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CNN Larry King Live
Interviews with Peter Waldstein, Paul Anka, Ron Howard, Dan Klores, Mallika Chopra, Nicholas Perricone
Aired May 28, 2005 - 21:00 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.
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Dr. Peter Waldstein, one of America's leading pediatricians and his response to the urgent problem of missing and abducted children. Plus, Paul Anka, the living legend of music in his 47th year in the business, here to prove that rock swings. And Ron Howard, from Opie to Richie Cunningham of "Happy Days" to one of the Hollywood's most respected filmmakers. And the tabloids have never had a thing on him.
Also, Dan Klores, the high powered publicist for Paris Hilton and others and co-director of one of the year's most powerful documentaries. Mallika Chopra, Deepak's daughter, whose life lessons did her world renowned father teacher and how can they help your kids. And the famed dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone. Want to look 10 years younger in 28 days? He says he can show you how.
They're all next on LARRY KING LIVE.
It's a great pleasure to welcome to LARRY KING LIVE one of my favorite people and the pediatrician of my children, the famed pediatrician, Dr. Peter Waldstein, one of the most sought after doctors in this country and he has developed Dr. Peter's Child Identity Kit. We have it in front of us. This is in response to the growing problem of missing, abducted and lost children. They celebrate your whole -- what do they call it this week?
DR. PETER WALDSTEIN, PEDIATRICIAN: National -- actually, today is National Missing Children's Day.
KING: We're taping it today, playing it Saturday, National Missing -- how did you get involved in this? What is this kit?
WALDSTEIN: Well, this kit is an identity kit which consists of DNA, fingerprint, hair sample and a whole picture, height, weight of your child. And the reason I got involved is I had a very good friend whose daughter, through a chat room, got lured to another state and when the police came to question them they had absolutely no information other than an old picture, so I decided to put together, along with my wife Laurie, a kit which would be all-inclusive, which was simple, which was effective and would give people and parents a piece of mind.
KING: I bring it home and do what with it? WALDSTEIN: Well, you bring it home, you sit your kids down, it comes with a DVD that is self-explanatory. You are going to fingerprint your child, it comes with an inkpad, you're going to do a buckle swab, which is mainly a Q-Tip, you're going inside your child's cheek, let it air-dry for two to four hours, you're going to write down significant facts about your child, height, weight, color of hair, and you're going to take a little snipper of their hair and that way you'll have a complete identity kit. This will empower parents in case of any unthinkable thing that happens to their child, to be prepared.
KING: So if your child is missing, the police come to your house, you have got a lot of information to give them.
WALDSTEIN: Exactly.
KING: Now this kit is available -- you can order it online at doctorpetersidkit.com. Or 1-800-388-9572. 1-800-388-9573. Those are the two ways to order it. Are you going to have it in stores?
WALDSTEIN: Eventually, yes. There are some big -- Sears is interested and other big ...
KING: Shouldn't everybody with a child have this?
WALDSTEIN: My thinking? Absolutely yes. There's no downside of it. This is just to prepare you. I don't want to go to the doom and gloom side of everything, but in this really unstable world that we live in and every day you turn on the news, every day you see a child is missing -- this will give you a little piece of mind so, God forbid, something happens, you're prepared.
KING: It's a great idea. What's the cost?
WALDSTEIN: The cost is $19.95.
KING: That's all.
WALDSTEIN: That's all.
KING: That's pretty good. Do you, as a pediatrician, do you talk to parents about things like this? With what's going on in the world?
WALDSTEIN: You know something? I always like to practice preventative medicine. I like parents to be prepared. If their child has a fever, have Motrin in the house. Have Benadryl if they have an allergic reaction. So in this very unstable world we live in, I think this is something that every parent should have in their house, a full -- even college kids, infants -- even adults.
KING: Yeah. Are children more aware now of strangers, danger around them, than, say, 20 years ago.
WALDSTEIN: Well, you and I grew up in New York, we were street smart. I think they're not as street smart as they were when we grew up. I try to educate them. This comes with actually a DVD with safety tips done by Shaquille O'Neal, Vanna White, Jimmy Kahn (ph) and Lisa Renna (ph) which is very entertaining to watch, which really, in a nice low key manner gives kids the tools to sort of educate them on what to do and what not to do.
KING: And then you keep all of this in a special place in your house.
WALDSTEIN: A nice, cool, safe place and I hope you never have to use it. But if the unthinkable happens, you're prepared. You know, a child gets abducted every 40 to 60 seconds, there are 60,000 abductions a year in the United States now and to me this -- it is a no-brainer.
KING: Are most of the abductions for the purpose of giving them to other families -- selling them -- it's not sexual, is it?
WALDSTEIN: Well, some of them are sexual, some of them are in family abductions, with divorce and that type of thing ...
KING: Father ...
WALDSTEIN: ... and some of them are just sick people that lure kids through the Internet or in the street.
KING: Do you notice parents more concerned?
WALDSTEIN: Yes. Parents do not allow their kids to go outside and ride bikes, play ball. It's a whole different world out there.
KING: You wouldn't allow a kid to ride a bike around the corner?
WALDSTEIN: No.
KING: Whereas you might have 10 years ago?
WALDSTEIN: Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's pretty sad.
KING: Any, by the way, just to veer off a little, any particular illness you are seeing more in children?
WALDSTEIN: You know, I think with L.A. being sort of a melting pot, a lot of people bring different types of viruses, so I see all year round -- it used to be sort of seasonal but I see a lot of viral syndromes all year round. Gastroenteritis, upper respiratory infections ...
KING: Anything decreasing?
WALDSTEIN: Well, there is a lot of decrease -- chicken pox, measles, German measles, hepatitis, because of the vaccines that are available. No polio anymore.
KING: Do you give young children the flu vaccine?
WALDSTEIN: If they are immuno-compromised, if they have diabetes. I don't recommend it for every child who -- every kid in school.
KING: So that's strictly an individual matter?
WALDSTEIN: Absolutely.
KING: Okay, let's go over this again. To order this kit, it's only $19.95, it's a joke, it's doctorpetersidkit, that's one word, doctorpetersidkit.com or 1-800-388-9573. 1-800-388-9573. If you don't write that down and you contact us, we'll let you know how to get it.
WALDSTEIN: Thank you, sir.
KING: Thank you. You're a noble man.
Dr. Peter Waldstein. Only the best. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
KING: Great pleasure to welcome to LARRY KING LIVE an old friend, a great talent, the singer, songwriter with over 100 albums. Paul Anka, who has written some of the songs you hear every day in elevators and elsewhere and he is the artist on the new album, "Rock Swings." We have it right here. There you see its cover. Is this new for you?
PAUL ANKA, SINGER: This is very new for me. It's a departure. It's a bunch of songs from the '80s and '90s that obviously I did not write of very popular rock bands and what I did was I took all of the songs that I thought would be adaptable to a real swing orchestra, pop jazz style, and sat in the studio for a few months, worked at it. It morphed itself out and I felt that taking songs from the '80s and '90s, the standards of today for a certain demographic, would be refreshing and different and give them the kind of testimony that they need.
(MUSIC)
ANKA: Got "Eye of the Tiger" from Survivor, "Jump," Van Halen, "Everybody Hurts," REM, Oasis, "Wonderwall," "Black Hole Sun," Soundgarden.
KING: Done with a big band?
ANKA: Oh yeah, a big band. We went into Capital Studios. Al Schmidt, engineer. Sat down and we just arranged everything so it would sound as if it were Sinatra's style. In that kind of genre.
KING: Does it work?
ANKA: Oh it really worked. It really worked. I wasn't sure at first until I really -- we had the benefit of, A, the technology where I would sit in my studio with my machines and see if it would work and it started to morph out that it did. (MUSIC)
ANKA: And then the songwriting aspect of my life came into play because I was able to at least do the songs as if I had written them so what you hear are songs from the '80s and '90s with my interpretation as if I had written them so it really does work, because Larry, a hit is a hit, a good song is a good song.
KING: Now, true you've sold 25,000 albums the first week?
ANKA: Well, the investment company that backed this was from Europe so they wanted it released over there first. They are close to 50,000 records, it's top 10 over in Germany. All of the sudden I found myself next to Fifty Cent and J-Lo. So we started out with a big bang-up in Germany, it comes out in Canada in June 1st for a week, we're doing a promotion up there and then I start on the 7th of June in New York for a week.
KING: And it's available anywhere you can buy records.
ANKA: Oh yeah, it's Verve/Universal. It will be in record stores, it will be everywhere. This is my first release in a long time.
KING: You get a star on the Canada Walk of Fame in Toronto in June.
ANKA: Yeah.
KING: About time.
ANKA: Well, I've kind of laid back for a while. They've been asking me for a few years. It's never really worked out. But it's a big event up there, the Walk of Fame, and I'm very honored, and then the following week I am getting the Order of Canada from the government of Canada on the 10th, so it is going to be a Canada time back home in Canada for me.
KING: Are you still a Canadian?
ANKA: Yes, I am.
KING: You never became an American citizen?
ANKA: I became an American citizen a few years ago. You know, I went in to look at my will and my people called me in and they said you have to become an American because if you don't, blablabla with your heirs. So I have an American passport and I have a Canadian passport.
KING: So you're a dual citizen?
ANKA: I have dual citizenship.
KING: Now you wrote, "You're My Destiny," "All of the Sudden," "My Heart Sings," "Crazy Love," "Lonely Boy," "Hello Young Lovers," "Little Girl," "Love Me," "Warm and Tender," "Feelings," "Put Your Head on My Shoulder," "Puppy Love," "You're Having My Baby," "My Way," "The Tonight Show Theme." You do not have to work?
ANKA: Correction. Some of those I didn't write. There are about three of them in there.
KING: But you had hits.
