Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Congress Continues Work on a Financial Plan; Kyle Updated to Hurricane & Threatens New England; Paul Newman's Life and Legacy.

Aired September 27, 2008 - 17:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: All right. You're looking at two live pictures there on the left of your screen, the Capitol. On the right, Hollywood. Two big stories this Saturday evening. I'm Don Lemon, everyone.
First, Washington. Live pictures of the capitol where lawmakers right now are feverishly trying to keep the country from financial ruin, very simply put. They promise not to stop, all night if they have to, until the deal is done. There is word this hour there could be -- they could be close to a deal. So make sure you stay tuned.

Our other big story takes us live to Hollywood where reaction is coming in every second to the death of film legend and philanthropist, Paul Newman, at 83 years old. We'll have a special look at his amazing life, his career, and quiet bout with cancer.

Before we get to all of that, we want to get you straight to the Severe Weather Center, Jacqui Jeras, working the breaking details on a story for us -- Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, we just got word Kyle has been upgraded now to a hurricane. Was a tropical storm. Hurricane hunters flew into this this afternoon, found sustained winds at 75 miles an hour. That's enough to support that hurricane strength now. So it's officially a hurricane here.

It is moving up to the north, and it will likely continue to gain a little bit of additional strength, and we also have some new updates on our tropical storm watches. One has been upgraded to a tropical storm warning from Port Clyde to east Port, Maine. We'll really start feeling the impacts of Kyle less than 24 hours from now -- Don?

LEMON: Jacqui Jeras, we'll be checking back with you. Thank you very much for that.

Now let's head to Washington and the people who can make or break this country and your financial future.

It is without a doubt the most dramatic, the most dramatic government intervention in the U.S. economy since the Great Depression. And things are surely tense right now behind those closed doors. A team of negotiators from both parties and both houses of Congress at work right now. The deal is a proposed $700 billion one.

At this moment there is talk it could, and I say could, in quotation marks, happen as soon as tonight. Lawmakers are hedging by saying they will see. Both parties agree that while they are making progress, there's still a lot of work to do.

To the troops on the ground now, the best political and money teams on television all over this bailout talk, our Brianna Keiler on Capital Hill, Ed Henry at the White House, and CNN personal finance editor, Gerri Willis.

First to the heart of the action at the nation's capital, CNN's Brianna Keiler at the capitol now with the details.

BRIANNA KEILER, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Don, the four key players in these negotiators are in a meeting right now with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the House Democrat and Republican, the Senate Democrat and Republican who have been instilled with the authority by their units of Congress to negotiate on behalf of them.

So why is this important? The key negotiator for Senate Republicans says the plan -- he said ahead of this meeting, the plan was to go in the room and not to come out until an agreement has been reached.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi who, I should add, is not at these meetings, being optimistic for a timeline of an agreement.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: It would be my hope that this could be resolved today. That we would have a day for the American people and members of Congress to review the legislation on the Internet and that we could bring something to the -- to the floor possibly Sunday night or Monday morning.

KEILER: Pelosi went on to say there could be a vote as early as tomorrow, perhaps on Monday. But House Republicans who have really been the hold out in all of these negotiations, they don't agree with the $700 billion of taxpayer money being used to bailout these financial markets. They're really the holdouts.

Here's a listen to what they're saying, which is minimizing expectations of what will come out of this meeting. This is Roy Blunt, the key negotiator on their behalf.

REP. ROY BLUNT (R), MINORITY WHIP: We're not moving on any kind of artificial timeline. We're moving toward the very best solution in the shortest period of time we can get to the very best solution.

KEILER: And I just got word from one of our producers that Congressman Blunt came out of that meeting a short time ago just to go to the House floor and he just said to reporters that there's still a number of issues. So you're still seeing that downplaying of expectations.

Just to give you a sense of what House Republicans are opposed to, they fundamentally don't want to see taxpayer dollars go towards bailing out the financial markets. They would instead like to see private investment dollars used in this bailout. But that's something that Treasury Secretary Paulson and congressional Democrats at least aren't agreeing with -- Don. LEMON: And, Brianna, just in your line, you can see that there was some movement there, do you want to stay tuned because you don't know what could happen and we will carry it for you live on CNN.

