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American Morning

Measles Alert; 'Candy' Man; Global Warming the Cause of Erratic Fires

Aired June 27, 2006 - 09:33   ET

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


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up in this morning's House Call, a measles alert from federal health officials who are concerned about some new cases of the virus coming into the U.S. from overseas.
Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is at the CNN Center with details.

Good morning to you, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Soledad, federal health authorities have a particular warning for soccer fans. The Center for Disease Control is concerned about Americans who will be returning from the World Cup. The reason, well, there's been outbreaks of measles in Germany. There have been 1,200 cases since the beginning of the year, and at the World Cup people have gathered from all around the world. They are in close proximity to each other, and measles spreads very easily.

So the CDC is telling people returning from the World Cup to check the immunization status and check with the doctor.

There's also some news on measles coming out of Boston. There have now been 15 cases of measles in Boston and authorities there have handed out 23,000 vaccines to employees at the John Hancock Building and in other places. And the reason for that is that a software programmer came back from India and brought the measles with him, or her -- they don't say which -- and that has now spread to, as I said, actually 14 people have contracted measles.

And what are the symptoms of measles that people need to look out for? Here is a list. A light red rash. Well, this is not like a chicken pox rash, where you actually see open sores. It's more of sort of a light lacy kind of rash. Also a cough, and fever and watery red eyes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control most of the people who have gotten sick in Boston have been in their 30s and 40s -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Good morning to you, Elizabeth, and thank you very much for the update.

COHEN: Thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Andy "Minding Your Business," going to tell us how one satellite radio company might be gobbling up its main competition.

Also my interview with actor and comedian Stephen Colbert. We'll ask him about his new movie "Strangers With Candy." It's hilarious, weird, but hilarious, and also we'll talk about his performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

That's ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: He is famous for skewering politicians and talking heads on "The Colbert Report," but before that, Stephen Colbert also co-wrote and co-starred in Comedy Central's show "Strangers With Candy." It's a twisted take on high school life. It developed a cult following, and now it's back on the big screen.

I talk with Stephen Colbert about the movie, which features Amy Sedaris as a middle-aged ex-con who goes back to high school.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, "STRANGERS WITH CANDY": We have a new student, Jerri Blank. OK, Mr. Black, why don't you tell us something about yourself?

AMY SEDARIS, ACTRESS: All right. Well, hello. Well, I'm Jerri Blank and I'm an alcoholic. I'm also addicted to amphetamines, as well as main-line narcotics. Some people say via sex addiction but I think all the means of prostitution was just a means to feed my ravenous hunger to heroin. It's kind of like the chicken or the nugget. The point is I'm addicted to gambling. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: So it's a weird movie.

COLBERT: It's a deeply weird movie, a very strange movie. Hopefully funny and weird.

S. O'BRIEN: Tell me about Jerri Blank.

COLBERT: You know why I think it's weird, Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Why is it weird.

COLBERT: Because high school is weird.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know what's weird about this weird movie is that no one notices the things that might stick out to everybody else, like she's 46.

COLBERT: She's a 46-year-old high school freshman. But she has the mind of a child.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, so she kind of goes through, doesn't stick out at all for those reasons.

COLBERT: The children are far more mature than the adults in this movie. It's like an after-school special, but the adults have all the after-school problems, and the kids help them out.

S. O'BRIEN: Was this really originally done when you did it for Comedy Central as sort of the anti-after school special?

COLBERT: Originally we literally were just reading after-school special scripts from the 1970s and going, why don't we just perform this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEDARIS: Let me tell you something, I run a pretty tight (INAUDIBLE) all right. Now if you want to be part of the crew.. you're going to have to follow a few simple rules. It's about getting caught not telling, killing and not caring and dying without fear. You down for being up for that?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: I guess.

SEDARIS: Team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: So, Jerri, is she modeled on somebody?

COLBERT: She's modeled on a woman named Flori Fisher (ph), who was a boozer, a user and a loser in the 1960s. And she did a documentary.

S. O'BRIEN: She's a real woman.

COLBERT: A real woman, and there's a documentary on her. So we looked at that, and we said, why don't you just put that woman in high school? Because it was so great to have her there for one day. And we said, Amy, can you get that character down? And she said, I'll give it a shot.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about some of the other characters. You play the teacher.

COLBERT: I play Mr. Noblet, Chuck Noblet. He's a closeted history teacher, science teacher, creative writing teacher, whatever we need him to be.

