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FDA Looks Into Painkillers, Drug Marketing; New Film Documents U.S. Soldiers' War Stories in Iraq; Entertainment News: Celebrity Clothing Lines, Will Smith as Superhero, Extreme Makeover for Bugs Bunny

Aired February 17, 2005 - 14:30   ET

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

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


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking stories now in the news.
Intelligence chief: President Bush nominates John Negroponte to be the nation's first director of national intelligence. Negroponte, a career diplomat, currently ambassador to Iraq. The appointment must go to the Senate for confirmation.

Donald Rumsfeld defends President Bush's request for a five percent increase in defense spending. Speaking before the Armed Senate Services Committee, the defense secretary said the pressure has to be kept on in the war on terrorism. Rumsfeld also admitted again that the U.S. doesn't know the size of the insurgency in Iraq.

Grounded. Phoenix security officers detain a 47-year-old woman after she tells a screener she has a bomb in her bag. The woman was prevented from boarding an America West flight, but the plane carrying her luggage was allowed to take off. It arrived in San Diego, where a check of her luggage revealed nothing. A security official describes it as a nonevent, because all bags have been checked before being put on the plane.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Prescription painkillers are under the microscope in FDA hearings today. The Food and Drug Administration is in its second day of hearings on Capitol Hill.

And in testimony, an FDA scientist says he saw no need for pain drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors. Those drugs, including the withdrawn Vioxx, are blamed for increasing heart risks.

The government is also keeping a close watch on the way prescription drugs are promoted. Several pharmaceutical companies are under scrutiny for questionable practices that may affect you at the doctor's office.

CNN's Drew Griffin reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Schering- Plough wanted to increase sales of its hepatitis drug Intron A, it set up clinical trials and pitched the drug to physicians.

Dr. Chris Pappas says Schering-Plough offered to pay him for every new patient he placed on the trial. DR. CHRIS PAPPAS, ST LUKE'S EPISCOPAL HOSPITAL: It was somewhere around, you know, $1,500 to $2,500 per patient.

GRIFFIN: The problem: doctors say those clinical trials may not have been trials at all, but sales incentives. The company acknowledges the firm's sales practices are under investigation.

When Warner Lambert wanted to boost sales of its epilepsy drug, Neurontin, sales reps told doctors the drug could be prescribed for a lot more ailments than just seizures.

DAVID FRANKLIN, INDUSTRY WHISTLEBLOWER: The company made a very conscious decision to expand what we would actually sell the drug to, to about 15, 15 to 20 other indications, other syndromes, illnesses that we had absolutely no evidence that it was actually effective for.

GRIFFIN: Warner Lambert's promotion of Neurontin for non- approved use was, according to David Franklin, sales rep turned industry whistleblower, strictly a decision to boost sales.

FRANKLIN: The company's own documents said that was about a $400 million a year market, which simply wasn't enough. It didn't justify the -- the R&D, the sales and promotion for that particular product.

GRIFFIN: Far beyond free tickets to ball games, golf outings and expensive dinners, the investigations into some of the biggest drug companies have uncovered outright payoffs made directly to doctors to write prescriptions.

Mike Sullivan is the U.S. attorney in Boston.

MIKE SULLIVAN, U.S. ATTORNEY, BOSTON: I think most patients would be horrified, you know, to think that somehow their physician's judgment could be affected or was affected, you know, based on lavish gifts, lavish trips, stipends, or based on some false information provided through the pharmaceutical industry.

GRIFFIN: False information? That is exactly what Sullivan's prosecutors exposed when it went after Warner Lambert. Last May, Pfizer, which now owns Warner Lambert, pleaded guilty to the off-label promotion of Neurontin and paid a $430 million fine.

In a statement, Pfizer says it "is committed to compliance with all health care laws and FDA requirements and to high ethical standards in all aspects of its businesses practices."

As a whistleblower, David Franklin, the former Warner Lambert sales rep, will receive $26 million of the fine for his help in the case, a financial victory, but Franklin was hoping for much more.

FRANKLIN: We'll change. We'll -- congratulations would be in order when docs can start trusting the information that they're getting.

GRIFFIN: Dr. Chris Pappas is one of those doctors who no longer trusts the information drug companies bring to his office. And he says with good reason.

PAPPAS: What this essentially was a marketing activity in the guise of a clinical trial.

