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Sex, Blackmail Allegations Hit Church; Colorado Hit By Snow; First Responders Stranded In Texas; The Fall of Jennifer Lawrence; Inside Hollywood's Biggest Night; Four Days Until Forced Spending Cuts

Aired February 25, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Blackmail sex scandal. Allegations involving the catholic church swirl as the pope gets ready to leave.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

Fresh off maternity leave, Yahoo!'s new CEO tells employees work from the office or quit. We'll discuss.

Plus, Nascar back in the spotlight, as Danica Patrick sizzles and 50 Cent strikes a chord about race in racing.

And, never a dull moment when Piers Morgan schmoozes with celeb.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": Now give me a big loser face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Piers will join me live on Seth MacFarlane, the Oscar parties, and what surprised him the most.

Hi, everyone. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Good to be back in the chair. Good to see you here on this Monday.

Let's begin with the Vatican. The Vatican is in damage control. Accusations of sex, money, and cover-ups at the highest level of the church, just three days before Pope Benedict XVI steps down. Two Italian papers say the reason he's leaving has nothing to do with his health and much more so to do with this explosive 300 page report. Among the allegations here, secrets about a network of gay priests blackmailed by a group of male prostitutes. But, the Vatican says the contents of this report will, as they say, remain for the pope's eyes only.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEDERICO LOMBARDI, VATICAN SPOKESMAN: The holy father has decided that the acts of this investigation, known only to himself, remain solely at the disposition of the new pope.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: And as you can imagine, the fallout is going global. Today, one of the U.K.'s highest ranking catholic leaders resigned as he's dogged by accusations of sexual abuse. I want to go straight to Christiane Amanpour, CNN chief international correspondent for me, live tonight in Rome.

And, Christiane, tell me, what exactly is Cardinal Keith O'Brien accused of and what does his resignation thus mean for the vote for the next pope?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Brooke, here we are standing in front of St. Peter's. Right there, the heart of the Vatican. And as you say, they are in damage control and they really did not expect that the last few days of the pope's reign were going to be swirling around these kinds of scandals and allegations.

So, today, the pope accepted the resignation of the Scottish cardinal, Keith O'Brien. That is because of these allegations. Because of all these sexual allegations that have now been leveled against him and publicized by "The Observer" newspaper in England.

Now, it has to be said that O'Brien has denied that. He denies that this ever happened. And he seems to be taking some legal counsel. But what he has said is that he is not coming here for the election of the next pope, for the conclave. In a statement he said that he did not want the spotlight to be on himself, but to be on the pope.

So, what does it mean? It means that there will be one less cardinal actually here in the electoral roles, whenever that takes place, because today the pope said that, yes, the cardinals could move up the date of the conclave, but he didn't say when it could happen. And, again, they're leaving that to the day after the pope leaves. So we won't know about when that conclave could be held, at least until Friday.

BALDWIN: And then, Christiane, speaking of the conclave, we've reported on Los Angeles Archbishop Cardinal Mahoney. He plotted to hide child molestation by priests. He gets one of the votes in the conclave. And as we've mentioned, not that the Vatican really is in damage control, how might that change?

AMANPOUR: Well, this is another very controversial case. You know there's a big petition by Catholics in the United States to get Cardinal Mahoney to stay home. He has been publicly rebuked by Cardinal Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles. Nonetheless, he is still called a priest in good standing. This might sound unbelievable to some of the victims who he's accused of having shielded and covered up the abuse that was perpetrated on them.

Now, what's interesting is that here at the Vatican, they are now shifting any responsibility for coming or not to the cardinal himself. Before, when there was similar allegations and similar crisis, the last time I reported on one of these, which was back in 2005, it was swirling around Cardinal Law (ph) of Boston. And then the Vatican said, no, he has a duty and a right to be here. Now they're almost sort of washing their hands and saying, it's up to the cardinal himself. But he is likely to come.

BALDWIN: The world is watching the Vatican over the course of the next couple of weeks. Christiane Amanpour, thank you very much.

And as Christiane reported, in one of his final acts as pope, Benedict has now changed the rule. So he has moved up this start date to elect his successor in order to have a new pope in place before the start of holy week on March 24th.

