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Missing Utah Woman's Husband Caught in Web of Lies; How Much Kerry Bounce from Dem Convention?; Celebrities Try Alternative Therapies

Aired July 23, 2004 - 14:30   ET

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

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


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien. This is LIVE FROM.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour.

Family members of a missing Utah woman say they want to focus on finding her, not the rumors about her husband. A live report straight ahead.

O'BRIEN: To take two aspirin and call me in the morning. The unconventional methods Hollywood stars use to stay healthy. Or so they think.

First, here's what's happening now in the news.

PHILLIPS: Thousands of people were on hand to greet the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan as it arrived in San Diego Bay, its home port. Nancy Reagan, in her first public appearance since her husband's death, was flown out to the carrier.

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry will be kicking off his America's Freedom Trail Tour in Denver, Colorado, in about half an hour. Running mate John Edwards is also there.

Kerry was born in Denver. The tour, which will take him through several swing states, will culminate at the Democratic convention in Boston. He was actually born in Aurora.

And the prosecution's star witness in the Martha Stewart trial will not be going to jail. Douglas Faneuil, who was an assistant to ex-Merrill Lynch broker Peter Bacanovic, was fined $2,000 just a few years ago -- a few hours ago, rather. Faneuil gave Stewart the stock tip that led to her conviction.

Keeping you informed, CNN.

O'BRIEN: A pair of hostage stories to tell you about from Iraq.

The Arabic language network Al Jazeera says the highest-ranking official of the embassy in Baghdad now a hostage. Mohamed Mamdouh Qutb is seen in a video with masked militants, aired just a little while ago on that network.

Also another tape from Al Jazeera to tell you about. It shows seven truck drivers abducted this week in Iraq. A masked man, who appeared on the tape, read another threatening statement.

It set a 48-hour deadline for the driver's employer, the Kuwait and Gulf Transportation Company, to pay compensation to what it called the families of the dead in Fallujah. It also demanded that all Iraqi prisoners be freed from Kuwaiti and American prisons.

The seven hostages hail from Kenya, India and Egypt. Their employer has said it will not meet the kidnappers' earlier demand to cease operations in Iraq.

News round the world now.

The U.S. turns up the heat on Sudan. Congress has passed a resolution declaring the atrocities in the country's western Darfur region genocide. The White House is already threatening sanctions against Sudan if militia attacks in Darfur continue. Between 15,000 and 30,000 civilians killed now in that area.

Turkish authorities say excessive speed caused a train wreck that killed 36 people, injured 81 others. The crash occurred yesterday. Five cars toppled. One woman still missing.

And in London's Hyde Park, water and luck have run out for the Princess Diana fountain. It was built as the first permanent memorial to the late princess. Now authorities have shut it down after several mishaps. In the latest, three people slipped on its stairs and were hospitalized.

PHILLIPS: In Utah, more questions about the husband of that missing woman last seen when she was went for a jog Monday.

Ted Rowlands joins us live from Salt Lake City with the details of that investigation to find her.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, right now, dozens of volunteers that have spent the morning looking for 27-year-old Lori Hacking are getting a little bit of lunch.

But they said they're determined to go out and keep looking today until dusk to see if they can find any sign of this woman who was reported missing on Monday morning by her husband, Mark Hacking.

Earlier this morning, family members came to the volunteer center to hold a joint news conference. Both sides of the family are united in their support for Mark Hacking and in their effort to try to get as many local people out looking for Lori as possible.

This despite the fact that more revelations have surfaced and more things have been confirmed by the Salt Lake City Police Department that seem to point into the direction of Mark Hacking.

Most specifically, police say Hacking bought a brand new mattress on Monday morning, just hours before he called police to report that his wife was missing. Originally, he had told police that he had spent those hours looking for her on the jogging trail. Also, we are hearing from police that they responded on Monday night to a local hotel here in Salt Lake City after they were called by hotel security. When they arrived, Mark Hacking was there. They say that at that point they called in medical help.

And since then, according to the family, he has been going under -- undergoing psychiatric treatment. They say that they support -- despite all the lies that have come out -- that they support Mark Hacking.

Specifically, we're learning more about the lie that Mark Hacking was living, along with his wife and family for the past two years. He has not been enrolled in school at all, but he had been pretending like he was going to school on a daily basis.