GRIFFIN: Dr. Pappas heads the clinical trial unit at St. Luke's Texas Liver Institute in Houston. When a sales rep showed up, asking him to take part in a clinical trial for the drug Intron A, he said no.

Doctors, he says, were to be paid for their time. Time to fill out paperwork, report their findings, and prove or disprove the effectiveness of the drug. But Dr. Pappas says there was little paperwork, just a promise of a stream of checks for every new patient added to the so-called trial.

PAPPAS: You know, 25 to, you know, maybe $50,000.

GRIFFIN (on camera): To the doctor.

PAPPAS: To the doctor.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Fifty thousand dollars for the doctor, hundreds of thousands for the company in a clinical trial that Dr. Pappas says, if conducted as pitched, was scientifically worthless.

PAPPAS: Well, nobody would admit that it was to prescribe the drug. That's essentially what happened.

GRIFFIN: Schering-Plough says it is now rolling out new standards of business conduct. "Our focus today," the company says, "is on the benefit to the patient, not the benefit to the physician, and that's how we are training our reps."

But Dr. Pappas says it is not just the drug companies that are to blame.

PAPPAS: I think the medical community has not been very responsible in accepting their part of the responsibility for all of this.

GRIFFIN: And now that will be changing. St. Luke's Hospital has begun seminars and instituted guidelines for doctors about gifts and payments from the drug companies.

Other institutions, like Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina have banned all drug company freebies from coffee mugs to lunches and limited when sales reps can see physicians.

But according to the chairman of Duke's pharmacy committee, doctors remain dependent on the drug companies and their sales staff.

DR. PETER KUSSIN, DUKE UNIVERSITY: That's absolutely true. And I think unfortunately, when this has been looked at, the pharmaceutical industry is the major source of information about new medications and new treatments. GRIFFIN: U.S. Attorney Mike Sullivan says his prosecutions have netted $2.2 billion in fines, and that, he says, should be a wake-up call to the industry.

SULLIVAN: The message, I think, is clear to the pharmaceutical industry. You know, that corrupt practices, illegal practices, practices that violate rules, regulations or laws, is not tolerated by this administration and this department.

GRIFFIN (on camera): But David Franklin isn't so optimistic. The prosecutions and settlements here in Boston, even those costing $430 million, are, to the huge pharmaceuticals, just a drop in the bucket.

FRANKLIN: I'm sure there are lots of high fives and slap -- pats on the back at Pfizer when they settled this for $430 million. It's -- it was a stunning success.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, that was CNN's Drew Griffin reporting from Boston.

Now Drew tells us the drug Neurotonin could earn Pfizer $2 billion in sales this year alone. And since it first came on the market in 1994, well, almost 10 million prescriptions have been written for that drug.

And one footnote. CNN did ask PHARMA (ph), the pharmaceutical industry trade association to speak to this story. A spokesman declined to comment, citing anti-trust issues.

Well, next, an action-adventure movie getting rave reviews, but it's not from Hollywood. It's from Iraq. And the stars are real-life American soldiers fighting the insurgents.

O'BRIEN: There's an identity theft warning for thousands of Americans today. Find out if your personal information is at risk.

PHILLIPS: And later, a royal change of venue for the prince and his bride. Details on today's announcement.

O'BRIEN: What's with the tuxedo and the red collar?

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You sit on your couch and you watch the TV, and you go to your 9 to 5 job, and you complain about the pizza being late. There's no way you're going to know how we live here.

Someone being sympathetic to this -- I don't know if I'd be sympathetic if I wasn't in the Army. After you watch this, you're going to go and get your popcorn out of the microwave and talk about what I say. And you'll forget me by the end of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: That's no actor, that's the real deal. And trust me, you won't forget the preliminary "Gunner Palace" after you see it.

Four hundred American soldiers carrying out their mission from a bombed-out pleasure palace built by Saddam Hussein. And what takes place in this film, well, you've never seen it on the news until now.

Director Michael Tucker and Army Captain John Powers join us from Washington from our newsroom there. Gentlemen, good to see you.

CAPT. JOHN POWERS, U.S. ARMY: Good to see you, too.

MICHAEL TUCKER, DIRECTOR, "GUNNER PALACE": Thanks for having us.

PHILLIPS: Michael, let's start with you. And how did you get access like this to the soldiers? And I just can't believe how much candidness you were able to capture without anybody there like a PAO saying, "You can't shoot this."