ANKA: Oh yeah, I had hits. Most of those I did write.
KING: You don't have to work.
ANKA: Well, you know, I think Jimmy Durante said, I don't need the money, I need to work. And you know, he was so true. I think it's important that to stay active, and if you look statistically today, it's not a matter of age anymore, I think you have to do what you do and if you love what you're doing it's good for you, keeps the mind going, I love getting out there. My demographic of people have been very supportive. I am working more than I ever have. I have deals -- four year deals at every major casino. So it's all out there to go out and enjoy and do so I'm not one of those guys -- I lived through with Sinatra and you were there. He told me when I first wrote, "My Way," "I'm quitting, kid." He never did. You know how many times he came back.
Once you've got it up the arm and you're enjoying what you're doing, you've got to do it.
KING: And you're also, for those who haven't seen you, one of the great in person acts in all of show biz. You are -- it's more than a singer.
ANKA: Thank you.
KING: You are an entertainer. Always been that? Did you learn that early on?
ANKA: Yeah. I started when I was six, ha ha, 16 years old, I'm at the Copa, 17, 18. I'm out in Vegas with the Rat Pack and I said, you know what? I'm going to do this, I've got to learn to do it well.
KING: You don't just come out and sing eight songs.
ANKA: No, no, you've got to learn and so I sat in the wings, I hung out with Frank, with Sammy, with Dean, I said that's what I want to do and if I'm going to do it I've got to do it well and I've got to learn what's indigenous to all of that.
KING: Are there any drawbacks to being a star early? Because you were a hit as a kid.
ANKA: It's always a big leap from that normal life into that but you have to realize that back when I started the pop music industry was in its infancy stage and it was difficult only in the transition to all of what when on and went with it and the kids and the screaming and the traveling but because of my upbringing and I had some good people around me, they kind of kept me centered and you kind of leveled off and understood what you had to do to behave and not take it all too seriously and keep a pretty good focus on everything.
KING: You also wrote the music for "D-Day, the Longest Day." One of the best movie themes ever written. Do you still write?
ANKA: Yeah, I write every now and then. I'm not really writing as I did back then because back then I was writing to do four or five albums a year. With the way my business is today, I'm not really writing for myself, I'm doing an album like "Rock Swings" which were other people, but I continue to write, oh, absolutely.
KING: But the music is past -- you don't write for today's generation, do you? Or can you write ...
ANKA: Yeah, I write for this generation for those that I can write what I am about, the honesty and the integrity of what I do and you write -- there's some good artists out there where you put songs in film or with pop artists, people like that.
KING: You're helped, also, by XM and Sirius Radio, which are making big impacts. I hear you all the time. You're being played again.
ANKA: Yeah. Well, listen, it really hasn't gone away, in a sense, what I do and even what led me to this CD I realized that swing and the fashion of back in the '50s and '60s, when you look at it on a composite from the "Godfather," to the mafia days and all of that fashion and music, it never really went anywhere. Thus, that's why I did this because I realized that a young demographic were into all of that stuff from yesterday. A lot of radio stations were still playing it so there is an awareness out there of what happened yesterday from fashion to music to everything.
KING: Were some of them -- did you try any songs that were not possible to do.
ANKA: Yes. Yes. I sat there. I called "Billboard," they sent me a box of music -- I mean charts. And I sat there and went through all of these songs, I sat at the piano with my guys and we would try a bunch of songs, some never worked. I had "Billy Jean," Michael Jackson, just couldn't get it together, couldn't get the words "Billy Jean" out of my mouth. Threw it out. We kept throwing out a lot of things until we finally sat and said, this one works, it's honest, sounds good and I didn't want it to be a novelty record, I wanted the music to really be forefront to quality.
KING: And if it's a rip-roaring hit, will there be a "Rock Swings 2"?
ANKA: We're already talking about "Rock Swings 2," yeah, and we're doing a DVD, we're doing a TV special in the fall, so everything from -- the critics have been incredible with this.
KING: I know.
ANKA: And it's all set up, and yeah, we'll do a "Rock 2."
KING: It's great to have you. Always on the same band.
ANKA: Thanks, Larry.
KING: One of my favorite people. "Rock Swings." Paul Anka. A genius. We'll be right back.
(MUSIC)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE, he's in New York, Ron Howard, the director of dozens of films, including the upcoming "Cinderella Man," as I told him off the air, as I told everybody I run into, "Cinderella Man" is one of the best movies ever made, it's the best boxing movie ever made, it's one of the greatest movies ever made, it's the life of James Braddock, brilliantly directed, wonderfully acted. How did you get the idea to make the James Braddock, a kind of obscure champion, a story?
RON HOWARD, DIRECTOR: Well, first of all, thanks, Larry, I'm glad you liked the movie so much. It means a lot. Well, it is a great story and I had actually heard a little something about James Braddock, because my father, Rance, who actually plays the ring announcer in the movie, he was a lifelong boxing fan and when he was about six years old, the first fight that he listened to -- he grew up on a farm in Oklahoma, they had to drive into the pool hall. That was the only place that had a radio, to listen to this Cinderella Man fight Max Baer for the heavyweight championship and he always used Braddock as a kind of example to me of tenacity, of never giving up and those kinds of virtues that Braddock demonstrated.
I found out when I was working on "A Beautiful Mind" that Russell Crowe had always wanted to play Braddock and there was a screenplay that existed and it was something that he just was passionate about.
KING: Was Zellweger your first choice for the wife? She is brilliant.
HOWARD: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, in fact, she had talked to Russell before I was ever involved and she had also read the script and just believed here was a great story not only about a boxer but about a family, a love story about a married couple and she believed that it was a story that ought to find its way to the screen and it was, to me, this is a little corny, a match made in heaven. I mean, I felt like I had heavyweight action going on in the ring and then two heavyweight superstars for the dramatic, romantic side of the story and as a director, fantastic -- Season it with a little Paul Giamatti in there for a lot of humor and character and I felt like it was something extraordinary.
KING: Hard to believe you have outdone yourself. I know you are doing "The Da Vinci Code" next and I no that tomorrow night, Sunday night, is going to be a big -- what are you doing Sunday night? The movie doesn't open until next week. HOWARD: Well, it's a sneak preview Larry. Look, it's very competitive right now. All kinds of very high profile films and the studio has seen this movie play so successfully to audiences that I think they felt that a sneak preview would get word of mouth going at a really exceptional level and so I am proud of it.
Hey, all I want to do is just have a lot of people see it and so I'm happy to have them start Sunday night.
KING: Please -- I am telling the audience, go see it, you will not -- it's a great movie. It's also a terrific film, one of the best films about the Depression.
HOWARD: Well, thank you. I have long been fascinated by it. I grew up hearing a lot about it, both my mom and my dad, their families struggled a bit during the Depression and I heard about it and realized there was a level of fear and kind of shock that people were coping with. And as I began to research and actually I made a documentary film about it when I was in high school. When I was in 11th grade and we had done our social studies section on the Depression, we were supposed to write a paper but I asked the teacher if I could make a film instead. I guess the paper would have taken me three or four hours. I wound up with four solid weeks of working on this film, but it was the first long form movie, actually, Larry, that I ever really through myself into.
And one of the things that struck me then and continued to mean a lot to me as I began to put "Cinderella Man" on film was the look you saw on faces of people, particularly living in cities. Men who will still trying to wear their business suits but they're selling apples for five cents a piece. Women wearing their Sunday hats but standing in breadlines and kids digging through the trash, trying to find scrap metal and in the background you're not seeing bombed out buildings, it's not a wartime situation, you're seeing skyscrapers, you're seeing bridges in the background and you realize these people were living in what they thought was utopia and the rug was just pulled out from under them and the look in their eyes is one of absolute shock.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSSELL CROWE: Go on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I promise.
RUSSELL CROWE: And I promise you we will never send you away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWARD: When I saw this story and this script I though, well, great, you've got the action of the boxing, you've got this great family love story going on, but also this chance to deal with this subject that hasn't been dealt with too much in films in recent years and I thought as a director I could do something with it.
KING: Do you have a special chemistry with Russell Crowe? HOWARD: Well, I love actors and Russell and I have really hit it off, so I am proud to say I have had good chemistry with a lot of actors and actresses that I've worked with. Russell is so extraordinarily gifted and while our personalities are quite different, our ambition for trying to do good work is realty the same and neither of us wants to go home at the end of a filming day or night feeling like we left anything on the table creatively and so it's a joy to work with somebody who shares my passion, my commitment to exploring the details and offering the audience our very best effort in terms of trying to fulfill the potential of the story we're working on.
KING: And I know my dear old friend who I've known for 48 years, Angelo Dundee, worked with you on this movie, and I saw him quoted as saying Russell Crowe could have been a very good professional fighter.
HOWARD: Well he was very impressed with Russell and he was also impressed with the sort of mental tenacity. You know, Russell dislocated his shoulder about six weeks before we were supposed to start shooting, Larry, and we all thought the movie would be shut down but Russell called me immediately, literally on his way to the hospital, and Angelo was there at the time, Russell had been sparring and had hyper-extended his shoulder on a missed left hook, dislocated it, and he had chipped the bones as his shoulder went back into the socket.
He called me and told me he was going immediately to see a surgeon and get into physiotherapy and he knew then that he was going to have to have kind of an emergency procedure done but he also said to me -- you know, he was in horrible pain, but he said, you know, our man, Jimmy Braddock, he fought hurt an awful lot, Ron. Don't you worry. This is going to work for me. It's going to work for the movie.
KING: When you see this movie you will love him and you will love Jimmy Braddock.
Your cinematographer who I think works with you on a lot of movies.
HOWARD: This is our second time to work together. Salvatore Tortino. He is also going to be doing "Da Vinci Code."
KING: Wow.