In May of this year, the family actually sent out invitations to a graduation party here, and the family was told by Mark Hacking that he had been accepted into medical school in North Carolina.

The depth of those lies, of course, are of concern to the family, but they say they want to focus, not on Mark Hacking, not on what he's been doing the last two years, but on Lori Hacking and where she could be -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ted Rowlands, live from Salt Lake City, thanks -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Still to come on CNN's LIVE FROM, they've jumped into the campaign with their dad. But what will they bring to the table? Maybe a slip of the tongue or two.

Ask them yourself. We'll tell you how to get a word in with the Bush twins. They'll be online tonight.

And looking good and feeling good. Full-time job. So want in on the plush treatment? We'll show you how the stars do it in Hollywood.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, CNN's Election Express bus has a head start on both Kerry and Edwards. The bus is already in Bean Town at Fenway Park. Coincidentally, the Yankees are in town tonight. Talk about some real rivalries.

We could talk about Republicans and Democrats. We're talking Yankees and Red Sox here.

Mr. Carville, Mr. Novak, good to see you both.

ROBERT NOVAK, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Good to see you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's -- and as I said a moment ago, that's not a bad seat for tonight's game. You want a better seat for tonight's game if possible. Right?

JAMES CARVILLE, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Be kind of far out in the outfield. But let's put it this way. It's a heck of a view from here. I guarantee you that.

O'BRIEN: And bring your mitt. You'll catch a few foul balls there.

Let's talk about the poll. We're going to bring up one of the poll numbers here, one of our CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll is out today. And this is an interesting one.

Going back to May 2003, it tracks the feelings of voters whether the Bush administration deliberately misled the public on weapons of mass destruction. Beginning in May of 2003, it's 31 percent; July 2003, 39 percent; January of this year, 43 percent; and now, 45 percent.

Now, those numbers could be flattening out. We don't know for sure yet.

Bob Novak, how concerned should the Bush White House be about those numbers?

NOVAK: I don't think so. I think you can go nuts looking at all these numbers.

The important numbers are that the head-on between Senator Kerry and President Bush, it's been locked at about a deadlock for weeks. Nothing has changed. The -- All of the bad news for Bush has not propelled Kerry into a big lead. And putting Edwards on the ticket didn't give him much of a bounce.

You look at another number, it says that Bush is much better able to handle terrorism. They say he lied to the people. I think you go crazy trying to analyze those numbers.

O'BRIEN: So you're telling me the Bush campaign isn't even looking at these numbers? Come on. They've got to be a little bit nervous.

NOVAK: I don't think -- I don't think that it is a big deal. I think it's a big thing for us, because we've got to have something to talk about. There's nothing else going on here.

So -- but the real number is the fact that the people have not been introduced to Senator Kerry yet. They don't know him very well. I don't know if he's going to jump in front or not. Unlike Mr. Carville, I can't predict the future.

But the answer is that this is a very important convention for the Democrats, because they hope to get the kind of a jump that Bill Clinton got out of it in '92.

O'BRIEN: All right. So let's move it over to the soothsayer, the prognosticator of right field there at Fenway Park.

CARVILLE: Right. Right.

O'BRIEN: James Carville, with those numbers in mind, what should the Kerry campaign be doing that they're not? Because you have the sense that they're not capitalizing on this feeling that people have about being misled.

CARVILLE: Well, I don't know of any challenger running against an incumbent that was able to capitalize anything before their convention. I think what they -- what they need to do is set out a clear marker as to who John Kerry is, what he stands for, what he wants to do for president.

I have every confidence that they'll be able to do that at this convention. I mean, this is the time that each candidate gets to present his -- himself in an sense; and hopefully one day it will be a "herself" -- to the American people.

And it is a big deal that almost half the country feels like the president wasn't straight with them on a reason for going to war.

O'BRIEN: Well, but my question...

CARVILLE: That's what everybody is going to have to deal with.

O'BRIEN: James, my question was, though, the Kerry campaign has not done a very good job of exploiting those numbers. Has it?

CARVILLE: Well, you know, no one -- no one is -- I don't know of a challenger that ever went into his convention in better condition than John Kerry is right now.

I mean in '92, everybody talks about what a big bounce we had. Well, one of the reasons we got a big bounce, we had so far -- such a high bounce we could have. We were so low coming into the convention and people were saying the same thing.

