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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Thousands Homeless Following Volcano Eruption in Congo
Aired January 18, 2002 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again from Los Angeles. I'm Aaron Brown. This is our last night here and it is very much a Los Angeles program tonight. We have a very good LA hard news story to top the program, and an almost perfect LA story to end it.
It's been a great week for us here. This is kind of a weird program tonight, and so is this page as it turned out.
I'm asked often in the e-mails that I get, how Larry and I get along, Larry King that is, and the answer is, we're getting along great. He's been a wonderful friend, and this week more so than ever. Last night after the program, we ate dinner at Larry's house and we ate and laughed all night long.
And then this morning, we did what Larry does every morning out here in California. We met him at his favorite New York deli, which just happens to be, of course, in Beverly Hills. Larry holds court with three or four of his oldest friends from back in his days in Brooklyn. They sit around, eating and talking sports and life. Producer David Borman described it as doing a cameo appearance in Larry's life.
We would have paid for the experience, but of course, Larry wouldn't allow anyone to pay for anything. That's what he does. So while we look forward to getting home, we also look forward to bringing NEWSNIGHT back to LA where given the difference in time, we would have to change the name to Newsdusk.
We didn't have to travel far for our lead story tonight. The California story begins our whip around the world with the correspondents covering it. CNN's Charles Feldman first, Charles the headline on the SLA case, please.
CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the alleged leftovers of a 1970s radical group, one criminal case comes to an end today, while another just begins. Aaron.
BROWN: Charles, back to you shortly. To the White House, Kelly Wallace, some intriguing stuff in the Enron mess today. Kelly, good to see you, a headline please.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Aaron. Well we learned today that the Vice President stepped in back in June to help Enron recover a multi-million dollar debt from India. White House aides say Mr. Cheney did nothing wrong, and that Clinton Administration officials did the same thing. Still, some Democrats say it's another example of how Enron may have benefited from its ties with the White House. Aaron.
BROWN: Kelly, thank you. Some mesmerizing and yes, terrifying pictures, came out of Africa today. So a first for us tonight in the whip, we go to Rwanda, and CNN's Catherine Bond. Catherine, a headline please.
CATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's early morning here in Rwanda, and most people from Goma, the Republic of the Congo, where the volcano has erupted have spent the night out in -- Aaron.
BROWN: We got it, a volcano there. We'll work on the technology. This is not an easy shot to get out of Rwanda. We'll work on that. Also coming up, the Golden Globe Awards are Sunday, and what would a trip to Los Angeles be without a celebrity sighting.
So tonight, we'll talk with actress Marisa Tomei about her work, her latest film. It's getting a lot of terrific buzz, called "In the Bedroom." So she'll be here in a little bit.
And getting ready for the Golden Globe Awards as they only can in Hollywood, trust me, this is a bit more than getting your nails done. Scott Harriet tonight in Segment 7.
And just because the staff believes it's been too easy a week for me, seeing too many old friends and just too LA mellow, there's a mystery guest tonight. You know it. They know it. I don't know who. We'll see how it goes. All that's coming up on Friday's NEWSNIGHT.
We begin with the case that has captivated us all this week. Murder charges against five former radicals connected to the Symbionese Liberation Army. Even before we came to LA, we knew that we would cover the sentencing today of Sara Jane Olson for plotting to blow up police cars back in the mid-1970s, but we never imagined it would be to a lead story, which in fact is two stories rolled into one and in an odd way, the characters have had two lives rolled into one as well.
They're young and radical lives, perhaps even murderous lives, and their older lives, normal and peaceful. Here again is CNN's Charles Feldman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FELDMAN (voice over): There they were in two separate courtrooms, separated by a few hundred miles, involving a case spanning 27 years. In LA, Sara Jane Olson, one-time alleged SLA member. She says sympathesizer only.
In Sacramento, California Bill and and Emily Harris, no longer married to each other, but now bound by their past.
And, in Portland, Oregon Michael Borton, all charged with the shotgun murder of Myrna Opsahl. She was a customer at the Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, California back in 1975, when it was held up, allegedly by the SLA. In a case already unusual because of the passage of time, the timing of Sara Jane Olson's arraignment on Murder charges itself, beyond the norm.
She had just been sentenced to 20 years to life for her role in a plot to bomb LAPD cruisers in the '70s, a sentence that her lawyers hope will be drastically reduced because of recent changes in California law.
SARA JANE OLSON: I still maintain that I did not participate in this in Los Angeles, but in helping people if I did anything that brought harm to other people, I am truly sorry.
FELDMAN: Before her sentencing on the bombing charges, her daughter gave an emotional speech in support of her mother, who lived the life of a fugitive in Minnesota for decades.
LEILA PETERSON, SARA JANE OLSON'S DAUGHTER: She was the best mother anyone would ever want and (inaudible.)
