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Showbiz Tonight
ABC Movie on Bird Flu Pandemic; Geography Lessons Needed
Aired May 08, 2006 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
A.J. HAMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The frightening new movie about the bird flu: could we really be in for a deadly epidemic? I`m A.J. Hammer in New York.
BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: And mommy funniest. A coast to coast search for America`s funniest mom. Actress Katie Segal stops by to talk about that. I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood SHOWBIZ TONIGHT starts right now.
HAMMER: On SHOWBIZ TONIGHT -- the Vatican versus "The Da Vinci Code." Tonight a startling new attack on the movie from one of the world`s most powerful religious leaders. Plus, how Tom Hanks is having a good laugh over the whole "Da Vinci Code" controversy.
TOM HANKS, ACTOR: Oh, yes, dear Lord.
HAMMER: Tonight SHOWBIZ TONIGHT with "The Da Vinci Code" smack down.
Also, cell phone vigilantes. How women everywhere are using their cell phones to get revenge against possible sex sickos.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then I looked in the glass and I could see him rubbing his crotch.
HAMMER: Tonight SHOWBIZ TONIGHT reveals how one guy literally got caught with his pants down and ended up humiliated.
ANDERSON: Hi there. I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood.
HAMMER: I`m A.J. Hammer in New York City. Brooke, you know, every once in a while you just want to say, come on, it`s only a movie.
ANDERSON: That`s right, A.J. Try telling that to one of the most powerful people in the Vatican, though. Someone who was once in the running to become the Pope. Because he is the latest and perhaps most powerful church official yet to come out swinging against "The Da Vinci Code." And the movie hasn`t even come out yet. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`S Sibila Vargas is in Hollywood tonight with the great Da Vinci debate. Sibila, even more controversy now surrounding this film.
SIBILA VARGAS: It just goes on and on. But the Vatican is amping up its offensive against "The Da Vinci Code" which opens in the U.S. on May 19th. Now, the movie has offended some religious leaders because of its fictional portrayal of a deadly church cover-up. Now one high-ranking catholic official is showing us that when it comes to criticizing this movie the church is pulling no punches.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
You`re going to tell us everything.
VARGAS: Forget about Tom Cruise versus Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "Mission Impossible 3."
So long Superman.
VARGAS: Who cares about superman versus Lex Luther in "Superman Returns"? And Vince Vaughn versus Jennifer Anniston in "The Break-Up"? Please.
I`m done.
VARGAS: This year`s biggest summer movie battle is between the Vatican and Hollywood over a little movie called "The Da Vinci Code."
Da Vinci.
VARGAS: The Catholic Church is turning its big guns on the upcoming summer movie based on the novel by Dan Brown which sold 60 million copies. It stars Tom Hanks as a professor who`s trying to uncover a secret that a radical Catholic group will kill to protect -- that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children.
Witness the biggest cover-up in human history.
VARGAS: Now this man, Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who almost became Pope last year, suggested in a new documentary that Christians worldwide should take action against the movie using what he calls legal means. That comes as another high-ranking official asked Catholics to boycott the movie. "Da Vinci Code" star Tom Hanks went on a TV show this weekend to respond to all this high-level Vatican criticism. But that show wasn`t "Meet the Press."
HANKS: Probably a lot of you know that I`m in a new movie that`s coming out called "The Da Vinci Code."
VARGAS: On a "Saturday Night Live" sketch this weekend Tom Hanks poked fun at "The Da Vinci Code" controversy with a mock Q&A session. He gamely fielded questions from a judgmental cardinal.
Mr. Hanks, I was wondering when you were making the film and you were meeting with the producers and writers and the director, in all that creative process did you ever wonder what it would feel like to burn for eternity in hellfire?
VARGAS: The flying nun.
As someone who has donned the holy cloth of the church, I find it very offensive that for the sole purpose of entertaining -- oh, the wind. Oh, my.
VARGAS: And even a high-ranking church figure.
Oh, yes. Dear lord.
Mr. Hanks, I saw your film, and I just want you to know that I forgive you.
HANKS: So you don`t have a problem with "The Da Vinci Code"?
No. I haven`t seen that. I was forgiving you for making "The Terminal."
VARGAS: All kidding aside, what is it about "The Da Vinci Code" that has Catholic officials saying things like -
I think "The Da Vinci Code" is a load of nonsense.
VARGAS: SHOWBIZ TONIGHT gets you the answers. CNN`s Rome Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci has gotten an earful from Vatican officials who fear some people may take the story as truth.
FATHER JOSEPH DI NOIA, VATICAN OFFICIAL: It has to do with the harm that it does to people`s faith, not the harm that it does to the public image. You know, it`s not a question of image or spin. It`s something much more important.
Dear god.
VARGAS: Sony Pictures, which is releasing "The Da Vinci Code," is using the "it`s just a movie" defense. They stress the movie is fictional and isn`t aimed at any one religious group. Still, church officials at the Vatican have their opinions about "The Da Vinci Code" and they plan to make sure they`re heard all the way out in Hollywood.
We are in the middle of a war.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VARGAS: And some critics have been asking Sony to put a disclaimer on the film saying it`s a work of fiction. Now, no word whether Sony plans to do it. But director Ron Howard has already objected to that idea, and so the battle rages on, A.J. But you`ve got to wonder, when the movie comes out is this going to help or is it going to hurt the movie?
