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American Morning
Dave, Oprah Friends Again; Face To Face
Aired December 02, 2005 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: That is a beautiful shot. Look at that picture of Central Park. Wow!
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Sunrise at Columbus...
S. O'BRIEN: Almost a sunrise.
M. O'BRIEN: Close.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Dawn at Columbus Circle.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, this is the best time of day.
M. O'BRIEN: First light, yes.
COSTELLO: It's quiet. It's peaceful. The city is just waking up.
S. O'BRIEN: It's early. Yes, it is. Welcome, everybody. That brings us to our new hour, as we begin as 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the new hours of AMERICAN MORNING.
Lots to talk about, so let's get right to the news. You're starting with Iraq, right?
COSTELLO: I certainly am. More Americans into harm's war there today. About 300 Marines and 200 Iraqi troops are in Ramadi. They're going after insurgents in an effort to secure the area ahead of the December 15 elections. The offensive is one of several launched in the last few days.
Back in the states, Kenneth Lee Boyd becomes a statistic. The convicted killer is the 1,000th person -- oh, that's hard to say -- to be executed since the death penalty resumed in 1977. Boyd killed his wife and father-in-law. He was put to death less than four-and-a-half hours ago in North Carolina.
In Florida, Joseph Smith could be added to that list. A jury is recommending the death penalty for the man convicted of killing 11- year-old Carlie Brucia. Surveillance videotape outside a Sarasota carwash showed the girl's abduction on February 1. Brucia's mother told reporters after the jury recommendation, "He's still breathing, and my daughter is not."
Don't you wish you could really make someone's holiday? These two sure can. Bill and Melinda Gates are giving $84 million to two groups that work to prevent the deaths of newborns. Save the Children will use $60 million for projects in 18 countries. The other group, PATH, will use 24 million in India. India has almost a third of the world's newborn deaths.
And in the Sierra Mountains of California, some tough going. This is Interstate 80, where the snow has been piling up. I know it's hard to -- oh, you can see it now. It's pretty much a snowy day across Washington state. You drivers out there might not like it, but skiers are having a good time.
And that's looking at the glass half-full, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it is.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: As we've been telling you all morning, Oprah Winfrey and Dave Letterman are friends once again. They were making up on Letterman's show last night and also at the premiere of Oprah's new musical called "The Color Purple." How did things ever get so bad in the first place?
Brooke Anderson has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Oprah Winfrey!
BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Their reunion was a love fest. But David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey haven't always gotten along so well.
STEPHEN BATTAGLIO, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT "TV GUIDE": David Letterman has asked Oprah to be a guest on his show many times over the years, and she has refused.
ANDERSON: In a 2003 interview with "TIME" magazine, Winfrey cited her two previous appearances on Letterman's show as to why she was reluctant to make another one, saying -- quote: "Both times I was sort of like the butt of his jokes. I felt completely uncomfortable sitting in that chair, and I vowed I would not ever put myself in that position again."
Oprah's last appearance on "Late Night" was in 1989. Since that time, Letterman has frequently joked about Oprah not being his biggest fan.
LETTERMAN: We found out through reliable sources that Oprah hated me. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.
ANDERSON: Hate? No way, according to Oprah.
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: For there is no feud. There's only peace.
LETTERMAN: Peace and love?
WINFREY: Peace and love.
LETTERMAN: And admiration?
WINFREY: And admiration.
LETTERMAN: And...
ANDERSON: But Letterman himself acknowledged he may have made a few too many jokes at her expense over the years.
LETTERMAN: I have made jokes, and I begged and I pleaded and I've made a fool of myself and generally have been a nuisance. So, of course, she wasn't eager to come back.
ANDERSON: Oprah even seemed surprised by Letterman's newfound graciousness.
WINFREY: Thank you for being so nice to me.
LETTERMAN: Absolutely.
ANDERSON: On the show, they talked Tom Cruise.
LETTERMAN: And you're sitting there, and Tom Cruise was hopping up and down on your furniture.
ANDERSON: They got serious about AIDS in Africa.
WINFREY: And there's millions of children who are going to be suffering.
