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Joy Behar Page
Cameron Douglas Sentenced to Five Years in Prison; Interview With Kinky Friedman
Aired April 21, 2010 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOY BEHAR, HOST: Tonight on THE JOY BEHAR SHOW, his father, grandfather and stepmother are movie stars and he grew up surrounded by wealth and privilege yet letters to the judge painted Cameron Douglas as a victim.
Then who or what is responsible for the growth of the tea party movement? Some people say it`s the economy and others say it`s moral decay, but Kinky Friedman blames it on the Democrats. Ok.
And Alyssa Milano grew up on TV on "Who`s the Boss" and bewitched everyone as an adult in "Charmed". Now, the recently married star tells us about her new series, "Romantically Challenged".
That and more right now.
Although a judge has sentenced actor Michael Douglas`s son to prison for selling drugs, the mandatory term for his crime was 10 years. So did Cameron Douglas get special treatment?
Joining me now to discuss this and more is former district attorney and host of the Judge Jeanine Pirro Show", the very fabulous Judge Jeanine Pirro.
Ok. How are you?
JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO, HOST, "JUDGE JEANINE PIRRO SHOW": I`m fine.
BEHAR: Did he get off too easy, do you think?
PIRRO: Yes.
BEHAR: Because he`s not going to really serve even the five years, is he?
PIRRO: Well, look, first of all, I think that what you have to look at here is this guy was a major drug dealer in New York City.
BEHAR: He was?
PIRRO: Yes.
BEHAR: Major.
PIRRO: Major -- five pounds of meth in New York City. They only seize 14 pounds a year in New York City. So this guy was peddling poison. He had all the benefits of privilege.
And you know, I think it`s kind of sad -- and I love Kirk Douglas, I love Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones but they went into court and they said, "Please, he`s a victim." The only victim here are the victims who bought those drugs whose families suffered from drug dealing operations, who suffer all the consequences.
BEHAR: Nobody told them to buy it. That makes them victims too -- everybody is a victim.
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: You`re addicted at the end of the day. This guy had all of the opportunities to get out of addiction, rehab, and his family comes in and they said, "You know, the nannies raised him." How many kids are raised by nannies in the country?
BEHAR: And a lot of them are screwed up.
PIRRO: Yes. Well, they`re not dealing drugs when you have half a million in the bank. You`re an addict, Joy, be an addict. You don`t have to be a dealer. That`s the problem here.
Even the judge said that the letters from the family had too many excuses. They said, look, we have addiction in our family. If you`ve got addiction in your family, then you should recognize it and stop it.
This guy got the deal of the century. He got house arrest in the beginning. He has another conviction and now he`s an informant, which is why they cut back some of the jail time.
BEHAR: If he was a black kid from Compton, Los Angeles he wouldn`t have gotten five years. He would have gotten ten years.
PIRRO: That`s exactly the point, Joy.
BEHAR: Yes, I know.
PIRRO: It`s not fair. And it`s even worse, a black kid from the projects couldn`t imagine the life that Cameron Douglas had. He couldn`t have the opportunity.
BEHAR: Don`t you think that the parents are just feeling guilty because they weren`t there for him? I mean that`s what that`s about.
PIRRO: You know what? If they aren`t Joy, they should go into therapy themselves. Don`t think that your guilt is an excuse for a judge not to sentence your son to the time that he earned.
BEHAR: Ok. Now Danny Bonaduce was on my show yesterday. He said Cameron Douglas ratted out others in the drug ring. Is that possibly the reason he got a lighter sentence? What does that mean for him? That snitching could be dangerous in jail.
PIRRO: When I was a D.A. Joy, and I was also a narcotics judge. So what you would do is you would try to get them to turn informant for you so that you could find out or literally go up the ladder of the drug peddling operation.
There`s no question in my mind he`s turned informant. The documents indicate that. He`s doing everything he can to stay out of prison for ten years, you get it. But you know a lot of these guys do that to save their own tails.
And so Danny Bonaduce is right, and at the end of the day it will cut back his prison time.
BEHAR: It will. How about a guy who goes into jail who`s known as a snitch? Doesn`t that put him behind the 8 ball with other prisoners?
PIRRO: But he`s also going to federal prison. This is DEA. It`s a federal crime Joy, very different from State prison.
BEHAR: Isn`t that where the mobsters go?
PIRRO: Yes.
BEHAR: They make spaghetti --
(CROSSTALK)
PIRRO: Yes, you saw those shows, too. This is very different.
BEHAR: All right. Ok.
Let`s talk about another case. A former producer of the show "Survivor", he could face arrest for the murder of his wife at a posh Mexican resort and her family members have flown to Mexico to point the finger directly at Bruce Beresford-Redman.
He hasn`t been arrested yet, this guy. Is he a person of interest? They are holding him there, though, right?
PIRRO: Yes. What they`re doing is they`re holding his passport. They said you`re not leaving this country. That means they`re going to arrest him.
What they`re doing in Mexico is very interesting. The criminal justice system there basically says you`re guilty until proven innocent. It`s kind of weird.
BEHAR: Imagine how great it is here to have a Constitution that says the opposite.
PIRRO: We have the best system in the world. I mean I truly, you know --
BEHAR: Shouldn`t they be emulating us in Mexico?