HAMMER: I can answer that question, and I bet you know what the answer is. It will undoubtedly help the movie. Sibila Vargas in Hollywood thanks for joining us. So here`s what we want to know. Is this whole thing just getting a little out of control? After all, we are talking about a movie. Here with me tonight in New York Kiera McCaffrey, she`s the Director of Communications for the Catholic League. And in Santa Monica, California tonight Professor Richard Walter who is a film professor at UCLA. It`s nice to see you both. Thanks for being with us.
KIERA MCCAFFREY, CATHOLIC LEAGUE: Thank you.
RICHARD WALTER, UCLA FILM PROFESSOR: Pleasure.
HAMMER: So Kiera let me start with you. Do you agree, can we agree on the fact that this is getting a little out of control? Cardinal Francis Arinze was actually a candidate to be the Pope and now he`s speaking out about a Hollywood movie. A little over the top, wouldn`t you say?
MCCAFFREY: Well, I think we need to cut through the rumors here and look at the facts. Now Cardinal Arinze in a documentary being interviewed, what was he speaking to? He was saying some religions won`t take it so lightly if you bash them, they`ll come back and they`ll be violent. He was talking about the Muslim violence we saw in reaction to the Danish cartoons. And then he makes some elusive comments about I`m not telling anyone what to do -- some Christians may seek legal means. Was he talking about lawsuits? Was he talking about peaceful protests? We don`t know. These are offhanded comments. You know this isn`t an official Vatican proclamation. This isn`t a documentary --
HAMMER: So then Kiera, then to the point that there has been so much attention that the Catholic Church has a big problem with this movie. It`s a lot of attention and it`s a work of fiction. So can we agree that that`s over the top?
MCCAFFREY: I don`t think so. People are talking about this. There`s a lot of buzz about it. Of course the church is going to speak to it, not just bury its head in the sand. As far as giving it more attention, the book, as you`ve mentioned, has sold tens of millions of copies. People are already talking about it. Now to say its only fiction, well, yes, that`s what we want to hear more of that it`s only fiction. Had it not been for Dan Brown starting his novel with three facts, all of which were historically inaccurate, this wouldn`t be the deal that it is now. And Dan Brown going on interviews and saying this is based on fact when in fact it`s not.
HAMMER: I want to get back to that in a moment. Richard, I want to bring you into this just in terms of the attention that this is getting being just a little out of control.
WALTER: Well, sure, I think they`re on the payroll for, you know, Sony. The net result of this has to be even more people exposed to the movie. And I am one of those people who believes it is only a movie. Imagine having so little faith in Jesus Christ and in his church as to fear that a mere movie could hurt it. Particularly one by that bomb-throwing radical terrorist Ron Howard. I mean, come on. It`s just preposterous. I can`t imagine what could possibly drive this kind of energy.
HAMMER: Kiera let me just go back to something you were saying a moment ago, separating fact from fiction here. Nobody involved with this movie is suggesting that it is a factual movie, nobody at all, and that it`s based on the truth. And I have a great idea, why don`t we give the moviegoers the benefit of the doubt that they`re smart enough to figure that out?
MCCAFFREY: You know, if this were a normal movie, this wouldn`t be an issue. However, as I said, it`s based on a novel which has gotten plenty of attention for this and which has been trumpeted as based on fact. That`s where the issue is. Now, we`re not trying to cancel this movie or censor it or --
WALTER: If you go into the bookstore to buy "The Da Vinci Code," you will have to go to that section called fiction. It`s fiction. And if I go --
MCCAFFREY: Turn to the first page --
WALTER: -- if I go into --
HAMMER: Richard, go ahead.
WALTER: When I go to a -- if I want a tuna fish sandwich, I don`t go to the hardware store. And if I want a theological lesson or a historical treatise, I don`t go to the movie theater. I`m going to get bad history. I`m going to get a bad movie. It`s just a movie. And in America we have the right to express ourselves through movies and other media to say what we want. And the church really does itself a gross disservice, it seems to me, trying to compel an artist such as Ron Howard in particular to shape, to misshape to reshape, to restate his movie in some way that will satisfy them because they`re not comfortable with it. It`s not only absurd on its face. I think it also undermines the Catholic faith and disserves the church and its flock.
HAMMER: Kiera, you clearly wouldn`t agree with that?
MCCAFFREY: No. Absolutely not. First of all, nobody`s compelling anybody to do anything. We don`t have the power to compel anybody. We`ve merely asked for a disclaimer. As we said, Ron Howard, this is his decision. It`s going to reflect on him what he says. But I find it so interesting that people think it`s so crazy that we`ve asked for this.
HAMMER: But Kiera, let me ask you -- excuse me. Let me ask you something. Because you`ve asked for the disclaimer. There is not going to be a disclaimer. So being aware of that fact, is this kind of a game of religious politics going on here?
MCCAFFREY: I don`t really see what the politics is about. I mean, there are some people who are still confused by this. Still think this is based on fact, there`s got to be some truth to it. All we`re doing is getting our voices out there saying no, it`s not, no it`s not.