ANDERSON: And they chatted about "The Color Purple" musical, which Oprah is producing, and its opening night on Broadway.
Letterman ventured outside the Ed Sullivan Theater when he escorted Oprah to the Broadway Theater, where "The Color Purple" was playing less than a block away.
A big night for Oprah, and a seemingly happy ending to a friendly feud.
Brooke Anderson, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, what a big night. M. O'BRIEN: That's sweet.
S. O'BRIEN: I got to see that show last night. And the stars who were there...
M. O'BRIEN: Big.
S. O'BRIEN: ... amazing. And everybody was talking about the feud was over.
M. O'BRIEN: The glitterati.
S. O'BRIEN: Very much the glitterati.
M. O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE) Soledad O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: No, I was in the back. I had my BlackBerry trying to remember who I was seeing. It's kind of neat.
The present Oprah gave Dave Letterman at the end of their interview, a picture of Uma Thurman and Oprah together, because...
M. O'BRIEN: Uma, Oprah, Oprah, Uma.
S. O'BRIEN: Uma, Oprah.
M. O'BRIEN: That sort of started the thing, remember?
S. O'BRIEN: Oprah said she thought the joke was funny, and everybody else was, like, huh, what's Dave talking about?
M. O'BRIEN: What was that? Yes. That wasn't a very high point of his career when he hosted the awards there.
S. O'BRIEN: No, not a funny joke.
M. O'BRIEN: No.
S. O'BRIEN: Much more ahead this morning. Still to come, if you're taking a flight anytime soon, you're going to need to stick around for our next story. It could put a little bit of a kink in your plans. Andy is "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: Also, the ethical debate over face transplants. The first ever is being called a success so far. It's probably a little early to say that. But was it really necessary? We'll get into that issue straight ahead.
And since we're talking about transplants, here's a question for you. In 800 B.C., 800 B.C., a doctor in India performed the first transplant of which of the following organs? (A), liver, (b), kidney, (c), skin? Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING. We'll have the answer for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, before the break, we asked you this question. Did you know the answer to this one, by the way?
S. O'BRIEN: Skin, (c)?
M. O'BRIEN: Very good.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh!
M. O'BRIEN: In 800 B.C., a doctor in India performed the first transplant of which organ? (C), skin is the answer. It was flaps of skin used to graft new noses in 800 B.C. in India. That's fascinating to me.
S. O'BRIEN: And today we're still doing the same thing, aren't we?
M. O'BRIEN: Amazing. It's just amazing.
Well, you have heard, of course, about the partial face transplant. We told you about it yesterday. It was done in France. Doctors are saying the surgery to repair parts of the woman's face was successful so far, but very early to declare success in something like this.
But it does raise a lot of ethical questions. Dr. Art Caplan is a leading bioethicist from the University of Pennsylvania. He joins us once again from Philadelphia.
Dr. Caplan, good to have you back with us.
ARTHUR CAPLAN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CENTER FOR BIOETHICS: Good morning, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: First of all, this whole notion of it being successful, we've got to clarify that. It takes quite a long time to determine something like this to be a success. And that's part of the whole -- that's all wrapped up into the ethical debate, isn't it?
CAPLAN: It is, absolutely. If you have this partial face transplant, it's great if initially it stays on and it's not rejected by the body, and that could have happened. But if the mouth doesn't work, if you can't breathe easily, if it's a non-functional face, if you will, that's not going to be a success. So, those nerves and muscles have to work.
M. O'BRIEN: So, one of the key issues for doctors to consider in any sort of transplant, but particularly something as risky as this, is whether the person is prepared to live through what will be an ordeal and really a lifetime need to be on certain types of drugs to prevent rejection. Correct?
CAPLAN: That's right. If you -- when you get something like these tissues transplanted, they are really sensitive to being rejected by the body. If you will, your skin, the tissues on the outside of you are the most likely to fight off bacteria and viruses in the outside world. So, when you put something from one person on another, it doesn't particularly like the face. So, you've got to take a lot of immunosuppresion. That means this woman is about ten times as likely to get cancer, five times as likely to get heart disease. The drugs leave her open to infection. They're tuning down her immune system. She kind of like has a mild case of AIDS, if you want to put it that way.
