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Joy Behar Page

Springtime for Lindsay?; Ageless in Hollywood

Aired August 16, 2010 - 21:00   ET

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

RENE SYLER, GUEST HOST: Welcome to THE JOY BEHAR SHOW, I`m Rene Syler filling in for the vacationing Joy Behar.

Tonight Lindsay Lohan is still at UCLA Medical Center after serving only two weeks of a court-ordered 90 days in rehab. But she could be getting out as early as this week according to TMZ.

Doctors have reportedly found her psychiatric problems and drug dependency not to be as severe as initially thought.

Here to discuss all things Lindsay are Dr. Drew Pinsky, addiction medicine specialist and host of "Celebrity Rehab" on VH-1; Terry Seymour, "Extra" correspondent; and Jane Velez-Mitchell, host of HLN`s "ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL".

Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining me.

Terry, let me start with you. Fill me in on the latest here. Lindsay was supposed to serve 90 days in jail and 90 days at this treatment facility. She served two weeks in jail and now it looks like just two weeks at this treatment facility? Fill us in.

TERRY SEYMOUR, CORRESPONDENT, "EXTRA": Yes, I mean she looks like she could, as you said, be getting out as early as this week. The doctors haven`t finished their final reports yet, but her addiction to the drugs and she is not bipolar as it was thought in first place. So once the doctors finish their final medical reports, they have to go to the judge and she could be released, you know, by Friday.

SYLER: That`s surprising. What`s the reaction out there? Are people surprised by that, that she could be out in as short as two weeks?

SEYMOUR: Absolutely, yes. I think everybody thinks, you know, the best place for Lindsay right now is in rehab. She`s been in rehab three times before. This is her fourth time. Obviously it hasn`t worked before. And everybody thinks she needs to stay there and finish her sentence.

But the doctors seem to think, you know, she could be fine becoming an outpatient.

SYLER: Let me bring Jane Velez-Mitchell in on this. Even if the doctors recommend and say that she`s ok to go, Jane, will the judge -- and by the way, this is a new judge on the case. Will the judge sign off on that?

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST, "ISSUES": Well, we don`t know, but they will usually abide by the recommendations of doctors and medical issues.

I think this is an outrage. As you just heard, she`s been in rehab three times before. This is rehab number four. She`s failed each time. And I must remind you that all of this stems back to not one but two DUIs in 2007. And in one of those, this young lady, allegedly commandeered a car not belonging to herself with two people inside who are now suing her and went on a high speed chase, chasing after the mother of her personal assistant who was so terrified she called 911 and ended up driving into the police station.

This young lady is not just a risk to herself, she`s a risk to people around her. And in the probation report that just came out in July, it said she is still taking opiates and amphetamines including Dilaudid which is a very powerful drug that has been compared to morphine. And she`s allowed to take those because those are medical drugs.

So, I don`t know what these doctors at this rehab are thinking, but I think they are crazy.

SYLER: So you, Jane, I can tell by your tone think she`s getting special treatment.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, she`s an actress. The only thing o can think of is that she`s a brilliant actress. I`m in recovery myself. I know addicts when they want to get something, they can really turn it on.

SYLER: Let me bring Dr. Drew in on this.

DR. DREW PINSKY, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: Thanks, Rene.

SYLER: Is it common for a court ordered stay at a treatment facility -- and I think we need to point that this isn`t just rehab. It`s a treatment facility -- is it common to be -- for this to be cut short?

UM2: Well, here`s how you have to think about this. I don`t actually disagree with almost anything that Jane said. But we have to be reasonable with how we assess what`s going on out there. We don`t know what she`s being treated for. We don`t know what the doctors have done.

She`s actually not in a rehab. She`s in a psychiatric hospital. To be maintained in a psychiatric hospital, you have to meet medical criteria for psychiatric hospitalization. And that is above and beyond chemical dependency. For all we know, they may be releasing her from the psychiatric hospital and sending her to an intensive chemical dependency program.

SYLER: As an outpatient?

(CROSS TALKING)

PINSKY: Well -- and clearly somebody who has had the kind of issues that Lindsay has had would do better in a highly structured environment. It sort of helps them regain their thinking more clearly. Jane, I`m sure you would agree with this that the disease process sort of is attacked more thoroughly in a highly structured environment. But that doesn`t mean it`s incompatible with outpatient treatment.

