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What Could be Tough, New Drug-Resistant Strain of HIV Raising Fears

Aired February 14, 2005 - 13:35   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Stories in the news right now. President Bush praises his new attorney general, saying Alberto Gonzales will build on the, quote, "outstanding work of John Ashcroft." Gonzales was officially sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The president also used the occasion to push for renewal of the Patriot Act in Congress.
It's looks like the National Hockey League will ice the season after a long labor dispute. Sources will tell the Associated Press and the Canadian press that The NHL will cancel the season, and an official announcement is expected tomorrow in New York City.

A sour turn in the battle over the sugar substitute Splenda. The sugar industry is joining with a farm your and other critics to tell the public that Splenda is not natural and contains no sugar. Splenda's makers has filed suit, saying the critics are conducting a smear campaign designed to sweeten sugar sales.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: What could be a tough new drug- resistant strain of HIV raising increasing fears among experts and the public. Researchers point to the case of a New York City man with HIV who quickly developed AIDS. The city health commissioner is calling the case a wakeup call about unsafe sex. We'll get some insight on the situation with one of the world's leading experts on HIV/AIDS, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Fauci, good to have you with us.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIH: Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about this one particular case here and this one particular person who has HIV. It's not a typical case in any respect, is it?

FAUCI: Well, it's atypical with regard to the microbe. The virus that infected this person is resistant to virtually all except for one of the large panel of antiviral drugs that are available.

Circumstantially, the person also had a very (INAUDIBLE) course from the time they were infected to within a relatively short period of time developed full-blown AIDS. Having a resistant strain is -- of this magnitude is a bit unusual. Usually there is some resistance. We know a certain percentage of people have a resistant microbe. But the extent of this resistance was rather significant. Individuals also have full (INAUDIBLE) courses. And the real question is, is it due to the particular virulence of this microbe, or is it due to the fact that this particular single individual was not able to handle HIV very well? And there are instances of people who do have full (INAUDIBLE) courses.

So it's something to stay alert for. Whether or not can you call this a super bug, I have some skepticism about that at this point in time. We need to investigate it further, just the way they are doing that in New York City, which is appropriate. But I think there has been some alarm about whether or not this is going to be a whole new change in HIV in this country, and it's way immature -- way premature to say that.

O'BRIEN: One particular case. And in this case, there are reports this particular person is a drug addict, or has used drugs, and that certainly would have compromised his immune system.

FAUCI: Well, that's true. That's a possibility. And there are other things that some people just naturally, genetically do not handle the virus very well.

The alarm that was put out by the officials in the New York area regarding we must redouble our efforts to emphasize safe sex and emphasize education and behavioral modification is a very important message. Because clearly, there are viruses out there that may not respond nearly as well to therapy as we have seen in the past. So the message is an important message.

There is some concern that the alarm about this being a super bug is something that's getting people unduly concerned. We need to fully investigate this in a very vigorous and aggressive way, which is what they are doing.

O'BRIEN: Well, isn't it the responsibility of health officials, even though they might be very concerned, to get that particular message out, to be very careful with alarms like this so that when it truly is a matter of concern, people will listen?

FAUCI: Yes, that's true. They do a very good job in New York City. The commissioner up there has done an excellent job with HIV/AIDS. I think some of the interpretation of which this was all about has raised some alarm. But I think at the end of the day, the bottom line of alerting people to be really careful is important. Right now, we need to have the science guide any pronouncements and trace this down, and they're doing that. Look for the sexual contacts, determine if in fact those sexual contacts have the same sort of a course, all the things you would do when you track something like this.

O'BRIEN: We hear a lot of anecdotal cases that perhaps warnings about safe sex are not being heeded. What are the statistics showing right now? Is that in fact the case?

FAUCI: Well, what's happening is that we are seeing a degree of complacency in certain circumstances, in certain regions of the country and among certain people. We have a very major advance with therapies that have really transformed and turned around in a positive way the response to HIV. People are leading longer lives, they are actually leading relatively healthy lives.

Unfortunately, this has led to a degree of complacency on some people, who think it's not such a bad thing if you get infected because there are so many options for you. That's a very, very dangerous assumption. That's one of the points that the officials in New York are trying to make. Don't think that this is a trivial disease. It is not good to get infected and you can get into circumstances like this man, where you have a relatively resistant or a highly resistant microbe that could really be a problem. So the message should be we cannot be complacent.

