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CNN Connie Chung Tonight
Interview with Colin Powell; Stock Sale Controversy Tarnishes Martha Stewart's Image; Interview with Luciano Pavarotti
Aired June 25, 2002 - 20:00 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.
CONNIE CHUNG, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Connie Chung. Tonight, did Yasser Arafat get the message?
ANNOUNCER: Is Yasser Arafat on the way out?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I made it clear to him that the direction he was taking was leading nowhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: If so, who will replace him? Tonight, Secretary of State Colin Powell goes one on one with Connie.
Martha's in the kitchen. Can she take the heat?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTHA STEWART, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: I will be exonerated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Why do some people think her stock pot is about to boil over?
Last words. He thought he was invincible, even to heroin. He was wrong, dead wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We talked about the dangers of all drug use. Apparently, I didn't get that fear across to him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Could this happen to your teenager?
He's the opera world's leading crowd pleaser. Now he's leaving a trail of disappointed fans. Tonight, Luciano Pavarotti at home in Italy with a surprise announcement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: You will?
LUCIANO PAVAROTTI, OPERA SINGER: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT. Live from the CNN broadcast center in New York, Connie Chung.
CHUNG: Good evening.
As Israeli troops moved into Hebron today and kept watch on Arafat's compound in Ramallah, leaders on both sides were looking for details, hopefully favorable ones in the peace plan outlined by President Bush yesterday.
Now, Secretary of State Colin Powell faces several important questions as he sets out to implement the president's plan. Among them, has Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gotten the message that President Bush wants him out, and that the president wants the Palestinian people to choose new leadership? Also, what is the U.S. going to ask Israel to do to facilitate the peace process? And, of course, what is the timeframe for Secretary of State Powell to begin his mission?
I spoke to Secretary Powell earlier tonight and began by asking if the Palestinians privately have committed to a new structure, perhaps moving Arafat to a symbolic presidency?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
Secretary Powell, the president has called for a change in the Palestinian leadership. But have the Palestinians privately agreed to some sort of structure, for instance, putting Arafat in a symbolic presidency?
POWELL: No, I haven't had that communicated to me yet from any Palestinian leaders. But I sense that there is debate within the Palestinian movement now as to the nature of the leadership they've been receiving and whether or not they need a different form of leadership, where more people hold power as opposed to just one individual with a few close associates. And so I think there is movement in the Palestinian community.
I've been quite impressed by some of the steps that have been taken with respect to reform, rewriting of constitution, new ministers that are coming in that show some promise. And so I think there's enough churning going on within the movement that people will be anxious to move forward and perhaps we'll have an opportunity to have a more broadly-based government for the Palestinian people that will bring a stronger commitment to democracy and a stronger commitment to fighting terrorism and moving forward.
CHUNG: You reportedly talked to Arafat and told him that his days were numbered. But just today, a reporter asked Mr. Arafat if he could react to President Bush's speech, and Arafat said he didn't think that the president was referring to him. Does Arafat not understand what is occurring now?
POWELL: Well, you'll have to ask him that more directly, I think. But it was some 10 weeks that I spoke to him. And I made it clear to him that the direction he was taking was leading nowhere and that he had to make a fundamental strategic choice as to whether he was going to continue to support tacitly and actively support the intifada with the...
CHUNG: Well, then doesn't what he has said...
POWELL: With the terrorists acts that it spurned or whether he would make a strategic choice to move in a new direction.
CHUNG: Well, do you...
POWELL: And so far, we have not seen him make that strategic choice. The president never mentioned Yasser Arafat's name in his speech yesterday.
CHUNG: Why not?
POWELL: But I think the implication is clear, because he didn't want to personalize it. He wanted to talk to the Palestinian people and he wanted to talk to all Palestinian leaders and say to them that the direction in which you're going now with the leadership that you now have and the leadership organization and government that you now have is not moving you in the right direction. And you need to bring up new leaders and put in place new ways of doing business that will bring terrorism to an end, bring the intifada to an end, realize that the whole international community is standing by waiting to help you achieve this vision of a Palestinian state.
And then the president laid out that vision and put a timeline on it that we are anxious to move down and get this state in a rather short period of time. And the president put his full weight and authority behind that goal. But now we need responsible leadership coming out of the Palestinian community that we can work with.
CHUNG: Isn't it obvious, though, that the president was referring to Arafat? You said he didn't want to personalize it. But, in fact, hasn't it become rather personal? President Bush would not meet with Arafat. And doesn't that make your job all the more difficult?
POWELL: My job is difficult under any circumstances. And it was difficult before this speech and it will be difficult afterwards. This is one of the most challenging foreign policy issues before us. And we have been in touch with Chairman Arafat. I've spoken to him regularly. My people are in touch with his people now. And he knows...