Brianna Keiler on Capitol Hill. Thank you, Brianna.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is back on Capitol Hill at this moment. Let's get to the White House now, the view from Ed Henry.

Ed, what is the latest from the president and his aides on this?

ED HENRY, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Don, this is pretty heavy stuff. The president laid it on the line in his weekly radio address, normally that's a low-key address where he talks about relatively noncontroversial subjects. Today he focused in on the economy, this financial crisis and laid it out starkly.

He basically telling the American people that our financial institutions may be on the verge of a meltdown, is essentially what he said. He was trying to raise the stakes in order to get Congress to come along and put a little bit of gentle pressure on them to pass this $700 billion bailout.

He is also, we're told, the president getting updates throughout the day from his chief of staff, Josh Bolton, about the progress of those talks on the Hill. And one hopeful sign from here at the White House is the fact that Henry Paulson is on Capitol Hill.

Officials here have been telling us that they were sort of holding Secretary Paulson back. He had been working the phones throughout the day today but they didn't want to send him up to the Hill and sort of raise expectations unless they felt a deal was inching along.

So the fact that Secretary Paulson just in the last couple of hours headed up to Capitol Hill, went into that meeting, as Brianna mentioned, is at least an optimistic sign from officials here who are trying to read the tea leaves that suggest that Henry Paulson thinks it would be helpful at this point to go into those negotiations.

If they felt the lawmakers were not getting anywhere, the estimation from here would be that Secretary Paulson would hold back until they made more progress.

It doesn't mean there's a deal yet, but it means they're getting closer.

LEMON: Let's look politically because of course the president is in the waning days of his presidency in office, but let's talk about what's at stake. If he doesn't act properly, it this doesn't work in some way, it has repercussions of course for the Republican Party.

HENRY: Absolutely. Enormous ramifications potentially for John McCain, who is now the head of the Republican Party, but also for this president's legacy. A year ago if we were talking about his legacy, likely our conversation would have focused on the war in Iraq, for example. Things THERE have gotten better in the course of the last year, whereas the economy has gotten much worse.

And obviously whether the bailout passes or not, the president's legacy could be tarnished by all this. If the bailout fails, if it does not go through in these financial institutions do fail, that obviously has enormous ramifications for the president.

If the bailout passes and at least works in the short term but then adds $700 billion in debt to the United States at a time where we're already about $9 trillion in debt, that has major ramifications for this president's legacy as well.

So in the final four months here, the president is obviously grappling with a major, major issue. The biggest problem for him right now is a president who early in his presidency was able to get his fellow Republicans to come along, having a lot of trouble right now in the final months getting Republicans to get on board with his agenda.

LEMON: Ed Henry, the latest from the capitol which has become the financial capitol of the country and the world now, Washington, D.C.

Let's go now to our Gerri Willis. It is hard to grasp the complexity and price tag on this enormous bailout, but know this, it is all funded by your money, right? So what does it mean to you, and what are some of the risks involved in all of this?

Our personal finance editor Gerri Willis weighs in.

Gerri, the impact on this, storm term, what could it be?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: If we didn't do this deal in the short term here's what happens. Credit dries up. As you know, Don, credit is the grease on the wheels of capitalism. Maybe in your own life you've seen auto loans and mortgage loans harder to get. Even credit card operators are cutting back on credit lines to consumers.

In the short term if some deal doesn't get passed, it may go to the ATM and not be able to get money out of the bank. This puts a strain obviously on business operators, the longer this goes on. They aren't able to access money either. That's hard for them to get money for pay rolls for goodness sakes.

The economy overall slows down because consumers aren't spending, businesses aren't spending, so, Don, as you can see, even in the short term the impacts aren't good.

LEMON: OK. Well, obviously yes. Long-term, then is the question.

WILLIS: Well, long-term if you don't get a package or you don't get a substantial package, it creates even more problems. We've talked a lot about real estate and how much it's been down. Prices have been down for nine straight months. Median national price down 9.5 percent just from last year. That recovery would take longer to happen.