HAMMER: Okay. I`m going to have to leave it there. We will continue to watch the debate unfold as the movie gets set for release. Kiera McCaffrey of the Catholic League here in New York. Richard Walter in Santa Monica, California. Appreciate you both being with us tonight.
MCCAFFREY: Thank you.
WALTER: Thanks.
ANDERSON: Okay a lot of people call him the king of reality TV. He gave us "Survivor", "The Apprentice". So what`s next? Mark Burnett joins us in the interview you will see only on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.
HAMMER: Lindsay Lohan gets grilled. Tonight, what the teen star had to say when asked about reports of her using drugs. Plus we`ve got this --
And then I look in the glass and I could see him rubbing his crotch. And then I took out my phone to look busy.
ANDERSON: Tonight, how women everywhere are fighting back against possible perverts. A revealing SHOWBIZ TONIGHT look at cell phone vigilantes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HAMMER: All right welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, TV`s most provocative entertainment news hour. I`m A.J. Hammer in New York. It`s time now for a story that made us say, that`s ridiculous. Now, Yogi used to say that he was smarter than your average bear. That`s what he said, right? Average bear. Well he might have been right. We don`t remember him running around with this huge container on his head ever. As far as I remember.
For 10 days this particular young bear cub you`re looking at couldn`t get whatever that plastic thingy is off his head. Apparently he was trying to lick something inside of it. It looks funny but it`s not funny because the bear couldn`t eat as long as he had that thingy on his head. The story does, however, have a berry happy ending. A brave guy actually pulled it off for the bear. Still, Mr. Bear, we say, that`s ridiculous.
ANDERSON: A.J., did you say berry happy ending?
HAMMER: I did. A little nod to our writer Ron (INAUDIBLE).
ANDERSON: That`s right. Very good, Rob. But we didn`t say that the bear, once freed, ran straight to the water to get a little drink. I don`t blame the guy.
HAMMER: Berry good idea. Any way, moving right along, tonight Lindsay Lohan gets grilled by "Today Show" host Matt Lauer about drugs. The teen star stopped by this morning to talk about her new movie "Just My Luck." But things got a little tense when Matt asked her about a recent "Vanity Fair" interview. In that interview it suggested that she had a problem with drugs and an eating disorder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT LAUER: I know you weren`t happy with the "Vanity Fair" article that came out and you released a statement saying you thought some of your words had been misconstrued. So let me just ask the blunt question. No problems in your life right now in terms of substance abuse or anything? You`re fine?
LINDSAY LOHAN, ACTRESS: Substance abuse -- I don`t believe that was ever brought up.
LAUER: It just talked about some experimentation with drugs and things like that. It`s okay?
LOHAN: Yeah, everything`s fine.
LAUER: You`re okay? Good.
LOHAN: "Vanity Fair" -- the great thing that came out of that with the whole eating disorder issue was it gave younger girls I think -- any younger girl that may have picked it up, they can then go to their parents and talk them about it and know that it`s better to be verbal and talk to people if you have any sort of problem, whatever it may be, and that it`s not worth it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAMMER: She seems to be doing fine. Lindsay added that she just laughs off all those all over the place tabloid rumors and when it comes to her career she`s a workaholic.
ANDERSON: Okay. What if I were to tell you a guy who served with an elite British army unit would come to America, take a job as a nanny, and end up being one of the biggest players in Hollywood today? And you might have even heard of a couple of his TV shows. In fact, I`m sure you have, "Survivor" and "The Apprentice" to name a few. Now he`s back with a second season of "Rock Star," where contestants vie to be the lead singer of a rock group. And that man is reality TV titan Mark Burnett, who joins me here in Hollywood today. How are you?
MARK BURNETT, CREATOR, "SURVIVOR" & "THE APPRENTICE": Good, thank you.
ANDERSON: Thanks for being with us. There is so much to talk about, we hardly know where to begin. So I want to start at the beginning, with "Survivor." Now, there`s a new book out there that says -- it`s called "Desperate Networks." It says "Survivor" didn`t get picked up initially. You had a hard time selling that one.
BURNETT: Yeah. Because it was the first ever reality show. And the networks of course hadn`t tried that before. It sounded like a cable kind of a show. And fortunately for me after getting many, many no`s, Leslie Moonves at CBS said yes. We tried it as a summer series. And the finale, if you remember -- it`s only six years ago -- got 72 million people. It was the most watched show since Sonny and Cher in `73.
ANDERSON: Unbelievable. It really kicked off what is the reality craze today. You`ve had so many successful shows including "The Apprentice." Is there a secret recipe or a secret element that you know about that it takes to make a successful reality series?
BURNETT: You know, it`s the same elements as a successful drama or a comedy. You have to like the characters and connect with the storylines and care. And really, just because unscripted it doesn`t mean you get a free pass in the entertainment world. They`re holding reality correctly to the same standards as comedy and drama. And the cream rises to the top. It`s hard to even get on television. And staying on is the hardest thing of all. You must continue to connect storylines with the viewers.
ANDERSON: Once you get there, you have to follow through. You`ve had so many secret recipes for success. But one of them that didn`t fare so well, Martha Stewart`s "The Apprentice." Now, hindsight is 20-20. Looking back, you`ve had some time to think about this, why didn`t that show work?
