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Governor of Louisiana to Hold Press Conference About Oil Spill; Oil Still Threatens Wide Stretch of the Gulf Coast; Immigration Rally in New York's Union Square
Aired May 01, 2010 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Meantime, as the fishermen wait for word, we too are waiting word the Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal will have a press conference, we understand, sometime in this hour. We also hear the U.S. Coast Guard will have a press conference to kind of keep people abreast of the recovery efforts. They try to put out more booms, try to contain this oil. As I mention mentioned, 5,000 gallons of oil are spilling per day in the gulf region and they're trying their best to try to contain it to protect the wildlife as well as related industries there on the Gulf shore.
So this spill threatens a wide stretch of the gulf coast as you see right here. There's even kind of a timeline as to when they expect the oil to hit certain regions. It is already touching parts of Louisiana, and if we can bring that map up one more time, it looks like we have some problems there.
The timeline is maybe Alabama and maybe even Florida by Monday when it is expected some of that oil slick to reach that area. So there are states of emergencies in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida as you saw in that map.
Crews are still using containment booms in a bid to protect especially sensitive areas as you see in that shot. And this one is at the Brenten National Wildlife refuge in Venice, Louisiana. And take a look right now. This NASA photo of the gulf showing just how big the spill is, quite colossal. BP oil officials are meeting with fishermen who could be devastated by this disaster. Environmentalists are worried about how the spill will affect birds in particular.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELANIE DRISCOLL, ENVIRONMENTALIST: We're concerned about any of the birds that have these populations that are congregated right now in the breeding season. This is really a bad time of the year for this to hit for the breeding birds. There are brown pelicans on nests. They were just recently removed from the endangered species list and this will be a setback to their conservation.
We have a lot of concerns about birds with already small populations, but many concerns in Louisiana because we have such huge globally significant concentrations of many of these bird species.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: All right. We're tackling all the angles of this story as the gulf coast braces for whatever this slick just might bring. Let's begin with Brian Todd. He is in Venice, Louisiana. Brian?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, we have new information about the method of attack that BP and the other crews are using to try to contain this oil spill. I just spoke to a BP official a short time ago and got some detail on the way they're using these underwater dispersants to try to break up the oil and get it to sink.
He said that essentially they plan on taking these dispersants out by boat, just over the wellhead, sending it down by a coiled tube down to the oil head where the oil is coming out, shooting it down there, in the submersibles that are down there, positioning it where the oil is coming out so that these chemicals can then attach to the oil, disperse it right there where it is coming out of the wellhead and get it to dissipate and sink.
That's the plan. They have not yet deployed those dispersants yet in any great volume right now. But they are planning to do that soon. So that is one way they're trying to do this. You know, this key point of attack here, there is concern -
WHITFIELD: OK, we're losing that signal there as you can see. It is very windy. That's part of the problem. It is very treacherous there and there is great concern that that wind also will help accelerate the oil slick from reaching the coastline, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and, of course, Louisiana, which is already being impacted. Brian Todd there.
All right. Along the Gulf Coast it, of course, a waiting game. Residents are watching to see what the sea actually brings in. Our Richard Lui now is in Dauphin Island, Alabama, where it is also very windy. And we can see the chop of the water there, Richard. What do you have?
RICHARD LUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. What we're seeing now, last hour when you and I were talking, we saw the booms how they were loose because they are right behind me. And the concern was how are they going to get them back anchored. You can see here on my left- hand side, the environmental company is trying to right what had happened.
The anchor is going loose. They're re-collecting the booms at the moment and they're going to redeploy them is what they told me. They're going to put down those 40-pound anchors again to try to make sure that the booms will stay out there, stay deployed this next time they're going to do it. Because, of course, they don't have the time or the energy or the resources to do this two or three different times.
They were huddling just moments ago to try to figure out how to attack this problem. What they did is they disconnected what was a long maybe 200 foot boom and have taken off one section, and now what they're going to do after they have got this section on the ground, they're going to out, and try to grab that next section that is still out there in the ocean and then reconnect them together and then sink the anchor again.
So that's sort of the dynamic right now as they have to deal with the weather, they have to deal with the ocean, and they have to deal with the waves that have been lapping up over on top of this defense mechanism that we have been talking about up and down the coast and certainly this is not the only place as we have been reporting. This is the dynamic that they have to deal with as the weather continues to make it difficult.
On the side of all this, this, of course, all of the people that are worried about this potential oil slick hitting ground. We had the opportunity this morning to go knock on some doors, to find out what everyday people are thinking. And we bumped into one woman, her name is Carolyn Strudivan (ph). And this is an amazing day for her because her son is getting married. They're going to do it on the beach.