HOWARD: He's a dynamo. He's a dynamo and like Russell, he throws himself headlong into it, there's some great behind the scenes footage of Salvatore Tortino, even though he is director of photography, he is in the ring, operating the camera himself, with pads all over him, allowing Russell to punch him. Give him shots to the head and body. I mean, it was all planned and organized, but nonetheless, it was a big workout.
We were able to do a lot with the camera, Larry, because Russell was so willing to literally do anything and that's the way you get that kind of boxing action and that kind of intensity on the screen, is when the actors are willing to just give it that 110 percent and deal with that pain threshold and the exhaustion and the training to get fit. There is not a single frame of a screen double for Russell Crowe in the movie. Not a single one. He would never have it and as a director I wouldn't even want that. It would be right.
KING: Ron, you have outdone yourself. My congratulations.
HOWARD: Thank you Larry. Look, I love that you appreciate the movie. Thank you.
KING: The movie is "Cinderella Man." There will be a sneak tomorrow night at theaters all over the country. A Sunday night sneak. It opens next Friday. It is brilliant. Tomorrow night on this program we will replay our interview with Dr. Billy Graham and our guest on Monday will be Vice President Dick Cheney. We will be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSSELL CROWE: I won.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE, also from New York, Dan Klores, the director of a terrific movie, "Ring of Fire, the Emile Griffith Story" and also "Viva Baseball." He is a veteran publicist. Lot of high profile clients like Paris Hilton and Sean Combs but his love lies elsewhere.
Were you surprised with how well "Ring of Fire" was greeted.
DAN KLORES, DIRECTOR AND PUBLICIST: Well, I was pleased with how well it was greeted. It was a struggle to make, it was a great experience to make it but I was very happy about the response, of course.
KING: Think you've got a good shot for an Emmy? I think you do.
KLORES: Yeah. Thanks Larry. I hope so. It has the -- it's a great story. It's a story about sex and politics and media and love and passion and violence so it was a big story.
KING: Why did you decide to do Emile Griffith's story? It's been around for years.
KLORES: Because there was something -- I watched it on television on Friday night fights, when I was a little kid, 12, 13 years old and it always pulled me, it always pulled me.
KING: When he killed Benny "Kid" Paret.
KLORES: When he killed Benny "Kid" Paret, in the lower left hand corner of the television screen and the entire nation watched it and it was a haunting moment. They took boxing off television for 10 years after that, off network TV.
KING: Boy. The impact of the gay issue. Has that been strongly felt?
KLORES: Well, what happened that night, the weigh-in that afternoon, Benny Paret taunted Emile Griffith and called him maricone (ph), a Spanish word for homosexual. This enraged Griffith, who by the way was a six time world champion, middle weight and welterweight world champion. So it was the first time that anyone was discussing gays.
Jimmy Breslin says in the movie, at that point, 1962, three gay guys in a corner, they'd arrest them for not having a parade permit. The "New York Times" the next day wouldn't use the world "homosexual" in the paper. They used the word "unman," u-n-m-a-n. And sadly, I'm not sure much has changed in the world professional athletes to this day, in the world of male-dominated professional athletes, there's not one gay male who has ever come out while they're participating, while their career is active.
KING: Very true. I interviewed Emile Griffith once years ago, right around that fight, he was a good interview.
KLORES: Yeah, he is a very sweet, and it sounds strange, but he's a gentle person, for a six time world champion he has a gentleness about him that's endearing.
KING: But a fighter, too.
Tell me about "Viva Baseball."
KLORES: "Viva Baseball" is a story about the struggle, conflict and triumphs of Latinos playing baseball in this country, who had it different and much more severe even in the negro -- starts in the 1870s up in through the present and I tell it through the perspective of five different storylines. One is Vic Power, one is Roberto Clemente, the other is Dennis Martinez, then I used the Giants' organization, Marichal, Alou and Cepeda and lastly it is the story of Cuba. Baseball came to Cuba in the 1870s and of course very much a powerful history throughout. Black Latins.
KING: Hasn't it been wide open for the Latins?
KLORES: It was never wide open for the Latin. Never. Black Latins will prohibited from playing baseball until after Robinson integrated and even then it was very difficult so the discrimination that they felt was the same thing that negroes did, all the Jim Crow stuff but the language barrier was so severe, the customs, guys like Tony Perez couldn't, ate nothing for chicken for five months, they could not say any other word.
So it was a horrendous experience. Guys like Vic Power, a 28 year old rookie. He led the minor leagues in hitting three years in a row. He was supposed to be the first negro ever to play for the Yankees but the Yankees didn't want him because he committed the cardinal sin of dating white women in the mid 1950s.
KING: Might still be the best fielding first baseman that ever lived.
KLORES: Eight Gold Gloves. And a lot of these guys, even the ones that made it in the Major Leagues, they missed many years. Luis Tiant, they missed a lot of years and one has to think if there was a special committee to allow Negro Leaguers into the Hall of Fame, why isn't there a special committee to look at these Latin guys and at least judge that.
KING: When will -- is "Viva Baseball" out now? When will it be seen.
KLORES: "Viva Baseball" will be out late September on Spike TV, Larry.
KING: Is it a one hour documentary or longer?
KLORES: No, it will be about two hours and they give you two hours to tell you the history of Latin baseball. Forty four percent of the baseball players in this country are Latin now, about 24 percent in the Major Leagues are Latin. And people were great, people were just terrific in trying to tell their stories here.
KING: Are you now a publicist who does films or are you a filmmaker who does publicity?
KLORES: You're going to get me in trouble with my clients here.
KING: You should become a filmmaker. To me you are brilliant filmmaker.
KLORES: Thank you so much. My love is making films. My love is making films and telling stories and it's the happiest I have ever been in my life right now, so ...
KING: You'll become -- you're the new Ken Burns.
KLORES: Actually, I learned from Ken Burns and his marvelous associate Lynne Novick (ph), so I owe him a lot.
KING: Dan, I can't wait to see "Viva Baseball" and of course everybody, if you get a chance to see "Ring of Fire," please do. It's a great, great film.
KLORES: Thank you. It's going to air on Bravo on June 10th.
KING: Bravo on June 10th. Absolutely see it. Thanks, Dan.
KLORES: Thank you, Larry. Thanks a lot.
KING: Dan Klores. Back after this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TONY GONZALEZ, FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER: I go out there for myself. Fumble the ball and go pick it up, fumble and go pick it up.
JUAN MARICHAL, FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER: The only thing I used to think was playing baseball.
LUIS TIANT, FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER: I am going to show you I can do the same everything out here, white, black, African, Chinese, whatever.
ORLANDO CEPEDA, FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER: I knew I was going to be a baseball player.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Her father has been here tons of times. We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE Mallika Chopra, author of a terrific new book, "100 Promises. Her father wrote the foreword to the new book. Deepak Chopra is also the coauthor of the new book, "Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives, a Holistic Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth."
How did you come to write this?
MALLIKA CHOPRA, DEEPAK CHOPRA'S DAUGHTER: You know, I grew up in a family where I was surrounded by people who were all on the path to self discovery but actually I had never been interested in things like that and I found the moment I discovered I was pregnant was actually a very transformational moment for me. Suddenly realizing that I had this yoosel (ph) inside of me that I was bringing into the world and so I really started to think about who made me who I am, what influenced me and how do I want to be a parent so I thought a lot about my parents and how they had brought us up.
KING: What does your husband do?
CHOPRA: My husband is a venture capitalist. He is Indian. About the total opposite end of the spectrum. We met in India. We've been married eight years now and have two kids, a three year old and a 10 month old.
KING: How did you come up with the idea of making it promises.
CHOPRA: The project actually really started out as my journal entry to myself, just about how I wanted to be a parent and I found that making a promise is actually a very sacred process. It was making a covenant to my child. I was just watching, actually, your interview with Ron Howard and saw "Cinderella Man" the other night and thought it was brilliant and there was a very poignant seen in there about when Russell Crowe, the actor, makes a promise to his child and you know when we make promises to our children, that's a sacred statement that we're making and I think it's a very powerful process when you're a parent.
KING: Was it fun -- I love the chapter titles. "I Promise to Create a Loving, Enriching Environment, I Promise to Teach you the Power of Forgiveness, I Promise to Keep an Open Heart and Mind as Our Relationship Changes and Evolves." Was this easy to write for you?
CHOPRA: You know it was where I was at the time. I started writing the book when I was pregnant with my first child and actually something very traumatic happened, I was five months pregnant at 9-11 and I think for everyone that was a very traumatic time and I think for me came a realization that I'm bringing a new baby into this world and that really made me think a lot about how I could influence that child and also the power that we had to change the world through our children so that actually -- it became more urgent to write the book and it took time because of course, once I had my child I had no time to write anymore. I picked it up two years later again and discovered that week that I was pregnant again which my dad will definitely call syncodestiny (ph).
KING: Are some of these promises hard to keep?
CHOPRA: Yes. They are. One of the promises I have in there is "I Promise to Teach You By Example, Not Words." Which is very easy to say but our children our watching us all the time and so I have learned, especially when you have a three year old in the house who literally is watching what you eat, what you say, etc, that that's very difficult, but it also provides a great opportunity. And in the book I promise, the story that goes along with that promise is about how may parents influenced my brother and I to learn meditation and to meditate.
KING: With so many travels, wasn't your father an absentee travel a lot?
CHOPRA: He actually -- his books started coming out when we were a little older. So in our childhood he was there a lot. He was a doctor so he was very busy at that time. But my parents took an approach that they wanted to encourage us to learn about the world so as we got older we were fortunate to travel a lot as well so my dad is very, very involved as a parent and very involved with a grandparent, in fact, we were at Disneyland, my father, my daughter and me went to Disneyland and he canceled all his meetings just to go with my grandfather for the day and get photographs of princesses.
