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American Morning

Al Gore Hits Sundance with Global Warming Message; Kayne West "Rolling Stone" Cover Stirs Controversy

Aired January 26, 2006 - 09:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There goes the bell. Dogs are drooling everywhere now. This is the Chipotle Mexican Grill outfit, initial public offering. And this outfit's owned majority by McDonald's.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Really? They just opened one around the corner from...

M. O'BRIEN: So the burger biz -- yes, so burger biz -- they've kind of got -- they've saturated the bugger biz. Now they're doing burritos.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting.

M. O'BRIEN: Should be hot stuff.

S. O'BRIEN: It's a great business. They're doing gangbusters.

M. O'BRIEN: Gangbusters. The Dow Jones industrials coming in at 10,709 today. About a two and a half point -- which way?

S. O'BRIEN: Drop.

M. O'BRIEN: Drop. Two and a half points, one way or another yesterday.

S. O'BRIEN: Down, but it's only two points.

M. O'BRIEN: It went somewhere yesterday.

S. O'BRIEN: Not so bad.

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A woman who drove around with kids in her trunk -- that's right, folks -- kids in her trunk, because they said they wanted to. She will find out today just how big a boot she will get from a Maryland judge. A woman there -- apparently gets probation. She had faced 15 years behind bars.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is live in Frederick. I'm confused now, Kathleen. Has she been sentenced or not?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She has been, yes, Miles. And there will be no jail time for Lanora Lucas. You know, and this was a case that when this occurred back in June, it just left parents shaking their heads. What was this mother thinking? And we got an exclusive copy of the videotape from the patrol car when the stop was made. And it doesn't make her conduct any clearer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (voice-over): It looks like a normal traffic stop on a warm June day. But then 37-year-old Lanora Lucas of Thurmont, Maryland goes to the trunk and out come her 9-year-old son, 3-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old friend. Lucas puts the children in the car and Sergeant Shawn Tyler begins questioning her and filling out the citation.

SERGEANT SHAWN TYLER: Why would you let your kids drive in the trunk?

KOCH: Sergeant Tyler had seen Lucas put the children in the trunk in the parking lot of a video store, followed her and made the stop. He notices she has a special driver's license.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a (INAUDIBLE) license, what do you do for a living?

LANORA LUCAS: School bus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drive a school bus?

KOCH: At the time, Frederick County, Maryland, said Lucas had not driven for the school system in three years. She was convicted in November of three counts of reckless endangerment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: Now, Judge Milner Roberts (ph) in the courtroom today told Ms. Lucas that the difference between children and adults is that adults use good sense, and you certainly did not on that day. So Lanora Lucas will be facing basically 18 months of supervised probation, 64 hours of community service. She will also continue with parenting classes to improve her judgment -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Kathleen Koch, we hope those classes work out. Thank you very much - Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Hollywood's come to Park City, Utah, this week for the Sundance Film Festival. The entertainment elite all there, and one politician is getting plenty of buzz about his new documentary.

CNN's Brooke Anderson joins us. She's in Park City this morning. Hey, Brooke.

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Soledad.

Al Gore has been here in Park City with an urgent message about global warming.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: ... planetary emergency. And it's hard to accept a phrase like that, but that's what global warming really is.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Former Vice President Al Gore is on a mission to inform the world about what he says are the catastrophic effects of global warming.

GORE: I did some bragging on you here.

ANDERSON: And now, he's found a potentially potent new ally: Hollywood.

GORE: Here is what's been happening year by year to the Columbia glacier.

ANDERSON: Gore's global environmental quest is the subject of the new documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth." Also the title of Gore's soon-to-be published second book on global warming.

GORE (voice-over): I've been trying to tell the story for a long time, and I feel as if I failed to get the message across.

(on camera): It really is time to act. It's urgent. And this movie is intended to get that message out.

ANDERSON (on camera): Gore is the first to admit that many in Washington don't want to hear his urgent warning about global warming. But the response here at Sundance, where the film is premiering, has been decidedly different.

LAURIE DAVID, PRODUCER: A standing ovation, I guess, is usually a good sign, right? During the entire film, you could hear a pin drop in that theater. I mean, a pin drop.

GORE: The reaction from the audience just couldn't have possibly been any better.

(voice-over): It's human nature to take time to connect the dots. I know that. But I also know that there can be a day of reckoning, when you wish you had connected the dots more quickly.

