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Gandolfini Died of a Heart Attack; Thieves Unlock Cars with "Mystery Box"; Instagram Adds Video; One-on-One with Fleetwood Mac; Tougher Competition for Internships; Parents Talk about Grayson's Progress
Aired June 21, 2013 - 10:30 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: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with us.
We now know it was a heart attack that killed James Gandolfini. Autopsy results released in the past few hours confirm the "Sopranos" star died of natural causes when he collapsed in his Italian hotel room on Wednesday night. We're also learning hotel staff had to break down the bathroom door to get to him.
Nischelle Turner joins us live now and I understand Italian authorities spoke just a short time ago.
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they did Carol. You know Gandolfini's friend Michael Kobold actually just finished a press conference in Rome on behalf of the Gandolfini family. He talked about what's next for them. Let's listen to him real quick.
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MICHAEL KOBOLD, GANDOLFINI'S FAMILY FRIEND: The autopsy has been concluded, the body has been turned over to the funeral director who will be performing whatever he does to embalm the body. In Italy it can take up to ten days to get all of the necessary documents and paperwork to repatriate the body. We are looking forward to working with the Italian government, the officials to shorten that process. It looks like they're doing everything on their ends which is wonderful, so that we can get his body back sooner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TURNER: Now Kobold went on to say they hope the family, that is, hopes that the funeral will be held either Thursday or Friday here in New York but that of course is dependent on how this process plays out that he was talking about Carol.
And there was a lot of confusion about just where Gandolfini's wife and daughter were when this happened. But we did learn from this press conference that they were actually traveling with the actor when he died. COSTELLO: Oh. So I would suspect a lot of fans would like to pay tribute once Gandolfini's body comes back to the United States. Any plans in the works?
TURNER: Well, you know, it's amazing how so many stars with a New York connection remember Gandolfini so fondly and all of the fans that we've heard from as well. Like we said we don't know if there's some sort of public memorial that's planned but the family does hope that there's a funeral Thursday or Friday.
We've been hearing from his friends as well, you know we spoke with John Travolta last night and he told us that they shared some common ground even before they started working together. This is a great story. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN TRAVOLTA, ACTOR: We did five films together. Our fathers knew each other. My dad actually sold tires to him back in the day. And I was apparently his inspiration for getting into show business.
And the beautiful thing about Jim is once he got in show business and became a superstar he never changed his -- his organic realness, you know? He's a beautiful human being that is a friend a friend would want to have. He's glorious. And glorious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TURNER: You know, Carol, something about that story that I just really like. Back before they were ever stars, ever in the business, his dad sold tires to him. It's just kind of regular, you know?
COSTELLO: Yes.
TURNER: It kind of embodies what everyone says about James Gandolfini.
COSTELLO: Just a regular guy.
TURNER: Yes.
COSTELLO: Nischelle Turner, thanks so much.
TURNER: Sure.
COSTELLO: Coming up in the NEWSROOM, a mystery box that allows thieves to unlock your car door in 20 seconds flat.
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COSTELLO: Police across the country are absolutely stumped. Car thieves are using some sort of mystery box that could unlock your car and disable your alarm system in 20 seconds flat. You could be the next victim.
Here's CNN's Kyung Lah with more. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Long Beach, California, the man walks up to the car and using a small box opens it. Right next to him, another man, also using a box, opens that car. The problem, they're thieves, no keys. Now they've swiped all valuables from the cars.
In Chicago, exact same scenario. A man by the sedan unlocks it. No key. Alarm disabled by some mystery device.
STEVEN DOI, THEFT VICTIM: Now you feel you've been outsmarted. I thought I had everything on lockdown.
LAH: The same thing happened to Steven Doi of Corona, California. His car's computer system was hacked. But the crook didn't get away clean. Doi's dash cam caught the suspect, pacing, holding some mystery box.
DOI: And I was like whoa, you just see this guy just start walking right in front of the car. Sure enough in the video you can hear the door locks go.
LAH: In just 18 seconds the crook emptied out $3,000 worth of electronics.
(on camera): Same device, different cities?
MIKE BENDER, ICW GROUP INSURANCE COMPANY: Same device, same premise.
LAH: Mike Bender ex-cop and auto theft expert calls it the latest high-tech crime tool hitting New York to L.A.
BENDER: This is the device in his left hand.
LAH: And like police across the country he doesn't know exactly what it is.
BENDER: But the ease that this is working and the frequency that we're seeing it reported throughout the U.S. means it's only become a greater problem.
LAH: Bender says your car is a rolling computer. But it takes to break in not sledgehammers but hacking devices.
BENDER: In you can hack into NSA, you can hack into GM.
LAH (on camera): But federal agents may be closing in on exactly what these boxes are. Law enforcement sources tell CNN, they have one of these boxes in Texas. They're now trying to figure out if this is the same device used in all of these car burglaries.
Kyung Lah, CNN Los, Angeles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I hope it is.