S. O'BRIEN: And sort of having an affair with the art teacher.

COLBERT: He's having a secret affair with the art teacher Mr. Jellineck. We think it's a secret, but everyone in the school knows it's going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLBERT: I know this is hard on you. It would be hard for me, too, if I broke up with me. I know what you're losing. The important thing is...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Was it hard to squeeze it all in between doing the work on your show?

COLBERT: Yes, it was. It really was.

S. O'BRIEN: A lot of juggling, got a couple of kids.

COLBERT: Three kids.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's busy.

COLBERT: Yes, absolutely. You know what it's like. You got to keep chopping wood, going out there.

S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. Don't get paid if you don't do the work.

COLBERT: You got to show up. You got a J-O-B to be with me.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me talk to you about the White House Correspondents Dinner.

COLBERT: Go ahead, shoot.

S. O'BRIEN: The good -- scorched earth performance in the good way.

COLBERT: That's good? .

S. O'BRIEN: No, no, in the good way. This is after three paragraphs of raving about you. Brilliant, marveled, brave, true, shocking, blistering, Colbert's crowning moment. The world's bravest, funniest, coolest man. This is the short list. They go on and on an on.

COLBERT: Who in the administration said that?

S. O'BRIEN: Not that many people in the administration who went public with that.

COLBERT: Do you think that's Tony Snow?

S. O'BRIEN: I'm sure there are some.

COLBERT: Tony was a very nice after the speech.

S. O'BRIEN: Here are the less favorable, rude, bully, not funny. How did you think it went?

COLBERT: I had a really great time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) COLBERT: Most of all I believe in this president. Now I know there are some polls out there saying that this man has a 32-percent approval rating. But guys like us we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLBERT: People said, was that hard to do? And I said, I've given wedding toasts that were harder, because I didn't have really good jokes to do at a wedding toast.

I had a fantastic time. And my entire family was there. I'm one of 11 kids. Everyone came. My mom came. The president could not have been nicer to my mom. And we have -- it's going to be our family Christmas card, me, the president and my entire family. I had a tremendous evening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Stephen Colbert. The new movie "Strangers With Candy" opens in New York on Wednesday, and then nationally on July 7th. I have to tell you it is funny. It's weird.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's definitely got weird. But, you know, weird can work, too.

S. O'BRIEN: But it's funny.

M. O'BRIEN: All right "CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next. Tony Harris is filling in for Daryn Kagan.

Tony, what are you working on this morning?

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Miles.

We've got new finding about second-hand smoke coming up on "LIVE TODAY." The surgeon general says any cigarette smoke is dangerous. He wants all workplaces and public buildings to go smoke-free.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said, can I see a badge? And he said, you don't need to see a badge. And that's when I knew he wasn't a cop and something bad was fixing to happen to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well here's a deal, Miles. They've got flashing lights, uniforms, badges and evil intentions. Phony police on the beat.

Plus, animal tales.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Normal My heart rate for him is 80 to 120. It was down to 36.

Meet Zack, the Yorkie that runs on batteries. He's got a new pacemaker and a wonderful new life.

The Washington area floods, that building collapse in Missouri, plus the morning breaking news. "LIVE TODAY" for Tuesday at the top of the hour. Miles, back to you.

What a cute little Yorkie still going. Still going.

All right. Thank you. We'll see you in a bit. Thank you very much, Tony Harris.

Ahead on the program, plenty of sports fans, superstitious, of course, but would you go so far to rearrange your whole house just so your team could win? We'll meet a man who is bringing the art of Feng Shui to World Cup fans. Obviously the U.S. team had no chi, right? Isn't it chi? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

M. O'BRIEN: Those wildfires, two dozen of them burning now in nine states in the west and southwest. The amount of acreage destroyed nearly three times the normal, the seasonal average.

CNN's Rob Marciano with more on whatever link there may be to climate change, global warming.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): In New Mexico, a 2,300 acre blaze forced residents from their home. Near Sedona, Arizona, a 4,200 acre blaze threatens homes, and hundreds have been evacuated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's probably a first for me. I've never seen a sheer rock face with trees in the middle of it that are on fire.

MARCIANO: Just the start of fire season and already 3.3 million acres blackened in the United States this year. That's nearly three times as much as this time last year, and it's expected to get worse.

