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American Morning
90-Second Pop, Culture Watch
Aired August 04, 2003 - 07:49 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for the lightning fast feature we call "90-Second Pop. Our three experts are going to bring the heat as we look at the world of pop culture this morning.
And with us this morning, Toure, contributing editor for "Rolling Stone" magazine, B.J. Sigesmund, "Newsweek" entertainment reporter, and Andy Borowitz, author of "Who Moved my Soap: the CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison." Do you think Sam Waksal is reading that one right now?
Anyway, that's a different topic for a different day. We are going to start right now with 90 second on Kobe Bryant. All right, he wins the Teen Choice Award as best athlete. And the show actually airs the first day of the trial.
TOURE, "ROLLING STONE" MAGAZINE: Yes, yes.
HARRIS: Toure?
TOURE: But the important thing is that he went, and so it's part of this whole theater thing of I'm innocent -- the I am innocent dance. I am still going out to my public appearances. I am buying this big ring for my wife, so we're committed, we're together. The whole thing is just, look, everybody, I'm innocent, I'm innocent.
HARRIS: All P.R. though.
B.J. SIGESMUND, "NEWSWEEK" MAGAZINE: I think it also, you know, shows that kids and teenagers still really like him. The jury is out...
(CROSSTALK)
ANDY BOROWITZ, AUTHOR, "WHO MOVED MY SOAP": Well, they probably voted on this before.
SIGESMUND: Yes, they were saying that the voting ended around the time that the scandal broke.
TOURE: Yes.
SIGESMUND: But it shows -- it just reiterates that he's always been a really popular guy, especially with teenagers, and we might not want to, you know, crucify him in the media.
HARRIS: Maybe more proof that teens don't read, too.
SIGESMUND: Well, but...
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: I thought it was a teen literacy issue, I've got to say, a little bit. But I thought it's a little ironic, though, he won the Teen Choice Award, because, of course, the trial is going to come down to whether or not a teen had a choice, and I think that's...
SIGESMUND: Oh, my god!
BOROWITZ: Its true. I had to bring that up.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: It's getting hot in here.
BOROWITZ: Maybe we should get on to the next subject.
HARRIS: OK, we'll move on then on that one. Next up, 90 seconds now on Madonna and Missy Elliott now appearing in Gap ads?
TOURE: Yes, yes.
HARRIS: Who would have thought it, huh?
TOURE: Yes, well, it's a good-looking ad.
SIGESMUND: Yes, I think it's actually very successful overall. You know, the Gap gets millions of dollars of free publicity out of this. Madonna gets associated with something very human and real. After all, we all wear clothes from The Gap, as well as Missy Elliott, who appeals to a very different demographic than her, and the video itself is a lot of fun. They're bumping and grinding. They're adding individual style to their clothes.
TOURE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) independent women are repping for these sorts of purposefully bland clothes. So, it kind of...
SIGESMUND: But they did a lot to them.
TOURE: ... works, yes.
SIGESMUND: Yes, you know, I love how Madonna is wearing $5 million of diamonds on top of these jeans, which is $44 retail.
TOURE: Right, right.
HARRIS: Oh, yes, that fits, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: When I heard Madonna and Missy Elliott and The Gap I sort of think of the axis of over a little bit, because, you know...
TOURE: Oh, I wouldn't say that at all! Madonna is still cool, and Missy is still cool, too. BOROWITZ: Well, no, but I'm concerned it's a slippery slope, because a Gap ad is one step away from an Old Navy ad, and an Old Navy ad is one step away from...
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: No, no, no, Old Navy has the talking models, always is a bad idea. But The Gap has Missy, and one thing that's cool about her, she is not your normal slim woman. She's a little bigger.
HARRIS: I'm glad you brought that point up, because that's exactly what I was thinking.
TOURE: Yes.
HARRIS: She is not exactly the type -- the typical one that you would look at.
TOURE: Yes, but most...
HARRIS: But she should be in that kind of an ad.
TOURE: But so many Americans look like her, saying, wow, she's cool. She's the kind of class. I'll go with The Gap.
HARRIS: Yes. Well, a lot of the Americans in my house do, I'll tell you that.
