Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Baltimore Hostage Situation Resolved; Director of "The Beauty Academy Of Kabul" Discusses New Film; Candidates for New Orleans Mayor

Aired April 13, 2006 - 15:30   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Straight to the newsroom again. Carol Lin still following that story out of Baltimore all afternoon. Hopefully it's getting better.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we've got some good news, Kyra. It looks like that lives may have been saved and that hostage negotiators did the best job that they could. CNN's Gary Nurenberg standing by right now outside a police substation, where this hostage taking went down a couple of hours ago -- Gary.

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, as you say, it ended happily for Baltimore police. At 12:06 this afternoon, a burglary suspect was brought into this police station in handcuffs. Somehow he managed to get the handcuffs from in back of him to in front of him, overpowered his arresting officer, who suffered minor injuries in that scuffle, ran down a hallway and locked himself in a room with a civilian clerical worker in the police department.

He obtained what was described as a sharp object believed to be a pair of scissors, and held that civilian employee for just about three hours until the incident ended just a few minutes ago. Police hostage negotiators were in contact with him over the phone. The only demand he made was for cigarettes.

And throughout the conversations that those negotiators had, they were able to convince him to let that hostage go. He is now in custody. The civilian clerical worker is now being debriefed. But it ends happily with no further injuries here in Baltimore. That within just the last five or ten minutes.

LIN: Gary, do you have a sense of what was on the mind of that suspect? I mean, where did he think he was going to go?

NURENBERG: Very good question. When we asked details about, you know, exactly what happened in the scuffle, how was he able to get down the hallway and into this room where the civilian clerical worker was? What took place as he held her? Police are being very closed- lipped at this point until they complete their own investigation. You can imagine the series of questions we asked at that briefing that ended just a few moments ago, but in terms of the specific details, right now we're giving you the best we've got.

LIN: All right. Well, it sounds like the officer is doing well. He wasn't seriously injured. And that civilian employee being debriefed by the police. So Kyra, we're going to stay on top of this story, but a happy ending, we're glad to report.

PHILLIPS: Good stuff. Thanks, Carol.

Word today that Michael Jackson wants to get back in the black financially, and it may cost him one of the prized possessions. No, not Bubbles the chimp.

CNN's Ali Velshi joins me now with all the details.

I'll tell you what. Seeing how much money he spent on the Neverland and then, of course...

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's got a spending -- he's had a spending problem, generally, for a long time. That was before he had all the legal problems. Now, Michael Jackson had had legal expenses ongoing for years, but his legal costs and his lavish lifestyle sort of came to a head when he went on trial.

And, you know, at the end of this thing, part of the problem was that he bought -- in 1985, he bought this ATV catalog. It was a catalog that has 4,000 songs in it. It's got about 200 Beatles hits, it's got "Sweet Caroline" from Neil Diamond. It's got Bob Dylan tunes. And every time one of those tunes gets played, because he's the owner of that library, he gets money. Well, he sold half of that to Sony and it became called the Sony ATV catalog.

And then, long story short, he took out a big loan from Bank of America. Bank of America sold that loan to someone else. Michael Jackson is having trouble making the payments on that, so there's -- they're working out a deal right now, but Michael Jackson may have to sell his part of this catalog.

Now, he bought it for -- what did he buy, $47.5 million back in 1985. That catalog is worth about a billion dollars, some people say, and he's got half of that. So any way you cut it, it's a good return. But he owes almost $400 million right now.

PHILLIPS: Do we even know what his initial interest was in buying -- getting rights to that and purchasing that?

VELSHI: Well, he was a big Beatles fans to start with, and they have a lot of the Beatles songs. But, you know, Michael Jackson has a lot of assets. The problem is he hasn't managed those well, and he spent at a rate that exceeded his income. It didn't exceed his income when he was a big superstar and he was making all that money, but he hasn't released an album in a long time. He hasn't toured in a while.

