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"Horrendous" Pileup in Florida; Some 400 Occupy Protesters Arrested; Jakarta Tries to Stop Train Surfing; Mexico Hold Tattoo Conference; Interview with Octavia Spencer at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards; Fran Tarkenton Talks Super Bowl, Peyton Manning

Aired January 29, 2012 - 18:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you for joining us here in the CNN NEWSROOM. I hope you're having a good Sunday.

We're going to begin with what one survivor calls a horrendous series of accidents. Look for yourself. Here it is.

If you ever have driven to Disney World with your kids, you probably know Interstate 75 in Florida. But never like this, huh?

With traffic stopped by dense smoke, a series of metal-crushing collisions broke out near Gainesville before dawn. Cars and trucks colliding in the terrifying smoke-filled darkness caused by a brush fire. At least 10 people were killed, many more injured in this accident. I-75 shut down in both directions, completely. At least 12 cars and 7 tractor-trailer trucks involved in that accident.

One of the survivors joins us on the phone. His name is Steven Camps.

So, Steven, we're glad you're OK. Obviously, sorry about the others. You watched the driver in the car next to you die in this chaos sadly, didn't you?

STEVEN CAMPS, ACCIDENT SURVIVOR (via telephone): Yes, sir. It was -- it was quite a life-changing thing because, you know, growing up you never really go through anything like that, and seeing someone's life taken so easily, it really makes you bring a lot of things into question, and it was really something that just really blew my mind.

LEMON: How are you doing?

CAMPS: It's a day by day thing. I'm not going to lie to you. As much as the mental if not really the physical, but really just the thought of going through that and actually surviving is still, you know, it still, you know, it gets to me a little.

LEMON: Yes. And you know just how precarious, just how fragile life is. One moment you're here and the next you couldn't, you might not be.

CAMPS: Yes. I have to say it really does make you have an appreciation for life and what it all has to offer. I really have to say that this incident really made me take a step back and really look at what I was doing with my own life and what I can do better with it.

I have to say that this is really giving me a better outlook on life and I feel like it's given me a second chance.

LEMON: Wow. And I had no idea the conversation was going to go this way, and I'm glad you feel that way, and I hope other people are listening and they take note of it.

In the darkness and confusion with all of this chaos, what did you do? Take us through the process. What happened?

CAMPS: Well, me and my friend were actually leaving with some other friends, and one of my friends actually left ahead of us, and he was telling us -- you know, he called us and told us there was a bit of a fog and he couldn't really see. And then he eventually said, like, you know, somebody's car got hit and his phone just hung up. So, at that point, we really didn't know what was really going on at that point. We were just very alert at the situation.

As we began to drive further down I-75, the fog did get really, you know, it got really bad and we couldn't really see, but when we got to a point we could see where cars were pulling to the side, and there were like two semi-trucks ahead of us, and when we saw the semi-trucks were kind of blocking the road or whatever, you know, that was good so nobody wasn't really driving, everybody could be safe, and we stopped there. Basically, we were sitting there just kind of getting a grasp of everything and we were talking to a fellow driver that was sitting next to us, and we were just -- we weren't really talking very much but, you know, we were just talking about, you know, the situation with us all trying to get back home and us being backed on the interstate.

I tell you, you know, no later than five seconds later, we heard a crash from the back and I guarantee you in no less than three seconds after we heard that, the driver was under the semi truck.

LEMON: Wow.

CAMPS: And that experience alone just really blew me and my friends' mind because we were just sitting here talking to this guy, and he's under a semi truck. And after we -- you know, we sat there and we were like, you know, we're going crazy no later than 10 seconds later, we get hit by a car going at least 80 miles an hour on the interstate and it literally knocks us into the semi truck. But the one that really did the damage was the second one which -- I don't understand why people would be driving 80 miles an hour in the fog like that, you know?

And the second one was really the one that really did it because it disengaged my friend's -- it disengaged his air bag and it really hurt him in the chest or whatever, because it hit him in the chest. I really didn't suffer that many wounds, thank God. A couple stitches in the leg was nothing.

So, I was able to really get out of the car. He was able to walk, but he wasn't really able to walk. So, we got out of the car, and, you know, we walked over to the grassy area and as we're walking to the grassy area, you could just hear the booming of the cars just hitting each other and it's dusty. You can't see nothing. It was just -- it was scary to hear, you know, the sounds of those cars just hitting each other back and forth, and you can't see a thing.

LEMON: You didn't know what was coming next but you could hear the chain reaction of cars just crashing into each other.