PIRRO: Well, apparently not. But part of the problem, Joy, the reason that they`re waiting on this is they`re waiting to get all the DNA back. What you have here in the United States this guy would have been arrested already.
You have him fighting with his wife, hitting her in public, neighbors in the hotel will hear them screaming. They find her in a ditch in the sewer and she`s never left the property. There are reports that he was having an affair. He has scratches on his body. They`re just waiting for the DNA to come back. It`s all there.
BEHAR: Is this one of these, if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it`s a duck.
PIRRO: Well, yes, it`s a duck -- but it`s also, you know, domestic violence. I mean, at the end of the day the first person you look at is going to be the spouse. So they can`t eliminate him.
BEHAR: TMZ has this photo -- we showed it probably -- of the alleged mistress. That doesn`t look too good for the husband.
PIRRO: No. He has motive, means and opportunity, fighting -- where is she? Is that her? Whatever.
BEHAR: Who`s the other guy? It`s like a menage a trois there.
PIRRO: That`s her boyfriend. No. Now we`ll be sued for that. We don`t know who that is.
BEHAR: Monica`s family, the victim`s family flew to Mexico in hopes of helping the investigation and bringing her home. Will that have any affect on the case?
PIRRO: Well, I think that the Mexican authorities are very, very focused on what they`re doing. It`s important to have the family come in and indicate that, you know, we want the strictest sentence possible and we want you to go forward. We will cooperate and tell you what she told us in terms of did she say my marriage is on the rocks. I think he has a girlfriend.
All that information puts together the pieces of the puzzle that creates the picture that will ultimately be heard by the trier of fact.
BEHAR: Right. And he`s in trouble there, it seems to me since he`s guilty until proven innocent.
PIRRO: Yes. That`s why it`s taking so long to actually arrest him. They have to have the goods before they arrest him, because their burden once they arrest, they`re almost there at conviction.
BEHAR: Why does this happen so often where the husband is obviously the one who killed the wife?
PIRRO: Why don`t they just get divorced?
BEHAR: They`re on vacation. I don`t know why they don`t get a divorce.
PIRRO: Because they`re cowards.
BEHAR: And why do they think they`re going to get away with it, these guys?
PIRRO: Because for years men did, Joy. For years men would get away with it.
BEHAR: Yes. But that ship has sailed.
PIRRO: But everybody thinks that they`re not going to get caught. And you know the worst part of it is for a man to kill the mother of his own children, to rob his children of their mother. That`s the lowest of the low.
BEHAR: Do you believe in evil, Jeanine?
PIRRO: Absolutely.
BEHAR: I do, too. I do. I think it exists.
PIRRO: I mean I dealt with it for 30 years.
BEHAR: Evil people are out there.
Ok. Another chapter in the sad story of Phoebe Prince, that poor kid in Massachusetts who prosecutors say was bullied to death. Apparently she`s written essays about self-mutilation before she committed suicide. It seems as though she was tormented for quite a time before. What does self-mutilation have to do with self-esteem and things like is that?
PIRRO: Everything. I dealt with victims of sex crimes and what they would often do Joy is cut themselves, mutilate themselves because they feel such self-worthlessness, if that`s a word. They feel no sense of self.
BEHAR: Maybe they want attention?
PIRRO: Well, some of them may. But you see all -- the history, what we`ve got here, is not just all these teens being prosecuted, as well they should be and kudos to the D.A. in Massachusetts.
BEHAR: Yes.
PIRRO: But you`ve got also a school system that ignored it, and I`m telling you as sure as I`m sitting here, Joy, that school will be sued, as well they should be. The shame of it is Massachusetts does not have an anti-bullying statute; 44 states do. They were not listening and there was just a verdict for $800,000 I think it was in Michigan because when the teachers are on notice and the kids are -- you know, they`re suffering in school.
And this girl was -- they were throwing things at her, pushing her into lockers, calling her a whore. I mean she went to the teachers.
BEHAR: But you know something? You know something Jeanine? I was a teacher. Where are the parents in all of this? She`s cutting herself at home. Why don`t they notice it at home?
PIRRO: Well, first of all, I think her mother and father were separated, and this is going to be the rub in this case. They`re going to say she was probably depressed because she came from Ireland and her father wasn`t around.
But the mother apparently was working. She did talk to friends at school. She did talk to the teachers -- I mean the warning signs were there, but does the mother know what`s going on at school?
BEHAR: I guess not.
PIRRO: And the girl, as soon as she looks at her Blackberry, they`re calling her names. It`s cyber-stalking, cyber-bullying.
BEHAR: She`s a -- she was a bright kid.
PIRRO: Bright and beautiful.
BEHAR: She wrote an essay on a book that she called -- that she was reviewing called, "Cutting". She wrote, "I found there was truth in every word. It`s about trying to transfer the pain from emotional to physical pain, which is a lot easier to deal with for most adolescents who most likely don`t understand how they`re feeling."
It`s interesting. She`s a bright kid.
PIRRO: Bright girl.
BEHAR: Too bad.
PIRRO: Absolutely.