BURNETT: Well, it`s funny. We`re only a year later and the numbers that it was doing a year ago look pretty good on NBC today. If you actually look at the ratings.
ANDERSON: Right.
BURNETT: I mean to be honest with you it would be probably the fifth highest rated show on NBC at all now. But the problem was I think that there were two apprentices at once. Donald Trump and Martha Stewart. And the fact they`re on a Wednesday and a Thursday, there was no space in between them. It may have been just a bit too much "Apprentice" back to back in 24 hours.
ANDERSON: Going from "The Apprentice" to "Rock Stars," you`ve got another reality show this summer to follow up on "Rock Star: INXS" last summer. Now this one, rock star, you`ll be finding a lead singer for a new band, Supernova. What is the challenge to distinguish this show from the other music reality shows out there?
BURNETT: You know, I think actually this year we`re going from INXS, which worked out great. J.D. Fortune we found on the show. He`s now the lead singer of INXS. Sold out world tour. Top 10 single and CD. And now we`ve taken Tommy Lee, from Motley Crew, Jason Newstead from Metallica, and Gilby Clark from Guns & Roses, working with Butch Walker, who was 2005 "Rolling Stone" magazine`s hottest producer of the year, and now we`re going to find a singer for them.
Now, what makes this show different is the classic rock. The fact each week it`s the Rolling Stones, The Who, Queen, and it`s shot live in a club-like environment. And people just loved it last year.
ANDERSON: Yeah, I went to a taping last summer, and it was so much fun.
BURNETT: It is fun. Classic rock, songs that you`ve heard for 30 years, sounded great, Rolling Stones and The Who, the minute you hear it, you know it. It`s hard to think of any music today, brand new music that you`ll still be loving in 35 years. Well, today you put on any of those Rolling Stones hits on TV live and you love it.
ANDERSON: They still stand out. Arguably, Mark, one of the most successful music reality show out there right now, "American Idol." When you look at "American Idol," why is it so successful? Why is it so popular with people?
BURNETT: Well, "American Idol," like "Survivor" in many ways, the first of its kind. And people love Simon Cowell. I know Simon, he`s a friend of mine. Great guy. And brutally honest.
ANDERSON: Do you want to have him on one of your future reality shows?
BURNETT: I couldn`t afford him at this point. A few years ago maybe. Now he`s out of my price range. And he`s got his own shows. And we`re just buddies. But you know, Simon Cowell is just brilliant. Brutally honest. And "American Idol," I love it. My kids love it. Everyone watches it. And you`re watching as much of the train wrecks as the talent.
ANDERSON: That`s right. It`s got a lot of appeal both ways. And you`re taking your new reality show exclusively to the internet with -- what is it called, "Gold Rush", contestants searching for treasures. Now, not a day goes by where we don`t hear about something else going to the internet. Do you think television as we know it is going to go by the way side? We only have a few --
BURNETT: No. Television still, network television is the biggest audiences in the world. And it`s just a matter of working with the internet -- in fact, "Gold Rush," my thing with aol.com, we`re burying treasure for anyone to find, it`s not a game of reality for 16 contestants. The whole of America can find it. And we are in fact working cross- platform with major magazines and a television --
ANDERSON: So everybody can get involved?
BURNETT: Totally. Everyone can play.
ANDERSON: Mark Burnett, we are out of time. But thanks for sharing with us everything that you`ve got going on. You have really revolutionized the face of television. Thanks for sharing some time. And you can look for "Rock Star: Ssupernova" in early July on CBS.
HAMMER: Keith Richards goes under the knife. Why the Rolling Stones guitar master had to have surgery. That`s coming up in tonight`s hot headlines.
ANDERSON: Also, a frightening new movie about the deadly bird flu. Is there any truth to it or just over hyped TV? SHOWBIZ TONIGHT investigates. Plus, women uniting against possible sex sickos.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don`t know if some guy on the street harassing you is harassing you because they`re going to follow you home, because they`re going to kidnap you or rape you or hurt you in some way.
HAMMER: How women everywhere are using their cell phones to catch perverts. Tonight, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT reveals how one guy literally got caught with his pants down and ended up humiliated.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Tom Cruise`s "Mission Impossible 3" was the number one movie this weekend. No surprise there. But some are saying the $48 million or so it made is a big disappointment, especially because Cruise was all over the place. He did a ton of publicity. It`s got a lot of people wondering if Cruise`s antics, his pro-scientology, anti-psychiatry rants, the Oprah couch jumping kept a lot of people home. So we want to know what you think about all of it. It is our SHOWBIZ TONIGHT question of the day. "M:i:III" falls short. Did Tom Cruise`s publicity blitz backfire? Vote at cnn.com/showbiztonight. Send us an e-mail showbiztonight@cnn.com.
HAMMER: Coming up, a surprise marriage. Which reality show star tied the knot again? We`re going to tell you in "Hot Headlines."
ANDERSON: Plus a frightening new movie about the deadly bird flu. But just how realistic is it? SHOWBIZ TONIGHT investigates. Plus we`ve also got this --
And then I looked in the glass, and I could see him rubbing his crotch. And then I took out my phone to look busy.