Stocks would continue to fall. We're already down 21 percent from the highs of last October. And, of course, we all rely on stocks and our 401(K)s to save for retirement. It's an important part of the economy for individuals as well as Wall Street.

This also slows down the economy. You know, the economy growing at a pace of 2.8 percent just under 3 percent in the second quarter. That could slow. It could slip. We could fall into recession if something isn't done quickly.

I know this is very controversial with a lot of people, they don't want to see taxpayer dollars going to this, but the risks are pretty substantial if some kind of action isn't taken and taken soon.

LEMON: We don't want to scare people, but really, I mean, we're on the brink here if something is not worked out very soon with this, who knows exactly where...

WILLIS: New territory, new territory for us and new territory for the American consumer. You know, it's -- it's kind of -- unthinkable for a lot of us out there, so used to being able to access credit cards, auto loans, how easy it's been for a decade or more really to get money, maybe not so much anymore.

LEMON: Our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis. Gerri will be around because we're watching Capitol Hill. And, again, if an agreement is reach and whatever, the latest on this, we will bring it to you here in the CNN "NEWSROOM." You don't have to worry about that.

On this day, after the first debate, the two presidential hopefuls are keeping an eye on the talks in Washington, but neither one has returned to Capitol Hill.

Democrat Barack Obama met up with running mate Joe Biden, and they're making campaign stops in both North Carolina and Virginia. Republican John McCain has returned to Washington and he is monitoring the bailout talks by phone.

Here's what an adviser says. He says McCain spent the morning at his campaign headquarters placing calls to the White House and to congressional leaders.

McCain's running mate Sarah Palin goes one-on-one with Joe Biden this week. That should be very interesting. She got in some exercise Friday in Philadelphia where she's spending the weekend prepping for Thursday's debate. Looks like a run along the river there.

It was their first presidential debate. Did you watch? Some people said it was boring, others say they found it kind of interesting. Barack Obama, John McCain talking foreign policy, and, of course, the economy.

So which one looked the part? CNN's Jim Acosta tells us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first debate is over. But the fight is nowhere near finished.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: Senator Obama voted to cut off funding for our troops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Take this new ad from John McCain. picking up on the debate's heated exchange over Iraq, it makes one of the most explosive charges of the campaign, accusing Barack Obama of endangering American soldiers by voting to cut off funds for the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: Playing politics. Risking lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He didn't believe in a timetable.

ACOSTA: Obama who says he opposed that bill because it lacked a timeline for troop withdrawal, gets tough in his own new spot that zeros in on the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARARTOR: Number of minutes in debate, 90. Number of times John McCain mentioned the middle class? Zero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: A stat Obama raised again in North Carolina.

OBAMA: John McCain had a lot to say about me. But he had nothing to say about you. Didn't even say the word middle class.

ACOSTA: It's as it he was listening to these undecided voters speaking to CNN after the debate, voters who are thinking with their wallets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't ever hear McCain talk about our middle class, and that's where I live.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard from McCain free spending. We do that at home, you know -- if you have higher debt you don't just keep spending.

ACOSTA: At watching parties for both candidates, CNN found Obama supporters seizing McCain's body language.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was uncomfortable. I mean, he was up, huffing and puffing.

ACOSTA: And measuring the candidate's experience.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he was better prepared.

ACOSTA: Wearing a Phillies jacket, Sarah Palin attended a viewer party of her own. She knows it's batter up.

GOV. SARAH PALIN, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John McCain and I will never forget whom we're working for. It's you. So we love you guys, City of Brotherly Love. Thank you.

ACOSTA: While Joe Biden was on national television talking up Barack Obama's performance in Mississippi, Sarah Palin was absent from analysis. But voters will get their fill of both running mates when they square off in one week.

Jim Acosta, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: If you missed any part of Friday night because you're busy with your family, or if you want to see it again, because sometimes you don't catch everything the first time; if you missed any part of the first presidential debate, you can watch it right here on CNN, and check all of it, even the meters gauging the audience. We'll play that for you at 10:00 p.m. eastern here on CNN.

In the meantime, we want to talk about Paul Newman, the man, on Paul Newman, the actor. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL NEWMAN, ACTOR: No one should ever do a remake of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: You know what? There are some roles, he says, he wanted to revisit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You have three piston...