So we really just don`t know what`s going on. Even though, Jane, I agree with you, the fact is the medical side of this is really unclear at this point. We don`t know really what she`s being treated for, what the doctors are doing and what`s clear, she doesn`t need psychiatric hospitalization. You have to agree with that, right?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, I mean if they`ve decided she`s not bipolar because there was some report that they were considering it a possibility that she might have that, well then sure, maybe she doesn`t need to be in a psychiatric facility. But certainly an inpatient rehab I would think would be the optimal choice for her.

It`s really disturbing that her mom Dina is so happy that she might get out early because, honestly, I think we all come from a good place that we want to save this young woman`s life. And her dad Michael -- I know she`s estranged from him -- but her dad Michael is saying no, she should not get out early.

SYLER: You know what? Speaking of Dina -- I need to bring this up -- she was on "The Today Show" Friday and she disputed how many times Lindsay had actually been in rehab. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, HOST, "THE TODAY SHOW": How many times has she been in rehab?

DINA LOHAN, LINDSAY LOHAN`S MOTHER: Two.

LAUER: Two times? My notes had four.

LOHAN: No, I don`t know where you`re reading that.

LAUER: Let`s say it`s two. Clearly rehab the first time then did not work.

LOHAN: Well, I actually put her in rehab. When you say not works or work, I don`t know where you`re getting those words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLER: Dr. Drew, I have to tell you when I watched this interview at home, I thought has she been seeing the same Lindsay Lohan that I saw from afar. Granted, I`m not in her life, I`m watching like everybody else is. But this was a young lady who was falling into bushes. She didn`t look lucid a lot of the time.

Wouldn`t you as a mother, wouldn`t you think that maybe the best place is for her to stay in rehab until all of her issues are worked out?

PINSKY: Yes. I think that we`d all agree that Dina doesn`t fully understand what she`s dealing with here. And she may be -- sometimes over- medicalizing somebody doesn`t serve the needs of addicts. And if Dina is perhaps going to doctors that are telling her the things she wants to hear, she may believe she`s doing the right thing. But as we all see -- we all bear witness to the fact that things aren`t going so well.

And the reality is that if she`s not bipolar, she doesn`t need psychiatric hospitalization, she`s a straight-up addict; and she needs to be completely abstinent of psycho-stimulants, benzodiazepines, opiates and alcohol for the rest of her life or her disease is active. And we`re all witnessing this horrible, horrible meltdown that will end up in her demise, in her death, if something doesn`t change.

SYLER: Whoa. You`re saying that she needs -- something needs to change and change fast or we`re going to see her dead?

PINSKY: There`s absolutely no doubt in my mind. Well, look -- How many Hollywood types do we need to see die of addiction before -- and we all watched while Anna Nicole die. We`ve watched these people die all the time now of prescription related deaths -- prescription medication deaths. This is going to be another statistic if this poor young woman doesn`t get into an abstinence-based program, in my opinion.

SYLER: When Matt Lauer broached that topic with her, Dina was incredulous. She said, how could you say that to me?

Terri, you spent some time on a photo shoot with Dina and Lindsay`s sister. And what was that like?

SEYMOUR: Just last week I was with Dina and Ali as they were doing a shoot for Lindsay`s clothing line 6126. Ali`s very composed, she`s very grown-up now. I met her a couple of years ago and she`s a young woman now.

Dina hinted that Lindsay would be getting out early; obviously incredibly excited about that. She spoke about how well Lindsay was doing, how happy Lindsay was. She`d been thrilled with all of the fan mail, letters and cards she`d been receiving, writing back to everybody.

And she said -- she`s working while she`s in treatment she`s working and she`s designing her new collection. She spoke about how that was helping her get through. And Dina, obviously thinking the best thing for her is now to move to New York and be with her mom and her family.

SYLER: Well --

SEYMOUR: Michael not agreeing.

SYLER: I think everybody here agrees that we want to see the best for this young lady.

Thanks, everyone. Appreciate your time.

Remember to watch issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell at 7:00 p.m. right here on HLN.

And you could see Dr. Drew on the new season of "Celebrity Rehab starting October 11th. Catch him on this show next week when he`s the guest host.

We`ll be right back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Julia Roberts` new movie "Eat, Pray, Love" opened this weekend pulling in a respectable $23.7 million and coming a close second to Sly Stallone and his ensemble cast of testosterone-laden mega stars. Not bad for a girl.

In fact, Roberts is among a number of actresses of a certain age whose star power instead of fading seems to be exploding. Along with Jennifer Aniston on the cover of "Harpers Bazaar" and Halle Berry on "Vogue", Julia will grace the September issue of "Elle". So are actresses over 40 the new "It Girls" in Hollywood?