FELDMAN: There was emotion on both sides. Prosecutors produced one of the two police officers whose lives might have been lost, had the pipe bomb plot worked, which it didn't.
OFFICER JOHN HALL, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: I would have certainly died that evening, leaving behind my wife and three-month- old daughter. My other two children would never have been born, nor one of my grandsons.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FELDMAN (on camera): Olson's lawyer entered a not guilty plea. When that case goes to trial, Patricia Hearst, the newspaper heiress kidnapped by the SLA, is expected to be a key prosecution witness. Hearst has admitted being in the getaway car, but has been granted immunity in exchange for her testimony. Aaron.
BROWN: Charles, thank you. Charles Feldman with us here in Los Angeles tonight. Thank you. Last night, we heard from the son of the woman who was murdered back in 1975. He was just a teenager, 15 then, and you just heard briefly from the daughter of Sara Jane Olson, a teenager now as well, a victim as innocent as anyone in this whole sad case.
We want to spend a little bit more time listening to what she had to say to the court, along with other relatives of Ms. Olson, and we'll also hear more from the policeman who might just have been killed, had the plot to blow up his car succeeded.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELSIE SOLIAH, OLSON'S MOTHER: Our daughter has lived an upstanding life and was active in her community (inaudible), and she was arrested after all these years. Please know that our daughter is a good person and I want you to know that.
PETERSON: When she got arrested in 1999, I (inaudible). I had to take over all the cooking. Family members and neighbors would come over and I would cook (inaudible) for the company. (Inaudible). Sometimes I would cry when I was alone from that date to today. I don't want to lose my mom. (Inaudible.) She's one of the best mothers anyone would ever want (inaudible).
GERALD FREDRICK PETERSON, OLSON'S HUSBAND: California now is entrusted to clothe you and feed you and shelter you and correct you and try you. But this family of ours and our dear friends will not be diminished in our love for you, in our respect for you, and we will always stand by you until you come home.
HALL: I specifically remember walking to our black and white, as I had waved to a little girl, seven or eight years old. She was sitting in a booth with her parents and baby brother, no more than four or five feet in front of our vehicle. The little girl was seated in the front of a large window, smiling and waving energetically back at us.
Your Honor, it horrifies me to think that the lives of dozens of innocent people, like that child in the window, would have ended in an instant had the defendant and her co-conspirators successfully carried out their terrorist acts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Well I confess I'm envious of those people who find it very simple to sort this sort of thing out. It's a tough one. On we go, a different case out of Boston, tonight, Cambridge, Massachusetts to be specific, another very painful one.
Generally a conviction signals the end of the case, but here the conviction is merely the beginning. Former priest, John Geoghan, found guilty of molesting a boy a decade ago. The jury deliberated seven hours. The former priest now faces two other criminal cases, and 84 civil suits.
There are more than 130 people who say Geoghan sexually molested them when they were children. But as we said the other night about this story, it's as much about the role the Catholic Church played as it is about the actions of its former priest.
We might call this portion of the program the docket, one more from the courthouse, this one, not far from the last. Accused shoe bomber, Richard Reid, made an appearance before the court today in Boston. He spent most of the hearing looking down at his shackled feet, raising his head only to answer not guilty to eight charges of murder.
His lawyer went on the record to dispute the ninth charge that Reid tried to destroy a mass transit vehicle, saying the law applies only to trains, not planes. But in the end, she entered a not guilty plea on Reid's behalf to that charge as well. And from northern Virginia today, we get word that the trial of Zacarius Moussaoui will not be seen on TV. This is not surprising. A judge turned down a motion today from Court TV, CNN and others. They had argued the law banning cameras in Federal Court is unconstitutional.
Now onto the Enron case and the $64 million question. The $64 million is what Enron had at stake in a shaky business deal they did with India, the country. The question is whether Vice President Richard Cheney was right to bring that up, that debt up with an Indian political leader. It's a tough call, because like so much else in the Enron story, interest coincides just about everywhere you look.
There's Enron money involved. There's taxpayer money involved too. And so, if it's a tough call for us, it must also be red meat for a political food fight, and it is. With that in mind, we go back to the White House and CNN's Kelly Wallace. Kelly.
WALLACE: Well, Aaron, it certainly is red meat because Democrats, as soon as they heard about this, say that it makes them continue to question whether Enron had undue influence with this White House.
Now to that, Bush aides say that no one at Enron asked the Vice President to bring this issue up, this issue of this power plant project in Daboul, India during his June meeting with one of India's top opposition leaders.
They say he brought it up because American investments overseas benefit workers in the United States, and also because as you mentioned, taxpayers could lose plenty since the government oversees private investment corporation, also known as OPIC, had more than $300 million in financing and insurance connected to this project.