BEHAR: Are defense lawyers for the bullies -- let`s talk about them -- likely to point to this, the fact that she self-mutilated as evidence that the girl was mentally unstable in the first place? And it`s not their fault that they bullied her?
If she was not mentally unstable, she might have been able to deal with the bullies better?
PIRRO: I don`t know. Remember that those bullies -- if we can call them that -- are not being charged with her homicide. That may come later. They`re being charged with harassment, stalking --
BEHAR: Right.
PIRRO: -- and boys that she apparently had sex with --
BEHAR: Right.
PIRRO: -- have been charged with statutory rape.
BEHAR: Which by the way, 18-year-old, one of them Austin Reno (ph), was just arrested on a drunk driving charge. Boy what a cutie he must be.
PIRRO: Yes, well let me tell you, everything has consequences and at the end of day what he`s got -- is he`s in a lot of trouble right now.
But you know, Massachusetts is interesting. Most states allow for teens to have sex as long as there`s not too big an age difference. She was 15 and one of the boys was 17 --
BEHAR: Yes.
PIRRO: -- and charged statutory rape which means, even though she agreed to it --
BEHAR: Yes.
PIRRO: The D.A. really, you know, was coming down and saying we`re coming after all of you.
BEHAR: Do these boys know that -- when they`re 17 they can`t sleep with a 15-year-old? Is that out there, that particular piece of information? I`m just wondering about that.
PIRRO: I think most men know that like the magic age is like 18.
BEHAR: Eighteen, 18.
PIRRO: Eighteen but when you`re teenagers you figure we`re in love and we`re having sex or whatever. It`s just not that unusual. In most states there`s a bigger age difference.
BEHAR: I never had sex when I was a teenager.
PIRRO: Never.
BEHAR: Did you?
PIRRO: I`m never --
BEHAR: Look at me.
PIRRO: Mom, never. Never, no, I wasn`t, I said --
BEHAR: We were good Catholic girls. I was a good little girl.
PIRRO: Catholic, did you go to a Catholic schools?
BEHAR: No, don`t be ridiculous.
PIRRO: Yes, I did.
BEHAR: That I wouldn`t do. All thank you, Jeanine, always a pleasure to have you here, come again. Come anytime you want.
PIRRO: Yes, ok.
BEHAR: Ok.
Up next, are the Democrats to blame for the rise of the Tea Party? Kinky Friedman thinks so, he`ll explain after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: Are Democrats actually responsible for the Tea Party Movement? Musician and politician Kinky Friedman says they have no one but themselves to blame. He also claims that the left`s accusations of racism, only made the Tea Party stronger and more determined. Is he right? Let`s ask him.
Joining me now is Kinky Friedman, contributor to "The Daily Beast" and the author of "Heroes of a Texas Childhood".
Hello, Kinky. And how are you?
KINKY FRIEDMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, "THE DAILY BEAST": Joy, how are you?
BEHAR: Good to see you. Ok, tell me your theory. Why are the Democrats responsible for the rise of the Tea Party?
FRIEDMAN: Well, because the Democratic Party as you and I know, Joy, the great -- what made it great was its historical populism. It had a populist mode; it always stood up for the people. And I`m talking about whether it`s Sam Houston or Harry Truman or Sam Rayburn or the ones I like Barbara Jordan and Ann Richards and Molly Ivan -- those three women. They stood up for the people.
And I think it`s really gotten away from that. And it`s -- now what they`re doing is they are being dismissive toward the Tea Party. And that`s -- you know that`s always a mistake.
By the way, you told me last night to say hello to Don Imus and I did. And he told me, "Joy Behar did not tell you to say hello to me."
BEHAR: I did.
FRIEDMAN: I know you did.
BEHAR: Tell him to watch the show, ok.
FRIEDMAN: Ok. I`m going to get that on the record, right.
BEHAR: Yes.
FRIEDMAN: I will.
BEHAR: All right, well, first of all, you know, Obama is a populist in many ways. He seems to care -- if you ask the Tea Partiers -- they are the first ones to say he cares more about poor people than rich people, so there is that, right there. And when you say they`re dissing the Tea Party, who exactly are you talking about? Not me.
FRIEDMAN: Well --
BEHAR: Not Nancy Pelosi, not Harry Reid, they`ve never said anything like that against the Tea Party. Are you talking about pundits?
FRIEDMAN: Well, the Tea Party is something we can`t control. You know, this might hurt the Republicans as much as it does the Democrats. If it stays cohesive and independent, it certainly will. But right now, I would bet the ball is going to bounce against the Democrats.
And why I say it`s their own fault basically is that all of us are -- all of us are mad at politicians. I can`t think of a living politician that I admire. I mean, I`m trying to think of one, and I can`t. They`re all dead.
BEHAR: Well, I admire Obama. I think that he`s doing a very good job. He`s not perfect, but I think that he`s really trying very hard to get us out of the mess left by the Bush administration. I admire the man. I do.
FRIEDMAN: Well, it`s very simple what he needs to do. He hired all of Bill Clinton`s people.
BEHAR: Right.
FRIEDMAN: What he needs -- what he needs to do is I think is take a tutorial and really listen to what the two Bills have to say, Bill Clinton and Bill O`Reilly. Those two I think could help him be a man of the people, which -- look, they were aristocrats like JFK and FDR who connected with the common people.
