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American Morning

90-Second Pop, Culture Watch

Aired December 01, 2003 - 07:45   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is time once again for "90- Second Pop," our lightning-fast look at what's hot in the world of pop culture.
With us this morning, humorist Andy Borowitz. Andy, good morning.

ANDY BOROWITZ, HUMORIST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Toure is a contributing editor for "Rolling Stone." Good morning to you, Toure.

TOURE, "ROLLING STONE": How are you?

O'BRIEN: I'm well. Thank you.

And B.J. Sigesmund is a staff editor for "US Weekly." Good morning, B.J.

B.J. SIGESMUND, "US WEEKLY": Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Nice to have all of you. Everybody, I assume, had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

BOROWITZ: Next (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

O'BRIEN: Moving on.

TOURE: No comment.

O'BRIEN: All right, Toure, let's begin with you. We sure have seen a lot -- maybe some people much more than they'd ever want to see -- of Paris Hilton.

TOURE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) it was.

O'BRIEN: How will those sort of -- is it fair to say -- slutty (ph) porn-type tapes making their way around the Internet?

TOURE: I think that's fair.

O'BRIEN: That's fair to say. How do you think that will affect the debut of her show, which is "The Simple Life," which is supposed to take off tomorrow?

TOURE: Well, I mean, we could look at the history of underground sex tapes and see the answer. I mean, Pam Anderson... O'BRIEN: There's a history of underground pornography?

(CROSSTALK)

TOURE: Absolutely (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Pam Anderson's tape had a huge impact on her career. But R. Kelly's tape hasn't hurt his career, but it hasn't exactly helped it either. I mean, this has come at a time to make Paris so much more famous that it's almost like she planned it.

O'BRIEN: Do you want to be famous in this way?

TOURE: Well, the biggest problem is not that the tape is out, but that it shows her to be really bad in bed. So, hopefully the next tape that comes out will...

SIGESMUND: You know, what was interesting...

O'BRIEN: Well, moving on, I think.

SIGESMUND: This show has been in the can for months. I interviewed Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton in August about this show. Fox kept it until, you know, they -- for the right time to premier it. And they kept wondering, I think, maybe if people didn't know who these people were. Well, since then, Paris Hilton had a sex tape and Nicole Richie went to rehab. This is a perfect time to debut this show.

TOURE: Absolutely.

SIGESMUND: This is absolutely an incredible moment for Fox.

(CROSSTALK)

TOURE: And there might be another tape coming out this week. This is a big moment.

O'BRIEN: One...

BOROWITZ: That's the never before released footage, right?

O'BRIEN: One reviewer said that "Simple Life," Paris Hilton was so dumb that she made Jessica Simpson of "The Newlyweds" look like Christiane Amanpour.

BOROWITZ: There is a clip I saw where she's grossed out by the idea of plucking a chicken. I'm just so glad to know that she draws the line somewhere.

TOURE: That's a good point.

O'BRIEN: Right. A sex tape is fine; plucking a chicken, never.

BOROWITZ: Yes, absolutely...

SIGESMUND: Well, it is an endearing show. I've seen it. It's very sweet. It basically makes fun of the rich, which is one of the oldest traditions we have in sitcoms. I think the ratings are going to be huge, and a lot of people are going to be charmed by it.

TOURE: And Jessica Simpson is clearly not that dumb. Hello!

O'BRIEN: Ka-ching (ph) every step of the way. That's right.

All right, B.J., let's talk a little bit about the box office.

SIGESMUND: Right.

O'BRIEN: Family movies are huge.

SIGESMUND: Yes. For the second weekend in a row, kids dragged their parents to see movies that were popular on the playground, even though those...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Popular on the playground -- where did you get that from? They're 5. There's no popular on the playground.

SIGESMUND: Yes, they are. Everyone is talking about "Cat in the Hat." You've got to see it this weekend. Or everyone is talking about "Haunted Mansion."

TOURE: You know about that.

SIGESMUND: You know, Soledad. But parents, unfortunately...

O'BRIEN: If my daughter ever came home and said, "Cat in the Hat," everyone is talking about it, got to see it, it's boarding school for that kid.

SIGESMUND: Give her a couple years. But, unfortunately, parents had to go see these things, even though they knew the reviews were bad. The only saving grace for parents was "Elf." If they hadn't seen it yet, they could see "Elf" this weekend, which is in that magical place where parents are happy with it and kids are happy with it. It's already made...