And the one thing they never thought of thinking about, you know you think about weather, you think about your deejay showing up on time, but now they had to worry about an oil slick. This is what she told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can do it. We can handle it. Whatever it is, nothing lasts forever. I mean, an oil spill doesn't last forever. It is going to take a lot of effort to deal with it. It took a lot of effort to deal with the aftermath of Katrina. We were a year getting our condominium back where we could stay in it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUI: And you know, Carolyn (ph) has been through a lot. She's extremely positive. She went through Hurricane Katrina. She is having her coffee this morning and she was telling me, and showing some pictures of what she went through during Hurricane Katrina, how they had to redo the condominium and she's very positive, as you can tell.
And back here with the booms here, you can see some oil residue on them. This is not what they're saying from what is happening off the coast of Alabama or Louisiana. This is from previous use and that's what you see on some of these booms. So a lot changing right here off the coast of Alabama, Fredricka. We continue to watch and see what they're doing.
WHITFIELD: Wow. That's pretty extraordinary and that was quick action on their part. You had just told us about those booms breaking apart last hour and already they're there trying to do the best they can to try to protect the coastline.
Richard Lui, thanks so much, in Dauphin Island.
So we keep hearing about something called oil spill dispersant. What is that exactly and how does it work? We're going to turn right now to Riki Ott. She's a marine toxicologist, who is considered one of the leading experts on dispersants. She's joining us now on the phone from Denver.
So, Riki, we spoke with an environmentalist earlier who said dispersants, this is a medicine that is worse than the disease, worse than the oil spill. Do you see it that way?
RIKI OTT, MARINE TOXICOLOGIST (on the phone): Yes, because - what you're talking about -
WHITFIELD: OK. So Riki, we're going to try to re-establish that because clearly we cannot hear you and this is really important and we want to understand what dispersants are and why they're being used. We understand BP has made the decision to use the dispersants, but with the endorsement from the EPA reportedly.
We want to get some clarity on that and we want to hear if what some environmentalists say might be a danger, might imperil this area even further. We want to find out if that is true. We'll try to re- establish that contact with Riki Ott as soon as we can.
So another story that we are following today. The annual may day workers rally as they have turned into protests against Arizona's new immigration law. Thousands of people have come out in Los Angeles, Dallas, New York, Chicago, and other cities.
CNN's Susan Candiotti has been talking to demonstrators at the rally in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Here in New York's Union Square, a large turnout, a very noisy rally here on behalf of immigration rights. It is much different than it looked last year. This annual may day celebration because of bad weather in the last year and the outbreak of the swine flu, the turnout was not as large.
But the crowd here is galvanized by what happened in Arizona and passage of the immigration bill there. Here today you have a number of people from a number of different countries including the United States who are mainly in favor of trying to reform the immigration act here in the United States, recently passed in Arizona.
This is New York State Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. I wanted to ask you, you authored a resolution recently calling for what in Arizona?
ADAM CLAYTON POWELL IV, NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY: I introduced a resolution in New York city assembly and it will be introduced by one of my colleagues in the New York state senate calling for a boycott, urging New York State government and urging private interests as well to boycott anything that happens in Arizona.
We also wrote a letter yesterday morning to major league baseball urging them to do similar things and yesterday afternoon, major league baseball issued a letter saying they're going to look at this. They have denounced the law in Arizona and there really are looking for the welfare of their members, their players and their families.
CANDIOTTI: Do you think the protests have gotten out of hand? In other words, there is a revision done to the bill in Arizona, and they're now saying that you cannot just stop someone for no reason at all, there must be suspicion of a crime having taken place before you can stop someone.
POWELL: This is racial profiling at its worst. To actually require police to stop someone and ask for I.D., based upon reasonable suspicion, what is a true American? What does it look like? I see thousands of them right here. And, again if we go to Arizona, any one of us could get stopped and I.D. has to be brought in.
And to empower citizens to sue, to sue their local police departments because they're not - this is wrong. The fact this nation was built with immigrant labor, and we need immigration reform at the Congress level. It should be a federal issue. Not a state by state basis.
CANDIOTTI: Thanks for your views.
Obviously, there are people here who have all kinds of views. We want to talk here with an undocumented student. Thank you very much for joining us.
I'll move over here now. Your name is Cesar Mack and you are a college student here. You're in college. But you're undocumented.
CESAR MACK, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT: I am.
CANDIOTTI: Many people wonder how it is that you can go to school here when you don't have legal papers.
MACK: Well, it is possible. But we have to make numerous things in order to pay the tuition. We have to cover the tuition, we have to make it happen. My grandma has to send me money and my mother has to send me money. I have to sell food. I have to make it happen somehow.