BEHAR: Right.
FRIEDMAN: They were men of the people. I think Obama is having trouble doing that for whatever reason. And I think O`Reilly, who by the way, shares your background in education as a teacher --
BEHAR: Right.
FRIEDMAN: -- being the most significant things Bill O`Reilly ever -- ever really did and I think he knows that.
BEHAR: It`s ironic that you say that, though, because Obama was not raised by a rich family like FDR and JFK. And yet he is perceived as an elitist where as they really were rich guys. He wasn`t raised a rich guy.
FRIEDMAN: No, no, no he wasn`t.
BEHAR: No.
FRIEDMAN: But -- but Bill Clinton really was the one who is raised by a single parent --
BEHAR: Yes.
FRIEDMAN: -- in a low income. Obama was in prep school already in Hawaii. I`m not -- and I`m saying Obama, you know, he had the cards stacked against him just like Bill Clinton did.
BEHAR: All right.
FRIEDMAN: But why doesn`t he follow Bill Clinton`s spiritual road map? I`m not talking -- Joy, I`m not talking about politically moving toward the middle. There`s already too much politics in politics. I mean, in his heart, in his spirit don`t be -- our country is spiritually corrupt because we`ve got --
BEHAR: But you know, let`s talk about the Tea Partiers a little bit more.
FRIEDMAN: Ok.
BEHAR: Ok, I mean, you`re talking about this sort of rhetoric from the left to the Tea Partiers. I had a guy on I think it was last night? Was it last night we had the Tea Party on? I think it was last night. Everything is blending into one now. And he basically told me that I hate the Constitution and have no respect for the working class.
I mean, don`t they have to watch their rhetoric coming towards the left. Because you know I come from working class family which I pointed out to him rather vehemently.
And I really think that they make the mistake to lump liberals or the lefties into some kind of an elitist group of people who don`t care about the country and who don`t really respect the Constitution. They need to watch themselves on that one.
FRIEDMAN: Yes, they do. And -- but -- but it`s really the facts on the ground. I don`t -- I don`t get a sense of racism coming off of the Tea Party at all.
BEHAR: Really, well, look at the signs that we`re showing, ok, Kinky. I mean, I agree with the fact that the guys -- one of the Tea Party guys who was on said look, that`s a fringe group in the Tea Party, and the media tends to cover them.
But you have -- you have the joker in white face, as Obama as the Joker in white face, which I think is very disrespectful. A woman is walking around with a monkey, which is so racist and nasty. You have Obama as a medicine man with a bone coming out of his nose as a witch doctor of some kind. Signs saying, "Go back to Kenya." Calling him a lion African.
I mean, these kinds of things are very volatile signs, plus don`t these people carry a lot of guns. I know, they had a lot, there she is. Look at this woman. Who is this woman? Why didn`t the Tea Partiers to tell her to stop it. We don`t want to be racist in this organization.
FRIEDMAN: Well, this is kind of racism-like. I mean compared -- to me, signs that say Okies keep out, no Jews allowed, colored drinking fountain -- those are racist.
BEHAR: And so are these. No?
FRIEDMAN: Look, what Barbara Jordan said is still true, which is love humanity but don`t trust them.
BEHAR: Ok. I love you and trust you. So stay right there. We`ll continue this discussion in just a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: I`m back with Kinky Friedman. By the way, Kinky, before we go on, Jeanine Pirro, before she left, the old D.A., she wanted to know if you were married. Are you?
FRIEDMAN: No, I`m not. I`m married to Texas.
BEHAR: You`re married to Texas? That`s a tall order.
One of the things you say if your blog is that Democrats seem like Republicans these days, as if it`s all one party, sort of, right? What do you mean exactly by that?
FRIEDMAN: I mean it`s the same guy admiring himself in the mirror. I mean we should never re-elect anybody. I mean that I really think we should just maybe elect the lobbyists and cut out the middlemen.
BEHAR: Well, I don`t totally agree with you. I mean, I don`t see the Republicans cooperating on health care reform. I don`t see them cooperating on financial regulation. They seem to be much more conservative, socially conservative trying to overturn Roe v. Wade every chance they get. I don`t see that it`s the same party. How do you see that?
FRIEDMAN: I mean, I`ve never -- I can`t afford to be a Republican; I`ve never been a Republican. I am really, really an independent. I think good Democrats are good independents, and I think they`ve gotten away from that.
BEHAR: Specifically who do you mean? Who`s gotten away from -- I don`t think Obama has gotten away from it. It`s interesting how he`s called too socialist on the right and on the left they think he`s too moderate. The guy can`t win.
FRIEDMAN: I mean, I think Obama -- you know, of course, he`s young and he`s made some mistakes. He just doesn`t want to be like LBJ where he does a lot of good, which LBJ did for civil rights and poverty. Then he gets stained with this Vietnam thing like Bush did with Iraq. And I`m afraid the health care thing -- if Ben Stein and Don Imus and Kinky Friedman don`t understand the health care bill and don`t see how we`re going to work these millions of new people into it with even less doctors, I mean, I`m not sure -- you`re going to have to buy a toe tag if you`re an older person when you go see the doctor. You`re not going to get any treatment.
