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Gandolfini's Impressive Career; Men's Wearhouse Founder Fired; Pool Toxic Cloud Leaves Man In Coma; FBI: Men Created Lethal X-Ray System; Waterspout Comes Ashore; Group That Tried To "Cure" Gays Closes; Senate Deal On Border Security Expected; Pair Charged With X- Ray Terror Plot
Aired June 20, 2013 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. Thank you so much for being with me this morning. I'm Carol Costello. James Gandolfini, the actor best known for his role as TV's Tony Soprano, has died of an apparent heart attack in Rome. His death at age 51 is certainly shocking. He will be missed, but his work will certainly live on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES GANDOLFINI: If you have any doubts or reservations, now is the time to say so. No one will think any less of you because once you enter this family, there is no getting out. This family comes before everything else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: It takes a special guy to make us care about a mobster. Italian authorities will conduct an autopsy on Gandolfini's body, although they tell us there is no sign of drug use or foul play. CNN's Nischelle Turner is live in New York. At first, a lot of people thought Gandolfini's death was a hoax.
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, because there had been several hoaxes this week alone, Carol, about his death. So when we first got tipped to this, we were very cautious and very reluctant because we thought this could be another one. But, in fact, this was very real.
You know, that autopsy that will be done tomorrow we hope will begin to give us answers as to what happened here. In the meantime, his friends and his fans are celebrating that man that made us love a mobster.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TURNER (voice-over): The sudden death of James Gandolfini rippled from Italy to the Jersey Shore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't believe it. I'm in shock.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Want to take him back. I mean, he was such a young man and such a nice guy.
TURNER: The Emmy Award winning actor's death confirmed by HBO, the network where he shot to fame as the tough talking mob boss, Tony Soprano, on the hit drama "The Sopranos."
GANDOLFINI: I couldn't ask for more.
TURNER: The HBO representatives said the 51-year-old actor may have had a heart attack, though the official cause is not yet known. The news blind-sided his closest Hollywood friends, "The Sopranos" co- star, Steven Van Zandt tweeting "I have lost a brother and a best friend. The world has lost one of the greatest actors of all-time."
The show's creator, David Chase, mourned the loss in a statement saying, "He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes."
Gandolfini was vacationing in Italy where he was scheduled to attend a festival in Sicily later this week. The press-shy star made one of his last public appearances at this charity event for the Stella Adlor Acting Studio in New York City just last week. Among his last film roles was playing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in "Zero Dark Thirty."
GANDOLFINI: You guys ever agree on anything?
TURNER: He may have enjoyed global fame, but he never strayed far from home, New Jersey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He put New Jersey on the map, all positive, you know. He just made Jersey better than it already is.
TURNER: One of his best known fans, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said in a statement saying, "It's an awful shock. James Gandolfini was a fine actor, a Rutgers alum and a true Jersey guy. I was a huge fan of his and the character he played so authentically, Tony Soprano."
The ice cream shop in Bloomfield, New Jersey, which served as the diner setting for the final scene of "The Sopranos" was overflowing with fans after news of the actors death spread.
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TURNER: You know, I also read where James Gandolfini said when he read that last scene of "The Sopranos" that we saw there in the diner, at first he thought, what do you mean this is how it's going to end? After all the stuff that Tony Soprano has done, all the death, everything, but then he sat back and realized, you know what, it is a perfect ending.
COSTELLO: A lot of people did not think it was a perfect ending, though.
TURNER: You're right. I was one of them. COSTELLO: I think people just wanted the show to go on.
TURNER: Absolutely, because it was that iconic, Carol. I mean, it really put HBO on the map. It changed the face of television in a lot of ways. James Gandolfini got that role when he was almost 35 years old. So he had all of the success later in life and we saw this character who was so bad in so many ways but we loved him with all his flaws. So it really was a game changer.
COSTELLO: It was. Nischelle Turner, thanks so much.
TURNER: Absolutely.
COSTELLO: HBO, by the way, says it will honor Gandolfini by rerunning "THE SOPRANOS." In the meantime, fans are eager to see more of his award-winning work. Sales of "The Sopranos" are climbing the charts on iTunes. Gandolfini's career is extensive and it's inspiring. CNN's Miguel Marquez looks back at some of his most impressive roles.
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GANDOLFINI: I'm in the waste management business. Everybody immediately assumes you're mobbed up. It's a stereotype and it's offensive and you're the last person I would want to perpetuate it.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tony Soprano, a mob dad with a soft spot, the size of New Jersey for his daughter.
GANDOLFINI: There is no mafia. All right, look, you're a grown woman, almost. Some of my money comes from illegal gambling and whatnot.