Here now to discuss are two veteran actress, Linda Gray and Lainie Kazan co-stars of the new movie "Expecting Mary" and the editorial director of the "Hollywood Reporter" Janice Min. Hi ladies.

(CROSS TALKING)

SYLER: Everybody looks fabulous. Lainie and Linda, I want the start by talking to you about this very cute movie "Expecting Mary". And Linda, it`s really -- it has such heart, this movie. I understand you guys shot it in 18 days?

LINDA GRAY, ACTRESS: We did.

LAINIE KAZAN, ACTRESS: We did.

GRAY: We did and we had the best time. We bonded in the makeup and hair room, which was hysterical, all these wonderful, crazy over-40 women.

KAZAN: Speak for yourself.

GRAY: I`m sorry. Never supposed to talk about age. But we had a ball. Oh, dear, I see a great clip. The costumes were wonderful. We just had great energy, a great director, a fabulous script. The script drew all these wonderful women and men.

KAZAN: A great cast. Fantastic cast.

GRAY: Amazing. In Hollywood, it`s all about the script and if people are willing to pay money to bring us all in and say, you know, you guys are a little bit over 40. Not much. But you know, we`ve got some life stuff and hopefully a little wisdom dragging along with it.

SYLER: Lainie, tell me about the movie. And by the way, isn`t that where all the bonding takes place always, in hair and makeup? That`s always where the bonding takes place.

KAZAN: Most definitely.

SYLER: Lainie, tell me about the movie. What is it about?

KAZAN: Well, it`s about -- well, Linda really should tell you --

GRAY: No, you can.

KAZAN: Because it`s her movie.

GRAY: It`s not my movie. It`s our movie.

KAZAN: I have a very supporting role, but Linda is a magnificent star in this movie; this young girl Alicia Rulen (ph) who is extraordinary and Cloris Leachman and Cybil Shepherd.

GRAY: Della Reese.

KAZAN: Oh, and Della Reese. A dear story, a really dear story about this very beautiful, sensitive, terrific woman who is a little over the hill and is her truly, and her dreams. And you go ahead.

GRAY: Well, actually, I had gone to Dan Gordon who is a wonderful screen writer, and I was sort of tired of playing the same kind of roles, the dysfunctional over 40 women, over 50 women, over 60. You know what I mean? It was getting a little boring.

Dan says let`s do something really fun and exciting. So he said, would you like to play a sort of an over-the-hill showgirl who was in Las Vegas who now lives in a trailer park in New Mexico? I said sold.

KAZAN: And works in a club that I own.

GRAY: Lainie owns a club, yes.

KAZAN: The Cayuse Indian (ph) --

GRAY: Indian casino.

KAZAN: Indian casino, because I`m a Cayuse Indian. Can`t you tell?

SYLER: Absolutely. Absolutely. Very obvious.

Are you guys finding that the roles are -- good roles are hard for women over 40 to find? Lainie, are you finding that?

KAZAN: You know, I`ve been very lucky. Personally, I`ve been playing women over 40, 50, 60 and on since I`m 33 years old. So I`ve been a character actress for many, many years. And I`ve just grown into the parts that I`m now playing. And I`ve been very fortunate because I still get those roles.

I play -- I`ve been everybody`s mother but Whoopi`s. You know?

SYLER: That`s next.

KAZAN: Exactly.

SYLER: Let me bring Janice Min in on this conversation. Janice, I mentioned just a moment ago on the cover of "Vogue", we have Halle Berry who is 44.

JANICE MIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, "HOLLYWOOD REPORTER": Right.

SYLER: On the cover of "Elle", Julia Roberts is 42, "Harper`s Bazaar" is Jennifer Aniston who`s 41. Is this something we would have seen 10, 15 years ago?

MIN: Well, it`s funny 10 or 15 years ago, we might have seen these exact same actresses on these covers. A funny thing has happened like you have these great women in their 40s who have really had careers for two decades which is almost unheard of for most actresses. And then you have these actresses in their 20s and 30s who don`t have staying power.

When you look at the box office over the summer and the movies that are coming out, it`s the women over 40 who are carrying these movies and are still getting the most interesting roles.

We pointed out in our story about these magazine covers in the "Hollywood Reporter" that there really hasn`t been a breakout star in her 20s or 30s this year other than Kristen Stewart from "Twilight". And when you`re looking for a big name, a big broad audience grabber, it`s still these women in their 40s.

