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Joy Behar Page
End of "Idol"?; Obama & the Oil Spill; Gays in the Military
Aired May 27, 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, 16-year-old Justin Bieber allegedly flips out on an Australian TV staffer. Isn`t he a little young to be throwing hissy fits? I mean Naomi Campbell was 30 before she threw her first phone at someone.
Then as "American Idol" wraps, the big question is who will replace Simon Cowell. They need someone who isn`t afraid to be blunt, outspoken, and even hostile. Hey, what about Justin Bieber?
And the stars of TLC`s "One Big Happy Family" lost a combined 300 combined pounds without any outside help. They have my respect. I need three trainers, a hypnotist and a long weekend with Dr. Phil just to lose a pound.
That and more right now.
Nice guy, Lee Dewyze, beat out the arguably more talented Crystal Bowersox last night -- my opinion -- on the "American Idol" finale, and short of exhuming Elvis, the show did everything it could to get viewers to come back for next season. But with Paula and Simon gone, will it be enough to keep the audience from following them?
Here with me to discuss the finale are Justin Guarini, "American Idol" Season 1 runner up and TV Guide Network host; Michael Musto, "Village Voice" columnist and blogger of dailymusto.com; and Jessica Shaw, senior writer of "The Entertainment Weekly".
Ok, Justin, you were there last night. Did the right person win?
JUSTIN GUARINI, HOST, TV GUIDE NETWORK: You know what, I think the right person did, Joy. You know, he, although he didn`t have the greatest performance, I think he would be the first person to tell you that on the finale night, you know, he had a lot of energy going into the finale. And you know what, every single year, I look to see who that third person voted off is. It was Casey this year. And I always ask myself, where are those -- where will that person`s votes going to go. And you know, I think they went to Lee and I think he just edged out Crystal who also is amazing. But you know what? I think he got it last night and he deserved it.
BEHAR: No, but who`s the most talented one, Michael? What do you think?
MICHAEL MUSTO, VILLAGE VOICE: I don`t think -- what`s his name, Dewyze -- he`s dewinner --
BEHAR: He`s the winner.
MUSTO: Yes. And I really don`t think Crystal Bobby Sox, or whatever her name is, is that much better. I`m a devoted watcher as you can see.
BEHAR: I thought she`s pretty good.
MUSTO: I think they`re both good, you know what I mean. But she`s basically a Leann Rimes, trailery, missing tooth type of singer, which I love. I love. And he has kind of a Daughtry, phlegmy voice and his thing going on which --
BEHAR: You`re such an elitist.
(CROSSTALK)
MUSTO: I make it sound so disgusting.
BEHAR: But you know, she doesn`t have a missing tooth, that`s the way her mouth is constructed.
MUSTO: Whatever. There`s a whistle sound coming out.
(CROSSTALK)
BEHAR: Well, the poor girl probably doesn`t have any money for a dentist yet. Wait until she gets going.
MUSTO: I think they`re both talented. That`s my basic point is that they`re both talented.
(CROSSTALK)
JESSICA SHAW, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": She`s going to trade in that Ford Focus for a little dental appointment.
MUSTO: This isn`t like Barry Manilow beat Maria Callas or something. They`re both about equal.
BEHAR: Ok. But the --
SHAW: I disagree. I have to say, I think that Crystal was far superior, and Lee completely choked on Tuesday night. I thought it was a travesty.
MUSTO: Well, Crystal choked him.
BEHAR: But you know, runners-up do seem to have more commercial success, I noticed. I mean, you have Kris Allen versus Adam Lambert. Adam Lambert has a bigger career, am I right Justin? And David Cook and Dave Archuleta?
GUARINI: He certainly has a more visible career. They have visible careers. I think now, more so than ever, being the winner or the runner up isn`t necessarily as big a deal as it used to be, because I think everybody`s having their own careers.
And I`m the runner-up from eight seasons ago and I love it when I read in the news, Justin Guarini is obscure. He`s never doing -- I`ve been doing plenty of stuff. I`ve been working my fanny off for the past eight years, but it`s a little bit below the radar.
So you know, we`re all working, the top two -- everybody from the top two`s out there working.
BEHAR: Yes, but you have a gig on television, don`t you? You have a TV Guide Network --
GUARINI: Yes, I do, I have a gig on television.
BEHAR: Well, where is Kris Allen?
GUARINI: Kris Allen?
BEHAR: Where is David Cook? Where is Ruben Stoddard?
GUARINI: Kris Allen`s about to go on tour. David Cook has been on tour. Ruben Stoddard has opened his own restaurant; he`s has been on tour. They`re working. You just have to find out.
You can`t necessarily just go google and see what, you know, some blogger has said. You`ve really got to look.
BEHAR: All right. That`s fair.
My friend, Kate -- you know Kate -- she says if you`re not on television, they think you`re dead.
MUSTO: They`re all touring on some cruise ship that`s never coming back.
SHAW: The Bermuda triangle.
MUSTO: Adam Lambert looked really old last night -- oh, that was Alice Cooper, sorry.
BEHAR: They did bring out all the big guns last night.
MUSTO: It was such a circus.
(CROSSTALK)
SHAW: You had Chicago and no one could hit any of the notes and it was just embarrassing to watch those high notes and some of those folks then watch Daryl Hall, he couldn`t really hit it so he took the low road. It was a little tragic.
GUARINI: I thought it was a good mix. You had the heritage artists, but you also had Janet, you had Christina. I think it was all right. Of course, you have to think they`re trying to play to the larger demographic. Of course it`s the tweens.
Of course they`re going to be wanting to see the Janets and the Christina Aguileras, but did you understand anything of what Christina Aguilera was saying last night? I couldn`t understand really what that song was.
