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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Time 100/AC360 Special: The World's Most Influential People
Aired May 02, 2009 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to this TIME 100/AC360 SPECIAL: THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE; 100 innovators, educators, world leaders, entertainers and even some criminals. What they share is impact, good or bad on the world or our lives.
You're going to recognize many of the names "Time" is honoring in their issue. But you'll also know many of those who are interviewing and writing about them; not to mention some of the surprising answers they get.
Bono, for example, interviewing George Clooney, talking ambition and politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BONO, FOUNDER, ONE: Could you imagine running for office in the United States?
GEORGE CLOONEY, FOUNDER, NOTONOURWATCHPROJECT.ORG: No. I thought about it years ago. A lot of years ago because it's certainly my -- if you are the son of a journalist you've really been around politics your whole life. And I thought about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Also my interview with the women of "The View" including their influence on this election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": I think what happened was when we had John McCain on and when we had Barack Obama on and when we have their wives on, suddenly we had such vitality and we were very tough on some of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Later, an influential figure in finance, Suze Orman, also on the Time 100 list revealing a dark chapter from her past, one you'll probably didn't know about, talking with writer and business guru Suzy Welch.
And they've made and lost billions, Ted Turner and T. Boone Pickens, now they're each trying to make a difference to the air we breathe on the planet.
All of it in the hour ahead, starting with George Clooney. He's being honored for the supporting role of a life time. His concern over something that ought to be a simple expectation a bare bottom line, that people should not starve and children not be murdered and mothers not raped while the rest of the world looks the other way. We're talking about the genocide in Darfur.
Clooney has been named by the U.N. as a messenger of peace and he's been to the Darfur region three times. He and his father lobby world leaders, bending ears and twisted arms at times, so does U2's Bono who profiled Clooney for "Time" and sat down with him for the cameras here in New York at the Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BONO: George, we are here today because "Time" is recognizing your work in Darfur, and great work it is too. The reason I'm here is I want to get into your head, to understand how you schooled yourself, surrounded yourself with experts and strategizing and the long night it took to be become the sexiest man and to be honored not once but twice.
CLOONEY: Two times, I was a two timer.
BONO: I know it's a lot -- it takes a lot of work. I mean I've seen you this 10, 20, the hair, makeup. I mean...
CLOONEY: What you do is -- there have been others that -- Pitt's a two-timer as well but he ran a very good campaign the last time and...
BONO: But you have Matt, I mean, I'm hanging out -- I know Brad, I know Matt. I know you. It's getting a little awkward for me because I haven't even been mentioned.
CLOONEY: There is still time, there is still time.
BONO: And I don't know if you could...
CLOONEY: I may be for the AARP one now which is my new goal. I'm going for the senior citizen, once you have that then you've sort of covered it all. And there is hope for either spot.
BONO: Well, thank you. I think that might...
CLOONEY: Oh yes you do...
BONO: Because I think you know there are sort of rock stars we're just a little too rough and ready. I mean, I'm ready to clean up my act a bit but it's not going to work -- I mean, that I can do it.
CLOONEY: I still think there's time.
BONO: George, that would be -- that is -- I mean, that's the reason I'm...
CLOONEY: That's why you're here.
BONO: ...I own up to this because I just wanted to...
CLOONEY: I will help you with this.
BONO: There's one other thing while I can ask anything I want. You recently slept with somebody I have a crush on.
CLOONEY: Yes.
BONO: Nick Christophe of the "New York Times."
CLOONEY: Yes, I did actually. It's an interesting week he and I together.
BONO: I actually worked in the "New York Times" as a columnist and I know your dad was a journalist.
CLOONEY: Yes.
BONO: And I have a theory, I don't know what you make of it, that actors in a certain sense are like journalists. Like -- you collect the details of other people's lives the minutia, is that far fetched.
CLOONEY: Well, there is some truth to it. The difference is that there is a responsibility there as a journalist. You have a responsibility to the truth or you hope you have a responsibility to the truth if you are a journalist.
If you are an actor you can make up your facts along the way. You can decide a character has these qualities and you can decide certain facts unless you are doing a movie or a project that's based specifically on somebody.
BONO: All right.
CLOONEY: But, yes, there are -- the collection of little pieces in putting it all together there are some similarities to. I think most actors are jealous of journalists because there's -- I have nothing but respect for them.
BONO: You know, being a famous person, it is, to me, you know, one of the absurdities of being a famous face is that people admire you and I way above our station. We are not nurses, we are not firemen.
CLOONEY: Right.
BONO: We're not you know -- and celebrity seems to have gone to an almost oppressive level. I have really long admired you for your graceful dancing around these very harsh bright lights of fame. How are you dealing with that?