HAMMER: Tonight, how women everywhere are fighting back against possible perverts in a way you might not think.
SUSAN HENDRICKS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I`m Susan Hendricks. And here are some of the stories we`re following now. Police in Fairfax County, Virginia say a female detective was killed when a gunman drove up to a police station and opened fire Monday. Two other officers were injured, one seriously. The gunman was shot dead at the scene.
AIDS tests could become as routine as cholesterol checks under new guidelines expected by this summer. The CDC`s recommending that all Americans ages 13 to 64 receive an HIV test during physicals or emergency care. Federal officials say one quarter of the 1 million Americans with the AIDS virus don`t know they`re infected.
And a U.S. district court judge denied a request by confessed Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui to withdraw his guilty plea. Moussaoui filed the motion Monday, saying he lied in trial testimony about being involved in the 9/11 attacks. He was sentenced to life in prison last week.
That`s the news for now. I`m Susan Hendricks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
A.J. HAMMER, CO-HOST: Welcome back to "Showbiz Tonight" for Monday night. It is 30 minutes past the hour. I`m A.J. Hammer in New York.
BROOKE ANDERSON, CO-HOST: I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood.
HAMMER: We`ve been hearing a lot about this impending bird flu pandemic, Brooke. And if you watch the ABC movie about the bird flu tomorrow night, you might get a little panicked thinking this is what could possibly happen. Well, I guess in some ways it is what could possibly happen.
We`re going to separate fact from fiction coming up in just a couple of minutes.
ANDERSON: A lot of people are concerned this movie could sensationalize the real-life possibility.
Also, A.J., there`s a new study out that says a lot of Americans are pretty darn lost When it comes to geography.
Coming up, we show you how a lot of people, when looking at a map can`t find Iraq, much less somewhere like Ohio.
That`s coming up.
HAMMER: A little scary.
But first tonight, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands. That`s what one woman did to combat harassment. And she used a tool that almost every single one of us has at our disposal.
CNN`s Deborah Feyerick joins us now way fascinating story of Revenge of sorts.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a revenge of sorts. And you know, innocent compliments are fine, but there are those comments that just don`t cut it as flattery. The choice is you ignore it or you get angry.
Now there`s something else. Women are turning the tables and they`re getting even.
(voice-over): Ladies, you know this guy. The obscene gestures, rude Comments. "Hey, baby."
Who he is and what he looks like doesn`t matter. He`s that guy who harasses women thinking he`ll get away with it because you don`t know him.
But this picture may change all that. It was taken by 22-year-old Tao Nguyen and it has sparked something of a revolution against street harassment.
(on camera): So Tao, you were sitting there and he was sitting there? TAO NGUYEN, VICTIM: Yes.
FEYERICK: How did you first notice him?
NGUYEN: He got on the train, and he kept staring at me.
FEYERICK: So he`s just looking like this just right at you?
NGUYEN: Yes. He was like this. Like - you know, locked on to the target.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Nguyen showed us what happened the day she stepped onto a New York City subway last August.
It was 3:00 in the afternoon when a stranger sat across from her, and ignoring others nearby, unzipped his pants.
NGUYEN: And then I looked in the glass and I could see him rubbing his crotch. And then I took out my phone to look busy.
FEYERICK: Reporter: what she did next surprised even her. Using her cell phone camera, she took his picture.
NGUYEN: I snapped it really quick. It happened really quickly. Like one, two. And then he zipped up and left.
FEYERICK: When a policewoman wouldn`t look at the photo the young web designer posted the photo online at a girl power site to warn others.
NGUYEN: Maybe they could go to the police and say oh, I know this man. I was just afraid he would do something else.
FEYERICK: The picture shot from website to website, striking a very deep nerve.
NGUYEN: It`s incredibly scary.
Women don`t know who these Strangers are. You don`t know if some guy street harassing you is harassing you because they`re going to follow you home, because they`re going to kidnap you or rape you or hurt you in some way.
EMILY MAY: This is the first posts that we got.
FEYERICK: Emily May and her friends in Brooklyn saw that picture when it was picked up and printed on the front page of a New York paper. They had talked about street harassment. Now they knew it was time to act.
And though they never met Nguyen, they created a website, Hollaback, as in holler back. With the motto "if you can`t slap them, snap them."
NGUYEN: The women who`ve done it say it`s taken the power out of the street harassers` hands and put it into their hands.
FEYERICK: On its busiest day the site got 75,000 hits. Hollaback.EU just started up in the European Union.
And the group has been contacted by others who want to set up similar sites.
NGUYEN: We`re not trying to single out these men for their Ignorance, but we`re trying to educate men and women that street harassment is not okay.
FEYERICK: But that guy in the picture? The one who ultimately turned himself in, didn`t see it that way.
His lawyer says his client is really a good guy, even though what he did was illegal. The lawyer`s concern is that other men may be unfairly snapped, labeled, and lumped together regardless of the Offense.
MICHAEL BACHNER, ATTORNEY: One thing is clear. And Dan Hoyt knows this. He had no right to engage in that conduct. He knew it was illegal.
think the only issue becomes whether or not there has been this tentacle that`s grown out of this use of cell phone photography that is becoming overly aggressive, where people who are engaged in conduct, which is not nearly illegal, but just perhaps bothersome to people, end up having their pictures snapped and placed on websites all over the country. That is where the problem arises.
