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Jury Deliberates Peterson's Fate; Deputy Secretary of Treasury to Take Over for Abraham at Energy Department

Aired December 10, 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, CNN ANCHOR: A jury deliberates the fate of convicted killer Scott Peterson this hour in Redwood City, California. It's the second day of deliberations in the penalty phase. Peterson faces the death penalty or life in prison for the murders of his wife and unborn son.
Restocking the cabinet. President Bush names his pick for energy secretary. He nominated Samuel Bodman to replace the outgoing Spencer Abraham. Bodman is the current deputy secretary of treasury. During the announcement, President Bush also vowed to reduce U.S. dependence on international energy sources.

A court-martial in the prisoner abuse scandal is being moved. The trial of PFC Lynndie England will be held at Ft. Hood, Texas instead of Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. The Army says it is consolidating the cases stemming from the abuse scandal to conserve resources.

And an obsessed fan. That's a friend's description of a man who police say fatally shot former Pantera guitarist Darrell Abbott and three others at an Ohio nightclub. Nathan Gale's friend told the "Columbus Dispatch" that Gale was quote, "Off his rocker." He says Gale believed that Pantera stole songs from him.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In the United States, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would easily take the title of most hated. But in his native Saudi Arabia, the picture is less clear. He is, at once, revered and hated. CNN's Nic Robertson examines the love/hate relationship young Saudis have with bin Laden.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICE OVER): Remixed, re- edited and re-released. Osama bin laden's increasingly stale anti- American vitriol gets fresh life on a Saudi al Qaeda Web site. But beyond the digital media, on Saudi Arabia's streets, where the young outnumber the old 3 to 1, his message has a resonance. Abdullah al Otari was once a jihadi, beholden to bin Laden's anti-Western ideals.

ABDULLA AL OTARI, FORMER JIHADI (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): After September 11, bin Laden was perceived by many as a hero and a savior.

ROBERTSON: So much so, that CNN has learned that when one respective research group discovered how much more bin Laden was admired than the Saudi king, they kept statistics quiet. More than 70 percent of young Saudi men told pollsters they admired Osama bin Laden, an intimidating statistic for the Saudi royal family.

PRINCE MOHAMMAD AL FAISAL, PRES, AL FAISALIAH GROUP: He's offering them an actionable solution. It might not reach the final goal, but he is taking action.

ROBERTSON: What the pollsters also discovered was that while bin Laden's rhetoric was admired his actions were not. Revealing a tangled love/hate relationship.

OTARI (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): People were sympathetic to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda for a while until they started doing operations against locals. Then this sympathy gradually lessened.

ROBERTSON: The tipping point came in the form of a massive Saudi al Qaeda car bombing in November last year. 17 people were killed. Many more injured. Almost all Muslims of Arab decent. Bin Laden wasn't believed to be directly behind the attack, but it brought home the true face of terror.

MOHSER AL AWAJY: What bin Laden and al Qaeda is doing is shameful for us.

ROBERTSON: Sheikh Assim is a Saudi TV preacher.

Is Osama bin Laden doing the right thing?

SHEIKH ASSIM AK HAKEEM, MUSLIM CLERIC: At the moment, no.

ROBERTSON: But a clue to the apparent contradictory logic that allows Saudis at once to admire and detest bin Laden may come from this. Sheikh Assim, like many Saudis, still believes bin Laden was not responsible for the attacks of September 11th.

ASSIM: Muslims did not do it. Osama bin Laden is not capable of doing such a thing.

ROBERTSON: Not a new claim. Just one in Saudi Arabia that hasn't gone away. Leaving Osama bin Laden an ambiguous symbol, a man who, in many circles here, is still to be admired. Nic Robertson, CNN, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HARRIS: News around the world now. Top prize. Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai gets the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African woman to achieve the honor. Maathai recently received the award in Oslo this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WANGARI MAATHAI, NOBEL LAUREATE: Although this prize comes to me, it acknowledges the work of countless individuals and groups across the world. They worked quietly and often without recognition to protect the environment, promote democracy, defend human rights and ensure equality between women and men. By so doing, they plant seeds of peace. I know they, too, are proud today. To all who feel represented by this prize, I say, use it to advance your mission and meet with high expectations the world will place on all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And move over Rockefeller Center. You can now do figure eights inside the Eiffel Tower. That's right. The famous Paris landmark now have an ice skating rink on an observation deck. The rink can fit up to 87 skaters at any one time.