MARQUEZ: It would be a nasty piece of work for fame, violent, even racist.
GANDOLFINI: I've had business associates who were black and they don't want their son with their daughters and I don't want theirs with mine.
MARQUEZ: In the hand of James Gandolfini, Tony Soprano, the thug, became human, familiar, vulnerable, maybe in spite of ourselves likeable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know not all impotence is the result of medication.
GANDOLFINI: You're saying there's something wrong with me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When is the last time you had a prostate exam?
GANDOLFINI: I don't even let anybody wave their finger in my face.
MARQUEZ: In 2000, when he won his first Emmy for the role --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the Emmy goes to James Gandolfini.
MARQUEZ: His reaction says it all, the son of a bricklayer makes good, his acceptance speech humbled, almost shy, classic Gandolfini.
GANDOLFINI: I can't explain this except the academy has an affinity for slightly overweight bald men.
MARQUEZ: Nominated six times for his portrayal of Tony Soprano he won three. Here's how the former bouncer and nightclub manager described the character on his first win.
GANDOLFINI: He tries to do the right thing and screws everything up. It's kind of like a Ralph Cramden "Honeymooners" thing, just more dangerous.
MARQUEZ: The New Jersey native had range, spot on as then CIA Director Leon Panetta in "Zero Dark Thirty" and all too believable as New York City mayor in "The Taking of PLM 1, 2, 3."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone just hijacked a train.
GANDOLFINI: Another idiot with a gun.
MARQUEZ: He could even play wickedly funny, nominated for his role as a Brooklyn parent in "God of Carnage."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your virtue went straight out the window when you decided to be a killer.
MARQUEZ: Or the general in the British comedy "In the Loop."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How's the Pentagon?
GANDOLFINI: It's picked up a little, they're talking invasion reasonably seriously.
MARQUEZ: His interest in the military went beyond fiction producing two HBO documentaries about the effects of war on the men and women who fight them. He visited troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Here he is from a USO Tour in 2010.
GANDOLFINI: I like coming out here to the bases. I think it's a good change of pace for the guys and ladies, and I know that it makes me appreciate the whole thing more.
MARQUEZ: Twice married with two kids, Gandolfini mostly stayed away from the limelight. He spoke to James Lipton in 2004.
JAMES LIPTON: Finally, if heaven exists what would you like to say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
GANDOLFINI: Take over for a while, I'll be right back. No, no, no.
LIPTON: That's it, you dare not change it.
GANDOLFINI: No. It's too good. It's too good, think of the possibilities.
MARQUEZ: Gandolfini who spent part of his young years in Naples, Italy, was set to receive an award in Sicily when he died. Saying goodbye won't be easy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ: Now perhaps the saddest part of this story is he is the father of little girl, Lilliana, less than one year old. She will not know her father. They were expecting to see him. He was in great spirits. Now they're preparing a tribute to him this week -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Miguel Marquez, thanks so much. We want to take you now to Italy where authorities will conduct an autopsy on Gandolfini's body that's required under Italian law. Our senior international correspondent Dan Rivers is in Rome to tell us more. Hi, Dan.
DAN RIVERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there. Yes, we're beginning to piece together the grim last hours of James Gandolfini. He was staying in a five-star hotel here in Central Rome. Late last night about 10:00 p.m., the emergency services were called to the hotel. He had collapsed. They tried to resuscitate him in the hotel.
They continued that CPR work as they rushed him to the nearby hospital, but by the time he arrived, he was already pronounced dead, sadly. We've been talking to one of the doctors from the emergency center, Professor Claudio Modini. Here's what he told us.
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CLAUDIO MODINI, EMERGENCY HOSPITAL DIRECTOR: Yesterday night, Mr. James Gandolfini arrived at the hospital, at the emergency room of the emergency department. It was impossible to obtain a success and the patient died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERS: Of course, tributes coming in from all around the world. One of his close family friends, Michael Kobold, told us this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL KOBOLD, GANDOLFINI FAMILY FRIEND: Last night at approximately 10:00 p.m., James Gandolfini, while on vacation in Rome, experienced a medical emergency. The town notified emergency crews who responded and first aid was administered before Mr. Gandolfini was taken to the hospital, where he died of an apparent heart attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERS: So what's happening now? Because he arrived dead at the hospital, they are obliged here to carry out an autopsy, and that will be carried out tomorrow, Friday, here in Italy. There is nothing to suggest at the moment that this is anything but natural causes, but they have to go through that. We'll probably get the results of that tomorrow.
But at the moment, this is just looking like a tragic, tragic case of this film star, 51 years old with young children, one son who is only 13 years old who it's reported here was with him at the time, just leaving a huge hole in their life.