A new barrage of winter weather is barreling into the nation's midsection today as the second blizzard in a week slams the region. Look at this. Blizzard conditions have closed highways. In northwestern Oklahoma and in Kansas, drivers are being warned to stay off the roads. To the west we go. Denver. Check it out. They're digging out after more than nine inches fell yesterday. Hundreds of flights there were canceled. Today, they are beginning to get back to business. And that's where we go to Jim Spellman. He is with me in Denver.

And, Jim, talk to me about the aftermath, the calm after the storm.

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yesterday was like the storm that would not end, Brooke. Just hour after hour, all day, it rained down. About nine inches here in Denver. But the plows were out all night. We watched them working here on the interstates. And you can see the interstate is moving with no problem. That's the case with all the main arteries around here. But we did spend some time in the neighborhoods and that nine inches was a heavy wet nine inches. The people that we spoke to said it's been a tough time digging out. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPELLMAN: Have you dug out already?

LANA HOFMAN, DENVER RESIDENT: Yes, I have.

SPELLMAN: What was it like?

HOFMAN: It was heavy. A lot heavier than I had anticipated.

RUDY ROMERO, SNOW PLOWER: Because most of it's slush, and that's the pain in the butt. It's like 10 pounds. It's heavier than the fluffy stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SPELLMAN: Usually here, Brooke, in Denver, we get that nice powdery snow that's so good for skiing. This wet snow is good for snowballs, but it makes for a really difficult time digging out and clearing out.

BALDWIN: I'm wondering about -- oh, there you go. You chucked it. I was wondering -- feeling bad for your cameraman as I was thinking you were going to be throwing that his way. Jim Spellman, thank you very much here.

SPELLMAN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And it's really sort of the same situation in Texas, where the National Guard is being called in to help stranded drivers. Listen to the wind. In Amarillo, there is more than a foot of snow on the ground. The wind gusting up to 52 miles per hour. First responders are among those stranded.

I want to go straight to John Harris, one of our reporters at our affiliate KAMR. And Chad Myers, let me bring you in as well.

But, John, let me begin with you. First responders stranded. How many people are we talking about?

JOHN HARRIS, KAMR-TV REPORTER (via telephone): Right now, I tell you what, it's too early to really tell. We basically are in a blizzard situation at this point in time. Visibilities are down to less than a quarter of a mile in many areas of Amarillo itself. And the blizzard conditions will continue on, at least for the next couple of hours. Then we'll start to see the snow taper to flurries and the wind slowly starts to subside. But it is a -- I would call it a wintry mess of epic proportions for this part of the world.

BALDWIN: So, John is saying it's epic at the moment in Amarillo. I mean the wind, really, it sounds like, that tells a huge part of the story.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Brooke, something happened with this storm that I'm not sure that I've ever heard in my time broadcasting or forecasting.

BALDWIN: Wow.

MYERS: They took the snowplows off the road because it was too dangerous for the plows. That's something I've --

BALDWIN: That's not a good sign. That's not a good sign.

MYERS: That's just unheard of. That is -- what do you know about that, John?

HARRIS: Well, that's exactly right. It's basically a point where the wind and the snow is blowing around so much, and that we're seeing so many drifts on our two major highways, Interstate 40 and Interstate 27, that the snowplows cannot keep up with it, so they are basically closing all of the highways around the Texas panhandle and saying, look, if you go out on the roads, you're doing it at your own risk because the odds of somebody coming to help you, if you get stranded, are very slim at this point in time. And so at this point in time, yes, the snowplows are having a hard time keeping up with the amount of snow coming down, and the wind that's creating the drifting across the highways in this area.

BALDWIN: So then here's my question. If we don't even know how many people are stuck, the fact is they're stuck. And if the snowplows can't even get out there, how long will conditions persist like this for them to be stuck?

MYERS: You know we had wind gusts, 70 miles per hour. And you have like areas of the ground that have three to four inches of snow but then drifts that are five feet high. And just this blows across these hedge rows, blows across the plains. This is the high plains. I mean there's not only -- there's not mountains. Not a lot of trees. This is wide open space.

BALDWIN: Yes.

MYERS: And you can see for miles when the wind stops, but you can't see for feet at this point in time. And there's 17, 18 inches of snow in some parts and blowing around like crazy.

BALDWIN: John Harris, KAMR, affiliate reporter.