BEHAR: You know, a lot of people are going to get health insurance now that didn`t get it. If you have a pre-existing condition, you`re going to be able to get it.
FRIEDMAN: That`s good. We`ve heard that.
BEHAR: You know, all the good -- there`s a lot of good stuff in the health care bill. The Republicans tend to just wipe it off and say it`s terrible and let`s repeal it. Why don`t they just -- as one of my writers likes to say -- why don`t they just massage it a little bit, you know? It`s either black or white with these people, with these Republicans. It seems to me.
FRIEDMAN: Yes. I was telling you there`s too much politics in politics. Obama comes out of that era. He has to get in touch with this group, which is a big group. You see Sarah Palin is --
BEHAR: You like her? What do you think of her?
FRIEDMAN: I don`t know. I don`t know.
BEHAR: You know something? Most of these tea partiers, the majority do not think that Sarah Palin is qualified to be president. I agree with them on that one.
FRIEDMAN: She might be just jumping in front of the parade here, but I think this is going to be a big parade, Joy. And I really think that Obama has got to have a way of approaching the Tea Party because these people are not the enemy. They`re not.
BEHAR: I agree with that in a certain way. I can understand certain gripes that they have. I just don`t like the sort of angry rhetoric, and I don`t like that Sarah Palin kind of tone of, you know, the real Americans and leaving people like me out of that and people like you because you`re a Texas Jew boy.
FRIEDMAN: That`s right, baby.
BEHAR: Ok, Kinky. Thanks for coming on. I love to talk to you again.
FRIEDMAN: All right honey. We will.
BEHAR: Say hi to Imus for me.
Ok. On to more pressing issues; Kate Gosselin was kicked off "Dancing with the Stars". I`ll have the latest next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: Kate Gosselin was finally voted off "DANCING WITH THE STARS" and while she proudly left the set by putting one left foot in front of the other, she gave the crowd a little more drama. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE GOSSELIN, DANCER "DANCING WITH THE STARS": I had the opportunity. I`m very, very honored to have been here. I love everyone that I met. It was a great experience, and I`m sorry I`m crying. Whatever is worthy of my time, I give my all and I did even though maybe sometimes it didn`t come across. I was scared to death most of the time to be out here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: I`m so upset. Right on. She didn`t cry like that when she pushed out 64 pounds of kids.
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: With me to discuss this and more on the day`s entertainment news is Robbie Myers, editor and chief for "ELLE" magazine, Vic Henley, comedian. And Alicia Quarles Associated Press, entertainment editor. OK, you know she was very emotional. Were those real or were those I`m not going to get the next Mercedes tears, what do you think?
VIC HENLEY, COMEDIAN: I don`t know. I`ve seen more fluidity in a corpse, though dancing. She`s --
BEHAR: She cannot dance.
HENLEY: It`s terrible, and she`s miserable. And I guess I can`t figure out why anybody wants to see her do anything. Unless your life is so awful that you have to go, OK, I`ll watch her learn what not to do.
BEHAR: OK, but you know what, she can`t dance Alicia, why did she last five weeks.
ALICIA QUARLES, ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Because of the sympathy vote. Like Kate cannot dance at all. This woman is so uncoordinated. But I got to say, I thought it was the first genuine moment we`ve seen from her in weeks. I felt bad for her when she was crying. The home girl deserves to be booted because she`s not good. But I still felt a little, you know, I got a pin in my heart.
BEHAR: Did you feel sorry for her, Robbie?
ROBBIE MYERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ELLE MAGAZINE: No, I didn`t feel sorry for her. Oh, boo-hoo. No, I mean maybe they voted of her hair, I don`t -- you know. Look, I didn`t watch. I don`t watch the show regularly, but I understand that she certainly had the most dramatic story line.
BEHAR: Yes.
MYERS: Maybe people were just voting to keep the drama -keep the drama going.
BEHAR: Exactly. It`s a soap opera.
And you know what else they love a handicap or some kind of accident on that show. Remember when Marie Osmond fainted -
HENLEY: Right.
BEHAR: The ratings go up. It`s all about that. It`s drama.
QUARLES: Absolutely.
HENLEY: Absolutely.
BEHAR: I think you`re right.
HENLEY: She`s miserable.
BEHAR: She`s reported, "In Touch" magazine is reporting that Kate is upset she has no man in her life. Do you have any advice for her Vic?
HENLEY: Smile, learn how to smile genuinely and be happy.
BEHAR: How about send the kids to Russia with a note. You`ll find somebody there, baby.
(LAUGHTER)
HENLEY: Absolutely.
QUARLES: I heard Jon Gosselin, would you want a man in your life. The woman is probably been traumatized after living with Ed Hardy, you know, reincarnated. It`s hard.
HENLEY: Yes, that`s a skeezy couple all the way around. Everybody felt bad for him, then they break up and then he schemes out. And then you kind of feel bad for her. And then she`s miserable. Just turn it off.
MYERS: But there are a lot of people who will be happy to go out with her just because she`s famous and the hair is getting better.
BEHAR: She`s very pretty.
MYERS: And she became very glamorous and Hollywood, I think for this whole thing.
