatted with him.

Before we go, though, quick bit of trivia. What movie was Dave Chappelle's first feature-film debut? Was it called "Half Baked?" Was it called Robin Hood: Men in Tights?" Or was it "The Nutty Professor?" All fine films, I might add. The answer is coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

M. O'BRIEN: The academy passed them over for reasons we don't understand.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

Before the break, we asked you which movie would Dave Chappelle's feature film debut? The answer is "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," a Mel Brooks film that was made back in 1993. Didn't see it.

To hear comedian Dave Chappelle tell it, reports of his mental meltdown have been greatly exaggerated. In an exclusive interview with "Time" magazine, the runaway funnyman explains why he fled his comedy central show for South Africa. "Time's" Christopher John Farley spoke with Dave Chappelle. He's joining us this morning.

How did you get in touch with him? I mean, here's a guy who literally disappeared for a couple of weeks. People thought maybe drugs. People thought he had just skipped town. How'd you reach him? And then what did he say.

CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Well, people were saying all kind of things, but I was in touch with him throughout pretty much this entire controversy, because I'd been doing a story on him, pegged to the new season, the third season that he was filming. So we've been on the phone. He'd been coming by "Time" magazine. And so when he took off to South Africa I got in touch with him, and said, you know, what's going on? Are you on drugs? He said no. I said, what's going on with your mental health? He said he had seen a psychiatrist for a short session. So he really sort of spilled his guts as to what was going on.

S. O'BRIEN: So where is he?

FARLEY: So he went to Durbin, South Africa. It's a place he had gone before the show for spiritual treatment. So he sort of remembered the place and went back there again to get in touch with his spiritual being again, and sort of get ready to complete the show.

S. O'BRIEN: These are photographs in South Africa that were taken. I know you sent a reporter as well, in addition to the interview.

FARLEY: Yes, I talked about a dozen times on the film, but you never know, maybe he could have a South African payphone; he's calling me from around the corner or something like that. So we decided to have a reporter go there, check it out, take pictures over there. We got some really good shots of him on a beach in Durbin, on a pier in Durbin, just beautiful shots, so just to make sure his really story checked out.

S. O'BRIEN: You asked him why he ran. What did he say?

FARLEY: Well, he ran, because you know, in college, sometimes you have a paper deadline and can't make it, you're pulling all- nighters? Well, he was doing the thing on a $50 million paper he had due, and he thought that the deadline was too tight, he wanted to have quality control, and so he felt like he couldn't make the deadline and deliver the quality he wanted, so he took off to South Africa.

S. O'BRIEN: In fact you're talking about the $50 million paycheck he was going to get for his third season of the show, which airs on Comedy Central.

Now basically he made it sound in the interview as if he had lost creative control of the show, to come degree. I mean, I thought he and one other guy pretty much do the whole thing.

FARLEY: Yes, talking to him, I really got the sense, oh, you know, Comedy Central is coming down hard on me, but talking to his partners, talking to Comedy Central, it's pretty clear this guy has complete creative control over his show. Some of this could be in his own head, the pressure on him. The thing is, the show deals with such difficult sexual and racial material that he feels he has to do it right or he can't do it at all. He doesn't want to make a mistake.

S. O'BRIEN: You make an interesting point I thought in your interview, where he sort of says, as soon as the wrong people started laughing, in his own mind, then he's sort of having second thoughts about skits that he thought was hilarious. When the wrong people laughed maybe not so funny.

FARLEY: Yes, he told me about this incident, where he had this sketch for the third season of his show, where there's this racial pixie, this pixie's in black face, and it's obviously a very edgy sketch, and he thought it was hilarious, and then he saw someone on the set laughing it, a white visitor, and suddenly, he suddenly saw it in a whole new light, about, well, maybe I'm making the wrong people laugh for the wrong reasons. Do I really do want to do this? And that really created a crisis in him almost of identity. What do you do next?

S. O'BRIEN: Has he angered the folks at Comedy Central by leaving, that it's done, that the deal is done, off?

FARLEY: Well, you know, he has angered a lot of people. A lot of people at Comedy Central are upset. People are have had to put their lives on hold.

