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American Morning

Showbiz Today Reports: Eddie Van Halen Has Cancer; "TIME" Reporter Discusses Hollywood Writers' Strike

Aired April 30, 2001 - 10:37   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: A veteran rocker has some sobering news, and there are fast cars at the box office.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Okwu is in New York to tell us about that and more in our "Showbiz Today Reports" -- Michael.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, guys. And good morning to everyone.

The front man for the rock band Van Halen has broken some bad news to his fans. Eddie Van Halen confirmed reports that he has cancer, but said he is beating the disease. The 44-year-old rocker made the announcement on the group's Web site, but did not identify the type of cancer. He said he is being treated by oncologists and head and neck surgeons in Los Angeles. Last year, Van Halen underwent what was described as preventive treatment for tongue cancer.

Shifting gears now to the movies, it took some pretty fast cars to win the box-office race.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OKWU (voice-over): "Driven" took the pole position in its box office debut and sped past last week's leader, "Bridget Jones' Diary." The race car flick, starring Sylvester Stallone, finished in first place, with an estimated $13.1 million.

Audiences still found "Bridget Jones' Diary" dear. The romantic comedy, which stars Renee Zellweger and is based on the best-selling book, brought in an estimated $7.5 million for second place.

The family of spies got plenty of eyes again this weekend: "Spy Kids" landed in third place, with an estimated $5.7 million. Antonio Banderas plays pop to a couple of junior James Bonds.

"Along Came a Spider" came along very closely after that, with an estimated $5.65 million. The thriller with Morgan Freeman and Monica Potter playing lead ended up in fourth.

And in fifth place was "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles." Paul Hogan's return in the Aussie-out-of-water adventure earned an estimated $4.7 million.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Actor Robert Downey Jr. won't be seen in any movies anytime soon. He's in a drug treatment facility after another arrest last week on drug charges.

Meanwhile, his lawyers will be in court this morning disputing the legality of an earlier arrest.

CNN's Paul Vercammen is on watch at the court in Indio, California.

Paul, what's the latest?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, here's the latest, Michael. As you said, his lawyers will appear here in court this morning, and Robert Downey Jr. will not be here. This was to be the beginning of his preliminary hearing on the drug charges that stem from his arrest in Riverside County, over Thanksgiving weekend, in his Palm Springs hotel suite. The lawyers have filed a 300 page motion, and they are contesting the legality of the search of Downey's hotel room. They also are trying to get rid of one of those felony changes, felony position of Valium.

At times, it probably seems like you need a scorecard to keep up with everything that's going on on Robert Downey Jr.'s legal fronts. We understand now that results of his urinalysis from his recent arrest in Culver City will be out by Wednesday.

And in talking to corrections officials, if Robert Downey Jr. does stay in a treatment center for a long time, they will recommend that he be allowed to work. They say that's very much a part of his rehabilitation process. So let's say that, hypothetically, he's in the live-in rehabilitation center for quite awhile: There is a scenario where we could come to and from various shoots. We'll have to see what happens with that.

Of course, shoots in Hollywood are very much up in the air because the other talk of the town right now is this possible and impending writers' strike. The writers negotiated with the producers over the weekend. It did not bear fruitful results. So far, there is no deal on the table, and the writers are set to walk out in less than 48 hours. We understand that they will stay at the negotiating table and try to hammer out some sort of deal well past tomorrow's strike deadline.

So that is the latest here on several fronts -- the Robert Downey Jr. legal front and, of course, that impending writers' strike front.

Now back to Daryn Kagan, in Atlanta.

KAGAN: Paul Vercammen, thank you so much,

We're going to talk to a writer for "TIME" magazine, James Poniewozik. He's been covering this and brings us the latest

James, good morning. JAMES PONIEWOZIK, "TIME": Good morning.

KAGAN: I think we're about 30 days away from the deadline, which would be midnight Tuesday to Wednesday. Do you think the writers are going to strike?

PONIEWOZIK: It's really a tossup at this point. I'd hate to be forced to bet on it. I do think it's at least a good sign that the writers have, basically, being locked up in negotiations, not talking to the media, not negotiating through the media. It shows that, at least, they're committed, but there still seems to be a substantial chance of a strike at this point.

KAGAN: We refer to them generically as the writers. Really, we're talking about 11,000 people that are split into kind of into two camps: There are those that write, basically, for television and those that write for film, and they have very different issues.

PONIEWOZIK: That's right: There are more writers for television, generally speaking, than there are for film. In film, there's more importance to certain sorts of symbolic issues, like the possessary credit.

KAGAN: They want respect. It's kind of like Rodney Dangerfield. We write all this here for you guys, and we get no respect from this town.

PONIEWOZIK: Basically. Particularly film is treated as much more of a director's medium. Directors get far more credit for "creating" a film than the person who writes the script. The writers in film want a greater share of that. In television, it's more about money, in particular residuals -- or in lay terms, the writers want more money for reuses of their material when they're sold overseas for videocassette on cable. That is the bigger, more substantive sticking point that they're haggling over.

KAGAN: Let's talk abut what if. Let's say the writers do go on strike: What kind of world are we looking toward, then, when we turn on the television or go to the movies?

PONIEWOZIK: You're looking, on television, at six different editions of "The Mole" on various networks.

KAGAN: Oh, no, don't say it's so. A lot of reality television, you're saying.

PONIEWOZIK: A lot of reality television and more news magazines and movies. You will also see a certain amount of new television even if there's a strike next fall, because some of the networks have banked a certain amount of new episodes in advance of a strike. But that can only last so long. There's going to have to be a lot of falling back on conscripted new programming. So count on a lot of reality television and news, in particular.

In film, again, you have a bank of films. Hollywood has gone into overdrive making new films in preparation for a strike. At some point, that has to run out. The question is whether the greater hurt goes on.

KAGAN: And of course, we're not just talking writers. We also have the Screen Actors Guild discussing a strike. As the writers go, do the actors? Is it pretty much a given that if the writers do go on strike, you can expect SAG to follow up?

PONIEWOZIK: They're not operating, but certainly, the actors' deal is coming up at the end of June, and the fact is that if you have one element of the industry striking at a point, you have a greater deal of leverage to strike yourself. So certainly, that's looming and is a great possibility if the writers do go on strike and it's still unresolved at that point.

KAGAN: Any way you look at it, it sounds like it might be time to get comfortable with a good book, or perhaps a good magazine, like "TIME," or watch CNN -- we're nonunion.

James Poniewozik from "TIME" magazine, thanks a lot.

PONIEWOZIK: Thank you.

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