CLOONEY: I think you know, first of all, it helps that I got lucky in a lot of ways. First of all, my aunt was a very famous singer and then she wasn't. You know. She didn't become less of a singer along the way.
Things changed and the world changes and it's taken away. I don't think she handled it particularly well when it first happened.
So I got the lesson of fame and how sort of little it has to do with you and how much more it is about a little bit of timing, a little bit of luck, a little bit of all of this something.
Also it happened for me late. "ER" hit me when I was 33. So I'd been not famous for quite sometime and not successful for a long time. So I had a really a better idea of how it works, you know, and how literally little it has to do with you.
It has changed dramatically I think in the last five or six years with the sort of got you, everybody with those cell phone camera kind of thing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: You heard Brat Pitt come up, he, Bono and George Clooney share a passion for public service. His passion concerns a place he calls home, New Orleans. He is being honored for it in the pages of "Time" by another proud New Orleanian, CNN's James Carville.
Here he is reading an excerpt of his piece on Brad Pitt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES CARVILLE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: At a time when you own its future an entire culture hangs in the balance, the most sought after actor in our fellow New Orleanian hasn't simply helped people. He's given their lives back. Pitt has brought life and hope for our most unique city and one we're proud to call home.
In a place that has been described as the city that care forgot, it is a fact that Brad Pitt has never forgotten to care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, when we come back, how "Time" chose the "Time 100" and more of Bono's interview with George Clooney. Some lighter moments about his family and more on his passion for Darfur.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLOONEY: You go through these different phases of -- first thing you have is you get there and you get really angry. And you go -- I'm -- it took me 20 hours to get here flying. And 20 hours away is a world where the average life expectancy is 38 years old. Well, that's insane to me coming from a place where the average age is 80.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And later, my encounter with the women of "The View."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": When John McCain came on it was in the thick of the election time and we went after him because of the ads -- I did because of the ads that they were running. The Republican Party was running ads that I thought were lies. And I just confronted him on it, that's all. I just did my job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Also the money meltdown; Suzy Welch interviewing Suze Orman at the New York Stock Exchange with Orman revealing this about herself and more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUZE ORMAN, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: Why do you think I was a waitress until I was almost 30 years of age, having been one for seven years, making $400 a month? I've walked in those shoes. I've lived in my car for months. I've done all of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That, Ted Turner, singer John Legend and more as this TIME 100/AC360 SPECIAL: THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Who is making a difference in the world? Who makes life better or worse? Showing us something we didn't see before or didn't know before, persuading, inspiring, leading, fighting or simply helping us smile for a change.
In this special hour see for yourself, we are profiling some of the people in this year's "Time 100;" 100 of the world's most influential people. Select company.
Here is "Time" managing editor Richard Stengel on how the names are chosen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD STENGEL, "TIME" MANAGING EDITOR: The "Time 100" list it's not a hot list. It's not a power list. It's not a list of the most beautiful. It's a list of the most influential people of the world. That is people who through their ideas, through their behavior, through their conduct, through what they've achieved are influencing others all around the world.
The extraordinary thing is that it runs the gamut of all occupations basically available to people. It's not just world leaders and states people, its artists and its revolutionaries, its scientists, thinkers, its philosophers. People who you might not have heard of but who are influencing the course of events in the world right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: No doubt about that.
More now with two men who believe that influencing events in the world right now, specifically in Central Africa, is a matter of life and death on a scale not seen in generations. Bono interviewing "Time" honoree and actor George Clooney.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BONO: What went through your mind the first time you saw the sort of the squandering of human life that's an everyday experience in Darfur, in the Sudan or in Chad? And you've seen life slip away.
And I mean, were you angry? Were you sad? Were you embarrassed because the West looked like its turning its back on another genocide? I mean, I like that you even stand what's the...
CLOONEY: You are all of those things. First you're really angry and you want like a bunch of planes and say you went on and be coming with bombs and just take out all the bad guys, that's the first reaction there.
And then you go through these phases of trying to figure out who are the bad guys? Why are they the bad guys? Usually they are all -- if you are an actor you play the bad guy you have to justify why you really are that guy. There has to be a reason why you are doing that.
BONO: Right.
CLOONEY: And it's usually you've got to come to the bottom of it and you find it that is almost always oil, strangely, there's oil in the Sudan to the most part.
BONO: I guess so.
CLOONEY: It comes down to those sort of issues where you think the people who need to take the lead have no vested interest in taking the lead. China needs to take the lead. They're the ones who are taking oil out.
But they need oil, badly. So there is no great interest in it being settled.
There are two sorts of ways of doing this. You can do it strictly from an activist/advocate kind of way, which is you know shame on you guys, and you should do this.