KING: Is your mom into the same things as your dad?
CHOPRA: My mom is by my mom is a very quiet person. She is very -- she is the foundation for our entire family.
KING: She is the rock.
CHOPRA: The rock. And when I think about the kind of mother that I'd want to be I really just want to look at my mother. She represents everything. She is a basin (ph) of love and compassion.
KING: What is the hardest thing about being mother?
CHOPRA: The hardest thing is that you love your children so much and you want to provide everything you can and sometimes we don't know what to do and that I think is tough and that was one of my goals in writing the book, trying to think, okay, how can I be the best parent that I can be, how can I be a conscious parent, but ultimately I realized it is about love and if you're coming from that place, hopefully we'll make the right decisions.
KING: Is it hard to say no?
CHOPRA: It's very hard to say no. In fact I had a promise before I had my baby, which said "I promise to never say no to you" and of course immediately realized that's impossible so you just have to learn ...
KING: But it's hard.
CHOPRA: It's very hard.
KING: Do you avoid spoiling them?
CHOPRA: You know I can't say I avoid it. I feel, again, if we're coming from a place where we're teaching them to respect others, to love the earth, to have a sense of spirit, you know, it is okay to spoil them once in a while, but again, just have them appreciate the gifts that they're getting.
KING: Is this the first of other books?
CHOPRA: It is. It's the first. I have an idea for another one I was talking with my dad yesterday but right now I'm focused on this.
KING: It's delightfully put together. I salute you and thank you very much.
CHOPRA: Thank you very much.
KING: Good luck to your father.
CHOPRA: Thank you.
KING: The book is My -- "100 Promises to My Baby" by Mallika Chopra. The foreword by Deepak Chopra. I'll be right back.
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KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE the author of an extraordinary best seller, it is "The Perricone Promise, Look Younger, Live Longer in Three Easy Steps. Take Off Ten Years In 28 Days." The book has been a runaway bestseller. They even have a store on Madison Avenue in New York. He is the famed dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone. It's good to welcome you. How did you come across this promise?
NICHOLAS PERRICONE, "THE PERRICONE PROMISE": Actually, it's the result of about 20 years research. I found in medical school that I thought inflammation was found in every disease process I was looking at and came up with what I call the inflammation aging theory and it's basically this low-grade, invisible inflammation, we can't see it, we can't feel it, it goes on all the time.
KING: Things getting bigger?
PERRICONE: Things getting worse. And what happens is it wrinkles our skin, it increases our risk of cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, it's all based on this invisible inflammation. So if that was the problem, then my thought was what would be the therapeutic intervention? I found out it was simple. Food, vitamins and lifestyle changes.
KING: What did the medical community think?
PERRICONE: Not really thrilled initially. But I think I've been vindicated over the past few years. "Time Magazine," the cover was inflammation as the basis of a number of problems so I think we're getting there but the point is it's just a matter of common sense. You know if you eat well you are going to do better, you're going to look better. And people say, well, how do you do this, you're a dermatologist, why nutrition. You know, the skin is a perfect reflection of what's going on inside of us so I have this three day nutritional facelift which I am sure you've heard of, we were talking about it earlier. So how can three days make a difference? Well, when you reduce inflammation inside your body systemically, your skin absolutely radiates, you have no dark circles, fine lines disappear, you have greater contrast to your skin and that's a positive reinforcement for people.
When I say eat this way you won't get heart disease, that's kind of an abstraction, it's negative, but I say eat this way for three days and you're going to look terrific, you do that and everything else falls into place.
KING: Why in three days? How can it happen so fast?
PERRICONE: Once again it's a good question. Inflammation shows up in the skin domus (ph), large pores, dark circles, puffiness and loss of contours. When you reduce inflammation systemically, you do this from the inside out, all of that changes very rapidly so you'll walk in a room on that fourth day and people will be astounded, they will say, what have you done, have you been on vacation, have you had a facelift?
The idea is to rapidly bring down inflammation to get an effect, because what I am trying to do is teach people that health is really -- health and beauty are one, beauty from the inside out so if you do this to improve your skin, the point is everything else falls into place. You will decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's and all the rest.
KING: Can you look at someone and tell if they're pretty healthy?
PERRICONE: Pretty much so. The skin's amazing. In fact, a textbook we had in my dermatology residency was skin signs of systemic diseases. It was this thick and virtually every disease process can be diagnoses from changes in the skin or the nails.
KING: No kidding. PERRICONE: It's fascinating.
KING: And how did you hook up on inflammation?
PERRICONE: Looked at it in a microscope. As a medical student there was inflammation around the squamous cell cancer I was seeing in the lungs. So I asked my professor, I'm seeing inflammation around all these cancers. Is it possible inflammation could be mediating this process? He said, no, no, no, it's immune response to the cancer. I said that's odd because the way cancer gets away we don't have an immune response. And I saw it in arteries where there was heart disease, I saw it in a lot of tissue so I'm thinking inflammation has got to be happening and it just can't be a side effect of these diseases. There has to be some way of moderating it.
I looked at that and stuck with it throughout the years and really found that that was the answer.
KING: Do you prescribe a lot of medications, a lot of vitamins.
PERRICONE: Vitamins are important. It's a three-tiered program. The first tier and the most important is the anti-inflammatory diet, a simple diet, common sense, fresh fruit, vegetables, lots of fish, get rid of the starches and sugar, that simple. Get rid of the coffee. So I brought you a present today, your coffee cup goes and this is your green tea and I want you to taste that.
KING: I like green tea.
PERRICONE: Good. That's green tea buds and it's jasmine tea. It's very pleasant. So changes are food, lifestyle changes, vitamins and then topicals and I spent a lot of time as a dermatologist developing topical anti-inflammatories. Once again, rapid action, if we put half of your face with a topical anti-inflammatory, you would look different in 15 minutes, you would have decreased puffiness, you would actually have lift to your face, you would look asymmetric for the rest of the day.
KING: Can you change surgery -- plastic surgery, can you prevent it?
PERRICONE: I believe we can. I think we can delay -- I have nothing against plastic surgery but I think we can delay those procedures for another 20 years by following this three-tiered anti- inflammatory program.
KING: But what happens at your store, which I pass frequently on Madison Avenue in New York?
PERRICONE: The store is basically an information center. I believe that the health care industry and beauty industry is going to merge so what people need is good information so you come to the store, we have registered dietitians, we have skin specialists, there is a library there, there are video screens, you can sit and learn and think about what's happening, complete evaluation, medical history, what you should be eating, vitamins to be taken, what are your skin problems. The idea is that information is the key. If people have good information, they can take very good care of themselves. The problem is there is mixed information. You are told no fat, low fat diets, and we find out there is an epidemic of obesity. We are told many things by doctors and it all comes back to common sense. If someone says no fats, red flag should go up. If someone says no carb, red flag, moderation is the key.
KING: You write -- Dr. Andrew Weil has been here from Tucson and he says the same thing you do. That the perfect food is blueberries.
PERRICONE: Absolutely.
KING: What do blueberries have? I eat a lot of blueberries. What do they have? I like the way they taste, but what do they have?
PERRICONE: They have an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant called anthocyanens (ph), powerful now. I call something the brain beauty connection. I found if something is therapeutic for brain tissue, the skin gets better because they are both derived from the same tissue. So blueberries are neuroprotective. If you don't want to get Alzheimer's take your blueberries every day and it makes your skin beautiful. So blueberries are great so I recommend blueberries and salmon, green salads and beautiful skin.
KING: What would you eliminate?
PERRICONE: Starches and sugars are bad.
KING: No bread?
PERRICONE: I don't like bread at all. It just seems to do bad things. You know, most people do not tolerate wheat very well. They don't have to have a gluten enteropathy, it could be a low grade thing and that causes inflammation, so I say get rid of the bread, get rid of the potatoes and the sugar completely. However, we're human, and I say one day a week if you want to get off the anti-inflammatory program and enjoy yourself, you go ahead, but the longer you are on it the less you can tolerate not feeling your best.
KING: It's hard to totally eliminate sugar, right? It's in so many things.
PERRICONE: It's hard to totally eliminate it but the idea is to just slowly get into this program, try it a few days a week, try the three day program. I'm just warning you right -- you're going to get addicted to feeling and looking good and you will be on the 28 day program and soon you will be like me.
KING: You start with the three day.
PERRICONE: You start with the three day and you go to the 28 day. I don't very often eat sugar because I feel the next day I have a hangover and I call it the non-alcoholic. And you're not going to be a fanatic. You're going to do this because you like it. You can deviate from it if you want to but the point is the longer you're on this program the less you're going to deviate. KING: How do you feel about meat?
PERRICONE: I don't have any problem with meat and I say enjoy it, however, if you eat a lot of red meat it does actually at pro- inflammatory chemicals. This is called arachadonic acid. Remember, inflammation is the bad guy. We're trying to fight it. But once again, this is diverse. The three day program is narrow, the 28 day program is very diverse and you have to recognize that you are human. You can't be perfect.
KING: Protein.
PERRICONE: The days you do not eat enough protein are the days you age. You have got to know that so at your height, your size, you should be getting 75 grams of protein a day. If you're bigger and you're athlete you need more. Women need 75 grams of protein a day. I did a survey in my office over two years asking women how much protein they got. They were getting half as much protein as they should get and they say to me, I'm not aging as well as my husband, why? The days you do not eat enough protein are the days you age, so you have got to get good quality protein and that's probably one of the most important things I can tell you today.
KING: We're going to do a whole show around you. Thank you.
PERRICONE: Thank you. Enjoy your tea.
KING: Thank you. The book is "The Perricone Promise, Look Younger, Live Longer in Three Easy Steps, Discover the Brain Beauty Connection as Seen on Public Television." In fact, Dr. Perricone has been everywhere. It's finally good to have him here. "Take Off 10 Years in 28 Days."