Two crew members aboard the International Space Station face a not so Merry Christmas. They have been told to ration food supplies until replenishments arrive a day after Christmas. The Russian and American have been told to cut their daily calories by about 10 percent.

Did you see that Rockets game last night?

PHILLIPS: No, I didn't.

HARRIS: Oh, boy, we have got some pictures. It's an amazing story. Tracy McGrady doing his things for the kids in the stands, being a role model. Look at this.

PHILLIPS: At least he wasn't throwing anything.

HARRIS: Exactly. We've got some highlights for you. Unbelievable.

PHILLIPS: And they are superstars now, but they weren't always.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you think back on your careers and you know, let's say, 15 years back, what would you have -- what would you say to a younger you?

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: Fix your hair.

BRAD PITT: Don't wear dolphin shorts.

CLOONEY: The mullet will some day be a really bad idea.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: We remember those dolphin shorts. That's frightening.

Our Sibila Vargas talks to the cast of "Oceans 12." Rumor has it George Clooney proposed to her, Tony.

HARRIS: Really.

PHILLIPS: Yeah. Why don't you get the scoop (ph).

HARRIS: I will hurt him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: CNN PRESENTS The two Marys this weekend. It explores the two women closest to Jesus Christ. His Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. If you thought "The Da Vinci Code" was compelling, well, wait until you see this documentary. It's narrated by Sigourney Weaver. Here's a quick glimpse.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SIGOURNEY WEAVER, (VOICE-OVER): Mary Magdalene has become a media star. The lynchpin character of a mega-selling novel that says she wasn't just Jesus' apostle, but his wife. And the mother of his children.

PROF AMY JILL LEVINE, VANDERBILT DIVINITY SCHOOL: "The Da Vinci Code" is appropriately labeled and shelved in books as fiction.

REV GERALD O'COLLINS, S.J., PONTIFICAL OREGONIAN UNIVERSITY: Have I read it? I would give it a prize for historical misinformation.

WEAVER: Those reviews haven't stopped new Magdalene fans from thronging to places like London's Temple Church. According to the novel, this was home base to the Knights Templar who fought Crusades to keep the truth about Mary's Magdalene's marriage to Jesus a secret for centuries.

REV ROBIN GRIFFITH-JONES, TEMPLE CHURCH, LONDON: We must now have 50 visitors or more every day coming into the church and asking the verger (ph) on their entry, have you read the book? The verger (ph) still naively think they mean the bible, but of course, they mean the other bible "The Da Vinci Code."

WEAVER: This change in perception among both scholars and the public that Mary Magdalene was a leader not a sinner is nothing short of seismic. Especially for Christian women who fill the pews but not the pulpits and who now want their due.

PROFESSOR KAREN L. KING, HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL: Some people are very threatened by this precisely because it may be the results of this work are going to show that women were leaders in the early church. It's going to ask people, I think, to rethink some really fundamental things about Christian theology, life and practice. And that can certainly be threatening.

PROF MARVIN MEYER, CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY: One cannot alienate half of the human race and get away with it. That's not what spirituality is all about. These issues must be addressed, and they will have to be addressed if the church is going to survive.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: That was a quick glimpse from CNN PRESENTS: "The Two Marys." An examination of the two women closest to Jesus. You can see the entire documentary on Sunday at 8:00 eastern, 5:00 pacific right here on CNN. HARRIS: Moviegoers, get ready to be swept away. "Ocean's Twelve" opens in theaters nationwide today. It's the follow-up to the blockbuster "Ocean's Eleven." CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas sat down with the stars of the cast and joins us live in Los Angeles.

VARGAS: Hey.

HARRIS: Hey to yourself there.

VARGAS: How are you, Tony?

HARRIS: Good.

VARGAS: They are back. George Clooney has rounded up his gang of usual suspects. Only this time around they brought one more along for the ride. I caught up with the all-star cast in Palm Spring to talk about reuniting, pranks on the set and a little thing called Brad mania.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CLOONEY: What are we stealing?

VARGAS: All right. So you got the crew back again.

CLOONEY: We did. It was an accident, really. We didn't want them back. They all sort of contractually came back.

VARGAS (VOICE-OVER): The whole crew, plus one.

VARGAS (ON-CAMERA): You are the new kid on the block. So --

CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, ACTRESS: I was, yeah.

VARGAS: How were you treated? Especially the fact that you were with Brad Pitt?

ZETA-JONES: My husband used to say what are you doing today?