The thing is, he's still considered a comedy genius by the president of Comedy Central. The guy still wants to work with him. I have to believe, though I don't know this for certain, that they'll probably work something out, because there's a lot of money on the line here. His DVDs sell a lot, and so I think they want to have a guy like that work for them, even if he's difficult.

S. O'BRIEN: Is he coming home soon, did he say?

FARLEY: He told me he's going to come home maybe this week, maybe a little bit later, but I think he's on track to come back to the U.S. very soon.

S. O'BRIEN: And he's feeling sort of emotionally and mentally better?

FARLEY: Well, he told me he was stressed out, but it seemed like he's on the road to recovery from whatever he was going through, this sort of spiritual crisis.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, well, we're glad to hear that, and of course everybody wants to see Dave Chappelle's third season.

FARLEY: So do I.

S. O'BRIEN: Christopher John Farley, from "Time" magazine. Chris, always nice to see you -- Miles.

FARLEY: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: "CNN LIVE TODAY" coming up next. Daryn Kagan with that.

Good morning, Daryn. What you got going on today?

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Miles.

Miles, we're on a mission against personal identity theft and your personal computer. Gerri Willis will be along to give your top- five tips on how you can keep that home computer safe.

And then we're talking about getaways. Have you heard of this thing called shoulder season. It's just a little offseason, but there are some amazing bargains to take you to some super places. We'll pack our things and we'll get going in just about 11 minutes on "CNN LIVE TODAY."

M. O'BRIEN: I never heard it called shoulder season.

KAGAN: I had never heard that either.

M. O'BRIEN: When we got married, we discovered May was good shoulder season, I guess, in the Caribbean. We got a great deal. So now I know.

KAGAN: Now you know. That's what the honeymoon is all about, good shoulders.

M. O'BRIEN: The honeymoon still goes on.

All right, thank you, Daryn.

Toyota drivers have a complaint about the Prius. They say it's been shutting down on the highway? What do you need? A longer extension cord? Toyota says it has some answers. We'll have that for you. Andy Serwer knows.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Guess what? There've been some complaints about a hot hybrid car. We'll have that story and a check of the market this morning. Andy is "Minding Your Business."

Good morning to you. You want to start with the markets?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I do, Soledad. Let's check in. We have a bit of a rally going on, because the price of oil has dropped below $48 a barrel. We're up, what is that, 37 on the Dow, thank you very much.

One stock that's moving actually a bit to the upside is Lowe's, the home-improvement chain. They had a quarter that wasn't quite up to snuff. Still investors thinking it's OK. They blamed the bad numbers on -- I love this, an unusually cold and wet March. That's what march usually is, it's kind of wet and cold in the Northeast. Anyway, it's just kind of the weather excuse number 158.

Let's talk about the Prius here. Toyota is acknowledging that a small number of the Priuses, if that's the plural, the hybrid car, are stalling out at highway speeds. It's a software glitch, the company acknowledges, and it's only happened, there have only been 13 reported incidents. No injuries or fatalities, but Toyota is looking into the matter. And finally, this afternoon, one of my favorite characters, not really, Ray Romano is ringing the closing bell at the NYSE, celebrating the last episode. Now that I enjoy, they're celebrating the end of the show, and I wonder...

S. O'BRIEN: Nine seasons, they get to celebrate.

SERWER: I guess they do, but I'm just wondering if he's going to be insulting Patricia Heaton and, you know, they'll be laugh track and Doris Burke will hit him. I'm glad it's over.

S. O'BRIEN: They're actors, not real life.

SERWER: OK, not my thing.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, everybody loves Jack Cafferty. Got the question?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Not everybody, Miles.

The Question of the Day is, does the press have too much freedom? Michelle writes, "True investigative journalism is rare anymore and rapidly disappearing under the pressure of circulation, ratings and increasingly corporate political agendas."

Debbie in Indiana I think, "What has people so jaded is the fact that the press seems to have no respect for anyone or anything, including its own craft these days."

And Rob from New York writes, "Too much freedom? No. Too much of a focus on the bottom line? Yes."

S. O'BRIEN: All right, jack, thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Good words to end it.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY, tips on how you can protect yourself from online identity theft. Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, how thieves are using ATMs to steal your personal information, and you might not know it.

We're back in just a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired May 16, 2005 - 09:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And to get another look at the headlines, Carol Costello is in for us this morning.
Hey, Carol, good morning.