BEHAR: OK after she was eliminated she told radaronline.com, is that how you say it, yes, that she shielded her kids from the judges` critiques. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE GOSSELIN: They weren`t allowed to watch the judges` comments, because I made the mistake at first when they were sort of not so nice to us of letting them. And that just really upset them a lot more than it upset me. So they were allowed to watch me dance and that was it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: Isn`t it more cruel to watch her dance than hear the judges?
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: I mean where is the child cruelty here exactly?
QUARLES: She talks about shielding her kids from the judges. I mean her and her ex are on magazine covers every week for doing scandalous things. She can`t shield her kids from that, who cares what the judges say.
MYERS: Exactly, she invited the cameras into their home.
BEHAR: And she yelled a lot.
HENLEY: I was going to say - yes, those kids saw far uglier things between the parents. Anything the judges had to say to their mom.
BEHAR: I give her a couple of points for trying to make a buck, though. She has these brats to support now so she needs to make some money. I mean Burger King is not paying that much, you know what I mean. So she goes on that, she`s making a few hundred thousand dollars, pay for at least private school for a year. Before we move on, the survivor of the bottom two, Pamela Anderson will be with us tomorrow night. So tune it for that.
OK, let`s go on to the Octomom, Nadya Suleman, mother of 14, was on Oprah yesterday, telling her she felt like a carnival attraction and showing the world what life at Octo house is like. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NADYA SULEMAN: If you do that again you`re going into time-out. Do you understand? You have to be soft and gentle. Soft and gentle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
SULEMAN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: I heard everyone at Oprah was able to take a kid home.
(LAUGHTER)
Oprah`s so good that way. She`s very good that way. OK, Oprah said she had reservations about interviewing Suleman and joining the media, the bandwagon until she got a letter from Nadya Suleman saying that the Octomom wanted the world to, quote, "See her for who she is." Was that letter a cry for help, you think, Alicia?
HENLEY: No, it was a cry for cash.
BEHAR: What do you think Alicia?
QUARLES: I`m appalled. I don`t know - I mean those screaming kids, I`m sorry, my brain is turned off for five minutes. I don`t know if it was a cry for help, sanity. I don`t know.
BEHAR: Yes.
MYERS: Well I think it was a cry for attention.
BEHAR: Attention.
MYERS: Which is something that she needs and she certainly got it. But also I mean I have to say, I don`t want to defend her exactly. But she did kind of acquit himself. At least she came clean about what motivated her to have all these children. That she`s a needy person. It`s pretty obvious. She lost credibility when she said she never had plastic surgery.
BEHAR: Oh I know, the lips alone. Forget about it. Octomom also talked about her guilt. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SULEMAN: I live every single day, every hour of the day, with a tremendous amount of guilt. And I feel guilty when I hold one or two, and then, that I can`t be there for the others and they`re crying. Then I feel guilty looking at the older ones. They all have different, unique needs, and I`ll live with this forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: I`m not sure that I could listen to her much longer. But, seriously is that a rare moment of honesty for the woman?
MYERS: Yes.
QUARLES: Yes, I mean this woman never sounds lucid. She never sounds like she`s all there. She either had good media training or she`s finally coming clean. Yes, finally, it`s hard to raise all those kids. Maybe I made a mistake.
BEHAR: Uh huh.
HENLEY: She was there to memorize one paragraph. I think she`s been working on that three or four sentence stretch there for months and months finally just trying to get one sympathetic thing out of it.
BEHAR: I don`t know. She has 14. She had a bunch and then she had 8 more. It`s crazy behavior, you know. She should be in an institution.
HENLEY: Or an African village.
BEHAR: Well you know she told us on THE VIEW she worked in a psychiatric hospital. And we were wondering what she worked there. I think she might have been a patient.
QUARLES: Yes, I mean seriously.
BEHAR: I`m sorry.
QUARLES: Seriously.
BEHAR: I`m sorry, I`m sorry, really, it`s cuckoo behavior. I`m sorry, I`m sorry, I`m sorry. OK a Muslim website says, a recent "SOUTHPARK" episode is going to spark a lot of anger and within the Muslim community and may lead to violence against the cartoon`s creators. Let`s take a look at a clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s just that there`s somebody I`ve always wanted to meet face to face. If you could get him to show up in your town --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. Who is it? We can get anybody for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mohammed, the prophet of the Muslim faith.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh that`s tricky.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`ve done this town a huge favor, Mohammed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on a second, stop. There`s some extremists threatening if we give him to the celebrities, they`re going to bomb us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: Now, OK, the Muslim website says, we quote, " We have to warn Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators, that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably end up," listen to this, like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. Theo Van Gogh, really. Is this a warning or threat? Theo Van Gogh is the cartoonist in Amsterdam, I believe, who was basically assassinated for doing a cartoon against Mohammed.
QUARLES: I mean, I would take it as a threat because of the fact that Theo is now dead. I understand you know how people could be upset over this. But it`s "South Park," equal opportunity discrimination against everybody. I mean they discriminate against everyone.
BEHAR: And they get a lot of crap for it. Don`t you think they should have anticipated this though?
QUARLES: Oh yes.
BEHAR: They look stupid over there.