I said, I'm kissing Brad Pitt running around a fountain. "Well have a great day's work." "What your doing today?" "I'm going to kiss Brad Pitt on a bridge."

PITT: You here to take me in?

ZETA-JONES: Why would I do that? It's not as if you stole something.

VARGAS: What was that like? She's a gorgeous woman.

PITT: She's a fantastic woman. She's great all around people.

CLOONEY: I don't like her.

PITT: Really? CLOONEY: I don't like her.

VARGAS: You said you liked her.

CLOONEY: Listen. I was wrong about that. I just remembered who we were talking about. I did a movie with her. And I got to say something right off the bat. I don't like her.

ZETA-JONES: I used to know when the guys would come home from work because I'd hear, "Brad! Matt! George!"

MATT DAMON, ACTOR: There is the sound that human beings make that we weren't aware that they made when Brad Pitt walks by. It's like this weird animal shrieking that like ...

ZETA-JONES: Beatlemania. It's Bradmania.

DAMON: Bradmania.

PITT: You know what these guys would do? We'd be filming somewhere like in the train station and you'd have to run a gauntlet to get back to the trailers. We're all walking along and, you know, we got a barrier and I would think we're all walking together and all of a sudden I would walk out the door and these guys would hide. They'd send me out like chum.

CLOONEY: At some point Matt would yell out, "Hey, Brad Pitt." And everybody would go, huh? And they'd chase him. And we'd take off.

PITT: I was chum.

CLOONEY: You were chum. Chum.

PITT: Chummy.

DAMON: Look, it's not in my nature to be mysterious. But I can't talk about it, and I can't talk about why.

Ooh.

VARGAS: So Matt was telling me, though, that you guys have a little thing kind of going.

CLOONEY: It was once, and I was drunk.

VARGAS: A little practical joke that kind of happened.

PITT: That's a story.

CLOONEY: He sent a memo around with my name on it saying that i want to only be called Mr. Ocean on the set in Italy. So everywhere I went for a couple of weeks the whole Italian crew was, "Si, Mr. Ocean." I am like what's going on here?

(END VIDEO TAPE) VARGAS: And I don't think I stopped laughing once through that entire interview. It's hard to imagine how they got any work done, Tony. You can catch the gang in theaters today.

HARRIS: I notice you conveniently edited out Clooney's proposal to you. What happened?

VARGAS: No it was totally ...

HARRIS: What? Excuse me?

VARGAS: That's blown out of proportion. Believe me, if I were single and George Clooney asked me to marry him, I would invite you and Kyra to the wedding.

HARRIS: Wasn't that sweet? She dressed that up, didn't see?

PHILLIPS: If I weren't married, I'd be chasing gorge right in front of you. Sibila would be racing down aisle.

HARRIS: That was well-handled. Well handled, Sibila.

VARGAS: Thank you. Thank you. It's a tough job, but I've got to do it.

PHILLIPS: You have a tough gig, that's for sure.

VARGAS: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Thanks Sibila. Well, CNN reunites another U.S. soldier and his family for the holidays just ahead.

HARRIS: He shoots, he scores. A Houston Rocket lives up to his name and then some.

PHILLIPS: He wasn't throwing anything. Imagine that.

And the Peterson jury watch is on. We're going to check in live at the courthouse as the jury in that case deliberates life or death for Scott Peterson.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The NBA needs some redemption after the basket brawl. That's for sure. The league may have found it in a fantastic finish last night. Did you see this? Houston rockets star Tracy McGrady helped his team rally in the fourth quarter against the spurs. Mcgrady scored 13 points in 35 seconds hitting shots from all over the place, including four three-pointers. His hot shots -- watch this one -- helped the rockets win 81-80 over San Antonio. That was the winning shot. He won the game with that one, Kyra. The Spurs coach called it unbelievable. The rockets coach Jeff van Gundy said sometimes when you work, you get miracles. Close. It ranks (ph).

PHILLIPS: Well, the government's giant printing presses could soon be cranking out something in addition to the old American greenback.

HARRIS: As long as it keeps printing those things. Rhonda Schaffler joins us now from the New York Stock Exchange to tell us why. Rhonda?

RHONDA SCHAFLLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. It will, of course, keep printing the greenbacks. Along with that, how about the Mexican peso, South African rand and all sorts of other currencies. Possibly there is a new provision in the bill passed this week to overhaul the country's intelligence operations and what it does is gives the treasury the authority to produce paper money as well as postage stamps and security documents like driver's licenses and passports for foreign governments. The U.S. Government won't profit from the venture, but treasury officials expect the experience will help them sharpen and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) counterfeiting skills.