John Kerry has won his nomination easier than any candidate has ever won a contested nomination. He's even gone into his own convention -- that's a staggering good position for any challenger to be in.

O'BRIEN: Careful, because I'm sure Mr. Novak is going to mention the last Massachusetts Democrat who held the nomination, Michael Dukakis...

CARVILLE: He wasn't a challenger running against an incumbent.

O'BRIEN: ... who came out -- who came out with a 17-point bounce. Right? Now Bob Novak, what do you make of all this bounce talk?

NOVAK: Look. What we have right now is a very closely divided country. It was closely divided in 2000. It's closely divided now. It's just about a toss-up. People really have made up their minds.

As I go around the country and talk to people, they'll say, "Gee I don't know how I'm going to vote." The Bush people are going to vote for Bush. Kerry people are going to vote for Kerry. And there's a small undecided vote. How do you get that undecided vote out? Well, what you have to do is a lot of things. I don't think just bashing Bush is going to do it. You're going to have to convince them that John Kerry could be a better president than George Bush, and where he really starts is at this convention this week.

O'BRIEN: All right. Final thoughts, James Carville. Go ahead.

CARVILLE: All he's got to do is stand up there. If the test is he can beat President Bush, he just needs to stand up there and breathe. That would get him past the test that he can be better than Bush.

He's wrecked the service, wrecked the economy, wrecked American foreign policy, wrecked the environment, wrecked the health care system.

But I think he's going to do a lot better than breathe. He's going to show that he can do it.

NOVAK: That's the Carville nastiness approach. And I think -- I think just yelling at Bush...

CARVILLE: Not nasty.

NOVAK: Can I finish? Mind if I talk while you're interrupting?

CARVILLE: Sure. Sure.

NOVAK: I think that the nastiness approach and just this bashing, I think you've got all the people you want, the Deaniacs and the left wing crazies, they're all for Kerry.

What you got to get is those people in the middle who can't -- don't know whether they like Pepsi or Coke.

O'BRIEN: All right.

NOVAK: You're not going to do that by being nasty.

O'BRIEN: All right. We've been talking about...

CARVILLE: I'm not nasty. I just said anybody can do better than this guy is doing.

O'BRIEN: Pepsi, Coke, Republicans and Democrats, Red Sox and Yankees, Carville and Novak, all great rivalries.

CARVILLE: OK.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, gentlemen. Enjoy the game tonight. I'm sure you'll get better seats than that.

CARVILLE: Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN will have complete coverage of the Democratic National Convention for you, of course. Our Wolf Blitzer and Judy Woodruff will begin with a preview on Sunday night at 10 Eastern. Don't miss it.

PHILLIPS: Well, you can talk politics with the Bush twins today. Jenna and Barbara Bush will host an online chat on President Bush's official campaign web site this evening. They plan to focus on the importance of young voters in the November election. The twins are scheduled to be online for one hour beginning at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. That address is GeorgeWBush.com.

Are you getting the most out of your rubdowns? Still to come, massages. Heated stones. Crystals. Oh, are you relaxed yet? We'll show you how do it Hollywood style.

Listen up, Miles. High-tech gadgets getting cheaper. Coming up later we're going to show you the products that are getting the markdowns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Looking to cure some aches and pains? Well, a growing number of celebrities are seeking remedies outside traditional medicine. But is that the perfect prescription for you?

CNN's Adaora Udoji reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Looking good, feeling good. A full-time job for celebrities. Their passions for alternative therapies like the mysterious red circles on Gwyneth Paltrow's back, curiosities.

Paltrow was seeking pain relief from cupping, an ancient form of acupuncture said to heal.

J. Lo and Courtney Cox have been given possession protectors, made of stones meant to maintain good spirits.

At Susan Simonelli's (ph) upscale New York City salon, she offers crystal therapy. Eighteen years ago, a skeptic until she found they helped her painful skin condition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crystals vibrate. They have a frequency. And we can't see it. The human eye is not trained to see that, but they actually have a frequency that resonates with your body's own natural frequency.

UDOJI: Richard Gere and Sharon Stone are said to believe.

For Britney spears, demands of the stage reportedly call for volcanic rock therapy or hot stone massage.