CHUNG: And is it your feeling that he understands what is occurring? POWELL: There is no way for him to misunderstand the message that the president gave yesterday and the message that I delivered some 10 weeks earlier, which said to him you must make this kind of a choice. He has not made that kind of a choice. And so the president, I think, correctly, speaking not against the Palestinian people, but for the Palestinian people, to encourage them to use the electoral process to bring in other leaders, responsible leaders, diffuse power, make it more Democratic, go after terrorists, end this violence which is doing nothing but denying your dream for a Palestinian state.
We will see in the days and weeks ahead whether the Palestinian people respond to this message and provide that kind of government. If that kind of government is provided democratically through the elections, then they will find the United States and the international community willing to work with them to help them achieve that vision of a Palestinian state, and work with the Israelis to open up the closures that currently exist, to end the occupation, to end settlement activity, to return their revenues, all the things that the president spoke about yesterday as we move toward a Palestinian state with perhaps a way station of a state that has provisional boundaries and other provisional aspects, but ultimately on the way to a final settlement.
CHUNG: When will the United States make more demands of Israel? For instance, dismantling the settlements rather than just freezing?
POWELL: We think that all of that has to be part of a settlement. And as we move down this road, we have, as you know, always been calling for the freezing of the settlement activity. But it has continued. And that will be an issue that will come on the table rather quickly, just as it was going to come up on the table rather quickly if we had been able to get into the Mitchell Report process of last year. Settlements were going to be an early issue to be dealt with and to be discussed, and it will be one of the toughest issues.
CHUNG: All right. Finally, when will you be going to the Middle East? Next week, next month?
POWELL: When it is appropriate to go. Everybody is very interested in my travel plans. I've spent a lot of time in the last two days working with the leaders in the region, talking with leaders, getting their reaction to the president's speech.
And so, I need a little bit of time to get these reactions in, to analyze them, determine what the next steps are, what the appropriate next steps are in order to make sure that when I do go, it will be a trip that will have purpose and will be able to accomplish something on that trip. Whether it's in the next several days or in the next couple of weeks remains to be determined, but it won't be in the too distant future.
CHUNG: All right. Thank you so much, Secretary Powell.
POWELL: Thank you, Connie.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: The administration has been pushing its message since Mr. Bush's speech yesterday. And reaction in the Middle East has been subtly shifting with each clarification. CNN's Wolf Blitzer is on the story for us in Jerusalem.
Wolf, President Bush's statement was quite strong yesterday. But do you think that Colin Powell took it to a new level?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. In your interview now, he clearly had two audiences he was trying to address. He was, of course, making it clear, even more clear to Yasser Arafat that his days as the effective leader of the Palestinians were over, at least as far as the United States is concerned.
But he was also trying to reach out to the much broader Palestinian community, telling them you want a Palestinian state, you want a better life, here's a road map how you can do it. First thing you got to do is get a new leadership and institute the reforms within the Palestinian community that the United States is demanding. At the same time, of course, clamp down on those terror strikes against the Israelis. So he was very blunt, more blunt than the president was yesterday.
CHUNG: And, Wolf, who would be that successor if Arafat were not in the picture?
BLITZER: Well, that's a good question. Over the years, Yasser Arafat for decades has been the leader of the Palestinian community. He's really never groomed an heir apparent. There's no one right now that is the obvious choice that would emerge as the next leader of the Palestinians.
You can ask 10 Palestinians who they think their leader would be and you can get 10 different answers. And I've been asking that question here in the Middle East for a long time. I asked the Israelis who they think the next Palestinian leader will be, and they say they don't know. The Palestinians don't know. There's no obvious choice.
I could name half a dozen or a dozen names right now, but they really would not mean a whole lot because there's no one been groomed to be the successor to Yasser Arafat.
CHUNG: All right. Thank you. CNN's Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem.
In just a few minutes, a story you need to see, so it doesn't happen to your teenager. We'll be right back.
ANNOUNCER: Up next, finally, Martha Stewart, from the frying pan...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: I want to focus on my salad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: ...and into the fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: I'm involved in an investigation that has very serious implications.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Martha Stewart living a nightmare?
And later, the controversial no-show tells us what really happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: What happened?
PAVAROTTI: I was sick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: The bad boy of opera sets the record straight. CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT is coming right back. .
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: To say that the fastidious Martha Stewart has a mess on her hands is probably an understatement. There are questions swirling about her sale of stock in a company called ImClone.
The stock in her own company, meanwhile, is in the soup. It took a huge hit on the stock market on Monday, although it did bounce back a little today. This morning Martha Stewart appeared on CBS for a regularly scheduled cooking spot and was asked about her troubles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE CLAYSON, HOST, "THE EARLY SHOW": Martha, good to see you.