CANDIOTTI: How can there be realistic immigration reform in the United States? What do you think should be done? Many people say to control the borders.
MACK: Well, I don't think that's the right step. I think what we should do is adopt a comprehensive immigration reform for all the people that are already here, especially the students, and the people who have been here for many years, and also cooperate with the government back in Latin America or back in the countries where these immigrants are coming from. Cooperation is the key here.
CANDIOTTI: And the question is whether that cooperation will ever come about.
Susan Candiotti, reporting for CNN, here in New York's Union Square.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: All right. Let's go to Los Angeles where the seemingly largest number of people have turned out on this May day, all thinking about some of the same things, Arizona, immigration law. That's where Ted Rowlands is. Ted?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Fredricka. We're hearing a lot of the same things as Susan just talked about in New York, happening here in Los Angeles. The numbers in Los Angeles are astounding. Organizers were hoping they would get about 100,000 people here, and they have achieved their goal, plus some.
The streets, all the way as far as you can see for blocks are completely packed with people. If it is a beautiful day here, that's part of the reason why people came out, but another part of the reason is what you mentioned, that is Arizona and you look at some of the signs here, talking about S.P. 1070.
It's a huge part of the theme going on here. Other themes that we're hearing are immigration reform, asking the Obama administration to come up with some sort of immigration reform and do it soon.
This young man has a sign here saying that his parents are illegal, he is a U.S. citizen, but his parents are illegal and he says he needs them here for himself to survive. So this young man has a story.
Every one of these people has some sort of story that is the immigration situation in this country has affected them. A lot of these people are undocumented. Others are here in support of those that are undocumented. And so far no problems according to Los Angeles Police.
A huge number of people, but everybody has been controlled thus far, a peaceful protest, a lot of families out here, a lot of young people, a lot of old people. And the organizers are hoping that just the sheer numbers here in Los Angeles and around the country will send some sort of message to politicians in Washington to get something done in terms of immigration. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Ted Rowlands, thanks so much. in Los Angeles, more than 100,000 people turning up on this May day in large part to protest that new immigration law in Arizona. Thanks so much.
All right. In the meantime, the other big story we continue to follow, that oil slick, 130 miles long, 70 miles wide, encroaching on the gulf coast. We're going to talk with a marine toxicologist, we tried a moment ago to talk to her and we're going to re-establish that connection to talk to her about these chemical dispersants that are being put in the gulf waters.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Some pretty nasty weather across the southeast in the form of tornadoes and flooding. Jacqui Jeras in the severe weather center. Jacqui?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Fredricka. Yes, we have had several reports of tornadoes recently and this has been one cell that is moving very near Mississippi, Alabama, and the Tennessee state lines all at one time.
Here you can see a tornado watch which is in effect from Tennessee, stretching down to Louisiana at this hour. And the main threat focused right here where those states converge. And this tornado has a history of producing some damage as it was moving across parts of Mississippi.
There are some homes that sustained some roof damage. That is all that we know about at this point. That was in the Ripley area. This is Colbert and Lauderdale counties that are under the tornado warning as we speak. And this is also producing an incredible amount of rainfall with it.
So it is possible that even if the tornado is approaching where you are that you may not see it because it is wrapped in rain as we call it. Also notice that line of thunderstorms out there, it has been producing as much as an inch of rain per hour.
We have numerous reports of flash flooding all across this green area now. And Memphis is one of the areas that has been hardest hit. They have between four and six inches of rain in a six-hour period this morning, early this afternoon, and another wave moving through there as we speak, just northeast of Memphis. We had reports up to 10 inches of rainfall.
So lots of stalled cars and lots of roads becoming impassable at this hour. On top of this, you can see an additional two to four inches in two areas that we're watching for that flooding, Mississippi, Alabama, then near the Mississippi River here in this area, stretching on up towards Paducah, Kentucky.
So a lot of concerns with this system. This is another high risk day, Fredricka. The first one we had this year was last Saturday. So here we go again on a Saturday. That high risk area includes Arkansas stretching on up towards the boot hill of Missouri.
WHITFIELD: Bad weather always seems to hit at weekend. Madness, isn't it? All right. Jacqui, appreciate it.
All right. Speaking of weekends, that means new releases of new movies. So what nightmarish bad guy is getting a makeover these days? We'll take a look at the new movies coming to a theater near you this weekend.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look now at our top stories. Crews are turning to chemicals and their latest bid to disperse the huge oil spill along the Gulf Coast. The chemicals are supposed to attach themselves to the oil, cause the oil to sink to the bottom of the gulf. President Obama plans to visit the Gulf region tomorrow to see for himself this oil slick.