Celebrity or not, a National Institutes for Health survey found 36 percent of Americans use alternative therapies. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that people in general are drawn to a more holistic approach. And if they don't have to pop an aspirin or they can do something else that feels more natural.

UDOJI: There are few scientific studies on whether they work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sting is supposedly a body treatment junkie.

UDOJI: But many therapies like Reiki at Equinox (ph) have thrived for centuries, even if the famous are just discovering them now.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That proves -- That proves my point about whether you have to be smart to be a star in Hollywood.

PHILLIPS: Here. I've got -- I've got some crystals right here. Put those on your chest.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Oh, gosh, do you feel bad now having taken them off?

PHILLIPS: Yes. Bad energy.

O'BRIEN: You better put them back on quickly.

All right. Electronics. I've been spying iPods for quite awhile now.

PHILLIPS: Imagine that.

O'BRIEN: I've been doing a lot of looking, haven't been doing a lot of buying. But then the price went down, just like that. I think there's something going on.

Darby Mullany will fill us in on that. Hello.

(MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: All right, Darby, thank you very much.

We're not finished with our many takes on what is happening on the campaign trail. Facets of a diamond, you might call it.

PHILLIPS: Still to come in our final half hour of LIVE FROM, funny man -- well, take a guess. Guess who's talking about political nonsense.

O'BRIEN: Bill Maher.

PHILLIPS: Imagine that. Plus, what do you get when you mix voter registration with "Fahrenheit 9/11"? It's a concoction for some American Democrats living in Japan. We're going to serve you up the results.

O'BRIEN: And two hands and two feet not enough to get the upcoming item cranked up. Imagine, if will you, a bicycle built for seven. We'll just leave it at that.

PHILLIPS: Visualize it.

O'BRIEN: Why show it?

PHILLIPS: There you go.

O'BRIEN: Because this conjures up some kind of vision in your head and will make you want to stay with us as we roll some commercials.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Now in the news, an Egyptian diplomat has been taken hostage in Iraq. The captive is the third highest official in the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad. This videotape aired on the Arab TV network Al Jazeera. A group calling itself the Line of God Brigade says that he was taken because Egypt offered to help Iraq with security matters.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired July 23, 2004 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien. This is LIVE FROM.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour.

Family members of a missing Utah woman say they want to focus on finding her, not the rumors about her husband. A live report straight ahead.

O'BRIEN: To take two aspirin and call me in the morning. The unconventional methods Hollywood stars use to stay healthy. Or so they think.

First, here's what's happening now in the news.

PHILLIPS: Thousands of people were on hand to greet the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan as it arrived in San Diego Bay, its home port. Nancy Reagan, in her first public appearance since her husband's death, was flown out to the carrier.

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry will be kicking off his America's Freedom Trail Tour in Denver, Colorado, in about half an hour. Running mate John Edwards is also there.

Kerry was born in Denver. The tour, which will take him through several swing states, will culminate at the Democratic convention in Boston. He was actually born in Aurora.

And the prosecution's star witness in the Martha Stewart trial will not be going to jail. Douglas Faneuil, who was an assistant to ex-Merrill Lynch broker Peter Bacanovic, was fined $2,000 just a few years ago -- a few hours ago, rather. Faneuil gave Stewart the stock tip that led to her conviction.

Keeping you informed, CNN.

O'BRIEN: A pair of hostage stories to tell you about from Iraq.

The Arabic language network Al Jazeera says the highest-ranking official of the embassy in Baghdad now a hostage. Mohamed Mamdouh Qutb is seen in a video with masked militants, aired just a little while ago on that network.

Also another tape from Al Jazeera to tell you about. It shows seven truck drivers abducted this week in Iraq. A masked man, who appeared on the tape, read another threatening statement.

It set a 48-hour deadline for the driver's employer, the Kuwait and Gulf Transportation Company, to pay compensation to what it called the families of the dead in Fallujah. It also demanded that all Iraqi prisoners be freed from Kuwaiti and American prisons.

The seven hostages hail from Kenya, India and Egypt. Their employer has said it will not meet the kidnappers' earlier demand to cease operations in Iraq.

News round the world now.

