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American Morning
`Showbiz Today Reports': `Blow' Showcases Depp's Incredible Talent
Aired April 06, 2001 - 11:42 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.
LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning everybody.
An Italian-American organization in Chicago wants the HBO mob series "The Sopranos" rubbed out. That city's American-Italian Defense Association has filed a lawsuit against the acclaimed TV show, claiming it implies that most Italian-Americans are involved in organized crime. The group isn't looking for money, just a declaration from a jury that it offends the dignity of Italian- Americans. HBO released a statement saying that it is very proud of the show, and cites reviews that call it, quote, "an extraordinary artistic achievement." Last week's episode of "The Sopranos" has also drawn fire for its violence and sexual portrayals.
OK, who wants to play "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" If you want to, don't head here to New York; instead, go south to Lake Buena Vista, Florida, right outside of Orlando.
That's where our Bill Tush is, and he is at the Disney-MGM theme park with Rege himself to talk about the latest attraction there -- Mr. Bill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Laurin.
Look who we're with: Regis Philbin. We're on the set of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" -- not the TV show; this is down in Orlando, Florida at "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."
REGIS PHILBIN, HOST, "WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?": That's right; play it, right; exactly.
TUSH: Look, you're on TV in the morning, you're on TV at night; you're not coming down here to do this every day are you?
PHILBIN: No, we've got seven Regis look-alikes running around in the shirt and tie doing that.
But I'm impressed. Now, you've been -- we've done this before in New York, and this is three times the size. And I wondered -- and there's the audience getting ready for another show -- but I wondered how we were going to do the "phone a friend," because that's a lot of complicated telephone calling. You know how they do it? They phone a complete stranger.
TUSH: Just anybody?
PHILBIN: Anybody. What they do, is they call one of the hosts out in the park and say pick out anybody and bring them to the phone, and that person comes to the phone and we ask him or her the question.
TUSH: You know, you got to hand it to Disney; they cover all the bases.
PHILBIN: They have covered that one, I'll tell you that.
TUSH: They got 16 microphones, earpieces...
PHILBIN: They take no chances here.
TUSH: This is the board over here. Now, I remember looking at your one in New York, which is computerized.
PHILBIN: Right; now, see, the host will sit here with the mike and the guest will sit right here. Or is it the other way around? I don't know.
TUSH: I guess...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the other way around.
PHILBIN: The other way around; the guest sits in there with the microphone and the host sits here. And the whole thing is duplicated, where it's just like...
TUSH: But the prizes are different.
PHILBIN: Well, the prizes are different.
TUSH: You can't be down here giving away $1 million...
PHILBIN: Can't give $10 million every day.
So what they do is they give them little pins that then are exchangeable for -- you know, if you win $100 or $1,000 you get a T- shirt. It works its way up all the way to a jacket, here. That's a nice jacket.
TUSH: This is perfect for 90-degree Florida weather.
PHILBIN: You take this back home with you -- the CD-ROM. If you win 1 million pins, or $1 million, they fly you to New York for a beautiful stay in New York city. You come to our show, we get to meet and all of that; you have a good weekend in New York.
TUSH: Absolutely. Now let's also talk about the TV show. It's gone 1 million; where are you now?
PHILBIN: You know, Bill, coming up this week, we are going to have a couple of winners. One of them will be the biggest winner in television game show history -- win well over $2 million. We finally, after a long drought of over 188 shows, come up with a winner who wins the big bucks. And I'm talking about $2 million 180 thousand.
TUSH: I remember reading something, too, about they were going to give away the prize with the taxes added to it -- taken away.
PHILBIN: Yes, we did that for a week; H&R Block was going to pick up the taxes for a week in February, and then they left, you know, and then we continued on -- but it's over $2 million.
And then we have another winner on the heels of that one, too; so it's an exciting week on "Millionaire."
TUSH: You're on a roll.
PHILBIN: I think we are.
TUSH: ... "Who Want's to be a Millionaire" live, doing well.
PHILBIN: Look at Bill Tush taking it easy here at Disney World.
TUSH: Hey, Regis Philbin summer line.
PHILBIN: Well you in New York are killing yourself -- look at the Tush man here, taking good care of himself.
TUSH: OK, let's go back to New York.
Rege, good to see you.
PHILBIN: Nice to see you, thanks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYDNEY: And Regis takes good care.