NEWMAN: I knew you couldn't drive. I didn't know you couldn't read.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: That's a Hudson Hornet.

NEWMAN: Wait over flows, like I told you.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Of course, I can't believe I didn't see it before. You're the fabulous Hudson Hornet. You used to hold the most wins for a single season. Oh, we've got to talk. Show me your tricks, please.

NEWMAN: I already tried that.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You won the championship three times. Look at those trophies.

NEWMAN: You look. All I see is a bunch of empty cups.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Talk about someone who just really spanned all different aspects of the entertainment industry. That was an animation, sort of a cartoon. He did westerns. He did dramas from black and white to color, all the way up there to animation. That was a clip of Paul Newman's final performance. He was the voice of Doc Hudson in "Cars."

The legendary actor has died of cancer at the age of 83. Newman made more than 50 films and dozens of TV appearances. Critics and fans loved him no matter what he did. But Newman himself, that's another story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWMAN: I've done my best work I guess in the last ten years. I wish I knew as much about acting then as I knew now. I think -- I think I would have made some changes in "The Hustler." I would have made changes in "Cool Hand Luke."

A guys laying down a lot of rules and regulations.

I would have just done things differently.

What happened to the old bank? It was beautiful?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: People kept been robbing it.

NEWMAN: A small price to pay for beauty.

No one should ever do a remake of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

Set them up the way they were before.

The only character that was worth reexamining again was Fast Eddie.

Nobody can make that shot again, no, not even a lucky lush can make that shot.

It was a reexamination of a character 20 years later, because at the end of "The Hustler," he had won, but he -- he was deprived of any further work as a pool hustler. So it was worthwhile to -- to go back and find out how Fast Eddie kept being Fast Eddie, and what he was Fast Eddie at.

Pool, excellence, it's not about excellent pool, it's about becoming something.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Yeah?

NEWMAN: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Like what?

NEWMAN: A student. You've got to be a student. A human moves -- all the greats I know of, to a man, were students.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Students and moves?

NEWMAN: Yeah. That's my area of excellence.

As I say, I wish I would have known as much as I know now. I wouldn't have worked as hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Even rock stars, as you know, they were in awe of Paul Newman.

Look at that. There's Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. He was photographed with Newman in 2002 at a theater in Westport, Connecticut. Photographer Larry Merr (ph) says he snapped these pictures of Richards. First time, he was kind of bowing to Newman in an I'm-not-worthy sort of gesture. Then taking a playful jab at Newman's famous square jaw. You didn't get much better looking than Paul Newman, even way up into his 80s.

Merr (ph) says Richards told Newman, I'll teach you to play guitar if you teach me to race a car. The guy in the middle is actor James Naughten, a close friend of Newmans.

Tonight, Larry King, we'll take a special look at the life and the legacy of Paul Newman. That's 9:00 p.m. eastern, only on CNN. You don't want to miss that because Larry has interviewed a lot of people. He's done very interesting interviews with Paul Newman so, that will be tonight right here on CNN, 9:00 p.m. eastern.

OK, well, the gulf coast might be used to hurricane watches, but New England? That's right. Wow. Look at that, live pictures, Portland, Maine. They're getting ready for Kyle. It looks awfully dismal and ominous there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. We have breaking news into the CNN "NEWSROOM" and it involves the weather. Tonight, a category 1 hurricane is now churning toward Cape Cod. These pictures coming to us from Portland. These here you're seeing now coming to us from Lynn, Massachusetts, from our affiliate WCVB in Boston.

Kyle was upgraded to hurricane status just a short time ago. It is fewer than 500 miles south of Nantucket and it is moving north. Take a look at these boats getting knocked around close to shore here. Again, it is our breaking weather news. You saw those live pictures. I can only say ominous clouds, looks like to me, Jacqui.

