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Troops View Virtual Battlefield; Major League Baseball Tackles Steroid Use; Interview with Leonardo DiCaprio

Aired December 07, 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.


TONY HARRIS, CO-HOST: Welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is LIVE FROM. I'm Tony Harris, in for Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour.

High tech games to get ready for the real thing. We're going to take inside the amazing virtual battlefield.

And on the field of dreams, Major League players meet to take on the nightmare of a growing steroid scandal.

HARRIS: And also ahead, actor Leonardo DiCaprio joins us live. We'll get the scoop on the challenge of portraying billionaire Howard Hughes. First, here's what's happening "Now in the News."

Members of the House await their chance to vote on the post-9/11 intelligence reforms. Sources say a key house Republican has dropped his opposition, which could lead to House approval by the end of the day. Representative Duncan Hunter received guarantees that battlefield intelligence would flow through military field commanders.

Authorities in Washington are searching for a suspect in connection with a stabbing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The victim is expected to recover after what's being described as a personal altercation between two contract workers.

Officials in Chicago say no one died in that overnight high-rise fire, but 37 people were sent to area hospitals, including 22 firefighters. The blaze burned for more than five hours on the skyscraper's 29th floor.

And President Bush flew today to a military base in California to pay tribute to some of the U.S. marines who led the charge in Iraq and Afghanistan. In his speech at Camp Pendleton, Mr. Bush said the recent U.S. offensive in the Iraqi city Falluja dealt a severe blow to the insurgents.

PHILLIPS: Time now to take the pulse of America. Iraq continues to dominate the headlines and polls. Joining us now from Princeton, New Jersey, Gallup Editor-in-Chief, Frank Newport.

Frank, President Bush hosted Iraq's interim president at the White House on Monday. Both pledged to move ahead with elections next month. So, do Americans believe Iraqis will accept those elections? FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP: Well, mixed feelings on the part of the American public generally speaking as we review what data we have on Iraq, particularly given that there was a leaked memo, as you may have seen, saying that the CIA officials may be less positive than others. In fact, the American public is probably less somewhat less positive than we heard the president say in that White House meeting.

Here's a question that we've asked recently: will Iraq accept the election outcome as legitimate? You can see some concern on the part of the average American, less than half, just forty-two percent say yes, they think they will. Now, that doesn't mean that Americans are soured on the entire involvement of the U.S. in Iraq. In fact, the latest poll we have from the Associated Press, which was released last week, showed seventy-one percent of Americans, that's a substantial majority, say yes, troops should be kept in Iraq and until the situation there has been stabilized -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now turning to one of Gallup's long traditions, you just completed your annual poll on which professions get the most respect from Americans. You got to give us the details there.

NEWPORT: Oh, indeed. This is something we've been doing for many decades now. We give Americans a long list and for each one, simply say would you rate their ethical standards as high or low? And I've presented for you here the top five.

Good news for nurses. And I'm very positive about nurses personally, so I'm happy to say they're number one on list. Seventy- nine percent of Americans say that nurses have very high or high ethical standards, and that's the top dog position. So congratulations to nurses. A couple of other members of the medical profession in the top five, pharmacists and doctors. Also, grade school teachers and military officers.

If there's a top five, Kyra, there has to be a bottom five. So here it is. These are the lowest on the list. Business executives, only twenty percent of Americans say they had very high or high ethical standards. Unfortunately, Congressmen, only twenty. To me, that's not good news at all. Congressmen, after all, are our elected representatives, delegated by us represent us, and only twenty percent of Americans have a high feeling about their ethical standards.

Lawyers, not a surprise, they're usually down there, advertisers and at the bottom of the list, car salesman. They usually bring up the bottom and again this year. Lowest ethical standards perceived by the public of any of the ones we tested.

PHILLIPS: All right, I don't see Congresswomen and I don't see journalists, so we'll move on. I also don't see baseball players on that list, but last week's disclosures of steroids use must have a lot of people questioning their ethics.