TUCKER: Well, first, everyone always asks that questions. And I think the simple answer is, I asked them. The Army is very receptive to having people tell their story. At the time there were a lot of freelancers, in-country photographers, writers. And it was very easy to get in there and settle down with them.

The thing that I had on my side was time. I had a lot of patience. I had no schedule. And I was able to gain their trust.

PHILLIPS: John, why did you and the guys trust Michael?

POWERS: Well, we had a lot of cameras with us in the beginning, the time we spent there. And when Mike showed up, he was the first one to actually stay there for over a week. And over a time, he just became a gunner and part of the team.

PHILLIPS: There's a scene -- there's a lot of really candid moments in this movie. But we picked this one. Some of the guys, you guys gathered around a Humvee. Let's take a listen, and then I want to talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This armor was made in Iraq. It's high- quality metal. And it will probably slow down the shrapnel so that it stays in your body instead of going clean through. And that's about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, Michael, we saw this, and we started laughing, because the sad thing is, is this has become a really big issue, where the guys kind of made fun of the fact that, look, we're making up for resources we don't have.

You actually captured this before it even became a big deal and Rumsfeld was presented with the question about hey, when are we going to get more Humvees and more resources? You've got a lot of that, didn't you?

TUCKER: Yes, a lot of that just came out. That's -- one thing that's very different about this film is the gallows humor that comes through. There's a lot of laughter in the film. The soldiers, humor is their coping mechanism, and that's stuff that people haven't seen on the news before.

PHILLIPS: John, did anyone from public affairs say to you, "You guys can't say these things. You can't joke around? You've got to be serious. You've got to be a soldier. And you know, this is not a laughing matter"?

POWERS: No. I don't think anyone said anything that was attacking the military. They were just commenting on the situation, for the most part.

PHILLIPS: Michael...

POWERS: And...

PHILLIPS: I'm sorry, go ahead, John.

POWERS: No, no. Mike interviewed the right guys, too. He interviewed the guys that were candid and honest and told the story as it is.

PHILLIPS: John, tell us about Super Cop and Roy. You guys really developed some interesting relationships with Iraqis. And these two helped you guys a lot.

POWERS: Sure. Super Cop was definitely I'm going to say a man on a mission. He really wanted to clean up the area, clean up Atamnia (ph). And he and Roy teamed up together and were the best informants, best group that we could have, moving around Atamnia (ph), using these guys' information to -- to capture insurgents.

PHILLIPS: Michael, as you met the Iraqis and you spent time with these soldiers in this palace that once was a pleasure palace for Uday, as you got to know the guys and they were so, I guess you could say, very much down to earth with you, is there anything that surprised you about putting this film together?

I mean, obviously, you were watching the news quite a bit. What do you think you got access to or you're able to portray in this film that we don't see any place else?

TUCKER: I think most people have viewed the war through a political lens, and I think what this film shows is the war through an emotional lens.

Again, there's a lot of humor in it. You see a lot of coping going on. You see how guys let off steam. You see it when it's boring, which is a large part of being deployed, is -- is loneliness.

And you also see the emotions about -- about the losses that they've taken. And that's something that hasn't really been talked about in this country, as these soldiers -- I mean, almost every single person who's been deployed has lost someone who they love. And I think that's something that we need to be honest and frank about in the country is that we're two years into a war, and there are losses.

PHILLIPS: "Gunner Palace" is the name of the film. John Powers, Michael Tucker, thanks, guys, for your time today. You can also check out the web site online. It's a good flick. Thanks, guys.

POWERS: Thank you.

TUCKER: Thanks for having us.

O'BRIEN: That's one to see.

Will Smith as superhero. That's the word in Hollywood today.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Big Willie style may be the next caped crusader. And look how Gucci and Dior. Hollywood's taking over the fashion world.

PHILLIPS: Identity theft. Criminals may have hit the motherlode. A data-collecting agency is alerting Americans across the country. We're going to tell you about it just ahead.

O'BRIEN: And next hour on LIVE FROM, Fritz Pollard finally makes it into the NFL Hall of Fame, thanks to the tireless efforts of his grandson. It's what, about 80 years too late?

PHILLIPS: Yes, even more than that.

O'BRIEN: Maybe more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Here's a news flash. Bugs Bunny going Hollywood. He's getting an extreme makeover. And you can make yourself over in celebrity design clothing coming to a store near you.

CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas has more on all these pressing issues live from L.A.