The U.S. turns up the heat on Sudan. Congress has passed a resolution declaring the atrocities in the country's western Darfur region genocide. The White House is already threatening sanctions against Sudan if militia attacks in Darfur continue. Between 15,000 and 30,000 civilians killed now in that area.

Turkish authorities say excessive speed caused a train wreck that killed 36 people, injured 81 others. The crash occurred yesterday. Five cars toppled. One woman still missing.

And in London's Hyde Park, water and luck have run out for the Princess Diana fountain. It was built as the first permanent memorial to the late princess. Now authorities have shut it down after several mishaps. In the latest, three people slipped on its stairs and were hospitalized.

PHILLIPS: In Utah, more questions about the husband of that missing woman last seen when she was went for a jog Monday.

Ted Rowlands joins us live from Salt Lake City with the details of that investigation to find her.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, right now, dozens of volunteers that have spent the morning looking for 27-year-old Lori Hacking are getting a little bit of lunch.

But they said they're determined to go out and keep looking today until dusk to see if they can find any sign of this woman who was reported missing on Monday morning by her husband, Mark Hacking.

Earlier this morning, family members came to the volunteer center to hold a joint news conference. Both sides of the family are united in their support for Mark Hacking and in their effort to try to get as many local people out looking for Lori as possible.

This despite the fact that more revelations have surfaced and more things have been confirmed by the Salt Lake City Police Department that seem to point into the direction of Mark Hacking.

Most specifically, police say Hacking bought a brand new mattress on Monday morning, just hours before he called police to report that his wife was missing. Originally, he had told police that he had spent those hours looking for her on the jogging trail. Also, we are hearing from police that they responded on Monday night to a local hotel here in Salt Lake City after they were called by hotel security. When they arrived, Mark Hacking was there. They say that at that point they called in medical help.

And since then, according to the family, he has been going under -- undergoing psychiatric treatment. They say that they support -- despite all the lies that have come out -- that they support Mark Hacking.

Specifically, we're learning more about the lie that Mark Hacking was living, along with his wife and family for the past two years. He has not been enrolled in school at all, but he had been pretending like he was going to school on a daily basis.

In May of this year, the family actually sent out invitations to a graduation party here, and the family was told by Mark Hacking that he had been accepted into medical school in North Carolina.

The depth of those lies, of course, are of concern to the family, but they say they want to focus, not on Mark Hacking, not on what he's been doing the last two years, but on Lori Hacking and where she could be -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ted Rowlands, live from Salt Lake City, thanks -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Still to come on CNN's LIVE FROM, they've jumped into the campaign with their dad. But what will they bring to the table? Maybe a slip of the tongue or two.

Ask them yourself. We'll tell you how to get a word in with the Bush twins. They'll be online tonight.

And looking good and feeling good. Full-time job. So want in on the plush treatment? We'll show you how the stars do it in Hollywood.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Well, CNN's Election Express bus has a head start on both Kerry and Edwards. The bus is already in Bean Town at Fenway Park. Coincidentally, the Yankees are in town tonight. Talk about some real rivalries.

We could talk about Republicans and Democrats. We're talking Yankees and Red Sox here.

Mr. Carville, Mr. Novak, good to see you both.

ROBERT NOVAK, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Good to see you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's -- and as I said a moment ago, that's not a bad seat for tonight's game. You want a better seat for tonight's game if possible. Right?

JAMES CARVILLE, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Be kind of far out in the outfield. But let's put it this way. It's a heck of a view from here. I guarantee you that.

O'BRIEN: And bring your mitt. You'll catch a few foul balls there.

Let's talk about the poll. We're going to bring up one of the poll numbers here, one of our CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll is out today. And this is an interesting one.

Going back to May 2003, it tracks the feelings of voters whether the Bush administration deliberately misled the public on weapons of mass destruction. Beginning in May of 2003, it's 31 percent; July 2003, 39 percent; January of this year, 43 percent; and now, 45 percent.

Now, those numbers could be flattening out. We don't know for sure yet.

Bob Novak, how concerned should the Bush White House be about those numbers?

NOVAK: I don't think so. I think you can go nuts looking at all these numbers.

The important numbers are that the head-on between Senator Kerry and President Bush, it's been locked at about a deadlock for weeks. Nothing has changed. The -- All of the bad news for Bush has not propelled Kerry into a big lead. And putting Edwards on the ticket didn't give him much of a bounce.