STEWART: Hi, well, we're going to make salad, but...
CLAYSON: We are, but first let me ask you a few things about all this. You released a statement saying that you were not involved in any insider trading, but you haven't publicly commented on this. What do you say about the allegations here?
STEWART: Well, as you understand, I'm involved in an investigation that has very serious implications, and many people are involved in this whole investigation. I'm just not at liberty at this time to make any comments whatsoever. I certainly hope that the matter is resolved in the very near future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: Stewart kept her knife working on that cabbage, and its host, Jane Clayson, continued her interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: I'm really not at liberty to say and, as I said, I think this will all be resolved in the very near future, and I will be exonerated of any ridiculousness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: There's a great deal at stake here. Hundreds of millions of dollars, careers, and possible criminal behavior by some of the players. So to bring it all in focus, we've asked our own Lou Dobbs from "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE" to join us, along with CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here.
LOU DOBBS, HOST, "LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE": Glad to be with you.
CHUNG: You know, it was so weird to watch that, and that's the only reason why I, you know, couldn't help but chuckle, but it's very serious. There could, potentially, be extremely serious.
DOBBS: It is serious and it could, obviously, be very serious. But there's something about an interview subject with a knife in her hand, as Clayson was trying to conduct that interview, that makes you think of the absurdity of this.
CHUNG: Completely.
DOBBS: We're talking about 3,000 shares of stock. A woman who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to be involved in this is just -- it is insane.
CHUNG: Did she help herself or hurt herself by doing -- by saying what she did today?
DOBBS: I think she did help herself. She came out and said rather publicly that she's going to be exonerated of this, quote, unquote, "ridiculousness." Now the burden is on her, if that's what has to happen.
CHUNG: Jeffrey, if you had been her lawyer, would you have advised her even to say what she said?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think it is perfectly appropriate for a public figure like Martha Stewart to say that she thinks she's going to be exonerated.
She's also right not to get into the details, because she doesn't know and her lawyers don't know what facts are going to come out in the next days and weeks. She can't be commenting on every day's development. At some point she's probably going to have to address it. But certainly while she's making salad is not the appropriate time to get into the details.
(LAUGHTER) CHUNG: Lou, I do need to ask you, because I don't think the details are very clear, and you may not be able to answer this question because we don't know enough. But stockbrokers are supposed to give their clients their advice, and if they get some information, we might not know how they got that information, but we take their advice.
DOBBS: Take their advice, but in many instances and, of course, Jeff can speak to this, but the issue is a proprietary information, which is the property of the company, in this case Merrill Lynch. It is also inside information, which is based on a relationship with the principals of ImClone systems, in this case Sam Waksal.
All of those issues have to be ironed out, but the early indications are that a broad number of people who seem to have known each other, and known each other rather well, were acting in a rather common direction at a common time in terms of disposing of the shares. That doesn't look good.
TOOBIN: Sometimes coincidences are real...
CHUNG: But let me ask you -- yes, and I know you're going to answer that part of that question, but I also want to ask you, if she did receive this information, if anybody receives inside information, you're just not supposed to touch it?
TOOBIN: You're not supposed to act on it, absolutely. December 27, Martha Stewart and a bunch of other people connected to Sam Waksal, the CEO, sell a lot of stock.
The next day the stock tanks. Obviously, it now appears some people, Sam Waksal included, knew that the government was going to release this negative report on this drug, and they knew the stock was going to tank. The simple question is, did Martha Stewart know about that the stock was going to go down? Did she have the inside information? She says no. That's what the whole investigation is going to be aimed at proving.
CHUNG: But isn't her stockbroker's assistant telling a different story?
TOOBIN: Well, he is, in many respects, the key figure in all of this. That's how prosecutors work. Prosecutors work from the ground up. They get the low level people to turn on the high level people. Douglas Faneuil and Peter...
CHUNG: Yes, it is hard to pronounce his name. Yes, you're probably the best one.
TOOBIN: Bacanovic.
DOBBS: Correct.
TOOBIN: Peter Bacanovic...
CHUNG: Thank you. TOOBIN: He's the stockbroker...
(CROSSTALK)
Bacanovic and Faneuil, the assistant, were suspended by Merrill Lynch for some unnamed improper activity related to these trades. Prosecutors are going to be looking to flip Faneuil against his boss and against Martha Stewart if, and it is important to say this, if he has anything to say. There may be no impropriety here. We don't know that. But that's how the prosecutors...
DOBBS: What's extraordinary is how far the press has carried this story. Martha Stewart, a public figure -- she's a facet in public figure to millions of people. The fact is, the press has been relentless. I mean, she has been all but convicted in the press already. This woman is going to have a difficult time in rebutting all of this over time.