All right, 90 seconds now on the weekend box office. And we were talking about this one before the break. Let's see, what was it? "The American Wedding" movie came out, did pretty good this weekend and came in on top -- 34.3 million. But the big story, Ben and J. Lo's "Gigli?" What, $3.8 million?
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: All of this time pretending to be together and for nothing? It's got to be sad.
HARRIS: You think that was all a stunt?
TOURE: Oh, come on! You don't?
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: You know, everybody has been trashing it. Everybody has been trashing it. It came in No. 8, but I think there is a silver lining here, which is that when they bring out the DVD, they can release the movie as is and say "never before seen footage."
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: The studio's spin this morning is they're saying that the movie marketing was hobbled by all of the media's attention on Jen and Ben.
HARRIS: I saw that.
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: They have created this whole media...
TOURE: Exactly.
SIGESMUND: ... tornado around themselves. And the media, if it was hobbled by anything, it was actually all of the stories about the bad reviews. We have one in "Newsweek" today.
HARRIS: But, you know, the reviews...
TOURE: Who would have thought that, like, we'd buy us to see them, but we won't buy a ticket to see them?
HARRIS: Yes, right.
SIGESMUND: Because you just heard the movie was so terrible, you just believed the bad buzz.
BOROWITZ: But, you know, I think there's a lesson in this, because if you're making a movie and know you're facing sort of a hostile critical press, don't give J. Lo a line of dialogue, like, it's turkey time. That's really a mistake.
TOURE: But I think there was a feeling, like, we want this to lose, like, just not the critics...
BOROWITZ: Right.
TOURE: ... but, like, the people on the street were, like, we don't like this. We're mad.
BOROWITZ: Right.
TOURE: Like, you know, later.
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: We wanted to take them down.
HARRIS: Well, maybe that turkey time blurb will be on the cover of the DVD when it's released.
SIGESMUND: Absolutely.
TOURE: There you go.
HARRIS: Andy Borowitz, B.J. Sigesmund and Toure, good to see all three of you in the flesh.
TOURE: Thank you.
HARRIS: Take care. We'll see you all down the road.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired August 4, 2003 - 07:49 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for the lightning fast feature we call "90-Second Pop. Our three experts are going to bring the heat as we look at the world of pop culture this morning.
And with us this morning, Toure, contributing editor for "Rolling Stone" magazine, B.J. Sigesmund, "Newsweek" entertainment reporter, and Andy Borowitz, author of "Who Moved my Soap: the CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison." Do you think Sam Waksal is reading that one right now?
Anyway, that's a different topic for a different day. We are going to start right now with 90 second on Kobe Bryant. All right, he wins the Teen Choice Award as best athlete. And the show actually airs the first day of the trial.
TOURE, "ROLLING STONE" MAGAZINE: Yes, yes.
HARRIS: Toure?
TOURE: But the important thing is that he went, and so it's part of this whole theater thing of I'm innocent -- the I am innocent dance. I am still going out to my public appearances. I am buying this big ring for my wife, so we're committed, we're together. The whole thing is just, look, everybody, I'm innocent, I'm innocent.
HARRIS: All P.R. though.
B.J. SIGESMUND, "NEWSWEEK" MAGAZINE: I think it also, you know, shows that kids and teenagers still really like him. The jury is out...
(CROSSTALK)
ANDY BOROWITZ, AUTHOR, "WHO MOVED MY SOAP": Well, they probably voted on this before.
SIGESMUND: Yes, they were saying that the voting ended around the time that the scandal broke.
TOURE: Yes.
SIGESMUND: But it shows -- it just reiterates that he's always been a really popular guy, especially with teenagers, and we might not want to, you know, crucify him in the media.
HARRIS: Maybe more proof that teens don't read, too.
SIGESMUND: Well, but...
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: I thought it was a teen literacy issue, I've got to say, a little bit. But I thought it's a little ironic, though, he won the Teen Choice Award, because, of course, the trial is going to come down to whether or not a teen had a choice, and I think that's...
SIGESMUND: Oh, my god!
BOROWITZ: Its true. I had to bring that up.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: It's getting hot in here.
BOROWITZ: Maybe we should get on to the next subject.