QUARLES: They did it before in 2006. But you have a "SOUTHPARK" expert here --
HENLEY: No, I`m not a "South Park" expert, they did the episode in `06, and then Comedy Central wouldn`t let them air it. Then they did another episode making fun of Comedy Central for not letting them air it.
BEHAR: Yes, they take no -
HENLEY: So -- I think they love this. This is right up their alley.
BEHAR: They also mock Tom Cruise in the same episode. So shouldn`t they be afraid of him too.
HENLEY: Oh absolutely, I don`t know if you saw back there, but he was working in the warehouse (EXPLETIVE DELETED) packing factory.
BEHAR: I don`t even get it. I don`t get that.
MYERS: No officers offended -
HENLEY: I think they want to offend everybody and totally embrace it. They`re two stoners, they`re not afraid of anything.
(CROSSTALK)
BEHAR: I don`t want to go near that one. I`m not going near that. OK, thanks, everybody. Up next the lovely Alyssa Milano joins me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: She won our hearts as Tony Danza`s precautious daughter as Samantha Macelli, I`m saying Macelli even though you said Macelli in the show, OK, in "WHO`S THE BOSS." now Alyssa Milano is one of the 430 something friends trying to find love in the new ABC show, "ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED." Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`re wearing the same clothes you wore last night.
ALYSSA MILANO, ACTRESS: I know. And I even brushed my teeth with my finger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did it?
MILANO: I did it. I had my first one-night stand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can`t believe it. I was sure you weren`t going to go through with it.
MILANO: I know, I know, me too. But then he took his shirt he off and he was so beautiful I kind of blacked out a little.
BEHAR: I`m happy to welcome to my show, the lovely and talented, Alyssa Milano. We already saw each other today on my other show, THE VIEW.
MILANO: We did.
BEHAR: But we have other ground to cover here a little bit.
MILANO: OK.
BEHAR: First of all, before that what does it mean to be romantically challenged exactly in your thinking?
MILANO: I think relative to who you are, it can mean many things. I think it can be, you know, someone who is socially awkward, someone who could potentially be insecure, or someone that likes to be spanked.
BEHAR: Someone who likes to be spanked?
MILANO: The episode that -- the first premiere episode we had, Kyle Bergheim`s character starts dating this girl who is like the perfect woman in every way except she likes to be spanked in the bedroom. And his character is such a romantic that he can`t bring himself to spank her.
BEHAR: To spank her, I see.
MILANO: Yes. So I mean I think it can mean very different things, and also mean different things at different points in your life, you know?
BEHAR: It`s a kinky little sitcom you`re doing.
MILANO: Well, it`s a kinky little sitcom, yes. Our creator is from "FAMILY GUY," -
BEHAR: Yes, it`s going to have that -
MILANO: So it will have that little edge.
BEHAR: That edge, that`s right.
MILANO: Yes.
BEHAR: You know this morning we were talking about your real-life husband. You got married, when was it, a year ago?
MILANO: August.
BEHAR: Yes and you realize he might be the one I was interested in this part of our conversation because you looked at him and said, I have feelings for this guy but I`m putting this on the back burner for a while. Were you scared to get romantically involved with this guy?
MILANO: I was and for many reasons. I think I was scared to get romantically involved with anyone, you know. I started dating my husband when I was 35 after many years of heartache and not really being in a functional relationship. So I think that was part of it. Also, we were such good friends that it didn`t work out and that the friendship would go away, too. You reach a certain point in your life where those friendships are more importance than anything else.
BEHAR: Well you want to be friends with your husband, too.
MILANO: Yes.
BEHAR: It like the "When Harry Met Sally" routine right?
MILANO: Yes.
BEHAR: Yes.
MILANO: Yes, I mean you know, I look at how my parents have, you know, they`ve been married for 43 years, and it`s kind of the ideal relationship. They met when they were 15, and I think because their relationship was so -- such a love affair, I had a hard time because I always put up on a pedestal what my relationship should be like. I would say my relationship is nothing like their relationship, so this isn`t going to work.
BEHAR: I see that`s an interesting thing. Because usually when you see your parents in a good relationship, you want to have one. But in this case it was too high -- something too high to aspire to?
MILANO: It was something too high to aspire too, exactly. And I think that you know with my husband we had that friendship, and that`s what I recognized in my relationship with my parents, is that they always no matter what was going on, they were always friends and they could always laugh. I feel like if you can laugh with someone, you can get through anything.
BEHAR: That`s true. That`s the most important thing. The communication and fun, but, you know, your fellow is Italian, right?
MILANO: Oh yes.
BEHAR: Both sides.
MILANO: Both sides.
BEHAR: Both sides Italian. And so that`s why you go to the family dinner. I was reading you go to the family dinner every Sunday with them?
MILANO: Yes, my mom cooks Sunday Italian dinner every week at 4:00 p.m. we have dinner, and we have a great time.
BEHAR: That`s nice.
MILANO: It is. It`s for me like recharging the battery. Just laying on their couch and being there and preparing for the next week.
BEHAR: I was wondering what they thought about "JERSEY SHORE." The "JERSEY SHORE" because you and I talked about it today on the show, and we both of us, I come from an Italian family also, I he don`t like that show. I think it makes Italians look very stupid.