CHUNG: We're going to deal with the image. I want to show you one more clip from this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: My employees and I are hard at work at making our company the best OmniMedia company in the world, Jane, and we will continue to do that, and I want to focus on my salad, because that's why we're here.
CLAYSON: One more question -- one more question about this and the media frenzy that surrounded this last week or so. How has it been for you to be in the middle of that?
STEWART: When I was a model, and I was for all during high school and college, you always wanted to be on the cover of a magazine. That's how your success was judged. The more covers, the better. Well, I am a CEO of a New York Stock Exchange listed company, and I don't want to be on any covers of any newspapers for a long, long time. That's the story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: Very funny. Tell me, I can't imagine that her company or any of her, you know, sales, would be hurt by this, in the end, unless it's criminal charges.
DOBBS: Criminal charges would definitely have an effect on the relationship with suppliers. There's no indication of any kind that this is affecting the sales of the magazine or any of the other products that are important to this multi-billion dollar enterprise. If she is, as she puts it, exonerated of this ridiculousness, there will be no impact at all, other than perhaps raise her public identity even farther and drive the business even more.
We don't want to think about the inverse.
CHUNG: And... TOOBIN: This is a fairly simple problem, if it has an innocent explanation. This is not years of conduct. This is a single stock trade.
If she can explain it satisfactorily, I think the whole thing will go away. But it is a serious issue to be dealt with now.
CHUNG: And if she explains it unsatisfactorily, what does she face?
TOOBIN: She faces -- I don't really want to, you know, convict her here.
But, I mean, the issue is insider trading. It's a criminal offense. People do go to jail for it. And, you know, one person, Sam Waksal, the CEO of ImClone is already facing criminal charges.
DOBBS: Out on a $10 million bail.
TOOBIN: There are going to be a lot of people pressured to flip on Martha Stewart. That's who prosecutors are going to be interested in.
But if there is nothing there, the prosecutors aren't going to find anything.
DOBBS: One has to hope the congressional investigators are making so much of this, with her very public name and her celebrity status, will recall at some point in the not-too-distance future this is about Enron, ImClone Systems and the broader problems of just corporate malfeasance and crime.
CHUNG: Exactly. I mean, the climate is ripe for, you know, so much attention to go to Martha Stewart, and then you have to feel badly about that.
DOBBS: Absolutely.
CHUNG: All right. Jeffrey Toobin, Lou Dobbs, we thank you so much for being with us. I'm delighted that you came on tonight.
DOBBS: Great to be here.
TOOBIN: Great to be here. Nice new digs.
CHUNG: Thank you. Thank you.
Coming up later, my exclusive interview with -- and a stunning announcement from Luciano Pavarotti.
ANNOUNCER: Up next: He left a chilling minute-by-minute account of a heroin overdose. Will his last words serve as a warning to your teenager?
When CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: Our exclusive interview with Luciano Pavarotti is still coming up.
But first, someone who sings almost as well: Anderson Cooper in New York with a quick check of tonight's developing stories "To the Minute" -- Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Were it only true, Connie, thanks.
Suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui argued with a federal judge today during a plea hearing. He attempted to plead no contest, a motion the judge said would certainly lead to a guilty verdict. So she finally entered a plea of not guilty for him.
The government's anthrax investigation had led the FBI to an apartment house in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Investigators searched the apartment of a former biotech lab technician for several hours, but say they found nothing suspicious.
Federal passenger screeners took over at two airports today in Kentucky and Alabama. So far only three of the 429 airports have made the transition as the November 19 deadline approaches. BWI in Baltimore is the third.
Cash-strapped Amtrak says it still needs $200 million to keep the trains running, but pushed back its deadline for possible shutdown to July 8. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta says he is confident a solution will be found by then.
And Connie, you'll like this one: The main post office in Hoboken, New Jersey may soon be named for one of that city's most famous sons, none other than Frank Sinatra, Chairman of the Board. The state legislature votes tomorrow on a bill that will name the building after Old Blue Eyes.
Connie, Back to you.
CHUNG: I think that's wonderful.
Anderson Cooper, thank you so much.
Next: Have you ever wanted to read a diary or a journal your teenagers wrote? We'll meet parents who did, and came face-to-face with a terrible reality.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, The Maestro talks candidly about his relationship with a woman half his age.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: You will get married?
PAVAROTTI: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ANNOUNCER: We'll take you to his home in Italy when CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: Today there's a new drug of choice in the suburbs: heroin.
Teens in virtually any American town, including yours, can find it if they want it. And over the last decade, more teens have wanted it, and more teens have used it.