Well, in the words of one of the Vice President's top advisors, she said that the Vice President was simply doing his job.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY MATALIN, COUNSELOR TO THE VICE PRESIDENT: That is the job of this government, any government, any administration, to protect American investment abroad.
WALLACE (voice over): According to e-mails obtained by CNN, a White House National Security aide wrote an overseas private investment corporation official last June 28th, saying "Good news is that the Veep mentioned Enron in his meeting with Sonia Gandhi yesterday."
OPIC was also hoping President Bush would raise the matter with Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee during their November meeting. That did not happen. In a November 8th e-mail between OPIC officials, it says "confirmed that President Bush can not talk about Dabhol." It also says that Lawrence Lindsay, the President's top economic advisor "was advised that he could not discuss Dabhol." Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said administration lawyers told Lindsay his prior work as a consultant to Enron created a conflict of interest.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The counsel's office did recommend to Larry Lindsay that he have no direct involvement in the Dabhol plant as a result of his previous holdings with Enron.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE (on camera): Now Fleischer also said that Mr. Bush did not raise the issue during his meeting with the Prime Minister because aides felt it did not rise to the President's level. The Bush spokesman, though, also saying that three commerce secretaries during the Clinton Administration discussed the issue with Indian government officials.
They also released this letter from January, 1995 from then Commerce Secretary, the late Ron Brown, who was writing to India's Minister of Commerce, saying he hoped to discuss this issue, as well as others during his upcoming trip to India.
So the bottom line here, Aaron, the White House says government officials here did exactly what government officials should do, but Democrats say it's another example of how Enron may have benefited and they want this White House to be more forthcoming when it comes to contacts and meetings between Enron officials and Bush advisors. Aaron.
BROWN: Kelly, as you've been around the White House this week, and there seems to be a dribble here of a story and a dribble there of a story every day, is there much of a change in the tone of the White House in how it's reacting, or has it been pretty consistent straight across?
WALLACE: Well, I would say it's been consistent, but you did see a briefing the other day, quite a heated exchange between reporters and Ari Fleischer, the Bush spokesman. This White House feels that there's no story here, that there's no allegation of wrongdoing committed by anyone in this administration, that the White House has revealed all the contacts between Enron officials when it comes to Enron's financial position.
So you do get a sense that officials here are somewhat defensive that these questions keep coming up. But as you said, you get a dribble here, a dribble there, and it's likely to continue. As we learn more, the questions will keep coming. Advisors here will keep answering. So it does appear to be a little bit more heated during these briefings these days here -- Aaron.
BROWN: Kelly, do they feel there's no story or there still is no scandal?
WALLACE: Well, they certainly feel there's no scandal when it comes to the White House's involvement. They definitely think there's a story when it comes to, and a scandal when it comes to whether anyone in Enron may have engaged in any criminal wrongdoing, what happened at that company, why employees and shareholders didn't get all their money obviously. They lost all their savings.
So they definitely believe a criminal investigation should continue, lots of looking into rules and regulations to protect employees and shareholders in the future.
They just say there's no story here when you say, did this White House and Enron sort of benefit together from their relationship, and did this White House help Enron in any way. They say that's not the case at all.
BROWN: Kelly, thank you. Kelly Wallace at the White House on Enron tonight.
We have much more ahead. We hope to take you to the Congo, an awful volcano there today. We're working out the technical issues on that. Much more ahead. This is NEWSNIGHT from Los Angeles on Friday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Last summer, it was hard to get to a newspaper, not just a California newspaper, but any newspaper around the country without finding some reference to the energy crisis. California electricity crisis, the rolling blackouts that were going on here and the rest seemed to be everywhere for days, weeks and it was gone, just disappeared, replaced by some other story on some other issue in the ways that the news attention span works.
So what happened? We'll talk with the Governor of California, Gray Davis in a moment. First we'll hear from CNN's Willow Bay.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLOW BAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The price of power has risen astronomically.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: More rolling blackouts are possible tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it was the perfect electrical storm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you could please use as little energy as absolutely necessary.
DAVID FREEMAN, CHAIRMAN, CA POWER AUTHORITY: There hasn't been anything comparable to what we went through, I think in the history of the electric power industry. I mean, here is a state with the fifth largest economy on earth that was actually suffering blackouts.
BAY: The perfect electrical storm that crippled the state and captivated a nation. California and its energy woes became a national news story, and the butt of late night jokes.
GOV GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: And I wanted to share a couple things I'm doing to save electricity. JAY LENO: These are tips you're going to give us now to save.
DAVIS: These are things I do myself.
LENO: Wow. OK, go ahead.
DAVIS: First, I get a really long extension cord and I plug it into a socket in Texas.
BAY: But for Californians, there was not a whole lot to laugh about.
FREEMAN: It was a leap of faith into free market economics, and it just doesn't work with electricity.
BAY: A flawed deregulation plan, an absence of new power plants, tight supply, high demand, soaring wholesale prices, retail price caps, even the weather, a combustible mix that created chaos in the energy market.
