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Emergency Landing at JFK; Public Fury Over TSA; Murder in Beverly Hills: Retracing Route Taken by Slain Publicist; Moving on After Losing Everything; Real Housewives Reality

Aired November 21, 2010 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Right now on CNN, travel trauma.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very embarrassing and very degrading.

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LEMON: New rules prompting this flight attendant to reveal having to remove and show TSA agents her prosthetic breast. I'll talk to her.

Murder in Beverly Hills. A high-profile handler to the stars shot five times just feet from where infamous mobster Bugsy Siegel was gunned down, yards from where Michael Jackson died.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the intersection where Ronni Chasen apparently stopped and was turning then the shots were fired.

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LEMON: CNN investigates.

And how real is reality, TV, that is.

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LEMON: You know there are some people who say that you guys make black people look bad.

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LEMON: A real housewife of Atlanta dishes all about her show, Bristol Palin, Brandy and more.

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LEMON: This is everything you need to know and then some for your week ahead.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. We start with this. Scary moments tonight aboard a Delta Airlines jet headed from New York to Moscow. Delta Flight 30 with 193 passengers and 11 crew members onboard had to make an emergency landing at JFK International Airport when its left engine shut down.

It happened about a mile from the airport at an altitude of about 1,500 feet. The Boeing 767 dumped fuel over the Atlantic before landing. Passengers were booked on another jet to resume their flight to Russia. And also today, a Delta flight departing Atlanta had to return as well. It was a Boeing 767, and it's also reported an engine failure. The FAA says the plane scraped its tail during landing, but no one was injured there.

And, you know, all of this comes as we're moving into the busy Thanksgiving travel week and frustration with the new rules from the Transportation Security Administration is hitting a boiling point right now. The full body scans and aggressive patdowns have some saying enough. Despite the growing backlash, don't expect the TSA to bend either. Here's what agency head John Pistole said on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."

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JOHN PISTOLE, ADMINISTRATOR, TSA: No, we are not change the policies because of that, because of the risks that have been identified because of the current threat stream. We have a travel advisory to Europe now. We know through intelligence that there are determined people, terrorists, who are trying to kill not only Americans but innocent people around the world.

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LEMON: Pistole made that comment as we're hearing more and more accounts of alleged mistreatment at the hands of the TSA. We've been telling you all weekend about Cathy Bossy, a flight attendant and cancer survivor. She says she was forced to remove her prosthetic breast and show it to a TSA agent. And this happened in August before the new rules were even in place. Here's what Cathy told me about her ordeal.

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CATHY BOSSI, FLIGHT ATTENDANT: When I got in the body scanner, the TSA agent told me to place my ID behind my back so they couldn't see it in the front.

And when they were done screening, she told me that I didn't listen to her and that I needed to now go through a full body screening which is where I was asked to remove my prosthetic breast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, the TSA did release a statement about Bossi's claims. It says we will review the matter and take appropriate action, if necessary.

You can hear more from Cathy Bossi when she appears on CNN NEWSROOM at 3:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow.

Oh, yes, you can expect plenty of company if you're traveling this holiday week. The nation's highways and airports should be packed. The weather could also be a factor. Some parts of the country got socked this weekend by a blast of winter weather.

Our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is here with your holiday travel forecast.

Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Don, it's been pretty brutal out there today, especially across parts of the west where we've seen incredible amounts of snowfall into the higher elevations and valley rainfall.

Take a look, Salt Lake City and across parts of Utah today. Man, you've got a lot of snow. We had about a foot on the benches. Two feet into the higher elevations and we're looking at a good three to six inches easy on the valley floor. Things are starting to wind down tonight, but we are expecting more snow to kick up as we head through Tuesday and into Wednesday.

This system is just the first in a series that's going to make its way across the west so expect bad travel weather all across the west, at least through Wednesday morning, before things start to improve.

Now tomorrow, what does it look like? Well, we'll be watching the Midwest as well. We had hundreds of accidents in Minnesota today. We're expecting to see more snow there, a little freezing rain early tomorrow morning, especially in southern Minnesota. Places like Chicago as well as Milwaukee could have problems. Where are we expecting those delays? Well, they could be 30 to 60 minutes in Chicago. Detroit and St. Louis expecting delays. Seattle and Portland as well as Salt Lake City because of that snow. And San Francisco today wasn't too bad, but tomorrow we could see it over an hour because of some low clouds.

Wednesday, of course, is the busiest travel day of the year oftentimes, and we're expecting to see a very powerful system in the nation's mid-sections. One of the big concerns will be the wind. In addition to snow on the north side, rain to the south and maybe even some thunderstorms so definitely want to be very cautious on some of those roadways and call your carriers ahead of time, Don. You know, even just volume itself can be a problem.

LEMON: Advice from our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras, and always good advice.