ANDERSON: The dots in this case could lead to a larger release of Gore's documentary and a larger understanding of what Gore says is a growing, very dangerous, global problem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: And there are reportedly several distributors interested this documentary, so many people do expect for it to be picked up this week while at Sundance. Soledad, Gore is very passionate about this subject. In fact, he's written his second book about global warming. It, too, is titled "An Inconvenient Truth" and it will be published in April.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Brooke. Looks like kind of a scary and interesting documentary. Thank you.

Ahead tomorrow, the Sundance kid. And we're not talking about Robert Redford, but 21-year-old Roger Ingraham. He's hit the big time. He's bringing his indie film to Sundance. It's all about life in his hometown. We're going to find out what it's been like for him to go from being just a regular guy to suddenly rubbing elbows with the superstars. That's tomorrow morning -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: I wonder if there are any Power Points in that Gore movie, you know? Do you have to take notes?

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right to Daryn. Talk about what she is working on this morning.

Hello.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Coming up in the next hour, President Bush has decided to hold a news conference about 10:15 a.m. Eastern. We will show that to you live, of course.

And then life as a hostage. Hear firsthand from Roy Hallums. He was kept in a hole in the ground in Baghdad for 10 months. His story and his advice to the family of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll. That's all just ahead. For now, back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Daryn, thank you very much.

Ahead this morning, we're talking about the latest Kanye West controversy. Take a look. Yes, looks like Jesus. He's over the cover of "Rolling Stone." Some people a little upset. Is he really as arrogant as he appears.

M. O'BRIEN: That's my guess, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: We're going to talk this morning about that, talking about the hip hop Jesus, as we continue on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Call him Kanye West, superstar. The hip hop sensation, nominated for eight Grammy Awards, has a legion of a fans and a knack for stirring up controversy. In the new issue of "Rolling Stone" magazine, he's at it again.

Here's CNN's Chris Lawrence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the cover of "Rolling Stone," Kanye West wears a crown of thorns and, some say, makes mockery of the Crucifixion.

BILL DONOHUE, CATHOLIC LEAGUE: Why are these guys ripping off Catholic iconography to make a cheap point?

LAWRENCE: Catholic league president Bill Donahue calls it cheap because it's been done before by other artists. He says for someone so creative, West went the easy route with "Rolling Stone."

DONOHUE: They take Christ imagery to sell and hawk their own services or product.

LAWRENCE: "Rolling Stone" editor Joe Levy defends the cover and Kanye.

JOE LEVY, "ROLLING STONE": One of his biggest and greatest songs is "Jesus Walks," a song specifically about the constrictions he felt as being a rapper, not being entitled and encouraged to address religion, to talk with God in his music.

LAWRENCE: Levy says West sees himself as someone persecuted for speaking his mind.

LEVY: So he is a spiritual man, and that's certainly something that's reflected on this cover.

LAWRENCE: West came under fire last year after he criticized the president at a Hurricane Katrina benefit.

KANYE WEST, RAPPER: George Bush doesn't care about black people.

LAWRENCE: He took flack when he talked about his gay cousin and demanded that hip hop stop spreading homophobia.

LEVY: He's one of the first people, if not the very first, to do this. Probably the first major rapper to stand up and say, it's not OK.

LAWRENCE: But it's Kanye as Christ that makes some say the magazine went too far.

DONOHUE: The fact of the matter is, this wasn't meant to be reverential.

LAWRENCE: "Rolling Stone" says the cover is an outlet for artistic expression. It was never meant to offend any religious group. But in a day and age where you've have "Vibe," "Spin," "Billboard," "Blender," all these other music magazines, a little controversy certainly sells more copies.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Danyel Smith is an author, also the former editor- in-chief of "Vibe" magazine. Nice to see you. Good morning.

DANYEL SMITH, MUSIC JOURNALIST: Nice to see you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Kanye as Christ. Do you think it's an offensive image?

SMITH: I don't think it's an offensive image. I think that it's creative. I think also the photographer, David LaChapelle, is creative. And I think that Kanye's biggest song was called "Jesus Walks." So it follows almost.

S. O'BRIEN: So kind of works, doesn't it, a little bit?

SMITH: Yes, it was almost like hip hop gospel song.

S. O'BRIEN: Obviously you weren't in on this photo shoot, but you know both of these guys. Give me a sense of how you would imagine -- do you think David LaChapelle said I see you as Jesus? Do you think Kanye came in and said, you know, man, I'm going to be Jesus in this shoot, right? Or do you think it's sort of a combination of the two?