CAMPS: I'm sorry? Could you repeat that?

LEMON: You could just hear the chain reaction of cars crashing into each other.

CAMPS: You could hear them coming and coming. After a while, you know, my worse fear was that one of those cars were going to veer off into the grass and maybe hit me and my friend because you can't see anything.

LEMON: Yes.

CAMPS: You couldn't see anything. And, you know, once it kind of stopped, me and my friend, you know, we got up and basically you could just see the aftermath like the fog had cleared up a little bit. You could see people were seriously injured. People were crying and hurt and people were stuck in their cars.

LEMON: Steven --

CAMPS: They were also, of course, fatalities which was something that just blew everybody's mind, just to see that in person. The setting if I could describe it, if I could describe the setting which take place that night, I could almost tell you it looked like the end of the world. Like it didn't look like anything I had ever seen in real life.

LEMON: And, Steven --

CAMPS: Sort of like something you would only picture in a movie.

LEMON: Steven, we're going to have to leave it at that, and we are so glad that you are OK and, again, our hearts and our prayers and thoughts go out to the people who didn't make it and the people who are still in the hospital.

But, Steven, thank you so much. Best of luck to you and to your friend.

CAMPS: All right. Thank you, sir.

LEMON: All right. In other news now:

Oakland, California, city hall trashed, and hundreds of people are under arrest after an Occupy protest boiled over. Windows smashed, debris all over the floor, even graffiti spray-painted on some of the walls. City hall was just one of the targets during a day and night of clashes downtown. We had it for you live here on CNN yesterday.

Protesters also tried unsuccessfully to take over a convention center. According to police, they arrested as many as 400 demonstrators. Oakland's mayor says this behavior only distracts from their message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JEAN QUAN, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: It's time, I think, for the Occupy movement to take a stand on whether this behavior, this kind of behavior that has nothing to do with the 99 percent movement, should be tolerated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Here is what police are saying. They're saying the protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, improvised explosive devices, and burning flares. Now, in return, police used tear gas and smoke grenades on that crowd. Oakland has become a hot spot for the Occupy movement after a police raid on a camp outside city hall erupted in violence back in October.

Very bold, an occupier in Atlanta spray-painted an anarchy sign right on the window of a police precinct. That movement has been picking up steam in Atlanta in recent weeks. Organizers there have been targeting banks -- or here I should say, have been targeting banks in particular.

And in the nation's capital, the clock is ticking for occupiers at two camps near the White House. Police threw down an ultimatum: leave or you'll end up in handcuffs.

Our Athena Jones at one of those parks, McPherson Square.

Athena, how long do these occupiers have to clear out?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. It's all about this, this notice that the park police put up on Friday, telling people they're not allowed to camp here overnight. And so, tomorrow on or about noon, park police will come and begin to possibly arrest violators.

Now, they have put these notices on camps. This is one. You can see this is one of them. There are dozens of these notices that have been put on the tents here.

The issue is you're not allowed to camp here overnight. And so, that means that you can't have any sleeping here, you can't have sleeping bags and that sort of thing. And it also means that the side of a structure has to be kept wide open, at least one side has to be kept open so that officers can observe whether people are in compliance, which means whether they are trying to sleep inside.

And so, it's unclear at this point what the confrontation will look like tomorrow. You can see here, all of the tents that are still up, they've been up since October and it's only tomorrow that park police are going to begin enforcing these camping regulations that have been in place for so long. But the real issue here is whether or not -- are we going to see people tearing down tents and rounding people up? It's really unclear because as I said, this notice says empty tents may be permitted. It's all kind of going depend on what they decide tomorrow.

We've had a chance to talk with some of the demonstrators here. There was a three-hour meeting earlier today among some demonstrators to decide how to handle the activities tomorrow.

Let's listen to what one of them had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATY MCCLURE, OCCUPY PROTESTER: The park and the occupation of the park is a tactic. It's not the movement. And we think it's a really important tactic. We think it's a really important symbolic statement. But we also -- you know, if we can't sleep here, that doesn't end the movement. The movement still continues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And so you heard that. Tomorrow, we may see people doing symbolic activities, looking like they're sleeping. They're going to talk about what the dreams they have for a better country.

They've all said that they are going to be nonviolent. There may be acts of civil disobedience, but no action against police. There are people who say they're willing to be arrested.

But it all remains to be seen what goes down tomorrow. As that one protester indicated, they're committed to having some sort of vigil here for 24 hours even if they aren't sleeping.

Back to you, Don.