MICHAEL HANEMANN, DIR., CALIFORNIA CLIMATE CHANGE CENTER: It's going to get hotter in the Southwest. It's going to get hotter, for example, throughout California. And that means more droughts, more wildfire in the summer.

MARCIANO: Michael Hanemann is the director of the California climate change center. He says global warming is causing drought, and drought is causing fires.

HANEMANN: We know the National Academy of Sciences reported on Friday that the last decade is clearly warmer than the previous 400 years. And these fires and the drought are associated with that unusual increase in warming.

MARCIANO: The Southwest is hot, but part of a bigger trend. This April was the hottest on record in the United States. And in the Southwest, the high temperatures make it even drier because the warm air pulls moisture from the ground. And that means more fires.

Right now, wildfires are burning in 11 states. And although we can't blame the recent wet weather in the Northeast on global warming, Hanemann says climate patterns all across the planet could change with rising temperatures in ways we don't yet understand.

HANEMANN: Moving forward, I think we can expect to see increasing extremes, increasing variation, in climate as a result of climate change.

MARCIANO: Hanemann says unless developed countries get serious about global warming, we can expect the worst, more fires and flooding.

HANEMANN: If we take action now we will prevent, I think, really nasty consequences in the second part of this century. And if we don't take action now, I think we will experience really nasty consequences in the second half of the century.

MARCIANO: Rob Marciano, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Rob's report first aired on the show "A.C. 360." That's what we call it around here. That's "ANDERSON COOPER 360." And you can catch that program weeknights 10:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up at the top of the hour, motherhood with a risk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We always said, you know, when we have a child. And it was just never an if.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Baby dreams come true for a paralyzed woman. At what cost to her health?

Also this morning, J. K. Rowling drops a little bombshell hint about the seventh and final Harry potter book. Somebody doesn't make it to the end of the book. We'll explain. There's more AMERICAN MORNING right after the short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We all know that English soccer fans are known for their passion, certainly worldwide. Even though their team's reached the World Cup quarter finals, they haven't been playing so well. So some fans are now going to extreme measures.

Aneesh Raman has our report this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Die-hard England fans don't just scream, they get superstitious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They use wire ware (ph) every time England play. And I will not change them. Since then, they have always won.

RAMAN: But that's small time compared to letting this man into your home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, it's Paul Darby from "Feng Shui Doctor."

RAMAN: Darby is doing a Feng Shui makeover on Tom and Ingrid's living room to help England win.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so, this is the patient. This is the room we need to work on. We need to make sure that the television is definitely in the northwest. Northwest in Feng Shui is removal of obstacles.

RAMAN: For power in the north, you need metals, so in came some pots and pans. In the east, you need green for health, so in came some plants. And most importantly, the power that comes from red.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fiery red, so that should cover it all up. That's our fire. Let's see fire colors. OK. Really, really strong imagery. And then, of course, we need to wear red as well.

RAMAN: Tom and Ingrid friends were forced to do just that. This guest turned red when yelled at for her white dress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry. No red. You can't come in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not red dress?

RAMAN: She was saved by red toenails.

(on camera): So we've all have our red on, most of us at least. Two people with black, but that's an OK color. We've got the metal where it needs to be, the green where it needs to be. And now the pressure is on you to see whether the Feng Shui pans out.

(voice-over): But a scoreless first half left Feng Shui scoreless with the fans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might start to pull. I think this is just mumbo jumbo.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) England is playing really badly, and we're all wearing red and looking a bit stupid.

RAMAN: Pots and pans a TV. Hard to see how that's stupid. It even started looking smart when England won.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Feng Shui has got us in the quarterfinal of the World Cup. I'll be doing this for the next game and for the rest of my life.

RAMAN: Beckham, beware: you may have scored the goal, but Feng Shui made it happen.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: See if the Feng Shui magic still goes strong on Saturday, when England faces Portugal in the quarterfinals. I like those pots stacked up on the television.

M. O'BRIEN: Got to be just done that way, right? Isn't that the deal?

S. O'BRIEN: That's the deal, yes it is.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, well, hope it works for them.

Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, meet the producer behind the powerful PBS documentary called "Secret Daughter." It's the story of a mix-raced daughter whose mother gave her away. Hear what it was like to live a secret -- in a secret. That's tomorrow, 6:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN. We hope you join us every morning at that time.

That's all for this edition of AMERICAN MORNING. Tony Harris at CNN Center will take you through the next couple of hours.

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