JERAS: Thanks.

LEMON: Appreciate it, Jacqui. Thank you very much.

And if you're traveling this week, you know, CNN is your holiday travel headquarters. And we have a lot of great ways for to you stay on top of what's happening. You can logon to CNN.com/HolidayTravel. You can also find us on Twitter at CNN Travel. And you can check out iReport.cnn.com for pictures and for videos. We've got you covered there. Hollywood murder mystery. Publicist to the stars Ronni Chasen is laid to rest today. And we're digging deeper into why and how she was gunned down in Beverly Hills, retracing the drive she took that faithful night.

Plus, I talked to a very resilient Iyanla Vanzant about how she's bounced back after losing everything, including her daughter and her home.

And if you want to check out our version of "Dancing With the Stars," we did it last night live here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Well, you can see the full interview and the full thing online. Just go to our blog at CNN.com/Don.

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LEMON: Movie stars, film producers, musicians and others turned out today for the funeral of murdered Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen. Michael Douglas was among those who came to pay their respects. The event was closed to the news media. Chasen's death really has stunned Hollywood, and to illustrate how improbable this killing was, CNN producer Alan Duke retraced the route taken by Ronni Chasen.

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ALAN DUKE, CNN PRODUCER (on camera): This is Hollywood and Vine. The "W" hotel on the roof, there's a club, and that's where they had the after party for the premier of "Burlesque." Star-studded event -- Cher, Christina Aguilera and Ronni Chasen.

This is the valet area of the "W" where Ronni Chasen would have parked and then picked up her car after the party.

Just turning around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

DUKE: Thanks.

If someone were stalking Chasen as she left this after party at the "W" Hotel, it possibly would have been obvious. There's security cameras around here and plenty of people, and they would have had to have been lying in wait to see as she left, one would think.

My guess is she would have gone on Sunset Boulevard immediately over here instead of Hollywood Boulevard, because that would already still have been closed for the premiere a few hours earlier. Of course, it was about midnight, probably just after midnight when she left the "W" hotel. Plenty of cars would have been around Hollywood after midnight in this area. It's a very busy area, and actually it's not unusual for there to be violence here in this area. In fact, Halloween night five people were shot within about a block and a half of where we are right now.

One of the first landmarks she would have gone by is the CNN Bureau building here on Sunset at Cowenga. We're still about five and a half miles away from where the shooting happened.

This is the intersection where Ronni Chasen apparently stopped and was turning. This is the most likely place police think that the shots were fired into her car. Apparently from a higher SUV vehicle that was parked next to her. And after the shots were fired, apparently she continued to drive down this direction. But at some distance down the road before her car actually came to a rest. She was still alive though and possibly driving, trying to get away. This is the spot that Ronni Chasen's car hit a utility pole. One that's now been removed. It did hold a streetlight. And it was here that paramedics found her still alive, breathing heavy, but near death.

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LEMON: That was CNN's Alan Duke. Police have no motive and no suspects in that killing.

By most perceptions Iyanla Vanzant had everything -- bestselling books, speaking engagements and even her own TV show. But then her doctor's medical bills and a subprime mortgage pushed her to the brink. She bounced back and has a new book out called "Peace From Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You're Going Through."

In tonight's "What Matters," she told me how it got so dire and why she didn't give up.

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IYANLA VANZANT, AUTHOR AND SPIRITUAL LIFE COACH: You know, I grew up in poverty. I didn't know anything about a mortgage. All I knew is I had enough money to buy a house, and so I bought a house. And I did not pay attention to the details.

LEMON: You thought it was going to keep happening, the money was going to keep rolling in.

VANZANT: Yes, absolutely. I thought it was going to keep rolling in. I was going to buy the house outright with my income from my show but my show went down and then my daughter got sick. It's not that I didn't have health insurance at the time. It's that the good stuff, the alternative care and the oxygen therapy and the acupuncture and the organic food. That's not covered by health insurance.

Plus, she had a mortgage, she had a car, she had a child. I had a mortgage, I had a car, you know, I had my own bills. So handling us both for 15 months before her ultimate transition wiped me out.

LEMON: And you know, I have to ask you this, so were you practicing then what you preach? Because I remember you talking about the foundation of the house. And you talked about financial issues as well.

VANZANT: Listen, let me tell you something, Don, do you see me? Do I look fabulous, nice and bright and shiny, right? Because when you watch them take your child, put that child in a box and close the cover on her face and lower her down into the earth, you got to have something else to stand on besides just looking good.

Yes, I do practice what I preach, and I'm not immune. The reason that I haven't lost my mind or blown my brains out is because I practice what I preach. And what I want people to understand and what I write about in "Peace from Broken Pieces" is you can make it through this.

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LEMON: My thanks to Iyanla Vanzant.