COSTELLO: You mean the son was with James Gandolfini when he suffered that apparent heart attack?
RIVERS: Well, that's what's being reported here. We haven't confirmed that here at CNN in Rome. Certainly we've been told by one of the hotels down in Sicily where he was to go on with a film festival that he booked a number of rooms. They understood that was for his family who were traveling with him.
COSTELLO: All right, Dan, thanks so much.
Senate negotiators are expected to announce a deal today on an immigration reform bill. It would increase border security. As CNN first reported yesterday, the plan would double the number of patrol officers from the current level of 21,000. It would also include 700 miles of fencing.
In money news this morning, you may not know George Zimmer's name, but you definitely know his face and certainly his commercials.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like the way you look. I guarantee it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: But now Zimmer, the executive chairman of Men's Wearhouse is out of a job, booted from the company he himself founded 40 years ago. A spokesman for the retailer declined to say exactly why Zimmer was fired, but we hear it was nasty. CNN's Christine Romans joins us from New York with more. Good morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. There is a lot going on there, Carol. I guarantee it. Because you don't usually see a board so tersely fire their pitchman, in fact, the most famous pitchman. He was the founder of this company and very quickly he was out yesterday. Very quickly he fired back with his own statement telling CNN that he had been expressing his concerns to the board about the directions of the company. The board has inappropriately chosen to silence my concerns through termination.
So they fired him, George Zimmer fires back. Now retail analysts, people who cover this company say he had been stepping back a little bit. He was no longer the CEO of the company. He had been stepping back. He was still the famous face of this company, but they suspect, these analysts, that this is a company really trying to grab the millennial generation, people in their 20s and 30s.
And that at 64-years-old, this founder with his smooth, silky baritone maybe wasn't exactly -- maybe he wasn't exactly the future of this company anymore and that was causing some problems between him and the board. At any rate, he no longer has his job. They still own the likeness of his voice and still have a lot of these commercials. They could continue to use his voice and his likeness, but he is no longer the pitchman and executive chairman of that company. COSTELLO: Even though millennial don't like smooth, silky baritones?
ROMANS: I don't know what they like.
COSTELLO: Daevon, you're a millennial. Do you like smooth, silky baritones? Thank you, Christine.
A Christian group know for trying to cure gay people of homosexuality is closing down and its president is now apologizing saying he's sorry some has committed suicide because of his group.
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COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 18 minutes past the hour, a 3- year-old boy from North Carolina can hear for the first time after undergoing a one of a kind surgery. Listen as he hears for the first time.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daddy loves you. Daddy loves you. Daddy --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: That's amazing, isn't it? Surgeons implanted a microchip in Grayson Clamp's brain, which now helps him process sounds. His mom says he's still getting the hang of it.
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NICOLE CLAMP, GRAYSON'S MOTHER: We don't really know exactly what it's like for him. We don't know exactly what he hears, if he hears everything we hear, some of what we hear. His brain is still trying to organize itself to use sound.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: It's amazing. Grayson's family is now working with him so he can learn how to interpret the sounds he's now hearing.
A pool party reportedly leaves one man in a coma and sickens several others. Organizers of a pool party in Mexico had poured liquid nitrogen in the water. The liquid nitrogen acted with the chlorine creating a toxic fog. Several people passed out. Yeagermeister tells the "Telegraph" newspaper its investigating the incident.
Two men in Albany, New York now under arrest after the FBI say they were involved in a plot to help terrorists. The suspects are accused of building what's been described as a radiation van that could emit lethal x-rays. Here's how one official summed it up.
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JOHN DUNCAN, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT U.S. DISTRICT ATTORNEY, NORTHERN NEW YORK: It would be capable of inflicting death on humans if used in the fashion for which it was designed. As I said, it was designed to be mobile, it was designed to have a remote power source, and the defendants, it's alleged, that they constructed a particular mechanism to turn it on remotely and turn it off remotely so they would not be in the area when this device would be turned on and directed towards specific targets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The men were caught after one of them tried to get help building the van from a local Jewish organization. That group reported the man to authorities.
A frightening sight, take a look. This is a water spout off the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana. Actually, three water spouts had merged and formed this one, big, powerful funnel cloud. The water spout drifted to shore, snapping some power lines and damaging some roofs on shingles at a nearby camper home. No injuries reported.
The world's first domed air-conditioned stadium opened up in 1960, but it's been closed now for 13 years. Sports and convention officials don't want it torn down, but instead turned into an events center. The price tag, though, $194 million. Most of it would be paid for by a county bond. We'll keep you posted.