BEHAR: Was she speaking English or Spanish?
GUARINI: She might have -- I don`t know, but whatever. It was interesting, to say the very least. But, you know, they`re trying to play to everybody.
BEHAR: A lot of time was also spent in tribute to Simon. One of the weirdest moments of the night was when a former idol reject interrupted Jane Cook`s (ph) performance.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(EXCERPT FROM "AMERICAN IDOL" SEASON FINALE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody cares, it`s all Ian Bernardo tonight and I`m going to replace you Simon Cowell. Now one has to thing to say about him. It`s me. It`s a Kanye moment and I want to say -- nobody cares about you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: Annoying.
Ok. Attention must be paid. So what did you think of that, Michael?
MUSTO: That was about as spontaneous as the streaker at the Oscars -- the David Niven. You`re old enough to --
BEHAR: Years ago. I`m old enough, sure am. But I mean didn`t these moments --
SHAW: It was an improvement on Jane Cook`s song, which is, you know - - at least.
BEHAR: Ok. Not to be outdone, Paula returned to the Idol stage to give Simon her own special sendoff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA ABDUL, FORMER JUDGE ON "AMERICAN IDOL": The only reason they wanted me back here tonight is so that I could tell all of you the real reason why I really left. But I don`t think that`s what tonight is all about, is it?
Although I will tell you this, there`s a baby backstage with Simon`s hair cut, and sweetheart, it`s your turn to feed him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHAW: Joy, couldn`t you have written some lines for her?
(CROSSTALK)
MUSTO: Now you know why they had Christina, to make her look coherent.
GUARINI: She looked great. Admit it, she looked really good last night.
BEHAR: Justin, you`re just Professor Positive, aren`t you?
GUARINI: I`m sorry. I`m going to be Professor Positive. Somebody`s got to be on this set.
BEHAR: But you were there --
GUARINI: She looked great. I got to talk to her, I did. She looked great. And you know what, Paula, she`s got a great memory, and of course they have stuff in prompter for her, but you could tell she kind of just improvised a little bit, but you know what, she looked great.
She was in really good spirits and you know the audience was absolutely electric when she got in there. Everyone stood --
(CROSSTALK)
BEHAR: So what are you saying? She had everything at the prompter?
GUARINI: She didn`t have everything in the prompter. No, she didn`t have everything in the prompter, there were just little things here and there, but she just went out there and spoke from her heart.
BEHAR: What are you talking about, she has a great memory? What is she, on Aricept?
GUARINI: Well, she does have a great -- I don`t know. But she has a great memory. Seriously, she does.
MUSTO: She doesn`t remember dating John Stamos.
BEHAR: I have to say, I am a fan of Simon Cowell, and probably you are, if you watch the show, because we`re negative. We`re negative nabobs.
MUSTO: We`re hateful wretches, basically.
BEHAR: He is going to be missed because he, to me is the only one that ever told the truth. Right. So, look at this montage of his insults.
Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELLEN DEGENERES, JUDGE, "AMERICAN IDOL": The kind of person he is. Kind --
SIMON COWELL, JUDGE, "AMERICAN IDOL": That was extraordinary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
COWELL: Unfortunately, extraordinarily bad.
DEGENERES: -- caring.
COWELL: You can`t sing, you can`t dance, what do you want me to say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I have no professional training of singing.
COWELL: No.
DEGENERES: Considerate, is what I would say of him.
COWELL: It sounded like a cat jumping off the Empire State building and the noise it would make before it hit the floor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: All right, Jessica, who`s going to follow that, really? Who`s got the testosterone -- testicularity, really -- to go out there and say the things that he was saying to those kids?
MUSTO: Leona Helmsley, is she alive?
BEHAR: How about you Michael?
MUSTO: I would -- I`m a total bitch and I will drag these people through the mud for their own good because it really helps them realize how rough showbiz is and they`re not going to make it. William Hung -- Simon was right -- did William Hung make it?
BEHAR: Yes, but he wouldn`t have made it anyway and now we know --
GUARINI: William Hung has sold a lot of records, man.
MUSTO: Oh, Justin.
(CROSSTALK)
GUARINI: Exactly, nobody would have known who he was.
MUSTO: You would defend anybody.
GUARINI: I`m not saying he`s good. Hey, hey, Professor Positive is not saying that he`s good. Don`t worry.
William Hung is not a good singer, but he sold a lot of records off the back of that.
BEHAR: Ok. Just a yes or a no, has "Idol" jumped the shark?
MUSTO: Yes.
SHAW: Yes.
BEHAR: Justin? Of course, no.
GUARINI: Tenth anniversary next year. Now.
BEHAR: Ok, Justin. It`s great to see you. Thanks, guys. We`ll be back in just a bit.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming up a little later on THE JOY BEHAR SHOW, parents of the 2-year-old come under fire for allowing their toddler to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day.
And the stars of TLC`s "One Big Happy Family" tell Joy how they manage to become one not so big happy family.
Now, back to Joy.
BEHAR: President Obama is taking heat from both the right and the left for the oil spill in the Gulf. It seems like the critics have lots of complaints, but few solutions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES CARVILLE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: BP is not the equal of the United States government. And this President needs to tell BP, I`m your daddy. I`m in charge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: That was James Carville yesterday and here`s President Obama today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And when I woke up this morning and I`m shaving and Malia knocks on my bathroom door and peeps in her head and she says, "Did you plug the hole yet, daddy?"
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: And I thought it was creepy when Reagan called Nancy mommy.
Joining me to talk about all things political are Steve Kornacki, he`s news editor and columnist for Salon.com and Ari Melber, correspondent for "The Nation".
Daddy, daddy, daddy -- is daddy going to fix this?