You look at another number, it says that Bush is much better able to handle terrorism. They say he lied to the people. I think you go crazy trying to analyze those numbers.

O'BRIEN: So you're telling me the Bush campaign isn't even looking at these numbers? Come on. They've got to be a little bit nervous.

NOVAK: I don't think -- I don't think that it is a big deal. I think it's a big thing for us, because we've got to have something to talk about. There's nothing else going on here.

So -- but the real number is the fact that the people have not been introduced to Senator Kerry yet. They don't know him very well. I don't know if he's going to jump in front or not. Unlike Mr. Carville, I can't predict the future.

But the answer is that this is a very important convention for the Democrats, because they hope to get the kind of a jump that Bill Clinton got out of it in '92.

O'BRIEN: All right. So let's move it over to the soothsayer, the prognosticator of right field there at Fenway Park.

CARVILLE: Right. Right.

O'BRIEN: James Carville, with those numbers in mind, what should the Kerry campaign be doing that they're not? Because you have the sense that they're not capitalizing on this feeling that people have about being misled.

CARVILLE: Well, I don't know of any challenger running against an incumbent that was able to capitalize anything before their convention. I think what they -- what they need to do is set out a clear marker as to who John Kerry is, what he stands for, what he wants to do for president.

I have every confidence that they'll be able to do that at this convention. I mean, this is the time that each candidate gets to present his -- himself in an sense; and hopefully one day it will be a "herself" -- to the American people.

And it is a big deal that almost half the country feels like the president wasn't straight with them on a reason for going to war.

O'BRIEN: Well, but my question...

CARVILLE: That's what everybody is going to have to deal with.

O'BRIEN: James, my question was, though, the Kerry campaign has not done a very good job of exploiting those numbers. Has it?

CARVILLE: Well, you know, no one -- no one is -- I don't know of a challenger that ever went into his convention in better condition than John Kerry is right now.

I mean in '92, everybody talks about what a big bounce we had. Well, one of the reasons we got a big bounce, we had so far -- such a high bounce we could have. We were so low coming into the convention and people were saying the same thing.

John Kerry has won his nomination easier than any candidate has ever won a contested nomination. He's even gone into his own convention -- that's a staggering good position for any challenger to be in.

O'BRIEN: Careful, because I'm sure Mr. Novak is going to mention the last Massachusetts Democrat who held the nomination, Michael Dukakis...

CARVILLE: He wasn't a challenger running against an incumbent.

O'BRIEN: ... who came out -- who came out with a 17-point bounce. Right? Now Bob Novak, what do you make of all this bounce talk?

NOVAK: Look. What we have right now is a very closely divided country. It was closely divided in 2000. It's closely divided now. It's just about a toss-up. People really have made up their minds.

As I go around the country and talk to people, they'll say, "Gee I don't know how I'm going to vote." The Bush people are going to vote for Bush. Kerry people are going to vote for Kerry. And there's a small undecided vote. How do you get that undecided vote out? Well, what you have to do is a lot of things. I don't think just bashing Bush is going to do it. You're going to have to convince them that John Kerry could be a better president than George Bush, and where he really starts is at this convention this week.

O'BRIEN: All right. Final thoughts, James Carville. Go ahead.

CARVILLE: All he's got to do is stand up there. If the test is he can beat President Bush, he just needs to stand up there and breathe. That would get him past the test that he can be better than Bush.

He's wrecked the service, wrecked the economy, wrecked American foreign policy, wrecked the environment, wrecked the health care system.

But I think he's going to do a lot better than breathe. He's going to show that he can do it.

NOVAK: That's the Carville nastiness approach. And I think -- I think just yelling at Bush...

CARVILLE: Not nasty.

NOVAK: Can I finish? Mind if I talk while you're interrupting?

CARVILLE: Sure. Sure.

NOVAK: I think that the nastiness approach and just this bashing, I think you've got all the people you want, the Deaniacs and the left wing crazies, they're all for Kerry.

What you got to get is those people in the middle who can't -- don't know whether they like Pepsi or Coke.

O'BRIEN: All right.

NOVAK: You're not going to do that by being nasty.

O'BRIEN: All right. We've been talking about...

CARVILLE: I'm not nasty. I just said anybody can do better than this guy is doing.