SYLER: Why do you think that is? And by the way, when we say women in their 40s, we`re talking about these women who are in their early 40s; I mean 41 is essentially the same as 39.

MIN: Right.

SYLER: But really there`s no big difference there. Why do you think that is? Why is 40 this great big number that people in Hollywood have such a hard time getting over?

MIN: You know, 40 is the crazy number that people get stuck -- they get stuck about that number in their heads. People equate it with fertility. They think you can`t have a child over 40, they equate it with aging. They think you`re going to look bad over 40. And you know, I think for a long time people thought you can`t be sexy over 40, you can`t carry a movie if you`re over 40.

I think an interesting thing has happened in that we`ve sort of grown up with these women and they remain interesting and they`re total professionals. They can do their jobs both on camera and off. And they conduct themselves a lot better than these women in their 20s.

Look at these celebrities in their 20s, the females -- the ones that make news. It`s Snooki from "Jersey Shore" getting arrested. You have Lindsay Lohan just getting out of jail. You have -- they say dumb things at interviews. Even just recently, Kristen Stewart from "Twilight" put her foot in her mouth when she talked about equating attention from photographers with feeling like she was raped.

SYLER: Yes.

MIN: You know, things like that. And what`s nice about women who have had longer careers is that they -- as one of the editors from "Harper`s Bazaar" told us about Sarah Jessica Parker who sells extremely well for magazines and obviously can open a movie, too is that you get the feeling she`ll talk to you forever. She knows how to conduct herself in an interview and behave like a grown-up.

And I think when you`re going to the box office and you want to pay $10, $11, sometimes $13 to go see a movie, you want someone you feel good about.

SYLAR: All right. Ladies, we`re going to continue this fascinating discussion in just a moment.

Everybody home, stay right there. We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYLER: I`m back with my panel. We`re talking about being over 40 in Hollywood.

Oh my gosh, over 40 in Hollywood. Linda and Lainie, you guys certainly know a little something about having staying power. You`ve both been in your careers for quite some time, accomplished at that. Linda, to what do you attribute that?

GRAY: I think it`s honoring the fact that acting is a craft. And I think sometimes that`s what happens when the young girls don`t honor that. You know, they just think it`s fun, it`s glamorous and I`m a celebrity and blah, blah, blah. But they don`t honor the craft and acting is a craft.

And I think that`s what Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, you know, all the young girls that are -- for me, it`s like 40. My daughter`s 44 and we`re going to see "Eat, Pray, Love" tonight. It`s an honoring of the craft that I find is missing.

That`s why I think we all love Julia and Jessica -- Sarah Jessica Parker and all the younger women because they`ve honored that and they`re real and they`ve had real lives and real problems, and they`re survivors. And that`s why we love them. So Lainie and I hanging in for as long as we have because we love what we do; we have a passion for it.

SYLER: But Lainie, could it also be something else? Years ago you weren`t photographed coming out of a yoga class with your yoga mat and no makeup on or you had an off night and you stumbled into a bush or what have you. Years ago it wasn`t like that. Do you think that that`s part of it now?

KAZAN: I do. You know, I feel like a warrior. I say -- I put my bra on every morning and I go to war. I mean --

SYLER: It`s very -- that`s very true, isn`t it?

KAZAN: It is. But you know, it`s not only that. These women who are 40 and over as well as the two of us, we`ve lived lives -- very, very profound lives. And that shows in our eyes, in our face, in our demeanor.

As Linda said, we appreciate what we do and who we are, and we`re comfortable with ourselves, so then you can become any character, and you honor your art, your craft. And you`ve learned so much more than a young person.

SYLER: I love that. I love that. That makes me feel --

KAZAN: You know? And it`s true.

SYLER: That makes me feel good.

Janice, because we`re all moving in that direction, not that direction and honestly we want to think that as we get older that we do have a little something to offer --

KAZAN: Special -- something special.

SYLER: Yes, something special. Do you think that`s going to be the case going forward? Or is this something a flash in the pan and we`re going to go back to --

MIN: If you look at the past ten years, we went through a very -- we entered this whole age of reality stars; maybe an age of very superficial celebrity. I think what`s interesting is when we did our story about women over 40 doing well on magazine covers, readers really were responding to, as one editor put it, women who had some wear on their tires. They were saying that the young women, they need to put them back in the bottle. Put the cork they need with some more time to age.

People can relate to these actresses who they feel like -- as Lainie was saying -- have gone through things. They`ve lived a real life. And no one thinks at the age of 22 you`ve lived a real life yet.