But the presses won't be churning out the new currency any time soon. No potential clients have signed up yet. Clients could include those that don't have the technology to produce their own hard to counterfeit currency. Tony, Kyra?

HARRIS: Talk about money, money, money. Had to throw in the Ojays reference there. Some inflation worries today, Rhonda?

SCHAFFLER: This has been an issue. And we've got another sign here about inflation perhaps becoming problematic. One of the key measurements of inflation called the producer price index jumped a sharper than expected 0.5 percent last month. Over the past year, those prices are up 5 percent. It's the fastest rate of inflation at that level in 14 years. A lot of that has to do with the rise in energy costs we've seen through the year. Oil prices today are actually lower despite the OPEC production cut. Stocks, though, are little changed still. The Dow only up 3 points. NASDAQ virtually unchanged. That's it from Wall Street. Kyra, Tony, see you later.

PHILLIPS: See you soon, Rhonda, in about 15 minutes or so.

Well, we call it holiday home front as we celebrate the season. CNN is linking up soldiers in Iraq with loved ones right here at home.

HARRIS: With the story, here's Jack Cafferty.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're reuniting military families who will spend the holiday season apart. First Lieutenant Derek Loveland is serving in Iraq. I talked to his wife Jodi the other day about how she is managing being apart at the holidays.

JODI LOVELAND, MILITARY WIFE: It's a lot of work. But we're managing. I have ...

CAFFERTY: If Derek was home, how would you celebrate the holidays? What would you guys be doing?

JODI LOVELAND: Well, we'd be putting up our Christmas Tree, putting up our decorations, probably be getting ready to go home and visit our families.

CAFFERTY: Derek Loveland is a first lieutenant. He's with us by satellite from Mosul. We started this with your wife Jodi and the boys. And the boys are just terrific. I am not sure they look like you or like Jodi, but they are good looking kids. Both of them.

1LT DEREK LOVELAND, U.S. ARMY: If they look good, they look like Jodi.

CAFFERTY: He sounds like my house. You manage to speak with your wife fairly often, I guess, using the Internet, right? Tell me a little about how that goes.

DEREK LOVELAND: Basically that's another one of the great things about being here, having the technology available to us is when I do have some down time I can go and go to the Internet cafe that's run by the morale welfare and recreation center here. You got to wait a few minutes to get on sometimes, but they have the Web cam and Yahoo! Messenger and you sit there and type to each other.

CAFFERTY: Pictures of the kids go back and forth, and stuff you can do that kind of thing?

DEREK LOVELAND: Yeah. Exactly. We both have digital cameras so we download our pictures and send them back and forth. It really helps to keep us in touch, make us feel a lot closer than we actually are.

CAFFERTY: What would you be doing if you were home and had a few days off over Christmas. Kinds of things you might like to do if you had a few hours to yourself?

DEREK LOVELAND: Probably what I would be doing is I would be Christmas shopping. I'd be trying to find something that my wife would like. I really enjoyed actually wrapping the presents. So I kind of am meticulous in doing that. My wife teases me sometimes and gives me all the presents to wrap. I'd be trying to get the presents ready and make things nice for everybody. You there, honey?

JODI LOVELAND: Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me?

DEREK LOVELAND: How is it going?

JODI LOVELAND: It's good. Maybe Andrew will talk for you. He talks.

DEREK LOVELAND: Hey, buddy, how you doing?

JODI LOVELAND: Hey, hey, can you say da, da, da, da?

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HARRIS: How good is that?

PHILLIPS: OK. That breaks your heart. Once again, that was 1LT Derek Loveland in Iraq. Jodi and the boys are in the family's hometown of Seattle. We're going to have more of those segments and adorable babies during the holiday season.

HARRIS: Just want to squish them up, don't you?

PHILLIPS: Give them a big kiss.

HARRIS: We're live in Redwood City next. The jury deciding Scott Peterson's fate is about to enter its sixth hour of deliberation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Now in the news, life or death for Scott Peterson. Jurors in their first full day of deliberations. They are trying to decide whether Scott Peterson should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison. A full report from Redwood City, California in just a few moments.

President Bush nominates Samuel Bodman for energy secretary. Bodman is deputy secretary of the treasury, an engineer and one time professor at MIT but Bodman has also been president of an investment firm and head of an industrial company. If confirmed Bodman will replace Spencer Abraham.