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

Now in the news, aid workers are fanning out across Uzbekistan border to check on refugees after a violent weekend. An estimated 450 people were killed in anti-government demonstrations with police. New video in this morning shows families digging graves. Relief workers say hundreds, possibly thousands, of others fled the clash, as most are said to be in good condition.

In Tampa, a former University of South Florida professor goes on trial today, charged with helping to fund terrorism. Sami El Ariane (ph) and three other men are accused of using Islamic organizations as fronts to raise money for suicide bombings in Israel. The man calls himself, quote, "a prisoner of conscience." If convicted, he could face life in prison. In Los Angeles, two longstanding rivals for the mayor's seat are scrambling for votes on the eve of the election. Incumbent Mayor James Hahn (ph) spent time campaigning in churches in south L.A. His opponent, Antonio Villarosa (ph) took the same campaign path. Tomorrow is a rematch for the pair. Four years ago, Hahn defeated Villarosa by a seven-percent margin. If Villarosa wins, he would be L.A.'s first Hispanic mayor.

And the force is with London today, as "Star Wars" fans attend a long-awaited movie marathon. Hundreds of fans are watching the entire series back to back, culminating with premier of "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." The tickets for the marathon were sold out in just five minutes last week. "Episode III" opens in the United States, minus the marathon, this Thursday.

But you can bet many people are going to have marathons in their homes.

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: That Chewy thing, I mean, really, 12 hours-plus, doing the math in that.

COSTELLO: Yes, I think you're right.

M. O'BRIEN: You see them all? COSTELLO: No, I don't get it.

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: Well, Michael Jackson's defense case is now entering its third week. As court wrapped on Friday, jurors in the molestation trial heard from the pop star's former attorney Mark Geragos. Attorney Anne Bremner in was in the courtroom and she's in Seattle for us this morning.

Hey, Anne, nice to have you back. Thanks for talking with us. Good morning.

ANNE BREMNER, ATTORNEY: Thanks for having me. Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: OK, so we hear from Geragos that he, in fact, was the one who had the private detective following around the accuser's family, also that he was the one who ordered the surveillance videotape. How significant are these two points, and how did the jury take it?

BREMNER: Very significant. Debbie Rowe described all of the people that surrounded Michael Jackson as opportunistic vultures.

And Mark Geragos said there was yet another group of vultures, and that was the accuser's family, and he researched them, and what he found gave him great pause, so he ordered the surveillance, not Michael Jackson. It's legal in California, and he looked into whether or not there were people out to get Michael Jackson. He was a good witness. When he was asked to give his background, he said, I went to college, I went to law school, I passed the bar, and that got a big laugh, because most lawyers would go on further about their backgrounds.

S. O'BRIEN: A lot of this of course goes to the conspiracy part, because if they can distance Michael Jackson from the conspiracy, you've already gotten rid of 50 percent of the case.

BREMNER: Absolutely. Absolutely. And keep in mind, in terms of the timeline, the molestation purportedly occurred after this videotape of Martin Bashir, and during the time that all these lawyers were involved in terms of trying to do damage control, and Michael Jackson, so far, appeared to have nothing to do with false imprisonment or trying to get this family to do certain things to respond to the documentary.

S. O'BRIEN: The conspiracy part of it, let's get back to the other part of the case, which is essentially, the root of it, is sleeping in the same bed with children, namely small boys. What did Geragos have to say about that? And how was that received by the jury?

BREMNER: Well, he was the first witness, Soledad, in this case to address that issue, and when the prosecutor talked about, well, didn't you know he was sleeping with boys? Geragos said wait a minute. What do you mean by sleeping with boys? That has a sexual connotation. What I saw was a child-like person, Michael Jackson, who loved to be around children, and sleeping with children was innocent, and that Michael Jackson denied any molestation to Mark Geragos, and Mark Geragos believed him.

It's the first time someone really addressed this whole, what is sleeping with children? Is it innocent, or is it something that's criminal? And I think the jurors are really listening.

S. O'BRIEN: OK, something that's a little bit confusing to me is the attorney/client privilege that was waived for some of the testimony for Mark Geragos, but not all of it. What exactly is going on here?