Back with more after this.
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TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 28, 2005 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Dr. Peter Waldstein, one of America's leading pediatricians and his response to the urgent problem of missing and abducted children. Plus, Paul Anka, the living legend of music in his 47th year in the business, here to prove that rock swings. And Ron Howard, from Opie to Richie Cunningham of "Happy Days" to one of the Hollywood's most respected filmmakers. And the tabloids have never had a thing on him.
Also, Dan Klores, the high powered publicist for Paris Hilton and others and co-director of one of the year's most powerful documentaries. Mallika Chopra, Deepak's daughter, whose life lessons did her world renowned father teacher and how can they help your kids. And the famed dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone. Want to look 10 years younger in 28 days? He says he can show you how.
They're all next on LARRY KING LIVE.
It's a great pleasure to welcome to LARRY KING LIVE one of my favorite people and the pediatrician of my children, the famed pediatrician, Dr. Peter Waldstein, one of the most sought after doctors in this country and he has developed Dr. Peter's Child Identity Kit. We have it in front of us. This is in response to the growing problem of missing, abducted and lost children. They celebrate your whole -- what do they call it this week?
DR. PETER WALDSTEIN, PEDIATRICIAN: National -- actually, today is National Missing Children's Day.
KING: We're taping it today, playing it Saturday, National Missing -- how did you get involved in this? What is this kit?
WALDSTEIN: Well, this kit is an identity kit which consists of DNA, fingerprint, hair sample and a whole picture, height, weight of your child. And the reason I got involved is I had a very good friend whose daughter, through a chat room, got lured to another state and when the police came to question them they had absolutely no information other than an old picture, so I decided to put together, along with my wife Laurie, a kit which would be all-inclusive, which was simple, which was effective and would give people and parents a piece of mind.
KING: I bring it home and do what with it? WALDSTEIN: Well, you bring it home, you sit your kids down, it comes with a DVD that is self-explanatory. You are going to fingerprint your child, it comes with an inkpad, you're going to do a buckle swab, which is mainly a Q-Tip, you're going inside your child's cheek, let it air-dry for two to four hours, you're going to write down significant facts about your child, height, weight, color of hair, and you're going to take a little snipper of their hair and that way you'll have a complete identity kit. This will empower parents in case of any unthinkable thing that happens to their child, to be prepared.
KING: So if your child is missing, the police come to your house, you have got a lot of information to give them.
WALDSTEIN: Exactly.
KING: Now this kit is available -- you can order it online at doctorpetersidkit.com. Or 1-800-388-9572. 1-800-388-9573. Those are the two ways to order it. Are you going to have it in stores?
WALDSTEIN: Eventually, yes. There are some big -- Sears is interested and other big ...
KING: Shouldn't everybody with a child have this?
WALDSTEIN: My thinking? Absolutely yes. There's no downside of it. This is just to prepare you. I don't want to go to the doom and gloom side of everything, but in this really unstable world that we live in and every day you turn on the news, every day you see a child is missing -- this will give you a little piece of mind so, God forbid, something happens, you're prepared.
KING: It's a great idea. What's the cost?
WALDSTEIN: The cost is $19.95.
KING: That's all.
WALDSTEIN: That's all.
KING: That's pretty good. Do you, as a pediatrician, do you talk to parents about things like this? With what's going on in the world?
WALDSTEIN: You know something? I always like to practice preventative medicine. I like parents to be prepared. If their child has a fever, have Motrin in the house. Have Benadryl if they have an allergic reaction. So in this very unstable world we live in, I think this is something that every parent should have in their house, a full -- even college kids, infants -- even adults.
KING: Yeah. Are children more aware now of strangers, danger around them, than, say, 20 years ago.
WALDSTEIN: Well, you and I grew up in New York, we were street smart. I think they're not as street smart as they were when we grew up. I try to educate them. This comes with actually a DVD with safety tips done by Shaquille O'Neal, Vanna White, Jimmy Kahn (ph) and Lisa Renna (ph) which is very entertaining to watch, which really, in a nice low key manner gives kids the tools to sort of educate them on what to do and what not to do.
KING: And then you keep all of this in a special place in your house.
WALDSTEIN: A nice, cool, safe place and I hope you never have to use it. But if the unthinkable happens, you're prepared. You know, a child gets abducted every 40 to 60 seconds, there are 60,000 abductions a year in the United States now and to me this -- it is a no-brainer.
KING: Are most of the abductions for the purpose of giving them to other families -- selling them -- it's not sexual, is it?
WALDSTEIN: Well, some of them are sexual, some of them are in family abductions, with divorce and that type of thing ...
KING: Father ...
WALDSTEIN: ... and some of them are just sick people that lure kids through the Internet or in the street.
KING: Do you notice parents more concerned?
WALDSTEIN: Yes. Parents do not allow their kids to go outside and ride bikes, play ball. It's a whole different world out there.
KING: You wouldn't allow a kid to ride a bike around the corner?
WALDSTEIN: No.
KING: Whereas you might have 10 years ago?
WALDSTEIN: Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's pretty sad.
KING: Any, by the way, just to veer off a little, any particular illness you are seeing more in children?
WALDSTEIN: You know, I think with L.A. being sort of a melting pot, a lot of people bring different types of viruses, so I see all year round -- it used to be sort of seasonal but I see a lot of viral syndromes all year round. Gastroenteritis, upper respiratory infections ...
KING: Anything decreasing?
WALDSTEIN: Well, there is a lot of decrease -- chicken pox, measles, German measles, hepatitis, because of the vaccines that are available. No polio anymore.
KING: Do you give young children the flu vaccine?
WALDSTEIN: If they are immuno-compromised, if they have diabetes. I don't recommend it for every child who -- every kid in school.
KING: So that's strictly an individual matter?
WALDSTEIN: Absolutely.
KING: Okay, let's go over this again. To order this kit, it's only $19.95, it's a joke, it's doctorpetersidkit, that's one word, doctorpetersidkit.com or 1-800-388-9573. 1-800-388-9573. If you don't write that down and you contact us, we'll let you know how to get it.
WALDSTEIN: Thank you, sir.
KING: Thank you. You're a noble man.
Dr. Peter Waldstein. Only the best. We'll be right back.
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(MUSIC)
KING: Great pleasure to welcome to LARRY KING LIVE an old friend, a great talent, the singer, songwriter with over 100 albums. Paul Anka, who has written some of the songs you hear every day in elevators and elsewhere and he is the artist on the new album, "Rock Swings." We have it right here. There you see its cover. Is this new for you?
PAUL ANKA, SINGER: This is very new for me. It's a departure. It's a bunch of songs from the '80s and '90s that obviously I did not write of very popular rock bands and what I did was I took all of the songs that I thought would be adaptable to a real swing orchestra, pop jazz style, and sat in the studio for a few months, worked at it. It morphed itself out and I felt that taking songs from the '80s and '90s, the standards of today for a certain demographic, would be refreshing and different and give them the kind of testimony that they need.
(MUSIC)
ANKA: Got "Eye of the Tiger" from Survivor, "Jump," Van Halen, "Everybody Hurts," REM, Oasis, "Wonderwall," "Black Hole Sun," Soundgarden.
KING: Done with a big band?
ANKA: Oh yeah, a big band. We went into Capital Studios. Al Schmidt, engineer. Sat down and we just arranged everything so it would sound as if it were Sinatra's style. In that kind of genre.
KING: Does it work?
ANKA: Oh it really worked. It really worked. I wasn't sure at first until I really -- we had the benefit of, A, the technology where I would sit in my studio with my machines and see if it would work and it started to morph out that it did. (MUSIC)
ANKA: And then the songwriting aspect of my life came into play because I was able to at least do the songs as if I had written them so what you hear are songs from the '80s and '90s with my interpretation as if I had written them so it really does work, because Larry, a hit is a hit, a good song is a good song.
KING: Now, true you've sold 25,000 albums the first week?
ANKA: Well, the investment company that backed this was from Europe so they wanted it released over there first. They are close to 50,000 records, it's top 10 over in Germany. All of the sudden I found myself next to Fifty Cent and J-Lo. So we started out with a big bang-up in Germany, it comes out in Canada in June 1st for a week, we're doing a promotion up there and then I start on the 7th of June in New York for a week.
KING: And it's available anywhere you can buy records.
ANKA: Oh yeah, it's Verve/Universal. It will be in record stores, it will be everywhere. This is my first release in a long time.
KING: You get a star on the Canada Walk of Fame in Toronto in June.
ANKA: Yeah.
KING: About time.
ANKA: Well, I've kind of laid back for a while. They've been asking me for a few years. It's never really worked out. But it's a big event up there, the Walk of Fame, and I'm very honored, and then the following week I am getting the Order of Canada from the government of Canada on the 10th, so it is going to be a Canada time back home in Canada for me.
KING: Are you still a Canadian?
ANKA: Yes, I am.
KING: You never became an American citizen?
ANKA: I became an American citizen a few years ago. You know, I went in to look at my will and my people called me in and they said you have to become an American because if you don't, blablabla with your heirs. So I have an American passport and I have a Canadian passport.
KING: So you're a dual citizen?
ANKA: I have dual citizenship.
KING: Now you wrote, "You're My Destiny," "All of the Sudden," "My Heart Sings," "Crazy Love," "Lonely Boy," "Hello Young Lovers," "Little Girl," "Love Me," "Warm and Tender," "Feelings," "Put Your Head on My Shoulder," "Puppy Love," "You're Having My Baby," "My Way," "The Tonight Show Theme." You do not have to work?
ANKA: Correction. Some of those I didn't write. There are about three of them in there.
KING: But you had hits.
ANKA: Oh yeah, I had hits. Most of those I did write.
KING: You don't have to work.