Fleetwood Mac their music spans generations --
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COSTELLO: Oh the timeless classics of Fleetwood Mac.
Well what's old is new again. They're selling out shows all over the place. My one-on-one interview with Fleetwood Mac, next.
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COSTELLO: Checking our "Top Stories" at 43 minutes past the hour. In Arizona, the doughy (ph) wild fire has scorched more than 7,000 acres of the Prescott National Forest. More than 400 people have been evacuated. Dry weather and strong winds are fueling the fire. Only 10 percent has been contained. But luckily no homes have been destroyed and no injuries have been reported.
Major flood conditions in Western Canada. A state of emergency has been declared in Calgary, forcing as many as 75,000 people to evacuate. Several roads and bridges have been wiped out by torrential rain and mudslides. The portion -- and portions of the trans-Canada highway have been closed.
Singapore is choking on record-high pollution levels and the government says the lingering haze could last for weeks. The officials have told the elderly, pregnant women and children, anyone with heart and lung conditions to remain indoors. A pollution index above 300 is considered hazardous. Today's reading was 401.
Step aside, Mia Hamm. There's a new queen in scoring in international soccer. Last night Abby Wambach passed Hamm as all-time goals leader in an international competition. Wambach scored four goals in the first half of the USA win over South Korea. And now has 160 for her career. Congrats.
A major update for the photo app Instagram; now all of those filtered photos you take, you can take at a bunch can be videos. Well photos can turn -- you know what I mean. CNNMoney's technology correspondent Laurie Segall is here to rescue me. Laurie, take it away.
LAURIE SEGALL, CNNMONE'S TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: How are you doing Carol? Yes look, Instagram, 130 million users, very popular, sold for $1 billion to Facebook and they really took photo sharing to the next level. They let you put these filters on you photos and make them look a lot cooler, like you're a little bit more talented than you actually might be.
But now they're deciding to launch Instagram for video. So this is a big deal, a big update for them. Let me take you through some of these features that we're going to actually be able to use using Instagram video.
Essentially a 15-second video, you can take. It gives you self- editing. You're able to self-edit your videos. Also image stabilization, so when you take these videos on your Smartphone Carol and it's kind of shaky it will help make that look a little bit better.
And also more filters. Everybody loves these filters on Instagram. They have 13 new filters so essentially when you take this type of video you can make your video look a little bit vintage. You can make it look black and white. And I like to say it like this, Carol, it makes anyone look like a better cinematographer than they actually might be. So Instagram, they're taking big bets on this one.
COSTELLO: Oh, that looks good. That's you. It seems a lot like we have Vine.
SEGALL: It does -- it absolutely does. That was me attempting to do one. I have to say I could have been more creative and I did use black and white. But I attempted.
COSTELLO: That was creative.
SEGALL: It does sound a lot like Vine and look, when you have Twitter -- Vine is owned by Twitter. Facebook owns Instagram. You have Vine, which is essentially the same type of deal. They let you take videos in six seconds. You can actually go back and edit which is a pretty big deal and you don't have filters.
That being said, you know, they are hinting that there's going to be some new updates. And this is how it works in Silicon Valley, Carol, you get one of these companies that launches something. You get the other one on the defense and it's kind of a battle to see who's going to attract more users and which one's going to really go viral.
COSTELLO: Ok. Laurie, thanks so much. I appreciate it.
SEGALL: Thank you.
COSTELLO: I especially do this morning.
After 45 years, 16 members and more than 100 million albums --
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COSTELLO: -- Fleetwood Mac is once again selling out. I talked with them about their enduring success.
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COSTELLO: Iconic Fleetwood Mac song launched Bill Clinton's presidential campaign way back in the day. And why not? Fleetwood Mac represented youth and came to represent a new generation in the White House -- baby boomers were now in power. Seems like a million years ago, doesn't it?
But, Fleetwood Mac is back, big time. With sold-out shows, new music and new fans, even they are a little freaked out by the love coming their way. I know -- really? I sat down one-on-one with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood. It was awesome. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM, GUITARIST, FLEETWOOD MAC: Sometimes it takes a significant period of time in order to know that what you've done has legs, that it means something that it has worked its way into the fabric.
COSTELLO: When I go see a band that I really love, many years ago, first of all I want to see what they look like. Second of all, I kind of want to relive the day.
MICK FLEETWOOD, DRUMMER, FLEETWOOD MAC: I never get very specific about being focusing on too much going on in the audience.
COSTELLO: What do you do before the show?
FLEETWOOD: I get a little anxious, so I keep occupied. At a certain point, family, no family, it's like there's a lockdown where then it really gets into a rhythm of preshow. So I try to keep busy, you know. I actually am pretending to learn the guitar and the ukulele.
COSTELLO: Just to keep your mind off the coming performance?
FLEETWOOD: And I'm actually having fun doing that and I'll sit and do that in the dressing room.
COSTELLO: Once you take the stage no nerves, nothing?