LEMON: All right. Athena Jones, thank you very much. Appreciate your reporting.

A Canadian jury says guilty. An Afghan family, Mohammad Shafia, his wife, and their 21-year-old son were convicted of murder in a high- profile trial in Canada. They've been found guilty of killing Shafia's three daughters and first wife in his polygamous in so-called honor murders.

Investigators say the three killed these women, punishing them for being rebellious and westernized. The bodies were found in a car that had plunged into an Ontario canal.

One week ago, Mitt Romney was falling in the falls while Newt Gingrich was rising. How quickly things changed. The tide turning in Florida two days ahead of the primary there. We're talking about it.

And later, they're your children, maybe your grandchildren, playing football and other sports. How safe are they on the field? Ahead of tonight's special report from Dr. Sanjay Gupta, we're talking with NFL hall of fame quarterback Fran Tarkington. He's live in studio to talk about concussions and we're asking him about next week's Super Bowl match-up, too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Florida Republicans have just two days to decide who they will support in Tuesday's presidential primary. You're looking at live pictures now at Pompano Beach. Mitt Romney is scheduled to hold a rally in just a few minutes. You see the crowd getting ready. We're on it.

He has been campaigning all day keeping up the pressure on Newt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, Mr. Speaker, your trouble in Florida is not because the audience is too quiet or too loud or because you have opponents that are tough. Your problem in Florida is that you work for Freddie Mac at a time that Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people, and that you're selling influence in Washington at a time when we needed people to stand up for the truth in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And Newt isn't backing off either. He hit Mitt Romney hard on a familiar theme today, going after his background as a venture capitalist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am not running for president to manage the decay of the United States to the satisfaction of the establishment. And I am not running for president of the United States to make the Wall Street elite and the Washington elite happy. I am running to change both groups on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Rick Santorum's 20-year-old daughter Elizabeth pinch hit for her dad today in Sarasota. Santorum is with his 3-year-old daughter who suffers from a genetic disorder and was admitted to a Pennsylvania hospital just last night. Santorum says he will return to the campaign trail as soon as he can. Our thoughts are with his family.

Mitt Romney is gaining back his breathing room in the latest numbers out of Florida. Here are the numbers from the NBC/Marist poll. It shows Mitt Romney with a 15-point load over Gingrich. Two other polls in the past 24 hours both show Romney with an 11-point lead.

Gingrich doesn't seem to be taking it well either. Today, he was basically calling Romney a liar to any talk show that would listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: I was amazed. I mean, I'm standing next to a guy who has the most blatantly dishonest answers I can remember in any presidential race in my lifetime. He would say thing after thing after thing that just plain wasn't true. And I had -- I don't know how you debate a person with civility if they're prepared to say things that are just plain factually false, and that's going to become a key part of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I want to bring in L.Z. Granderson, a contributor to CNN.com, and senior writer at ESPN. And contributor Will Cain.

Thanks for getting dressed up for me today, guys. You look great.

I love the necktie and suit, Will. Yes. All right. Let's --

WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.

LEMON: Yes, I get it.

I want to star with those poll numbers.

L.Z., what's Romney doing right here? What's he doing right, here?

L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR: Romney is -- what is he doing right? Well, basically whoever the new debate coach is, whoever he went out and hired, he --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Is it Michelle Bachmann's former debate coach?

GRANDERSON: You what? If it is, I'm sure both of them are happy because, one, the debate coach has a competent candidate, and, two, Mitt Romney actually has someone who can teach him that it's OK to be strong.

You know, I had a huge complaint about Mitt Romney was that I couldn't believe he wasn't man enough to stand up to Newt Gingrich. But this past week, he's been man enough to stand up to Newt Gingrich. He's actually confronted him. He's taken him on, and I think that's taken Newt Gingrich aback because up until that point, Mitt was pretty much playing the nice guy, the milquetoast guy.

And now, Mitt has rolled up his sleeves and he's gotten kind of tough. And I think that's taken everybody by surprise.

LEMON: All right. As you -- what were you saying? You went uh-huh, Will?

CAIN: To your Bachmann thing. Yes, it is Bachmann's former debate coach.

LEMON: OK.

I want to play something Romney said about Gingrich on the campaign trail in Florida today. Listen, guys.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: I think for each of us, if we fail somewhere, if we fail in a debate or we fail to get the support of people, it's time to look in the mirror. And my own view is, the reason that Speaker Gingrich has been having a hard time in Florida is the people of Florida have watched the debates, have listened to the speaker, have listened to the other candidates that have said, you know what? Mitt Romney is the guy we're going to support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. Will, is that true? Are we watching Newt Gingrich implode?