BREMNER: Thomas Mesereau, the defense attorney, stood up, and Mark Geragos said, has he waived the whole privilege? Mesereau said yes. Well, at a break, it turned out it had been limited, and the judge, steam was coming out of his ears. He was not happy to hear it had been limited. We're going to address that this morning in court as to whether or not the testimony would be stricken or they'll be some sanction against Thomas Mesereau, because the judge felt there had been something misleading about this representation about a blanket waiver.

S. O'BRIEN: The outtakes from Martin Bashir's documentary, were pretty much all that we're seeing of Michael Jackson, you know, on the stand or being interviewed. How are they coming across?

BREMNER: Michael Jackson took the stand last week. We'd hear about all of these stars that are going to testify. The star witness was Michael Jackson.

S. O'BRIEN: How was he?

BREMNER: He was like an innocent oddball. He was compelling. He was funny at times. He was weird. He talked about wanting to have celebrity animal parties with Lassie and Benji. He talked about how much he loves children and his own children. He talked about how he can't trust adults. You know, he's been said before, it hurts to be me, and that he doesn't trust anyone, even his mother. He only trusts children. So this went a long way toward proving the theory of the defense case, which is he's a child, not a child molester.

S. O'BRIEN: How do you think the defense case is shaping up so far in the three weeks in?

BREMNER: I think it's great in a lot of ways. They've rebutted this Bashir videotape, talking about Michael sleeping with children, but they've also rebutted the pattern evidence of five claimed victims in the past, three have testified for Michael Jackson. The third, MaCaulay Culkin, was excellent.

S. O'BRIEN: Well you know what, Anne, as we always say, it's not over yet.

BREMNER: Stay tuned. It's not over until it's over.

S. O'BRIEN: So not over yet. Attorney Anne Bremner for us this morning. Anne, thanks, as always.

BREMNER: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles?

BREMNER: Doctors are excited about a promising new treatment in the fight against breast cancer.

Elizabeth Cohen tells us about a drug that fights dangerous proteins and helps prevent cancer from coming back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She found the lump herself one morning.

ELIZABETH RUSSO, BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR: I was petrified.

COHEN: Then her doctor confirmed the worst.

RUSSO: I had only been married for about a year and a half, and I felt like my world was falling down around me. You know, the first question that goes through your head is, am I going to die? And that really was what I was thinking at the time. It was extremely frightening.

COHEN: At age 29, Elizabeth Russo had breast cancer, and there was more. Doctors told her she had a particular kind that grew quickly, and was more likely to come back. This happens to one out of every four patients.

But there was a twist. Because she had this particular type of tumor, she was a candidate for a study on a drug called Herceptin. Doctors knew it worked when the cancer spread to other parts of the body, but they weren't sure if it could help women like Elizabeth who were at the early stages. At first she wasn't sure what to do, because the drug, in a small number of women, had caused heart failure.

RUSSO: There was a little bit of fear there, but obviously, in my situation, the chances absolutely outweighed the frighteningness of the whole situation. I mean, I had to take the risk, because there was still the chance that I could die.

S. O'BRIEN: She took Herceptin along with chemotherapy and radiation, and a year after finding that lump, she's cancer-free. In the studies at the National Cancer Institute, when women did not take Herceptin, 30 percent of them had the cancer come back. When they did take Herceptin, only 15 percent had the cancer come back. It cut the recurrence rate in half, an extraordinary impact, experts say, meaning this drug is one of the most promising in a new generation of cancer treatments.

Unlike chemotherapy or radiation which attack healthy and unhealthy tissue, medicines like Herceptin are designed to attack only the specific protein that causes problems. DR. DAVID JOHNSON, VANDERBILT CANCER INST.: Targeted therapies, which we've talked a lot about for the last couple of years, are really coming to fruition.

COHEN: Now Elizabeth Russo, once afraid she would die, is alive for the big moments, like her godson's christening last month. The cancer could come back, but now, it seems that's less likely.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Now drugmaker Roche Holdings says it will work to make the treatment available to patients as quickly as possible after these positive new studies.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: There's a big problem with Toyota's hot Prius. Now the company says it knows what's wrong. Andy's got that story and more ahead.

S. O'BRIEN: Also up next this morning, Dave Chappelle speaks, tells he why he walked away from his hit TV show and $50 million. We're going to talk to the "Time" reporter who chatted with him.