ANKA: Well, you know, I think Jimmy Durante said, I don't need the money, I need to work. And you know, he was so true. I think it's important that to stay active, and if you look statistically today, it's not a matter of age anymore, I think you have to do what you do and if you love what you're doing it's good for you, keeps the mind going, I love getting out there. My demographic of people have been very supportive. I am working more than I ever have. I have deals -- four year deals at every major casino. So it's all out there to go out and enjoy and do so I'm not one of those guys -- I lived through with Sinatra and you were there. He told me when I first wrote, "My Way," "I'm quitting, kid." He never did. You know how many times he came back.
Once you've got it up the arm and you're enjoying what you're doing, you've got to do it.
KING: And you're also, for those who haven't seen you, one of the great in person acts in all of show biz. You are -- it's more than a singer.
ANKA: Thank you.
KING: You are an entertainer. Always been that? Did you learn that early on?
ANKA: Yeah. I started when I was six, ha ha, 16 years old, I'm at the Copa, 17, 18. I'm out in Vegas with the Rat Pack and I said, you know what? I'm going to do this, I've got to learn to do it well.
KING: You don't just come out and sing eight songs.
ANKA: No, no, you've got to learn and so I sat in the wings, I hung out with Frank, with Sammy, with Dean, I said that's what I want to do and if I'm going to do it I've got to do it well and I've got to learn what's indigenous to all of that.
KING: Are there any drawbacks to being a star early? Because you were a hit as a kid.
ANKA: It's always a big leap from that normal life into that but you have to realize that back when I started the pop music industry was in its infancy stage and it was difficult only in the transition to all of what when on and went with it and the kids and the screaming and the traveling but because of my upbringing and I had some good people around me, they kind of kept me centered and you kind of leveled off and understood what you had to do to behave and not take it all too seriously and keep a pretty good focus on everything.
KING: You also wrote the music for "D-Day, the Longest Day." One of the best movie themes ever written. Do you still write?
ANKA: Yeah, I write every now and then. I'm not really writing as I did back then because back then I was writing to do four or five albums a year. With the way my business is today, I'm not really writing for myself, I'm doing an album like "Rock Swings" which were other people, but I continue to write, oh, absolutely.
KING: But the music is past -- you don't write for today's generation, do you? Or can you write ...
ANKA: Yeah, I write for this generation for those that I can write what I am about, the honesty and the integrity of what I do and you write -- there's some good artists out there where you put songs in film or with pop artists, people like that.
KING: You're helped, also, by XM and Sirius Radio, which are making big impacts. I hear you all the time. You're being played again.
ANKA: Yeah. Well, listen, it really hasn't gone away, in a sense, what I do and even what led me to this CD I realized that swing and the fashion of back in the '50s and '60s, when you look at it on a composite from the "Godfather," to the mafia days and all of that fashion and music, it never really went anywhere. Thus, that's why I did this because I realized that a young demographic were into all of that stuff from yesterday. A lot of radio stations were still playing it so there is an awareness out there of what happened yesterday from fashion to music to everything.
KING: Were some of them -- did you try any songs that were not possible to do.
ANKA: Yes. Yes. I sat there. I called "Billboard," they sent me a box of music -- I mean charts. And I sat there and went through all of these songs, I sat at the piano with my guys and we would try a bunch of songs, some never worked. I had "Billy Jean," Michael Jackson, just couldn't get it together, couldn't get the words "Billy Jean" out of my mouth. Threw it out. We kept throwing out a lot of things until we finally sat and said, this one works, it's honest, sounds good and I didn't want it to be a novelty record, I wanted the music to really be forefront to quality.
KING: And if it's a rip-roaring hit, will there be a "Rock Swings 2"?
ANKA: We're already talking about "Rock Swings 2," yeah, and we're doing a DVD, we're doing a TV special in the fall, so everything from -- the critics have been incredible with this.
KING: I know.
ANKA: And it's all set up, and yeah, we'll do a "Rock 2."
KING: It's great to have you. Always on the same band.
ANKA: Thanks, Larry.
KING: One of my favorite people. "Rock Swings." Paul Anka. A genius. We'll be right back.
(MUSIC)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE, he's in New York, Ron Howard, the director of dozens of films, including the upcoming "Cinderella Man," as I told him off the air, as I told everybody I run into, "Cinderella Man" is one of the best movies ever made, it's the best boxing movie ever made, it's one of the greatest movies ever made, it's the life of James Braddock, brilliantly directed, wonderfully acted. How did you get the idea to make the James Braddock, a kind of obscure champion, a story?
RON HOWARD, DIRECTOR: Well, first of all, thanks, Larry, I'm glad you liked the movie so much. It means a lot. Well, it is a great story and I had actually heard a little something about James Braddock, because my father, Rance, who actually plays the ring announcer in the movie, he was a lifelong boxing fan and when he was about six years old, the first fight that he listened to -- he grew up on a farm in Oklahoma, they had to drive into the pool hall. That was the only place that had a radio, to listen to this Cinderella Man fight Max Baer for the heavyweight championship and he always used Braddock as a kind of example to me of tenacity, of never giving up and those kinds of virtues that Braddock demonstrated.
I found out when I was working on "A Beautiful Mind" that Russell Crowe had always wanted to play Braddock and there was a screenplay that existed and it was something that he just was passionate about.
KING: Was Zellweger your first choice for the wife? She is brilliant.
HOWARD: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, in fact, she had talked to Russell before I was ever involved and she had also read the script and just believed here was a great story not only about a boxer but about a family, a love story about a married couple and she believed that it was a story that ought to find its way to the screen and it was, to me, this is a little corny, a match made in heaven. I mean, I felt like I had heavyweight action going on in the ring and then two heavyweight superstars for the dramatic, romantic side of the story and as a director, fantastic -- Season it with a little Paul Giamatti in there for a lot of humor and character and I felt like it was something extraordinary.
KING: Hard to believe you have outdone yourself. I know you are doing "The Da Vinci Code" next and I no that tomorrow night, Sunday night, is going to be a big -- what are you doing Sunday night? The movie doesn't open until next week. HOWARD: Well, it's a sneak preview Larry. Look, it's very competitive right now. All kinds of very high profile films and the studio has seen this movie play so successfully to audiences that I think they felt that a sneak preview would get word of mouth going at a really exceptional level and so I am proud of it.
Hey, all I want to do is just have a lot of people see it and so I'm happy to have them start Sunday night.
KING: Please -- I am telling the audience, go see it, you will not -- it's a great movie. It's also a terrific film, one of the best films about the Depression.
HOWARD: Well, thank you. I have long been fascinated by it. I grew up hearing a lot about it, both my mom and my dad, their families struggled a bit during the Depression and I heard about it and realized there was a level of fear and kind of shock that people were coping with. And as I began to research and actually I made a documentary film about it when I was in high school. When I was in 11th grade and we had done our social studies section on the Depression, we were supposed to write a paper but I asked the teacher if I could make a film instead. I guess the paper would have taken me three or four hours. I wound up with four solid weeks of working on this film, but it was the first long form movie, actually, Larry, that I ever really through myself into.
And one of the things that struck me then and continued to mean a lot to me as I began to put "Cinderella Man" on film was the look you saw on faces of people, particularly living in cities. Men who will still trying to wear their business suits but they're selling apples for five cents a piece. Women wearing their Sunday hats but standing in breadlines and kids digging through the trash, trying to find scrap metal and in the background you're not seeing bombed out buildings, it's not a wartime situation, you're seeing skyscrapers, you're seeing bridges in the background and you realize these people were living in what they thought was utopia and the rug was just pulled out from under them and the look in their eyes is one of absolute shock.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSSELL CROWE: Go on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I promise.
RUSSELL CROWE: And I promise you we will never send you away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWARD: When I saw this story and this script I though, well, great, you've got the action of the boxing, you've got this great family love story going on, but also this chance to deal with this subject that hasn't been dealt with too much in films in recent years and I thought as a director I could do something with it.
KING: Do you have a special chemistry with Russell Crowe? HOWARD: Well, I love actors and Russell and I have really hit it off, so I am proud to say I have had good chemistry with a lot of actors and actresses that I've worked with. Russell is so extraordinarily gifted and while our personalities are quite different, our ambition for trying to do good work is realty the same and neither of us wants to go home at the end of a filming day or night feeling like we left anything on the table creatively and so it's a joy to work with somebody who shares my passion, my commitment to exploring the details and offering the audience our very best effort in terms of trying to fulfill the potential of the story we're working on.
KING: And I know my dear old friend who I've known for 48 years, Angelo Dundee, worked with you on this movie, and I saw him quoted as saying Russell Crowe could have been a very good professional fighter.
HOWARD: Well he was very impressed with Russell and he was also impressed with the sort of mental tenacity. You know, Russell dislocated his shoulder about six weeks before we were supposed to start shooting, Larry, and we all thought the movie would be shut down but Russell called me immediately, literally on his way to the hospital, and Angelo was there at the time, Russell had been sparring and had hyper-extended his shoulder on a missed left hook, dislocated it, and he had chipped the bones as his shoulder went back into the socket.
He called me and told me he was going immediately to see a surgeon and get into physiotherapy and he knew then that he was going to have to have kind of an emergency procedure done but he also said to me -- you know, he was in horrible pain, but he said, you know, our man, Jimmy Braddock, he fought hurt an awful lot, Ron. Don't you worry. This is going to work for me. It's going to work for the movie.
KING: When you see this movie you will love him and you will love Jimmy Braddock.
Your cinematographer who I think works with you on a lot of movies.
HOWARD: This is our second time to work together. Salvatore Tortino. He is also going to be doing "Da Vinci Code."
KING: Wow.