CAIN: You got a couple things going on. First the mechanical answer, the political answer. And that is Mitt Romney has outspent Newt Gingrich something like $15 million to $3 million in Florida. Mitt Romney whopped Newt Gingrich in the last two debates in Florida.

So, there's things going on politically. You also have surrogates out there across the state following Newt Gingrich around, winning the political battles. So, that's going on.

But at the same time, yes, this is following the pattern of all of Newt Gingrich's relationships, whether or not they are professional or personal. The longer you are exposed to Newt Gingrich, the less you like him.

GRANDERSON: Wow. I can't even believe you went there. Wow.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Yes, and a conservative.

But you know what, L.Z., he's not the only one, because you heard what Bob Dole have to say. I mean, there are lots of people who are high up in the conservative party -- in the Republican Party who are saying the exact same thing that -- or expressing the same sentiment that Will just expressed there.

GRANDERSON: Absolutely. You know, and it's really hilarious to see Newt running around calling Mitt Romney a liar when he goes off on John King basically base owed on a lie. He knew full well that he did not offer ABC all those extra witnesses that he talks about and had to admit to his lie.

So, for him to talk about who is lying at this point --

CAIN: You know --

GRANDERSON: -- he looks absolutely ridiculous.

LEMON: Go ahead, Will.

CAIN: Yes, I just wanted to say on this lying thing, L.Z. is pointing to this and Newt Gingrich did it in the debate the other night. When Mitt Romney gave an answer and Gingrich said there were at least four lies in that answer, I'm not going to spend the time right now, you know, rejecting all those lies.

And he did in the clip you just played, Don. He said, I've got a candidate who I'm running against who's just lying consistently. He keeps using the word liar, but he's not telling us what are the lies.

Tell us the lies and tell us how you are rebutting them. Tell us how they are false. You can't just call someone a liar and let it stick. Hopefully that shouldn't just stick. You just can't do that over and over.

LEMON: Yes.

OK. Listen, I want to move o now and show the cover for the new issue of "The New Yorker" -- President Obama's Super Bowl according to "The New Yorker."

L.Z., it's interesting that even after Romney lost in South Carolina by double digits, the Obama camp never took their focus off him. And it's interesting because I had Debbie Wasserman Schultz on last weekend and I asked her, I said, well, hey, you know, Newt Gingrich won South Carolina, and are you looking at the wrong guy? Is it Newt Gingrich?

She would answer my question by saying, well, Romney -- they never really took the focus off Romney.

(LAUGHTER)

GRANDERSON: Well, you know, there's good reason for it, is that when you look at all the candidates and if you've been in politics longer than two seconds, you realize that there's really only one viable candidate that the Republican Party can pick who they honestly believe can beat President Obama in the general election. They understand that there are certain people that were in the primary who would generate their base and say some things that they needed to say to build energy for the actual Republican Party.

Well, now, you've got to be appeasing to the independents, the people who are in the middle. And you can't just do it by saying President Obama is a bad president and I hate gay people. You actually have to have some good ideas. You've got to be able to communicate those ways.

I mean, it is what it is. You have to communicate those ideas in a way in which the independents and people in the middle and some disappointed Democrats would actually want to listen to.

And out of everyone, Mitt Romney has always been the candidate that you can go, you know what? If he is president, I won't move out of the country.

LEMON: Yes.

GRANDERSON: But if it's Gingrich, it's a landslide, right? Because who is really going to vote for that liar. I call him a liar. LEMON: There is the joke out there when someone says, hey, you did this and your policies on this. And they go, oh, look, a gay person. That is a joke that people say. It's like, look, something shiny to divert attention.

All right. Thank you, L.Z.

GRANDERSON: Pretty much.

LEMON: Thank you, Will. And thank you -- I love your neckties. Really nice. You guys are very --

CAIN: I put on sleeves. At least I put on sleeves, Don. L.Z. didn't even bother with sleeves. I don't know if that's a Santorum endorsement or what's going on there. Sleeves on Sundays.

GRANDERSON: I got sleeves. I've rolled them up.

LEMON: Last week, snow boots. This week, sleeves. Let's see sleeveless next time. It's got to be a muscle tee I'm sure. Thank you.

CNN, of course, is your source for complete coverage of Tuesday's Florida Republican primary. Our special live coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. Make sure you tune in. We have a developing story to tell you about out of New York now.