FEYERICK: Nguyen sees it differently.
NGUYEN: If he didn`t do it, I wouldn`t have posted it. I didn`t even know who he was. So it wasn`t like I was out to get him.
FEYERICK: Tao Nguyen, the cell phone photo snapper, and Emily May, the website founder, did finally meet.
They recently faced down the subway slasher when he showed up in court for sentencing. After pleading guilty to public lewdness, a misdemeanor. The judge gave him two years probation and ordered him to see a therapist.
FEYERICK: Do you feel empowered by what you did?
NGUYEN: Yes, I do. I feel like having a cell phone, taking a picture. After I took it I felt so much better.
FEYERICK: How often do you ride this Subway?
NGUYEN: I ride it every day.
FEYERICK: Tao Nguyen doesn`t know whether she would do the same Again. But she keeps her cell phone charged and ready.
(on camera): Oh, and A.J., Hollaback has now received calls from people in Boston, Toronto, Washington, D.C., even India, all of them interested in creating similar sites.
HAMMER: So Nguyen, who you profiled there, had good success with taking that picture and this guy got busted.
But it would seem to me that if somebody`s harassing you the safest thing to do is really to walk away. If you`re taking out your camera and snapping a shot there`s some risk there obviously.
FEYERICK: There`s a lot of risk and you have to gauge just how safe you are. Are you in a public place? Is it daylight?
Some women are even making a joke out of it and going hey, Baby, let me take a picture of you, and it`s posting it on the web that gives them that sense of empowerment that they turn The tables.
But you do have to be careful. You never know if there`s going to be that one guy who just freaks out and comes after you.
HAMMER: It would seem that`s a danger. I always was told someone comes up to mug you; you give them your money. Or your cell phone as it were.
And I guess another message for women is a lot of people don`t know how to use the cameras in their cell phone. Take out some time to do that.
FEYERICK: Absolutely. You`ve got to be able to do it Very, very quickly. In her case she didn`t pull out the phone thinking she was going to snap a picture. She picked it up because she didn`t want to be looking at him as a diversion. She used it in a different way and it worked for her.
HAMMER: CNN`s Deborah Feyerick, joining us for "Showbiz Tonight."
ANDERSON: It is tonight to get tonight`s "hot headline." For that we go to "Showbiz Tonight`s" Aibila Vargas who joins us again from Hollywood. Sibila --
SIBILA VARGAS, ANCHOR: Keith Richards is on the mend after surgery to relieve pressure in his head. The rolling stones guitarist had been suffering headaches after a fall in Fiji. His publicist says Richards is up, talking to his family, and doing fine. The Stones tour set to kick of later this month in Spain is now postponed until June.
Well, Apple computer won its Trademark dispute with Apple Corps, which represents the Beatles` music catalog. The two sides locked horn over their logos. A British judge found there was no breach of trademark agreement and Apple computer can continue using the fruit logo on its iTunes music store.
The good news for Beatles fans -- word during the trial Apple Corps said it`s preparing the band`s catalog to be sold online. But let it be. There`s no word on when yet.
Tori Spelling is a Mrs. once Again. The so notorious star married actor Dean McDermott Yesterday in a private non-denominational ceremony in Fiji. The bride and groom, barefoot and wearing white, were the only ones there.
Spelling met McDermott on the Movie set last year while each was married to someone else.
Those are tonight`s hot headlines.
This one is definitely different, Brooke, because the last wedding she had, a million dollars, lavish, A million dollars, 350 guests.
ANDERSON: Very, very different. And McDermott has said that the Two of them are soul mates. We do wish them well.
Sibila Vargas here in Hollywood. Thanks so much.
HAMMER: Of course they are. Coming up on "Showbiz Tonight" -- madness, mayhem, and a deadly epidemic.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HAMMER: Welcome back to "Showbiz Tonight." You are watching TV`s most provocative entertainment news hour. I`m A.J. Hammer in New York. And it is time now for yet another story today that made us say that`s ridiculous. I want you to sink your teeth into this one.
Look at that, 82 feet of mystery meat. It`s said to be the world`s largest sausage. I`m going to bypass any tasteless jokes that have been floating around all day, but I`m not going to travel that road.
What will you taste in this winding wiener you may ask. You`ll taste 8 lbs, six pounds of fat, 44 pounds of animal parts. Exactly what does that mean, animal parts? I`m not exactly sure. We`re probably just better off now knowing.
But we say that`s ridiculous.
ANDERSON: A.J., that record breaking sausage prepared as part of Israel`s independence day celebrations. No way that`s kosher.
HAMMER: I feel a celebration going on everywhere around the world.
ANDERSON: That`s right. Moving on now.
It`s Monday night in America. Do you know where Ira is? How about Ohio? A new study shows that, when it comes to geography, there`s lots of Americans that are, well, pretty darn lost.
Here`s CNN`s Jeanne Moos for "Showbiz Tonight."
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know that Country where the us. Fought a War, the one you`ve heard about, Oh, say, just about every day for the past three years or so?
Tell me where Iraq is on this Map.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have no idea.