You know, times are tough but it's actually a pretty good moment to ask for a raise. We'll tell you why the time is right and how to go about it -- next.

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LEMON: Tonight's installment of "Mastering Your Money" is all about the state of your job, and we want to help you get a raise, believe it or not. Our Christine Romans says you might have more leverage than you think.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don, that's absolutely right. Nearly half of employers are worried their top talent might head for the door once the economy improves, so 31 percent of them say they are willing to negotiate 2011 salary increases with current employees and half of them plan to leave some negotiating room when they are extending initial offers to those new employees.

We want to make sure that you're the one to get that raise. So what can you do?

You've got to plan ahead, tactfully, of course. Take on some more responsibilities, but please be careful, don't brag. Show your results but don't brag about it. This is the most sure fire way to show your boss you're worth every penny.

But then how do you decide how much you should ask for? Research your salary range online and with human resources. This is going to keep you from getting shot down by asking for a salary that's simply unreasonable.

If you're offered a big bonus in lieu of a raise, bravo, first of all, but really try to get that raise instead. The bonus is just a one- time incentive, but you're going to see a raise reflected in every single paycheck that you cash, and it's taxed at a lower rate.

And, hey, don't push it if you're not getting positive signals. Now is not the time to really be playing hardball. Be patient. Be objective about your performance, and if things aren't going your way ask to revisit the conversation later.

And if it turns out a raise is just out of question for you, look at some other perks to negotiate. Vacation days, flexible hours, tuition reimbursement, and, Don, remember, that you have on-the-job satisfaction really at record lows. So bosses out there beware. Your employee, your employee is looking on to bigger and better things so you might want to really think twice before you deny that raise if it's really a good employee -- Don?

LEMON: All right. Christine Romans, thank you very much.

President Obama set to announce a pardon and Mel Gibson in a courtroom this week. Those are just two stories that will be making news in the week ahead. We'll tell you what else you should expect.

Plus, my interview with a real housewife of Atlanta. She shares some show secrets, and I ask her what she has to say to all those people who think the real housewives make black people look bad.

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LEMON: Let's take a look now at what the week ahead will bring from the White House to Wall Street to Hollywood. These are the stories expected to grab the headlines. We begin tonight with what's on the horizon for the president.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Henry in Washington. On Tuesday, the president has a rare joint appearance on the road with Vice President Biden. They will be Kokomo, Indiana, because unemployment there is 12.7 percent, bad, but not as bad as last year, where it was almost 22 percent because of layoffs in the auto industry. It's gotten better because of the president's bailout of Chrysler, so he wants to tout that.

Then Wednesday, he'll be pardoning not a person but a turkey.

And on Thursday, a quiet Thanksgiving dinner at the White House with family.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jeanne Meserve in Washington. It's a huge holiday travel week ahead. We will see whether the public cooperates with the TSA's body scans and new invasive pat-downs or whether protesters make Thanksgiving travel an even bigger headache than usual.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I'm Paul Steinhauser at the CNN political desk in Washington. Sarah Palin is in the spotlight this week. The former Alaska governor's new book titled "America by Heart" hits the book shelves and the former Alaska governor who was John McCain's running mate in 2008, she kicks off a book tour in Phoenix on Tuesday, and that book tour takes Palin to Iowa and South Carolina, two very important states in the road for the White House.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Looking ahead in the week on Wall Street, Hewlett-Packard reports its earnings on Monday and then on Tuesday, we'll get the revised reading of third quarter GDP as well as existing home sales figures and state by state unemployment, all very important reports. Also, more key economic reports on Wednesday. We'll get the latest new home sales figures as well as the latest reading on consumer sentiment heading right into the holiday shopping season. And the market is, of course, closed Thursday for Thanksgiving but opens again on Friday morning for a shortened trading day on Black Friday. We'll track all the news of the week for you on CNNMoney.

BROOKE ANDERSON, HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": I'm "Showbiz Tonight's" Brooke Anderson. Here's what we're watching this week. Mel Gibson and his ex-girlfriend's contentious custody battle heats up this week. And Christina Aguilera and Rihanna open the American Music Awards.

"Showbiz Tonight" is live at 5:00 p.m. Eastern on HLN and we're still TV's most provocative entertainment news show at 11:00 p.m.

LEMON: Thank you, guys.

And international news editor, Azadeh Ansari, joins us now to tell us what's coming up internationally.

So, Azadeh, Ireland, and some people had predicted this. They knew it was coming, but they are in trouble.

AZADEH ANSARI, CNN INTERNATIONAL DESK EDITOR: They are in trouble and their finance minister Brian Lenihan for weeks was saying, we don't need a bailout, we don't need a bailout. And today, he came out and said -- he encouraged the government to actually sign off on one. And that's going to be handed down on Monday, and this could mean -- I mean part of this is to build confidence in investors internationally, you know, so and what this means in relation for the euro and the dollar will play out in the weeks to come.

