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Entertainment News; Photos of the Dead Posted Online; Cannibal Cop Trial

Aired March 08, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour, I'm Brooke Baldwin. Technology, sports, business, health, science, showbiz news, we're hitting it all right now. It is the power block, starting with this.

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CARRIE FISHER, ACTRESS, "PRINCESS LEIA": Good luck.

HARRISON FORD, ACTOR, "HAN SOLO": I have a really bad feeling about this.

BALDWIN: Looks like Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford will return for "Star Wars: Episode 7." Creator George Lucas let it slip to "Bloomberg Business Week" that the trio was locked up before he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, quote, "We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison, or were pretty much in the final stages of negotiation."

Goes on, "Maybe I'm not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do."

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you the great man we have been waiting for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

BALDWIN (voice-over): Disney's version of "Oz" hitting theaters today. This is the 3D prequel to the 1930s classic.

Reviews, they're kind of mixed. Some are trashing it. Others, well, a CNN review called it spirit and style, quote, "More than good enough."

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BALDWIN: The Biebs is feeling better but he posted a photo that could leave his young fans a little woozy. And there is about to be an empty chair on "The View". Entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner is hanging out at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

Hey, Nischelle. NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, Brooke, I know this is one place you really wish you were, right? South by Southwest: this is the festival where music, film and technology all collide in a real cool and geeky way.

Over the next 10 days, Austin, Texas, will be the entertainment industry mecca. I mean, where else can you find Bill Gates, Quentin Tarantino and Shaquille O'Neal together, right? Exactly.

But there are some other entertainment stories that are breaking today, a big one over at ABC. After 16 years, Joy Behar is leaving "The View."

Now, besides Barbara Walters, she was the last original member of "The View" team left. But ABC says that she is moving on. They say that she has been instrumental in the success of "The View" from the beginning and that they wish her the best in her future endeavors.

And Joy said, yes, it's time. She says it's time to move on to a new chapter in her life and start paying attention to some of the things that she was neglecting, like writing her play and also doing her stand-up.

I also got to ask what is going on with Justin Bieber? Apparently he fainted last night during his concert. He got sick on stage, had to go backstage and get treated. He did have to go to the hospital; his rep tells CNN that Justin is out of the hospital. He is feeling under the weather, but still plans to do his concert tonight.

Now, Justin, after he went to the hospital, posted some pictures on Instagram last night. Posted one of them with him listening to his headphones, saying he was listening to Janis Joplin, getting better, a shirtless picture of himself on Instagram.

And that sent all of the Beliebers into a flutter. They took to Twitter with well wishes to Justin. He did, again, say that he does plan on attending his concert tonight. It has been a long and crazy week for him. He turned 19, had a big birthday bash. And now he has gotten sick once again on stage.

Brooke, lots going on in the entertainment industry. But, yes, South by Southwest is the place to be. Don't be jealous. Back to you.

BALDWIN: But you know I am, my friend. Nischelle Turner in Austin, thank you.

Pandora looking for a new leader: Joe Kennedy surprised everyone by stepping down as CEO of the Internet radio service. Kennedy is quitting just as Pandora is getting more listeners and more money. The company's last quarter was stronger than expected financially.

And Pandora is forecasting better than expected revenue this quarter. Pandora shares are up almost 20 percent, trading today just around $14 a share.

Caffeine heads, I know I have my cup of coffee in the morning. We all have now a new way to get our jolt. Wait for it. Caffeinated gum. Wrigley going after adults with its new Alert Energy caffeine gum. Alert is a -- apparently has the same caffeine as half a cup of coffee, has the same bitter taste, even though it comes in fruit and mint flavors and it costs $2.99 for eight pieces.

Wrigley's branching out as sales of energy drinks are spiking and gum sales are falling.

Kobe Bryant was on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," last night, just a couple of days after Dennis Rodman's visit to North Korea. Kimmel asked him about that. In fact, he asked Bryant, would you go to North Korea? Here was his response.