(CROSS TALKING)

SYLER: Right. All right. Everybody, thank you so much. You guys are great. Everybody, by the way, looks fantastic.

You can see Lainie and Linda in "Expecting Mary" in theaters September 10th.

We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYLER: While awaiting trial for allegedly killing a 25-year-old masseuse he met through Craigslist, Philip Markoff, the former medical student known as the Craigslist killer was found dead on the floor of his jail cell yesterday. Apparently he took his own life. Joining me now to talk about this is Brian Russell, forensic psychologist and attorney, Beth Karas, correspondent "In Session" on TRUTV. And by phone, Juna Perkins, attorney for the family of Markoff`s alleged victim Julissa Brisman. Welcome, everyone. Beth, let me start with you. What happened, what do we know happened? Are we certain it was a suicide?

BETH KERAS, CORRESPONDENT "IN SESSION": Well, the autopsy has been performed, but the results are not going to be released until further testing is done. What those tests are, we don`t know. However, the preliminary reports are -- and this is something that`s been said officially -- that there does not appear to be any sign that anyone else is responsible for Markoff`s death but himself. In other words, it appears to be a suicide. They`re not saying for sure. There are reports out of Boston in local papers there in the "Boston Globe" and a local television station that he asphyxiated himself, that he had access to plastic bags which may be totally permissible in the jail and he tied a bag around his head.

SYLER: But I also have heard reports that maybe he cut himself and could have been bleeding quite a bit. Can you address that at all? And if so, how come nobody saw anything?

KERAS: Well, again, there are reports only that -- this has not been officially stated by the spokesperson for the police department and the district attorney, that he did cut himself. We don`t know with what. There are some reports with a razor. But they might not be true. He used medical knowledge and cut his femoral artery and then tied another bag around his leg to catch the blood. And that`s why perhaps no one noticed. If he indeed is checked about every half hour, which is what they say inmates are looked on when they`re not on suicide watch, more often if they`re on suicide watch, he could have been feigning being asleep with the covers over his head and maybe they didn`t think it was unusual. But his head is covered by blankets and a plastic bag. We don`t know enough about it.

SLYER: was he on suicide watch?

KERAS: No. He hadn`t been on suicide watch since may of 2009. He was arrested April 20 of 2009. He was originally on because there were a few attempts by him in those early days after his arrest and a third potential attempt in August on the anniversary of what should have been -- or on the date of what should have been his wedding day.

SLYER: But then they took him off suicide watch.

KERAS: Yes.

SLYER: What do you think would make Philip Markoff want to kill himself?

BRIAN RUSSELL, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST/ATTORNEY: Well, there are a couple of possibilities. Sometimes in a case like this, a defendant would become suicidal because the gravity of what he had done would finally be hitting him. Other times it would be an act of defiance where the defendant wouldn`t want society to win and would want to go out on his own terms. I get the feeling - and I certainly didn`t examine him. But I get the feeling that in this case it`s sort of a hybrid, a combination of the two whereby he probably at some point felt the gravity of what he did. But I bet if you would have examined him before the suicide, you would have felt that the gravity he felt was not remorse for the damage that he had done to his victim, but remorse for all of the losses that he had caused himself. I bet you still would have seen that narcissism coming through. I bet the focal point of the suicidal ideation was thinking about, if he hadn`t given in to these impulses to victimize these women, he would be getting married this month, in medical school et cetera.

SLYER: So you`re saying this was perhaps born of his own narcissistic tendencies and not at all concerned about the victim, Julissa Brisman?

RUSSELL: That would be my bet based on the behavior, before, during and all the way up to the end.

SLYER: I`m surprised that someone is able to I guess kill themselves in jail, I guess that surprises me. But if you`re determined, you know, what is there to stop you, right?

RUSSELL: Well, you know, I think most of the folks who work in correctional facilities try to do the best job they can. They have a very difficult job, you`re right. If somebody`s bound and determined to kill themselves, it`s hard to prevent them from having access to any means of doing it. Should there have been plastic bags and sharps in there, if there were, nos are, probably not. Am I losing a lot of sleep about it tonight, no.

SLYER: Meaning what?

RUSSELL: Meaning that given the evidence that they had on this guy, I feel that, you know, I`m sorry, I`m just not -- I`m not that upset with the folks there in the jail for in the having been more on the ball trying to save had guy`s life if, in fact, they had some signs along the way that he may be suicidal.