MOOS: Well, you can, you know, kind of guess. Sort of Iraq. Wrong. That`s Africa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iraq is right around in there somewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Asia, right?
MOOS: The only risk in this game is of embarrassment. Many young Americans might as Well toss the dice to pinpoint Countries on the map.
Show me Iraq.
UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: Oh, God. Don`t ask me.
MOOS: we`ve hidden her Face to protect her from Mortification. The study for national Geographic showed that 6 out of 10 Americans ages 18 to 24 can`t Find Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran, Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Iraq. Iraq, Iran.
MOOS: 75 percent can`t find Israel.
Come on. That`s South America. Israel.
Nine out of 10 can`t Find Afghanistan. He`s the exception.
This is it right here.
MOOS: but who wants to watch correct answers?
On the map the current day Iraq --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn`t know because I don`t really believe in one Dimension.
MOOS: all I want is Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wouldn`t be on this map. According to its actual Topography. It would be somewhere just around there.
MOOS: If you don`t like that map, why not try another?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ohio.
That`s not Ohio.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Iowa.
MOOS: Fewer than 50 percent of People know where Ohio is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know where that is. That`s where my sister is.
MOOS: Can you point to it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why oh why oh why oh did I ever leave Ohio
MOOS: This girl opted to Use a lifeline.
UNIDENTIFIED: You need to come help me find Countries.
MOOS: But her rescuer Missed a few couldn`t even take a hint when it came to Ohio.
Same color as my jacket.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here?
UNIDENTIFIED: That boot is America if I remember correctly, right?
MOOS: That is South America.
We had just about as much luck testing the Geographical skills of Chihuahuas.
UNIDENTFIED: Mexico?
MOOS: But what really took us aback was that 50 percent of Young Americans couldn`t locate --
New York State.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay. Got to be between here and here.
UNIDENTFIED MALE: That`s New York, right?
MOOS: That`s Pennsylvania.
UNIDENTFIED MALE: Here`s New York right here.
MOOS: No. That`s New Jersey.
UNIDENTFIED MALE: I mean here`s New York --
MOOS: No.
UNIDENTFIIED MALE: Yes.
MOOS: Let me put it this Way. Where`s New York?
UNIDENTFIED MALE: Where you`re standing.
ANDERSON: That was CNN`s Jeanne Moos for "Showbiz Tonight."
A.J., I hope you`re one of the People who can find New York.
HAMMER: My geography`s pretty good. It amazes me, though; those were People in New York. How do you not know where New York is when you`re in New York? And they seem to be new Yorkers.
ANDERSON: Many New Yorkers couldn`t find the state.
HAMMER: Very, very strange to me.
All right. Moving right along, the bird flu coming to America. Now that we know where it is, the fact that it`s coming to America may be not exactly what you think.
ABC`s anticipated made for TV Movie about the avian flu airs tomorrow night. This is definitely not going to be the feel good movie of the Year. In fact, the producers went pretty heavy on the scare Tactics here. And that`s got some people wondering if it`s going to set off a bit of panic in the public.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HAMMER: Mayhem, pandemonium. This is Hollywood`s version of the bird flu. But it`s got people asking, how close is it to real life?
You should know right off the bat ABC is calling "Fatal Contact" a worst case scenario movie. It looks at what would happen if the bird flu came to North America and could be passed from human to human.
Filming began in February. No coincidence, the movie airs tomorrow during the all-important may sweeps period, when ratings matter most to TV networks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Transmissible from human to human.
HAMMER: The movie shows hospitals overflowing.
NURSE: We`ve lost any chance of containment.
HAMMER: Food shortages. Millions dead. And to make matters worse there isn`t enough medicine.
Reviews from health experts have been mixed. Some say the scenarios are plausible and realistic. Especially, they say, the limited availability of Anti-viral medicines and the time it could take to develop a vaccine.
Others say the movie is completely over the top and could scare people half to death.
The bird flu is on the minds of many Americans who want to know what`s being done about it. The federal government just announced its plan for dealing with a worst case scenario last week, and the estimates are grim. Up to 2 million U.S. deaths, 20 million infected. And up to 40 percent of the work force off the job for several weeks. Vaccines, they say, could be a problem.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no question; we do not have enough in the stockpile for every American.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole damn hospital`s full.
HAMMER: Producers say their film is based on a lot of science. A pandemic they think could be just as bad as how it`s portrayed in the made for TV movie.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HAMMER: Well, let`s separate fact from fiction right now with CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us.
Appreciate you being with us, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A.J., I`m still shaking from that piece. It`s very scary.
HAMMER: You saw how dramatic it is. I mean, listen to the numbers they`re throwing around. Tens of million dead. That`s what the ABC producers are saying. White house says it`s more in the 2 million zone.
Scare tactics, obviously they get ratings on television, but just how scared do we actually need to be?
COHEN: Right. Well, let`s first look at some of these inaccuracies. You mentioned that one.
If the movie is talking about tens of millions of dead, dead people, the government is saying, look, it`s going to be more like 2 million if a flu pandemic does hit. So that`s one thing.
Also we`ve been told by some doctors that have actually seen the movie or at least seen the script that it depicts people bleeding from the nose, it depicts people vomiting blood. That`s more of an Ebola Hemorrhagic fever kind of thing. And they said that`s not what happens when you have the flu, even during a pandemic.