And demonstrators take to the streets in several U.S. cities protesting Arizona's tough new immigration law. Immigrant rights activists are gathering in New York, Phoenix, Dallas, Los Angeles, and dozens of other cities amid fears the law might lead to racial profiling. Supporters of Arizona's law say it is needed and they add Washington has failed to protect America's borders.
And did you send back your census form? Well, if you haven't, you could be one of the millions of people that census workers are now coming to see. Door to door. The next phase of the count is beginning and more than 600,000 census takers will be going door to door in neighborhoods across America to get the numbers that they need.
All right. So we keep hearing about something called oil spill dispersant. You may wonder what that is exactly and how that is going to be used in this major oil spill. We're going to turn now and try this one more time to Riki Ott. She is a marine toxicologist, who is considered one of the leading experts on dispersants.
She joins us now on the phone from Denver. Let's hope our signal gets us through this conversation. So, Riki, explain why some people are a little concerned that this chemical dispersant will actually do more harm than good?
OTT: Chemical dispersants involve a trade-off. And the trade-off is keeping as much - away from hitting the beaches.
And what - sorry, I keep hearing other noises. So we're trying to keep the oil from hitting the beaches because once it hits the beaches, there is really the oil industry has no way to clean up oil once it hits the beaches.
WHITFIELD: So the idea is that this chemical will slow down the oil so it won't hit the beaches. But here is the other fear that some have described, and environmentalists I spoke with last hour said, OK, so this chemical attaches itself to the oil, the oil then sinks, but it gets down to the bottom of the gulf, so, say you have a hurricane, well, that's going to stir up the bottom, these big globs of oil will find its way into wildlife or on to the sea grasses, on to the shores. Do you believe that?
OTT: What is going on is with dispersants, in an oil spill, to dissolve oil, light dissolve light, so you have to use a toxic solvent. Oil is toxic. You have to use a chemical, an oil-based solvent to dissolve the oil. So it gets stirred up by wind and waves, it acts like Joy soap on the surface of the water where it makes the oil sheen divide out and split.
And it mixes with the water so you get tiny little oil droplets down in the water column. And these - the trade-off is that you're trying to save animals on shore by trading off animals and fish in the water column.
WHITFIELD: I see.
OTT: You're killing shrimp eggs. WHITFIELD: So then, why would - why would BP want to use this? Why would they reportedly get the endorsement from the EPA to actually use this and put these chemicals in the water today?
OTT: Because they're desperately trying to keep the oil from hitting land fall where it will make an even bigger mess. And the unfortunate truth is that the oil companies have developed chemical dispersants, they buy them from themselves, write off the expense of buying the dispersants as a tax write-off, and they have really effectively stopped their contingency plans if the contingency plans did not include use of dispersants, there would be no oil spill contingency plan.
Oil development would not be allowed to happen. The oil companies have just -- have not come up with really any effective tool. You're seeing what is going on with the booms. And the booms just stop slicks on the surface. Everywhere you see oil on the surface, there is a huge underwater cloud of oil.
WHITFIELD: So it is still getting through. So also in your view then, this chemical dispersants, something is going to be sacrificed in this oil spill, whether it is the livelihood on the shores, the marsh lands, or it is going to be the shrimp eggs, other wildlife, marine life living in the depths of the gulf. You cannot save both.
One will have to be - one body will have to be sacrificed in these measures of containing the oil?
OTT: Yes. And actually what we're talking about here, no dispersant is 100 percent effective. So all we're talking about is killing sea life in the ocean, and making less of a mess on the beaches. So you're actually losing both.
WHITFIELD: Wow.
OTT: And as far as - and what happened with Exxon Valdez is since the dispersants failed, there was a huge storm that came up and they were pretty much ineffective right off the bat.
WHITFIELD: You know, what is remarkable, I saw the some numbers in the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, only four, four percent of the oil was ever recovered, and if this is much larger, some say maybe five times larger than the oil spill of "Valdez," you have to wonder exactly what kind of percentage, how much oil could actually be contained at all in this case.
OTT: Yes. And that's - nothing has improved, believe me, since Exxon Valdez. We're still looking at those -
WHITFIELD: All right. Marine toxicologist, Riki Ott, thanks so much for bearing with us and thanks to you at home for bearing with us because of that audio, we know, was terrible but she had some incredible and very important information that we thought we would try to get on the air as best we can. We'll try to get a better connection next time. Thanks so much, Riki. All right. Even during the best of times, a job in the fishing industry is never easy. But with an oil spill of this scale now threatening the gulf, towns along the coast are clearly facing a grim future.