NEWPORT: Indeed, that's right. The revelation in "The San Francisco Chronicle" that Barry Bonds may have taken a substance that he didn't know was steroids, but he took it anyhow, won't come as a great shock to baseball fans.

Here's the question we asked earlier this year: do you believe Barry Bonds took steroids? And this was before these revelations, two-thirds of baseball fans say yes. All of our data, Kyra, show that the American baseball fans are already pretty concerned and cynical about use of these enhancement substances by Major League baseball players.

PHILLIPS: All right, Frank Newport, thanks so much -- Tony.

HARRIS: Well, as you might expect, the steroid scandal is a hot topic at the baseball players union executive board meeting in Phoenix. CNN's Matt Morris (sic) has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORRISON (voice-over): Amid a major credibility crisis, the subject of steroid use is issue number one at the baseball players union executive board meetings in Arizona.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I hope that they will come out of that meeting with an agreement to act with the baseball owners. The owners have to sit down and negotiate, as well because the owners did not negotiate a strong agreement last time. So they bear responsibility for this, as well.

MORRISON: Senator McCain said if the owners and players union don't make strides to change the steroid policy, he'll introduce legislation in January to instigate government involvement. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig responded with a statement saying he would prefer to resolve the problem directly with the players association and jointly implement a much stronger drug-testing policy, going on to say "If we can not resolve this issue privately, I gladly will accept whatever help is offered by Senator McCain to achieve our ultimate goal."

MCCAIN: The fact is that it's a growing belief on the part of high school athletes that the only way they can make it the big leagues is to take, ingest these performance-enhancing drugs into their bodies, which is incredibly damaging. That's really the problem here.

MORRISON: The baseball players union, under the direction of Don Fehr, is considered the strongest union in sports, with a collective bargaining agreement that runs through 2006. If the executive board doesn't agree to readjust its steroid policy, the future of baseball carries a question mark.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORRISON: Senator McCain has indicated he'll be here in his home state this week with plans on meeting with union chief Donald Fehr, perhaps to underscore the seriousness of government involvement. Matt Morrison, CNN, Phoenix.

HARRIS: Does the steroid scandal make you mad as a fan? We'll take that up with a couple of sports radio talk show hosts. Stick around for that.

PHILLIPS: And from the king of the world to "The Aviator," Leonardo DiCaprio is about to storm the box office again. He's our guest, live from L.A. next.

HARRIS: War games for U.S. troops. See how realistic the new battlefield simulations are.

PHILLIPS: And paper or plastic? We're talking about how you pay your bills. For some, it's a no-brainer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Howard Hughes, eccentric, genius, mysterious, mad man. Now Leonardo DiCaprio gets to be all the above. "The Aviator" is about to take off around the country and the buzz in Hollywood is that the movie about the life and loves of a young Howard Hughes is Oscar material. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the aviation pioneer and tycoon who loved to fly above the clouds. He joins us live from L.A. to talk about the high of playing that role. Hi, Leo.

LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR: Hi. How are you?

PHILLIPS: Good, I'm dying to know, did you dig Howard Hughes? Can you relate to him? Do you have a lot in common with this character?

DICAPRIO: I don't know about a lot in common, but certainly I respect a lot of things about the man. I -- he was his own boss, very anti-government control. You know, he's a fascinating character. He was America's first billionaire. He was in the golden era of aviation and Hollywood and had such an exciting point in our country. And you get to watch this man grow up as our country grew up and develop into what it is now. And but, it's almost like a great Greek tragedy in a lot of ways to watch his mental descent because of obsessive compulsive disorder. I get that question a lot, how do I relate to Howard Hughes. I'm hard pressed to find a way I would sure like to be able to finance my own movies and go on for four years making them.

PHILLIPS: The route you're going, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. Of course, you get to work with one of your favorite directors, Martin Scorsese. You love this guy. I know that.