HOWARD: He's a dynamo. He's a dynamo and like Russell, he throws himself headlong into it, there's some great behind the scenes footage of Salvatore Tortino, even though he is director of photography, he is in the ring, operating the camera himself, with pads all over him, allowing Russell to punch him. Give him shots to the head and body. I mean, it was all planned and organized, but nonetheless, it was a big workout.
We were able to do a lot with the camera, Larry, because Russell was so willing to literally do anything and that's the way you get that kind of boxing action and that kind of intensity on the screen, is when the actors are willing to just give it that 110 percent and deal with that pain threshold and the exhaustion and the training to get fit. There is not a single frame of a screen double for Russell Crowe in the movie. Not a single one. He would never have it and as a director I wouldn't even want that. It would be right.
KING: Ron, you have outdone yourself. My congratulations.
HOWARD: Thank you Larry. Look, I love that you appreciate the movie. Thank you.
KING: The movie is "Cinderella Man." There will be a sneak tomorrow night at theaters all over the country. A Sunday night sneak. It opens next Friday. It is brilliant. Tomorrow night on this program we will replay our interview with Dr. Billy Graham and our guest on Monday will be Vice President Dick Cheney. We will be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSSELL CROWE: I won.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE, also from New York, Dan Klores, the director of a terrific movie, "Ring of Fire, the Emile Griffith Story" and also "Viva Baseball." He is a veteran publicist. Lot of high profile clients like Paris Hilton and Sean Combs but his love lies elsewhere.
Were you surprised with how well "Ring of Fire" was greeted.
DAN KLORES, DIRECTOR AND PUBLICIST: Well, I was pleased with how well it was greeted. It was a struggle to make, it was a great experience to make it but I was very happy about the response, of course.
KING: Think you've got a good shot for an Emmy? I think you do.
KLORES: Yeah. Thanks Larry. I hope so. It has the -- it's a great story. It's a story about sex and politics and media and love and passion and violence so it was a big story.
KING: Why did you decide to do Emile Griffith's story? It's been around for years.
KLORES: Because there was something -- I watched it on television on Friday night fights, when I was a little kid, 12, 13 years old and it always pulled me, it always pulled me.
KING: When he killed Benny "Kid" Paret.
KLORES: When he killed Benny "Kid" Paret, in the lower left hand corner of the television screen and the entire nation watched it and it was a haunting moment. They took boxing off television for 10 years after that, off network TV.
KING: Boy. The impact of the gay issue. Has that been strongly felt?
KLORES: Well, what happened that night, the weigh-in that afternoon, Benny Paret taunted Emile Griffith and called him maricone (ph), a Spanish word for homosexual. This enraged Griffith, who by the way was a six time world champion, middle weight and welterweight world champion. So it was the first time that anyone was discussing gays.
Jimmy Breslin says in the movie, at that point, 1962, three gay guys in a corner, they'd arrest them for not having a parade permit. The "New York Times" the next day wouldn't use the world "homosexual" in the paper. They used the word "unman," u-n-m-a-n. And sadly, I'm not sure much has changed in the world professional athletes to this day, in the world of male-dominated professional athletes, there's not one gay male who has ever come out while they're participating, while their career is active.
KING: Very true. I interviewed Emile Griffith once years ago, right around that fight, he was a good interview.
KLORES: Yeah, he is a very sweet, and it sounds strange, but he's a gentle person, for a six time world champion he has a gentleness about him that's endearing.
KING: But a fighter, too.
Tell me about "Viva Baseball."
KLORES: "Viva Baseball" is a story about the struggle, conflict and triumphs of Latinos playing baseball in this country, who had it different and much more severe even in the negro -- starts in the 1870s up in through the present and I tell it through the perspective of five different storylines. One is Vic Power, one is Roberto Clemente, the other is Dennis Martinez, then I used the Giants' organization, Marichal, Alou and Cepeda and lastly it is the story of Cuba. Baseball came to Cuba in the 1870s and of course very much a powerful history throughout. Black Latins.
KING: Hasn't it been wide open for the Latins?
KLORES: It was never wide open for the Latin. Never. Black Latins will prohibited from playing baseball until after Robinson integrated and even then it was very difficult so the discrimination that they felt was the same thing that negroes did, all the Jim Crow stuff but the language barrier was so severe, the customs, guys like Tony Perez couldn't, ate nothing for chicken for five months, they could not say any other word.
So it was a horrendous experience. Guys like Vic Power, a 28 year old rookie. He led the minor leagues in hitting three years in a row. He was supposed to be the first negro ever to play for the Yankees but the Yankees didn't want him because he committed the cardinal sin of dating white women in the mid 1950s.
KING: Might still be the best fielding first baseman that ever lived.
KLORES: Eight Gold Gloves. And a lot of these guys, even the ones that made it in the Major Leagues, they missed many years. Luis Tiant, they missed a lot of years and one has to think if there was a special committee to allow Negro Leaguers into the Hall of Fame, why isn't there a special committee to look at these Latin guys and at least judge that.
KING: When will -- is "Viva Baseball" out now? When will it be seen.
KLORES: "Viva Baseball" will be out late September on Spike TV, Larry.
KING: Is it a one hour documentary or longer?
KLORES: No, it will be about two hours and they give you two hours to tell you the history of Latin baseball. Forty four percent of the baseball players in this country are Latin now, about 24 percent in the Major Leagues are Latin. And people were great, people were just terrific in trying to tell their stories here.
KING: Are you now a publicist who does films or are you a filmmaker who does publicity?
KLORES: You're going to get me in trouble with my clients here.
KING: You should become a filmmaker. To me you are brilliant filmmaker.
KLORES: Thank you so much. My love is making films. My love is making films and telling stories and it's the happiest I have ever been in my life right now, so ...
KING: You'll become -- you're the new Ken Burns.
KLORES: Actually, I learned from Ken Burns and his marvelous associate Lynne Novick (ph), so I owe him a lot.
KING: Dan, I can't wait to see "Viva Baseball" and of course everybody, if you get a chance to see "Ring of Fire," please do. It's a great, great film.
KLORES: Thank you. It's going to air on Bravo on June 10th.
KING: Bravo on June 10th. Absolutely see it. Thanks, Dan.
KLORES: Thank you, Larry. Thanks a lot.
KING: Dan Klores. Back after this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TONY GONZALEZ, FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER: I go out there for myself. Fumble the ball and go pick it up, fumble and go pick it up.
JUAN MARICHAL, FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER: The only thing I used to think was playing baseball.
LUIS TIANT, FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER: I am going to show you I can do the same everything out here, white, black, African, Chinese, whatever.
ORLANDO CEPEDA, FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER: I knew I was going to be a baseball player.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Her father has been here tons of times. We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE Mallika Chopra, author of a terrific new book, "100 Promises. Her father wrote the foreword to the new book. Deepak Chopra is also the coauthor of the new book, "Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives, a Holistic Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth."
How did you come to write this?
MALLIKA CHOPRA, DEEPAK CHOPRA'S DAUGHTER: You know, I grew up in a family where I was surrounded by people who were all on the path to self discovery but actually I had never been interested in things like that and I found the moment I discovered I was pregnant was actually a very transformational moment for me. Suddenly realizing that I had this yoosel (ph) inside of me that I was bringing into the world and so I really started to think about who made me who I am, what influenced me and how do I want to be a parent so I thought a lot about my parents and how they had brought us up.
KING: What does your husband do?
CHOPRA: My husband is a venture capitalist. He is Indian. About the total opposite end of the spectrum. We met in India. We've been married eight years now and have two kids, a three year old and a 10 month old.
KING: How did you come up with the idea of making it promises.
CHOPRA: The project actually really started out as my journal entry to myself, just about how I wanted to be a parent and I found that making a promise is actually a very sacred process. It was making a covenant to my child. I was just watching, actually, your interview with Ron Howard and saw "Cinderella Man" the other night and thought it was brilliant and there was a very poignant seen in there about when Russell Crowe, the actor, makes a promise to his child and you know when we make promises to our children, that's a sacred statement that we're making and I think it's a very powerful process when you're a parent.
KING: Was it fun -- I love the chapter titles. "I Promise to Create a Loving, Enriching Environment, I Promise to Teach you the Power of Forgiveness, I Promise to Keep an Open Heart and Mind as Our Relationship Changes and Evolves." Was this easy to write for you?
CHOPRA: You know it was where I was at the time. I started writing the book when I was pregnant with my first child and actually something very traumatic happened, I was five months pregnant at 9-11 and I think for everyone that was a very traumatic time and I think for me came a realization that I'm bringing a new baby into this world and that really made me think a lot about how I could influence that child and also the power that we had to change the world through our children so that actually -- it became more urgent to write the book and it took time because of course, once I had my child I had no time to write anymore. I picked it up two years later again and discovered that week that I was pregnant again which my dad will definitely call syncodestiny (ph).
KING: Are some of these promises hard to keep?
CHOPRA: Yes. They are. One of the promises I have in there is "I Promise to Teach You By Example, Not Words." Which is very easy to say but our children our watching us all the time and so I have learned, especially when you have a three year old in the house who literally is watching what you eat, what you say, etc, that that's very difficult, but it also provides a great opportunity. And in the book I promise, the story that goes along with that promise is about how may parents influenced my brother and I to learn meditation and to meditate.
KING: With so many travels, wasn't your father an absentee travel a lot?
CHOPRA: He actually -- his books started coming out when we were a little older. So in our childhood he was there a lot. He was a doctor so he was very busy at that time. But my parents took an approach that they wanted to encourage us to learn about the world so as we got older we were fortunate to travel a lot as well so my dad is very, very involved as a parent and very involved with a grandparent, in fact, we were at Disneyland, my father, my daughter and me went to Disneyland and he canceled all his meetings just to go with my grandfather for the day and get photographs of princesses.
KING: Is your mom into the same things as your dad?