Hello, Sibila.

VARGAS: That's right, Miles, it's all about the makeover. Anyone can have a hit movie or a No. 1 record, but these days it seems the latest must-have among the Hollywood elite is a personal fashion line.

More than 95,000 people flock to Las Vegas each year for the Magic Fashion Convention, many of them keen on seeing which Hollywood A-listers are new to the mix. This year, Jessica Simpson launched her new line for juniors called Sweet Kisses. Oh, how sweet. Pamela Anderson updated her six- month-old line, Pamela, adding a few new casual looks to her Malibu- inspired trends. And even reality princess Nicole Richie was in the mix. She just signed on as the new face of Bongo.

Meanwhile, back here in Hollywood, they literally risk their lives for their art and now the stuntmen of America want their own Oscar. A group of stunt organizations is lobbying the Motion Picture Academy to add a best stunt coordinator statuette to the annual awards show.

Hollywood heavyweights like Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro and Arnold Schwarzenegger have all signed a petition in support of this new category, which already exists in the Emmy Awards.

And no stranger to stunt-film blockbuster, superstar Will Smith is ready to add another action-packed title to the list. Columbia pictures has signed Smith for "Tonight He Comes," the story of a superhero who crash lands in Brooklyn, where he attempts to romance a local housewife. Naughty Will.

No word on what evil force he'll be fighting, but you know, he's already taken on aliens and robots and even a couple of sharks in "Shark Tale."

O'BRIEN: Well, he's certainly -- he's certainly in a lot better shape than Adam West was in the latter days of the "Batman" TV program. Let's -- let's talk about...

VARGAS: He still looks good.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Let's talk Bugs and Botox here.

VARGAS: Bugs and Botox. Well, yes. It's true, Miles. He's not going for the Botox. He's not going for an ear lift, but Bugs Bunny, Daffy and the Looney Tunes gang are going under the pen for a new cartoon series called Loonatics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELMER FUDD, ANIMATED CHARACTER: Rabbit season.

BUGS BUNNY, ANIMATED CHARACTER: Duck season.

FUDD: Rabbit season.

BUNNY: Rabbit season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS: Saying goodbye Bugs Bunny and hello to Buzz Bunny. The rascally rabbit is going from carrot chomper to crime fighter with a new streamlined look.

Set in 2772, the new characters are descendants of the original Looney Tunes in an intergalactic quest for good. The new series will begin airing on the Kids WB Network Saturday mornings this fall.

And Miles, you know, I like the originals, but you know what? Don't feel sorry for them. They're probably somewhere on some island sipping a little bit of Shirley Temples and virgin pina coladas.

O'BRIEN: I'm sure they're doing fine. So now can you do the "That's all, folks"? Can you do that?

VARGAS: That's all, folks.

O'BRIEN: Hey, not bad. All right. Sibila, thank you very much.

VARGAS: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Multitalented Sibila Vargas, appreciate it.

All right. Identity thieves have exploited a weak point at one company. And now the personal information of thousands of Americans may be in the wrong hands. Millions of Miles O'Briens out there charging as we speak, probably.

PHILLIPS: Kathleen Hays, help us out, live from the New York Stock Exchange.

(STOCK REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, the day's top stories are ahead, plus the inspiring story of a football pioneer who finally makes it into the NFL Hall of Fame. His grandson's going to join us live.

O'BRIEN: It's been called the Big Apple for years, but now New York is thinking about changing its slogan. What would you suggest?

PHILLIPS: Let me think about that.

O'BRIEN: How about Gotham City? That's been taken. All right.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Checking stories now in the news.

Smart, highly respected, a sound choice, just a sampling of the reaction to President Bush's nomination of John Negroponte for the new and powerful position of national intelligence director. We'll get reaction from the Pentagon straight ahead.

Keeping the pressure on Syria. President Bush says Damascus is out of step with the progress in the Middle East. The White House has been ratcheting up its rhetoric since Monday's assassination of former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. Mr. Bush says an international investigation will help determine whether Syria was, indeed, involved.

Political arm-twisting in Iraq after election results were certified today. The United Iraqi Alliance, backed by a leading Shiite cleric, got 48 percent of the vote. A Kurdish alliance and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list round out the top three. No single group achieved the two-thirds majority needed to pick a president and two deputy presidents, however.