O'BRIEN: Doctor Anthony Fauci with the National Institutes of Health, thank you for your time, sir.

FAUCI: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, last night at the Grammys, yes, the performances were hot. But what about the fashion? Alicia Keys was definitely hot. That's for sure. I wouldn't say all the performances were hot, Miles. Right?

O'BRIEN: I didn't see it. Are you kidding?

PHILLIPS: Miles was reading his NASA handbook.

O'BRIEN: If I was at home, and I had nothing else to do, I still wouldn't have turned it on. Cannot stand the Grammys.

PHILLIPS: But you love "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" couture maven Carson Kressley, right?

O'BRIEN: I love him? What do you mean by that?

PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: This former teacher-turned-lawyer-turned-politician once said, and we quote, "Vice president has such a nice ring to it." As part of CNN's anniversary series "Then and Now," we take a look back at -- you know who it is, right? Geraldine Ferraro. Where is she today?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Political history was made when 1984 Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale named New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. It was the first time a woman was a contender for the country's second highest office on a major party ticket. GERALDINE FERRARO, FMR. VICE PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: Whether it was a rally, whether it was a press conference, whether it was a debate against the vice president of the United States, my biggest concern when I walked in was making sure that I did it right and didn't let down the women.

CORRESPONDENT: The re-election of Ronald Reagan ended her executive office hopes. But Ferraro went on to serve as a U.S. ambassador and after leaving government, moved to CNN's "CROSSFIRE." In 1998 while campaigning for a Senate seat, Ferraro was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a very rare and often fatal blood cancer. She now in what doctors call pathological remission.

Besides raising awareness for myeloma, she's traded the life after politician for a slightly less demanding V.P. role with a global consulting group. Ferraro has been married for 45 years. The mother of three and the grandmother of seven, She considers herself a very lucky person.

FERRARO: I went from being a kid who lost her father and who lived in the South Bronx almost to going into live in the White House. Which just tells you about what this country is all about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes. Here was the moment the Grammy watchers are still talking about. Melissa Etheridge striking a chord with cancer patients everywhere when she appeared doing tribute to the late Janis Joplin. Etheridge, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last October, has been undergoing chemo. Well, her gutsy performance got a well- earned standing ovation.

O'BRIEN: That was a pretty good Janis she did there, too.

107 Grammy categories this year. Going to name them all for you right now. No, we're not going to do that. Just a couple of big winners here. When all of the envelopes were open, it was the late, great Ray Charles who came out with the most Grammy wins. His album of duets, "Genius Loves Company" claimed a total of eight Grammys.

Kanye West, one of Kyra's favorites, came to the show as the most nominated Grammy contender. Kyra thinks he's little cocky. He ended winning three out of his 10 categories, including Best Rap Album for the "College Dropout." and proud, undoubtedly.

PHILLIPS: All right, tomorrow you're going to be able to remember even -- will you be able to remember at least five of those winners?

O'BRIEN: No.

PHILLIPS: What do you think? No? OK. Well... O'BRIEN: Ray Charles, I'll remember that.

PHILLIPS: That's true. We'll never forget him. Well, you're not going to be able to forget Sheryl Crow's gown, if you saw it. Trust me.

O'BRIEN: Oh, to be Lance.

PHILLIPS: Or was there really a ...

O'BRIEN: Please let me be Lance, just for a day.

PHILLIPS: Was there a really a gown there? All right Usher, what's up? Let's get back to Sheryl's dress. Can we get back to Sheryl's dress? Oh, bummer.

O'BRIEN: All right, now, no more hints. Sandy (ph), of course, TiVoed the show.

PHILLIPS: Sandy being your wife, for those that don't know.

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, yes. Frequent viewers know. Fingers still crossed for the Eddie Blazoncyk's Versatones in the ever-popular polka category. Overall, it's true -- ever since the FCC crackdown, you know, it's a bore. It's a snoozer. You're not going to hear any of those words that George Carlin told us about you can't say on TV. And so what we do is we watch -- oh, look at that hair! We look at the outfits there. I feel good, how about you?

PHILLIPS: All right, for the high-fashion lowdown, we turn to "Queer Eye's" Carson Kressley now, who mined the red carpet for fashion nuggets. He talked with, of course, our best looking anchor, CNN's Bill Hemmer.