So his lifestyle -- he kept spending the money and he wasn't getting it in. Now, if you recall, after -- even during his court case, but afterwards, a lot of people said maybe he should go on tour. Maybe he should release another album. He's been a bit reclusive, and one doesn't really know how people would take to that. There was some talk that he might go to Vegas and do a show there.

But the issue is there isn't the income to keep up with what he spent. So we'll have to see whether this works. There might be some chance that he can hold on to the assets, but what Chapter 2 is for Michael Jackson is going to be the big question. What does he do next?

PHILLIPS: Yes, and that will be interesting to follow, to say the least. He's always an interesting story, isn't he?

VELSHI: He is. And we're about 25 minutes away from the close of markets. I want to tell you -- I'll tell you more about it in half an hour, Kyra, but oil has closed within 50 cents of the highest price it's ever closed at. So things to watch out for.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll talk a little bit. Thanks, Ali.

VELSHI: Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: Good to see you.

Tiger Woods did something unusual at last weekend's Masters: he faded down the stretch. Tiger blamed his putting and after his final round, told an interviewer that he putted, in his words, "like a spaz." Well, a British para-Olympian and others took offense to that term, but Tiger says he was just poking fun at himself. According to a statement from his agent, Tiger meant nothing derogatory to any person or persons and apologizes for any offense caused.

Coming up on LIVE FROM, beauty is much more than skin deep in a new film about an extreme makeover for women in Afghanistan. We've got an appointment at the Beauty Academy of Kabul, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: American women spend billions of dollars each year on their appearance, but under the Taliban, Afghan women often paid a much higher price to wear makeup or get their hair cut. When that repressive regime fell, well, a group of hairdressers decided to help these women make up for lost time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I travel a lot, probably over 40 different countries. This is the first country that ever really needed me as far as my skill. I've never saw a country that wanted it so bad, wanted to -- wanted normal. They just wanted normal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, it's a very different kind of extreme makeover in the new film, "The Beauty Academy Of Kabul." Director Liz Mermin joins me now live from New York, changing the world one coat of mascara at a time.

Liz, good to see you.

LIZ MERMIN, FILM DIRECTOR: Thanks, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So I was reading that a number of people, maybe you included, thought this might be kind of a crazy idea at the beginning.

MERMIN: Absolutely. I mean, when I first heard about this school I had the same response probably anybody does when they first hear about it, which is, you know, this has to be the last thing Afghanistan needs right now. You know, they need schools, they need roads, they need hospitals.

But there was a little fact in the article that I read when I first heard about it that said that women under the Taliban were running beauty salons in their houses and, you know, I thought, all right, if they are risking their lives and if they're risking beatings to have a beauty salons, something else must be going on.

PHILLIPS: Well, and that's interesting, because the fact that they were running these privately and being threatened by husbands and other men, shows that they really had a need for economic independence, and not only that, but a need to feel beautiful.

MERMIN: Yes, I mean, absolutely. There's a real economic logic behind this, and a lot of women who were teachers, who were working in government, who had, you know -- social workers, other kinds of jobs, when the Taliban came, they couldn't leave the homes. They couldn't work outside their homes. And this was something they could do in their houses to support their families.

A lot of their husbands had lost their jobs, or they were widows. And, you know, they still had weddings and engagement parties. And that's really what makeup is for in Afghanistan. It's for these gatherings that women have, that families have. And so this became a career that people who would never have considered it started taking seriously because it actually could make them a lot of money.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's take a listen to Debbie (ph) and Anissa (ph), two of the teachers that came out, very passionate about teaching at this academy in Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There needs to be something special about you that makes you different than the woman who is the secretary or, you know, office worker. You can't have fuzzy perms and bad hair color and bad haircuts. It is your job as hairdressers, the most progressive hairdressers, the most trendy and educated hairdressers in Afghanistan, to set the new trend for new hairstyles, new hair color.