Before we go, though, quick bit of trivia. What movie was Dave Chappelle's first feature-film debut? Was it called "Half Baked?" Was it called Robin Hood: Men in Tights?" Or was it "The Nutty Professor?" All fine films, I might add. The answer is coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

M. O'BRIEN: The academy passed them over for reasons we don't understand.

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S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

Before the break, we asked you which movie would Dave Chappelle's feature film debut? The answer is "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," a Mel Brooks film that was made back in 1993. Didn't see it.

To hear comedian Dave Chappelle tell it, reports of his mental meltdown have been greatly exaggerated. In an exclusive interview with "Time" magazine, the runaway funnyman explains why he fled his comedy central show for South Africa. "Time's" Christopher John Farley spoke with Dave Chappelle. He's joining us this morning.

How did you get in touch with him? I mean, here's a guy who literally disappeared for a couple of weeks. People thought maybe drugs. People thought he had just skipped town. How'd you reach him? And then what did he say.

CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Well, people were saying all kind of things, but I was in touch with him throughout pretty much this entire controversy, because I'd been doing a story on him, pegged to the new season, the third season that he was filming. So we've been on the phone. He'd been coming by "Time" magazine. And so when he took off to South Africa I got in touch with him, and said, you know, what's going on? Are you on drugs? He said no. I said, what's going on with your mental health? He said he had seen a psychiatrist for a short session. So he really sort of spilled his guts as to what was going on.

S. O'BRIEN: So where is he?

FARLEY: So he went to Durbin, South Africa. It's a place he had gone before the show for spiritual treatment. So he sort of remembered the place and went back there again to get in touch with his spiritual being again, and sort of get ready to complete the show.

S. O'BRIEN: These are photographs in South Africa that were taken. I know you sent a reporter as well, in addition to the interview.

FARLEY: Yes, I talked about a dozen times on the film, but you never know, maybe he could have a South African payphone; he's calling me from around the corner or something like that. So we decided to have a reporter go there, check it out, take pictures over there. We got some really good shots of him on a beach in Durbin, on a pier in Durbin, just beautiful shots, so just to make sure his really story checked out.

S. O'BRIEN: You asked him why he ran. What did he say?

FARLEY: Well, he ran, because you know, in college, sometimes you have a paper deadline and can't make it, you're pulling all- nighters? Well, he was doing the thing on a $50 million paper he had due, and he thought that the deadline was too tight, he wanted to have quality control, and so he felt like he couldn't make the deadline and deliver the quality he wanted, so he took off to South Africa.

S. O'BRIEN: In fact you're talking about the $50 million paycheck he was going to get for his third season of the show, which airs on Comedy Central.

Now basically he made it sound in the interview as if he had lost creative control of the show, to come degree. I mean, I thought he and one other guy pretty much do the whole thing.

FARLEY: Yes, talking to him, I really got the sense, oh, you know, Comedy Central is coming down hard on me, but talking to his partners, talking to Comedy Central, it's pretty clear this guy has complete creative control over his show. Some of this could be in his own head, the pressure on him. The thing is, the show deals with such difficult sexual and racial material that he feels he has to do it right or he can't do it at all. He doesn't want to make a mistake.

S. O'BRIEN: You make an interesting point I thought in your interview, where he sort of says, as soon as the wrong people started laughing, in his own mind, then he's sort of having second thoughts about skits that he thought was hilarious. When the wrong people laughed maybe not so funny.

FARLEY: Yes, he told me about this incident, where he had this sketch for the third season of his show, where there's this racial pixie, this pixie's in black face, and it's obviously a very edgy sketch, and he thought it was hilarious, and then he saw someone on the set laughing it, a white visitor, and suddenly, he suddenly saw it in a whole new light, about, well, maybe I'm making the wrong people laugh for the wrong reasons. Do I really do want to do this? And that really created a crisis in him almost of identity. What do you do next?

S. O'BRIEN: Has he angered the folks at Comedy Central by leaving, that it's done, that the deal is done, off?

FARLEY: Well, you know, he has angered a lot of people. A lot of people at Comedy Central are upset. People are have had to put their lives on hold.