CNN's David Mattingly has the story from a seafood town.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bayou La Batre, Alabama, time has run out, boats that should be fishing are tied to shore. We found crews deploying the town's last line of defense, a floating yellow boom.
(on camera): At this point the job is actually pretty simple. This boom is anchored to this barrier island over here at my right. Now the barge just has to back out to deploy all of this boom material. But this is a massive, massive undertaking.
What you see here is just the beginning.
(voice-over): Hundreds of miles of boom will be deployed to protect oyster beds and fish spawning grounds. But these lines that are designed to stop oil also stop fishing boats.
(on camera): Does this mean the season is over as long as this boom is out here?
WAYNE ELDRIDGE, BOAT CAPTAIN: As the boom goes up, the boats won't have access to the fishing grounds. And so their season is over.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Signs are all over town.
STAN WRIGHT, OWNER, WRIGHT BRAND OYSTER: Here is where we process - we process, we cut the - the meat out of the shell.
MATTINGLY: This should be the peak of the oyster season, but when I went to Stan Wright's oyster processing business, I found out these are the last of the oysters.
WRIGHT: You're looking at probably the last product until this oil spill gets cleaned up (ph).
MATTINGLY (on camera): How long is that going to be?
WRIGHT: I don't know. It could be weeks, months, a year. I don't know. We don't know how much damage it's going cause the oyster business.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): But the end of business Saturday, Wright is shutting down, and he's worried he could be out of business permanently.
I hear the same thing from Raymond Barber (ph). His processing business ran out of crabs in the morning. When these crawfish are done, that's it. RAYMOND BARBER (ph), CRAB PROCESSING BUSINESSMAN: We're sunk. That's what we're saying. We're out - we're out of business. We're at the mercy of the tanks (ph).
MATTINGLY: The oil spill could do more damage to Bayou la Batre than any hurricane. The town's seafood economy runs on catch from Louisiana waters, now fouled by oil.
MATTINGLY (on camera): And you're the mayor of Bayou la Batre.
WRIGHT: That's correct.
MATTINGLY: What's going to happen to this town?
WRIGHT: Our - our income is going to be nothing.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): There aren't many economic options. Workers here get paid by the pound. Most seafood workers are immigrants from Southeast Asia.
VINXAYSANA WESSON, SEAFOOD WORKER: Everyone's a little scared, but they don't know exactly how it's going to turn out yet so they're not making plans yet. But this town is a seafood town, and if you take that away from them, it wouldn't be a town anymore.
MATTINGLY (on camera): And right now so many unanswered questions about how bad this spill is going to be, everyone here hoping to avoid that worst case scenario that would shut down these delicate fisheries for over a decade.
David Mattingly, CNN, Bayou la Batrie, Alabama.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, we're going to take a break and take you to the movies.
What nightmarish bad guy is getting a makeover? Take a guess. Does he look familiar?
A look at the movies when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A popular nocturnal villain returns to the big screen, a real estate developer's plans are unpopular with the locals, and Michael Caine gives vigilant justice a new name.
So, we're talking about movies, of course, and we're checking out the new movie releases with our regular film critic and "Turner Classic Movies" host, Ben Mankiewicz, coming to us from Los Angeles. Good to see you.
BEN MANKIEWICZ, FILM CRITIC: You too, Fred.
WHITFIELD: OK, let's talk first about this "Nightmare on Elm Street". Let's take a look. It is not the one, or it's not the Freddy Krueger that you remember.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Krueger! Come on out, you sick bastard. You open this door, Krueger.
FREDDY KRUEGER: What do you think I did? I didn't do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm having these dreams, and there's this man -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: OK, did I get that right? Freddy Krueger, right? "Nightmare on Elm Street"?
MANKIEWICZ: No, you got that right, and you saw there - you saw there the scene where he gets burned. That's Jackie Earle Haley, the wonderful actor, originally from "Bad News Bears".
I always knew someone from "Bad New" -
WHITFIELD: Oh, wow. Oh, yes.
MANKIEWICZ: -- somebody from "Bad News Bears" would ultimately play Freddy Krueger.
You know, this is interesting, because, as you can see there - and this is directed by a - by a guy named Steven (ph) Bayer and, you know, not at all like - similar in some ways to Wes Craven's 1984 original.
But, you know, this is interesting because in this case, and there's something sort of serious about this, but you - you saw some of the imagery there. And this is a nice looking film in some ways, very typical horror movie, some of the same thrills that you expect.
There's some great dream sequences. This, of course, is about a - a sort of guy who comes back and haunts teenagers in their dreams. If they're killed in the dream, they're killed in real life.