ARI MELBER, CORRESPONDENT, "THE NATION": You know, the -- the thing about this is you guys were teasing the puff baby spot next. This is a little bit like puff baby, in that everyone gets that it`s wrong. No one is saying this oil spill is a good idea --
BEHAR: Right.
MELBER: -- and no one is saying a 2-year-old should be smoking and the hard part is kicking the habit, or in this case, plugging the hole.
And so I don`t think the criticisms, whether they`re coming from James Carville, who obviously has good intentions or the Republicans make a lot of difference right now, because yes, everyone is trying to plug the hole.
BEHAR: Yes, ok.
STEVE KORNACKI, SALON.COM: But what this, you know, the Carville one is interesting to me, because you know, the emotion is sincere behind what he`s saying. You know, do something, go down there and show BP`s who`s boss, but translate that for me. What does it mean? What specifically should Obama be doing or should Obama have done besides go down there and roll up the sleeves and have the photo ops and be you know more, quote, "engaged" than Bush.
What can he actually do and what can the United States government actually do? Did the company that has the technology, you know, whatever you want to say about BP, they were negligent in causing this, it is totally and completely in their best interest to solve this as fast as possible --
BEHAR: Right.
KORNACKI: -- because they are getting killed every day. And they have the means; they have the know-how to do it and much more than the U.S. government.
BEHAR: BP does?
KORNACKI: Yes, much more than the U.S. government.
BEHAR: Yes, right.
MELBER: And one point on that, I mean, the spill was on April 20th, and by April 28th, the U.S. military was employed they have C-130s they are doing the project. That already happened. So to the extent to that criticism is that happened too slowly, eight days is too long which experts can say; that`s all in the past.
So yes, the Carville thing that`s getting all this political attention is really about the past. Obviously the military is now engaged --
BEHAR: So why is he doing it -- why is he going after Obama? Why is he doing all that? Political -- what`s his political motivation?
KORNACKI: Well, what is his political motivation, I mean, he`s down there in Louisiana, that`s his home state.
BEHAR: Yes.
KORNACKI: Maybe he feels -- you know maybe he`s a little emotionally worked up because of that.
BEHAR: Right.
KORNACKI: He was never -- he was never an Obama guy. Remember, he stayed with Hillary all to the end.
BEHAR: To Hillary, yes. Yes.
KORNACKI: I notice his wife standing there next to him. And she was happy to chime in.
BEHAR: Oh yes.
KORNACKI: A Republican operative, Mary Matalin.
BEHAR: Finally --
KORNACKI: She was happy --
BEHAR: -- finally they have loved each other again.
KORNACKI: -- they found their common ground.
BEHAR: That`s right.
KORNACKI: She was happy to chime in and say, "Oh, yes, Obama has really screwed this up." And you know, I mean, this is, get away from James Carville, what this really is, the Republicans are dying to have their "got you" moment with Obama, where they can say, this is his Katrina.
See all of those -- all of the insults, all of the criticisms that were hurled at the Bush right after Katrina. They are just dying to throw back at the Democrats.
BEHAR: But isn`t this sort of like the same problem, the Bush/Cheney administration started it and now this poor guy has to mop it up. I mean, they de-regulated the oil industry, right?
MELBER: Yes.
BEHAR: And is it ever a good idea to de-regulate such a huge corporation like that? That`s a bad idea.
MELBER: Well, you know it`s a funny thing, it`s become very popular to beat up on BP and the other companies involved and say they are evil and they are bad. Obviously, they`re terribly responsible for these things, but it`s not evil to save money. That`s what corporations are supposed to do.
There`s been articles this week about the acoustic trigger, which is a $500,000 thing, basically, I`m keeping it simple, Joy, so we`ll call it a thing that might have stopped the spill but they didn`t haven`t it.
Now, there are countries like Brazil that require these companies to have the trigger. We don`t know whether that that might have made the difference. But, yes, when you don`t have the regulations that force the safety devices --
BEHAR: Yes.
MELBER: -- then any company, good or bad, the company is going to try to save money, and we are, as you say, from de-regulation, we`re worse off for it.
BEHAR: Ok, but that`s a Republican mantra, to stay out of business, right? But now Sarah Palin is saying the government should fix it. Which way -- she wants it both ways.
KORNACKI: She but this is -- this is why it`s --
BEHAR: She`s typical.
KORNACKI: -- it`s just pure politics.
BEHAR: Yes.
KORNACKI: It`s not about what they actually want from a policy standpoint, what they actually believe from a policy standpoint.
When you see somebody like Sarah Palin, when you see Mike Pence, you know, the Congressman from Indiana, who`s been all over the place, trying to have this very shameful tone in his voice about -- about how Obama has been so bad in this, it doesn`t matter to them.
They are looking to score political points in this. They are looking to get a wedge to use against Obama. They are looking to say this is Obama`s Katrina.
And the problem from Obama`s standpoint is too many people in this country embrace this basic attitude. We talk about, you know, looking to daddy, too many people in this country embrace the attitude that when there`s a problem, any problem, anywhere in this country that gets all over CNN, all over MSNBC, they have to look to the President to solve it.
And so what -- what`s Obama left to do? He`s left there to hold the press conference and everyone`s going to analyze the tone of his voice, and you know, whether he showed up there soon enough, and all these things that really don`t matter, everybody ends up looking to him for answers; ends up analyzing and it doesn`t really add up to anything.
BEHAR: Again, this though, could hurt him politically in the next election and it sort of bothers me that that will happen to him. Because, again, he`s just -- who signed off on this -- this lack of safety gadget that you were talking about? Who signed off on that?
MELBER: Well, most of that, yes, is a period of policies that were promulgated largely under the Bush administration and the Minerals Service and all of those things, and also Congress, where I do think both parties, definitely more Bush and more of the Republicans led to de-regulation, but both parties in many instances did this.