It is your responsibility. You're the first class. If you guys don't do it, how can Afghanistan change and get into a more of a modern type look? How will Afghanistan change if you guys don't change?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Liz, I love how you write it's freedom of the burka, that they wanted to find. And boy, Debbie is just so passionate. Did they buy it? Did they get inspired by what she said and understand what she was saying? MERMIN: Well, you know, I mean, what I love about -- the women in that class were so expressive. And you can see them sort of nudging each other and rolling their eyes. And, you know, I think that what they loved about this program was that it was an education and, you know, these are women and girls who have been denied an education for the last 10 years, you know, with the civil war and then the Taliban.

And they liked the attention and they loved hair, and this was a great opportunity for them to do something that they loved and figure out how to make money. And, you know, they took some of what the American teachers told them and the rest of it, you know, what they didn't want, they just sort of laughed off. But I think that it was interesting for them culturally just to be exposed to such a different world view.

PHILLIPS: Well, and I noticed how they became more relaxed. We see them meditating. They learned how to meditate. Some of them thought it was funny, but by the end of the film I saw that they were all into it. And looked like that this sort of feeling of independence, the meditation, the getting in touch with themselves, helped them to be more free in expressing what was hurting them -- what was basically killing their soul under this old regime.

Let's actually go to a sound bite because I want to get you to react to this. It's one of the teachers in your piece and she's learning about how these women feared their husbands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about Fazia (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wasn't here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like Fazia, she says her mother-in-law is sick, and she's in the hospital. She has to cook for her -- take the food to the hospital and take care of the house and the children. If they don't do, their husbands will be upset with them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does that mean exactly when they say that? It seems to me a lot of these women are very fearful of their husbands?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why? Is it because there's verbal abuse going on at home? Is it just the culture here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If a woman does not obey her husband, she looks like a whore.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Wow is right. Liz, I mean, how did that make an impact on you when you learned that?

MERMIN: Well, I mean, you know, I've been following the story about women in Afghanistan for a while. And I think that the teachers that came over from the states, you know, there are a lot of strange moments as you mentioned with meditation and, you know, advice that seemed sort of out of place.

But they really believed that if they went in and taught a course exactly the way they teach it in London or New York, that this psychologically would, you know, allow the women to relax and, you know, move forward and that they would be respecting them the same way they would respect women anywhere else.

Of course, the cultural background and what they had been through made for slightly different -- the students had different needs and different attitudes. I mean, what amazed me meeting these women and knowing what they had been through and hearing them talk about it was just how like lively and fun they were. I mean, they were always joking around with us. They were always sort of asking us questions and teasing us and teasing each other.

PHILLIPS: They had a great sense of humor. They did, they joked around a lot.

MERMIN: They did and, you know, that's part of why I made this film. Right before I made this, I had been working on something about rescue workers in the World Trade Center attack, the anniversary special. A devastating show, but one of the things that came out working on that was that a lot of this anger and grief was being directed kind of indiscriminately at Afghanistan.

And I really wanted to tell a story in Afghanistan that wasn't about war, that wasn't about terrorism, and that just sort of showed what people's lives were like and what people would have to live through, this hell that they have been through there, you know, talked about -- when they weren't talking about war and the things that made them seem -- you know, that showed that they are human beings like we are. I think that that kind of story is important.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's a beautiful film, no pun intended. Liz Mermin, "The Beauty Academy Of Kabul." You got to catch this film. It's wonderful. Thanks, Liz.

MERMIN: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a local election but national news. New Orleans chooses a mayor soon. We're going to take a look at some of the candidates. There's a lot of them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: To rebuild or move on, a dilemma for thousands of people whose homes in New Orleans were flooded in Hurricane Katrina. New government guidelines could help them make up their minds. They call for homes and business in low-lying areas to be raised at least three feet. Owners who fail to do that risk losing out on government money to help rebuild. They could also face higher flood insurance premiums.