Tonight we have the story of one clean-cut Texas teen who wanted it for what seemed to him like a good reason.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): 18-year-old Randy Kalmoe, a high school senior headed for college in the fall, seemed like just a regular teenager. He loved Scottish kilts, the trumpet and performing magic tricks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, our next performer is Randy Kalmoe.
(MUSIC)
CHUNG: A love he shared with his 8-year-old sister Cheryl.
CHERYL KALMOE, RANDY'S SISTER: I really like my brother. I like to be next to him.
CHUNG: And like many teens, he felt he was invincible. So invincible he thought he could take heroin just once to make a point, to prove to an addicted friend that she could kick the habit.
He and his father had discussed drug use many times.
ROBERT KALMOE: We talked about the dangers of all drug use. Apparently I didn't get that fear across to him.
CHUNG: On May 3, Randy did something his father never thought he would do: he snorted two capsules of heroin, and then sat at his computer to describe the effects of the drug as it coursed through his body.
He wrote: "I just snorted some heroin for the first time. It burned like hell, and tasted worse. I feel I need to prove to others that addiction is in the decisions of the user. My face keeps tingling, itching. I'm going to go lay down."
These were Randy's last words. Three days later, he died of an apparent overdose. His brother says if only Randy had told him, he would have tried to talk him out of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was my absolute best friend, told him everything. He told me everything. Drugs, they can be fun, you know, very recreational, you know. That's kind of the point a lot of times, but they can turn bad really easily. You're playing -- I guess we weren't playing not as much as we were.
CHUNG: On May 28, Randy was supposed to graduate from high school. A few days before, he had his picture taken as he sat alone in the school auditorium.
ROBERT KALMOE, RANDY'S FATHER: Everyone who met him liked him. He made an impact on a lot of lives, a positive impact on quite a few lives.
CHUNG: The high school has since planted a tree in Randy's memory.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(on camera): Randy's family draped a cap and gown over his seat at the graduation. His parents Belinda and Robert have joined me to tell Randy's story, and we're also joined by randy's girlfriend, Becky Scherr. Thank you so much for coming.
Mrs. Kalmoe, how are you coping? Are you -- it's hard?
BELINDA KALMOE, RANDY'S MOTHER: It's hard, but I have a seven- and-a-half-year-old that I have to get through this.
CHUNG: Sure. Mr. Kalmoe?
R. KALMOE: I think in some ways it has been harder for me, at least outwardly. But we just take it day by day. It gets easier every day, but it is still very difficult.
CHUNG: Becky, how do you find -- well, let me put it this way. What is the most difficult part for you?
BECKY SCHERR, RANDY'S GIRLFRIEND: The nights. The nights are the most difficult.
CHUNG: I'm sorry?
SCHERR: The nights are the most difficult just because I was always with him, you know, fall asleep in his arms, wake up in his arms. So...
CHUNG: OK. Mrs. Kalmoe, would you read a portion of his journal on that night so that we can have an idea of what else he said?
B. KALMOE: This is towards the start. "It is starting to kick in now. The screen is moving up and down. It has definitely taken effect and everything is OK. My fingers are getting heavy. Vision is getting fuzzy. I can definitely see how this is very addictive."
CHUNG: And you were in the room right next to his room when he was actually taking the heroin and when he was typing his journal. You didn't hear anything? B. KALMOE: I heard something when I was walking by. And it was -- he's got a game that makes these kind of noises and sometimes he is up in the middle of the night playing it.
CHUNG: But you didn't know anything was going on, obviously?
B. KALMOE: No.
CHUNG: Mr. Kalmoe, can you tell me -- you found him, did you not?
R. KALMOE: Yes, I did.
CHUNG: How did that come about?
R. KALMOE: We had some friends over. It was a Saturday morning. We were going to go out shopping together. And Randy was going to be taking our daughter Cheryl (ph) to a birthday party around 11:00, 11:30. It started to get late and Randy still hadn't shown up yet.
So I tried getting into his bedroom, but his door was locked. I had to jimmy the lock and (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It was about 10:30. We banged on the door a bunch, but there was no answer. But we found him laying on his bed on his back.
CHUNG: Did you have any idea what happened to him?
R. KALMOE: At that point, I didn't. I still thought he was sleeping. So, I started to rouse him. In fact, I even slapped him a few times, you know, "come on, Randy, wake up." All then all of a sudden, it was like a bricks had dropped when I realized that he wasn't breathing, and he was just staring off into space.
CHUNG: Did you call an ambulance immediately?
R. KALMOE: Yes, we did. We called 911 and I started CPR at that time. A neighbor lady, a registered nurse, came by almost immediately and assisted me with the CPR. By the time she got there, I was starting to get a little frantic, I guess, putting it lightly. I was still doing the CPR, but the first breath I breathed into him, when he was forced to exhale, vomit came up. So then I realized that he had actually drowned in his vomit.