Microsoft recalling more than 14 million Xbox video players. The company says a faulty power cord can cause them to overheat. In the U.S. the recall affects all Xboxes made before October 23, 2003. Replacement cords can be ordered at Xbox.com.

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 February 17, 2005 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking stories now in the news.
Intelligence chief: President Bush nominates John Negroponte to be the nation's first director of national intelligence. Negroponte, a career diplomat, currently ambassador to Iraq. The appointment must go to the Senate for confirmation.

Donald Rumsfeld defends President Bush's request for a five percent increase in defense spending. Speaking before the Armed Senate Services Committee, the defense secretary said the pressure has to be kept on in the war on terrorism. Rumsfeld also admitted again that the U.S. doesn't know the size of the insurgency in Iraq.

Grounded. Phoenix security officers detain a 47-year-old woman after she tells a screener she has a bomb in her bag. The woman was prevented from boarding an America West flight, but the plane carrying her luggage was allowed to take off. It arrived in San Diego, where a check of her luggage revealed nothing. A security official describes it as a nonevent, because all bags have been checked before being put on the plane.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Prescription painkillers are under the microscope in FDA hearings today. The Food and Drug Administration is in its second day of hearings on Capitol Hill.

And in testimony, an FDA scientist says he saw no need for pain drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors. Those drugs, including the withdrawn Vioxx, are blamed for increasing heart risks.

The government is also keeping a close watch on the way prescription drugs are promoted. Several pharmaceutical companies are under scrutiny for questionable practices that may affect you at the doctor's office.

CNN's Drew Griffin reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Schering- Plough wanted to increase sales of its hepatitis drug Intron A, it set up clinical trials and pitched the drug to physicians.

Dr. Chris Pappas says Schering-Plough offered to pay him for every new patient he placed on the trial. DR. CHRIS PAPPAS, ST LUKE'S EPISCOPAL HOSPITAL: It was somewhere around, you know, $1,500 to $2,500 per patient.

GRIFFIN: The problem: doctors say those clinical trials may not have been trials at all, but sales incentives. The company acknowledges the firm's sales practices are under investigation.

When Warner Lambert wanted to boost sales of its epilepsy drug, Neurontin, sales reps told doctors the drug could be prescribed for a lot more ailments than just seizures.

DAVID FRANKLIN, INDUSTRY WHISTLEBLOWER: The company made a very conscious decision to expand what we would actually sell the drug to, to about 15, 15 to 20 other indications, other syndromes, illnesses that we had absolutely no evidence that it was actually effective for.

GRIFFIN: Warner Lambert's promotion of Neurontin for non- approved use was, according to David Franklin, sales rep turned industry whistleblower, strictly a decision to boost sales.

FRANKLIN: The company's own documents said that was about a $400 million a year market, which simply wasn't enough. It didn't justify the -- the R&D, the sales and promotion for that particular product.

GRIFFIN: Far beyond free tickets to ball games, golf outings and expensive dinners, the investigations into some of the biggest drug companies have uncovered outright payoffs made directly to doctors to write prescriptions.

Mike Sullivan is the U.S. attorney in Boston.

MIKE SULLIVAN, U.S. ATTORNEY, BOSTON: I think most patients would be horrified, you know, to think that somehow their physician's judgment could be affected or was affected, you know, based on lavish gifts, lavish trips, stipends, or based on some false information provided through the pharmaceutical industry.

GRIFFIN: False information? That is exactly what Sullivan's prosecutors exposed when it went after Warner Lambert. Last May, Pfizer, which now owns Warner Lambert, pleaded guilty to the off-label promotion of Neurontin and paid a $430 million fine.

In a statement, Pfizer says it "is committed to compliance with all health care laws and FDA requirements and to high ethical standards in all aspects of its businesses practices."

As a whistleblower, David Franklin, the former Warner Lambert sales rep, will receive $26 million of the fine for his help in the case, a financial victory, but Franklin was hoping for much more.

FRANKLIN: We'll change. We'll -- congratulations would be in order when docs can start trusting the information that they're getting.

GRIFFIN: Dr. Chris Pappas is one of those doctors who no longer trusts the information drug companies bring to his office. And he says with good reason.

PAPPAS: What this essentially was a marketing activity in the guise of a clinical trial.

GRIFFIN: Dr. Pappas heads the clinical trial unit at St. Luke's Texas Liver Institute in Houston. When a sales rep showed up, asking him to take part in a clinical trial for the drug Intron A, he said no.