So, it's not -- basically she's got a chronic condition, and it's going to be a very tough one to live with.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So, what was taken then was a very risky drastic step.
CAPLAN: Absolutely.
M. O'BRIEN: And this was a woman who had horrible injuries, mauled by a dog. So, that's where the ethical dilemmas come in here. Having said that, this happened about six months ago, and there may have been other alternatives. And that's where this ethical debate gets stirred up, right?
CAPLAN: Well, you've got to -- you have a situation where you want to say, look, no one has ever done this before. Some people have used the word "cowboy" in describing Dr. Dubernard, the guy who did this procedure in France, and he's out sort of on the periphery. Why would you say that? Well, normally you'd try to reconstruct the woman's face. There are plastic surgeons who deal with these terrible injuries and try to fix them just by, if you will, reconstituting what you can do. Moving the whole face has never been attempted.
So, this guy kind of went to the ultimate option directly, and he did it only six months after the injury. Some people are going to wonder, is that enough time for this woman to really think about what she's getting into? Does she really understand what she's bought into here? If this thing fails, and this face gets rejected, she is going to be in one heck of a lot of trouble.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, you say only six months. But if you had to live six months with these horrible disfiguring injuries -- I mean, parts of her face were missing.
CAPLAN: Right.
M. O'BRIEN: We don't have to get into details and all of that.
CAPLAN: Right.
M. O'BRIEN: You might say, you know, how could you be a judge of that? In other words...
CAPLAN: Sure.
M. O'BRIEN: ... she, given the nature and given what had happened to her, perhaps justifies the risk. CAPLAN: I'm not against face transplants for that reason, Miles. I think that for some people it may be, you know, a great solution to a horrible problem. But the science isn't really well understood here yet. We haven't done this a lot in animals. The fact is you could kill her by doing this. Now, maybe she's willing to take that risk. We hope that she understands that that could well happen from this.
But we've kind of jumped very far in the effort to, if you will, give her something to solve a terrible problem. And, of course, you want to solve that problem. But if you don't know what you're doing yet, if you haven't really got the animal studies down yet, you may have done it prematurely.
M. O'BRIEN: Quickly before we get away, I know there are two possible -- two medical centers in the U.S. thinking about doing this. Are we going to see more of these soon?
CAPLAN: We are. If this, if you will, works even partially, if it's not immediately rejected, I think we'll get an operation in the United States within the next 6 to 12 months.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's hope it's thoroughly vetted by the likes of you, Dr. Art Caplan.
CAPLAN: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: It's always a pleasure. Thanks for being with us -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: We've got some business news just ahead. Andy has got a look at that.
What are you talking about this morning?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Soledad, is the stock market back on track in the month of December? We'll find out coming up after the break. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JERAS: I'm Jacqui Jeras in the CNN weather center with today's "Cold and Flu Report."
We're starting to get more reports of activity across parts of the west from California into the Four Corners region. Also some sporadic activity from Texas to Louisiana, into the state of Florida, North Carolina, and becoming a little bit more widespread into the Northeast and the Great Lakes. Also some new reports of sporadic activity across parts of North Dakota.
Hope you have a happy and healthy weekend. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Wake up.
M. O'BRIEN: You know, the cure for this week is Friday.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it is.
M. O'BRIEN: That's...
SERWER: The anecdote.
M. O'BRIEN: ... the anecdote, yes, indeed. By the way, thank you for the tie.
SERWER: Oh, you're welcome.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, this is Andy's tie.
SERWER: That's a little trade secret.
M. O'BRIEN: I forgot my tie this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: That's very handsome.
M. O'BRIEN: A quick call to Andy...
SERWER: I'm the tie man, I guess, right?
M. O'BRIEN: ... and there he was.
S. O'BRIEN: Nice taste, Andy. Good work.
SERWER: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right to our news update this morning. Carol has a look at that.
Good morning.
COSTELLO: Good morning. Good morning to all of you.