And you need that group. You need those people out there yelling and screaming and saying China, you're not doing your bit. And you have to have that group. This is genocide and screaming.
You also have to have people who are -- take the diplomatic side who go in and say, listen, we are not going to be able to tell 1.3 billion people how to run their government and how to run their lives. They are a superpower. And I know that if they did that to us our reaction probably wouldn't be very good.
So what you find is rather than trying to attack them, although you need people doing that, in general, my tact of attack with people and things I've learned from you in many ways is to try to appeal to their better angels. And say, listen, isn't there some way that you can take the lead on this and be the heroes in this situation? And that's what you try to find a way to let them win.
BONO: And another thing I admire about you is that you've managed to make joyous films, fun stuff, that's just pure cinema and the joy of watching great actors, and a great story. But at the same time as making hardcore political opuses like Syriana, whatever like that. And you've manage this, and this really is -- you're the only one who has managed to stay (INAUDIBLE) while throwing a very heavy punch.
And actually, I think that might be why you are able to throw such a heavy punch. I think it's probably you always do a great boxer. And I think that's what we -- what we've come to admire.
Could that be ever applied in a domestic situation? Do you think -- could you imagine running for office in the United States?
CLOONEY: No, no. I thought about it years ago, a lot of years ago. Because you know, it's sort of in my -- if you are the son of a journalist you've really been around politics your whole life. And I thought about it.
I did a TV show, Steven Soderbergh and I did a TV show a few years back in D.C. called "K Street" and we used real politicians and worked every day in a room with consultants, and it's Mary Madeleine and James Carville and Michael Dever (ph) and Ken Adelman (ph) and like, you know Neocons (ph) and liberals and the whole sort of group.
And the longer I was there the more I realized that just, you know, from my world I can pick a subject and take a stand and not have to worry about whether or not I'm not answering to a constituency or -- I don't have to make any compromises in that world. I can go, that's bad. Now, let's figure out how to solve it.
The thing that's frustrating about what it is that we're trying is that we're also failing. It's not a failure and the effort isn't a failure and you've saved -- you're personally responsible for saving thousands of lives, but you are.
BONO: I wouldn't argue with that but it's true.
CLOONEY: But the people in Darfur are no better off now than they were five years ago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Bono and George Clooney on Darfur in particular but also making the larger case against being a bystander anywhere if you can make a difference somewhere.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been influential in fighting to make a difference in the lives of Muslim women in Africa and around the world who are facing mutilation and other brutality. Her message has marked her for death. Here and in the pages of "Time" she recognizes the work of honoree and French President Nicholas Sarkozy for his influence pressing for social justice in Africa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AYAAN HIRSI ALI, WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST: As France's Minister of the Interior, Sarkozy empowered immigrant women. As President, he has given three appointments in his cabinet to women from African- immigrant families. In an homage to Simone Veil, the renowned French feminist and former President of the European parliament, Sarkozy said, "Every time a woman is martyred in the world, that woman should be recognized as a French citizen and France will stand at her side."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, coming up, a side of personal finance guru Suze Orman you haven't seen before. Her humble beginnings and her take on her achievements today.
Also, I wonder what Michael Moore has to say about Bernie Madoff? Find out next as our special continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: You can make a case today that all economics is home economics and all finance, personal. One way or another we are all paying for the housing collapse, the banking failures, the auto bailout and the shrinking economy.
No one says it louder or as you'll see prouder than personal finance guru, Suze Orman. You'll also see perhaps for the first time where she gets her strength and how her outspokenness evolved.
"Time" honors her. Financial reporter and management guru Suzy Welch profiles her and sat down with her for a real talking to.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZY WELCH, FINANCIAL REPORTER: Here we are at the New York Stock Exchange. You talked about money, talked about finance; you don't have an MBA or majored in social work.
ORMAN: Yes.
WELCH: And so I'm asking you know, how do you get your opinions? I imagine you're just reading reports, you're studying financials and actually what you're saying is you're just watching human nature?
ORMAN: Remember, I'm not an economist. I'm not a financial reporter. I'm a personal finance expert. In fact, I'm the personal finance expert for the entire world.
WELCH: All right, so you're the personal finance expert for the world as you said.
ORMAN: Yes.
WELCH: With your own words, what about the weight of responsibility on your shoulders? Did you ever wake up in the middle of the night and say people are living and investing their money according to my advice? I mean, how does that feel? ORMAN: It feels great. And I'll tell you why it feels great. I've never said anything that I've really regretted saying in terms of what to do with money. I think very carefully before I say something. I take the responsibility so seriously and somehow, somehow it's managed to be right.
WELCH: You seem so sure of yourself and so sure of what you know. Is there anything you don't know?