MILANO: Yes I mean I had - and they`re not Italian a lot of them -
BEHAR: Right.
MILANO: Which I also have a problem with.
BEHAR: I know one is from Chile or something.
MILANO: That`s a little odd to me. You know I`ve never sat through a whole episode, so I can tell you I don`t like the idea of the show. You know but I could watch like the "SOPRANOS" and totally appreciate the artistry and creativity.
BEHAR: Of course.
MILANO: I - There is just no artistry or creativity in the - in reality really.
BEHAR: And it`s violent at times. I mean there`s fighting that goes on and cursing and unprotected sex. I mean, it`s just I think it`s terrible. You, you know did that funny or die video where you morphed into Snooky, I mean it`s just the greatest. People should check that out. I also, they are showing it while we are talking, there you are, cute.
MILANO: There I am.
BEHAR: Now you say that you have a Twitter obsession. How many times a day are we talking Twitter here?
MILANO: It`s like you know, on a good day, 12.
BEHAR: Twelve twitters a day.
MILANO: Twelve, on a bad day, 22. How many times do you tweet a day?
BEHAR: I do it once a day maybe. But I mean -- how do you come up with stuff to twitter? You have to think about it all day.
MILANO: There are moments or something happens throughout the day and I think I should tweet that. But also, I follow -- who I follow are a lot of social media enthusiasts, and what they do is they -- if they find an interesting link on the internet or, you know, want to raise awareness for a certain cause, they tweet those links, and that is sort of what I base my tweeting on.
BEHAR: I see.
MILANO: Which is just the sharing of information and so I feel that`s the only way I`d feel good about tweeting that much a day.
BEHAR: Yes, yes, yes.
MILANO: I can`t tweet 22 times a day about me, because that would be boring.
BEHAR: No, too much. We`re going to come back, and when we come back, I want to ask you about how you escaped that child star syndrome that you seem to have escaped that so many succumb to. All right we`ll be right back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: I`m back with lovely Alyssa Milano. You know you grew up on "WHO`S THE BOSS." how did you avoid this child trouble star routine? How did you get out of that?
MILANO: I think obviously a lot had to do with my family.
BEHAR: Right.
MILANO: And always having a home base, and being, you know, because it wasn`t -- to them what I did was, as far as my acting was irrelevant. To them it was important I was a daughter and a sister. So they instilled those, sort of that moral compass. But I think what winds up happening is when you`re a child actor you think that`s going to be your life forever, and the reality is it may not be. Their parents get so caught up in what they do that when, you know, God forbid these kids ever are out of a career in the show business world, not only do these kids feel like their lives are over, but then they feel like they`ve ruined their parents` lives as well. And that`s a lot of pressure. You know, plan "B" is very important in this business. I still have a plan "B" and I`ve been doing this for 30 years. Seriously. But also when I think about it, I think that a lot of these kids, you know, they come from hard families that have struggled and I think they would have had difficult, you know, transitions -- times anyway.
BEHAR: Times anyway - but what about the Corey Haim case? I know you knew him in the `80s. Or was he struggling with drugs then? I mean, there is that, too.
MILANO: I don`t know. I know that when he was a teenager my parents did try to get him some help.
BEHAR: Oh really?
MILANO: He was close to the family. It was actually my parents and his manager at the time tried to get him some help, and that didn`t work, and, you know, this was something that he battled for a long, long time.
BEHAR: It`s a sad story.
MILANO: It`s a sad story, and it`s also sad that, you know, we tend to almost just throw away those child icons and idols when they`re not, you know --
BEHAR: It`s not easy to be a kid in this industry. There`s so much rejection, there`s criticism. As you`ve said, you have guilt if you don`t take care of your parents. It`s really tough.
MILANO: It`s tough. It was tough in the best circumstance which is what I had. I can`t imagine how hard it would have been if then you went home and had to deal with a whole different type of family toughness.
BEHAR: Right, right.
MILANO: You know?
BEHAR: You know a lot of people look at you and see you as a beautiful, successful actress. And I was reading that you are dyslexic.
MILANO: I am.
BEHAR: Which is an interesting -- people out there would like to know, I think before we go, how do you overcome something like that and become the big success you are? Because that is a bit of a handicapped sort of thing. It`s not a handicap. I don`t know how to explain it.
MILANO: My mom always called it a learning difference.
BEHAR: Learning difference.
MILANO: Yes, I just learned differently than everyone else. And the only time I`m affected to this day is when I have to read something in a high-pressure situation, like if I have to audition and I`m reading the script and the audition, it affects me.
BEHAR: Do you have anxiety attacks over it? Panic attacks?
MILANO: I don`t have that. I probably would have -- you know what I think helped a lot? Is that -- this is a plus of growing up in this business, another plus, is that I was always tutored one-on-one.
BEHAR: Oh that helps.
MILANO: I wasn`t in a classroom trying to have to keep up.
BEHAR: And again, your parents were there to support you which is the key to growing up in this business. Thank you so much for joining me, Alyssa.
MILANO: Thank you, thank you for having me.
BEHAR: Always a pleasure to see you. Be sure to catch Alyssa Milano on "ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED" Mondays at 9:30 p.m. on ABC. Good night, everybody.
END