U.S. troops are sweeping out insurgents further west. American and Iraqi forces launching a new operation in Ramadi. That's west of Baghdad. Operation Shank comes less than two weeks before parliamentary elections in the country.
Paying $1,000 for a little more than a pile of debris. December is here, and that means some Katrina and Rita victims have to resume mortgage payments. It's hard to believe, isn't it? Many lenders had allowed a 90-day grace period, and that is now ending. And as expected, people are not happy. One called it an awful Christmas gift.
We've been telling you about security changes at the airports. The TSA is making the official announcement less than three hours from now. Here is what we know. You'll be able to take small scissors and some tools aboard with you. But will it save you time in line? Maybe not, because new pat-down procedures are also part of the changes. Screeners will now be able to pat down arms and legs below the mid- thigh if they feel it is necessary. And here's something to make you smile. This is Emily. This cat from Milwaukee disappeared two months ago and wound up of all places in France. It seems she crawled into a container that was then shipped to France. But Emily is now home safe and sound. Continental Airlines picked up her ticket and even had someone to cuddle her on a long flight home. Look at that. Emily was looking out the window. She had a great time. And she's back home snuggling with her owners.
Isn't that a great story, Jacqui?
JERAS: Maybe she got tired of the (INAUDIBLE) in Milwaukee. You think?
COSTELLO: Looking for a little adventure in her life. She got some, like, you know, (INAUDIBLE) from France.
JERAS: I grew up in Milwaukee, by the way. So, I can say that.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Business news now and more bad news for Delta or any bankrupt...
SERWER: Is it possible?
S. O'BRIEN: I know. Well, that is the headline.
SERWER: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Is it possible more bad news? Andy is "Minding Your Business."
M. O'BRIEN: I was flying Delta not long ago. And the pilot got on and said, we know you have your choice of bankrupt airlines, thank you for flying. Yes, he did. It was hysterical.
SERWER: Well, that's a little gallows humor there, I guess.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: We're going to talk about the rollicking stock market in a second, but first the Delta Airlines saga.
Delta is in court trying to settle its differences with the pilots union. Yesterday informing the world that it lost $1.1 billion since it filed for bankruptcy six weeks ago -- $1.1 billion in six weeks. That's $26 million a day.
Most of that is reorganization cost. It costs a lot to go bankrupt, 648 million. Only 381 million of that is actually operating costs. Still, troubles big time there.
Let's turn to some positive news, and that is the stock market. Yesterday, of course, the first trading day of December, and bingo, we got off to a very positive start. Consumer confidence and other economic data are looking good. And the march to 11000 on the Dow continues. I should say the march back to 11000.
This morning at 8:30 Eastern, we're going to have the jobs report for the month of November. We're expecting -- what is that? Twenty -- 210,000 jobs there to be added and the unemployment rate to hold constant. And we're sort of moving past the damage from the hurricanes in the jobs sector.
It looks like futures in the stock market are up this a.m. It will be very interesting to see. We only added 56,000 jobs in October, because, of course, we were still feeling the impact, 56,000 jobs -- still feeling the impact of Katrina and Rita. But now, we really seem to be leaving that behind.
M. O'BRIEN: But those auto cuts, that's got to have some impact. Or is it just...
SERWER: Well, those don't factor in, because, remember, those are in the future. They're announcing them for years, you know, and months out.
M. O'BRIEN: There you go. Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, take a look at this and tell me if you recognize any of these guys. Roll the tape. There we go. A gang of jewel thieves caught on tape. They have made off so far with over five million bucks in jewelry, and they have a really incredible M.O. We're going to tell you how you can help the FBI catch these guys ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
M. O'BRIEN: I have an airtight alibi. I do. I swear.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back. Lots of stories to talk about today. We are going to be talking to Cecil Tiba (ph). Do you remember the Tiba (ph) name? Last -- actually the week I was gone, I left you a little story about her son. And there she is, by the way. She actually -- she spends -- she lives in New Orleans, and she spends a little bit of time with the police officers in crisis intervention mode.
Anyway, her son, through all of this -- their school was flooded out -- ended up at Georgetown Prep, a prestigious school, and for free tuition. It was quite kind of a touching story.