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 December 10, 2004 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A jury deliberates the fate of convicted killer Scott Peterson this hour in Redwood City, California. It's the second day of deliberations in the penalty phase. Peterson faces the death penalty or life in prison for the murders of his wife and unborn son.
Restocking the cabinet. President Bush names his pick for energy secretary. He nominated Samuel Bodman to replace the outgoing Spencer Abraham. Bodman is the current deputy secretary of treasury. During the announcement, President Bush also vowed to reduce U.S. dependence on international energy sources.

A court-martial in the prisoner abuse scandal is being moved. The trial of PFC Lynndie England will be held at Ft. Hood, Texas instead of Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. The Army says it is consolidating the cases stemming from the abuse scandal to conserve resources.

And an obsessed fan. That's a friend's description of a man who police say fatally shot former Pantera guitarist Darrell Abbott and three others at an Ohio nightclub. Nathan Gale's friend told the "Columbus Dispatch" that Gale was quote, "Off his rocker." He says Gale believed that Pantera stole songs from him.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In the United States, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would easily take the title of most hated. But in his native Saudi Arabia, the picture is less clear. He is, at once, revered and hated. CNN's Nic Robertson examines the love/hate relationship young Saudis have with bin Laden.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICE OVER): Remixed, re- edited and re-released. Osama bin laden's increasingly stale anti- American vitriol gets fresh life on a Saudi al Qaeda Web site. But beyond the digital media, on Saudi Arabia's streets, where the young outnumber the old 3 to 1, his message has a resonance. Abdullah al Otari was once a jihadi, beholden to bin Laden's anti-Western ideals.

ABDULLA AL OTARI, FORMER JIHADI (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): After September 11, bin Laden was perceived by many as a hero and a savior.

ROBERTSON: So much so, that CNN has learned that when one respective research group discovered how much more bin Laden was admired than the Saudi king, they kept statistics quiet. More than 70 percent of young Saudi men told pollsters they admired Osama bin Laden, an intimidating statistic for the Saudi royal family.

PRINCE MOHAMMAD AL FAISAL, PRES, AL FAISALIAH GROUP: He's offering them an actionable solution. It might not reach the final goal, but he is taking action.

ROBERTSON: What the pollsters also discovered was that while bin Laden's rhetoric was admired his actions were not. Revealing a tangled love/hate relationship.

OTARI (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): People were sympathetic to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda for a while until they started doing operations against locals. Then this sympathy gradually lessened.

ROBERTSON: The tipping point came in the form of a massive Saudi al Qaeda car bombing in November last year. 17 people were killed. Many more injured. Almost all Muslims of Arab decent. Bin Laden wasn't believed to be directly behind the attack, but it brought home the true face of terror.

MOHSER AL AWAJY: What bin Laden and al Qaeda is doing is shameful for us.

ROBERTSON: Sheikh Assim is a Saudi TV preacher.

Is Osama bin Laden doing the right thing?

SHEIKH ASSIM AK HAKEEM, MUSLIM CLERIC: At the moment, no.

ROBERTSON: But a clue to the apparent contradictory logic that allows Saudis at once to admire and detest bin Laden may come from this. Sheikh Assim, like many Saudis, still believes bin Laden was not responsible for the attacks of September 11th.

ASSIM: Muslims did not do it. Osama bin Laden is not capable of doing such a thing.

ROBERTSON: Not a new claim. Just one in Saudi Arabia that hasn't gone away. Leaving Osama bin Laden an ambiguous symbol, a man who, in many circles here, is still to be admired. Nic Robertson, CNN, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HARRIS: News around the world now. Top prize. Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai gets the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African woman to achieve the honor. Maathai recently received the award in Oslo this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WANGARI MAATHAI, NOBEL LAUREATE: Although this prize comes to me, it acknowledges the work of countless individuals and groups across the world. They worked quietly and often without recognition to protect the environment, promote democracy, defend human rights and ensure equality between women and men. By so doing, they plant seeds of peace. I know they, too, are proud today. To all who feel represented by this prize, I say, use it to advance your mission and meet with high expectations the world will place on all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And move over Rockefeller Center. You can now do figure eights inside the Eiffel Tower. That's right. The famous Paris landmark now have an ice skating rink on an observation deck. The rink can fit up to 87 skaters at any one time.