O'BRIEN: Well-dressed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: First on the screen, want to talk about Usher, Kanye West and Alicia Keys. How did they do last night?

CARSON KRESSLEY, AUTHOR, "OFF THE CUFF": OK. Let's take a look. Well, the big story on the red carpet or the green carpet at the Grammys was everyone wearing white. The guys and the girls. There's a lot of white, a lot of winter white. And for the men, for Kanye and for Usher, really traditional. It wasn't the normal, you know, kind of rock'n'roll thing. Guys were kind of wearing suits and jackets and ties.

HEMMER: It was formal.

KRESSLEY: It was a little formal.

HEMMER: And you give all passing grades on the first one? What about Queen Latifah, how'd she look? KRESSLEY: Queen Latifah -- she had two different looks, one for her arrivals and one for her performance. Both very, very -- kind of demure and kind of quiet. It was all about the bling for Queen Latifah. She's the queen so she was wearing the jewels.

HEMMER: Joss Stone is 17 years young. Did a dynamite performance with Melissa Etheridge last night. What'd you think?

KRESSLEY: She's an amazing, amazing performer. When I saw her on the red carpet, I was like, wow, she's doing Hawaiian music. You know, because the dress was so, like, bold. But then, you have to remember, she's 17 years old, she's wearing something a little bit more appropriate. Not too racy.

HEMMER: Did you notice she was in bare feet when she sang the tribute to Janis Joplin?

KRESSLEY: Yes, I thought that was really cool.

HEMMER: Cool time. Gwen Stefani, what'd you think? The arrival and the performance on the screen now.

KRESSLEY: OK. Gwen, she's really -- Gwen Stefani's the leader of the fashion pack when it comes to the Grammys. And the Grammys are a little bit different than the Oscars or the Golden Globes because you know, it's rock and roll, people can be a little more daring, they can think outside the bun. So I loved her arrival look. I thought she was one of the best dressed people there, just because she takes chances, she has a real look. It's not real safe, but it's usually pretty amazing.

HEMMER: All right, back to the red carpet outside. Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong. She shows up in a -- what, it was a yellow dress?

KRESSLEY: Armstrong yellow, live strong.

HEMMER: Live strong.

KRESSLEY: She had the bracelet on hand and the man himself on the other. I thought she looked great, very, very pretty, soaking up the sun.

HEMMER: How about Nelly? That's the next one on our list here.

KRESSLEY: Oh, Nelly. From one Nelly to the another, love the pale blue jacket. Again, it's another one of the, you know, it's kind of...

HEMMER: Wait a minute, is that pale blue or is that robin egg blue?

KRESSLEY: It's could be robin's egg. Now that you're on saffron, now you're on to robin's egg.

HEMMER: Listen, that's Nelly. Let's go ahead and forward to Maroon 5. They won last for Best New Artist. What did you think?

KRESSLEY: Maroon 5. There was five of them. No maroon in sight. There was some orange, some red, no maroon. Confused me.

HEMMER: Did you notice the armband, though?

KRESSLEY: I did. That was a peace armband.

HEMMER: This thing that we saw in Britain a couple of weeks ago?

KRESSLEY: I think it was either that, or it was supposed to be a 'P' in support of the Black Eyed Peas. I don't know.

HEMMER: I see.

Actor-director Zach Braff won for soundtrack for "Garden State."

KRESSLEY: Right, great movie. Kind of, to me, didn't love what he was wearing, kind of looked like he was just, you know, at the Staples Center, maybe buying some office supplies.

HEMMER: Go, Lakers. Quickly, J.lo and Marc Anthony, in the PJs.

KRESSLEY: Yes, in the PJs, which is unusual. Normally people come out and they take it all off. They actually, you know, had more clothes on underneath.

HEMMER: A progression, wasn't it?

KRESSLEY: It was. I think it was a reaction to last year's nipple-gate. They were not going to be overexposed.

HEMMER: It was bad daytime soap opera scene.

KRESSLEY: It was a little soap opera. I think J.Lo is still recovering from her really big fashion show here in New York, was the first time she showed her collection.

HEMMER: That's right, on Friday.

KRESSLEY: On Friday night. It was an amazing show.

HEMMER: You approved?