We`ve been talking also in the news about whether you can get money back to help pay for this stuff and there`s a cap that Congress put in place. Both parties helped pass that. And now we`re saying, well maybe we should raise the cap.
But I do think it`s highly hypocritical of Republicans here to attack the government while they have been slowly dismantling the federal government`s budget and abilities to --
BEHAR: Right.
MELBER: -- regulate.
BEHAR: And will the American voter buy that? What are they going to buy in November?
MELBER: I think --
BEHAR: And again in 2012? What`s going to happen?
MELBER: I think if you look at -- with the mood out there, it is very angry. So there is disapproval of the corporate side of this on BP, but there`s also disapproval of the federal government`s role.
So I think the fact that you have so much anger and the economic malaise means that people are less receptive to what is frankly a complicated argument for Obama to make. Which is, yes, we messed up a little bit, but also we need to fund the government to prevent this.
Well, right there, I just spent two sentences and it doesn`t sound that convincing, although it`s true. So I think, if you look towards November, people are still angry and there`s an obviously an anti-incumbent sentiment.
BEHAR: Ok, but he`s fired this Birnbaum, Elizabeth Birnbaum, who is the head of the -- what is it?
KORNACKI: Mineral --
BEHAR: Mineral Management Service.
KORNACKI: Yes.
BEHAR: He didn`t say heck of a job, Lizzy, though.
KORNACKI: Well, yes, this is -- this is his way of not having the Michael Brown moment. It`s the rule of every time there`s a big story like this in the media, he`s looking for action. What do you do, you have a scapegoat, you fire somebody.
I`m waiting for the White House to find somebody in this whole Joe Sestak situation where they`re going to fire the -- you know try to blame it on --
BEHAR: Oh that`s another story.
KORNACKI: Same -- same idea the Republican is jumping in all -- I mean, I`m just waiting for the scapegoat to emerge to that.
(CROSSTALK)
BEHAR: Joe Scarborough has been banging the drum every morning on his show about that story.
KORNACKI: Right, now we know what you watch in the morning.
BEHAR: I watch everything in the morning, I flip around, but every time I flip to him, he`s on that Sestak story. What is that?
KORNACKI: Yes and ask -- ask him about Judd Gregg who tried to extort the Governor of New Hampshire when the Obama people wanted him to be the Commerce Secretary and Judd Gregg says, I`ll only be your commerce secretary if they appoint a Republican to the senate. That was last year. And all the Republicans were cheering Judd Gregg for doing that.
BEHAR: You should go on that show and tell him that.
By the way, Obama`s putting a moratorium on offshore drilling. Is that a good idea? Yes or no before we go.
KORNACKI: Yes.
BEHAR: Yes.
MELBER: Yes. It should never have advanced in the first place.
BEHAR: Ok. We`ll be right back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council says that if "don`t ask, don`t tell" is repealed, it will lead to homosexual assaults in the Military. I`m joined now by the author of this report, Baptist Minister Peter Sprigg from the Family Research Council and Steve Kornacki from salon.com.
Ok. Hello.
You say that male-on-male sexual assault makes up 8 percent of sexual assaults in the Military. Now, that leaves 92 percent of the straight cases. What about those assaults? Are you worried about those?
PETER SPRIGG, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Oh, of course. There`s no sexual assault that`s acceptable in the Military, but what`s significant about the fact that 8.2 percent of the sexual assaults in the Military are homosexual in nature is that only less than 3 percent of the population is home sexual assault or bisexual. So when you compare those two figures, it suggests that homosexuals in the Military are about three times more likely than to commit sexual assaults than you would expect if they did so at the same rate as heterosexual.
BEHAR: Where did you get that number? Where did you pick up that number?
SPRIGG: Well, I got the number from the Department of Defense`s own annual report on sexual assault in the Military.
BEHAR: Yes.
SPRIGG: They do this for every fiscal year and for the fiscal year 2009, I went online, it`s right on the Internet, anybody can read it. The whole report is about 500 pages long, but there are separate tabs for the individual services. And within those individual service reports, they actually list the case synopses, brief descriptions of 1,643 cases, and 134 of those were homosexual.
BEHAR: Ok. Go ahead.
KORNACKI: Peter, this is Steve Kornacki. If I could ask you a question, though -- I assume since you`ve looked at this, you can tell me, of that 8 percent, how many of the men who perpetrated the assaults were documented to be homosexuals versus heterosexuals who committed assaults on members of their own sex.
I`m sure you`re aware that for instance, in the prison system in this country, where you have confined quarters, you know, single sex environment --
BEHAR: Right.
KORNACKI: -- sexual assault is very common there, and it`s not generally perpetrated by homosexuals. It`s perpetrated by heterosexuals, but it ends up being of a homosexual nature. I assume you`ve made that distinction in this study?
SPRIGG: I did address the fact that people can make a distinction between a homosexual identification and homosexual conduct. So I actually looked at survey data on homosexual conduct as well and found that the same survey that homosexual groups themselves have cited in terms of self- identification said that in the previous year prior to the survey, approximately 2.7 percent of men and 1.3 percent of women had engaged in any same-sex sexual conduct.
So even if you look at conduct rather than identity, the figures are roughly the same and you still come out with a ratio of about three to one.
KORNACKI: And you don`t know -- you don`t know the number of homosexuals in the Military, do you? Because what you`re doing is you`re comparing one report from the Military to a 1994 study that showed self- identification of homosexuality in the general population of the United States. You`re taking that number from 1994 and comparing it to the United States Military`s numbers.