Two crew members aboard the International Space Station face a not so Merry Christmas. They have been told to ration food supplies until replenishments arrive a day after Christmas. The Russian and American have been told to cut their daily calories by about 10 percent.

Did you see that Rockets game last night?

PHILLIPS: No, I didn't.

HARRIS: Oh, boy, we have got some pictures. It's an amazing story. Tracy McGrady doing his things for the kids in the stands, being a role model. Look at this.

PHILLIPS: At least he wasn't throwing anything.

HARRIS: Exactly. We've got some highlights for you. Unbelievable.

PHILLIPS: And they are superstars now, but they weren't always.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you think back on your careers and you know, let's say, 15 years back, what would you have -- what would you say to a younger you?

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: Fix your hair.

BRAD PITT: Don't wear dolphin shorts.

CLOONEY: The mullet will some day be a really bad idea.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: We remember those dolphin shorts. That's frightening.

Our Sibila Vargas talks to the cast of "Oceans 12." Rumor has it George Clooney proposed to her, Tony.

HARRIS: Really.

PHILLIPS: Yeah. Why don't you get the scoop (ph).

HARRIS: I will hurt him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: CNN PRESENTS The two Marys this weekend. It explores the two women closest to Jesus Christ. His Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. If you thought "The Da Vinci Code" was compelling, well, wait until you see this documentary. It's narrated by Sigourney Weaver. Here's a quick glimpse.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SIGOURNEY WEAVER, (VOICE-OVER): Mary Magdalene has become a media star. The lynchpin character of a mega-selling novel that says she wasn't just Jesus' apostle, but his wife. And the mother of his children.

PROF AMY JILL LEVINE, VANDERBILT DIVINITY SCHOOL: "The Da Vinci Code" is appropriately labeled and shelved in books as fiction.

REV GERALD O'COLLINS, S.J., PONTIFICAL OREGONIAN UNIVERSITY: Have I read it? I would give it a prize for historical misinformation.

WEAVER: Those reviews haven't stopped new Magdalene fans from thronging to places like London's Temple Church. According to the novel, this was home base to the Knights Templar who fought Crusades to keep the truth about Mary's Magdalene's marriage to Jesus a secret for centuries.

REV ROBIN GRIFFITH-JONES, TEMPLE CHURCH, LONDON: We must now have 50 visitors or more every day coming into the church and asking the verger (ph) on their entry, have you read the book? The verger (ph) still naively think they mean the bible, but of course, they mean the other bible "The Da Vinci Code."

WEAVER: This change in perception among both scholars and the public that Mary Magdalene was a leader not a sinner is nothing short of seismic. Especially for Christian women who fill the pews but not the pulpits and who now want their due.

PROFESSOR KAREN L. KING, HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL: Some people are very threatened by this precisely because it may be the results of this work are going to show that women were leaders in the early church. It's going to ask people, I think, to rethink some really fundamental things about Christian theology, life and practice. And that can certainly be threatening.

PROF MARVIN MEYER, CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY: One cannot alienate half of the human race and get away with it. That's not what spirituality is all about. These issues must be addressed, and they will have to be addressed if the church is going to survive.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: That was a quick glimpse from CNN PRESENTS: "The Two Marys." An examination of the two women closest to Jesus. You can see the entire documentary on Sunday at 8:00 eastern, 5:00 pacific right here on CNN. HARRIS: Moviegoers, get ready to be swept away. "Ocean's Twelve" opens in theaters nationwide today. It's the follow-up to the blockbuster "Ocean's Eleven." CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas sat down with the stars of the cast and joins us live in Los Angeles.

VARGAS: Hey.

HARRIS: Hey to yourself there.

VARGAS: How are you, Tony?

HARRIS: Good.

VARGAS: They are back. George Clooney has rounded up his gang of usual suspects. Only this time around they brought one more along for the ride. I caught up with the all-star cast in Palm Spring to talk about reuniting, pranks on the set and a little thing called Brad mania.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CLOONEY: What are we stealing?

VARGAS: All right. So you got the crew back again.

CLOONEY: We did. It was an accident, really. We didn't want them back. They all sort of contractually came back.

VARGAS (VOICE-OVER): The whole crew, plus one.

VARGAS (ON-CAMERA): You are the new kid on the block. So --

CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, ACTRESS: I was, yeah.

VARGAS: How were you treated? Especially the fact that you were with Brad Pitt?

ZETA-JONES: My husband used to say what are you doing today?

I said, I'm kissing Brad Pitt running around a fountain. "Well have a great day's work." "What your doing today?" "I'm going to kiss Brad Pitt on a bridge."