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JIMMY KIMMEL, ABC HOST: Would you go over there and focus on stopping this potential nuclear warhead that could come -- that seems more important than the game.

KOBE BRYANT, PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER: Yes, but I probably would pass.

KIMMEL: You would pass on that one?

BRYANT: I would probably pass.

KIMMEL: Oh, for once you're passing.

BRYANT: Yes, yes.

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BALDWIN (voice-over): Going to the chapel, Michael Jordan, the basketball legend and UNC Tarheel, has applied for license to marry model Yvette Prieto. The pair got engaged last year. Back in his playing days, Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships. Now he is the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.

And American civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson and actor Sean Penn, they're both in Caracas, Venezuela, today. They're joining Cuban leader Raul Castro and President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the funeral of outspoken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Shasta Darlington is live in Caracas.

And, Shasta, I think the big question now is what happens to Chavez's social revolution? Will Maduro, the vice president, will he keep it going?

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, that's definitely the plan. He is the handpicked successor for Hugo Chavez. And he's already stepped up the rhetoric, showing that he can walk the walk and talk the talk.

What we need to see, though, is, once everything is over and done with, we'll have elections; polls indicate that Maduro will likely win those elections against the opposition candidate, Enrique Capriles.

What can he do from there? And that's because, so far over these past 14 years, Hugo Chavez has managed to really reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, bring people out of poverty and done a lot of very specific things, like introducing health clinics into neighborhoods that didn't have doctors, education.

But he's done that with all of the revenues from the very abundant oil reserves here. And those have been, to a certain degree, depleted.

So Maduro will be up against a rock here. Those reserves have been -- have started to run down; he's going to have fewer reserves and he's going to run into a bit of a cash crunch. There is already a really big economic problem in Venezuela; there is high inflation, unemployment, and there is already a scarcity of goods on the shelves.

So he's going to have to figure out how to keep the Socialist revolution going and attend to the very pressing economic problems. So in the short term, he's got the sympathy vote of all of these Chavez supporters. In the mid- and long term, he's going to have to prove that he can really keep it going, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Shasta Darlington in Caracas, thank you, Shasta.

Earth is the hottest it's been in at least 4,000 years. And it is getting hotter. This is according to new research published today in the journal "Science".

Researchers use sediment and polar ice samples to study global temperatures going back more than some 11,000 years. Here's what they found, that the climate has gone from one of the coldest decades to one of the hottest, all of this in just one century.

So, listen to this, if you're like me, you buy a lot of music online. There is now word you can make money off of doing that. Wait until you hear this. Next.

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BALDWIN: If you are like me, and you have a lot of music or movies you bought on iTunes here, I've got my list, I'm constantly running out of space, last listening to the Postal Service here this morning, I know some of you, you want to keep it forever; some of you not so much, you paid for this music, right? So you don't want to delete it, but you can't sell it. You can't trade it.

But that may soon change. Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange, I read about this and my ears definitely perked up here. I mean --

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Me, too.

BALDWIN: -- I know Apple wants to let us sell or trade now possibly some of the items we buy on iTunes.

KOSIK: Exactly. So if this whole idea pans out, Brooke, it means that, you know, more people like you and me will be able to sort of be more incentivized to buy more songs, more movies and shows.

And instead of hesitating to buy that digital content, because we feel like we're not going to listen to it much or we're not going to watch the movie but once, this would be a little bit of a different idea.

So now what would happen is that you would have a chance to make some money off it. So Apple now has a patent application that is in the works, that looks to create a system to actually let you loan or sell your iTunes content to other people.

So let's say you bought a movie you no longer want, you can go ahead and sell the rights to somebody else. Now the content would then wind up being attached to their Apple ID. And you would no longer have access to it.

Now it appears that you would get a cut of the resale price, as would the original publisher. So you know what, it is a good way for Apple to attract and retain users, who, you know, otherwise may not have, but just because there is a patent application, Brooke, don't get too excited. It does not mean this is definitely going to happen. But it does show there is some possibility for it. Brooke.