JERAS: A lot of low cloud cover from the mid Atlantic states all the way northward. We're dealing with two different kind of weather systems, an upper level low that's already well inland and then here is Kyle. Kyle helping to start to pull off some of that tropical moisture into the northeastern corridor. So we're getting a lot of low level cloudiness, a lot of rain. And our biggest concern at this hour is the flash flooding. The winds, they are on the way, but we don't think they'll be arriving too strong until tomorrow. We've got a lot of rough surf as we saw from those images, in fact really the risk of rip currents from the Carolinas on northward.

There you can see the rain showers coming down across the northeast, from Providence on up towards Boston. Maine, solid rain along the coastal areas. We've got a live shot out of Portland showing you those low-level clouds and the rain that continues to come down. You're under a flash flood warning. You've seen a couple of inches of rain so far. We could see three to six inches overall, so flood watches and warnings posted all across the northeast.

If you're trying to travel today or tomorrow, some big-time problems. We've got a ground stop in effect for Boston Logan. Delays over an hour at JFK and Newark about 40 minutes at this time. The track is showing that most likely scenario is going to be east of Maine but still, say, from Bar Harbor on northward. You could still possibly see a direct impact from this storm. We'll be watching it.

LEMON: All right, Jacqui. We'll be watching it. Thank you very much for that, Jacqui.

Meantime, The candidates had a lot to say at the debate last night. And they went at it a couple of times. But how much of it was true? How much testify was plain out lies? The "Truth Squad" on the story. Josh Levs checking it out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, NEWS ANCHOR: OK, everyone. Welcome back to the program. I'm Don Lemon.

Two big stories we're following tonight. We've got our eyes on of course Washington. They're not quite there, but they're close. At least that's what some of the negotiators are saying. Negotiators from Capitol Hill and the White House hope to have that $700 billion financial rescue that everyone can agree on, and they hope to do it this weekend. In fact, they hope to do it at any moment now.

Again, we've been receiving word that they could possibly be close to a deal at any time, possibly tomorrow or maybe even as far out as Monday. What are the holdups? How close are they? What's going on? We have it all for you on CNN. We will follow every breaking detail on this story and bring them to you just as soon as we get them, even if we have to break into programming. Plus, one of the greatest in the business, a star on and off the big screen, Of course, he has died, actor businessman and philanthropist, Paul Newman has lost his battle with cancer. Coming up, we'll show you how he used his celebrity to become a household name and hero to the terminally ill. That story we'll have for you in just a few minutes.

Plus we'll talk to a Hollywood insider who followed him and has fascinating inside information and stories, personal stories about Paul Newman.

But first, let's separate the facts from the fiction, shall we, in last night's first presidential debate.

CNN's Josh Levs is part of our "Truth Squad." He is keeping them honest.

Josh, we always see, we kind of hedge it and say, that's not exactly true, well, they kind of exaggerated here. Why don't we ever just say, you know, that was a lie?

JOSH LEVS, CNN ANALYST: Well... (LAUGHTER).

LEMON: Why don't we do that?

LEVS: To call something a lie you have to be inside their brain and say they purposely did it.

LEMON: If it doesn't match up to the facts, it's a lie.

LEVS: I'm running a lot of these "Truth Squads" now. We keep doing it. We say false and we'll say misleading right now, if that counts for you, which is the best we can do, given what the truth is and what they actually said.

In fact, let's delve right into it. Here's something McCain said last night.

BVC

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Obama has shifted on a number of occasions. He has voted in the United States senate to increase taxes on people who make as low as $42,000 a year.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's not true. That's not true.

MCCAIN: That's just a fact. Again, you can look it up.

EVC

LEVS: Well, we did look it up. Let's go right to that graphic so you have the fact, this $42,000 figure. Did Obama vote to raise taxes on people making that much? These are the facts. Obama did vote for this one budget resolution this year. And in that budget resolution, it assumes that the Bush tax cuts will expire, some of those applied to people making $42,000. So there's this way that McCain can argue that Obama effectively voted for taxes to go up for people making $42,000 a year.

But we're also pointing out there that Democrats themselves offered their own tax cuts in that same resolution. And Obama is absolutely not running on a platform of raising taxes for people making $42,000 a year. So we did in fact rule right there, as you want, we were calling this one misleading.

Now let's skip this for now, and go over to the other sound bite. We have another sound bite from the Obama side of things now. Want you to hear something he said and then we'll reality check that for you.