But what's interesting about this story -- and sad -- is she's been getting calls from people saying, hey, New Orleans looks great, we want to come back and visit, you know, the French Quarter, you know, the zoo, whatever. And she's written the most gut-wrenching letter to the editor of the "Times-Picayune," which we're going to share with you in a little bit, saying -- and the headline is basically, no, we're not OK. We're not even close to being OK here. And there's a tremendous sense of abandonment there. So, we're going to check in with her. We'll talk to her about how, you know, the folks who are there are really fighting the battles in the neighborhoods that don't have power yet, how they're getting it back together. It's a tough scene there.
S. O'BRIEN: It's not OK on so many levels.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: I mean, not OK just physically the electricity and, you know, there's just no services. And they're not OK psychologically. How can you be OK?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: How could you be OK? You're not going to be OK anytime soon. It's such a tough story, and it's never going to end.
Let's talk about these jewelry heists. Do we have those pictures? Can we show them again? This is surveillance tape. These guys -- the FBI have been looking for these guys. They had knocked over ten -- no, 50 stores, 10 states, $5.1 million. They are in and out in malls, jewelry stores in malls in four minutes.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow!
S. O'BRIEN: And part of their M.O. is not to go for the safe or do anything that would sort of require a lot of time, but to smash and grab, steal the watches, which they can turn around and sell quickly. And they have not been caught yet. I mean, it's...
COSTELLO: They've toned their craft.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, they are really -- I mean, you're right. This videotape is terrible. I mean...
M. O'BRIEN: Why don't they have better surveillance?
S. O'BRIEN: One would think. It would go a long way in helping to identify these guys.
M. O'BRIEN: You would think.
S. O'BRIEN: We're going to talk this morning with the FBI about what the strategy is to catch them.
M. O'BRIEN: Get them some high-def.
COSTELLO: Yes, really. We're also going to talk about Athena Onassis. You know, very, very wealthy...
S. O'BRIEN: Poor little rich girl.
COSTELLO: Yes, poor little rich girl. She's very shy, though. She's getting married to a much older man. He's an Olympian, and he rides horses. They, you know...
M. O'BRIEN: Well, he does whatever he wants. He's filthy rich, you know.
COSTELLO: Well, he's not filthy rich.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, he will be.
COSTELLO: He's marrying a filthy rich woman.
M. O'BRIEN: He might as well be. He can write a few checks based on that.
COSTELLO: Yes. But the big concern is, does he really love her? But a lot of people say, yes, he does.
S. O'BRIEN: He's been married before, and even his...
COSTELLO: And has a 5-year-old kid.
S. O'BRIEN: And his ex-wife says it's the real thing.
COSTELLO: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: He loves her, and she's...
COSTELLO: Exactly.
S. O'BRIEN: ... you know, a talented...
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Anyway, they're going to get married in this incredibly lavish wedding in Brazil. They're going to have, like, 750 guests and 400 security guards.
M. O'BRIEN: Wow! Two to one ratio.
COSTELLO: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: You know, it is kind of sad, though, because it could be true love. But we presume it, because there's, you know, a huge bank account involved here, that he's a gold digger.
COSTELLO: Well, she's only 20, and he's so much older than she is. And he's been married before, and he's so much more experienced.
S. O'BRIEN: She had to fight off her own father for the money, her $850 million fortune, more or less, give or take a dollar or two. Her own dad, who wanted to take it over when Christina Onassis died. So...
COSTELLO: Yes. I'd like to give it a go in her position, though.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I know. We're here to help you out, girl. M. O'BRIEN: And our invitations, lost in the mail maybe?
S. O'BRIEN: I'm going.
M. O'BRIEN: You are going. You're Ms. Glitterati.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. No, not to that. I couldn't make it this time.
Oh, that's one of the things that we're looking at, the "AM Agenda." As we approach the top of the hour, it's time to get another check of the forecast.
(WEATHER REPORT)
JERAS: We'll have much more coming up with your weather forecast. And the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Jacqui. I'm Miles O'Brien.
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