SPRIGG: Right --
(CROSSTALK)
BEHAR: I have to jump in here, Peter, because -- can I just say something? We`re in the middle of two wars right now. Why don`t you want any man that you can get or any woman you can get in the Military? I don`t understand why you want to drive them out of the Military? You should be happy to have everybody.
SPRIGG: Well, we are in the middle of two wars, which is precisely why we shouldn`t be tampering with our fundamental Military policy in this way. Now, as for the percentage of homosexuals in the Military --
BEHAR: I`ve got to go. I`m very sorry. I have to go. I can`t listen to these numbers anymore, I`ve got a headache.
Thanks, guys.
Ok, a 2-year-old who smokes 40 cigarettes a day and we have the video to prove it. The full story when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEHAR: You`ve heard about big tobacco. Now meet little tobacco. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: Look at that kid, OK? You see what`s happening there. The kid is smoking. Now, why in the world would a two-year-old be smoking? Is he trying to lose a few pounds? Weren`t these kids parents alarmed when the first words out of his mouth were, who`s got a (EXPLICATIVE DELETED) light? Honestly, is this the worst case of parenting you`ve ever seen? You can`t fault the kid. He`s too young to read the surgeon general`s warning. You see, this is why I don`t like to fly. With my luck, I`d wind up sitting next to him, a fat, crying baby who smokes.
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: With me to discuss this and other news stories are Veronica Webb, model and Eucerin skin first council member, Maureen Langan, comedian, and Jared Shapiro, executive editor of Life and Style Weekly. Maureen -
MAUREEN LANGAN, COMEDIAN: Yes.
BEHAR: This is a 2-year-old kid and he`s smoking and the family thinks it`s perfectly fine. What do you make of that?
MAUREEN LANGAN, COMEDIAN: So he`s really good at it too. The hand gestures, the mouth movement. You would think he`d been doing it his whole life. And he has.
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: I mean he`s completely out of chafe, this kid.
LANGAN: He is.
BEHAR: He can only get around in a toy truck. OK, Jared, they say that he throw a tantrum if they take the butts away from him.
JARED SHAPIRO, LIFE & STYLE WEEKLY: Yes well it`s like any two year old kid in America, mostly kids in America are hooked on like corn syrup and candy and milk and pacifiers. He`s got cigs, he is much cooler than an American kid.
LANGAN: Is he doing smoke rings? What`s happening.
BEHAR: He`s like a champion smoker, the boy?
LANGAN: It`s hard to quit when you`re in AA.
BEHAR: And listen to these reports, nearly three percent of five to nine-year-olds in Indonesia, smoke. He`s not unusual, this kid.
VERONICA WEBB, MODEL: Well I think he`s a little ahead of the curve, he`s under five.
LANGAN: He`s an over achiever. Very true.
WEBB: He might even be in MENSA.
BEHAR: Apparently, his father has started to allow him to smoke when he was 18 months old. This guy makes Jon Gosselin look like father of the year.
WEBB: Well, I don`t know. I mean, this is pretty common in lots of parts of the world and it just keeps moving further and further away from the western world.
LANGAN: This is common in part of the world?
WEBB: Yes, it`s very common.
LANGAN: Two-year-olds that smoke?
WEBB: It`s very common for children to smoke.
BEHAR: Really what parts of the world?
LANGAN: I don`t know -
BEHAR: -- Indonesia. I`ve never seen this before.
WEBB: I`ve seen it in Africa, I`ve seen it in South America.
BEHAR: Really?
WEBB: Yes. The poorer people are and the more misery there is the more likely they are --
BEHAR: That is -- it`s like population control, because the kid won`t make it to toddler land.
WEBB: Well you got to make it -
BEHAR: He`s not, I`m sorry. I feel bad for kid, but it`s ridiculous.
LANGAN: Well he`s enjoying himself, though. All he needs is like a smoking jacket and some blonds and he`s set.
WEBB: Well, life is short, huh, when you`re two.
BEHAR: OK let`s do another story.
LANGAN: All right.
BEHAR: Bill O`Reilly climbed into the crazy tree again last night insulting a frequent guest during a discussion about Obama`s plan to send troops to secure the Mexican border. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL O`REILLY: If I have 10,000 guard down there, that`s an intimidating force, that intimidates. Well say you`re a cocaine dealer, and you kind of look like one a little bit.
MARK LAMOUTH: As do you. You look like a cocaine user. So we`re even.
O`REILLY: I`m too thin, I know. I`m twitchy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: I don`t know what he`s talking about. I take lipitor. My drug dealer is a bald 58-year-old man named Sheldon. OK.
WEBB: Somebody on every corner, it`s called your local drugstore.
BEHAR: That`s true, now the guy had a sense of humor. I think he`s been on the show a lot of times before, the guest, this guy, Hill. I mean but isn`t O`Reilly being on obnoxious when he looks at a black guy, for example, and says, you look like a drug dealer.
LANGAN: Hill has been a PHd -
BEHAR: I know he does.
LANGAN: He`s been a contributor to FOX for years. They all do it. They`re all playing around, as if I made a joke with you right about giving these my stash.
WEBB: But what does Bill know what a coke dealer`s look like? Come on, he lost a little weight lately. I think Rush Limbaugh told him.
BEHAR: What do you think Jared?
SHAPIRO: I think it was rude. I think, you know, it`s FOX news, it`s great, God bless them. But Bill O`Reilly, that`s what he does. He gets the big ratings because he`s the shock factor and he says that and again gopher.com picks it up and you`re talking about.
BEHAR: Yes exactly.
SHAPIRO: Classic Bill O`Reilly.
BEHAR: Yes, you think he`s a journalistic or an entertainer, Bill O`Reilly?
SHAPIRO: He`s an entertaining journalist.
LANGAN: Or a clown, is clown on that list?
BEHAR: A lot of people who hate him watch him. I`m sure who hate me, watch me.