LORETTA LYNCH, PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION: So the speculators moved in and it felt like the wild wild west.
BAY: In some parts of the state, utility companies shouldered the burden to the tune of $12 billion, which left one of them, PG & E in Bankruptcy Court.
In others, costs were passed along to consumers. In San Diego, retail customers saw their rates triple within a year. The state could no longer guarantee its citizens electricity.
In the summer of 2000, Californians learned a new phrase, rolling blackouts. By May of last year, after the state suffered two consecutive days of them.
FREEMAN: We were in trouble every day.
BAY: For the summer of 2001, the predictions were dire, 34 days of power interruptions and hundreds of thousands of job losses, nothing short of economic disaster. But the state has not had a rolling blackout since.
It seems just as suddenly as that perfect electrical storm battered the state a few years earlier, a new storm blew through last summer, no less powerful, but much more kind, a string of events that would put the whole crisis on hold.
CHRISTINE USPENSKI, ANALYST, SCHWAB WASHINGTON RESEARCH GROUP: Nothing cures an energy crisis like a recession.
BAY (on camera): A slowing economy may have helped reduce demand and so did mild temperatures, but California consumers get high marks for their conservation efforts. Across the state, they cut energy use dramatically.
BAY (voice over): With encouragement from a $50 million ad campaign, consumers shaved demand, and the state added electricity by bringing old power plants online and building new ones.
DAVIS: Today, I'm very pleased to officiate at the opening of the first major power plant that has been built in California since 1988.
BAY: Federal regulators also stepped in with wholesale price caps, and the state was able to negotiate long-term contracts.
SEVERIN BORENSTEIN, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ENERGY INSTITUTE: The long-term contracts almost certainly helped bring down prices.
NETTIE HOGE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE UTILITIES REFORM NETWORK: The crisis has moved from the headlines into our pocketbooks, and it's a more quiet crisis, but we as consumers are going to pay the bill and mop up for decades.
BAY: Now in the bright light of a power surplus, it's clear, the state's energy problems are far from over.
FREEMAN: A year ago, we were being blacked out and we were being gouged, and we tamed that tiger now. It's in a cage. It can break loose and bite us again, but we're not just going to go back to sleep.
BAY: State officials remain on alert, preparing for a new storm that could roll in at any time. Willow Bay, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It occurred to me as we were watching that it's about this time in the program we usually bring out the accordion player to really explain these issues. Not tonight. It's an election year here in California and energy, who caused the problems who failed to foresee the problems, and who really solved the problems, if in fact they are solved, are all likely to be major issues when Governor Gray Davis runs for reelection. We talked with the governor earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: In the piece you just heard, I want to talk about a couple things. Someone says free market does not work where energy is concerned. Do you agree with that?
DAVIS: It hadn't worked in California. The program wasn't properly designed and it was compounded by the fact that we didn't build a major power plant in the 12 years before I was governor.
Happily, we had wonderful conservation and we were able to put 11 plants online in 2001, representing more power online that we've had in the previous 12 years combined, not in any one of the 12 years, the previous 12 years combined.
BROWN: Do you remember the day, and if so when was it, when someone walked into your office and said, we're going to have an energy problem like no one has seen in the country in decades, if ever? Do you remember when that happened? DAVIS: Well, I remember some discussions in the late summer, early fall of 2000, saying we might have a tight day or two coming up. You know, it surprised me because no one talked about electricity when we ran in 1998. It was not on the horizons, although we did take some actions in '99 to prepare us for this.
We did start licensing plants. None of them had even been licensed and we had six licensed in 1999. But I just assumed that was just the regular course of business, building power for the future. I didn't think a flat out emergency would come and stare us right in the face.
BROWN: Is that - without pointing fingers here, is that not a failure of government to not anticipate, to not be smart enough to anticipate at least a couple, three years out, on something as important to the citizen's of the state as electricity?
DAVIS: There's no question this was a massive failure on many levels. The plan that was designed never anticipated the events that occurred in 2001. It said, utilities you sell your power plants, then buy back the power at whatever rate you can. But you have to lower your rates to consumers by 10 percent and freeze them for five years.
Well obviously, that plan doesn't work if the wholesale price of electricity goes up dramatically, and it went up 400 percent. No one envisioned that possibility. That's why you had PG & E in bankruptcy, and southern California had to sit on the very verge of bankruptcy until recently.
BROWN: People in the west, I'm not precisely sure if this is true of California. I know it was true where I lived a long time in the Pacific Northwest. I actually lived with pretty cheap electricity for a long time.
As we look at what people in California pay today for power, are they paying more than people in the East are paying for power, the same, less?
DAVIS: Our rates today are roughly equivalent to what most Americans are paying. The real brunt of this was borne by the utilities, however, over time we have to pay off some of those costs.