A mystery illness that has sickened more than a dozen teenagers, twitching and outbursts among the symptoms and you can see it there in the video. And it may all be connected to a train accident that happened more than 40 years ago. We're talking about it with Dr. Drew Pinsky. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Now to a developing story from Upstate New York. A mystery illness is plaguing the small community of LeRoy, New York. At least 15 teenagers are displaying odd symptoms, look at that twitching and verbal outbursts. Ain't that amazing, the video to see that?

Doctors have diagnosed it as possible conversion disorder. But new developments may have revealed there is more to this particular story.

Earlier, I spoke with HLN's Dr. Drew Pinsky.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Famed environmentalist, Dr. Drew, Erin Brockovich, has gotten involved and is conducting her own investigation. You have spoken to her on your show. What did she have to say to you?

DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN: She has come upon information that really is rather stunning, and I just like that we are looking under every stone to try to see if we can understand what happened to these young girls. And even if there's not a direct relationship between what we've uncovered with Erin Brockovich and these girls' strange illness, the fact is what we've uncovered I can only describe as an environmental disaster up there in LeRoy.

She found out that in the early '70s, there was a train derailment where thousands of gallons of TCE was spilled, that's trichloroethylene, a known carcinogen, something that can cause neurological disorders, was spilled into the ground outside of LeRoy, just a few miles from that school. And she had discovered that there had been actual bedrock samples from in and around that area showing a plume of this potentially carcinogenic compound heading towards that high school.

Now, she has sent up one of her own investigators to LeRoy and we have sent a team up there. What you're going to see on Monday night is just astonishing. They went to the site of the train derailment and has found that the remediation site, the site where they were supposed to manage all these toxic chemicals, has itself become a pre -- almost an autonomous toxic spill of its own. It's as though the remediation site is now a toxic site, and it's just miles from that school.

So, we are on this and trying to understand where and what these girls might have been exposed to and what this community might be facing.

LEMON: I want you to talk about this conversion disorder, but even if it is that and it turns out it is conversion disorder, as you said, it's still a huge problem when you look at all the chemicals that were spilled here and if you look at that site now.

Let's talk about conversion disorder, Dr. Drew. I have -- I had another doctor, Dr. Wendy Walsh. She had work with her before on it, she said it could be conversion disorder but we don't know right now until all the testing is done.

And I have people who are writing to me via social media saying I don't think it's conversion disorder. I think it's a chemical. What do you make from talking to the girls?

PINSKY: I spent decades working in a psychiatric hospital, and my primary job was to make sure that there was not a medical condition contributing to or causing the psychiatric symptoms that were causing the need for hospitalization. And you would be stunned how often I found bona fide medical conditions underlying the psychiatric syndrome.

In this particular situation, particularly Thera Sanchez, to me just -- it just felt like there was something organic going on. Yes, there are psychiatric symptoms and let me define conversion for you since you asked what that is. Basically, it's a way of the body expressing psychiatric or psychological symptoms through blindness, numbness, twitches, seizuring, this sort of thing. It's a physical manifestation unconscious of an emotional event and it does happen. It happens and there can be a contagion. And it's called a mass hysteria.

But you don't want to call -- and, by the way, there may be a component of this up there in LeRoy. I have no doubt there might be. But you don't want to say everyone has got that until you have categorically ruled out medical causes. And that has been my call, is there's some experts that can help us with infectious agents that can cause this or chemical agents and, Erin Brockovich stepped up and we have uncovered things that are astonishing even if it's not directly related to what these girls have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Astonishing as Dr. Drew said. Fascinating as well. Tonight at 9:00 Eastern, Dr. Drew talks to famed environmentalist activist Erin Brockovich about her new findings from the town of LeRoy. Make sure you tune in as well for Dr. Drew. That's tonight and every night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only on HLN.

Eight months ago, it took a direct hit from a tornado. My, how time flies. It's been eight months hasn't it? Well, today demolition began on this hospital in Joplin, Missouri. After the break, why it's going to take an old-fashioned wrecking ball rather than explosives to bring it down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A little more than half past the hour. Let's take a look at the headlines now.

First up, tragedy on Interstate 75 in Florida. Before dawn today, cars and trucks piled up outside Gainesville killing 10 people and injuring 18 more. Drivers were blinded by smoke from a nearby brush fire. One survivor called it horrendous. The highway patrol had just reopened the interstate when the chain of collisions occurred.