Well as you can imagine, the candidates running for New Orleans mayor have all sorts of plans for rebuilding. And they've had to carry them far beyond city limits. This week, hundreds of far-flung New Orleans voters have made their way back to Louisiana to cast ballots early. The polls are closed tomorrow for Good Friday but will reopen for one more day on Saturday. So who's on the ballot? CNN's Alina Cho take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By now, most Americans have heard of Mayor Ray Nagin.

RAY NAGIN (D), MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: Hello there. How are you?

CHO: But what about James Arey? Around New Orleans, he's known as:

JAMES AREY, CANDIDATE FOR NEW ORLEANS MAYOR: The singing mayor.

CHO: The 38-year-old radio show host is one of 23 candidates vying for Nagin's job. Arey's platform? Bringing back the arts.

AREY: Hope to win, don't expect to.

CHO: Arey is running a bare bones campaign.

So is Mac Rahman, an immigrant from India who has lived in New Orleans for 32 years. Rahman owns a restaurant and feels the concerns of small business owners are being ignored. He also believes money pollutes the political process.

MAC RAHMAN, CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: That's why I'm not spending any money.

CHO (on camera): But how do you get your word out then?

RAHMAN: I spent some money on my yard signs.

CHO (voice-over): Twenty-four-year-old candidate Nick Bacque gets his word out on the Internet.

NICK BACQUE, CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: Check it out, dude. Bacque. com.

CHO: The unlikely candidate is a medical student at Tulane and president of all the graduate schools. His message? Getting young professionals back to the Crescent City.

BACQUE: Assuming I don't win the mayoral race, I'll be returning to medical school in the fall.

CHO: Political pundits say only three candidates are serious contenders. Ron Forman, best known for bringing a world class aquarium to New Orleans, is well funded and is building a coalition around business leaders.

RON FORMAN, CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: We need to dream a dream about a different New Orleans. What's the city going to look like? And it's got to be a different New Orleans than the city we left behind.

CHO: Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu's biggest asset may be his name. His sister is U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. His father was the last white mayor of New Orleans, back in the '70s. Landrieu says his base crosses racial lines.

MITCH LANDRIEU, CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: Even though I happen to be -- my skin happens to be white, I have always enjoyed tremendous support in the African-American community and the white community.

CHO: Incumbent Ray Nagin has the best name recognition.

NAGIN: I think most of the candidates don't really understand the challenge of this job. It looks sexy. It's high profile. But there's significant challenges.

CHO: Like managing his image. Who could forget on Martin Luther King Day when Nagin said New Orleans would be a chocolate city again?

NAGIN: I'm kind of speaking to everyone, but as I speak to the white community, it has tended to offend the black community, and vice versa.

CHO: Nagin was elected in 2002 by an overwhelming majority of the white vote. It remains to be seen who voters will support this time. Alina Cho, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And Alina's report first aired on "THE SITUATION ROOM," which you can catch every weekday, 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Primetime edition, 7:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Ali Velshi with the closing bell and big news about oil prices straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well Phillip McKeen flies passenger planes for a living. But he's never forgotten the feeling he had flying down the road on his beloved Yamaha 360. Then somebody swiped it. That was 35 years ago. Fast forward this week, the bike was found in Long Beach, California, bound for Finland. Somebody there had paid about $1,700 for it on eBay. The vehicle I.D. number turned up in the shipping process and McKeen couldn't be happier. He flew from his home in New England and promptly hopped aboard his old bike. He says it's an old friend that has walked back into his life without having aged. Some U.S. critics called it a stinker, but Japanese audiences will be turning up their own noses when "The New World" opens in Tokyo. Thanks to some new fragrance gizmos under theater seats. Terrence Malick of "Pocahontas" and John Smith will feature scents along with that colonial sensibility. Love will smell like flowers, anger brings a whiff of eucalyptus and the tear-jerking scenes enhanced by peppermint and rosemary. Funny? Why not onions? No mention of what scent wafts out when Colin Farrell starts sweating.

The closing bell is about to ring. Ali Velshi, never sweats. He always keeps his cool, standing by live in New York. What do you think? Should we go see a movie and get a whiff?

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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