Now nobody in California, or I suspect in America, pounded on the utilities and said, please deregulate electricity. I mean an electron is an electron. You can't add value. So the whole notion of deregulation was sold on the premise that rates would go down, but we saw everywhere across America, rates went up.
So I do think in this one case, electricity deregulation has failed and failed big time, because there's no way to improve the product or add value, only to do it through manipulation and gaming, some of it legal, some of it questionable, drive up an artificial, create an artificial scarcity and drive up the price of electricity.
BROWN: And really quickly, do you expect it to be a big issue in the campaign that's now underway out here? DAVIS: Well, of course. In a campaign, you always have a lot of partisan rhetoric and they blame you no matter what you do. But the reality is, we have a technology-based economy. They can't afford to have the lights flicker, much less go out, and every state was out here saying, we have reliable power in our state. Come back to where we live and many companies were contemplating that.
When we got through the summer without a blackout, they stayed, and the big biotech companies, both Emgen (ph) and Ginentech (ph) added jobs. So, this was - we escaped the worst. We still have to be vigilant though.
BROWN: It wasn't quite a yes or no, but I'll take it. It's going to be an issue. It's nice to see you governor.
DAVIS: Thank you, Aaron.
BROWN: California Governor Gray Davis with us tonight. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We want to head back to the Congo now and to the volcano.
The Congo is a remarkably beautiful place, and so it's a shame we tend to only go there when disaster happens, and sadly that is the case again tonight. A volcano is erupting in the eastern part of the country, lava flowing, people are dying. A number of fault lines run through the African continent, and Mount Nyiragongo sits on one of them. And when the earth moves, the lava erupts. It's something hundreds of thousands of people know all too well right now. It's no place for anyone to be.
Once again, we will push the technology a little bit. We're joined by CNN's Catherine Bond who comes to us on the videophone just across the border in Rwanda. Catherine, good evening.
BOND: Good evening, Aaron. Yes, tens of thousands of people have spent a cold night here in Gisenye, on the border with the Congo. They have been sleeping out on the grass and alongside the roads. And as I was saying earlier, even outside gas stations, because they have gathered there for the light that's kept on all night at the gas stations here.
The Rwandan authorities have been moving them up the road, out of Gisenye town. They're worried that the lava flow might come here. Gisenye and Gomo are almost the same town; they're just split by the border between Rwanda and the Congo, so there's no reason why a lava flow wouldn't reach here too, as it continues.
And so the authorities have been moving people uphill, along a narrow road, and they are trying to get them out of the way of any possible more problems -- Aaron.
BROWN: And do we know, Catherine, how many people have perished to this point? BOND: Not yet, no. I think those statistics we'll be able to get more easily when the daylight breaks, from the Congolese Red Cross. But we have heard maybe 45, that's the figure I heard, perished in Gomo when the volcano initially erupted. The lava flow began at night, so it caught many people at a really bad time, and it really wasn't until daybreak that people could get themselves together, gather their few belongings and head across the border into Rwanda.
The Congolese rebel authorities who control Goma also appear to have done very little to help evacuate the town. In fact, apparently they were telling people to calm down, everything was all right, and it was left to the Rwandan authorities to go in there and to begin the evacuation and to order everybody out.
While the Rwandan authorities were there, they also seemed to take control of security. It's an area that they do largely control anyway, because they support that rebel group, and apparently they and some of the RCD rebels, as they're called, shot dead some people who had began looting in the town as the lava flow came in, literally down one of its main streets -- Aaron.
BROWN: One more for you. When mount St. Helen's blew here in the United States back -- what -- 20 some years ago now, there were plenty of warnings. There were weeks and months, really, of indications. Was there any warning here? Were there signs that the volcano was about to erupt?
BOND: There were signs, it seems, but no warnings. I think people had picked up the fact that there could be a lava flow seven about -- sorry, 10 times the size of the last major volcanic eruption here in 1977, but they didn't know in which direction the lava flow would head. This is the first time that it's headed toward Goma, and so I think that came as a total surprise, and that would account for the lack of warning to the public.
Having said that, I've been told a story while I've been here that a Japanese vulcanologist, as long as 20 years ago, told the Congolese authorities that in 20 years' time, Goma would no longer exist. So in many ways, yes, the Congolese authorities have had some years in order to be able to change this situation on the site of Goma -- Aaron.
BROWN: Catherine, thank you. And thank you, crew. That's not an easy shot to throw up and get back to us. Catherine Bond on the volcano in the Congo.
Back to the United States. Back here to Los Angeles, in fact. Good friend of mine said the other day that she didn't quite get L.A. at all. Where is the center, she asked? And in truth, this rather remarkable place has no real center. There's no Manhattan, if you will, no Michigan Avenue, like there is in Chicago. You can live your entire lifetime here and never go downtown at all, unless you got arrested.