BVC

OBAMA: Here's what I can tell the American people. 95 percent of you will get a tax cut.

EVC

LEVS: No. Not under his plan. 95 percent of Americans will not get a tax cut under his plan. These are the facts. This is where we go to the last graphic now. Here's what we have for you. The Tax Policy Center has done the best analysis of both plans. Under that plan, what they have found is that he offers tax cuts to 80 percent of households in America, and would increase taxes on the wealthiest 20 percent of households. So why he's saying 95 percent of Americans, that's because of this whole other figure. They found 95 percent of families with children would get a tax cut. So it was not accurate. Again, that was misleading when he said 95 percent of Americans would get a tax cut. That was inaccurate.

But to be fair to Obama, sometimes during the night he did in fact say it the right way that 95 percent of working families, as he likes to say it, would get a tax cut.

You can see lots more of these at the political ticker at CNN.com. I encourage you to take a look at it, stroll through some of the ones we took a look at.

And we're still going. We're still process some of the things that were said last night and we have the fact check coming your way.

LEMON: I got an e-mail from a viewer saying, you're exactly right. Why do we say misleading, stretching the truth. A lie is a lie is a lie.

All right, Josh Levs, thank you very much for that.

LEVS: Thanks.

LEMON: CNN viewers were quick to file I-reports about last night's debate.

Matt Frederick says he was not impressed by either candidate. BVC

MATT FREDERICK, I-REPORTER: Neither of the two candidates said anything that could help undecided voters to make up their mind. And they were just going back and forth and nothing really extraordinary came out of this debate, if you ask me. So it was a tie.

EVC

LEMON: Well, there you go. You can upload your own video and watch all the I-reports already submitted. Go to ireport.com, or go to CNN.com and click on the I-report logo.

One issue that came up following last night's debate, or maybe didn't come up enough is the average American. No doubt being heavily affected by the state of this economy, our Kara Finnstrom is in -- is that the L.A. county fair?

Are you enjoying any cotton candy or popcorn? I know you're getting an earful, though.

KARA FINNSTROM, CNN NEWS CORRESPODNENT: I have been enjoying a bit that have and have been getting an earful.

A lot of these families out here to enjoy the fair. But, Don, the sentiment that we've been hearing again and again is that they're feeling guilty about spending money, having fun today, when they don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

So what we did was brought out a financial expert to listen to their concerns and try and answer some of their questions. One of the folks we spoke with today is Joe Sandoval. He's 26 years old but concerned about his financial future. What's your question today?

JOE SANDOVAL, FAIR GOER: My question is, I'm investing now in my retirement fund and I've got more of a traditional savings account- style retirement fund. I'm wondering, should I be aggressive and diversify my retirement fund, even though the stock market is iffy right now and going down? Is that something I should do or not?

Mike Schwartz is our financial analyst.

Give us an answer to that, if you would.

MIKE SCHWARTZ, FINANCIAL ANALYST: You're way too young to be that conservative. What I would recommend is that you definitely diversify, especially with larger firms. most people will go even to some foreign countries in terms of investing. So your money should be diversified in lots of mutual funds across the board. I know you have some money right now tied up in savings, and it's nice to have some liquidity and some back in case things go bad. But in your retirement account, you're not going to touch for 30, 40 years, that money should definitely be more aggressive.

FINNSTROM: We've got one more question for you. this one came from a family earlier today. She had to sell her van because she felt the gas crunch. She's a little angry with the folks that she says messed everything up. Here's her question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is, is the new bill that's going to go through Congress going to continue to pay the million dollar parachutes for the CEOs of these failing banks.

FINNSTROM: An answer for that one?

SCHWARTZ: The bailout will probably be addressed. They'll have enough, I think, legislation in the new bailout plan to cover that. I it's hard to say, because over the weekend things changed so fast, but I think over the last week people have really tried to address the golden parachute issue with the bailouts. So there might be other executive pay things people aren't comfortable with, but I think the golden parachute thing will be covered.

FINNSTROM: I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that.

Thanks for joining us.

Just, Don, a few of the questions and answers we could get to today, but there have been lots.