PITT: You here to take me in?

ZETA-JONES: Why would I do that? It's not as if you stole something.

VARGAS: What was that like? She's a gorgeous woman.

PITT: She's a fantastic woman. She's great all around people.

CLOONEY: I don't like her.

PITT: Really? CLOONEY: I don't like her.

VARGAS: You said you liked her.

CLOONEY: Listen. I was wrong about that. I just remembered who we were talking about. I did a movie with her. And I got to say something right off the bat. I don't like her.

ZETA-JONES: I used to know when the guys would come home from work because I'd hear, "Brad! Matt! George!"

MATT DAMON, ACTOR: There is the sound that human beings make that we weren't aware that they made when Brad Pitt walks by. It's like this weird animal shrieking that like ...

ZETA-JONES: Beatlemania. It's Bradmania.

DAMON: Bradmania.

PITT: You know what these guys would do? We'd be filming somewhere like in the train station and you'd have to run a gauntlet to get back to the trailers. We're all walking along and, you know, we got a barrier and I would think we're all walking together and all of a sudden I would walk out the door and these guys would hide. They'd send me out like chum.

CLOONEY: At some point Matt would yell out, "Hey, Brad Pitt." And everybody would go, huh? And they'd chase him. And we'd take off.

PITT: I was chum.

CLOONEY: You were chum. Chum.

PITT: Chummy.

DAMON: Look, it's not in my nature to be mysterious. But I can't talk about it, and I can't talk about why.

Ooh.

VARGAS: So Matt was telling me, though, that you guys have a little thing kind of going.

CLOONEY: It was once, and I was drunk.

VARGAS: A little practical joke that kind of happened.

PITT: That's a story.

CLOONEY: He sent a memo around with my name on it saying that i want to only be called Mr. Ocean on the set in Italy. So everywhere I went for a couple of weeks the whole Italian crew was, "Si, Mr. Ocean." I am like what's going on here?

(END VIDEO TAPE) VARGAS: And I don't think I stopped laughing once through that entire interview. It's hard to imagine how they got any work done, Tony. You can catch the gang in theaters today.

HARRIS: I notice you conveniently edited out Clooney's proposal to you. What happened?

VARGAS: No it was totally ...

HARRIS: What? Excuse me?

VARGAS: That's blown out of proportion. Believe me, if I were single and George Clooney asked me to marry him, I would invite you and Kyra to the wedding.

HARRIS: Wasn't that sweet? She dressed that up, didn't see?

PHILLIPS: If I weren't married, I'd be chasing gorge right in front of you. Sibila would be racing down aisle.

HARRIS: That was well-handled. Well handled, Sibila.

VARGAS: Thank you. Thank you. It's a tough job, but I've got to do it.

PHILLIPS: You have a tough gig, that's for sure.

VARGAS: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: Thanks Sibila. Well, CNN reunites another U.S. soldier and his family for the holidays just ahead.

HARRIS: He shoots, he scores. A Houston Rocket lives up to his name and then some.

PHILLIPS: He wasn't throwing anything. Imagine that.

And the Peterson jury watch is on. We're going to check in live at the courthouse as the jury in that case deliberates life or death for Scott Peterson.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The NBA needs some redemption after the basket brawl. That's for sure. The league may have found it in a fantastic finish last night. Did you see this? Houston rockets star Tracy McGrady helped his team rally in the fourth quarter against the spurs. Mcgrady scored 13 points in 35 seconds hitting shots from all over the place, including four three-pointers. His hot shots -- watch this one -- helped the rockets win 81-80 over San Antonio. That was the winning shot. He won the game with that one, Kyra. The Spurs coach called it unbelievable. The rockets coach Jeff van Gundy said sometimes when you work, you get miracles. Close. It ranks (ph).

PHILLIPS: Well, the government's giant printing presses could soon be cranking out something in addition to the old American greenback.

HARRIS: As long as it keeps printing those things. Rhonda Schaffler joins us now from the New York Stock Exchange to tell us why. Rhonda?

RHONDA SCHAFLLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. It will, of course, keep printing the greenbacks. Along with that, how about the Mexican peso, South African rand and all sorts of other currencies. Possibly there is a new provision in the bill passed this week to overhaul the country's intelligence operations and what it does is gives the treasury the authority to produce paper money as well as postage stamps and security documents like driver's licenses and passports for foreign governments. The U.S. Government won't profit from the venture, but treasury officials expect the experience will help them sharpen and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) counterfeiting skills.