CHOPRA: My mom is by my mom is a very quiet person. She is very -- she is the foundation for our entire family.
KING: She is the rock.
CHOPRA: The rock. And when I think about the kind of mother that I'd want to be I really just want to look at my mother. She represents everything. She is a basin (ph) of love and compassion.
KING: What is the hardest thing about being mother?
CHOPRA: The hardest thing is that you love your children so much and you want to provide everything you can and sometimes we don't know what to do and that I think is tough and that was one of my goals in writing the book, trying to think, okay, how can I be the best parent that I can be, how can I be a conscious parent, but ultimately I realized it is about love and if you're coming from that place, hopefully we'll make the right decisions.
KING: Is it hard to say no?
CHOPRA: It's very hard to say no. In fact I had a promise before I had my baby, which said "I promise to never say no to you" and of course immediately realized that's impossible so you just have to learn ...
KING: But it's hard.
CHOPRA: It's very hard.
KING: Do you avoid spoiling them?
CHOPRA: You know I can't say I avoid it. I feel, again, if we're coming from a place where we're teaching them to respect others, to love the earth, to have a sense of spirit, you know, it is okay to spoil them once in a while, but again, just have them appreciate the gifts that they're getting.
KING: Is this the first of other books?
CHOPRA: It is. It's the first. I have an idea for another one I was talking with my dad yesterday but right now I'm focused on this.
KING: It's delightfully put together. I salute you and thank you very much.
CHOPRA: Thank you very much.
KING: Good luck to your father.
CHOPRA: Thank you.
KING: The book is My -- "100 Promises to My Baby" by Mallika Chopra. The foreword by Deepak Chopra. I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE the author of an extraordinary best seller, it is "The Perricone Promise, Look Younger, Live Longer in Three Easy Steps. Take Off Ten Years In 28 Days." The book has been a runaway bestseller. They even have a store on Madison Avenue in New York. He is the famed dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone. It's good to welcome you. How did you come across this promise?
NICHOLAS PERRICONE, "THE PERRICONE PROMISE": Actually, it's the result of about 20 years research. I found in medical school that I thought inflammation was found in every disease process I was looking at and came up with what I call the inflammation aging theory and it's basically this low-grade, invisible inflammation, we can't see it, we can't feel it, it goes on all the time.
KING: Things getting bigger?
PERRICONE: Things getting worse. And what happens is it wrinkles our skin, it increases our risk of cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, it's all based on this invisible inflammation. So if that was the problem, then my thought was what would be the therapeutic intervention? I found out it was simple. Food, vitamins and lifestyle changes.
KING: What did the medical community think?
PERRICONE: Not really thrilled initially. But I think I've been vindicated over the past few years. "Time Magazine," the cover was inflammation as the basis of a number of problems so I think we're getting there but the point is it's just a matter of common sense. You know if you eat well you are going to do better, you're going to look better. And people say, well, how do you do this, you're a dermatologist, why nutrition. You know, the skin is a perfect reflection of what's going on inside of us so I have this three day nutritional facelift which I am sure you've heard of, we were talking about it earlier. So how can three days make a difference? Well, when you reduce inflammation inside your body systemically, your skin absolutely radiates, you have no dark circles, fine lines disappear, you have greater contrast to your skin and that's a positive reinforcement for people.
When I say eat this way you won't get heart disease, that's kind of an abstraction, it's negative, but I say eat this way for three days and you're going to look terrific, you do that and everything else falls into place.
KING: Why in three days? How can it happen so fast?
PERRICONE: Once again it's a good question. Inflammation shows up in the skin domus (ph), large pores, dark circles, puffiness and loss of contours. When you reduce inflammation systemically, you do this from the inside out, all of that changes very rapidly so you'll walk in a room on that fourth day and people will be astounded, they will say, what have you done, have you been on vacation, have you had a facelift?
The idea is to rapidly bring down inflammation to get an effect, because what I am trying to do is teach people that health is really -- health and beauty are one, beauty from the inside out so if you do this to improve your skin, the point is everything else falls into place. You will decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's and all the rest.
KING: Can you look at someone and tell if they're pretty healthy?
PERRICONE: Pretty much so. The skin's amazing. In fact, a textbook we had in my dermatology residency was skin signs of systemic diseases. It was this thick and virtually every disease process can be diagnoses from changes in the skin or the nails.
KING: No kidding. PERRICONE: It's fascinating.
KING: And how did you hook up on inflammation?
PERRICONE: Looked at it in a microscope. As a medical student there was inflammation around the squamous cell cancer I was seeing in the lungs. So I asked my professor, I'm seeing inflammation around all these cancers. Is it possible inflammation could be mediating this process? He said, no, no, no, it's immune response to the cancer. I said that's odd because the way cancer gets away we don't have an immune response. And I saw it in arteries where there was heart disease, I saw it in a lot of tissue so I'm thinking inflammation has got to be happening and it just can't be a side effect of these diseases. There has to be some way of moderating it.
I looked at that and stuck with it throughout the years and really found that that was the answer.
KING: Do you prescribe a lot of medications, a lot of vitamins.
PERRICONE: Vitamins are important. It's a three-tiered program. The first tier and the most important is the anti-inflammatory diet, a simple diet, common sense, fresh fruit, vegetables, lots of fish, get rid of the starches and sugar, that simple. Get rid of the coffee. So I brought you a present today, your coffee cup goes and this is your green tea and I want you to taste that.
KING: I like green tea.
PERRICONE: Good. That's green tea buds and it's jasmine tea. It's very pleasant. So changes are food, lifestyle changes, vitamins and then topicals and I spent a lot of time as a dermatologist developing topical anti-inflammatories. Once again, rapid action, if we put half of your face with a topical anti-inflammatory, you would look different in 15 minutes, you would have decreased puffiness, you would actually have lift to your face, you would look asymmetric for the rest of the day.
KING: Can you change surgery -- plastic surgery, can you prevent it?
PERRICONE: I believe we can. I think we can delay -- I have nothing against plastic surgery but I think we can delay those procedures for another 20 years by following this three-tiered anti- inflammatory program.
KING: But what happens at your store, which I pass frequently on Madison Avenue in New York?
PERRICONE: The store is basically an information center. I believe that the health care industry and beauty industry is going to merge so what people need is good information so you come to the store, we have registered dietitians, we have skin specialists, there is a library there, there are video screens, you can sit and learn and think about what's happening, complete evaluation, medical history, what you should be eating, vitamins to be taken, what are your skin problems. The idea is that information is the key. If people have good information, they can take very good care of themselves. The problem is there is mixed information. You are told no fat, low fat diets, and we find out there is an epidemic of obesity. We are told many things by doctors and it all comes back to common sense. If someone says no fats, red flag should go up. If someone says no carb, red flag, moderation is the key.
KING: You write -- Dr. Andrew Weil has been here from Tucson and he says the same thing you do. That the perfect food is blueberries.
PERRICONE: Absolutely.
KING: What do blueberries have? I eat a lot of blueberries. What do they have? I like the way they taste, but what do they have?
PERRICONE: They have an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant called anthocyanens (ph), powerful now. I call something the brain beauty connection. I found if something is therapeutic for brain tissue, the skin gets better because they are both derived from the same tissue. So blueberries are neuroprotective. If you don't want to get Alzheimer's take your blueberries every day and it makes your skin beautiful. So blueberries are great so I recommend blueberries and salmon, green salads and beautiful skin.
KING: What would you eliminate?
PERRICONE: Starches and sugars are bad.
KING: No bread?
PERRICONE: I don't like bread at all. It just seems to do bad things. You know, most people do not tolerate wheat very well. They don't have to have a gluten enteropathy, it could be a low grade thing and that causes inflammation, so I say get rid of the bread, get rid of the potatoes and the sugar completely. However, we're human, and I say one day a week if you want to get off the anti-inflammatory program and enjoy yourself, you go ahead, but the longer you are on it the less you can tolerate not feeling your best.
KING: It's hard to totally eliminate sugar, right? It's in so many things.
PERRICONE: It's hard to totally eliminate it but the idea is to just slowly get into this program, try it a few days a week, try the three day program. I'm just warning you right -- you're going to get addicted to feeling and looking good and you will be on the 28 day program and soon you will be like me.
KING: You start with the three day.
PERRICONE: You start with the three day and you go to the 28 day. I don't very often eat sugar because I feel the next day I have a hangover and I call it the non-alcoholic. And you're not going to be a fanatic. You're going to do this because you like it. You can deviate from it if you want to but the point is the longer you're on this program the less you're going to deviate. KING: How do you feel about meat?
PERRICONE: I don't have any problem with meat and I say enjoy it, however, if you eat a lot of red meat it does actually at pro- inflammatory chemicals. This is called arachadonic acid. Remember, inflammation is the bad guy. We're trying to fight it. But once again, this is diverse. The three day program is narrow, the 28 day program is very diverse and you have to recognize that you are human. You can't be perfect.
KING: Protein.
PERRICONE: The days you do not eat enough protein are the days you age. You have got to know that so at your height, your size, you should be getting 75 grams of protein a day. If you're bigger and you're athlete you need more. Women need 75 grams of protein a day. I did a survey in my office over two years asking women how much protein they got. They were getting half as much protein as they should get and they say to me, I'm not aging as well as my husband, why? The days you do not eat enough protein are the days you age, so you have got to get good quality protein and that's probably one of the most important things I can tell you today.
KING: We're going to do a whole show around you. Thank you.
PERRICONE: Thank you. Enjoy your tea.
KING: Thank you. The book is "The Perricone Promise, Look Younger, Live Longer in Three Easy Steps, Discover the Brain Beauty Connection as Seen on Public Television." In fact, Dr. Perricone has been everywhere. It's finally good to have him here. "Take Off 10 Years in 28 Days."
Back with more after this.
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