DICAPRIO: I sure do, as do many other people. He's -- the greatest living filmmaker. I'm getting to work with this man. As a young actor, it's an unbelievable experience, and not only just for the fact that you know, I get to work with him and have that encounter with him, but the fact that every time you interact with this man, you learn something new about cinema and ultimately the world. He's a film historian, and it's like he's like my college professor in a lot of ways of film.

PHILLIPS: Such a throwback, this film. You probably learned a lot about flying. Did you get to do any of your own flying? Did you want to? That must have been a blast.

DICAPRIO: I still have no desire to fly. I'm not going to be a pilot at any time during my life.

PHILLIPS: Did you get sick in a simulator.

DICAPRIO: I did. It was a lot of simulation work in this film, a lot of flipping around and flying around. I never went up in one of these planes. Quite understandably, insurance company said no. Can't fly around an antique World War II plane a couple weeks before filming which I understand.

PHILLIPS: You could understand.

DICAPRIO: I can understand that, and after learning about Howard Hughes' crashes and here he was, America's first billionaire, this man that operated this empire in America and he was constantly crashing his planes. He was his own test pilot, a true pioneer. And a daring individual, but I don't have that same desire whatsoever.

PHILLIPS: Speaking of daring individual aside from your big role in this film, I understand the most successful one was on "Romper Room" when you were three or five. Is that right?

DICAPRIO: Are you showing footage that have right now?

PHILLIPS: Actually, I tried to find footage. I'm going to fake it. I see Leo. Did you really...

DICAPRIO: You would be hard pressed to find it, my friend.

PHILLIPS: I don't know. I'm going to call one of your relatives. I know it's somewhere.

DICAPRIO: I know those tricks. It's locked away in a vault and you'll never find it.

PHILLIPS: Yeah, right at UCLA. Did you really get booted off "Romper Room" because you were kind of misbehaving a little bit?

DICAPRIO: Yes, I saw the camera and I was kind of dancing around in front of it and what not and wanted the camera to focus on me. And they kicked me off because I wouldn't sit and listen to the story.

PHILLIPS: That's not happening anymore. And your mom, is this true? She named you Leonardo because she was looking at a Da Vinci Painting in Italy and you gave her a little kick and she thought, OK, that's it.

DICAPRIO: I didn't remember that because I was in the womb but so the story goes, yes.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Leo, thanks a lot. I hope you don't mind I call you Leo because we're so close now.

DICAPRIO: It's all good.

PHILLIPS: The film is "The Aviator." We'll be watching. We can't wait and I promise you next time we talk, I will have that "Romper Room" film, I promise.

DICAPRIO: You'll never find it. Never, never.

PHILLIPS: Leonardo DiCaprio, thanks for your time today.

DICAPRIO: Thank you.

HARRIS: Does he know who we are?

PHILLIPS: Does he understand we're reporters.

HARRIS: Does he understand the power of...

PHILLIPS: Poor guy. He's got to do all these interviews and answer the same old questions.

HARRIS: You shook him up.

PHILLIPS: Have some fun. He's a neat guy.

HARRIS: The next best thing to being there. U.S. troops get a preview of battlefield conditions before they ship out. Now we can show you too.

PHILLIPS: And more witnesses scheduled today on behalf of Scott Peterson. We'll go live to the courthouse in Redwood City.

HARRIS: And the one time it's OK to throw things on the middle of the ice at a hockey game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: News across America now. Unsolved problem. New test results show America's 15-year-olds are behind kids in other countries when it comes to practical math skills. Out of 29 industrialized nations, U.S. students scored below 20 of them and above only five. Education Secretary Rod Paige calls the problem a blinking warning light.