But, in this case, unlike in the original, Freddy Krueger is a child molester. He has committed acts of child sexual abuse, and he comes back to haunt his former victims who don't remember the abuse.
So to have sort of that awfulness cloaked in the sort of the campy fun of a horror movie where you're supposed to shriek and laugh simultaneously -
WHITFIELD: Oh, no.
MANKIEWICZ: -- in the end, I found that sort of wildly inappropriate, awkward, and at the end, incredibly -
WHITFIELD: Eww!
MANKIEWICZ: Yes. I found it really off putting, and "Eww!" is exactly right.
WHITFIELD: Oh, no. I would not be seeing this. These clips are scaring me. Forget it.
MANKIEWICZ: Yes. And so -
WHITFIELD: I don't care what you're rating it. I'm not seeing this one.
MANKIEWICZ: Well - well, in the end, I'm giving it an "F" and that because -
WHIFIELD: An "F".
MANKIEWICZ: -- because I thought it was incredibly inappropriate to sort of connect that stuff to campy horror movie fun.
Now, in their - in their defense, real quick, I just want to say, I am certain the filmmakers didn't intend that at all. They were just trying to make Freddy Krueger as - as sort of an unappealing character as possible. But I just think it - it didn't work in the end, and I found it a little distasteful.
WHITFIELD: Oh, OK.
Well, you know, they're going to - they're still going to do well because people love frightening, scary movies, and that's part of the thrill of it all. And, you know, I wouldn't be among them, but, hey, that's just me.
All right, meantime -
MANKIEWICZ: I didn't think you'd see it.
WHITFIELD: Yes. Not my kind of flick.
All right. Meantime, you know, they say never share a camera with animals or kids, but Brendan Fraser is going to do that, and Brooke Shields, right, in "Furry Vengeance". Let's take a look.
MANKIEWICZ: Yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pick it up! (INAUDIBLE). Three, two, one!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Oh, no. Oh, that's silly stuff. Did you like it?
MANKIEWICZ: No.
WHITFIELD: I didn't think you would.
MANKIEWICZ: You know, but there's a lot wrong with this movie. There's not one funny thing on it. On the website Rotten Tomatoes, one critic out of 44 has liked it. It's 2 percent, so I am certainly not alone and I'm curious who that one critic is.
It is not funny from start to finish. There's an - there's an environmental subplot that doesn't work.
I saw it with a bunch of kids when it opened yesterday and they weren't even laughing. It's like a - it's like a 3:00 A.M. comedy show in Vegas, at a casino that's going to be torn down in 10 days, and the kids - except the kids weren't drunk.
It was - it was painful. You're going to feel bad for - you're going to feel bad for Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock, and then you're going to get angry at them and you're going to want to take out some vengeance on the people who took your $13.50 -
WHITFIELD: Oh, you mean Brooke Shields, not Sandra Bullock.
Hey, OK, but real quick because we're running out of time -
MANKIEWICZ: Oh, did I -
WHITFIELD: It's OK. You know, everyone's thinking about Sandra Bullock these days.
MANKIEWICZ: Oh you know what I did - did I - that's funny, because I said Brooke - I meant to say Brooke Shields. Of course, I gave it a D minus.
I also got the name of the guy who directed "Nightmare on Elm Street" wrong. It's Samuel Bayer. So that gets a D minus (INAUDIBLE).
WHITFIELD: OK.
All right, real quick. So "Harry Brown", Michael Caine. We don't have a whole lot of time so we're not going to watch the clip, so instead you're going to have to tell us about it really quickly and let us know what you think.
MANKIEWICZ: Very quickly, it's like a combination of Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson.
He - he's angry, he's retired, he's a former British Marine and he wants to sort of - when his best friend is murdered, he starts exacting revenge. It's OK a little bit when he's surprised that he can still remember to do it, but it just sort of degenerates into a very sort of traditional revenge movie.
It's very, very dark. It's very bleak. The characters, the drug dealers are all very stock characters. But Michael --
WHITFIELD: I'm not hearing a high grade here.
MANKIEWICZ: But Michael Caine, one of the great actors of his generation, he elevates it. But it's a very average movie and I gave it a "C".
WHITFIELD: Oh, OK. We'll, it's better than the "D" and the "F", right?
MANKIEWICZ: Yes. It's definitely the best movie of the weekend. And Sandra Bullock is not in this movie either.
WHITFIELD: OK. Lucky her, I guess, right? Or maybe unlucky for the moviemakers there.
MANKIEWICZ: Yes.