LEMON: Thank you, Kara Finnstrom, reporting for us.

Coming up here in the CNN "NEWSROOM," we want to talk about Paul Newman, from "Butch Cassidy" to "Fast Eddie," "Cool Hand Luke" and to Judge Roy Bean. We want to talk about that. Paul Newman was Hollywood's iconic rebel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: If you say Butch Cassidy, everyone goes Paul Newman, Robert Redford, or Fast Eddie. That was Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke, Judge Roy Bean, all of them Paul Newman. He was Hollywood's iconic rebel. He has died of cancer at the age of 83. Newman's blue-eyed good looks and anti-establishment persona helped make him a major movie star for nearly half a century. He won a Best Actor Oscar for "The Color of Money," along with two others for his overall career and charitable work. Newman's off-screen interests included race car driving, political activism and a food business called Newman's Own. Survivors include his wife of 50 years, actress Joanne Woodward. Our hearts go out to you today, Ms. Woodward.

Tom O'Neil, I want to bring you in, as critic and journalist. And he joins me from New York.

Tom, he -- I know he was one of the best but you have a very interesting story about him. He was just a regular guy, even though he was this big star.

TOM O'NEIL, REPORTER, "IN TOUCH WEEKLY": Right. I would meet him, or at least run into him around the Hollywood scene throughout my career. The first time I set eyes on him in person was I went to the university of Notre dame. Right after I got out of school I went to work for the "Indianapolis Star." The little house I had was across from the speedway. He loved the whole sport of race car driving so much. He was over there slugging back beers with the guys and really hanging out with them, as a dear friend. He wasn't just passing through like a big star.

LEMON: Isn't that amazing? We see him here racing cars and talking, and every time you saw him, you just -- you thought of him, obviously there was no one better looking than Paul Newman. Then you would see him and Joanne Woodward, she is just as down to earth as he was.

O'NEIL: Yeah. He was often asked, you know, why -- you're a guy who could have any gal in the world. Why are you so faithful to this one. He would famously say, why go out for hamburger when you've got steak at home?

LEMON: Is he the last of the red-hot Hollywood rebels, the old- time iconic movie stars, you think?

O'NEIL: I think he's the last of the greats who spanned both genres' of film stars. By that I mean the Rock Hudson heart throb star, who were seldom considered great actors. Then we have the Lawrence Olivia kind of things. This guy straddled both.

I'd like to read you a quote from our create greatest film critic, Roger Ebert who said -- this is really impressive -- "Paul Newman invented modern film acting, stripping it of its mannerisms of the past and creating a hyper-charged realism."

LEMON: Yeah.

O'NEIL: Wow. He created modern film acting. Wow.

LEMON: And perfectly put. We'll leave it at that. I'm so glad you reached out to Roger Ebert, who himself has been dealing with cancer himself, and his wonderful wife there in Chicago.

Tom, thank you.

O'NEIL: Thank you.

LEMON: Really appreciate that.

CNN's Larry King will take a very special look at the life and legacy of Paul Newman tonight at 9:00 eastern only here on CNN.

Meantime, a 10-year-old girl, divorcing her 30-year-old husband. CNN brought you the story earlier this year, and it sent shock waves across the world.

One woman was responsible for that little girl's freedom. Her name is Shala Nasar (ph). She is today's "CNN Hero." You want to know about her? Well, here's the little girl she helped.

(CNN HERO)

LEMON: If you want additional details about her work to help child brides in Yemen, or to get involved with any of our "CNN Heroes," go to CNN.com/heros. The game must go on, even if the pumps go dry. We'll take you to the game, to game day in the midst of, guess what, a gas shortage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Gas storage or not, whatever you want to call it, college football and tailgating must go on and it did go on, especially in Athens, Georgia, where the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama met outside Atlanta here.

Katherine Callaway is there, and joins us now.

Katherine, so here's a question. Petroleum experts suggested they postpone the game because of the gas shortage, but the governor called it a ridiculous suggestion. Don't they know, especially in the south, football has to go on?

KATHERINE CALLOWAY, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Football's popular everywhere, not just in the south, but this particular game, it's huge. You would have had a riot on your hands. People would have walked or crawled to get to this game.