We put emphasis on the possibility that possibly that will now change. At least, we see in downtown L.A. -- and there is one -- changes beginning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): There are a lot of truisms about L.A. Every year, the traffic on the freeway seems worse and worse. It's far too fixated with Hollywood and show business. The beaches at sunset are glorious, and downtown Los Angeles is faded and desolate, with little hope of recovery.
ELI BROAD, LOS ANGELES PHILANTHROPIST: Some parts are not pretty, but I could say the same thing of Chicago, New York, San Francisco and so on.
BROWN: Yes, you can, but downtown L.A., with the homeless camping out in broad daylight on some streets and faded pockmarked buildings on others, seems a special case. So special that it's taken a multi-millionaire like Eli Broad to finally do something about it.
BROAD: You fill it in with other attractions -- cinemas, book stores, restaurants, shopping and other attractions -- we are going to have a street downtown that's pedestrian-friendly, that's safe, that will attract people from all communities and will attract tourists from throughout the world. We don't have that now, but it's in the making.
BROWN: This is the starting point, an elaborate downtown concert hall built by the Disney Corporation, scheduled to open in 18 months from now.
Its design mimics, at least to a degree, the famed Opera House in Sydney, Australia. It's not downtown redevelopment, because you could make a good argument that downtown Los Angeles was never developed in the first place.
BROAD: I think that's fair. I mean, if you look at the metropolitan area again, it didn't start in one place, let's say, the Pacific Ocean and work inland. It started at the Los Angeles River, and then you had many other cities around it, and it's now all coming together.
So it's an unusual pattern of development, but it does need a center, it does need a heart, and that's going to be downtown Los Angeles.
BROWN: Brave words, because Eli Broad, who founded the nation's largest home builder and then became chairman of the giant Sun America Financial Services company knows how many previous plans have failed. No matter who's in charge, downtown was always the seat of city government, the police department, "The Los Angeles Times," and not much else.
Broad now sees a time when actual people will live there.
BROAD: You have got 300,000 some-odd people working downtown, and at the end of each day they get in their car and clog the freeways. You only have 30,000 or 40,000 people living downtown, and I think if we create all of these attractions that people will stay after work -- whether they'll go to single bars, restaurants or whatever -- and they will want to live downtown, because it will be closer to work, and there will be things to do.
BROWN: The vision here is grand, no question about that. The work on the Disney Hall is feverish, and the stakes are huge.
BROAD: It's going to require a lot of money. $1 billion from the private sector, and it's also going to require $300 million of public funding for street realignments, to build a park that will go from the Department of Water and Power to city hall, some 17 acres that really will be a place where people from all communities can go to celebrate New Year's Eve, Cinco de Mayo or the 4th of July.
So you have got a lot happening downtown. After all, it's the center of a region of 20 million people, and its time has really come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The future of downtown L.A.
Coming up next, some segments that are really Friday night segments, if you will. The actress Marisa Tomei will be with us in a little while.
Up next, someone will be with us, but I don't have a clue who it is. Mystery guest. NEWSNIGHT from L.A.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The studio is configured in such a way this is really hard to pull off.
All right, it's time for the "Mystery Guest". Regular viewers know the premise, but with thousands of new viewers discovering this fine news program each and every day, we must explain it yet again. The staff picks a guest, often someone you'd actually like to hear from. But once, they chose Santa Claus, and then they convinced that person to come in and be interviewed. They do not tell me a thing. This, as we've said before, is nothing more than a cheap ratings ploy, if that's not redundant. And this is absolutely, or as my assistant, Molly Levinson, would say, totally on the up and up.
Here we go. Roll the copy please so I have some idea who is joining us. Joining me now -- we're on that cooking thing here -- is Wolfgang Puck, the chef and restaurant owner.
WOLFGANG PUCK, MASTER CHEF: Pizza delivery.
BROWN: Oh man -- it's the only thing you can get delivered in L.A. You know, in New York you can get every -- it's nice to see you again. `
PUCK: So good to see you. Look at that, I made you a little smoked salmon pizza so you have a little dinner. BROWN: You know, I -- thank you. Sit down and please don't take this as an insult, because -- this is caviar on this. Can you see this? Smoked salmon caviar on a pizza. So I was in -- you know, my favorite restaurant in the world is one of yours, down in Santa Monica...
PUCK: Chinois.
BROWN: Chinois. I was there the other night. With those prices, how do you make a profit?
(LAUGHTER)
PUCK: You know, the fun thing, the funny thing is that actually the inexpensive restaurants have a much higher profit margin than the expensive ones.
BROWN: Is that right?
PUCK: Absolutely, because if you really think we'd charge for a smoked salmon and caviar pizza, $20 at Spago. But, you know, if you want to buy an ounce of caviar -- and we don't really measure it -- or you want to buy a fine smoked salmon, it is very expensive right away.