LEMON: The country will need a bailout of tens of billions of euros. That is not good, not good.

Also, there is some uproar, an uproar happening in Haiti and it has to do with the cholera epidemic that's going on over there.

ANSARI: I mean, it just seems like they are getting hit over and over again exactly. They are claiming that a U.N. Nepalese peacekeeper has -- you know, soldiers who have been stationed there have brought cholera to the country. So, as you can expect, this is creating a lot of chaos, a lot of uproar. And this is just a week out from their slated elections and so now there's some talk about moving the elections back and postponing them if they can't get a grip on it.

LEMON: I believe you have some video, some of the uproar that's happening over in Haiti. So, let's take a look at it. And again, they thought it was --you said it was a Nepalese...

ANSARI: Soldier.

LEMON:...soldier that did this. And this is the uproar that's happening there and sort of the violence and you could see the burning of cars and things there. Just unbelievable. The U.N. had said it doesn't matter who is to blame; what we need to do now, the workers there, is to get it under control. We'll be watching this story.

Azadeh, thank you, Ansari, we appreciate it.

ANSARI: Thank you so much.

LEMON: Have a good week.

ANSARI: You too.

LEMON: And you know, reality shows are all the rage from "American Idol" to Bristol Palin's much discussed routines on "Dancing with the Stars." one of the original cast members of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" tell me the ratings are big, the drama is real, and there's a lot going on behind the scenes.

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LISA WU HARTWELL, FMR CAST MEMBER, "REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA": That show is the number one show in our demographics on cable. I mean, really, and so, not just to say about the "Real Housewives of Atlanta" and their producers. I'm just saying, any producer doing reality TV, the pressure to stay on top is there, you know. And sometimes it's not even the producers. It's just the cast mates that want to give that extra because they want to stand out.

LEMON: You know, Cynthia was supposed to join us but she couldn't and she may join us next week or what have you, but...

HARTWELL: I doubt it.

LEMON: You don't think she's going to join?

HARTWELL: Probably not.

LEMON: Why not? Tell me.

HARTWELL: I'm no longer on the show. I'm doing movies.

LEMON: Well, say what you want.

HARTWELL: You know, I'm doing a movie with Charles...

LEMON: But you don't think -- you don't -- we are going to talk about what you're doing now, but why don't you think she's going to come?

HARTWELL: Well, I just -- I just don't think so. I think you're afraid to talk and you're afraid to talk about, you know, behind the scenes and, you know, it's politics.

LEMON: Like what behind the scenes, Lisa?

HARTWELL: Listen to him, my God. I mean, you know, you're censored. You get slapped on the wrist a little bit, you know. And so, I mean, I probably get slap on the wrist, but really, what am I exposing? I mean, probably what people expect is that reality shows, yes, they are reality to, you know, I've got to say the first and second season, yes, the drama was real.

And people would always ask me that. They were like, is the drama really real? Like, are the fights real? And I'm like, you know, unfortunately, yes, and it's sad, right? But then when the ratings become so huge, you know, the pressure to stay on top, you know, but then you have the cast mates that are willing to give that without the producers edging them on. They do it on their own.

LEMON: And you know, there are some people who say that you guys make black people look bad.

HARTWELL: I've heard that.

LEMON: You're a bad representation of black women.

HARTWELL: Yes, I've heard that. I've heard that.

LEMON: And?

HARTWELL: My thing is this, is that, you know, you have five strong women. Now, they have what, six or seven. I haven't really watched the new season. But, you know, how could we possibly represent all of Atlanta?

LEMON: OK. OK. Since you're not censored, what's going on this season?

HARTWELL: Oh, my God.

LEMON: Who really...

HARTWELL: You know what?

LEMON: Who really hates each other? And what about Nini and the nose job and did she get lipo?

HARTWELL: I liked her nose. I liked her nose before she had the nose job. I did. And if she would have consulted with me I would have told her, you know, you're fine the way you are. I mean, I don't believe...

LEMON: The weight loss -- the weight loss, natural?

HARTWELL: Is it natural? She was losing weight before she had like some nips and tucks, yes, she was.

LEMON: But she had some nips and tucks.

HARTWELL: Yes, but there's nothing wrong with that. I commend that. You know, hey, you got to fix it, go ahead and do it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, from reality to tongue in cheek, we have spent a lot of time this weekend talking about those new TSA rules at airports. "Saturday Night Live" couldn't resist having a little fun with it last night. Here's part of it.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Feeling lonely this holiday season?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Looking for a little human interaction?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to feel contact in certain special places?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then why not go through security at an airport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Very funny from "Saturday Night Live." Of course, it's a serious issue, and can you check us out. We'll be reporting on it here on CNN.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Thank you for watching. Have a great week.