St. Augustine, Florida, teed off. A woman there faces attempted murder charges for allegedly trying to run down three brothers who bounced a golf ball off her SUV. POlice say the vehicle wasn't damaged and the boys apologized. Nonetheless they say the woman hopped several curbs and tore through landscaping before ramming two of the brothers. One of them is now in critical condition.

California, just reward. A husband and wife who provide funerals for abandoned babies just won the state's $27 million lottery jackpot. Steve Cifelli and his wife Debi say they'll use the money to help fund their Garden of Angels non-profit group and haven't thought what they'll buy for themselves.

HARRIS: A generation of soldiers raised on video games will find the U.S. army's newest training facility for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan familiar and all too real. CNN's Aaron Brown has the story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside the battered room, two American soldiers try to plot the precise trajectory of artillery shells they will soon direct to a target in Baghdad. Then the lights go out, and sniper rounds crackle across the room with eerie accuracy.

STAFF SGT. JARROD FRANK, U.S. ARMY: I haven't been there. Especially being in this room, just looking around, it is very, very similar to what you're actually going to see when you're on the ground over there.

BROWN: None of it is real, not the ragged room, nor the view out the window. It's all part of a very expensive long-term relationship between video game experts, scientists, special effects wizards and the U.S. army. The idea, of course, is to save lives on the battlefield, lives that are all too genuine.

MAJ. JAMES STRINGER, U.S. ARMY: We really want to make this training as realistic as possible so that -- so that the guys are not facing these type of situations and this environment for the first time in combat.

BROWN: This is the central nervous system of the project. Desktop computers crammed with the latest software to mimic street life in an Iraqi city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hit play. You can see we can -- we've got the bottom view is playing right now. You can hear the students talking over the radio.

BROWN: Each pair of trainees is given a mission, to destroy Iraqi targets before being spotted and killed.

STAFF SGT. CHRISTOPHER ROBERTS, U.S. ARMY: I think this is great. This is the best training I've ever seen in the army. I mean, the props, the whole set, it's the most realistic thing I've seen.

BROWN: For the price the army is paying, it ought to be. So far it's cost around $45 million over five years, most of the money going to a firm called the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California. It's the same group responsible for this: a video game supported by the army called "Full Spectrum Warrior." It's proven to be one of the most popular games on the Internet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ranger 267, offset right. Six nautical miles.

BROWN: And the training isn't confined to urban warfare. These soldiers look as if they're in an Afghan desert calling in an air strike. But this is a set, as well, complete with a humvee and laser- sighting scope. Ultimately, all kinds of scenarios will be possible.

STRINGER: This facility that we're in right now is actually a prototype, kind of a proof of the concept, and what we're ultimately hoping to do is build a much larger, more capable facility, create a series of configurable bays that we can simulate any portion of the world that need.

BROWN: The military says all this will ultimately save money. No need to conduct as many live fire tests with real ammunition over and over again. To make reality at least a little less daunting.

FRANK: I'm not saying soldiers are going to feel a sense of safety when they're on the ground over there, but as much realistic training as you can get here in the United States when you get over there, it's going to be that much more valuable.

` BROWN: Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: So, are paper checks a thing of the past? Americans are showing a clear preference for plastic when it comes to making payments. Rhonda Schaffler joins us from the New York Stock Exchange with details.

RHONDA SCHAFFLER: Hi, Tony. It looks like plastic has now overtaken paper as our favorite method to pay for things. According to the Federal Reserve, the number of electronic payments which include both credit card and debit cards, topped 44 billion last year. The number of checks written declined to less than 37 billion.

The Fed also said it expects the trend to continue. Among electronic payments, Americans show their preference for charging it. The value of credit card payments was about $1.7 trillion, nearly three times the value of debit card payments -- Tony.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, we've been telling you today about a CIA cable from the station chief in Iraq, talking about the security situation there. Just ahead, what is a CIA station chief and why is this memo so important?