BROWN: It's delicious.
PUCK: So, I think -- we also have cafes and expresses (ph). And it's much easier there to make a profit than at Spago or Chinois.
BROWN: You are -- when I first met you, you were a guy that owned a restaurant. And you're an empire now. I mean, seriously, you have got a ton of restaurants out there. You're in Vegas, all over the place. You do TV, this and that. Are you ever in the kitchen cooking? Are you ever creating dishes anymore?
PUCK: You know, the cooking is actually my favorite part. If I have to sit with the lawyers, with the accountants, I fall asleep. I think the food show I do on the Food Network, that's fun too because I cook. But I really love to do things where I'm actually in the kitchen and I cook with the guys. And I don't feel like I'm their boss or anything. I feel like -- you know, if I make you a wienerschnitzel or we create a new dish, if it's Chinese influence or whatever, that's what I really love.
BROWN: And what was the first restaurant? I forget.
PUCK: The first restaurant was Spago on Sunset Boulevard. And we just closed it. And, you know what the funny thing is? It's exactly 20 years ago that I opened my first restaurant.
BROWN: And when someone sends something back, do the cooks then just, like, burn it?
PUCK: No.
BROWN: OK. (LAUGHTER)
PUCK: We don't burn it -- we don't try not to burn it unless it's like Cajun food or something, you know, black and red fish.
BROWN: Did you -- are you pretty much the inventor of fusion or did that come with somebody else?
PUCK: You know, when we started Chinois, this was really the first restaurant in 1983 where we mixed European and Asian cultures together and techniques in cooking together. And you could get some sauces, like, I didn't know how to make Chinese sauces. I made them the French way and butter in it. The Chinese put corn starch in it to thicken them up, for example. I love the richness of the butter, but I added ginger and scallions and things like that, a little garlic, and it tasted good. So I said, you know, maybe I'll try Chinese food.
BROWN: I got to tell you, the catfish in the ponzu sauce is one of the greatest meals on the planet.
PUCK: Absolutely.
BROWN: Nice to see you again. It's been a long time. Thank you.
PUCK: Thank you. Well, have your little dinner. This is not bad either. A glass of champagne and the smoked salmon pizza.
BROWN: I guess I'm not allowed to drink and talk, but I will as soon as I'm done. Thank you, Wolfgang.
PUCK: Thank you.
BROWN: Sit for just a second.
PUCK: OK.
BROWN: Coming up on NEWSNIGHT, we will talk with a real movie star. What a cool program it is. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We promised ourselves two things when we brought NEWSNIGHT to Los Angeles. One is that we would have a meal at Fatburger. That was lunch today. And the other is that we would chat with a real big time movie star, and that is now. Success came early for Marisa Tomei, winning an Oscar nearly a decade ago -- that can't be really a decade ago -- she wasn't even 30. But in some ways, her critical acclaim has actually grown in recent years. That's possible after you've already won an Oscar, but what the heck, we wrote the line.
Right now, she's getting rave reviews for her work in a film that's getting some terrific, really interesting reviews. The film is called "In The Bedroom" and here is a small portion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "IN THE BEDROOM")
MARISA TOMEI, ACTRESS: He just pushed me. He didn't hit me.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: He didn't hit you. That's great. We should throw a party for him, he didn't hit you. That's -- enough of this. We are calling the police.
TOMEI: Wait, wait.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Natalie, we are calling the police.
TOMEI: No. I don't know what I want to do. I don't -- I hate this. I hate the kids seeing this. I don't know what to do.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Hey. It's OK. It's OK. I'm here now. I'm here now. It's all right. I'm not going anywhere.
TOMEI: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Mom!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: One person on our staff would also like to give Ms. Tomei a honorable mention for her work in "Happy Accidents", a film that got overlooked this year, maybe because its nationwide release was on the 14th of September. We all know what happened that week. Not a lot of moviegoing. Marisa Tomei joins us. Nice to meet you. Can I offer you a piece of pizza while you're here?
TOMEI: Afterwards.
BROWN: I don't want to say too much about the movie. Tell people what they ought to know about the film.
TOMEI: That it deals with grief, and that it's -- it's tough in a good way, that it's very truthful.
BROWN: It's a difficult movie in parts, isn't it, just to watch? I mean, it's --
TOMEI: It's wrenching...
BROWN: That's a great word for it. It's a long way from "My Cousin Vinny."
TOMEI: One is high comedy and one is high tragedy.
BROWN: Do you feel now that Hollywood sees you as an actress with range, you can do anything?
TOMEI: You never know how people see you, but I feel that I have a range, a good range, yes.
BROWN: Well I know you do, but I mean are you getting -- are they asking you to do the kind of parts, are they asking you to do the kind of parts that you want to do?
TOMEI: Well, this movie was. And along the way there have been, there have been and I'm hoping for more.