Doctors, he says, were to be paid for their time. Time to fill out paperwork, report their findings, and prove or disprove the effectiveness of the drug. But Dr. Pappas says there was little paperwork, just a promise of a stream of checks for every new patient added to the so-called trial.

PAPPAS: You know, 25 to, you know, maybe $50,000.

GRIFFIN (on camera): To the doctor.

PAPPAS: To the doctor.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Fifty thousand dollars for the doctor, hundreds of thousands for the company in a clinical trial that Dr. Pappas says, if conducted as pitched, was scientifically worthless.

PAPPAS: Well, nobody would admit that it was to prescribe the drug. That's essentially what happened.

GRIFFIN: Schering-Plough says it is now rolling out new standards of business conduct. "Our focus today," the company says, "is on the benefit to the patient, not the benefit to the physician, and that's how we are training our reps."

But Dr. Pappas says it is not just the drug companies that are to blame.

PAPPAS: I think the medical community has not been very responsible in accepting their part of the responsibility for all of this.

GRIFFIN: And now that will be changing. St. Luke's Hospital has begun seminars and instituted guidelines for doctors about gifts and payments from the drug companies.

Other institutions, like Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina have banned all drug company freebies from coffee mugs to lunches and limited when sales reps can see physicians.

But according to the chairman of Duke's pharmacy committee, doctors remain dependent on the drug companies and their sales staff.

DR. PETER KUSSIN, DUKE UNIVERSITY: That's absolutely true. And I think unfortunately, when this has been looked at, the pharmaceutical industry is the major source of information about new medications and new treatments. GRIFFIN: U.S. Attorney Mike Sullivan says his prosecutions have netted $2.2 billion in fines, and that, he says, should be a wake-up call to the industry.

SULLIVAN: The message, I think, is clear to the pharmaceutical industry. You know, that corrupt practices, illegal practices, practices that violate rules, regulations or laws, is not tolerated by this administration and this department.

GRIFFIN (on camera): But David Franklin isn't so optimistic. The prosecutions and settlements here in Boston, even those costing $430 million, are, to the huge pharmaceuticals, just a drop in the bucket.

FRANKLIN: I'm sure there are lots of high fives and slap -- pats on the back at Pfizer when they settled this for $430 million. It's -- it was a stunning success.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, that was CNN's Drew Griffin reporting from Boston.

Now Drew tells us the drug Neurotonin could earn Pfizer $2 billion in sales this year alone. And since it first came on the market in 1994, well, almost 10 million prescriptions have been written for that drug.

And one footnote. CNN did ask PHARMA (ph), the pharmaceutical industry trade association to speak to this story. A spokesman declined to comment, citing anti-trust issues.

Well, next, an action-adventure movie getting rave reviews, but it's not from Hollywood. It's from Iraq. And the stars are real-life American soldiers fighting the insurgents.

O'BRIEN: There's an identity theft warning for thousands of Americans today. Find out if your personal information is at risk.

PHILLIPS: And later, a royal change of venue for the prince and his bride. Details on today's announcement.

O'BRIEN: What's with the tuxedo and the red collar?

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You sit on your couch and you watch the TV, and you go to your 9 to 5 job, and you complain about the pizza being late. There's no way you're going to know how we live here.

Someone being sympathetic to this -- I don't know if I'd be sympathetic if I wasn't in the Army. After you watch this, you're going to go and get your popcorn out of the microwave and talk about what I say. And you'll forget me by the end of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: That's no actor, that's the real deal. And trust me, you won't forget the preliminary "Gunner Palace" after you see it.

Four hundred American soldiers carrying out their mission from a bombed-out pleasure palace built by Saddam Hussein. And what takes place in this film, well, you've never seen it on the news until now.

Director Michael Tucker and Army Captain John Powers join us from Washington from our newsroom there. Gentlemen, good to see you.

CAPT. JOHN POWERS, U.S. ARMY: Good to see you, too.

MICHAEL TUCKER, DIRECTOR, "GUNNER PALACE": Thanks for having us.

PHILLIPS: Michael, let's start with you. And how did you get access like this to the soldiers? And I just can't believe how much candidness you were able to capture without anybody there like a PAO saying, "You can't shoot this."

TUCKER: Well, first, everyone always asks that questions. And I think the simple answer is, I asked them. The Army is very receptive to having people tell their story. At the time there were a lot of freelancers, in-country photographers, writers. And it was very easy to get in there and settle down with them.