But you're right, tens of thousands of people have arrived in Athens for the big Alabama-Georgia game. Don, if they're looking to fill up their gas tanks offer the game, they may be in a little bit of trouble. We drove around, and most of the gas stations we saw in town around campus were out of gas. We're actually about three miles outside of the downtown area at a filling station that has had unleaded gas all day long, but they have a limit of $40. That won't fill up most gas tanks.

Ironically, we are across the street, too, from the Kinder Morgan tank farm, and that's where the big gas trucks go to fill up their tanks and deliver the fuel to the gas stations. They have been out of fuel all day long, and we have seen tankers -- truck drivers leaving with nothing, empty load. And they told us it's just been today that they've been out of gas, and all week they've been able to deliver unleaded fuel to the region. When they arrive, there are often long lines and the drivers are very happy to see them.

BVC

DAVID BRASWELL, BROWN OIL COMPANY DRIVER: They lined up, they watch you, they come in and these lines, you know -- people are being pretty calm about it. And I figured they'd be fighting and all, but I was coming and they lined up and everybody waited their turn.

EVC

CALLOWAY: Now, we just actually spoke to a driver who was leaving across the street and he was able to get a half load, Don, just a half load. He's taking that to some of the stations in the area.

So the good news is there is gas out there. You may have to hunt for it a little bit. And it's hovering around the $4 mark for regular unleaded. But, Don, we had to fill up the news car on the way up from Atlanta. It was $4.29 a gallon. We had to wait about ten minutes.

LEMON: I waited longer.

CALLOWAY: Long lines.

LEMON: Someone in front of me had to push their car because they ran out of gas in line.

CALLOWAY: Oh! We hope we don't see that tonight here in Athens. Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Hope you can make it back to Atlanta. Thank you, Katherine Calloway.

Issue Number One, the economy and your money. Would you know how to make money if you lost your job? Our next guest has a book that certainly might help you with that called "The Hidden Millionaire" offering practical advice on how to create a successful business from scratch. Anthony Morrison, the author, from Jackson, Mississippi.

Hello, Anthony.

ANTHONY MORRISON, AUTHOR, "THE HIDDEN MILLIIONAIRE": Hey, how are you.

LEMON: Right now, people may not have anything else to lose. I was speaking to someone who's waiting tables last night, who had lost their job. Laid off. She said right now I have nothing to lose so I'm going to go for what my heart feels or what my passion is. Is that your advice?

MORRISON: Definitely the advice I would give. Exactly what I've done with every business I've started. Take something that's a hobby, something I'm passionate about and I turn it into a business. As an entrepreneur and business owner your life becomes your business. It's important it's something you know a lot about and are passionate about.

LEMON: The auto industry has been struggling for some time now. I don't know if there's a direct correlation. You made your money selling auto parts and became a millionaire from there. Is that your passion? How did you do that?

MORRISON: Yeah. I mean, I loved cars. I had a Mustang when I was growing up. I absolutely loved that car. My dad fell on hard times and need help, and I decided to start a business. I had no business experience. Just turned to something was passionate and I knew a lot about and that was my Mustang. I decided to sell auto motive parts online and started a business, and it was really successful, really successful.

LEMON: I'm looking at...

MORRISON: A retail business online.

LEMON: Some of the things when you're saying do what is need. If you, I guess in some ways, build a bridge or highway and they will come.

MORRISON: Right. You know, it's really important when you start a business to start something and fill a need. Instead of just something people want. A lot of people don't realize. The automotive industry, hurricanes hit, gas prices rose I sold a lot of parts that helped save gas mileage.

LEMON: Anthony Morrison, thank you very much, "The Hidden Millionaire,"

Some people may not think it's practical. When it gets this bad you have to turn to what you like best and try to make money from there, especially if you don't have a job or are in danger of losing one.

Thank you, sir.

A life-changing diet. It could work for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: No oil, no butter, but plenty of results -- forget what you think about or you know about only eating raw foods. If you can stick to the program, you just might change your life. Here's our Dr. Sanjay Gupta in our "Fit Nation."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)