CHUNG: But you had no idea what he had died from?
R. KALMOE: Not at that point, no. Not until the paramedics got there and got his heart started again. I backed away from them and saw his computer screen was still on, his computer was still on. And he had -- his journal was on, and I read the first line and it said heroin, which helped the paramedics, who started administering drugs to counteract the heroin, but it didn't help obviously.
CHUNG: All right. May I ask you to read the second portion that we wanted you to tell us about?
R. KALMOE: "My eyes are twitching shut, but it is getting pretty fun. My nose itches in a tickle way. I only snorted one boy or capsule. I'll take the other when I think I'm ready. I felt almost bad because I promised that I wouldn't do heroin tonight and I did."
CHUNG: Mr. Kalmoe, he did indeed promise that he wouldn't do heroin. But what about other drugs? Did you have other conversations about other drugs?
R. KALMOE: Yes, we discussed all drugs, the effects, and what they do to you both, you know, the type of high that you would expect and the danger zone. And I thought we had a very open relationship with that. And I was especially fearful of heroin and those type of drugs because I knew that it could kill you instantly.
CHUNG: Sure. Becky, why did he believe that he could prove to someone else that heroin wasn't addictive?
SCHERR: That's just the way that Randy always felt, you know, because that's the way he always felt about drug use, that addiction is in the mind of the user, that no one is really addicted. Like when I smoke cigarettes, he is like, you're not really addicted. You know, you can quit any time you want to. And that's pretty much all I know about it.
CHUNG: Did you talk to him about heroin specifically?
SCHERR: No. I never felt that I had to.
CHUNG: It was a given that he was never going to try it?
SCHERR: Yes, it was a given.
CHUNG: Wasn't it -- can you -- you're so close to him. Can you figure out why he would have done this?
SCHERR: Only to save a friend. He's one of the most loyal friends ever. And that would be the only reason, to save a friend.
CHUNG: All right. Mrs. Kalmoe, would you read the last portion?
B. KALMOE: "I think I'll do the other line. Be right back, I hope. That one gave me a tear, a crying tear, yet that one wasn't as bad. Probably because I'm all f'ed up. My face keeps tingling, itching, just slight, but it feels good to scratch but I won't because I don't want any unexplainable injuries. I'm going to go lay down."
CHUNG: What do those final words mean to you, Mrs. Kalmoe?
B. KALMOE: He was just getting -- he felt like he was to a point where he could just lay down and wake up the next day.
CHUNG: Mr. Kalmoe?
R. KALMOE: I'm sure at this point he's getting uncontrollably tired, passing out at that point. Obviously, when he laid down is when he vomited almost immediately. I'm sure to me it's -- when I hear it and when I read it myself, I almost wanted to jump in him, shake him and tell him to stop it. We don't know for sure. We don't think the heroin itself killed him, an OD. It was the aspiration on the vomit.
CHUNG: You will find out...
R. KALMOE: We will find out.
CHUNG: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to the autopsy...
R. KALMOE: It is really a moot point, as far as I'm concerned, and heroin was what caused it.
B. KALMOE: We should be getting the results in the next couple of weeks.
CHUNG: You know, I have to ask you, you no doubt will be raising your daughter. She's almost eight?
B. KALMOE: Yes.
CHUNG: In perhaps a different way. It scares me to death that I think of my little son. And all I can think of is I have to keep him away from these outside influences. And yet you did that, right? I mean, you never thought that he would try heroin.
B. KALMOE: Since this all happened, I've talked to other parents in the school district and I've talked to the kids. And I understand there's parties like this where you have people who just want to drink Dr. Pepper and don't get into anything else. And then the other side is, you know, to the other extreme. Peer pressure, when I was growing up, was you got to smoke to be...
CHUNG: No, no, that's OK. No, no, I'm just going to hold your hand.
(CROSSTALK)
B. KALMOE: To be part of the group, you need to, you know, be brave and smoke your cigarette and get into the club. They don't pressure each other like that anymore. You want to do it, here it is.
CHUNG: OK. All right. Thank you so much for being with us. I know it is going to help a lot of parents. It should. Becky, thank you for being with us too.
We'll be back with more in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: He's performed with everyone from Bono to James Brown; from divas to The Cranberries. He's sold more than 100 million albums around the world, more than Eminem and Britney Spears combined. He has adoring fans all over the world. Half a million of them once packed Central Park just to see him.
But last month, he left hundreds of his faithful fans absolutely furious. They were fuming, and the press had a field day. What was he thinking?