SMITH: I think they had a mind melt, is what I think happened. i mean, LaChapelle is a very creative guy. I think if he -- I think he probably was first, though, I do. I think David LaChapelle probably said, Kanye, I want you to be Jesus, and I think Kanye was right there saying definitely.

S. O'BRIEN: That works just fine for me, said Kanye.

SMITH: Exactly. Where's the crown of thorns?

S. O'BRIEN: We heard a minute ago the Catholic League. Here's what they've said: "This kind of thing has become commonplace. It's one thing to rip off Catholic iconography, it's another to exploit a poor soul like Kanye West. Anyone who does this is morally and mentally challenged and deserves our sympathy and not our derision."

SMITH: I mean, I don't think Kanye West deserves our sympathy right now. I think he's being a creative guy. I think he wants to ruffle some feathers. I think he's really popular. I think he's in love with himself right now. Does he really think that he's Jesus? I don't think so. I think he's trying to ruffle some feathers and I think he's doing it.

S. O'BRIEN: It is very arrogant. Very confident. Is it obnoxiously arrogant, if you're as good as you think you are in your head?

SMITH: He's a talented guy. And I just feel like -- I don't know. He's -- hip hop is about bragging. It's about saying how great you are. He wouldn't be selling two, three, four million records every time he comes out if he wasn't always saying I'm Kanye West and I'm the best.

S. O'BRIEN: He's a guy who also doesn't hold his tongue. And maybe this is sort of the visual of that -- that we remember, maybe. We saw just a moment ago the clip where he said President Bush doesn't care for black people. It looked almost like he was reading it off the teleprompter, but he was going with it.

SMITH: I think he was nervous. But you know what, I think he said what he believed. And I think that it's important in these times that artists, especially -- hip hop is often thought of as sort of a negative music. And I think that Kanye got up there and said exactly what he believed. And once again, he was making moves and ruffling feathers.

S. O'BRIEN: He's won three Grammys, nominated for eight more.

SMITH: I thought it was 85,000 more.

S. O'BRIEN: I might have a typo there. It could be 85,000 and I just wrote down eight. But it's true, I mean, he is very -- he's supremely confident.

SMITH: Very talented.

S. O'BRIEN: I see. I say confident, and you say very talented. I've got to imagine that this is the kind of controversy that people love to sell magazines, to sell CDs. And this is like, hey, they're talking about me again, woo-hoo!

SMITH: It's huge. It's huge. I think it's great for him, though, because I think there's not that many hip hop artists that have even been on the cover of a magazine like "Rolling Stone." So even to have him there as Jesus, to have him there as -- Ice-T was on there, it was controversial. He was a cop, if you remember, right around the time of the cop killer controversy. So I think while "Rolling Stone" doesn't have a history of putting rappers on the cover, it does have a history of when they do do it, it makes a big impact.

S. O'BRIEN: It makes a big statement, as well. What do you think is going to happen when it comes to the Grammy Awards? Think he's going to walk away with it?

SMITH: I think he's going to walk away with a lot of Grammys. It's a great album.

S. O'BRIEN: Second one. I think a lot of people thought the first one's great and then second one is going to be...

SMITH: I know. "Late Registration," I think it's going to be huge. I think it's going to walk away with a lot. I think it's going to be a great Grammy Awards this year.

S. O'BRIEN: Think he's going to keep the college theme throughout all of his albums?

SMITH: From what I've heard, he's so, you know, organized. He has the next like two more albums named already and they all have college themes. I think one is "Graduation" and one is like "First Job."

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting, interesting.

SMITH: Yes, I do. That's what I've heard. That's what I've heard.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, Kanye West. Again, maybe he'll get another "Rolling Stone" cover and have everyone talk about it, and then they'll do well, too. Nice to see you, Danyel.

SMITH: Great to see you, too, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks for talking with us. Of course, she's the former editor-in-chief of "Vibe" magazine and currently an author.

A short break. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: That's about all the time we have for this AMERICAN MORNING. We're glad you joined us.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, thanks for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning. We begin at 6:00 a.m. Don't forget, bright and early.

Let's get right to Daryn Kagan. She's at the CNN Center. She's going to be with you for the next couple of hours on CNN LIVE TODAY. Hey, Daryn.

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