A conservative Christian group that focused on trying to cure gay men and women of homosexuality through conversion therapy is closing its doors. The group is called Exodus International. Its president, Alan Chambers, has admitted he is attracted to men. He is now apologizing to gays and lesbians.
He even apologized that some people have killed themselves because of conversion therapy. The story of the church will be exposed on Oprah's Own Network that airs tonight. Gays and lesbians outraged at Chambers and they had long demanded the ministry close down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No matter how many times I pleaded with God to take this away from me, I couldn't do it on my own.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are responsible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The organization needs to shut down. Shut down. Don't tweak it, don't try to improve it, shut it down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: CNN's Nick Valencia is following this for us. You heard that man in the clip. Don't tweak it, shut it down. That's kind of what they're doing, even though they're saying they're shutting it down.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Listen, it's more of a rebranding than anything else. They are coming out with a new ministry. It's called Reduced Fear. They say they're going to be more wide open. They say they're going to be more welcoming. They've apologized for their past and upsetting people, though people are seeing it as a half-hearted apology.
One chapter of this ministry opens, another one seemingly closely, but before they close their doors, Carol, they did release this statement that read, in part, more than anything, I'm sorry that so many have interpreted this religious rejection by Christians as God's rejection. I'm profoundly sorry that many have walked away from their faith and chosen to end their lives.
If you remember this ministry because famous or infamous depending on how you look at it for their use of reparative therapy or conversion therapy that's the idea that somebody can change their sexual orientation through therapy. Now, the American Psychological Association denounced this use of therapy, at which point they subsequently, Exodus International, they started to backtrack a little and not be as aggressive about this therapy.
COSTELLO: OK, they've rebranded and they call it something else which I can't remember.
VALENCIA: Reduced Fear. It's aimed at the new generation of Christians. They say they want change in their church and that's why they're doing it.
COSTELLO: OK, so they opened a new church called Reduced Fear, whatever the heck that means. Are they going to perform conversion therapy or that's no longer part of the church?
VALENCIA: They're going to be more welcoming, right? They're going to open the doors to everybody. At the end of the day, gay or straight, it's all about being the prodigal son or daughter of God. They do have sort of a half-hearted apology, as I mentioned. The president and board say they do not apologize for their strict stance on scripture reading on sexual orientation and marriage. So they're apologizing for upsetting people, though they say there was no malicious intent. Their heart was in the right place.
COSTELLO: But we don't know for sure if they're going to try to make gay people straight any longer?
VALENCIA: We don't. They're going on OWN tonight. They'll have this series they'll talk about, their change in stance. We'd love to hear from Alan.
COSTELLO: Yes, we would. I'll be watching. Thank you very much, Nick Valencia.
Three little words later this year, those words from Fed Chair Ben Bernanke sent the Dow plummeting yesterday, and guess what, the selloff continues today. We'll check in with Christine Romans when we come back.
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COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with me. Let's take a look the top stories this morning. In just about 30 minutes past the hour. Senate negotiators are expected to announce the deal today on an immigration reform bill. That bill would increase border security. As CNN first reported, the plan would then double the number of patrol officers from the current level of 21,000 and it would also include 700 miles of fencing.
Fans from his home state of New Jersey and elsewhere are mourning the loss of James Gandolfini. The 51-year-old actor, best known for his TV role as mob boss Tony Soprano died of a possible heart attack in Rome. Italian officials are waiting for a death certificate to be issued before his remains can be returned to the United States. Gandolfini is survived by his wife and two children.
More questions are being asked this morning after an FBI's director admitted his agency has used drones over American soil. Robert Mueller did not say how many drones his agency has or how many times they've been used, but a law enforcement source says more than a dozen unmanned drones have taken place. It sounds like a futuristic plot, but it's what's happening.
Two men have been arrested in New York charged with building a device loosely described as a radiation gun. Authorities say they were playing this target enemies of Israel using lethal x-rays.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be capable of inflicting death on humans if used in the fashion in which it was designed. It was designed to be mobile. It was designed to have a remote power source, and the defendants, it's alleged, constructed a particular mechanism to turn it on remotely and turn it off remotely so they would not be in the area when this device would be turned on and directed towards specific targets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The men have been charged with conspiracy to provide support for a use of weaponry of mass destruction.
U.S. markets are still dropping after the Fed Chair Ben Bernanke's comments yesterday. Joining me now from New York is Christine Roman. Are the markets looking better?
ROMANS: No. They aren't, really. They're calling it the taper tantrum, Carol, because this is all about whether the fed will start tapering back stimulus in the economy. The economy has been just full every month, $85 billion a month the fed has been pumping into the economy. The fed chief yesterday said, you know, eventually things will be good enough in the job market, et cetera, they'll be able to pull back --
