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American Morning

Mission to Mars; Interview With Michael Keaton

Aired March 10, 2006 - 09:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Appreciate that.
One recent survey found, believe it or not, that one in every five teenagers online gets an unwanted sexual request. Dan Simon now tells us about a group of teenagers who got a little more than they bargained for when they were just kind of playing around on a popular Web site reporter. Here's his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They thought it would be a good prank. These California teens went to the trendy Web site, myspace.com, created a profile of a fake 15-year-old girl and started e-mailing a buddy, who started to think the girl had a crush on him. But it was no joke when a 48-year-old man started messaging their fictitious female.

MITCH, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: We just made up this girl named Stacy at first, just a real random name, and then we started getting these messages from this guy.

SIMON: The boys played along for several days, e-mailing back and forth with the man. Then the exchanges turned to sex.

MITCH: He was saying, you know, age doesn't matter to me and stuff.

SIMON: The teens, being teens, invited the man to a park for an encounter. Remember, the man thinks he's meeting a 15-year-old girl.

(on camera): The boys never really expected the man to show up at this park but, sure enough, there he was. They recognized him from his picture online. That's when the teenagers decided to call police.

ARIF, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I was surprised. My face was like, because he -- I was -- I wasn't thinking that he was going to actually show up.

SGT. WILLIAM MEGENNEY, FONTANA, CALIF. POLICE: Thank God they had the foresight to call the police department and explain what was going on.

SIMON (voice-over): Police arrested Michael Ramos on a felony charge of attempting to commit a lewd act on a child and two misdemeanors. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and still in custody. This is just the latest incident involving myspace.com, a free Web site where teens can do things like blog and post pictures. In Laguna Beach last month, police arrested 13 men who they say solicited minors on Myspace.

Also last month in Delaware, a 16-year-old girl was reported missing after apparently communicating with an adult on Myspace.

And in September, in Port Washington, New York, authorities say a 16-year-old girl was molested after meeting a man on the site.

Myspace told CNN it is taking measures to address sexual predators on line. It tells us it's, quote, "working with hundreds of law enforcement agencies at the federal, state and local levels to address issues quickly and effectively."

As for the boys whose conducted that prank ...

MEGENNEY: It was an accident that turned out favorable to us.

SIMON: But it may have actually backfired on the teens. One parent said he's restricting his son's activities on the computer.

Dan Simon, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Dan Simon's report was first seen on "ANDERSON COOPER 360." You can see that show every weeknight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A tiny moon no wider than the distance between Boston and Philadelphia is offering up some big scientific news today.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted evidence of water spewing off Enceladus, and that has got scientists, as we say, very excited. The lead scientist who had the a-ha moment is Carolyn Porco. She is with the imaging team. As a matter of fact, she is the imaging team leader for the Cassini spacecraft. She joins us from Denver this morning.

Carolyn, good to have you with us. Congratulations. Let's go to the images first and take a look what we have. First of all, the Cassini spacecraft, on its way, sees this, this wonderful, high resolution image of Enceladus, and I want to point out to people -- we can see it better too in the next image -- these kind of fissures. You call these tiger stripes. What are these all about.

CAROLYN PORCO, CASSINI SPACECRAFT: No, those aren't the tiger stripes. The tiger stripes are the ones below in the lower part of the image. But what you did point out ...

M. O'BRIEN: These are the tiger stripes then?

PORCO: Those are the tiger stripe fractures, yes. M. O'BRIEN: Thank you. All right. Tell me about these. Why are we interesting in those?

PORCO: Well, these fractures straddle the south pole of Enceladus, and this whole region that you're looking at is, first of all, warmer than anywhere else on the body.

M. O'BRIEN: So the south pole is warmer?

PORCO: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: That's interesting.

PORCO: And the tiger stripe fractures, these fissures, are the warmest place in the south polar region. They have organic materials associated with them. And the whole region is circumscribed by a set of features that we think tells us that the shape of Enceladus has changed with time and we think that's part of this whole mystery of why Enceladus has this very unusual characteristic to it.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about this unusual characteristic as we advance forward in our presentation here. This is the main event, these pictures here. And what we're seeing here, if you look down in this area right here, is a little bit of a plume.

And in this picture to the right, Carolyn -- why don't you help us out. It's sort of been helped out by using colors to identify things that you wouldn't see necessarily on that visible spectrum there. But what we're seeing there is evidence, essentially, of a geyser right?

PORCO: Well, we are seeing plumes here of icy particles -- very fine, icy water ice particles. And the picture on the right has just been color-coded so that you can see the faint light levels that you can't see on the picture on the left. And it just shows you the extent of the plume. But I hope we have the more dramatic image from November that shows the geysers in detail.