Well, to find out I went to Italy for an exclusive interview with the best-selling classical music singer ever.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Luciano Pavarotti is a big man with a big voice. And when the most famous opera singer on the planet, The Maestro, who can count as his audience kings and queens, popes and presidents, the man who has shared the stage with mega-stars -- the man with the biggest voice in the world -- when he doesn't sing, it's big news.
Just last month he was scheduled to sing at the New York Metropolitan Opera season finale. It was rumored to be Pavarotti's final performance at The Met.
But a few days before, a drama began to play out like, well, an opera. Will he sing or won't he? He did not sing.
We went to his villa in Pissarro (ph), Italy just above the shores of the Adriatic Sea. And for the first time, Pavarotti answered questions about his controversial no-show on Saturday, May 11.
(on camera): At the New York Metropolitan Opera, you were scheduled to perform. What happened?
PAVAROTTI: I was sick.
CHUNG: You were sick?
PAVAROTTI: Yes. If one singer is sick, what should they do? Cancel?
CHUNG: I presume so.
PAVAROTTI: I presume so, too. I did, and it was an explosion like atomic bomb.
CHUNG (voice-over): The explosion first hit inside The Met. The audience that night, some of whom had paid $1,800 a ticket, erupted in a chorus of boos when told Pavarotti would not perform.
PAVAROTTI: In one way, thank you very much to make this big boo, boo, boo, boo about my cough. Made it the most important cough in the world.
CHUNG: And the controversy spilled over to the newspapers the next morning.
PAVAROTTI: I think it is stupid, absolutely stupid, make such a big fuss.
CHUNG (on camera): I think there were some who felt that you should have gone there and personally said, I can't sing tonight.
PAVAROTTI: Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo. Not for one reason. First, I was unable to talk.
CHUNG: You weren't even able to speak? You had laryngitis?
PAVAROTTI: Yes.
CHUNG (voice-over): While other tenors have stepped off the stage at age 50, Pavarotti, at 66, has never even broached the subject of retirement.
PAVAROTTI: I am busy for two or three years more. And after I will retire.
CHUNG (on camera): After?
PAVAROTTI: In three years I will retire.
CHUNG: You will?
PAVAROTTI: Yes.
CHUNG: You have never announced your retirement.
PAVAROTTI: I will announce it to you.
CHUNG: Honestly, you're going to retire in three years?
PAVAROTTI: My birthday, 19 -- no, 2005.
CHUNG: 2005?
PAVAROTTI: Write it down.
CHUNG: I am going to write it down. 2005, Luciano Pavarotti will retire.
PAVAROTTI: Twelfth of October.
CHUNG: Sorry?
PAVAROTTI: Twelfth of October.
CHUNG: Are you going to hold to that date? That's a promise?
PAVAROTTI: Yes. I never sing even in the bathroom, not even when I'm taking the shower.
CHUNG: What tells you that it will be time?
PAVAROTTI: I hope it is going to be time. I don't know.
CHUNG: Is it because you feel your voice is gone?
PAVAROTTI: No. No, no, no, no.
CHUNG: Is it your health?
PAVAROTTI: No.
CHUNG: Is it...
PAVAROTTI: It's a little everything.
CHUNG (voice-over): It's been a difficult year for Pavarotti. Just last month the father he worshiped died at age 89, with Luciano at his side.
Just four days later, still grieving, Pavarotti took the stage to perform at his annual charity concert, Pavarotti and Friends.
PAVAROTTI: We come out, very beautiful concert, except that you see I am empty. There is nothing in my face. There is nothing.
CHUNG: That wasn't the first time he sang through his grief. In January, his beloved mother died, the woman who pushed him to pursue opera.
Just one day after her death, Pavarotti sang at London's Covent Garden as scheduled.
CHUNG (on camera): I think many people would not have been able to do what you did: sing after your father died, sing after your mother died -- only 24 hours later after your mother died.
PAVAROTTI: I just can tell you one thing: On the stage of Covent Garden, I was not alone.
CHUNG: On the stage, you were not alone?
PAVAROTTI: No. Even there in the concert, I was not alone.
CHUNG: They were with you?
PAVAROTTI: Yes.
CHUNG (voice-over): When he was a boy playing on the beach in Pissarro (ph), Italy, young Luciano Pavarotti would often look up the hill.
PAVAROTTI: I see this house when I was a boy. And I say to myself, look that countryman, how lucky he is.
And then when I have the money, I build the house.
CHUNG: Now Pavarotti is building a new house as he moves into a new personal life.
His 34-year marriage collapsed after scandalous photos surfaced of him and his 26-year-old secretary Nicoletta.
Today, six years later, Luciano and Nicoletta are still together. The unpredictable Maestro sprung a few more surprises on us: marriage and children.
CHUNG (on camera): She says you're getting married later this year. Is that true?
PAVAROTTI: If the house is all finished, I hope. I hope they finish the house in time.