John, thank you.

And thank you.

MYERS: Sure.

BALDWIN: What a frightening --

HARRIS: Yes.

BALDWIN: Frightening for the folks who are stuck.

Now this.

Jodi Arias is back on the stand in Phoenix, Arizona, today. This is the tenth day here. You know the story. She's the woman who's charged with murdering her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, back in June of '08. She stabbed him 29 times and shot him in the forehead. Arias says it was self-defense. That he attacked her. Today, the prosecution had a chance to grill her for a second day, asking her why she lied to detectives about killing him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUAN MARTINEZ, PROSECUTOR: You were thinking more of yourself when you made the statement to this detective, right?

JODI ARIAS, DEFENDANT: I'm not sure about that.

MARTINEZ: Well, other than you, who would be sure about your statement?

ARIAS: God.

MARTINEZ: Well, God's not here. We can't subpoena him, right?

ARIAS: I don't think so.

MARTINEZ: You don't think so. Are you sure that we can't? Because it seems like you're leaving the door open for that. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection, relevance, your honor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wow. If she is convicted, Jodi Arias faces the death penalty.

And now to some of the hottest stories for you in a flash. "Rapid Fire." Roll it.

First up here, a cranky child tugging at his or her ears, every parent thinks ear infection, right? And that means a trip to the doctor for antibiotics. But new guidelines for pediatricians say, not so fast. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises quote/unquote, "watchful waiting" first to see if the earache clears up on its own. Overuse of antibiotics can lead to drug resistant superbugs that are more difficult to cure.

And you like to go to IKEA. Bad news for you. There's some horse meat in the Swedish meatballs. But before you panic, you love the meatballs, it has not been found in the United States. "The New York Times" says the store is pulling its sale of meatballs in 14 European countries. Authorities in the Czech Republic were the ones who found it in the first place. This is part of a larger crisis in Europe right now over the discovery of horse meat in beef products.

And, it has been one month to the day and still no sign of these two American cyclists who disappeared in Peru. Jamie Neal and Garrett Hand left for a biking trip in South America back in December. They had been documenting their trip on FaceBook. But Jamie's twin sister says the posts suddenly stopped.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACY FINGERS, SISTER MISSING IN PERU: I haven't seen a video of her since January 25th. So, to me, anything could have happened since then, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The U.S. State Department is now helping in that search.

And, spoiler alert, spoiler alert, Robin, the boy wonder, will die in a comic book that's going to be published this Wednesday. In issue number eight of Batman Incorporated, Robin is Bruce Wayne's 10- year-old illegitimate son. His real name, Damian Wayne. He dies fighting an enemy who also happens to be his brother cloned from his DNA. Sadly, Batman arrives too late to save him.

It is now officially the day after Hollywood's biggest night. And Piers Morgan, of course he was, in the thick of things on the red carpet. Who wore what? Who had the best after party? All your questions answered as Piers will join me next from Los Angeles. Don't miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: The envelopes are opened, the parties are over, and the great takeaway from the Oscars last night, no matter how perfect the stars may look, they too are human.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Jennifer Lawrence, stunning Jennifer Lawrence, this pinnacle moment of her career, we should see it thus far, tripped as she was walking up the stage to receive her best actress award. After wards, talking to reporters, she showed she's not only a great actress, but also a good sport. Here she was.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fall on the way up to the stage was that on purpose?

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, BEST ACTRESS OSCAR WINNER: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened?

LAWRENCE: What do you mean what happened? Look at my dress. I tried to walk up stairs in this dress. That's what happened. I don't actually - yes. I think I just stepped on the fabric and they waxed the stairs. What went through my mind when I fell down? A bad word that I can't say that starts with f.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people helped you? What was the process today to get to the big moment?

LAWRENCE: The process today was so stressful. I felt like Steve Martin in "Father of the Bride," watching my house, just like be torn apart and my whole family was getting ready and it was -- I mean, my friends stopped by. It was kind of fun, but mostly chaotic. Yes.

What was the process? I don't know. I just woke up and tried on the dress and it fit, thank God, and then I took a shower and I don't know what I was -- that's what I did. And then I got my hair and makeup done.

Then I came to the Oscars.