HARRIS: And the steroid scandal in Major League baseball. Will it rock fans' faith or not matter come spring training? We'll talk about that when LIVE FROM rounds the bases right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired December 7, 2004 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CO-HOST: Welcome back. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is LIVE FROM. I'm Tony Harris, in for Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's what's all new this half hour.

High tech games to get ready for the real thing. We're going to take inside the amazing virtual battlefield.

And on the field of dreams, Major League players meet to take on the nightmare of a growing steroid scandal.

HARRIS: And also ahead, actor Leonardo DiCaprio joins us live. We'll get the scoop on the challenge of portraying billionaire Howard Hughes. First, here's what's happening "Now in the News."

Members of the House await their chance to vote on the post-9/11 intelligence reforms. Sources say a key house Republican has dropped his opposition, which could lead to House approval by the end of the day. Representative Duncan Hunter received guarantees that battlefield intelligence would flow through military field commanders.

Authorities in Washington are searching for a suspect in connection with a stabbing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The victim is expected to recover after what's being described as a personal altercation between two contract workers.

Officials in Chicago say no one died in that overnight high-rise fire, but 37 people were sent to area hospitals, including 22 firefighters. The blaze burned for more than five hours on the skyscraper's 29th floor.

And President Bush flew today to a military base in California to pay tribute to some of the U.S. marines who led the charge in Iraq and Afghanistan. In his speech at Camp Pendleton, Mr. Bush said the recent U.S. offensive in the Iraqi city Falluja dealt a severe blow to the insurgents.

PHILLIPS: Time now to take the pulse of America. Iraq continues to dominate the headlines and polls. Joining us now from Princeton, New Jersey, Gallup Editor-in-Chief, Frank Newport.

Frank, President Bush hosted Iraq's interim president at the White House on Monday. Both pledged to move ahead with elections next month. So, do Americans believe Iraqis will accept those elections? FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP: Well, mixed feelings on the part of the American public generally speaking as we review what data we have on Iraq, particularly given that there was a leaked memo, as you may have seen, saying that the CIA officials may be less positive than others. In fact, the American public is probably less somewhat less positive than we heard the president say in that White House meeting.

Here's a question that we've asked recently: will Iraq accept the election outcome as legitimate? You can see some concern on the part of the average American, less than half, just forty-two percent say yes, they think they will. Now, that doesn't mean that Americans are soured on the entire involvement of the U.S. in Iraq. In fact, the latest poll we have from the Associated Press, which was released last week, showed seventy-one percent of Americans, that's a substantial majority, say yes, troops should be kept in Iraq and until the situation there has been stabilized -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now turning to one of Gallup's long traditions, you just completed your annual poll on which professions get the most respect from Americans. You got to give us the details there.

NEWPORT: Oh, indeed. This is something we've been doing for many decades now. We give Americans a long list and for each one, simply say would you rate their ethical standards as high or low? And I've presented for you here the top five.

Good news for nurses. And I'm very positive about nurses personally, so I'm happy to say they're number one on list. Seventy- nine percent of Americans say that nurses have very high or high ethical standards, and that's the top dog position. So congratulations to nurses. A couple of other members of the medical profession in the top five, pharmacists and doctors. Also, grade school teachers and military officers.

If there's a top five, Kyra, there has to be a bottom five. So here it is. These are the lowest on the list. Business executives, only twenty percent of Americans say they had very high or high ethical standards. Unfortunately, Congressmen, only twenty. To me, that's not good news at all. Congressmen, after all, are our elected representatives, delegated by us represent us, and only twenty percent of Americans have a high feeling about their ethical standards.

Lawyers, not a surprise, they're usually down there, advertisers and at the bottom of the list, car salesman. They usually bring up the bottom and again this year. Lowest ethical standards perceived by the public of any of the ones we tested.

PHILLIPS: All right, I don't see Congresswomen and I don't see journalists, so we'll move on. I also don't see baseball players on that list, but last week's disclosures of steroids use must have a lot of people questioning their ethics.