In Canada, an Afghan family, Mohammad Shofia (ph), his wife, and their 21-year-old son have been convicted of murdering these four women. The murdered women are Shofia's (ph) three daughters and his first wife. Investigators say the three conducted these so-called honor murders to punish the victims for being rebellious and westernized.

The government is ramping up the bloodshed on the streets of Syria today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: This YouTube video seems to sum it. A wounded protester shot by soldiers, dragged away in Damascus. An opposition activist group says at least 64 people died in attacks today, nearly 100 on Saturday. CNN cannot confirm those numbers, nor verify the video. But with Arab League monitors gone, the violence is escalating.

It has been eight months since a monster tornado slammed Joplin, Missouri, killing 161 people. A hospital was heavily damaged. And today, demolition crews began tearing it down. A four-foot wooden cross that once hung in the hospital's emergency department was taken to a new hospital site about two miles away. Demolition crews used a wrecking ball to tear down the hospital instead of explosives. Much of Joplin sits on old mines that have been filled in. They didn't want to take the chance of explosives damaging surrounding properties.

You've probably seen these images before, people piled on top of trains in Indonesia just to get a free ride. Well, ahead, a move the government is taking to try to make them stop. We're back in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Azadeh is here and she said something really funny coming out of the break.

Sorry, you caught me off guard.

Azadeh, let's talk about --

(LAUGHTER)

-- More than 200 tattoo artists showed off their skills in Venezuela this week. That's just one of the stops on this week's -- as we go "Globe Trekking" with Azadeh Ansari, our international editor down at the international desk.

First, I want to talk about Indonesia. They're doing something interesting to discourage people from riding the trains for free, taking free rides on trains.

AZADEH ANSARI, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: And why is that? Because if you think we have bad traffic in Atlanta here, Don, like Jakarta trumps us all. People need to get to work, they need to go to school, they need to go about their daily business. What they're doing, and they have been doing it for decades, is crowding and surfing on top of trains. They're freeloading on top of trains in order to get from one point to another. And so what the officials in Jakarta have come out and said is that they're going to put these -- they're concrete balls --

(LAUGHTER)

-- the size of grapefruits, right? And they have suspended them from these rail racks on top of the trains. And this is the latest measure they have put in place to try to prevent these people from, again, surfing on top or free loading on the trains. And this is not just in Indonesia. But we have some sound that I want to run to you but we can talk about that later.

LEMON: No, let's listen.

ANSARI: It's from a railway spokesman who is talking about the problem and the measures they have tried to put in place before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translation): It was our idea because policing passengers has been going on in various ways for so long, starting with oil on the roof, using barbed wire, spraying dyed water, dogs, advice from religious leaders. None of these were effective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Not quite working. Even the balls.

ANSARI: It's not. And the thing is the chains that they've suspended these balls from are 16 inches shorter than they need to be to prevent the problem from actually happening. So the government says they're going to fix it.

LEMON: We'll see. That's weird. That would hurt. That would leave a mark, as they say.

Let's move on to Venezuela now. This weekend, we kind of got a hint of it and saw the video -- Tattoos. The person's whole face was --

(CROSSTALK)

ANSARI: It's one of the largest tattoo conventions that's taking place in the world. You can see these piercings, facial tattoos. One of the highlights of this year's convention and expose is a woman known as the vampire woman of Mexico, Don. She's gotten a lot of attention because of the fact -- this is her right here. You can see her piercing and titanium rods in her forehead. She got married when she was 17 and she turned to tattoo art as a form to get over domestic violence and abuse that she had experienced throughout the years throughout her marriage. And now, don't let this fool you, because she is actually a former lawyer. She's a mother of four. She's been married for eight years. So she has this whole thriving career outside of what we see here. And now she's a tattoo artist, of course.

LEMON: You're talking to me, looking at me, but I can't take my eyes off those pictures. It's art?

ANSARI: It is art.

LEMON: You met the most tattooed woman in the world.

ANSARI: Actually, his name is Lucky Diamond.

LEMON: It's -- it's a --

ANSARI: It's a guy.

LEMON: It's a man.

ANSARI: When I say the most tattoos, when I say this --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I remember this. I remember this. ANSARI: -- 100 percent of his body is literally tattooed. Ran into him at the San Francisco airport. Really nice guy. He's from New Zealand. And, you know, the interesting part is, in this country, we talk about race, right?

LEMON: Yes.

ANSARI: But how do you deal with people who choose to express themselves in a form that's very different and unique from anything we've ever experienced? And so their reality is a very different reality than what all of us experience every day.

LEMON: That's interesting. All right. Pictures are -- yes.