KRESSLEY: I approved, yes. It was really, really one of the highlights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Coming up in the second hour of LIVE FROM, a family torn apart by the tsunami soon to be reunited. Test results are in for famous baby number 81. PHILLIPS: And we're going to take a closer look at unmanned spy planes and what they could tell us about Iran's nuclear capabilities. LIVE FROM's "hour of super power" begins after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired February 14, 2005 - 13:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Stories in the news right now. President Bush praises his new attorney general, saying Alberto Gonzales will build on the, quote, "outstanding work of John Ashcroft." Gonzales was officially sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The president also used the occasion to push for renewal of the Patriot Act in Congress.
It's looks like the National Hockey League will ice the season after a long labor dispute. Sources will tell the Associated Press and the Canadian press that The NHL will cancel the season, and an official announcement is expected tomorrow in New York City.

A sour turn in the battle over the sugar substitute Splenda. The sugar industry is joining with a farm your and other critics to tell the public that Splenda is not natural and contains no sugar. Splenda's makers has filed suit, saying the critics are conducting a smear campaign designed to sweeten sugar sales.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: What could be a tough new drug- resistant strain of HIV raising increasing fears among experts and the public. Researchers point to the case of a New York City man with HIV who quickly developed AIDS. The city health commissioner is calling the case a wakeup call about unsafe sex. We'll get some insight on the situation with one of the world's leading experts on HIV/AIDS, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Fauci, good to have you with us.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIH: Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about this one particular case here and this one particular person who has HIV. It's not a typical case in any respect, is it?

FAUCI: Well, it's atypical with regard to the microbe. The virus that infected this person is resistant to virtually all except for one of the large panel of antiviral drugs that are available.

Circumstantially, the person also had a very (INAUDIBLE) course from the time they were infected to within a relatively short period of time developed full-blown AIDS. Having a resistant strain is -- of this magnitude is a bit unusual. Usually there is some resistance. We know a certain percentage of people have a resistant microbe. But the extent of this resistance was rather significant. Individuals also have full (INAUDIBLE) courses. And the real question is, is it due to the particular virulence of this microbe, or is it due to the fact that this particular single individual was not able to handle HIV very well? And there are instances of people who do have full (INAUDIBLE) courses.

So it's something to stay alert for. Whether or not can you call this a super bug, I have some skepticism about that at this point in time. We need to investigate it further, just the way they are doing that in New York City, which is appropriate. But I think there has been some alarm about whether or not this is going to be a whole new change in HIV in this country, and it's way immature -- way premature to say that.

O'BRIEN: One particular case. And in this case, there are reports this particular person is a drug addict, or has used drugs, and that certainly would have compromised his immune system.

FAUCI: Well, that's true. That's a possibility. And there are other things that some people just naturally, genetically do not handle the virus very well.

The alarm that was put out by the officials in the New York area regarding we must redouble our efforts to emphasize safe sex and emphasize education and behavioral modification is a very important message. Because clearly, there are viruses out there that may not respond nearly as well to therapy as we have seen in the past. So the message is an important message.

There is some concern that the alarm about this being a super bug is something that's getting people unduly concerned. We need to fully investigate this in a very vigorous and aggressive way, which is what they are doing.

O'BRIEN: Well, isn't it the responsibility of health officials, even though they might be very concerned, to get that particular message out, to be very careful with alarms like this so that when it truly is a matter of concern, people will listen?

FAUCI: Yes, that's true. They do a very good job in New York City. The commissioner up there has done an excellent job with HIV/AIDS. I think some of the interpretation of which this was all about has raised some alarm. But I think at the end of the day, the bottom line of alerting people to be really careful is important. Right now, we need to have the science guide any pronouncements and trace this down, and they're doing that. Look for the sexual contacts, determine if in fact those sexual contacts have the same sort of a course, all the things you would do when you track something like this.

O'BRIEN: We hear a lot of anecdotal cases that perhaps warnings about safe sex are not being heeded. What are the statistics showing right now? Is that in fact the case?

FAUCI: Well, what's happening is that we are seeing a degree of complacency in certain circumstances, in certain regions of the country and among certain people. We have a very major advance with therapies that have really transformed and turned around in a positive way the response to HIV. People are leading longer lives, they are actually leading relatively healthy lives.

Unfortunately, this has led to a degree of complacency on some people, who think it's not such a bad thing if you get infected because there are so many options for you. That's a very, very dangerous assumption. That's one of the points that the officials in New York are trying to make. Don't think that this is a trivial disease. It is not good to get infected and you can get into circumstances like this man, where you have a relatively resistant or a highly resistant microbe that could really be a problem. So the message should be we cannot be complacent.