NEWPORT: Indeed, that's right. The revelation in "The San Francisco Chronicle" that Barry Bonds may have taken a substance that he didn't know was steroids, but he took it anyhow, won't come as a great shock to baseball fans.

Here's the question we asked earlier this year: do you believe Barry Bonds took steroids? And this was before these revelations, two-thirds of baseball fans say yes. All of our data, Kyra, show that the American baseball fans are already pretty concerned and cynical about use of these enhancement substances by Major League baseball players.

PHILLIPS: All right, Frank Newport, thanks so much -- Tony.

HARRIS: Well, as you might expect, the steroid scandal is a hot topic at the baseball players union executive board meeting in Phoenix. CNN's Matt Morris (sic) has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORRISON (voice-over): Amid a major credibility crisis, the subject of steroid use is issue number one at the baseball players union executive board meetings in Arizona.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I hope that they will come out of that meeting with an agreement to act with the baseball owners. The owners have to sit down and negotiate, as well because the owners did not negotiate a strong agreement last time. So they bear responsibility for this, as well.

MORRISON: Senator McCain said if the owners and players union don't make strides to change the steroid policy, he'll introduce legislation in January to instigate government involvement. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig responded with a statement saying he would prefer to resolve the problem directly with the players association and jointly implement a much stronger drug-testing policy, going on to say "If we can not resolve this issue privately, I gladly will accept whatever help is offered by Senator McCain to achieve our ultimate goal."

MCCAIN: The fact is that it's a growing belief on the part of high school athletes that the only way they can make it the big leagues is to take, ingest these performance-enhancing drugs into their bodies, which is incredibly damaging. That's really the problem here.

MORRISON: The baseball players union, under the direction of Don Fehr, is considered the strongest union in sports, with a collective bargaining agreement that runs through 2006. If the executive board doesn't agree to readjust its steroid policy, the future of baseball carries a question mark.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORRISON: Senator McCain has indicated he'll be here in his home state this week with plans on meeting with union chief Donald Fehr, perhaps to underscore the seriousness of government involvement. Matt Morrison, CNN, Phoenix.

HARRIS: Does the steroid scandal make you mad as a fan? We'll take that up with a couple of sports radio talk show hosts. Stick around for that.

PHILLIPS: And from the king of the world to "The Aviator," Leonardo DiCaprio is about to storm the box office again. He's our guest, live from L.A. next.

HARRIS: War games for U.S. troops. See how realistic the new battlefield simulations are.

PHILLIPS: And paper or plastic? We're talking about how you pay your bills. For some, it's a no-brainer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Howard Hughes, eccentric, genius, mysterious, mad man. Now Leonardo DiCaprio gets to be all the above. "The Aviator" is about to take off around the country and the buzz in Hollywood is that the movie about the life and loves of a young Howard Hughes is Oscar material. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the aviation pioneer and tycoon who loved to fly above the clouds. He joins us live from L.A. to talk about the high of playing that role. Hi, Leo.

LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR: Hi. How are you?

PHILLIPS: Good, I'm dying to know, did you dig Howard Hughes? Can you relate to him? Do you have a lot in common with this character?

DICAPRIO: I don't know about a lot in common, but certainly I respect a lot of things about the man. I -- he was his own boss, very anti-government control. You know, he's a fascinating character. He was America's first billionaire. He was in the golden era of aviation and Hollywood and had such an exciting point in our country. And you get to watch this man grow up as our country grew up and develop into what it is now. And but, it's almost like a great Greek tragedy in a lot of ways to watch his mental descent because of obsessive compulsive disorder. I get that question a lot, how do I relate to Howard Hughes. I'm hard pressed to find a way I would sure like to be able to finance my own movies and go on for four years making them.

PHILLIPS: The route you're going, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. Of course, you get to work with one of your favorite directors, Martin Scorsese. You love this guy. I know that.