The thing that I had on my side was time. I had a lot of patience. I had no schedule. And I was able to gain their trust.

PHILLIPS: John, why did you and the guys trust Michael?

POWERS: Well, we had a lot of cameras with us in the beginning, the time we spent there. And when Mike showed up, he was the first one to actually stay there for over a week. And over a time, he just became a gunner and part of the team.

PHILLIPS: There's a scene -- there's a lot of really candid moments in this movie. But we picked this one. Some of the guys, you guys gathered around a Humvee. Let's take a listen, and then I want to talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This armor was made in Iraq. It's high- quality metal. And it will probably slow down the shrapnel so that it stays in your body instead of going clean through. And that's about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, Michael, we saw this, and we started laughing, because the sad thing is, is this has become a really big issue, where the guys kind of made fun of the fact that, look, we're making up for resources we don't have.

You actually captured this before it even became a big deal and Rumsfeld was presented with the question about hey, when are we going to get more Humvees and more resources? You've got a lot of that, didn't you?

TUCKER: Yes, a lot of that just came out. That's -- one thing that's very different about this film is the gallows humor that comes through. There's a lot of laughter in the film. The soldiers, humor is their coping mechanism, and that's stuff that people haven't seen on the news before.

PHILLIPS: John, did anyone from public affairs say to you, "You guys can't say these things. You can't joke around? You've got to be serious. You've got to be a soldier. And you know, this is not a laughing matter"?

POWERS: No. I don't think anyone said anything that was attacking the military. They were just commenting on the situation, for the most part.

PHILLIPS: Michael...

POWERS: And...

PHILLIPS: I'm sorry, go ahead, John.

POWERS: No, no. Mike interviewed the right guys, too. He interviewed the guys that were candid and honest and told the story as it is.

PHILLIPS: John, tell us about Super Cop and Roy. You guys really developed some interesting relationships with Iraqis. And these two helped you guys a lot.

POWERS: Sure. Super Cop was definitely I'm going to say a man on a mission. He really wanted to clean up the area, clean up Atamnia (ph). And he and Roy teamed up together and were the best informants, best group that we could have, moving around Atamnia (ph), using these guys' information to -- to capture insurgents.

PHILLIPS: Michael, as you met the Iraqis and you spent time with these soldiers in this palace that once was a pleasure palace for Uday, as you got to know the guys and they were so, I guess you could say, very much down to earth with you, is there anything that surprised you about putting this film together?

I mean, obviously, you were watching the news quite a bit. What do you think you got access to or you're able to portray in this film that we don't see any place else?

TUCKER: I think most people have viewed the war through a political lens, and I think what this film shows is the war through an emotional lens.

Again, there's a lot of humor in it. You see a lot of coping going on. You see how guys let off steam. You see it when it's boring, which is a large part of being deployed, is -- is loneliness.

And you also see the emotions about -- about the losses that they've taken. And that's something that hasn't really been talked about in this country, as these soldiers -- I mean, almost every single person who's been deployed has lost someone who they love. And I think that's something that we need to be honest and frank about in the country is that we're two years into a war, and there are losses.

PHILLIPS: "Gunner Palace" is the name of the film. John Powers, Michael Tucker, thanks, guys, for your time today. You can also check out the web site online. It's a good flick. Thanks, guys.

POWERS: Thank you.

TUCKER: Thanks for having us.

O'BRIEN: That's one to see.

Will Smith as superhero. That's the word in Hollywood today.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Big Willie style may be the next caped crusader. And look how Gucci and Dior. Hollywood's taking over the fashion world.

PHILLIPS: Identity theft. Criminals may have hit the motherlode. A data-collecting agency is alerting Americans across the country. We're going to tell you about it just ahead.

O'BRIEN: And next hour on LIVE FROM, Fritz Pollard finally makes it into the NFL Hall of Fame, thanks to the tireless efforts of his grandson. It's what, about 80 years too late?

PHILLIPS: Yes, even more than that.

O'BRIEN: Maybe more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Here's a news flash. Bugs Bunny going Hollywood. He's getting an extreme makeover. And you can make yourself over in celebrity design clothing coming to a store near you.

CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas has more on all these pressing issues live from L.A.

Hello, Sibila.

VARGAS: That's right, Miles, it's all about the makeover. Anyone can have a hit movie or a No. 1 record, but these days it seems the latest must-have among the Hollywood elite is a personal fashion line.