Thank you.

ANSARI: You're welcome.

LEMON: Appreciate it.

The awards show where actors are honored by other actors. We're live on the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild Awards next. We'll have an interview with the nominee from the movie "The Help" when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The awards season is in full swing, and tonight, trophies are being handed out at the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, the SAG Awards.

Kareen Wynter on the red carpet at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

My goodness. Take it away. I love this movie and this actress. Tell her I said hello and good luck. Go.

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Oh, my gosh, she can't hear you.

But Don Lemon in Atlanta says he loved the movie, he loves you. So it is such a treat to have Octavia Spencer here with us.

You are -- big, big award season for you. A big win at the Golden Globe for "The Help." You're nominated again in the supporting actress category for "The Help." Your movie as well, outstanding cast. It does not get any better than this.

OCTAVIA SPENCER, ACTRESS: No, it doesn't, to be recognized by your peers. Just with the nomination is thrilling. You know, we've all been working a very long time. And to have veterans like Sissy Spacek and Mary Steenburgen and Cicely Tyson to be recognized with an ensemble award would be the end all, be all.

WYNTER: Phenomenal.

Don, I had the pleasure of speaking to Octavia last week right after your big Oscar nomination for "The Help."

Have you come down a little bit or are you still floating on the clouds? You were so speechless last week. It's been an incredible year with "The Help."

SPENCER: It has. It hit me two years ago and I had to call Melissa McCarthy just to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

WYNTER: Also nominated tonight.

SPENCER: One of my best friends on the planet.

And I had to call her to say is it true? Is it really happening? We feel like we're in a storybook.

WYNTER: It's happening. And your talents are so incredible. In "The Help," it's a political film that touches on everything from race to religion. Why do you think the movie has resonated so much with the audience?

SPENCER: I think it's resonating because it's an important story. These women are grandmothers, our mothers, and for the first time, they're given a voice.

WYNTER: And you see her beautiful gown.

The designer? Tadashi?

SPENCER: Tadashi.

WYNTER: She's going to be rocking it tonight. We're pulling for you.

SPENCER: Thank you.

WYNTER: Big show ahead.

Don, we'll send it back to you.

WYNTER: Bye, Don.

LEMON: Thank you much.

Bye, Octavia, good luck to you.

And we'll see Kareen next hour.

Up next here on CNN --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORREST GREGG, FORMER FOOTBALL PLAYER: You're going to play and you're going to get hit. And that was my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: What happens to athletes years after those hard hits? We're looking ahead to Dr. Sanjay Gupta's special report later tonight. And we're talking with Hall of Fame Quarterback Fran Tarkington about the dangers on the field. And we're asking him about next week's Super Bowl match-up, too.

There he is live in our studio.

Fran, we'll see you in a bit. Stick around, everybody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: For months CNN has been investigating the dangers of concussion in sports. In his new documentary, "Big Hits, Broken Dreams," our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, talks with athletes young and old about what life is like taking hit after hit after hit. And in the case of one retired pro, Sanjay asks, would he do it all over again?

(BIG HITS, BROKEN DREAMS PREVIEW)

LEMON: I'm joined now by pro football Hall of Famer, Fran Tarkenton. He's the founder of onemorecustomer.com. It's a great web site, onemorecustomer.com

You said, this guy was such a guy --

(CROSSTALK)

FRAN TARKENTON, FORMER HALL OF FAME PRO FOOTBALL PLAYER & FOUNDER, ONEMORECUSTOMER.COM: Forrest Gregg, one of the greatest players that ever lived. Smart, with the great Green Bay Packer teams of Lombardi's time. And back in those days, we didn't understand the protocol of concussions. I got concussions and I would go off on the sideline, get my wits back and go out and play again.

LEMON: As they say, you have your bell rung?

TARKENTON: You have your bell rung.

LEMON: Yes.

TARKENTON: Yes, but see, that's the problem. Because now they are doing such a better job. And the protocols they have, you have a concussion, it will heal. But if you go back and get hit in the held before it does heal, then that creates all kind of problems now and in the future.

LEMON: It's the repetitive nature. My question is, this is a helmet, this kind of helmet here. Does modern technology like this help at all?

TARKENTON: I think it hurts more than it helps. We almost have a little tent there. We weighed about 10 percent of the weight of this helmet here and we didn't -- you couldn't use your helmet as a weapon. This is a weapon. This is a big helmet. And they teach these people to hit with the head gear and the held gear goes to the face, goes to the head, and I think it's more trauma than it was in our day. And so I think it's so great, what they're doing now.