DICAPRIO: I sure do, as do many other people. He's -- the greatest living filmmaker. I'm getting to work with this man. As a young actor, it's an unbelievable experience, and not only just for the fact that you know, I get to work with him and have that encounter with him, but the fact that every time you interact with this man, you learn something new about cinema and ultimately the world. He's a film historian, and it's like he's like my college professor in a lot of ways of film.

PHILLIPS: Such a throwback, this film. You probably learned a lot about flying. Did you get to do any of your own flying? Did you want to? That must have been a blast.

DICAPRIO: I still have no desire to fly. I'm not going to be a pilot at any time during my life.

PHILLIPS: Did you get sick in a simulator.

DICAPRIO: I did. It was a lot of simulation work in this film, a lot of flipping around and flying around. I never went up in one of these planes. Quite understandably, insurance company said no. Can't fly around an antique World War II plane a couple weeks before filming which I understand.

PHILLIPS: You could understand.

DICAPRIO: I can understand that, and after learning about Howard Hughes' crashes and here he was, America's first billionaire, this man that operated this empire in America and he was constantly crashing his planes. He was his own test pilot, a true pioneer. And a daring individual, but I don't have that same desire whatsoever.

PHILLIPS: Speaking of daring individual aside from your big role in this film, I understand the most successful one was on "Romper Room" when you were three or five. Is that right?

DICAPRIO: Are you showing footage that have right now?

PHILLIPS: Actually, I tried to find footage. I'm going to fake it. I see Leo. Did you really...

DICAPRIO: You would be hard pressed to find it, my friend.

PHILLIPS: I don't know. I'm going to call one of your relatives. I know it's somewhere.

DICAPRIO: I know those tricks. It's locked away in a vault and you'll never find it.

PHILLIPS: Yeah, right at UCLA. Did you really get booted off "Romper Room" because you were kind of misbehaving a little bit?

DICAPRIO: Yes, I saw the camera and I was kind of dancing around in front of it and what not and wanted the camera to focus on me. And they kicked me off because I wouldn't sit and listen to the story.

PHILLIPS: That's not happening anymore. And your mom, is this true? She named you Leonardo because she was looking at a Da Vinci Painting in Italy and you gave her a little kick and she thought, OK, that's it.

DICAPRIO: I didn't remember that because I was in the womb but so the story goes, yes.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Leo, thanks a lot. I hope you don't mind I call you Leo because we're so close now.

DICAPRIO: It's all good.

PHILLIPS: The film is "The Aviator." We'll be watching. We can't wait and I promise you next time we talk, I will have that "Romper Room" film, I promise.

DICAPRIO: You'll never find it. Never, never.

PHILLIPS: Leonardo DiCaprio, thanks for your time today.

DICAPRIO: Thank you.

HARRIS: Does he know who we are?

PHILLIPS: Does he understand we're reporters.

HARRIS: Does he understand the power of...

PHILLIPS: Poor guy. He's got to do all these interviews and answer the same old questions.

HARRIS: You shook him up.

PHILLIPS: Have some fun. He's a neat guy.

HARRIS: The next best thing to being there. U.S. troops get a preview of battlefield conditions before they ship out. Now we can show you too.

PHILLIPS: And more witnesses scheduled today on behalf of Scott Peterson. We'll go live to the courthouse in Redwood City.

HARRIS: And the one time it's OK to throw things on the middle of the ice at a hockey game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: News across America now. Unsolved problem. New test results show America's 15-year-olds are behind kids in other countries when it comes to practical math skills. Out of 29 industrialized nations, U.S. students scored below 20 of them and above only five. Education Secretary Rod Paige calls the problem a blinking warning light.

St. Augustine, Florida, teed off. A woman there faces attempted murder charges for allegedly trying to run down three brothers who bounced a golf ball off her SUV. POlice say the vehicle wasn't damaged and the boys apologized. Nonetheless they say the woman hopped several curbs and tore through landscaping before ramming two of the brothers. One of them is now in critical condition.

