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American Morning
Eartha Kitt: `Rejuvenated' at 74
Aired April 30, 2001 - 11:39 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking in with Laurin Sydney.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Sounds good -- showbiz news -- what's happening, Laurin?
LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn and Kyra.
A lot of stuff is happening. We are coming to you today from Studio B, right here in New York.
It is two days and counting as Hollywood braces itself for the possibility of a writers' strike. Negotiations between the Writers' Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers continued behind closed doors this weekend in an effort to avoid a shutdown of production.
The writers' contract expires at midnight tomorrow night. Writers want more money from overseas broadcasts and the sales of videocassettes and DVD's. While the writers could walk out, it's believed that the two sides will continue to bargain past the contract deadline.
Attorneys for Robert Downey Jr. are inside an Indio, California courtroom at this hour, seeking a continuance for a trial on drug charges. Downey was busted last Thanksgiving in a Palm Springs hotel room and faces felony possession charges. Downey finds himself back in court this Friday on separate drug charges stemming from his arrest last week in Culver City, California on charges of being under the influence.
Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen has confirmed that he is suffering from an undisclosed form of cancer. He wrote on the band's Web site that he hopes to be free of the disease in the near future. Last May, the musician spent time in a Houston-based cancer prevention program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EARTHA KITT, ACTRESS (singing): It's impossible, for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage. Impossible, for a plain...
(END VIDEO CLIP) SYDNEY: It's not impossible. Several generations have fallen under the spell of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella," now on national tour starring the legendary Eartha Kitt as the Fairy Godmother. But this is not your grandmother's fairy godmother, this one is an original. She has a brand new autobiography out. It is called "Rejuvenate." It's right here and this is in stores today: "The Emperor's New Groove.
And right here is the legendary one and only Eartha Kitt. Thank you for stopping by.
KITT: Thank you, Laurin. And so is the book, they're both out today.
Yes, and I'm having a wonderful time doing "Cinderella..."
SYDNEY: ... you look like you are.
KITT: ... as the Fairy Godmother.
SYDNEY: But talk to me about the new godmother -- no wands, no stuff like that -- a very Eartha Kitt Fairy Godmother.
KITT: Well, I think that's why they hired me, because of the basic face-to-face honesty of the character because I play her as the spirit of Cinderella's mother. And whenever you see the dove, then you know the mother is somewhere in the area. And she teases Cinderella to make her realize self-empowerment. The magic is within you. Nobody can do it for you, only you can.
SYDNEY: And no one knows that better than you. In fact, you can identify with Cinderella because you yourself had, kind of, a very rough childhood.
KITT: Yes, but look what happened.
(LAUGHTER)
SYDNEY: You've become a godmother.
KITT: The public became my fairy godmother. Thank you to the public because if it wasn't for the public, I don't know what would have happened to me, if they did not accept me. They were the ones who adopted me when nobody else did. And then they allowed me to become my own fairy godmother after that. So, I'm very lucky. I'm very lucky
SYDNEY: Eartha, "People" magazine said of you that you are one of the most enduring entertainment icons there has ever been. And Orson Welles has called you "the most exciting woman in the whole wide world." What do you call yourself.
KITT: The most exciting woman in the whole world.
(LAUGHTER) KITT: I know, I'm teasing. But as a basic understanding of myself, I do realize how exciting it has been for me to have been able to do the things that I have done, and with the inability of the public to have allowed this giving of the helping hand -- that with all of the manure that has been thrown on me, I use it as fertilizer and here I am -- ta-da!
(LAUGHTER)
SYDNEY: You say that so nicely. And here you are -- ta-da! -- at 74 years old. And in the book, "Rejuvenate," every single page has the whole path of how you are -- how you are right now -- and remaining the most exciting woman in the world.
KITT: Well, I feel that every woman in the world should feel that she is the most exciting woman in the world. And what the gods have given us is what we should try to protect to the best of our ability. And we do a lot of stupid things to take away the beauty that the gods have given us.
So, in the book, I'm trying to tell them that you don't have to have a lot of money in order to rejuvenate yourself. You can do it with your own housecleaning, for instance, and I know that most of us say, "I've got to clean the house today, it's spring." And everything that we do is a form of exercise, and everything that we put on our plate is a form of saying, "I'm taking care of myself so that I can be healthier, so that I don't need these stupid insurance things that are overcharging us anyway, in very many cases."
SYDNEY: And you're very honest about sex in the book.
KITT: Oh, you got to that part.
(LAUGHTER)
SYDNEY: Of course, I did. I'm not going to skip that chapter. I have to learn from you Eartha!
KITT: Actually, every moment of my life has been so exciting and now I have one of the most exciting women in my life, my daughter. And I see what kind of a life she lives herself with her children and her husband. Not that she's married anymore -- they're divorced, but now they're better friends and the best parents in the world that I can see in front of me. And it gives me tremendous feeling to realize that the value that I have put in her -- that she is now sharing it with her children and also sharing it with me. So we've helped each other grow up a lot.
SYDNEY: And thank you for sharing it with us.
KITT: My pleasure.
SYDNEY: I know why you have a new groove...
KITT: "Emperor's New Groove" and "Rejuvenating."
(LAUGHTER)
SYDNEY: And she's a great commercial spokesperson for herself, but why not?
KITT: And "Cinderella" opens Thursday...
SYDNEY: Thank you so much
KITT: At Madison Square Garden. Ta-da!
SYDNEY: And a set of tours throughout the United States for the rest of the summer. Eartha, you are everyone's godmother.
KITT: Thank you very much.
SYDNEY: Little bit later today, we will have more on the possibility of a strike by Hollywood writers. Untill then, in New York, I'm Laurin Sydney.
And now back to the very striking -- and I say that in a positive way -- Daryn and Kyra in Atlanta.
KAGAN: Oh my!
PHILLIPS: She's so good to us.
(CROSSTALK)
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