BALDWIN: It is interesting. We'll make sure we tweet the article out. I'm already getting a lot of tweets of people, what, you can sell your music?

Thank you, Alison. Also --

KOSIK: Not just yet though.

BALDWIN: Not just yet. We'll keep an eye on the Dow as well as we got some great jobs numbers this morning and the unemployment down now to 7.7 percent.

So the Dow clearly responding in positive territory here, as we are 15 minutes away from the closing bell.

Coming up next, though, Cook County morgue in Chicago taking a rather unusual, maybe controversial here, step of posting photos of unclaimed bodies right there on the website for anyone to see. We're "On the Case", talking about this next.

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BALDWIN: Pictures of unclaimed bodies on a website, it's definitely an unusual, maybe controversial step here.

But the Cook County morgue in Illinois, in Chicago, specifically, apparently found it necessary. We're going to show you just a couple of examples of what I'm talking about. But just a warning, the images are graphic. Of course, we blurred them. But take a look. because this is what I'm talking about on this website.

This is a man. This is a dead man, a white male in his 50s, couple of unique tattoos which they also show on the website for identification purposes. His body was brought to the morgue, but like thousands of other Americans each year, no family, no friends ever showed up to claim him. Joey Jackson, "On the Case" with me today.

And, Joey, look, I mean, the economy is in a place where I know a lot of people can't even afford to identify or even claim bodies because, you know, cremation, burial is expensive. But do they -- do you anticipate legal challenges here?

JOEY JACKSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, I have to say this, Brooke, I think certainly it is controversial and certainly unusual, but I don't believe it to be illegal. And so therefore I think there is also a lot of support here.

In Cook County alone there is 32 bodies at the Office of the County Medical Examiner and they haven't been identified. And you have people out there who are very caring and concerned and wondering, oh, my goodness, where are my loved ones?

And remember also, Brooke, there is a national database -- it doesn't go as far as this does with regard to posting photos and pictures and other identifying characteristics; it comes close -- but I think this is certainly a step in the right direction.

Will it be challenged? You know, we live in a very litigious society, Brooke, and who knows what people will do. But I think they're on sound legal footing in doing it. And I think it is, you know, overdue, quite frankly.

BALDWIN: I'm curious if it will be successful, if other counties will follow suit. We'll watch for it.

JACKSON: I think they will.

BALDWIN: I think they will, too.

Next case: this 86-year-old woman, who has Parkinson's disease and dementia, she's been charged with voter fraud in Minnesota because she voted by absentee ballot, couldn't remember if the person she voted for was a person she wanted, so she up and walked over to a community center in August and she voted again.

And, Joey Jackson therein lies the rub here.

Did the prosecutor, though, did they really have to bring charges? I mean, could she really face time?

JACKSON: No and no.

Here's the way this works, Brooke. I mean, listen, what happens is certainly there is a need to not monitor voter fraud, but with regard to illegality, common sense has to come into play. If you have someone who has dementia and may not remember what they do, remember what the law requires; it requires mens rea, right, guilty mind, and that means you have to have intent.

And if you vote because you didn't remember that you did, that sort of negates intent. And so the prosecutor is saying, well, wait a second, there is a law that says if there is probable cause of a crime, we have to go forward.

But remember this, Brooke, if there is no crime, why go forward? If you don't have the mental state to commit the crime, there is no probable cause. Leave the poor lady alone. God bless her.

BALDWIN: Drop it -- 86 years of age. Joey Jackson, thank you.

JACKSON: Good to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up next here, the so-called cannibal cop; he's in court today. And his fate now in the hands of the jury. We'll take you live to the courthouse next.

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BALDWIN: A jury in New York City is now deliberating the fate of this cop, accused of plotting to become a cannibal.

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BALDWIN (voice-over): Gilberto Valle is charged with planning to kidnap, cook and eat women, including his own wife. Prosecutors say these e-mail conversations between this man and an alleged co- conspirator prove he was out to cannibalize women, but the defense says, no, this was merely fantasy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin joins me outside that courthouse.