And Sanjay's report, every high school parent or friend of a player ought to watch this, because we really ought to start in high schools, where the coaches and the trainers are not trained to do the protocol. They need doctors there.

LEMON: If you had a teenager, would you let him play football?

TARKENTON: I would. But I would want my team to make sure that doctors are there. If my kid got hit in the head, got a concussion, I would keep him out of the game and do the protocols before we let him back in.

LEMON: Do you have a connection to this documentary?

TARKENTON: I do. Sanjay Gupta is one of my great friends. And a year ago, he was at our house for dinner. We started talking about concussions. That gave him the notion to go and do the research. He's not just a TV doctor, as you know. He is a great, great neurosurgeon.

LEMON: Yes.

TARKENTON: And this documentary is a must-watch for every parent or friend of a high school or college or pro player.

LEMON: I'm glad you said that. And I don't want you to go anywhere, Fran, because we're going to talk more.

Remember, it's called "Big Hits, Broken Dreams." It airs a little more than an hour from now, at 8:00 eastern. "Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports." You don't want to miss it.

And Sanjay is going to be on next hour, correct? He's going to be live here on CNN next hour. You don't want to miss that, either.

Fran, stay here. We're going to talk Super Bowl after a quick break. And I know you have some provocative thoughts about Payton Manning's future in the NFL. Everyone will want to hear that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You know, it's getting close. We want to talk about the Super Bowl now. Who better to talk about the Super Bowl than Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton, now the chairman and founder of the web site --

TARKENTON: Onemorecustomer.com.

LEMON: There you go.

(LAUGHTER)

That's incredible. Onemorecustomer.com.

(LAUGHTER)

That is incredible.

TARKENTON: I had to play in three Super Bowls, ran out of time in each one. Should have won them all but just ran out of time.

LEMON: They cut you off. What happened?

TARKENTON: I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: It is a rematch from four years ago, Fran, the Giants and the Patriots. The Giants were struggling this season, going nowhere. How did they turn it around?

TARKENTON: They got people healthy (ph). He was 77. They wanted to fire Tom Coughlin. They thought he's an idiot. He's not. He's a great coach. The giants have more talent than the Patriots. This is not the Patriot team of four years ago. Belichick put it together with smoke and mirrors. He has a little offensive back playing defensive back now. He's got the taxi squaders playing in the secondary. But he's put it together. But New York should win this game because they are healthy. And the only reason that New England will win, if God wants them to.

LEMON: You said New England?

TARKENTON: New England. That's the only way they can win. New York is the best team.

LEMON: You got a score for me?

TARKENTON: I think it will be 24-21.

LEMON: Hold on. Oh, wait, I can do that after?

(LAUGHTER)

I'm not betting anyone, don't --

(CROSSTALK)

TARKENTON: We don't do that.

LEMON: No, we don't that.

Let's talk about -- one of the game's biggest stars, Peyton Manning. He's hurt, how soon -- he's going to be a free agent soon, right?

TARKENTON: Yes. But here's the deal. He's an icon. He made Indianapolis. For his owner to come out and knock him and call him a politician is unbelievable -- he's not going to play in Indianapolis next year.

LEMON: You don't think?

TARKENTON: No. Indianapolis needs to move on. They've got to rebuild. Peyton doesn't want to do that. If he is healthy and is going to play, he's going to play on a team that can win a championship. Indianapolis has fired everybody there and they are in a rebuilding mode. Peyton Manning is as great a quarterback that's ever played the game. He's handling himself pristinely and the owner made a jerk of himself.

LEMON: I'm in a quandary here. I don't know what to do. You know the only -- my radio and my car only stays on Sirius, on Howard 100, Howard 101.

TARKENTON: You've got to move it. You've got to move it.

LEMON: So what am I going to do? You are going to have a show. Do you know which channel?

TARKENTON: It'll be on Star 2, and we're going to start it actually the Friday before the Super Bowl. And we're going to do it next Friday night and then, after that, we're going to do 6:00 to 9:00 on Monday nights on Star 2, and going to be a three-hour show. They'll replay it a couple of times. And I can talk about anything.

LEMON: On Sirius. I know you can talk about anything. Isn't that a luxury? You and Howard. You can't DVR.

(LAUGHTER)

Serious.

Thank you, sir.

TARKENTON: Thank you. Good to see you.

LEMON: Always a pleasure to see you.

TARKENTON: Good to see you, buddy.

LEMON: Thank you, Fran. Thank you very much.