More than 95,000 people flock to Las Vegas each year for the Magic Fashion Convention, many of them keen on seeing which Hollywood A-listers are new to the mix. This year, Jessica Simpson launched her new line for juniors called Sweet Kisses. Oh, how sweet. Pamela Anderson updated her six- month-old line, Pamela, adding a few new casual looks to her Malibu- inspired trends. And even reality princess Nicole Richie was in the mix. She just signed on as the new face of Bongo.

Meanwhile, back here in Hollywood, they literally risk their lives for their art and now the stuntmen of America want their own Oscar. A group of stunt organizations is lobbying the Motion Picture Academy to add a best stunt coordinator statuette to the annual awards show.

Hollywood heavyweights like Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro and Arnold Schwarzenegger have all signed a petition in support of this new category, which already exists in the Emmy Awards.

And no stranger to stunt-film blockbuster, superstar Will Smith is ready to add another action-packed title to the list. Columbia pictures has signed Smith for "Tonight He Comes," the story of a superhero who crash lands in Brooklyn, where he attempts to romance a local housewife. Naughty Will.

No word on what evil force he'll be fighting, but you know, he's already taken on aliens and robots and even a couple of sharks in "Shark Tale."

O'BRIEN: Well, he's certainly -- he's certainly in a lot better shape than Adam West was in the latter days of the "Batman" TV program. Let's -- let's talk about...

VARGAS: He still looks good.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Let's talk Bugs and Botox here.

VARGAS: Bugs and Botox. Well, yes. It's true, Miles. He's not going for the Botox. He's not going for an ear lift, but Bugs Bunny, Daffy and the Looney Tunes gang are going under the pen for a new cartoon series called Loonatics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELMER FUDD, ANIMATED CHARACTER: Rabbit season.

BUGS BUNNY, ANIMATED CHARACTER: Duck season.

FUDD: Rabbit season.

BUNNY: Rabbit season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS: Saying goodbye Bugs Bunny and hello to Buzz Bunny. The rascally rabbit is going from carrot chomper to crime fighter with a new streamlined look.

Set in 2772, the new characters are descendants of the original Looney Tunes in an intergalactic quest for good. The new series will begin airing on the Kids WB Network Saturday mornings this fall.

And Miles, you know, I like the originals, but you know what? Don't feel sorry for them. They're probably somewhere on some island sipping a little bit of Shirley Temples and virgin pina coladas.

O'BRIEN: I'm sure they're doing fine. So now can you do the "That's all, folks"? Can you do that?

VARGAS: That's all, folks.

O'BRIEN: Hey, not bad. All right. Sibila, thank you very much.

VARGAS: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Multitalented Sibila Vargas, appreciate it.

All right. Identity thieves have exploited a weak point at one company. And now the personal information of thousands of Americans may be in the wrong hands. Millions of Miles O'Briens out there charging as we speak, probably.

PHILLIPS: Kathleen Hays, help us out, live from the New York Stock Exchange.

(STOCK REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, the day's top stories are ahead, plus the inspiring story of a football pioneer who finally makes it into the NFL Hall of Fame. His grandson's going to join us live.

O'BRIEN: It's been called the Big Apple for years, but now New York is thinking about changing its slogan. What would you suggest?

PHILLIPS: Let me think about that.

O'BRIEN: How about Gotham City? That's been taken. All right.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Checking stories now in the news.

Smart, highly respected, a sound choice, just a sampling of the reaction to President Bush's nomination of John Negroponte for the new and powerful position of national intelligence director. We'll get reaction from the Pentagon straight ahead.

Keeping the pressure on Syria. President Bush says Damascus is out of step with the progress in the Middle East. The White House has been ratcheting up its rhetoric since Monday's assassination of former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. Mr. Bush says an international investigation will help determine whether Syria was, indeed, involved.

Political arm-twisting in Iraq after election results were certified today. The United Iraqi Alliance, backed by a leading Shiite cleric, got 48 percent of the vote. A Kurdish alliance and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list round out the top three. No single group achieved the two-thirds majority needed to pick a president and two deputy presidents, however.

Microsoft recalling more than 14 million Xbox video players. The company says a faulty power cord can cause them to overheat. In the U.S. the recall affects all Xboxes made before October 23, 2003. Replacement cords can be ordered at Xbox.com.

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