BUCKINGHAM: No. I mean I can remember being nervous a long, long time ago. But you know, it's been quite a while.
COSTELLO: So you guys have sold out pretty much every show. Some people might say that's amazing.
FLEETWOOD: We feel that we have an audience, we're blessed that we have an audience. But you never really, really know whether or not they're going to knock on the door again.
COSTELLO: We have to talk about some of the drama surrounding the band.
BUCKINGHAM: The musical soap opera, if you will the fact there were these two couples who were living out their lives in front of the public and were, you know, writing songs that had cross dialogues back and forth, the subtext really of the "Rumors" album is something else.
COSTELLO: I don't know how you could have done that frankly.
BUCKINGHAM: We're still working on.
COSTELLO: So there's still love between you two?
BUCKINGHAM: Yes. We really had to compartmentalize. The other unnatural part of that was we never really had the opportunity to spend time apart in order to get the kind of closure that a normal couple would -- would have. COSTELLO: Well, there are a lot of fans who still want to see you guys together.
FLEETWOOD: And they do, every night.
BUCKINGHAM: I moved on with my life personally. I have three children and a beautiful wife.
COSTELLO: I want to ask you about your new songs because there are four of them, as I understand it.
BUCKINGHAM: Yes.
COSTELLO: So will there be more?
BUCKINGHAM: We are very much hoping to get Stevie to come to the table with some new songs. Clearly, you know what we're doing is as fresh and vital as anything we've done in a long time. You know there is still this creative forward motion in the band, you know, so that we're not strictly resting on our laurels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Yes. And guess what else is in the works? This is from Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham -- they say they're thinking about doing a Broadway play based on the drama surrounding the band. Hey, if Abba could do it, why not Fleetwood Mac? I'll keep you posted.
We'll be right back.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rushing through the early traffic and hurrying to their desks, Dana Shanley and Bari Friedman are honing their talents and hoping to prove their worth during a summer internship at the big public relations firm Ogilvy. But they know just by being here, they've already beaten the odds.
DANA SHANLEY, INTERN AT OGILVY: They tell us here at Ogilvy that almost 500 people applied for ten spots. So it was very competitive.
BARI FRIEDMAN, INTERN AT OGILVY: We definitely feel very lucky to have been offered a position.
AASIF MANDVI, ACTOR: This will not be your average internship.
FOREMAN: The new hit movie "The Internship" pokes fun at adults stepping up the competition in this arena, but it's no joke. Once the purview of the ambitious few, internships are now being aggressively sought by grown-ups looking for career changes and younger and younger students, too, according to the Web site Intern Match.
ANDREW MAGUIRE, CEO, INTERN MATCH: One of the things we noted in our report is that 50 percent of the students that do an internship are completing it by the end of their sophomore year. You know, so this isn't just something that juniors and seniors are doing. It's happening earlier, and companies are recruiting earlier to, you know, try to stay a step ahead.
FOREMAN: The goals for a great many: make contacts, open doors, and spin that internship into employment. That's what Shefali Vyas was after.
(on camera): So how did you make that happen?
SHEFALI VYAS, FORMER INTERN: I tried to make the best of my internship to try to gain in as much experience as I could, and then I left a note, I wanted to work here.
FOREMAN: It worked.
VYAS: It worked.
FOREMAN (voice-over): She interned at Ogilvy three years ago, and she's never left.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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COSTELLO: Here's a story that really has us smiling around the NEWSROOM this morning. First, let's fill you in on Grayson Clamp. The three-year-old hadn't heard anything at all because he was born without a cochlear nerve -- he was deaf.
Last month, Grayson became the first child in the United States to receive an auditory brain stem implant, and he heard sounds for the first time in his life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daddy loves you. Daddy loves you. Daddy --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear daddy?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I know, it's priceless. Fast forward to this morning. Grayson and his parents were guests on CNN's "NEW DAY" and Grayson, well, he pretty much behaved like just like any other curious three- year-old. His parents spoke while Grayson took a tour of the studio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEN CLAMP, GRAYSON'S FATHER: He's doing fantastic, he really is. It's been several weeks now since his implant was activated. And we've already seen a lot of signs of progress; really, really a lot of signs of progress.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Were you at first careful to not expose him to too much because this would be an auditory assault on his little ears?
L. CLAMP: Not really. Our audiology team at UNC Hospital is just phenomenal. As long as he's enjoying the sound that he's getting, then the plan is, give to him. He needs to experience it. He's got to associate sounds with objects or other things.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: What was that moment like?
NICOLE CLAMP, MOTHER OF GRAYSON: Just overwhelming. Just a huge relief for me.
L. CLAMP: Yes.
N. CLAMP: It was a long journey getting there. And I knew it would work but just seeing it work was a huge, just -- it was -- the culmination of a long journey to get there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: That was his uncle trying to control things and our floor director, Pete. And he made a good catch, didn't he? But as you can see, Grayson is doing just fine. He still communicates by signing but it won't be long.
Thanks for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now.
