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American Morning

'Playboy' to Feature 'Women of Enron'

Aired March 28, 2002 - 09:42   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they're not celebrities or models, just the women of Enron. But these days, that's enough. "Playboy" magazine is planning to devote a whole issue to the fallen company's female employees. It is now inviting workers, past and present, to send in snapshots of themselves in bikinis for a future "Women of Enron" pictorial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN KUSTER, "PLAYBOY" MAGAZINE: It just went out yesterday, and we have gotten flooded with phone calls. Anywhere from where do I send my pictures, what do I need to do, and other phone calls that have just been really supportive, where it's like, Although I am not going to do it, I am going to encourage some of my coworkers to do it because I just think it's a great idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And it is not just "Playboy" that is now plugged into Enron. There are five Enron book deals, two feature films in development, and two made-for-TV movies, and those are just the ones that have been announced. And here to help explain why the media is putting so much energy into Enron, Howard Kurtz, "Washington Post" reporter, and host of the CNN program "Reliable Sources." He joins us from Washington this morning.

Good morning, Howard. Nice to see you.

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Same here, Paula.

ZAHN: So, I am just trying to imagine how computer programmers, naked ones at that, and naked secretaries, and naked energy traders are going to sell "Playboy" magazine. How do you think it is going to do?

KURTZ: What I love about this story is it enables people to write these TV teases before commercial. When we come back, first they lost their shirts, now they are taking off their shirts and more. The one thing this story was lacking was sex, except for those reports about male Enron executives keeping a "hottie board" in which they evaluated the physical attributes of female Enron employees.

But, my favorite part of this whole "Playboy" thing, and it is amazing that so many people have responded to this, is the spokeswoman for the magazine, Elizabeth Norris, who said, "this is an opportunity for them," the women, "to do something fun in the midst of the turmoil that is going on in their lives. These are women who are out of a job." As if this was a public works program, as if "Playboy" cared about anybody who didn't have the right measurements to pose for this sort of thing. And what about the middle-aged, overweight men of Enron? What about their self esteem?

ZAHN: I am going to spearhead that drive. I think that would be great. And you know what? People would buy it. But going on to the Enron scandal that is going to be written about in books, you got these alleged dubious accounting practices, and off-shore, you know, partnerships being hidden and all that stuff. Is that really going to be blockbuster material?

KURTZ: Well, you have got some very good journalists working on these books, but there are four or five of them at last count, and the problem they all have is this has been so extensively covered by "Wall Street Journal," "Fortune," "Business Week," "New York Times," you name it, that it is difficult in that environment to come up with a lot that is new.

I also wonder whether these books will deal with the media's own failure, except in the case of a "Fortune" reporter who got onto this early, before Enron's stock came down, when all the analysts who journalists love to quote were saying that Enron was a great company and a great stock. How many of us in this profession went along for the ride.

I have no doubt some of the books will make news, but whether they are going to be best selling material, not six months or a year from now, more than likely, when the books come out, and this may seem like an old story, remains to be seen.

ZAHN: Yes, Sherron Watkins is one of those players that will be interesting to watch. I guess she has just signed on to a half- million dollar book deal through "Texas Monthly" and a writer named Mimi Swartz. Now, she was a compelling figure in all this. Do you see any way that she becomes the next Erin Brockovich?

KURTZ: Not quite. Because although I admire what Sherron Watkins did, she did not blow the whistle publicly. She didn't call in the prosecutors, she was trying to help Ken Lay make things look better in terms of the accounting problems at Enron, and she also sold some of her stock when people didn't know the bad news. I think there might be more interest, though, in her personal story than maybe in some of these other books.

As for the movies, it is really interesting because a lot of them sound like Erin Brockovich goes to Houston, and I think they are going to be sort of heavy on good-looking whistle-blower types taking on the big, bad corporation, and rather light on all that stuff about off- the-books partnerships, and light, too, on the moral ambiguity involved for many of those who worked at Enron, who perhaps were disturbed by the accounting irregularities, to put mildly there, but not wanting to bring down the whole house of cards. So you know, Hollywood loves heroes and villains, there is a whole rose gallery of villains here for these movies. I think they may have to be be a little creative in conjuring up, maybe Harry Potter like, some of the heroes through some pretty creative screen writing.

ZAHN: But some of these movie deals that are being talked about are tied to people who have had such success, have they not, with movies such as the "Insider," Marie Brenner, a reporter for "Vanity Fair," and Lowell Bergman, formerly of CBS News.

KURTZ: Although that did better among the critics than at the box office, I thought it was a great film. But I do think, obviously, when you have heavyweight Hollywood producers here, you may have some very good films, but it is hard to say whether there will be a public appetite. What's interesting to me is the cultural snapshot. For example, journalists in the Watergate Era in the 70's were Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, "All the President's Men." Later on, when the journalistic reputation went down, there were films like "Absence of Malice," in which we were portrayed as knaves and fools.

Well, the equivalent here is, I guess, is in the 80's, Gordon Gekko and other sort of Wall Street high rollers were kind of painted in a sympathetic light. Now, I think, corporate executives in every one of these Enron movies are going to be painted as the bad guys as well, in this case, they should. And that will give us a little insight, I think, into how the culture, the pop culture, that is, interprets the world of business and finance.

ZAHN: The burning question this morning, who plays Ken Lay in any of these movies?

KURTZ: I am not sure I have a great nomination, but I bet you the question of who plays the woman who is blowing the whistle, who is the Erin Brockovich character, that is probably the one -- they'll get a Meryl Streep type, and that will put them in the seats.

ZAHN: I have a nomination, Ed Harris. I think he would be -- I think he would pull that off quite nicely. All right, Howard. Going to have to leave it there this morning. Thank you very much for joining us. I know you have got a column to read -- write. We will let you go.

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