But the presses won't be churning out the new currency any time soon. No potential clients have signed up yet. Clients could include those that don't have the technology to produce their own hard to counterfeit currency. Tony, Kyra?

HARRIS: Talk about money, money, money. Had to throw in the Ojays reference there. Some inflation worries today, Rhonda?

SCHAFFLER: This has been an issue. And we've got another sign here about inflation perhaps becoming problematic. One of the key measurements of inflation called the producer price index jumped a sharper than expected 0.5 percent last month. Over the past year, those prices are up 5 percent. It's the fastest rate of inflation at that level in 14 years. A lot of that has to do with the rise in energy costs we've seen through the year. Oil prices today are actually lower despite the OPEC production cut. Stocks, though, are little changed still. The Dow only up 3 points. NASDAQ virtually unchanged. That's it from Wall Street. Kyra, Tony, see you later.

PHILLIPS: See you soon, Rhonda, in about 15 minutes or so.

Well, we call it holiday home front as we celebrate the season. CNN is linking up soldiers in Iraq with loved ones right here at home.

HARRIS: With the story, here's Jack Cafferty.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're reuniting military families who will spend the holiday season apart. First Lieutenant Derek Loveland is serving in Iraq. I talked to his wife Jodi the other day about how she is managing being apart at the holidays.

JODI LOVELAND, MILITARY WIFE: It's a lot of work. But we're managing. I have ...

CAFFERTY: If Derek was home, how would you celebrate the holidays? What would you guys be doing?

JODI LOVELAND: Well, we'd be putting up our Christmas Tree, putting up our decorations, probably be getting ready to go home and visit our families.

CAFFERTY: Derek Loveland is a first lieutenant. He's with us by satellite from Mosul. We started this with your wife Jodi and the boys. And the boys are just terrific. I am not sure they look like you or like Jodi, but they are good looking kids. Both of them.

1LT DEREK LOVELAND, U.S. ARMY: If they look good, they look like Jodi.

CAFFERTY: He sounds like my house. You manage to speak with your wife fairly often, I guess, using the Internet, right? Tell me a little about how that goes.

DEREK LOVELAND: Basically that's another one of the great things about being here, having the technology available to us is when I do have some down time I can go and go to the Internet cafe that's run by the morale welfare and recreation center here. You got to wait a few minutes to get on sometimes, but they have the Web cam and Yahoo! Messenger and you sit there and type to each other.

CAFFERTY: Pictures of the kids go back and forth, and stuff you can do that kind of thing?

DEREK LOVELAND: Yeah. Exactly. We both have digital cameras so we download our pictures and send them back and forth. It really helps to keep us in touch, make us feel a lot closer than we actually are.

CAFFERTY: What would you be doing if you were home and had a few days off over Christmas. Kinds of things you might like to do if you had a few hours to yourself?

DEREK LOVELAND: Probably what I would be doing is I would be Christmas shopping. I'd be trying to find something that my wife would like. I really enjoyed actually wrapping the presents. So I kind of am meticulous in doing that. My wife teases me sometimes and gives me all the presents to wrap. I'd be trying to get the presents ready and make things nice for everybody. You there, honey?

JODI LOVELAND: Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me?

DEREK LOVELAND: How is it going?

JODI LOVELAND: It's good. Maybe Andrew will talk for you. He talks.

DEREK LOVELAND: Hey, buddy, how you doing?

JODI LOVELAND: Hey, hey, can you say da, da, da, da?

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HARRIS: How good is that?

PHILLIPS: OK. That breaks your heart. Once again, that was 1LT Derek Loveland in Iraq. Jodi and the boys are in the family's hometown of Seattle. We're going to have more of those segments and adorable babies during the holiday season.

HARRIS: Just want to squish them up, don't you?

PHILLIPS: Give them a big kiss.

HARRIS: We're live in Redwood City next. The jury deciding Scott Peterson's fate is about to enter its sixth hour of deliberation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Now in the news, life or death for Scott Peterson. Jurors in their first full day of deliberations. They are trying to decide whether Scott Peterson should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison. A full report from Redwood City, California in just a few moments.

President Bush nominates Samuel Bodman for energy secretary. Bodman is deputy secretary of the treasury, an engineer and one time professor at MIT but Bodman has also been president of an investment firm and head of an industrial company. If confirmed Bodman will replace Spencer Abraham.

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