ORMAN: When it comes to money, no there is nothing that I do not know; that I'm sure about.
WELCH: Well, that's fierce. I tweet and I actually went out to the twitter world and said I'm going to interview Suze Orman. Somebody tweeted me, "I love Suze Orman. I don't know if she's ever walked in my shoes."
ORMAN: Are you kidding? I absolutely -- this is why Suze Orman is Suze Orman because I have walked in those shoes. I've walked in the shoes of credit card debt. I've walked in the shoes of being ashamed that my parents didn't have any money. And I wanted to be like all the other kids and I wasn't.
I walked in the shoes of not doing well at school whatsoever. So I didn't get good grades. And I didn't think that I'd be anything -- why do you think I was a waitress until I was almost 30 years of age having been one for seven years making $400 a month.
I've walked in those shoes. I've lived in my car for months. I've done all of that, I've walked in those shoes.
WELCH: And then came a moment where you shed your bad relationships. You write about how you made this decision to let go of the destructive relationships in your life? Was that a turning point for you?
ORMAN: Yes. The day I turned 50, it was my turning point. I decided that I didn't want to enter my 50th year living in a lie, so to speak.
WELCH: Yes.
ORMAN: Living with people who said they loved me but they didn't love me. They didn't even like me. They didn't even want me around them. Not just relationships, personal relationships, professional relationships as well. I dropped them all. Bam, in one lump sum here. And that's when I started to realize keeping good company is the key to success.
WELCH: Hasn't your job changed so much in the past year? I mean, didn't it used to be about opportunities and excitement? And now over the past year you're dealing with people who are feeling desperate and lost and they're in trouble?
ORMAN: No. And let me tell you why.
Suze Orman has always geared her books and her television show to those who did not have. To those who have credit card debt, those who lost their jobs. And I've always said eight months emergency fund...
WELCH: Yes.
ORMAN: ...get out of credit card debt, don't take loans from your 401(k).
There is the difference, my methods has always been the same essentially. Now people want to hear what I'm finally saying. They didn't want to hear it before.
WELCH: Say this career hadn't come to you what would you be doing if you weren't doing this?
ORMAN: When I think about myself I don't think of myself as the personal financial expert. I think of myself as Suze Orman. I do not define myself by my job title, my bank account, my real estate, my clothes, my jewelry, anything. I know that I am Suze Orman. So with this or without this, nothing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, Suze Orman is a guru; Bernie Madoff is I guess a Grinch. He's awaiting sentencing for stock fraud to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. His profile is handled by Michael Moore.
Here is a sample of his take on Mr. Madoff.
"It would be too easy and the wrong lesson learned to put Bernie, 71, on "Time's" list all by himself. If Ponzi schemes are such a bad thing then why have we allowed our top banks to deal in credit default swaps and other make believe rackets?
Where are the mug shots on these lists of the Chairman of AIG, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup? And what of Madoff's client's themselves, what do they think was going on to guarantee them incredible returns in their investments every single year? That's probably going too far. Better that we just put Bernie on the list."
Well, both Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama are on the list too. Up next find out what the single most influential woman on daytime television has to say about America's First Lady.
Also, my conversation with the most influential group of women on television, the women of "The View." That, and more as this TIME 100/AC360 SPECIAL continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: No surprise, President and Michelle Obama make the "Time 100" this year, he for doing possibly the toughest job on earth right now. He and she for making their respective jobs look doable in tough times, even easy at times, the First Lady especially so.
She now enjoys remarkable approval across the country and the political spectrum. Oprah Winfrey profiles her in "Time." She writes, "Long before there was a serious talk of a campaign for the presidency, I remember going to the Obama's house for dinner. I figured there would be takeout since I knew that like me, Michelle had worked all day.
But no, there she was in the kitchen, calm and organized preparing linguine with shrimp and vegetables. The woman I've witnessed five years ago with her graciousness, care and attention to detail is the same woman I visited in the White House in February. She doesn't make false moves."
Oprah goes on to write, "a phenomenal woman indeed."
Michelle Obama was slow to come around to the idea of her President running for President but when she did her influence was clearly a positive, whether by her husband's side on the campaign trail or by herself on the talk show circuit, including shows like "The View." Michelle Obama wasn't the only big political name of the 2008 campaign to sit with five of the best known names in daytime talks.
A decision to make politics a much bigger part of the morning conversation is what catapulted "The View" to its most successful year ever and into the "Time 100." Politics is where I began as I sat down with Barbara Walters and company minus Whoopi Goldberg who couldn't make it that day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Barbara, did you have any idea at the start of this political season that you and the other ladies on "The View" were going to play such an important role?
BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": I don't think we did. i think we have very different opinions which is part of the success of the program. But also, I think what happened was when we had John McCain on and when we had Barack Obama on and we had their wives on, suddenly we had such vitality and we were very tough on some of them.
COOPER: But was it -- I mean, was it a conscious effort to really be a player in this election? You all went after those interviews, right?
WALTERS: Yes. But I don't think we sat down and thought we are going to go after these interviews so that we will become -- get higher ratings. We went after these interviews because we were interested as was everybody else in this country.
COOPER: Did you think they were fair?
ELISABETH HASSELBECK, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": The interviews?
COOPER: Yes. Well with John McCain and Barack Obama, do you think they were equal?
HASSELBECK: I think what we tended to do was gave our viewers what they truly needed too. We had questions we found personally important but also our viewers we know are involved politically and charged as well. So I think we tried to give them as much of a well-rounded perspective in terms of questions to those individuals as possible.
COOPER: But did you think it was fair? I think, Cindy McCain at one point said that you all picked their bones clean. Joy, I think she was talking about you.
JOY BEHAR, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": Really? I think when Obama was on he wasn't a candidate yet. It was the primary season.
HASSELBACK: He didn't show up when he was a nominee, actually.
BEHAR: He had already come on the show and the timing was off. But when John McCain came on it was in the thick of the election time and we went after him -- I did because of the ads that they were running. The Republican Party was running ads that I thought were lies. And I just confronted him on it. That's all, I just did my job.
WALTERS: I disagree with my pals. I think we were tough on John McCain. I think, in general, our panel with the exception of Elisabeth tends to be -- shall we say -- more liberal.
COOPER: Do people come out to you on the street and confront you about your political views and about some of the things you said?
BEHAR: Well, I live on the Upper West Side, so no.
COOPER: Everyone agrees with you.
HASSELBECK: As do I.
SHERRI SHEPHERD, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": I ride the train all the time so I get it all the time. What I love about this show is you are not coming on here and doing -- smashing grapes and making it into wine. And I think that we ask people those questions that people on the train every day when they ride they want to know.
COOPER: And how do you decide the hot topics?
BEHAR: We do it in makeup room when we are getting made up and hair and we have a list of research topics that come from everywhere, CNN, come from MSNBC, come from the "New York Times," the news and entertainment.
HASSELBECK: Things we've watched before.
BEHAR: About 30 or 40 topics are given to us, we read everything blurbs and then we decide what we are going to talk about.
WALTERS: If a topic -- we meet at 9:00 in the morning. We have like three-quarters of an hour. And we bring our personal things as well. We do a lot of things about our own lives. That's been difficult for me, being much more personal.
If we do something, let's say we want to talk about Anderson Cooper and nobody is interested.
(CROSS TALK) WALTERS: Hey, guys, what about doing Anderson Cooper?
SHEPHERD: Then somebody will go, what about number 36.
(CROSS TALK)
COOPER: By the way, this happens in my own show meetings. When I mention ideas -- there's a lot of people looking around the room awkwardly. Yes, it's not very pleasant.
HASSELBECK: And then we go and we leave it there. Because if once we start -- we know when we have something I think because someone will -- it is hard to get us to be quiet. We will start to say something and we know and I just wait.
SHEPHERD: Sometimes I think if somebody goes why don't you talk about this? If we all agree about it, if we all go, "Oh, that's so terrible" and there is no discussion it is not really very interesting.
WALTERS: It doesn't happen often.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: While some opt for "The View" others get news entertainment late night from Time 100 honoree, Jay Leno. Jimmy Fallon who follows Jay at night profiles Jay in the new issue of time.
"You need a work ethics that is second to none," he writes. "And when I think of work ethic I think of Jay Leno." He goes on, "The way he commands a crowd at the show and the love and effort he puts into it all that can't be taught. You can only admire it and hope to learn from it and that's what I aspire to do. Being able to pulling off a 100 percent denim outfit like Jay would be totally awesome too." That is a difficult thing indeed.
Just ahead: more of my sit-down with the women of the "The View" including a candid conversation on how the show really works on a daily basis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: How do you survive, Joy? I mean, it's a tough grill?
BEHAR: That's always -- people do ask me that.
COOPER: Yes, I'm sure they do.
BEHAR: I have had a lot of psychoanalysis and I also worked in a mental hospital which really prepares me for "The View."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Also ahead, the woman who changed the political landscape by poking fun at it and dressing up as the people in it: "Saturday Night Live's" Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin's take on her when our special hour continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Erica Hill. The TIME/AC360 SPECIAL: THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE continues in a moment. But first, this 360 Bulletin.
Investigators have found the jeep belonging to a former University of Georgia professor suspected of killing his wife and two other people six days ago. The vehicle was recovered about a mile from his home, no sign however of the 57-year-old suspect who was fired a day after the killings.