WHITFIELD: All right. So you are going to be back because we're going to talk about at least one DVD that folks can purchase or, you know, want to add to their collection this coming -
MANKIEWICZ: The DVDs - the DVDs are better.
WHITFIELD: Oh. We'll be right back.
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WHITFIELD: All right, we're back with movies, this time DVD releases this week.
Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin prove that whether it's love, marriage or divorce, it's so complicated.
We brought back our Ben Mankiewicz, host of "Turner Classic Movies" and our regular critic now here on the weekends as well, we're glad to say.
So did you like this one? I loved this movie at the theater. Is this one that I want to have?
MANKIEWICZ: Yes, I don't know if you want to have it -
WHITFIELD: It's so funny.
MANKIEWICZ: I don't know if you - if you need to own it, but you can certainly rent it.
WHITFIELD: Oh, OK.
MANKIEWICZ: It's - you know, I thought - I'm a huge Alec Baldwin fan, and, obviously, you have to be - if you love movies, you're a big Meryl Streep fan. And I think they're great together and I think the strength of this movie is the scenes between Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep.
They're a divorced couple who rekindles their romance long after they're divorced, and Steve Martin is the third player in this love triangle. I think, again, the strength is Streep and Baldwin together in this Nancy Meyers film. I think it suffers when they're not in the scenes together.
John Krasinski's good, Steve Martin's OK, and the rest of the cast brings it down a little bit.
But I like it. I gave it a B minus, and I think it's certainly worth seeing and - and these are two sort of actors still very much in their prime, Baldwin and Streep, and that makes it worth seeing.
WHITFIELD: Yes, very funny. And, you know, I guess it really did kind of highlight some of the - I guess some new up and coming stars. That one young man we just saw - I can't believe I don't even know his name - but is he not in "The Office"?
MANKIEWICZ: Yes, John Krasinski, from "The Office". He is almost always consistently funny, and he's good in this as - as I think the husband of one of Streep's kids, one of Streep and Baldwin's kids.
And he's - he's funny. He's always funny.
WHITFIELD: Cute stuff.
All right, Ben Mankiewicz, thanks so much. Usually we have more to share, but we've had a lot of news going on, so I'm glad we got, you know, a lit bit of your time today. Appreciate it.
MANKIEWICZ: Sure.
Well, "Tombstone" and "Traffic" are out on Blu-Ray. They're both great. Get them,
WHITFIELD: OK. Cool. For that endorsement. Appreciate it.
MANKIEWICZ: OK.
WHITFIELD: Have a great weekend, what's left of it.
MANKIEWICZ: You too. Thanks.
WHITFIELD: OK, so many of you are taking advantage of warmer weather and you want to get out and you exercise, right? So most of you know that you're supposed to stretch before you work out, but do you stretch your feet when you stretch all of the other parts of your body?
If not, you could get some of these things on the list right here, from tendonitis all the way down to a stress fracture.
So that's why our Dr. Bill Lloyd is here, joining us from Sacramento, to talk about how to keep your feet happy. What - what is that? Oh, like the little rubber band kind of thing for stretching.
DR. BILL LLOYD, SURGEON, PATHOLOGIST: You're right Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: So we should be using that on our feet too as we stretch?
LLOYD: If you ever get out of bed in the morning, your feet hurt right away, you may have a condition called plantar fasciitis, and using an elastic band like this is a great way to stretch the feet and to get rid of the pain. Because if your feet hurt, you're not going to exercise. You're not going to do your daily workouts.
I got a few other quick tips about how to keep your feet happy so that you can continue to exercise.
Be sure you choose proper footwear that fits properly. Make sure there's good cushioning. A lot of shoes that you buy in the stores have cardboard for a cushion liner. Go out and get yourself a good liner for it.
As you mentioned, be sure you stretch before you work out, but also stretch at the end of your workouts as well.
Always be careful when you trim your nails. You got to trim them straight. Don't go with the curve. Keep them straight.
And finally, if something's not right with your foot, Fredricka, get help. If it doesn't respond to normal pain medications or ice, go get the help you need. Get that foot better so you can get back out on the street, whether you're walking, jogging or running.
WHITFIELD: So you - you mentioned having the right footwear. You know, folks want to, you know, reach for something that just simply looks cute because they want to start exercising again but you need to go for something that's comfortable, something that, you know, gives room for your toes and all that while you're exercising.
But what about the shoes that have kind of arch in them that are encouraging, you know, greater weight loss, they work out your legs, your feet better, and should you gravitate towards something like that?
LLOYD: I've got a pair of them right here.
WHITFIELD: Oh, look there. You have them.
LLOYD: I've tried - I've tried them on. They make you feel wobbly when you put them on.