SLYER: Juna, let me ask you this, from what I`ve heard Julissa Brisman`s family is pretty upset that Philip Markoff took his own life. Can you tell us why and what their thinking is?

JUNA PERKINS, ATTORNEY FOR THE FAMILY OF MARKOFF`S ALLEGED VICTIM JULISSA BRISMAN: Yes. Pretty much the feeling is that he has committed yet another selfish act, which is to deprive them of the one opportunity they had of confronting him and showing him that they knew who he was and what he had done. He took that away from them.

SLYER: And it`s my understanding that they also want an investigation into the gun shop where he bought the gun that they think was used in the crime, is that true?

PERKINS: That`s true. We had asked the U.S. attorney`s office in New Hampshire several months ago to look into that because we learned through news reports that the I.D. that he used belonged to someone else and the New York driver`s license which he used had a photograph and signature on it. He also, when he buys a gun, has to sign papers to do that. It`s unclear to me how it happens that -- what happened with the clerk? Did the clerk look at the signatures on the driver`s license and on the papers that he signed? Did the clerk look at the photograph on the driver`s license and the person in front of him? How was it that he was able to from out of state walk into the gun shop and apparently -- at least from what I`ve heard from news reports -- walk out of the store with the gun in hand?

SLYER: So the family wants some answers there. Understandable.

PERKINS: Yes. And certainly since the criminal prosecution is now foreclosed, they certainly are interested in looking at other ways in which they can get justice for Julissa.

SLYER: Beth, this is not the first time that Philip Markoff had tried to kill himself. I understand now a Boston city council member is calling for an investigation at least into what`s going on at that jail. Had there been a history of suicides at that jail?

KERAS: No more than in a typical jail. Suicide rates in Suffolk county are not any higher than similar populations in similar jails around the country. In fact, they`re actually lower. About a third of the rate lower than the 50 top jail populations. Now, there are investigations called for into state prisons. That`s different from a county jail. He was in a county facility. But they`ve had about three or four suicides since 2003 and one attempt. That`s not too bad.

SLYER: That`s not too bad? That sounds like a lot to me.

KERAS: But look at the discussion you just had about if somebody really wants to kill himself, herself, they`re going to find a way to do it.

SLYER: Yes, right, right. Brian -- oh, go ahead.

PERKINS: I was just going to say that having been on prison tours myself and seeing all the weapons that are used by prisoners, by inmates in jails where you go and you say to yourself if only this power could be used for good instead of evil.

SLYER: Brian, after this happened, Craigslist said they were going to change how they did business by way of the erotic listings. In fact, I believe they went on to call them adult services. That`s how they were advertising them. And that`s how Julissa Brisman had advertised. What`s happening? We had - we checked last week and there was something like 500 listings under adult services on Craigsslist. They said they were going to change how they did things. It doesn`t look like they are.

RUSSELL: Yes, not much has changed, it doesn`t look like to me. I agree with you. I think that, you know, the modern-day Craigslist type site is really the modern-day version of the old traditional bulletin board where people could go and post things. If somebody posted something that was wrong or of a criminal nature or something like that, people didn`t blame the owner of the bulletin board. And I get that. However, I feel if you are managing the bulletin board and you know that there is criminal activity being advertised on your site, then that`s where the criminal responsibility kicks in to get that off of there. Now, should they have foreseen that he was going to murder somebody? I don`t think so. But should they have known that there was prostitution being advertised on there, I think so. And I think that`s where the criminal responsibility if there is any lies, unfortunately, that`s probably also where it ends.

SLYER: Yes, go ahead Beth.

KERAS: I saw a report the day before Markoff died, August 14th report, and I just can`t recall right now where. But Craigslist, there was another robbery, gunpoint robbery of somebody selling erotic services. And the article said it was strikingly similar minus a death to Markoff case, then he dies the next day.

SLYER: Yes, interesting. Before I let you go, a real quick question. We talked about Julissa Brisman`s family and how they were angry. Is that normally how this goes? Or would you feel like they might feel a sense of relief that he had killed himself?

RUSSELL: Well, you can`t begrudge anybody their reaction. Everybody reacts differently in a situation like this, and it`s so traumatic, the whole thing. You can`t really begrudge anybody their reaction. But I hope over time that this reaction of feeling sort of ripped off by him wanes and they find some more peace with it. That you know, he`s gone, he can`t victimize anybody else. Nothing that would have happened at the trial would have brought their daughter back, unfortunately. So I don`t think that this is probably the most mentally healthy reaction, but I understand it at this point. And I just hope that it evolves over time into something that will give them some more peace.