In Iraq U.S. troop death surged to 18 in April, twice the toll in March and the deadliest this year. All but two died in combat. In March, U.S. deaths dropped to the lowest levels since 2003.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fighting back tears today when she spoke at a ceremony to honor foreign service officers killed in the line of duty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Three of these inscriptions are many years overdue; one is being added all too soon.
Brian Atkins was a smart, talented and generous young man, everything that his country looks for in a foreign service officer. Wherever he went he made an impression and he made a difference. As an undergraduate at George Washington University he was a leader in Catholic service groups on campus. He was so industrious that when he left for Ethiopia, one of his friends said, "It took three of us just to fill his shoes."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: The names of Brian Atkins and three others were added to a plaque at the State Department entrance.
A health alert: the FDA recalling Hydroxycut products; the popular dietary supplement used for weight loss. The agency says it has now received 23 reports of serious liver injuries linked to the product including one death.
And say hello to the youngest member of Mensa -- yes the genius society. Elise Tan Roberts is only 2 years old. She lives in north London; her IQ, 156. By the way, the average is 100. Elise began talking at 5 months; at 2, she can name the capital cities of about 20 countries.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is the capital of Japan?
ELISE TAN ROBERTS, YOUNGEST MENSA MEMBER: Tokyo.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about Sri Lanka?
ROBERTS: Colombo
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the capital of China?
ROBERTS: Beijing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what about Sierra Leone?
ROBERTS: Freetown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: She can probably beat us all with "Jeopardy." Those are your headlines at this hour. I'm Erica Hill.
Back to THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: A few moments ago you heard the women of "The View" talking candidly and at length about their influential role in the 2008 Presidential Election. Sherri Shepherd, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg and, of course, Barbara Walters. All of them honored as members of the Time 100 Most Influential, each with her own strongly held beliefs. All of them, they say, friends, which is where we pick up the conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: You actually like each other.
HASSELBECK: We do.
SHEPHERD: We do.
BEHAR: This group is very amiable.
COOPER: Even though you disagree. I mean, Elisabeth, you disagree all the time.
HASSELBECK: Where I grew up most of my friends and family I don't know if we ever had a conversation growing up that everyone agreed.
BEHAR: But that's what people stopping on the street and say, "Do you really get along with Elisabeth?" I constantly hear. As if I'm not supposed to get along personally with someone I don't agree with. It's not an ad hominim attack. Also, we do policy, basically.
We don't like this candidate, that candidate. We disagree on policy. It is not, oh, you're fat. We fight on the air and then I'll say, "I like your top."
HASSELBECK: Right. Or what are you having for lunch? What is in your microwave?
COOPER: But it isn't an act?
BEHAR: It is not an act. It's in the moment.
HASSELBECK: No.
BEHAR: If we were going to carry on we would have to keep that conversation going and we're done with it.
WALTERS: We respect each other. And we've done this enough to know that we can be forceful, sometimes even angry and then we say that's that. And it is on to the next subject, in part because we really do like each other.
And I know that sounds, "Oh, we like each other." It sounds so boring, but we do.
COOPER: You have spent your career not giving your opinion and trying to remain objective. Is it tough for you to suddenly be in this panel where everyone is giving their opinion?
BEHAR: The name of the show is "The View." So we are giving our views. And so Barbara wants to do it now I think. Right, Barbara?
WALTERS: It is tough, Anderson. There are times when I would want to say more. On the other hand I think it is very good. On the other hand, I think it's very good occasionally to be on the other end.
I am, by the way, Joy has been on the show from the very beginning. I mean, I think there is no accident that this year we are getting this wonderful recognition. But I am Joy's best friend.
BEHAR: She is my best friend.
COOPER: How have you survived, Joy? I mean it's a tough grill?
BEHAR: That's always -- people do ask me that.
COOPER: Yes. I'm sure they do.
BEHAR: I have had a lot of psychoanalysis. And also I used to work in a mental hospital which really prepares me for "The View." But also, I consider "The View" a cocktail party with guests just changing.
COOPER: Are there interviews you -- people you haven't been able to get on the show that you want to get on the show?
WALTERS: Oh, sure.
COOPER: Anyone in particular?
BEHAR: Dead or alive?
COOPER: Either one. Alive would probably be better.
SHEPHERD: The dead would be really tough to handle.
WALTERS: I think we would like the president and the first lady on with us. I think we would like to have John McCain on with us again.
BEHAR: Yes. Sure, if he'll come back.
WALTERS: If he will come back.
COOPER: Do you think he would?
BEHAR: We don't know if he's still mad.
(CROSS TALK)
WALTERS: We have had Meghan McCain on the program and we like her.