SHAPIRO: People who love to hate him.
BEHAR: Yes, people love to hate some of us.
WEBB: But can we perpetuate another stereotype. Obama wears a suit every day, some of the most talented people who are leading this country, you know, the mayors of every inner city, most of them are black, they wear suits every day. But you know let`s raise the bar. Let`s go to a new stereotype.
LANGAN: They did, they didn`t say crack, they said cocaine. I think the bar was raised. I`m kidding. It`s crazy. No but you`re right.
WEBB: You`re right that totally went over my head. I should watch FOX more. It`s so educational.
LANGAN: It`s so educational -- just watch this show.
WEBB: The nuances of --
BEHAR: OK, we have two more stories. You ready? Teen pop star Justin Bieber reportedly swore at the floor manager on an Australian morning show, saying, don`t ever (EXPLICATIVE DELETED) touch me again. OK, isn`t he too young to be turning into a diva, this boy, Jared?
SHAPIRO: He`s doing all the right things though right now, but this kid`s voice is going to change, he`s going to hit puberty, and by the way I just sometimes wonder if this is one giant punked episode. I don`t know one Justin Bieber song and everyone is talking about him. And he`s this huge diva apparently all over the world but, who is he?
BEHAR: I know, do you know any of his songs?
WEBB: You know what -
BEHAR: He sings, right?
SHAPIRO: Yes, supposedly.
WEBB: All I know is that he`s hardly raising the bar in terms of, you know, what young people do. He doesn`t have a DWI, he doesn`t have a sex tape --
BEHAR: No, not yet.
SHAPIRO: He needs one.
WEBB: No. So this is like "LEAVE IT TO BEAVER" antics right now in terms of the world we live in. Mm, who do you think he should be in the sex tape, Joy?
BEHAR: I don`t know, Paris Hilton maybe. But Bieber downplayed the incident on twitter and he said, family time with my mom couldn`t come at a better time. Hearing adults spread lies and rumors is part of the job, I guess. Now so he`s trying to say they lied, because maybe he didn`t say keep your hands of --
WEBB: Maybe he did or didn`t, but you look at him -- I watch the video of him and he`s doing this little rap thing and touching his crotch. And I understand that little boys like to touch it when they first discover it, but I think he needs a little time out in his stroller. That`s what I think he needs.
BEHAR: But you know I just read a note here that said that his songs are very wholesome. See we are not, we don`t know the songs, so we`re at a disadvantage. But doesn`t that ruin his image a little bit?
WEBB: But you know what he`s got to move on, he`s got to break out of that teen thing. And this is the perfect way to do it.
SHAPIRO: You see it with like Miley Cyrus, one day they show up on the beach wearing a very skimpy bikini and then they`re out with an older guy and this and that it`s and the perfect segue into like the next level - -
WEBB: Oh yes like the girl from "HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL" who had the racy photos on the internet.
SHAPIRO: Yes, there you go, perfect.
WEBB: And how Rihanna -
SHAPIRO: Nude photo skin -
WEBB: Lost her computer and there were nude photos of her on the internet.
BEHAR: Have you ever done a sex tape?
WEBB: No, not yet, Joy.
BEHAR: No, you are not going to do it are you?
SHAPIRO: Justin Bieber.
WEBB: Well are you up for it?
BEHAR: Me. I`d have to pay somebody to watch it.
(LAUGHTER)
LANGAN: Pay per view. Why not? Why not, Joy?
BEHAR: I don`t think so.
LANGAN: But Bieber is a good kid. His mother was a single mom and he was discovered on the internet. They want them younger and younger. This smoking kid from Indonesia is going to be a rock star next spring. That`s how it is.
WEBB: I think you`re right.
BEHAR: All right. Here`s another story. For the past month, Jon Gosselin has been dating a much younger woman, a woman I assume who doesn`t own a television. She`s a 23-year-old -- she`s 23-year-old Ellen Ross and his eight kids met her at a park this weekend, OK? OK, so now, is it smart for him to introduce the kids to a girlfriend after a month?
LANGAN: First of all, the kids haven`t even met each other yet, there`s so many of them.
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: That`s true. Good point.
LANGAN: Give it some time. And they say the girl has to overcome hurdles. She`s 23. What is she in Gymboree? What kind of hurdles? What are we talking about here?
SHAPIRO: Their mom hasn`t been around much either, done "DANCING WITH THE STARS," done a book tour, so to have somebody around that the kids like, I mean, the dad is Jon Gosselin, so she could be a savior here.
BEHAR: I don`t know. Because you know these relationships don`t always last. Have you been married?
WEBB: Yes, I`ve been married. But you know I think he needs somebody who can afford to age 20 years overnight, because you have eight kids and you`re suddenly in that situation. She`s going to be 45 tomorrow.
BEHAR: That`s true. She`s not going to marry him with all those kids. Forget about it.
LANGAN: Oh, come on, you don`t know, guys, it doesn`t matter, they always get the chick. You know this.
BEHAR: I know.
LANGAN: As long as the man is perceived as wealthy or famous or infamous, Anna Nicole married an octogenarian in a wheelchair.
BEHAR: That`s right.
LANGAN: The guy since Watergate, then you got the other one, Stephen Hawkins left his wife for another woman. Man can`t move, he`s leaving women, so eight kids is nothing.
BEHAR: Right, right, right, I had Salman Rushdie and we been doing that bit for years. How he got a fatwa in his head and he got married three times and didn`t leave his hotel room for ten years and married somebody three times. No one -- who came to the hotel room? The Avon lady?
LANGAN: There you go.
WEBB: He married the Avon lady?
BEHAR: No, no, --
LANGAN: He married the Tupperware lady.
(CROSSTALK)
BEHAR: And about ten other people, he`s hot.