BROWN: Golden Globe awards this weekend, are you nervous about that?
TOMEI: I'm nervous because I don't have a darn dress to wear.
BROWN: And are you going to when you go out tomorrow, and buy one are you going to get one of those really embarrassing and revealing ones, we will...
TOMEI: No.
BROWN: ... all talk about Monday?
TOMEI: No, no.
BROWN: And do you understand why? Can you explain to me why it is that women do that?
TOMEI: Why they --.
BROWN: They wear these really --
TOMEI: I guess it's if you've got it, flaunt it or what did Mae West say, I'd rather be looked over than over looked. Maybe --
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: Do you really not have a dress to wear?
TOMEI: I really don't.
BROWN: Do you feel, do you get nervous about these things, whether you win or lose? You already have an Oscar, what the heck.
TOMEI: I'm pretty excited. I'm just happy to be there, and there are a lot of people whose work I really respect, and I get to see them tomorrow.
BROWN: Yes. I saw an ad for the movie the other day, it was two full pages of "The New York Times." And everyone who had ever seen it who liked it was quoted in that ad. Do you ever worry that there is too much expectation built up about a movie that it can't make it?
TOMEI: Yes. Yes, I had a friend go recently and I was a little worried. But he still loved it so that was good.
BROWN: In your mind, how do you know it's a good movie, any movie that you've done? .
TOMEI: We'll, you only know what you like. And I, for me it was that I was able to see it more than once. I can only -- usually only watch once. BROWN: Can you comfortably watch yourself?
TOMEI: It's very uncomfortable for me, but I got to see so much in the other performances and there were so many subtleties going on, I created the character and sometimes I was questioning my own motivation because the director had such craft happening and so many -- there's nothing black and white. I mean, as in life.
BROWN: Yes.
TOMEI: And he let's people live in their ambiguity and in their humanity, in their duality and in all their goodness and their not so goodness.
BROWN: Thank you for coming in. Good luck this weekend. Thank you for coming in. I hope you find a dress. You have the most interesting eyes.
TOMEI: Thank you.
BROWN: Thank you. We will be right back. Thank you, nice to meet you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: I once had a kind of quiet, normal life.
Finally, for the night and the week, a real Hollywood story. As we said, the Golden Globes are this weekend. This is a huge deal because these sorts of awards can make or break films and careers so it's pretty serious stuff, to them. They don't have to deal with Segment Seven and we do every single night. Scott Herriott, tonight, on the stars getting ready for their moment. But before it begins, we must tell you doctor-patient confidentiality will be respected here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR, HAROLD LANCER, COSMETIC DERMATOLOGIST: Without going into the people that I see, there are a lot of people that I would like to do this on.
SCOTT HERRIOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wilfred Brimley has this done quite a bit, doesn't he? Even though his patient log reads like the invite list to the Pitt-Aniston wedding, Dr. Harold Lancer is no snob.
LANCER: I'd like to consider everyone I see a celebrity.
All that gray stuff is the sanding material with all the dead cells that came off.
HERRIOTT: And you sell that as cat food?
LANCER: Sometimes.
HERRIOTT: What would you do, would you put some stuff in there?
LANCER: I might actually out a little bit of collagen in there, plus polishing.
HERRIOTT: Being a dermatologist, how many times have you heard jokes about your last name.
LANCER: Daily.
HERRIOTT: Since all the celebrities were shuttled out before we could roll tape, Dr. Lancer was free to show us around.
LANCER: I have this whole top floor, you know.
HERRIOTT: Now, this is a nice room.
LANCER: This is where we sedate people. You didn't see this room, did you?
HERRIOTT: You ever have to strap them down?
LANCER: We try not to, but sometimes --
HERRIOTT: Sometimes they ask for it?
LANCER: Sometimes, yes.
You know you were so quiet, and I didn't smell the wax burning.
And there are a variety of different lasers. It's like a chef in a kitchen, you need different utensils to do the cooking.
HERRIOTT: How many plaques do you have on the wall?
LANCER: I don't know. I've never counted.
HERRIOTT: Not only does he know the difference between botox and collagen, he other things as well.
LANCER: What's truly important is how you apply sunblock. Sunblock has to be applied.
HERRIOTT: Dermatology is a serious business in Hollywood.
LANCER: Some botox in the entertainment group has to be done differently than it is in other people, because you have to do a little bit less of it and still retain some facial expression.
HERRIOTT: Do you feel proud seeing your work on national television?
LANCER: Yes.
HERRIOTT: But, as Voltaire once said, acne keeps all of us humble.
LANCER: So you can forget me. You can forget the story, but just put my daughters on.
HERRIOTT: Deal. Scott Herriott for CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: That's NEWSNIGHT from L.A. We are back in New York on Monday, and we trust you'll be with us. Good night.
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