They're very popular. They're selling millions of these rocker bottom shoes and they work by creating instability. And when you put them on, your body's not used to them, and so it activates other muscles to help maintain your balance.
Now, these muscles are in your legs and in your belly, they're in your butt, and they're meant to tighten those muscles -
WHITFIELD: Secret.
LLOYD: -- and in theory strengthen your body and strengthen your core.
But, you know, the data doesn't show it yet. There's no long-term studies that show that wearing these convex shoes are going to yield those results, or what happens, will the results persist once your body gets used to the effect of these shoes, make you feel unstable.
WHITFIELD: Interesting.
Of course, you know, with summer means people want to go barefoot too. You got any, I don't know, pros or cons with going barefoot, whether it's exercise or whether it's just, you know, walking in the grass, all that good stuff?
LLOYD: Barefoot is fine. The only thing you have to be careful about, of course, is stepping on something and the risk of infections.
Bare feet, barefoot activities are actually better for you than wearing flip-flops. So choose carefully where you walk around barefoot. Otherwise, make sure you're wearing the right shoes.
And one real quick point, Fredricka, about these rocker bottom shoes, you're only supposed to wear them for walking, not for regular exercise.
WHITFIELD: Oh, no running involved in those. OK. Just walking and taking it easy.
Heel, toe, right? Heel, toe.
LLOYD: Heel, toe.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Bill Lloyd, thanks so much for those exercising tips as we all try to get fit this spring to get ready for the summer.
LLOYD: We'll talk again soon.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
All right, coming up, a look at one of the biggest stories of the day, the annual May Day workers rallies have turned into protests against Arizona's new immigration law.
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WHITFIELD: All right, let's take another look at the big event today. One of them, activists have been holding a series of rallies across the country today to protest Arizona's new immigration law.
Well, this is what it looked like in Dallas today, where tens of thousands of people joined in a march to city hall. There was a small counterdemonstration as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop the racism. Stop the racism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A crowd estimated at more than 5,000 people turned out for a rally in New York City.
And then there was Los Angeles, where tens of thousands of people joined a rally. Among them, our Roman Catholic Cardinal Rodney Mahoney and singer Gloria Estefan.
And the Arizona law requires police to question people they suspect of being in America illegally. Critics say it will lead to racial profiling of Hispanics.
So go into a big city in Arizona and you're likely to see plenty of opposition to that immigration law. But go outside the city limits, especially along the routes used by smugglers, and you'll find strong support for a crackdown.
Here is CNN's Casey Wian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a normal citizen, what do we do? What do we do besides sitting here, you know, worrying and wondering and frustrated?
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a town hall meeting with U.S. Senator John McCain and local police chiefs, one resident addressed the violence from smugglers of illegal immigrants and drugs by proposing a violent solution of his own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot, shovel and shut up.
These people are herded up like cows and horses and driven across the border. They know what they're doing, and they know where they're going. They pay good money to do it.
Why don't we make a few examples and maybe the rest of them will get the idea that, hey, them son of bitches shoot back.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I understand your passion, but that -- that's not, I think, frankly, in the tradition of -- of America.
WIAN: Casa Grande is the largest city in Pinal County, Arizona. It's more than 100 miles from the Mexican border. Yet, the sheriff here estimates 80 percent of the illegal immigrants who enter the United States in Arizona pass through Pinal County.
In one month, sheriff's deputies were involved in 64 high-speed pursuits with suspected smugglers of illegal immigrants or drugs.
SHERIFF PAUL BABEU, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA: We've seen the tactics change just over the last couple of months here and it's become increasingly dangerous.
WIAN: Sheriff Paul Babeu has become the voice of the county's exasperated residents. At the state capital --
BABEU: Everybody across America is watching Arizona right now, and we live in this, and the violence is off the chart.
WIAN: At the nation's capital --
BABEU: So I wouldn't dare speak for - for anybody else, but most of us in law enforcement seek (ph) - welcome this legislation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
BABEU: I am going to stay.
WIAN: And at the local VFW hall, where he's treated like a celebrity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I liked you when I first saw you, and I even like you more now.
WIAN: Babeu and others here say Arizona's new law is the natural reaction to what they consider the federal government's failure to secure the nation's borders and solve its illegal immigration crisis.
WIAN (on camera): Babeu says he is not focused on the politics of illegal immigration. His main concern is the safety of the county's residents and of his deputies. That safety is being compromised every day by smugglers.
Casey Wian, CNN, Casa Grande, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. So much more, straight ahead in THE NEWSROOM.
Why does a well known TV judge want to go to jail? Don Lemon has that and much more in the next hour of THE NEWSROOM.
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