HARRIS: OK, we'll move on then on that one. Next up, 90 seconds now on Madonna and Missy Elliott now appearing in Gap ads?
TOURE: Yes, yes.
HARRIS: Who would have thought it, huh?
TOURE: Yes, well, it's a good-looking ad.
SIGESMUND: Yes, I think it's actually very successful overall. You know, the Gap gets millions of dollars of free publicity out of this. Madonna gets associated with something very human and real. After all, we all wear clothes from The Gap, as well as Missy Elliott, who appeals to a very different demographic than her, and the video itself is a lot of fun. They're bumping and grinding. They're adding individual style to their clothes.
TOURE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) independent women are repping for these sorts of purposefully bland clothes. So, it kind of...
SIGESMUND: But they did a lot to them.
TOURE: ... works, yes.
SIGESMUND: Yes, you know, I love how Madonna is wearing $5 million of diamonds on top of these jeans, which is $44 retail.
TOURE: Right, right.
HARRIS: Oh, yes, that fits, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: When I heard Madonna and Missy Elliott and The Gap I sort of think of the axis of over a little bit, because, you know...
TOURE: Oh, I wouldn't say that at all! Madonna is still cool, and Missy is still cool, too. BOROWITZ: Well, no, but I'm concerned it's a slippery slope, because a Gap ad is one step away from an Old Navy ad, and an Old Navy ad is one step away from...
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: No, no, no, Old Navy has the talking models, always is a bad idea. But The Gap has Missy, and one thing that's cool about her, she is not your normal slim woman. She's a little bigger.
HARRIS: I'm glad you brought that point up, because that's exactly what I was thinking.
TOURE: Yes.
HARRIS: She is not exactly the type -- the typical one that you would look at.
TOURE: Yes, but most...
HARRIS: But she should be in that kind of an ad.
TOURE: But so many Americans look like her, saying, wow, she's cool. She's the kind of class. I'll go with The Gap.
HARRIS: Yes. Well, a lot of the Americans in my house do, I'll tell you that.
All right, 90 seconds now on the weekend box office. And we were talking about this one before the break. Let's see, what was it? "The American Wedding" movie came out, did pretty good this weekend and came in on top -- 34.3 million. But the big story, Ben and J. Lo's "Gigli?" What, $3.8 million?
(CROSSTALK)
TOURE: All of this time pretending to be together and for nothing? It's got to be sad.
HARRIS: You think that was all a stunt?
TOURE: Oh, come on! You don't?
(CROSSTALK)
BOROWITZ: You know, everybody has been trashing it. Everybody has been trashing it. It came in No. 8, but I think there is a silver lining here, which is that when they bring out the DVD, they can release the movie as is and say "never before seen footage."
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: The studio's spin this morning is they're saying that the movie marketing was hobbled by all of the media's attention on Jen and Ben.
HARRIS: I saw that.
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: They have created this whole media...
TOURE: Exactly.
SIGESMUND: ... tornado around themselves. And the media, if it was hobbled by anything, it was actually all of the stories about the bad reviews. We have one in "Newsweek" today.
HARRIS: But, you know, the reviews...
TOURE: Who would have thought that, like, we'd buy us to see them, but we won't buy a ticket to see them?
HARRIS: Yes, right.
SIGESMUND: Because you just heard the movie was so terrible, you just believed the bad buzz.
BOROWITZ: But, you know, I think there's a lesson in this, because if you're making a movie and know you're facing sort of a hostile critical press, don't give J. Lo a line of dialogue, like, it's turkey time. That's really a mistake.
TOURE: But I think there was a feeling, like, we want this to lose, like, just not the critics...
BOROWITZ: Right.
TOURE: ... but, like, the people on the street were, like, we don't like this. We're mad.
BOROWITZ: Right.
TOURE: Like, you know, later.
(CROSSTALK)
SIGESMUND: We wanted to take them down.
HARRIS: Well, maybe that turkey time blurb will be on the cover of the DVD when it's released.
SIGESMUND: Absolutely.
TOURE: There you go.
HARRIS: Andy Borowitz, B.J. Sigesmund and Toure, good to see all three of you in the flesh.
TOURE: Thank you.
HARRIS: Take care. We'll see you all down the road.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