And, Sunny, based upon what you have seen, which way do you think the jury might be leaning here?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, I've got to tell you, I thought this was a pretty weak case for the prosecution. I thought that this jury would come back immediately.

Well, Brooke, they have been deliberating two days, seven hours. They just sent a note out, saying that they would be closing their deliberations at 4 o'clock, going home over the weekend and resuming deliberations on Monday.

Many court observers are just shocked. I'm shocked as well. Obviously, they're really struggling with this case.

Was it a fantasy? Did he really intend to murder, rape, chop up women, eat them? Obviously the jury hasn't figured that out yet. BALDWIN: And the deliberations continue. Sunny Hostin in New York, thank you, Sunny.

Now, Piers Morgan. Piers sat down today with world famous music producer Clive Davis, who has been in the news lately for revelations here in his book. And Piers got the scoop from the man behind pop music's biggest stars. Let's just say, nothing was off limits.

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CLIVE DAVIS, MUSIC PRODUCER: So for the first time, having failed in marriage twice, not related at all to sex, I opened myself up to the possibility of having a relationship with a person rather than a gender. And that's what I turned to.

But I found that the attitude in general toward bisexuality is you're either gay, you're straight or you're lying. For me, it has not been that case. And maybe even though this is just a part of my life, and I wouldn't have written the biography without disclosing that, maybe some good will come of it.

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BALDWIN: I know you want to keep watching the interview. You can. Make sure you watch "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT;" this is the Clive Davis you don't know. "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT," tonight, 9 o'clock Eastern, only on CNN.

And a CNN Hero makes dreams come true for thousands of foster kids all around the country by granting them one very special wish. You will meet this hero next.

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BALDWIN: For the more than 400,000 children living in foster care, it's the small things that can make a huge difference in the life of a child. They're often out of reach.

But this week's CNN Hero has found a way to give a little piece of childhood back to those who often have no one to ask. Here is Danielle Gletow.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been in and out of foster care for most of my life. When you move from place to place, you don't really get the same connections that your peers have. You get very insecure. You don't think that people really care about your desires and wishes.

DANIELLE GLETOW, CNN HERO: When I became a foster parent, I realized, a lot of these children decide that it's not worth wishing anymore, because it isn't going to happen. People have made promises to them that they haven't kept.

Do you want to check any of the babies?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure.

GLETOW: All right. Here you go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

GLETOW: Everything is brand new.

I thought, how do we give them the feeling that people are out there that care about you even if you've never met them?

My name is Danielle Gletow and I've helped make wishes come true for thousands of foster children all over the country.

Anybody, anywhere, anytime can look at hundreds of wishes from children in foster care: working on auditioning for a play; he needs the radio in order to practice with his audition CD.

Wishes are as unique as the children who make them, and so personal.

Isn't that beautiful?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

GLETOW: These small things make an enormous difference in the life of a child. It's really just a kid being a kid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wish was for a suit so that I could attend a family member's funeral. It meant a lot that someone took the time and they knew that that was important.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This looks awesome.

GLETOW: When a child's wish is granted, we are reassuring them that their voices are being heard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you.

GLETOW: That there is this big world out there that just wants to wrap their arms around them and protect them and we need to all step up and do that.

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BALDWIN: Danielle's group has already granted more than 4,000 wishes to kids in 35 different states. To grant a wish, you can learn more about her program.

Or if you'd like to nominate someone who you think deserves being recognized, go to cnnheroes.com.

Quickly before I let you go here, take a look at the big board, up 61 points, 62. I tell you, the market very much so responding here to bell closing, to the big jobs news from the month of February, 236,000 jobs created; our unemployment rate down to 7.7 percent. We have not seen that 7.7 percent since 2008, so great news. There we go, closing bell, the market is going gangbusters for four straight days. That's always nice to hear, isn't it, as we head into the weekend.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. That does it for me. Let's go to Washington. Wolf Blitzer takes over from here.

Hey, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, Brooke. Thanks very much.