SLYER: Yes, all right, very good. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, guys.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean once?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he find you online? Wait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who did you meet once.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Paul. I met him with Joanie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why was Joanie there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She set it up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forget the setup. Who`s Paul?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our sperm donor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you guys thing I was gay?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SLYER: That was the clip from "THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT." the new movie spotlights an issue many donor conceived children deal with today, finding their roots. Using the internet as a tool, more and more donor-conceived children are reuniting with their biological parents and siblings. Earlier I had a chance to speak to some folks who are through it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SLYER: Todd Whitehurst, a donor dad who has reunited with four children he helped conceive. Virginia Phelps, Todd`s daughter. Gavin Schuller, Todd`s son. And Wendy Kramer, founder of donor sibling registry.com which helps connect half siblings. Welcome, everyone.

WENDY KRAMER, FOUNDER OF DONORSIBLINGREGISTRY.COM: Thank you.

VIRGINIA PHELPS, TODD`S DAUGHTER: Thank you.

GAVIN SCHULER, TODD`S SON: Thank you.

TODD WHITEHURST, DONOR FATHER: Thank you.

SLYER: I`m just going to start with you, Todd. You did this years ago, this -- you became a donor dad, if you will.

WHITEHURST: Yes.

SLYER: Why? Why did you do it?

WHITEHURST: I did it at the time I was in graduate school in Stanford. I need the money. I was on campus they advertised for donors. So made it easy. I thought that a lot of people must be doing it. So I figured there were quite a few people that were on campuses in graduate school in engineering as donors. But when I talked to my friends it turned out that none would do it. They all had religious regions. Some didn`t want anyone to know that they masturbated, god forbid. So they just wouldn`t do it. These people that want children enough to go to a sperm bank will be wonderful parents. They really want children that badly, they`re going to love them more than any other parent could. And it`s a good thing to help those families. If I was the only person I knew that would do it, I should do it.

SYLER: So this was two-fold. You were doing it for extra money and doing it to help people.

WHITEHURST: Yes, that`s definitely true.

SYLER: Did you ever think there would come a time, a day when a child that resulted from your donation would contact you?

WHITEHURST: I thought that that might happen, just like in the movie we just saw, at the California Cryo bank when the children turn 18, they can contact the Cryo bank. And if the donor agrees, they could give them my information and we could talk. I never expected to meet any kids younger than 18. That was quite a surprise when that happened.

SYLER: And Virginia reached out to you when she was 17 years old. Todd said he wanted to remain anonymous. So what made you think that it was OK to contact him? Were you afraid at what he might say?

PHELPS: I was actually quite afraid. I was not sure how he would react to any kind of contact from me. Because I was actually 14 at the time. So it was quite a surprise, I suppose, for him to get an e-mail from a 14-year-old girl. I hunted him down on Myspace, which was kind of an unorthodox tool. But I thought it was quite an opportunity to just find someone who was obviously biologically related and just to get some more medical information. Because I`d only found out information from him by the time that I had gotten born and maybe a little updates after that. But we didn`t know anything that had happened for the 14 years after that. It was kind of an important way to learn more about my biological roots. It wasn`t any kind of yearning desire of mine to find some other half of my identity. I hear a lot of donor-conceived children are similar to that, if that they would really like to find their other parent and just learn all of these important facts about their past, but I really didn`t feel that way. I felt like it was more of an opportunity for me to learn a little bit about you know, my biological history but not really to find another parent.

SYLER: You didn`t feel incomplete then is what you`re trying to say.

PHELPS: No, it has to do with the way my mother brought up the subject when I was little. I obviously had some questions. I was one of the only single parent households in my school. And so I felt like I might be a little weird. So I asked my mother, you know, where is my father? And she said, he`s a donor. He is anonymous. You`ll probably never meet him. But a wonderful thing that he did for us, that I was able to have a child. This is really important to me, and you know I`m very grateful. So I always had just an image of him as this kind of benevolent figure who had allowed me to be born and was really no one that I need to hunt down. So I think that was just a great way for her to approach it because I never felt like there was a piece of me missing.

SYLER: Gavin, you met Todd in 2007, -- that`s right?

WHITEHURST: We met Virginia, Gavin and another child, we all met at the same time.

SYLER: Another one of your children?

WHITEHURST: Yes.

SYLER: What was that like for you, Gavin, when you saw Todd, did you go, wow, that`s my dad, he look just like me or I look like him? What was your initial reaction?