O'BRIEN: Pepsi, Coke, Republicans and Democrats, Red Sox and Yankees, Carville and Novak, all great rivalries.

CARVILLE: OK.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, gentlemen. Enjoy the game tonight. I'm sure you'll get better seats than that.

CARVILLE: Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN will have complete coverage of the Democratic National Convention for you, of course. Our Wolf Blitzer and Judy Woodruff will begin with a preview on Sunday night at 10 Eastern. Don't miss it.

PHILLIPS: Well, you can talk politics with the Bush twins today. Jenna and Barbara Bush will host an online chat on President Bush's official campaign web site this evening. They plan to focus on the importance of young voters in the November election. The twins are scheduled to be online for one hour beginning at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. That address is GeorgeWBush.com.

Are you getting the most out of your rubdowns? Still to come, massages. Heated stones. Crystals. Oh, are you relaxed yet? We'll show you how do it Hollywood style.

Listen up, Miles. High-tech gadgets getting cheaper. Coming up later we're going to show you the products that are getting the markdowns.

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PHILLIPS: Looking to cure some aches and pains? Well, a growing number of celebrities are seeking remedies outside traditional medicine. But is that the perfect prescription for you?

CNN's Adaora Udoji reports.

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ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Looking good, feeling good. A full-time job for celebrities. Their passions for alternative therapies like the mysterious red circles on Gwyneth Paltrow's back, curiosities.

Paltrow was seeking pain relief from cupping, an ancient form of acupuncture said to heal.

J. Lo and Courtney Cox have been given possession protectors, made of stones meant to maintain good spirits.

At Susan Simonelli's (ph) upscale New York City salon, she offers crystal therapy. Eighteen years ago, a skeptic until she found they helped her painful skin condition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crystals vibrate. They have a frequency. And we can't see it. The human eye is not trained to see that, but they actually have a frequency that resonates with your body's own natural frequency.

UDOJI: Richard Gere and Sharon Stone are said to believe.

For Britney spears, demands of the stage reportedly call for volcanic rock therapy or hot stone massage.

Celebrity or not, a National Institutes for Health survey found 36 percent of Americans use alternative therapies. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that people in general are drawn to a more holistic approach. And if they don't have to pop an aspirin or they can do something else that feels more natural.

UDOJI: There are few scientific studies on whether they work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sting is supposedly a body treatment junkie.

UDOJI: But many therapies like Reiki at Equinox (ph) have thrived for centuries, even if the famous are just discovering them now.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

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O'BRIEN: That proves -- That proves my point about whether you have to be smart to be a star in Hollywood.

PHILLIPS: Here. I've got -- I've got some crystals right here. Put those on your chest.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Oh, gosh, do you feel bad now having taken them off?

PHILLIPS: Yes. Bad energy.

O'BRIEN: You better put them back on quickly.

All right. Electronics. I've been spying iPods for quite awhile now.

PHILLIPS: Imagine that.

O'BRIEN: I've been doing a lot of looking, haven't been doing a lot of buying. But then the price went down, just like that. I think there's something going on.

Darby Mullany will fill us in on that. Hello.

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O'BRIEN: All right, Darby, thank you very much.

We're not finished with our many takes on what is happening on the campaign trail. Facets of a diamond, you might call it.

PHILLIPS: Still to come in our final half hour of LIVE FROM, funny man -- well, take a guess. Guess who's talking about political nonsense.

O'BRIEN: Bill Maher.

PHILLIPS: Imagine that. Plus, what do you get when you mix voter registration with "Fahrenheit 9/11"? It's a concoction for some American Democrats living in Japan. We're going to serve you up the results.

O'BRIEN: And two hands and two feet not enough to get the upcoming item cranked up. Imagine, if will you, a bicycle built for seven. We'll just leave it at that.

PHILLIPS: Visualize it.

O'BRIEN: Why show it?

PHILLIPS: There you go.

O'BRIEN: Because this conjures up some kind of vision in your head and will make you want to stay with us as we roll some commercials.

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PHILLIPS: Now in the news, an Egyptian diplomat has been taken hostage in Iraq. The captive is the third highest official in the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad. This videotape aired on the Arab TV network Al Jazeera. A group calling itself the Line of God Brigade says that he was taken because Egypt offered to help Iraq with security matters.

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