O'BRIEN: Doctor Anthony Fauci with the National Institutes of Health, thank you for your time, sir.

FAUCI: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, last night at the Grammys, yes, the performances were hot. But what about the fashion? Alicia Keys was definitely hot. That's for sure. I wouldn't say all the performances were hot, Miles. Right?

O'BRIEN: I didn't see it. Are you kidding?

PHILLIPS: Miles was reading his NASA handbook.

O'BRIEN: If I was at home, and I had nothing else to do, I still wouldn't have turned it on. Cannot stand the Grammys.

PHILLIPS: But you love "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" couture maven Carson Kressley, right?

O'BRIEN: I love him? What do you mean by that?

PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: This former teacher-turned-lawyer-turned-politician once said, and we quote, "Vice president has such a nice ring to it." As part of CNN's anniversary series "Then and Now," we take a look back at -- you know who it is, right? Geraldine Ferraro. Where is she today?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Political history was made when 1984 Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale named New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. It was the first time a woman was a contender for the country's second highest office on a major party ticket. GERALDINE FERRARO, FMR. VICE PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: Whether it was a rally, whether it was a press conference, whether it was a debate against the vice president of the United States, my biggest concern when I walked in was making sure that I did it right and didn't let down the women.

CORRESPONDENT: The re-election of Ronald Reagan ended her executive office hopes. But Ferraro went on to serve as a U.S. ambassador and after leaving government, moved to CNN's "CROSSFIRE." In 1998 while campaigning for a Senate seat, Ferraro was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a very rare and often fatal blood cancer. She now in what doctors call pathological remission.

Besides raising awareness for myeloma, she's traded the life after politician for a slightly less demanding V.P. role with a global consulting group. Ferraro has been married for 45 years. The mother of three and the grandmother of seven, She considers herself a very lucky person.

FERRARO: I went from being a kid who lost her father and who lived in the South Bronx almost to going into live in the White House. Which just tells you about what this country is all about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes. Here was the moment the Grammy watchers are still talking about. Melissa Etheridge striking a chord with cancer patients everywhere when she appeared doing tribute to the late Janis Joplin. Etheridge, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last October, has been undergoing chemo. Well, her gutsy performance got a well- earned standing ovation.

O'BRIEN: That was a pretty good Janis she did there, too.

107 Grammy categories this year. Going to name them all for you right now. No, we're not going to do that. Just a couple of big winners here. When all of the envelopes were open, it was the late, great Ray Charles who came out with the most Grammy wins. His album of duets, "Genius Loves Company" claimed a total of eight Grammys.

Kanye West, one of Kyra's favorites, came to the show as the most nominated Grammy contender. Kyra thinks he's little cocky. He ended winning three out of his 10 categories, including Best Rap Album for the "College Dropout." and proud, undoubtedly.

PHILLIPS: All right, tomorrow you're going to be able to remember even -- will you be able to remember at least five of those winners?

O'BRIEN: No.

PHILLIPS: What do you think? No? OK. Well... O'BRIEN: Ray Charles, I'll remember that.

PHILLIPS: That's true. We'll never forget him. Well, you're not going to be able to forget Sheryl Crow's gown, if you saw it. Trust me.

O'BRIEN: Oh, to be Lance.

PHILLIPS: Or was there really a ...

O'BRIEN: Please let me be Lance, just for a day.

PHILLIPS: Was there a really a gown there? All right Usher, what's up? Let's get back to Sheryl's dress. Can we get back to Sheryl's dress? Oh, bummer.

O'BRIEN: All right, now, no more hints. Sandy (ph), of course, TiVoed the show.

PHILLIPS: Sandy being your wife, for those that don't know.

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, yes. Frequent viewers know. Fingers still crossed for the Eddie Blazoncyk's Versatones in the ever-popular polka category. Overall, it's true -- ever since the FCC crackdown, you know, it's a bore. It's a snoozer. You're not going to hear any of those words that George Carlin told us about you can't say on TV. And so what we do is we watch -- oh, look at that hair! We look at the outfits there. I feel good, how about you?

PHILLIPS: All right, for the high-fashion lowdown, we turn to "Queer Eye's" Carson Kressley now, who mined the red carpet for fashion nuggets. He talked with, of course, our best looking anchor, CNN's Bill Hemmer.