The thing is, he's still considered a comedy genius by the president of Comedy Central. The guy still wants to work with him. I have to believe, though I don't know this for certain, that they'll probably work something out, because there's a lot of money on the line here. His DVDs sell a lot, and so I think they want to have a guy like that work for them, even if he's difficult.

S. O'BRIEN: Is he coming home soon, did he say?

FARLEY: He told me he's going to come home maybe this week, maybe a little bit later, but I think he's on track to come back to the U.S. very soon.

S. O'BRIEN: And he's feeling sort of emotionally and mentally better?

FARLEY: Well, he told me he was stressed out, but it seemed like he's on the road to recovery from whatever he was going through, this sort of spiritual crisis.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, well, we're glad to hear that, and of course everybody wants to see Dave Chappelle's third season.

FARLEY: So do I.

S. O'BRIEN: Christopher John Farley, from "Time" magazine. Chris, always nice to see you -- Miles.

FARLEY: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: "CNN LIVE TODAY" coming up next. Daryn Kagan with that.

Good morning, Daryn. What you got going on today?

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Miles.

Miles, we're on a mission against personal identity theft and your personal computer. Gerri Willis will be along to give your top- five tips on how you can keep that home computer safe.

And then we're talking about getaways. Have you heard of this thing called shoulder season. It's just a little offseason, but there are some amazing bargains to take you to some super places. We'll pack our things and we'll get going in just about 11 minutes on "CNN LIVE TODAY."

M. O'BRIEN: I never heard it called shoulder season.

KAGAN: I had never heard that either.

M. O'BRIEN: When we got married, we discovered May was good shoulder season, I guess, in the Caribbean. We got a great deal. So now I know.

KAGAN: Now you know. That's what the honeymoon is all about, good shoulders.

M. O'BRIEN: The honeymoon still goes on.

All right, thank you, Daryn.

Toyota drivers have a complaint about the Prius. They say it's been shutting down on the highway? What do you need? A longer extension cord? Toyota says it has some answers. We'll have that for you. Andy Serwer knows.

Stay with us.

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S. O'BRIEN: Guess what? There've been some complaints about a hot hybrid car. We'll have that story and a check of the market this morning. Andy is "Minding Your Business."

Good morning to you. You want to start with the markets?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I do, Soledad. Let's check in. We have a bit of a rally going on, because the price of oil has dropped below $48 a barrel. We're up, what is that, 37 on the Dow, thank you very much.

One stock that's moving actually a bit to the upside is Lowe's, the home-improvement chain. They had a quarter that wasn't quite up to snuff. Still investors thinking it's OK. They blamed the bad numbers on -- I love this, an unusually cold and wet March. That's what march usually is, it's kind of wet and cold in the Northeast. Anyway, it's just kind of the weather excuse number 158.

Let's talk about the Prius here. Toyota is acknowledging that a small number of the Priuses, if that's the plural, the hybrid car, are stalling out at highway speeds. It's a software glitch, the company acknowledges, and it's only happened, there have only been 13 reported incidents. No injuries or fatalities, but Toyota is looking into the matter. And finally, this afternoon, one of my favorite characters, not really, Ray Romano is ringing the closing bell at the NYSE, celebrating the last episode. Now that I enjoy, they're celebrating the end of the show, and I wonder...

S. O'BRIEN: Nine seasons, they get to celebrate.

SERWER: I guess they do, but I'm just wondering if he's going to be insulting Patricia Heaton and, you know, they'll be laugh track and Doris Burke will hit him. I'm glad it's over.

S. O'BRIEN: They're actors, not real life.

SERWER: OK, not my thing.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, everybody loves Jack Cafferty. Got the question?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Not everybody, Miles.

The Question of the Day is, does the press have too much freedom? Michelle writes, "True investigative journalism is rare anymore and rapidly disappearing under the pressure of circulation, ratings and increasingly corporate political agendas."

Debbie in Indiana I think, "What has people so jaded is the fact that the press seems to have no respect for anyone or anything, including its own craft these days."

And Rob from New York writes, "Too much freedom? No. Too much of a focus on the bottom line? Yes."

S. O'BRIEN: All right, jack, thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Good words to end it.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY, tips on how you can protect yourself from online identity theft. Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, how thieves are using ATMs to steal your personal information, and you might not know it.

We're back in just a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

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