M. O'BRIEN: I think we do. Let's advance to the next slide. I think we're going to show you that now and give you a sense. Tell me about -- how were you able to determine that these were in fact geysers?

PORCO: Well, it took a careful analysis of our best pictures and looking at the brightness of the plumes and the geysers -- of the jets, rather, and the falloff of the brightness with a distance above the surface for us to determine that there's a lot of small, icy particles in these plumes and jets.

And the only way we can think of getting that is by geysers erupting out of pockets of liquid water. And it turns out when you do all the analysis, the pockets of liquid water are reasonably close to the surface. They're only a few tens of meters below the surface.

So if this is correct, we have liquid water, we have organic materials coming out of these plumes, because Cassini flew through the plume last July and measured simple organic materials. So we have liquid water, we have organic materials, we have excess heat coming out of these fissures.

So it's looking very good to us as an environment that might be -- has the potential for being a habitable zone for life as we know it. We're talking microbial life. But -- and we're not saying we discovered life, but what we have discovered is the potential. This is about as exciting as it gets.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's go a little closer to home. And let's talk about a place on Earth that we know that has a lot of these characteristics. No sunshine but a source of energy deep below the ocean. Take a look at these images and this is called a black smoker.

And this has helped change the way people like you think about discoveries like this. This is well below -- a mile below the sea. And around these vents, which are underground, kind of tectonic-type activity, you get all kinds of creatures. Is it possible there could be something like this on Enceladus?

PORCO: Well, this is exactly the kind of analogy that we have in mind when we look at geysers coming off Enceladus. This is a very localized phenomenon on this moon. There's a lot of heat coming out of the fractures. We think there's liquid water, and what life would need is liquid water, organic material and substantial heat to provide energy for food, and that's those hydrothermal vents, those smokers are doing. They're providing very hot water that is mixed in with chemicals that the biota (ph), the living organisms around those vents, thrive on. They don't thrive on sunlight; they thrive chemical energy.

M. O'BRIEN: Final thought here. I wanted to get this in. Before we go, we have the Mars Orbiter. The latest Mars Orbiter is going to arrive today, exciting news from Cassini, all this amid huge cutbacks for NASA's science budget. What's the mood in the scientific community in the midst of all of this?

PORCO: Well, it's pretty sobering. If we want to do a proper job of exploring the solar system, we need humans and the administration has set NASA on a very thrilling course of finally getting out of earth's orbit. We're going to set out into the solar system, to the moon and Mars, and that is a very thrilling prospect. But to explore the solar system properly, you need human flight, and you need a robust program of robotic exploration, and the present NASA budget doesn't allow us to do both. So if we want to see exploration of the magnitude that will be required to go back to the Saturn system and investigate this very thrilling area on (INAUDIBLE) more fully, we must see an increase in the NASA budget. There's no way around it.

M. O'BRIEN: Carolyn Porco is the imaging team leader for the Cassini spacecraft. Always a pleasure having you drop by, Carolyn.

PORCO: Thank you, Miles.

(WEATHER REPORT) s. O'BRIEN: Let's take you to a picture, if we can, a live shot of what's happening at the Wyndham Hotel in Washington D.C.. The president is expected to make some remarks at the National Newspaper Association Government Affairs Conference. We're going to be monitoring this, and we'll, of course, show you when the president comes out. We're expecting of course that he's going to take some questions on this Dubai Port deal that has now been scuttled.

Short break. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: As promised the president now making remarks at the National Newspaper Association Government Affairs conference that's taking place in the Wyndham Hotel in Washington D.C. We're going to monitor this as the president makes his remarks, and we'll listen in when he starts taking questions from reporters, because, of course, we're expecting that some of the questions are going to be about the rejection of this Dubai Ports deal. We'll watch this for you.

(MARKET REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up next in "AM Pop," actor Michael Keaton in our studio. We're going to talk with him about a new independent movie. It's "Game Six." It's a small picture. It costs less than a million bucks to make, but He says, boy, what a labor of love. I'll tell you why, coming up next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: October 25th, 1986, game six of the 1986 World Series, the Mets and Red Sox, one of the most memorable games in baseball history, unless of course you were rooting for Boston. The curse, of course, alive and well. The classic game is a backdrop for a new movie. It stars Michael Keaton, and it's called "Game Six."

I talked to Mr. Keaton about it in "AM Pop."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: the story in a nutshell on the day that this playwright, played by you...