(LAUGHTER)

I'm sorry. I did a shot before I -- sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 22 years old, you've got your first Oscar, and you've already had two nominations. It's awfully young to have so much success so far. Do you feel that this is -- is it a good thing it is coming so early in the career?

LAWRENCE: I hope so. Yes. I mean, I -- who knows? I guess we'll see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't worry about being -- peaking too soon? LAWRENCE: Well, now I am. God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What do you say to that? Kudos for her. Facial expressions are priceless.

On the phone with me now the man who is in the thick of the Oscar glamour, my friend Piers Morgan.

Piers, nice to have you calling in. I'm sure you didn't get a whole lot of shut eye after your big schmoozing at the "Vanity Fair" party. We have some clips but I just want you to give me the (INAUDIBLE) up front. What was the highlight of the after party?

PIERS MORGAN, HOST "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": You know what I liked about "Vanity Fair," but apart from the fact that everybody goes, so every star who has won or the nominees and the legends, they go down to this incredible party.

What I like is a very kind of old-fashioned glamour, respect thing that goes on. So when Ben Affleck walked in, for example, clutching his Oscar, everyone stood up and applauded. And the same with Shirley Bassey when she came in after her great performance yesterday.

I think the general view of the Oscars themselves is going to - getting it from the room of all these people I thought (ph) but (ph) actually was pretty good. They thought -- I've seen the ratings, they're pretty up from last year.

It is a little bit more contemporary. I, for one, loved the performances by Barbra Streisand and Shirley Bassey and Adele and others. I thought the split of movies right across the board made it really quite interesting and you weren't quite sure who was going to win what until the end.

So, I think overall, as far as getting a - so there is a love them or hate them reaction, I think overall the Oscars went down pretty well.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you about - so we just showed the clip of Jennifer Lawrence in her semi-graceful fall up the stairs.

You talked to a number of these starlets that are watching the pre-awards show stuff with you, and you were asking them for their best loser face.

MORGAN: Yes.

BALDWIN: Here the clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: What are you going to do if you lose? Give me your loser face? LAWRENCE: No. I'm just going to go, what? Or you're not going to hear it I'm just going to walk towards the stage.

MORGAN: The last time I saw you, you were trying to mimic my English accent. Do you remember? Can you still do it? Try to speak like me.

QUVENZHANE WALLIS, OSCAR NOMINEE: Hello, governor.

MORGAN: Hello, governor. What kind of accent is that?

WALLIS: Yours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Piers, you were asking people who were they most looking forward to seeing. Who were you most looking forward to see?

MORGAN: I actually really wanted to see Jack Nicholson. In fact there's a fantastic clip where he meets George Stephanopoulos from ABC, being interviewed and in the middle of it, Jack Nicholson who had never met Jennifer Lawrence, he comes up and interrupts the interview to tell you how wonderful you are and she completely freaks out. So, you haven't seen that, it is a really moving moment because even for someone like her, who actually when I asked her who she most wanted to meet, unbelievably said Al Roker from "The Today" show, the weather guy, which I had to really have a second take on.

But the moment when she meets her hero to me it kind of summed up what the Oscars is really about. However big of a star you are, however hot you are, there is Jennifer Lawrence completely freaking over meeting Jack Nicholson. So, that is a great moment to watch.

I think that she is really, I think, something quite special. All the actors last night at "Vanity Fair" were talking about not only what a great actress she is really talented, but secondly how well she conducts herself with all the media, and the very funny press conference there.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: She's a really big, big star in the making. What about, you mentioned, Seth MacFarlane. Everyone is sort of buzzing over him I remember. Who did you talk to? Was it his father and sister?

MORGAN: His father and sister, yes.

BALDWIN: Obviously when you have this kind of role, you have to push the envelope a bit. People saying, went a little too far. What are you hearing in Hollywood?

MORGAN: Well, I think the general view is whether you like Seth MacFarlane and like what he does. If you're big into "Family Guy" and love "Ted," his movie and so on, you know the risque humor you'll get with him. It is a bit like Ricky Gervais at the Globes. I think that the more Seth does this, the more people who perhaps aren't used to him would find him funny. For me, I found it very, very entertaining. I also love the sort of faux outrage that came about his slightly inappropriate jokes. He's not the guy who created "Glee." he created "Family Guy." of course he's going to be inappropriate. And some of it was a bit wincing and some of it was a bit awkward, but I like all that.