COOPER: What about Sarah Palin?
SHEPHERD: We would love for Sarah Palin to come on.
HASSELBECK: She didn't come on the first time.
WALTERS: We would love Sarah Palin. We sort of don't expect that to happen but we would love Sarah Palin.
BEHAR: I was rough on Sarah. I doubt that she'll come back on the show.
COOPER: Where do you see the show? I mean, five years from now. Do you hope to still be on the air? Do you hope to still be doing the same thing everyday?
BEHAR: I don't know. It'll be fun.
WALTERS: I think -- I never expected the show to be on this long. I'm sure it will be on in five years. To have this kind of recognition, it is really not 100 most influential people. It is 105 most influential people.
BEHAR: That's right.
They call us the ladies of "The View." I'm not crazy about that. It should be the women of "The View." They don't say the gentlemen of CNN when they're referring to you and Wolf and the rest of you. Am right?
SHEPHERD: Are you saying you don't like it -- it is grammatically incorrect? Or you just don't...
BEHAR: I think that ladies has -- the women. Ladies is a sort of an attitude that people have. Oh, she is such a lady. I'm not such a lady.
WALTERS: What is the word you really want to use? BEHAR: The bitches of "The View."
(CROSS TALK)
COOPER: I'm not sure what I can call you now. Thank you very much for talking with us.
WALTERS: Thank you, Anderson.
BEHAR: Thank you, Anderson.
HASSELBECK: Thank you.
SHEPHERD: Thank you.
BEHAR: Always a pleasure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Some of the women who are influential in politics made their impact through comedy about politicians. With Tina Fey at the center and her "Saturday Night Live" companions also playing along. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TINA FEY, AS "SARAH PALIN": You want an outsider who doesn't like politics as usual, or pronouncing the "g" at the end of a word she's saying. I think you know who you'll vote for. And for those Joe Six Packs out there playing a drinking game at home, maverick.
You know, Hillary and I don't agree on everything --
AMY POEHLER, AS "HILLARY CLINTON": Anything.
I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy.
FEY: And I can see Russia from my house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton who you just saw being played on "Saturday Night Live" by Amy Poehler are all on the Time 100 list.
Here is what Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey's "30 Rock" co-star, had to say about her. "Smart, funny, beautiful. Smart, funny, beautiful. It had gotten to the point where I was simply going to buy Tina some monogrammed towels that read SFB." He adds, "Devoted, tough, respected. Now if she'd only work on her posture."
Coming up, one is 70, the other is 80 and neither is slowing down. Ted Turner and T. Boone Pickens: two friends who have both made and lost billions. They're still trying to change the world, and they'll sit down together, next. Also tonight, more with Bono and George Clooney on politics, presidents and what Clooney thinks of President Obama.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Two other innovators now: one, trying to reshape the way America uses energy; the other, made it possible for you to see what you're seeing and watch news happen anytime, happening anywhere in world. CNN founder Ted Turner and T. Boone Pickens.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED TURNER, FOUNDER, CNN: We both like making money and we both also like to give it away. What drives you to be so generous?
T. BOONE PICKENS, CHAIRMAN, BP CAPITAL: You know, Ted, we do have similar record on giving and making money, going broke a few times, too. I like to give it and see what happens.
TURNER: You're 80. And I'm only 70. If you could give me advice of what to do with the next ten years, what would it be?
PICKENS: What is wrong with the model we've been using? You know? Work hard, make the money, give the money away, enjoy life.
TURNER: Sounds good to me.
PICKENS: The one that #I've always loved about you, Ted, is that you went in when there were only three networks. You were laughed at by some people. You weren't by me. I didn't know for sure what you were going to do but what you did, you changed the world when you got -- showed the world what America looked like. Kind of tell me how did that unfold for you?
TURNER: Well, you know, I just had that idea that 24-hour news would be a -- would be a great convenience because you could see news any time that you were ready to see it. Not just when the networks -- the few hours a day they put it on -- and I was right, thankfully.
PICKENS: Let's go over to green. You're a big green guy and you told me that when we had the green economy it will be the greatest of all times.
TURNER: Well, I really believe that global climate change is real and that we have to switch away from fossil fuels as much as we can as quickly as we can. And I think that will be great because we'll be spending the money here in -- right here in the United States and creating those jobs. And we'll be keeping that money home instead of sending it to the Middle East.
PICKENS: That's key because if we go forward ten years like we have had the last 40 years, no energy plan for America. In ten years we'll be importing over 75 percent of our oil and it'll be costing us $300 a barrel. That's $2 trillion. Can you imagine -- we got to side step that, Ted. TURNER: We got all that wind and solar power right here for free. So we're crazy to bankrupt ourselves when we can get rich by having clean, renewable energy produced right here in America.