So it should be clear that there are some factual things that some people have some questions about.
But you know, this is a scenario that has never happened yet and that`s why you can sort of do in some ways whatever you want with it, because it hasn`t happened. Bird flu hardly ever gets transmitted from person to person.
Even the ABC website very clearly states that there has not been human to human transmission of this bird flu in a way that would even make a pandemic possible.
HAMMER: I want to go back to a couple of the other scenarios we`re going to see play out in this film. In one scene dead bodies are being burnt a lot like the cows that were torched back in 2001 when foot and mouth disease was broken out in great Britain.
In another scene officials begin to quarantine entire neighborhoods using barbed wire.
So are produces blowing all of this out of proportion as well? Would we ever se something like that?
COHEN: Well, some of the public health experts we`ve talked to said yes, this isn`t very realistic.
For example, mass graves, they Said, wouldn`t happen. That`s not the way the bodies would be dealt with in this day and age, first of all.
And second of all, they said that you`re not going to see millions of people dying at one time. They said that in some way the movie kind of makes it look like entire villages disappear at once. And that`s not really the way it would happen.
And it`s important to remember that even in 1918, when it was about as bad as it`s ever been in terms of a flu pandemic half a million Americans died. It was terrible. It was many, many people. But it`s still probably not quite at the level that the movie depicts. And that was in 1918 when it was as I said about as bad as it gets.
HAMMER: Sure. And as over the top as some of the depictions we`ll see in this movie happen to be, producers say there was a lot of science involved in the making of the film.
They say it shows what could happen with an outbreak and that it would actually be too late to stop the spread of the flu.
Now, you`ve mentioned we`ve never seen exactly this happen before. But did they get that aspect of it right, that it`s something we wouldn`t be able to stop?
COHEN: Sure. There probably would be some things we wouldn`t be able to stop.
Let`s just say, God forbid, that a flu pandemic happened tomorrow. Public health experts say there are many things that we`re just not prepared for. We`re woefully under prepared in many ways.
For example, there aren`t nearly as many isolation rooms as you would need to have. There`s not a very god detailed plan for what happens when a planeload of 300 people from a pandemic flu country lands in the U.S. What do you do if someone`s sick? Those kinds of details have not been taken care of. HAMMER: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for separating fact from fiction for us tonight here on "Showbiz Tonight."
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joining us from Atlanta.
"Fatal Contact: Bird Flu" will be on ABC tomorrow night.
ANDERSON: Friday we asked you to vote online on our "Showbiz Tonight" question of the day, and it was this, Skinny Hollywood, do you feel pressure to be thin?
Pretty much almost down the middle here, 48 percent of you said yes, 52 percent of you said no.
Here are some of the e-mails we`ve received.
Susan writes, "I do feel the pressure because of all the Hollywood women being praised for their figures. I want the same praise."
Lillian from California says she`s never felt pressure to be thin. "What other young women don`t have in their lives are supportive females who encourage their beauty within."
"Showbiz tonight" will be right Back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: We`ve been asking you to Vote on our "Showbiz Tonight" question of the day.
"M:i:iii" falls short. Did Tom Cruise`s publicity blitz backfire? Keep voting. cnn.com/showbiztonight. There`s the e-mail address. Showbiztonight@cnn.com. We`re going to read some of your Thoughts on tomorrow`s show.
HAMMER: It is time to find out what`s coming up on "Showbiz Tonight." Here comes the showbiz markey.
Now, somebody wanted me to sing "The Facts of Life" theme song right here. I`m not going to do it. You know the tune. You know the words. A whole generation of viewers tackled their growing pains with Blair, Natalie, Jo, and Tootie, on TV`s "The Facts of Life."
And the girls are back. "Showbiz Tonight" sits down with the members of the cast tomorrow on "Showbiz Tonight."
Also tomorrow, they are the first responders when celebrity scandal breaks. They are Hollywood publicists. And doing damage control is their full-time job, picking up the celebrity pieces. We get into that tomorrow on "Showbiz Tonight."
Now, a little earlier we Told you Katy Saggal was going to be on the show tonight, but unfortunately she canceled her appearance at the very last minute.
That is it for "Showbiz Tonight." Thank you so much for watching. I`m A.J. Hammer in New York.
I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. Have a great night, everybody. Stay tuned for more from "CNN Headline news."
SUSAN HENDRICKS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there. I`m Susan Hendricks. Here`s your headline prime business update now.
A little relief at the pumps. The government says the national price for gas has fallen for the first time in six weeks, dipping a penny to an average $2.91 a gallon.
Wachovia is looking to expand its banking empire. The nation`s fourth largest bank has made a $24 billion offer to buy the California- based Golden West Financial Corporation.
And the Apple fight isn`t over. Apple, the company founded by The Beatles, says it will appeal today`s ruling by a London judge. The judge ruled Apple Computer may continue to use the fruity logo on its iTunes music store.
And beer sales are finally getting ahead again. National annual beer sales are reported up to more than $4 billion after going flat over the past couple of years. Experts say craft and import beers are driving that growth.
Thanks so much for tuning in. That`s a look at the news for now. I`m Susan Hendricks.
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