GAVIN SCHULER, TODD`S SON: I was kind of reluctant at first to meet him. You want to impress him at the same time but you want to get to know him, of course. So it was definitely a scary situation going into it. And you definitely do have to ease into it over time. So it was a difficult task doing that. The only way you can do that is really to talk and interact with your father and so, you know, over time I`ve known him for about three years now. And I think we definitely made a lot of social progress and we`ve become stereotypical father/son relationship over that time.

SYLER: Really? So you think of him as your father as opposed to your donor biological father? You think of him as a father?

SCHULER: Somewhat, yes. He definitely isn`t a stereo typical father in the way that he takes you hunting and stuff. But he does what he can. He`s a tech geek and I love that.

SYLER: Todd, you have two children from a previous marriage as well.

WHITEHURST: Yes.

SYLER: Do you view the children that you have from that relationship differently than your donor children?

WHITEHURST: I really don`t, actually. I`m divorced, and so I see the children from my previous marriage occasionally. And I see Gavin and I see Virginia occasionally. In fact, the children from my previous marriage were with me over the past couple of weeks and so were Gavin and Virginia. So they all got to know each other.

SYLER: How many children do you think you have biologically speaking?

WHITEHURST: That`s a good question. I donated at the California Cryo bank for four years. And two or three times a week.

SYLER: That`s a lot of donating.

WHITEHURST: So there`s probably a goodly number out there. A few dozen.

SYLER: When did you have time for your studies? No. OK. So there`s quite a number out there, you would say?

WHITEHURST: I would estimate that that`s true, yes.

SYLER: Everybody sit tight. We`ll continue this very interesting conversation in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYLER: We`re back discussing sperm donor children meeting their sibling and their fathers. And I`d like to bring into the conversation now Wendy Kramer who founded a registry called donorsiblingregistry.com. Wendy, your son was the result of a donation, a sperm donation. Tell me why you founded this organization, this website.

WENDY KRAMER, DONER SIBLING REGISTRY: Well, yes, my son, when he was 2 years old, he came to me and basically said, so did my dad die or what? And at that point, we started having the conversation about the sperm and the egg and I wanted a baby and I went to a nice doctor. And then basically after that, every birthday candle that my kid ever blew out was with the wish, I want to know who my biological father is. I thought, you know, we quickly realized there was no way to figure this out. But in my mind I thought, I brought this child into this world with this particular set of circumstances and therefore it was my responsibility to try and help him get the answers he was looking for.

SYLER: And finding the answers that he is looking for, how has that changed his life? He has met his father, right?

KRAMER: Yes, yes. I mean, we started the donor sibling registry thinking well if Ryan`s curious, maybe other people out there might be curious, too. And we wanted to make a place where nobody was tracking anyone down, but we wanted to make a place where people could make themselves available to be found. And that`s basically what we did. And we thought, wow, maybe someday we can help a brother or sister or a father and child find each other. And what ended up happening at this point, we`ve got more than 7,500 people that we`ve been able to connect. And every single day on our website, people are connecting with each other. And my own son has six half-sisters that he knows about, three of them he`s been able to meet. And he`s also met his biological father. And he has two new grandparents, the parents of his biological father.

SYLER: Sperm donation in this country, you feel like it`s outdated in terms of the regulation because people can still donate anonymously. In some European countries, you can`t do that. You feel that`s outdated. And why?

KRAMER: Well, I do. First of all, there`s no oversight. There`s no regulation. So the sperm banking industry basically has very shoddy records. They don`t know how many kids are born to any one donor. You know, Todd or our donors or the donors out there can have more than a hundred kid. And it becomes problematic because they`re not updating medical records, they`re not sharing medical information. And when these donors have 20, 50, 70, 100 kids, it makes them less likely to come forward and meet the kids like Todd did, because it can be overwhelming. Easy when you have five donor kids, but how do you logistically handle 50 donor kids?

SYLER: Yes well it could be much higher, the case in your case, Todd, right?

WHITEHURST: It could be. I`ve heard from six children through the donor sibling registry, but obviously there`s some other children that are out there that probably haven`t reached out to me at this point.

SYLER: Can you still donate? Are you still donating? Is that a personal question?

WHITEHURST: It think through sperm banks, no, the cutoff age in this country is 40 and in European countries is 45.

SYLER: Interesting, an interesting story. Thank you for joining me tonight.

WHITEHURST: Thank you.

SYLER: Thank you at home for tuning in. Have a good night.

END