PICKENS: But we have got to use one hydrocarbon a little longer.
TURNER: Natural gas.
PICKENS: That's right. You have to use it as a bridge fuel to the battery.
TURNER: What was it that made a lifelong oil man like you decide to become the champion of renewable energy?
PICKENS: I'm an energy guy, not just oil but energy. And I got in to the wind energy business and I'm in it for a business. I'm not in it because I'm just green or, you know, I'm an environmentalist. It's because I thought it would make money.
TURNER: Boone, we have been fortunate so have found success and made a great living as businessmen. How can we encourage others in our position, especially landowners to see that renewable energy is not only good for the planet but it is also the best investment we can make?
PICKENS: Ted, the landowners are going to become a big factor in renewable energy. Of course, you've got the turbines. You have the solar and all. And I think what I see from the landowners, they want it because it does generate income for them.
So my question to you is, with 2 million acres, if the smart grid that the Obama administration is promoting, if that comes across your ranch, how will you accept it?
TURNER: I'm going to look forward to it.
PICKENS: Okay. Me, too. That's exactly my...
TURNER: Because that's going to get the energy we generate on that property to market. It's going to be really a big advantage to have the grid come over your property. Bring it on.
PICKENS: Ok. Let it rip.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: When we come back, producer Quincy Jones on singer John Legend.
Plus Bono and George Clooney talk American presidents and pulling no punches.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTIVIST: We had a civil war, we had Lincoln. We had the first Great Depression and the World War and we had Roosevelt. Then we had the Cuban missile crisis and we had Kennedy.
When we've absolutely needed the right guy we have gotten him. I used to think because of what happened with Iraq I kept thinking, "Wow, the first time we got unlucky."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So what is his take on President Obama? He has a lot to say and we'll show you when this TIME 100/AC360 Special continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Take an Ivy League grad, send him to work in a management consulting firm and you'd expect one day to end up with a business leader on the Time 100 or singer, John Legend who learned piano at 4, sang a capella at the University of Pennsylvania and honed his performing working days at the Boston Consulting Group.
Here's legendary producer Quincy Jones on John Legend. "John can go anywhere he wants to as an artist. He has a wonderful palette to create with. He's a genius and we've seen only the tip of the iceberg. For all that he's already achieved in his career, it is going to be fun watching where he goes from here."
Watching and listening. Earlier in the hour, you heard Clooney and Bono talk about Darfur and the need for everyone to try and leave the world, even just a piece of it, better than before. More of their conversation now; this time about politics and whether George Clooney has got political ambitions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLOONEY: Obama has -- you know, in fairness, I mean, I really do think he has opened up a world of awareness here. You know, I do -- you know, our country's in right now one of its bigger crises it's had. We tend to, it seems, at the exact time we've needed it as a country, gotten the right guy. You know?
We needed a constitution. We got Thomas Jefferson then Adams. You know, we had a civil war, we had Lincoln. We had the first Great Depression and the World War and we had Roosevelt. You know, we had the Cuban missile crisis and we had Kennedy.
We -- when we have absolutely need the right guy we have gotten him. I used to think because of what happened with Iraq, I kept thinking, wow, first time we got unlucky but I actually think it's now. I think, now's the most important time and we seem to have really the right guy.
BONO: You know, in Ireland -- the Irish people are claiming President Obama -- they put the apostrophe on the O and of course they claim you. You're Irishness...
CLOONEY: O'Clooney.
BONO: Are you at all aware? How far back is your Irishness? Is there any kind of...
CLOONEY: My grandparents.
BONO: ... DNA? I mean, you have been known to scrap.
CLOONEY: Yes.
BONO: I've certainly witnessed some drinking. I haven't -- singing, I haven't.
CLOONEY: Be glad you haven't seen the singing.
BONO: What is your --
CLOONEY: I am -- our family is very Irish. You know? Still. Irish Catholics. Grew up in a very sort of -- sort of rooted in Midwestern now, you know, in America, but very Irish sort of -- you know, family, big families. I've only been there a couple of times which is the funniest thing to me. I should spend much more time...
BONO: I know. You just stay where you are. Ok? It's all we have left.
CLOONEY: You mean, it's all I've got.
BONO: Really, I just want to thank, you know, whoever it was. Your great grandparents, your forefathers, the potato famine, whoever I have to thank...
CLOONEY: Exactly from over there.
BONO: Just be glad you made it on the boat. Ok?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: George Clooney and Bono.
And that's our special report. To see the full wide-ranging interview, go to ac360.com and check out the special Time 100 issue out now.
Before we go, a reminder: 100 made the list; anyone, though, can make a difference. Do what you can. Get involved.
Thanks for watching.