LANGAN: He`s the newspaper delivery woman.
BEHAR: But I mean my daughter never met Steve for one whole year when I was going out with him. That was 27 years ago. Yes but she never met him for one year, because I didn`t think you should do that. Why immerse the child in your hot sex? You know what I mean, because you`re having a lot of sex then.
WEBB: Once the child is in it, the sex the over.
BEHAR: Yes, exactly.
WEBB: It`s a damper on your sex life.
BEHAR: Why ruin -
SHAPIRO: Well first of all the Gosselins are not exactly the role model parents.
LANGAN: They are not?
SHAPIRO: I don`t think so.
WEBB: Apparently nothing could ruin their sex live, because the kids kept coming.
BEHAR: And none of them are smoking, so they`re really good.
Up next, I`ll chat with the stairs of TLC`s "One Big Happy Family," all 1,400 pounds of them. They`re big, but they`re working on it, I love them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: I don`t know if I can see. I`m going to write it down. It was 344. You weigh 280. I`m scared to get on there now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I take pride in our life change. I mean, I`ve been through times where I couldn`t even tie my shoe. Now I can tie my shoe and that`s a blessing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we have lost 64 pounds since we started.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: You know the Coles family weighed in at a collective 1,400 pounds when they hit our TV screens last year after already losing almost 300 pounds, they continue their journey in the second season of TLC`s "ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY," and all without the help of experts, so, there. Here with me now are mom, Tameka, dad, Norris, and their children, Shayne and Amber. Welcome to the show, you guys.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
BEHAR: Tameka let me start with you, Tameka, you guys weighed altogether 1,400 pounds. How do you think you got to be so heavy as a family? What happened there?
TAMEKA COLES, MOTHER ON "ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY": Well, I think what happened, Joy is basically, we were eating and not really paying attention to what we were eating. And we weren`t exercising at all. And we had no clue about calories or anything like that. So we just ate when we wanted to. We didn`t really eat when we were hungry, we ate just because we wanted to eat, you know.
BEHAR: Demand feeding, like a baby. Whenever a baby cries, you feed it.
T. COLES: Exactly, exactly.
BEHAR: So that`s what you were doing.
T. COLES: Yes.
BEHAR: But you, Shayne, I was reading you said you ate fried chicken before you had teeth. How did you do that?
SHAYNE COLES, SON ON "ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY": Yes, when I was a baby, like my grandparents and my parents they used to feed me table food. They would give me a piece of fried chicken with the skin and I would like swallow it like a baby. And I use to eat all the table food --
BEHAR: It`s a wonder you didn`t choke on it.
SHAYNE COLES: I know, I`m surprised.
TAMEKA COLES: I wonder how he would remember that, being a baby.
BEHAR: What`d you say?
TAMEKA COLES: I wonder how you would remember that being a baby.
SHAYNE COLES: I have a great memory.
BEHAR: He has a photographic memory, when it comes to that chicken, he remembers every little morsel of it. OK now, Amber, you said that food was your drug. Talk about that little bit.
AMBER COLES, DAUGHTER ON "ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY": Yes, at one point in my life, food was my drug. I felt like I always came back to food. When I was having a bad day, I went back to food. And if I wasn`t eating then something was really wrong. So that was really bad for me.
BEHAR: And nobody really in the family is going to say not to do that, because you`re all in this together, really. So there`s nobody saying, hey, don`t eat so much.
AMBER COLES: If anything, we were all saying, hey, let me get some of that. You know, we were all just happy about it.
BEHAR: So, Norris, what was the wake-up call for the family to change?
NORRIS COLES, FATHER ON "ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY": The wake-up call started when we went to the doctor. I went to the doctor, Shayne went to the endocrinologist and then Amber Shayne went to their doctor -- we came back to the doctor after being told we were super obese, Shayne just had a breakthrough. He was like, you know, I`m tired of all of this. He started throwing away my cookies, he started throwing away everything.
BEHAR: Really.
NORRIS COLES: I was like, hold on, some of that cereal hasn`t been opened. And he was just like, you know, I need help, we need to make a change, so we all got with the program.
BEHAR: So Shayne was the catalyst. You went in there and read them the riot act?
SHAYNE COLES: Yes I guess I was just like tired of it and I felt we would just done too much, basically.
BEHAR: Too much eating.
SHAYNE COLE: Yes -
BEHAR: And it wasn`t healthy and the doctors were saying it wasn`t healthy. Because I mean Tameka, you were at 385. At what point did you think, hey maybe I should stop. You went up to 385, you didn`t start like that. There must have been a moment where you thought, I`ve got to stop, or did it never occur to you?
TAMEKA COLES: No, it occurred to me. The moment I realized it had to stop when I started walking to the car and I couldn`t breathe. When I realized I couldn`t walk from my front door to my car door, I knew that was a problem.
BEHAR: Right,8 god forbid walking up the stairs, forget about it.
TAMEKA COLES: Oh absolutely. I was even speaking about, I told Norris, we`re going to have to get a ranch house because I`m not going to be climbing these steps every day. So you know --
BEHAR: You know when you get to be my age, you say that anyway. I want a ranch house! Now you`ve altogether lost 300 pounds. Tameka, you lost 126 pounds.
TAMEKA COLES: Yes, ma`am.
BEHAR: Congratulations.
TAMEKA COLES: Thank you.
BEHAR: Dad lost 80?
NORRIS COLES: Mm-hmm.
BEHAR: And Shayne lost 46 pounds. Congratulations.
SHAYNE COLES: It sounds horrible when you compare it to --
TAMEKA COLES: No, it doesn`t!
BEHAR: What you are competing that you want to lose more than that?
TAMEKA COLES: We always compete.