O'BRIEN: Well-dressed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: First on the screen, want to talk about Usher, Kanye West and Alicia Keys. How did they do last night?

CARSON KRESSLEY, AUTHOR, "OFF THE CUFF": OK. Let's take a look. Well, the big story on the red carpet or the green carpet at the Grammys was everyone wearing white. The guys and the girls. There's a lot of white, a lot of winter white. And for the men, for Kanye and for Usher, really traditional. It wasn't the normal, you know, kind of rock'n'roll thing. Guys were kind of wearing suits and jackets and ties.

HEMMER: It was formal.

KRESSLEY: It was a little formal.

HEMMER: And you give all passing grades on the first one? What about Queen Latifah, how'd she look? KRESSLEY: Queen Latifah -- she had two different looks, one for her arrivals and one for her performance. Both very, very -- kind of demure and kind of quiet. It was all about the bling for Queen Latifah. She's the queen so she was wearing the jewels.

HEMMER: Joss Stone is 17 years young. Did a dynamite performance with Melissa Etheridge last night. What'd you think?

KRESSLEY: She's an amazing, amazing performer. When I saw her on the red carpet, I was like, wow, she's doing Hawaiian music. You know, because the dress was so, like, bold. But then, you have to remember, she's 17 years old, she's wearing something a little bit more appropriate. Not too racy.

HEMMER: Did you notice she was in bare feet when she sang the tribute to Janis Joplin?

KRESSLEY: Yes, I thought that was really cool.

HEMMER: Cool time. Gwen Stefani, what'd you think? The arrival and the performance on the screen now.

KRESSLEY: OK. Gwen, she's really -- Gwen Stefani's the leader of the fashion pack when it comes to the Grammys. And the Grammys are a little bit different than the Oscars or the Golden Globes because you know, it's rock and roll, people can be a little more daring, they can think outside the bun. So I loved her arrival look. I thought she was one of the best dressed people there, just because she takes chances, she has a real look. It's not real safe, but it's usually pretty amazing.

HEMMER: All right, back to the red carpet outside. Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong. She shows up in a -- what, it was a yellow dress?

KRESSLEY: Armstrong yellow, live strong.

HEMMER: Live strong.

KRESSLEY: She had the bracelet on hand and the man himself on the other. I thought she looked great, very, very pretty, soaking up the sun.

HEMMER: How about Nelly? That's the next one on our list here.

KRESSLEY: Oh, Nelly. From one Nelly to the another, love the pale blue jacket. Again, it's another one of the, you know, it's kind of...

HEMMER: Wait a minute, is that pale blue or is that robin egg blue?

KRESSLEY: It's could be robin's egg. Now that you're on saffron, now you're on to robin's egg.

HEMMER: Listen, that's Nelly. Let's go ahead and forward to Maroon 5. They won last for Best New Artist. What did you think?

KRESSLEY: Maroon 5. There was five of them. No maroon in sight. There was some orange, some red, no maroon. Confused me.

HEMMER: Did you notice the armband, though?

KRESSLEY: I did. That was a peace armband.

HEMMER: This thing that we saw in Britain a couple of weeks ago?

KRESSLEY: I think it was either that, or it was supposed to be a 'P' in support of the Black Eyed Peas. I don't know.

HEMMER: I see.

Actor-director Zach Braff won for soundtrack for "Garden State."

KRESSLEY: Right, great movie. Kind of, to me, didn't love what he was wearing, kind of looked like he was just, you know, at the Staples Center, maybe buying some office supplies.

HEMMER: Go, Lakers. Quickly, J.lo and Marc Anthony, in the PJs.

KRESSLEY: Yes, in the PJs, which is unusual. Normally people come out and they take it all off. They actually, you know, had more clothes on underneath.

HEMMER: A progression, wasn't it?

KRESSLEY: It was. I think it was a reaction to last year's nipple-gate. They were not going to be overexposed.

HEMMER: It was bad daytime soap opera scene.

KRESSLEY: It was a little soap opera. I think J.Lo is still recovering from her really big fashion show here in New York, was the first time she showed her collection.

HEMMER: That's right, on Friday.

KRESSLEY: On Friday night. It was an amazing show.

HEMMER: You approved?

KRESSLEY: I approved, yes. It was really, really one of the highlights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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