CHUNG: And when the house is built and finished...
PAVAROTTI: We marry.
CHUNG: You will get married?
PAVAROTTI: Dah-dah-dah-dah, yes, yes.
CHUNG: Did you propose to her formally?
PAVAROTTI: I proposed to her several years ago. She says yes. And she's still in the -- she still say yes. I think she's a masochist.
CHUNG: She's what, a masochist?
Now, she is young.
PAVAROTTI: Very.
CHUNG: She's half your age.
PAVAROTTI: Yes, exactly.
CHUNG: Exactly. Might you want to have some children?
PAVAROTTI: We are thinking about.
CHUNG: How many, do you think?
PAVAROTTI: I don't know. One or two or three or four. We would like to have more children.
CHUNG: You have three daughters from an earlier marriage. In fact, they're older than Nicoletta. Would you like a son?
PAVAROTTI: Yes.
CHUNG: And would you like a son?
PAVAROTTI: Not necessarily.
CHUNG: You are already 66.
PAVAROTTI: Yes.
CHUNG: Wouldn't you be concerned about your health?
PAVAROTTI: Yes.
CHUNG: Because the baby will grow up and...
PAVAROTTI: So?
CHUNG: ... maybe you won't be around?
PAVAROTTI: So what? So what? The mother is very young. Life goes on like that.
CHUNG (voice-over): Pavarotti says hip and knee surgeries have not slowed him down. He's fine. But he will acknowledge a weight issue.
(on camera): Are you dieting now?
PAVAROTTI: Yes. I'm good; good enough.
CHUNG: You didn't say that with a lot of conviction.
PAVAROTTI: You did ask me if I am dieting. You did not ask me if I am starving. So I'm not starving. I'm dieting, yes.
CHUNG (voice-over): Pavarotti now plans his workload carefully. He schedules about 40 performances a year, earning him a reported $35 million.
(on camera): Are you missing anything in life?
PAVAROTTI: At this precise moment, the question is absolutely, obviously yes, I miss my father and my mother. And they just left.
But like I say, when I think about them, I'm never sad. I'm really so -- these two beautiful people together. They stayed 74 years together. Such a beautiful memory.
CHUNG: Yes.
PAVAROTTI: And that is not sad. You see me sad inside, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) a big loss.
CHUNG: Yes.
PAVAROTTI: But every time I'm thinking about them, I don't cry. I smile.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Pavarotti says he may come out of retirement once in 2006 to sing with the other two tenors at the World Cup -- you know The Three Tenors. Then that will be the last time.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: In my exclusive interview with Luciano Pavarotti, he revealed his plans to retire in the year 2005. But Pavarotti's not the only world class singer who's recently announced a departure from the world stage, as you'll see in tonight's "Off the Radar." (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Barbra Streisand worked her way up through show biz the old fashioned way, starting at small New York clubs, putting in time on Broadway, and polishing her craft. She started releasing albums in the early '60s, and went on to conquer not just the stage but television and eventually Hollywood, too. She soon left liver performing behind to focus on recording and acting.
BARBRA STREISAND, PERFORMER: ...totally out of line, Bernard (ph). You're not mad at him. You're mad at me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her return to the stage meant conquering her legendary stage fright.
STREISAND: Because it was 27 years since I charged people to see me. Could I do it? Did I have the stamina? Would my voice be there? Would the people come to see me? I didn't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last year Streisand said she would never again perform live, and even called her tour the "Farewell Tour." So what has she been doing since then? The answer when we return.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): What has Barbra Streisand been up to since her 2000 "Farewell Tour?" The staunch Democrat not only remains politically active, she released a compilation album including some new material early this year. Now 60 years old, Streisand still managed to hit No. 1 in several countries with the album's release.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And finally tonight, when our producer Betsy Goldman (ph) told us she had gotten an interview with Luciano Pavarotti, she said we would be going to his beach villa in Pissarro (ph), Italy outside Bologna.
I imagined these private beaches and gazebos. It was nice, but it wasn't this grand, over-the-top, to-die-for place. It was a home he had seen from the beach when he was a kid, just as he said. And when I arrived at the villa, he was already sitting in his interview chair looking rather regal. He wanted to be shot a certain way and he asked for it in a nice way. He was quite the charming one, and as you could see he was very playful.
I will tell you only one thing he would not want me to tell you. Behind that table where he was sitting, he was wearing shorts and long red socks. I'm Connie Chung. Tomorrow night, the woman they called the welfare queen. While you were at work, she was living large off your tax dollars. Plus the women of Enron. Next on LARRY KING LIVE, Dear Abby. That's our program for tonight. See you tomorrow. Thank you for joining us, and for all of us at CNN, good-night.
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