What I like generally about the feel of the whole thing was that although it is being hammered by some critics, others really liked it. I think that's an indication that the Oscars took a bit of a move this year to try to move away from the sort of overcozy, overstuffy feel that it had for a few years and like that.

BALDWIN: Piers Morgan, you had a pretty great gig yesterday.

MORGAN: I did. Very lucky.

BALDWIN: It was fun to watch. Piers, thank you and we'll watch tonight.

Of course tonight we're showing all the highlights, Hollywood's biggest night, PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Thank you, my friend.

Coming up next, they are spending cuts so severe, the president and some lawmakers are painting a doomsday scenario and it all happens in four days. Get this, one Republican governor not only ripping the president's leadership here, but his own party's. I'll speak with him live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Once again, deadline pressure is weighing on Capitol Hill. In four days, $85 billion worth of forced spending cuts are set to begin, cuts so severe, they would actually slow the growth of the economy.

Let me just be straight with you. They will not discriminate hitting public housing, education, military, much more. Here are just a couple of ways you can be impacted. Showing the long lines at the airports, airport delays, longer security lines from the furlough of air traffic controllers and TSA workers. Next, national parks. They may close, may have to shrink their hours because of this. And beef and chicken prices could go up or there could be a shortage because of a lack of food inspectors.

Now, these cuts weren't supposed to happen. They were the absurd last resort to force Congress to do something else. Now, some state Republican leaders aren't just going after President Obama for thinking up these automatic cuts, they're blasting their own party leaders for not doing enough to stop the cuts right now.

Joining me now is one of the leaders here, Utah Republican governor, Gary Herbert. Governor, welcome to you. I just...

GOV. GARY HERBERT (R), UTAH: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Want to run through a couple of items that the White House has pointed out as they released how this would affect all 50 states. This is what they're saying your state would be affected. For example, $6.2 million would be cut from elementary and high school education funding. 400 children will be eliminated from head start programs. And this seems to be, to me at least, reading through the biggest hit your state 15,000 civilian workers at the Department of Defense would be furloughed.

So, you know, you read all of this, from the White House perspective, and it almost seems like the sky is falling. My question to you is, is the situation as dire as the administration is making it out to be?

HERBERT: Well, from what you've just told me, the sky is falling mentality permeates I think some of the efforts here in Washington, D.C. I think that is hyperbole. I think it is exaggeration. And downright on the offensive side of the line. We're not going to have those kind of critical issues happen in Utah.

Why is it in Washington we think we're going to cut some dollars, that somehow efficiencies are not going to be realized? In most of the states we had to cut our budgets, live within our means and we're getting better outcomes than we had before. We're finding ways to do more with less. Bigger bang with less bucks. Why can't they figure that out here in Washington?

BALDWIN: Governor, you are a state wide elected official. You look at the states here. It's one of the reddest states in the country and you're not only on the record criticizing the president, you're criticizing members of your own party. Is this moment a reality check for the Republican party?

HERBERT: I think there is frustration for all governors. Democrat and Republican of a lack of leadership of getting things done. We have to go back to our states and get things done. Why do we not get things done in Washington? We constantly kick things down the road. We have a Senate that hasn't had a budget in four years. Again, I think the president has an opportunity, in fact, to be the honest broker here and bring people together from both parties.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: What about speaker Boehner?

HERBERT: Speaker Boehner put proposals on the table. He had two of them. They passed in the Congress, which have not even been taken up in the Senate. At least I think he's trying. Again, the fact that we're not getting outcomes, not getting results, I have to own that as a governor. If I don't get results in my state, I'm criticized.

We're not getting results here in Washington, D.C. I think that's because of lack of leadership and there is blame to go around for everybody.

BALDWIN: Governor Gary Herbert, State of Utah, thank you, sir.

We'll be watching to see what happens by midnight Friday. Stay with us.

THE SITUATION ROOM shows you how the four spending cuts could slam the rebuilding efforts of victims from superstorm Sandy. SITUATION ROOM, 4:00 Eastern, here on CNN.

The search continues this hour for the two adults and two children whose boat is missing off the coast of San Francisco. A live report coming up.