MICHAEL KEATON, ACTOR: Uh-huh, Mickey.

S. O'BRIEN: ... had the opening of his play, coincides with a very big day as well, which is game six, the Mets versus the Red Sox.

KEATON: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: Red Sox fan.

KEATON: Right, Red Sox fan.

S. O'BRIEN: Rabid, I mean, fanatic.

KEATON: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And so you skipped your own opening, and it's critically important that your play succeeds, of course; you're a playwright.

KEATON: Yes. What am I doing here? This is perfect. This is perfect. I can just go home.

(CROSSTALK)

KEATON: Thank you very much. No, that's great. I'd rather you do it.

S. O'BRIEN: That's the story in a nutshell. Now let's get to the moral of the whole thing.

KEATON: OK, I'm going to take a nap while you just talk, because you're doing way better.

S. O'BRIEN: You're the first guest I've ever hit.

KEATON: You're doing so well at this. Here, have a little nectar, or whatever comes in these things.

What is this? What is this (INAUDIBLE) supposed to do?

S. O'BRIEN: I know, it's really -- our stuff -- it's so ugly, isn't it?

Can you get a shot?

KEATON: There are like shells, and then there's little things.

S. O'BRIEN: I did it myself. You don't like it?

KEATON: No, I do. I do really like it now that I know you did it yourself.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get back to your movie.

OK, so that was the story in a nutshell.

KEATON: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: But tell me the message. What's the story about?

KEATON: You're blushing just a little bit, which is so great. This is so great.

S. O'BRIEN: Usually my difficult interviews are with like politicians and people who are stonewalling me.

KEATON: No. OK, so that is the story in a nutshell. And here's what is key about this, in terms of selling it. I really, really love doing this thing. And we did it for a well south of a million dollars.

S. O'BRIEN: Why do you love it? Because you love Dom Delillo?

KEATON: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Because you love baseball?

KEATON: Actually both of those.

S. O'BRIEN: Dom Delillo never just writes a story.

KEATON: Well, it's a crunch. This guy's life is in a crunch, and you're catching this playwright. it's not really a baseball movie, really. But that's the backdrop, and this guy happens to be a huge Sox fan. And he grew up in Hell's Kitchen, a quintessential who decided early on, I'm going to be a Sox fan.

S. O'BRIEN: Which is like embracing...

KEATON: Yes, right, embracing hell.

S. O'BRIEN: Tragedy for your whole life.

KEATON: Yes, exactly. Which is like an underlying thing with Dom Delillo. Again, He chose to take this on, this struggle. So he's got a play coming out that's actually probably one of the best plays that he's written in a long time, and he kind of senses that, and it's really, really personal, but he doesn't want to give into the curse of this critic played by Robert Dongino (ph). He is just murdering people. He's given Griffin, who's a playwright in the movie, a nervous breakdown.

And I figure, I'm not afraid of this guy. But underneath, obviously, I am, so I choose the night -- and my play is opening the night of game six in '86, the famous game that Boston lost once again when they had it...

S. O'BRIEN: Bill Buckner.

KEATON: Yes, Bill Buckner, but have to remember what Bill Buckner, he was probably a career .300 hitter. He was an excellent baseball player, potential Hall-of-Famer, really, and everybody remembers just this one thing.

S. O'BRIEN: That poor moment.

KEATON: Yes, and you said you weren't a baseball fan.

S. O'BRIEN: I was a New Yorker living in Boston actually when this game happened. I just remember I was in college, all the students pouring out into the quad and just going absolutely nuts, and literally fights between the locals in Boston and some of the out-of- towners. KEATON: Of course, sure. They're still going on. That's what made the victory, the last Sox victory unbelievable.

S. O'BRIEN: It's great.

But is that the message of this movie?

KEATON: It's about hope and faith.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, there's hope and faith, and eventually you can win the World Series, because even the team that everybody thought was cursed. I mean, is that the...

KEATON: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Am I wrapping it up well for you?

KEATON: You -- I'm telling you. I know you just cut me out, because I really don't need to be here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: He's fun. He's a good guy, he really is.

S. O'BRIEN: That interview went on forever. Yes, he is a good guy. And the movie "Game Six," written Don Delillo, the screenplay, is great.

M. O'BRIEN: I want to see that one.

S. O'BRIEN: It's getting reviews. And Dom Delillo is a master, so I'm going to see that. It looks terrific.

We're monitoring, as we mentioned, the president's comments. There he is. He's addressing the National Newspaper Association Government Affairs Conference. We're going to monitor and bring it to you live when he starts taking some questions. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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