SHAYNE COLES: I mean it`s always the competition.
BEHAR: Well you were, honey, you were 338. You went down. You`re doing great. And Amber, you lost 75 pounds. I mean, I`ve got to clap for you. That is a lot of weight to lose, and you did it without any of these experts weighing you, humiliating you. And telling you exactly what to do, so tell us what you did? Tell me, somebody tell me something, Tameka?
SHAYNE COLES: Exercise.
BEHAR: Exercise how, what did you do -- how`d you do it?
SHAYNE COLES: We walk every day, constantly. And then we would go play basketball as a family. And then we would just, like, all eat together. We would sit down and have a healthy, balanced meal every meal, we would just sit there and eat and talk together as a family. And I mean we just kept doing this day after day.
BEHAR: And how about the food? So you worked out together a little bit. It`s interesting, it`s like the family that ate together can now be together doing something else.
TAMEKA COLES: Exactly.
BEHAR: So what about the food? How did you change that? Because that`s hard.
TAMEKA COLES: That was extremely hard changing the food. It was a little bit easy, because Shayne helped us throwing everything out. But then we just, you know, started realizing things that we would go on the internet and get information about, you know, what was healthy, what was not healthy. And then we found out about high fructose corn syrup.
BEHAR: Very bad.
TAMEKA COLES: And we were devastated --
BEHAR: That`s probably what did it. A lot of people feel that.
TAMEKA COLES: Yes, everything we had in our cabinet had that in it. And you know everything on the internet says, you know, we shouldn`t have that.
BEHAR: All that processed food out there.
TAMEKA COLES: Exactly.
BEHAR: You know when I travel in the airports, that`s all that`s available. People in certain neighborhoods, that`s all that`s available and it`s bad.
TAMEKA COLES: That`s true. It is.
BEHAR: So congratulations on changing your eating habits. When we come back, I want to hear about how your life has changed now. OK? So stay right there and we`ll be back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAMEKA COLES: It`s good, you are going to like it.
NORRIS COLES: Did you fry the turkey burger?
TAMEKA COLES: No, I cooked them in the oven.
NORRIS COLES: Oh.
TAMEKA COLES: Onion soup mix in that Turkey burger.
NORRIS COLES: No.
TAMEKA COLES: There is MSG in it and we don`t eat MSG in our house.
AMBER COLES: That`s not enough for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEHAR: I`m back with this happy family, the Coles. So what was going on there?
AMBER COLES: Well my family members and a couple of friends came over for dinner and it was our new lifestyle. And they were not happy with what we cooked.
BEHAR: They turned on you.
AMBER COLES: Yes they did. They were looking for lasagna and chicken wings and all that good stuff. It wasn`t --
BEHAR: Maybe they are just a little jealous -- how much do you want to lose Shawn?
SHAYNE COLES: Shayne?
BEHAR: Shayne, I`m sorry.
SHAYNE COLES: I want to be 120.
BEHAR: No. No. Models are 120 and they are seven feet tall. How tall are you?
SHAYNE COLES: I`m 5`7".
BEHAR: Five seven, 120, that`s thin for a young man, for a strapping young mad -
SHAYNE COLES: Well you know I should still be buff. So maybe about 180.
BEHAR: Oh so it`s either 120 or 180.
SHAYNE COLES: It`s between those two you know.
BEHAR: Somewhere in there.
SHAYNE COLES: Somewhere.
BEHAR: How about 150? That`s nice.
SHAYNE COLES: I don`t know. That might be too much.
BEHAR: You think so? You don`t want to go down too far because then it will be too hard to keep off. You know your body does have a set point. And you know - whatever?
SHAYNE COLES: Isn`t 150 a little skinny?
BEHAR: It`s great 150, I wish I was 150. One hundred fifty is svelte. How about you darling, what do you want to do?
AMBER COLES: My doctors actually said I think I should be between 150 and 180. But I feel like for me, I want to be 200. I feel like you know, it`s not maybe best for my body type. That`s where I want to be. That`s my goal.
BEHAR: OK, keep it there. That`s doable. You have lost 75 pounds. How much are you now? Two eighty? A little less now?
AMBER COLES: Maybe around there, I don`t know. I don`t like to weigh myself constantly because I get weird. Especially her.
BEHAR: Because sometimes -- why what does she do?
AMBER COLES: She`s like 250 something.
BEHAR: You feel like you are competing with your mother?
AMBER COLES: It`s a healthy competition.
BEHAR: How has your life gotten better? Just generally speaking besides the fact you don`t get out of breath when you walk upstairs.
TAMEKA COLES: for me --
BEHAR: You`re losing friends and relatives.
TAMEKA COLES: No, we are not losing friends. Basically, for me, we are able to do more things together. We went to the water park before and there were certain things we couldn`t get on. As a family, we can do more things together. We don`t have to change the shocks as much on the car. We are a little bit lighter now. So yes --
BEHAR: Do you -- what do you do about when you want a snack or something? A lot of this is planning a meal.
TAMEKA COLES: Right.
BEHAR: A lot goes into it. Do you think you can keep it up when the TV show is over?
TAMEKA COLES: Absolutely. There was a time when the cameras weren`t rolling. It`s probably when we lost the most weight when we weren`t being filmed. So --
BEHAR: How much do you miss the fried chicken pieces? How much do you miss it really?
TAMEKA COLES: You know, honestly, I don`t miss it a lot.
BEHAR: You don`t, do you?
SHAYNE COLES: No, I was never really a big fried chicken kind of guy.
BEHAR: Only when you were an infant.
(LAUGHTER)
BEHAR: I got to go. Thank you. I really ran out of time. I could talk to you for another hour. I have to go. Thanks for joining me. The second season of "ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY" premiers June first on TLC.
END