California, just reward. A husband and wife who provide funerals for abandoned babies just won the state's $27 million lottery jackpot. Steve Cifelli and his wife Debi say they'll use the money to help fund their Garden of Angels non-profit group and haven't thought what they'll buy for themselves.

HARRIS: A generation of soldiers raised on video games will find the U.S. army's newest training facility for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan familiar and all too real. CNN's Aaron Brown has the story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside the battered room, two American soldiers try to plot the precise trajectory of artillery shells they will soon direct to a target in Baghdad. Then the lights go out, and sniper rounds crackle across the room with eerie accuracy.

STAFF SGT. JARROD FRANK, U.S. ARMY: I haven't been there. Especially being in this room, just looking around, it is very, very similar to what you're actually going to see when you're on the ground over there.

BROWN: None of it is real, not the ragged room, nor the view out the window. It's all part of a very expensive long-term relationship between video game experts, scientists, special effects wizards and the U.S. army. The idea, of course, is to save lives on the battlefield, lives that are all too genuine.

MAJ. JAMES STRINGER, U.S. ARMY: We really want to make this training as realistic as possible so that -- so that the guys are not facing these type of situations and this environment for the first time in combat.

BROWN: This is the central nervous system of the project. Desktop computers crammed with the latest software to mimic street life in an Iraqi city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hit play. You can see we can -- we've got the bottom view is playing right now. You can hear the students talking over the radio.

BROWN: Each pair of trainees is given a mission, to destroy Iraqi targets before being spotted and killed.

STAFF SGT. CHRISTOPHER ROBERTS, U.S. ARMY: I think this is great. This is the best training I've ever seen in the army. I mean, the props, the whole set, it's the most realistic thing I've seen.

BROWN: For the price the army is paying, it ought to be. So far it's cost around $45 million over five years, most of the money going to a firm called the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California. It's the same group responsible for this: a video game supported by the army called "Full Spectrum Warrior." It's proven to be one of the most popular games on the Internet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ranger 267, offset right. Six nautical miles.

BROWN: And the training isn't confined to urban warfare. These soldiers look as if they're in an Afghan desert calling in an air strike. But this is a set, as well, complete with a humvee and laser- sighting scope. Ultimately, all kinds of scenarios will be possible.

STRINGER: This facility that we're in right now is actually a prototype, kind of a proof of the concept, and what we're ultimately hoping to do is build a much larger, more capable facility, create a series of configurable bays that we can simulate any portion of the world that need.

BROWN: The military says all this will ultimately save money. No need to conduct as many live fire tests with real ammunition over and over again. To make reality at least a little less daunting.

FRANK: I'm not saying soldiers are going to feel a sense of safety when they're on the ground over there, but as much realistic training as you can get here in the United States when you get over there, it's going to be that much more valuable.

` BROWN: Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

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HARRIS: So, are paper checks a thing of the past? Americans are showing a clear preference for plastic when it comes to making payments. Rhonda Schaffler joins us from the New York Stock Exchange with details.

RHONDA SCHAFFLER: Hi, Tony. It looks like plastic has now overtaken paper as our favorite method to pay for things. According to the Federal Reserve, the number of electronic payments which include both credit card and debit cards, topped 44 billion last year. The number of checks written declined to less than 37 billion.

The Fed also said it expects the trend to continue. Among electronic payments, Americans show their preference for charging it. The value of credit card payments was about $1.7 trillion, nearly three times the value of debit card payments -- Tony.

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PHILLIPS: Well, we've been telling you today about a CIA cable from the station chief in Iraq, talking about the security situation there. Just ahead, what is a CIA station chief and why is this memo so important?

HARRIS: And the steroid scandal in Major League baseball. Will it rock fans' faith or not matter come spring training? We'll talk about that when LIVE FROM rounds the bases right after this.

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