And speaking of final answers, when we return our film critic Peter Travers has his final answer on whether the new Morgan Freeman film, "Along Came a Spider" has any bite to it. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SYDNEY: And it is time now to check out what is new on the big screen this weekend. Among the new flicks is "Blow," starring Johnny Depp. Here's a look at some of the action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BLOW)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Where did you get this stuff?
JOHNNY DEPP, ACTOR: Colombia.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I can't feel my face.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Senor Escobar wants to see you. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: We are going into business together, and I want to start right away.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: How much bigger can we get?
DEPP: The sky's the limit.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Three million; I counted it twice.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Two-point-five, I'm sure.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Where do I put it?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Try the closet!
DEPP: We're going to need a bigger boat.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYDNEY: And speaking -- joining us now is someone who can speak and who hopes that he doesn't "Blow" his segment, like I just did -- "Rolling Stone" and "He Said/She Said" film critic Mr. Peter Travers.
Peter, you're throwing me off a little bit -- usually you do what you don't like and you work up to what you love, but you like this film a lot.
PETER TRAVERS, "ROLLING STONE": But I'm happy with this movie. You know, isn't it nice to see me smiling about a movie for a change?
SYDNEY: Absolutely.
TRAVERS: This is actually a true story. It's a true story of a guy named George Jung who, way back in the '60s decided to leave his Massachusetts home with his nice middle-class mommy and daddy and go to California, be a surfer kid and wound up moving marijuana across the Mexican border, wound up being a drug dealer in cocaine.
Hey, he sounds rotten, doesn't he?
SYDNEY: He does.
TRAVERS: So a lot of people are saying, and they will tell you -- and let them tell you -- that this isn't a nice guy. Well I say to you, Laurin, Tony Soprano isn't a nice guy, either.
SYDNEY: I knew you would get it...
TRAVERS: There it is.
It's fascinating because Johnny Depp is a sensational actor, and this is one of the best parts that he's ever had. Yes, he makes us see that this jerk of a guy -- which is what we have to say he is -- actually does have human qualities. But we also see, in looking for that humanity, something we don't see in movies much anymore: This is a real epic. Ted Demme, the director, is the nephew of Jonathan Demme -- who did this. This is his first really, really good movie. And you know what, if you get bored with the idea of anybody drug dealing, look at those fashions; look at those wigs on Johnny Depp.
SYDNEY: Does that mean that we're going to see ourselves in these fashions...
TRAVERS: You're going to see '60s hippiedom; you're going to see a '70s drug kingpin look and an '80s kind of cocaine look.
Now, this doesn't mean the movie or we are sitting here glamorizing this. It's just fun sometimes to look at this stuff and laugh and say, did we live through this? Is this possible? So the movie gives you that; it gives you a fashion show as well as a serious drama. And I'm saying, let's welcome it because there's a lot of stuff out there...
SYDNEY: And I'm saying let's welcome the fashion, but let's not welcome the drugs.
TRAVERS: No.
SYDNEY: OK.
Let's go on to "Along Came a Spider." What did you think, Peter Travers?
TRAVERS: The star of this movie, Morgan Freeman, is an actor that I admire almost as much as any other actor I admire. And he's playing a character in this -- a detective called Alex Cross, who's in Washington, D.C., works out of the ghetto in D.C. -- is also a shrink. Great character; the subject of many books by James Patterson that are huge bestsellers. Laurin, I read them all. I love these books.
The movies don't know what to do with this character; and I want to say something about Mr. Freeman there: In these books, and in "Along Came a Spider" as a book, it's not just the mystery. he has a life; he has two kids he raises alone with the help of his grandmother and he's got a love life. In this movie -- and the two movies -- "Kiss the Girls" came before it, where he played with Ashley Judd, he is not allowed a love life at all.
He's 63 years old. Sean Connery was 70 years old when he did "Entrapment" with Catherine Zeta-Jones. I'm saying, what's going on out there in Hollywood? Why can't you have let the guy have a love life; also have a neighborhood who live in the society that he's in. It make you question what Hollywood's really about here.
SYDNEY: OK, and let's do a whole other segment on that, because it's just such a horribly interesting point.
TRAVERS: It is; it really is. And while I'm knocking everything, can I put in a gratuitous slam against the movie that's out there called...
SYDNEY: It has to be one word because we've got to go to break right now, Peter.
TRAVERS: Oh, too bad -- don't see "Tomcats." Just stay away from it; you heard that from me.
SYDNEY: OK, but see the break because we'll be back right after this.
SYDNEY: You got it in.
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