O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the lines today.

TOURE: Yes, me and Andy went to see "Bad Santa," which is not for kids.

O'BRIEN: Well, I was going to ask you. But that's not family...

BOROWITZ: You know, parents did not take their children to "Bad Santa."

O'BRIEN: How did it do?

BOROWITZ: But let them sneak in on their own. It did pretty well, and I think it's going to be -- I think it's going to just -- it's such a nice anecdote to the rest of the sort of trickley (ph) holidays. For all those who have been waiting for Santa, depicted as a horny alcoholic, the wait is over. It's here.

TOURE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Scrooge thing...

O'BRIEN: You know, I was so -- I would say trickley (ph), I hadn't heard anybody say that really on television in a really long time. And then you went with the other stuff that I'm not going to repeat.

OK, we only have time to get to this last one. Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines won an award actually. And let's listen to her acceptance speech for this award she got from VH-1. The best quote of 2003, where she said she was ashamed that the president of the United States was from Texas. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATALIE MAINES, DIXIE CHICKS: There's an old Texas expression that says if you don't have anything nice to say about someone, then go to London and say it in front of 2,000 people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Career for them fine?

BOROWITZ: Well, they're fine. They're selling a lot of records. She handled it had with a sense of humor. I was a little sorry that Kid Rock didn't win the best quote, because he was the guy who said we should kill Saddam and the guy in North Korea, which (UNINTELLIGIBLE) provocative and vague.

TOURE: I mean, the Dixie Chicks have handled this really well. They lost a lot of fans, but they gained a lot of fans as well. I mean, there was a class of dissenters in America who were called un- American, and they stood up and held their ground. And you know what? At this point, they look right. When we lost 73 people last month after, what, six months after mission accomplished?

SIGESMUND: Yes, I think that it's refreshing to see her stand by her remarks like that, instead of cower behind them.

O'BRIEN: And a sense of humor at the end of it all...

TOURE: Yes.

O'BRIEN: ... sort of makes up for a lot. All right, you guys, as always, thank you, Andy and Toure and B.J. Appreciate it.

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 December 1, 2003 - 07:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is time once again for "90- Second Pop," our lightning-fast look at what's hot in the world of pop culture.
With us this morning, humorist Andy Borowitz. Andy, good morning.

ANDY BOROWITZ, HUMORIST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Toure is a contributing editor for "Rolling Stone." Good morning to you, Toure.

TOURE, "ROLLING STONE": How are you?

O'BRIEN: I'm well. Thank you.

And B.J. Sigesmund is a staff editor for "US Weekly." Good morning, B.J.

B.J. SIGESMUND, "US WEEKLY": Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Nice to have all of you. Everybody, I assume, had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

BOROWITZ: Next (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

O'BRIEN: Moving on.

TOURE: No comment.

O'BRIEN: All right, Toure, let's begin with you. We sure have seen a lot -- maybe some people much more than they'd ever want to see -- of Paris Hilton.

TOURE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) it was.

O'BRIEN: How will those sort of -- is it fair to say -- slutty (ph) porn-type tapes making their way around the Internet?

TOURE: I think that's fair.

O'BRIEN: That's fair to say. How do you think that will affect the debut of her show, which is "The Simple Life," which is supposed to take off tomorrow?

TOURE: Well, I mean, we could look at the history of underground sex tapes and see the answer. I mean, Pam Anderson... O'BRIEN: There's a history of underground pornography?

(CROSSTALK)

TOURE: Absolutely (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Pam Anderson's tape had a huge impact on her career. But R. Kelly's tape hasn't hurt his career, but it hasn't exactly helped it either. I mean, this has come at a time to make Paris so much more famous that it's almost like she planned it.

O'BRIEN: Do you want to be famous in this way?

TOURE: Well, the biggest problem is not that the tape is out, but that it shows her to be really bad in bed. So, hopefully the next tape that comes out will...

SIGESMUND: You know, what was interesting...

O'BRIEN: Well, moving on, I think.

SIGESMUND: This show has been in the can for months. I interviewed Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton in August about this show. Fox kept it until, you know, they -- for the right time to premier it. And they kept wondering, I think, maybe if people didn't know who these people were. Well, since then, Paris Hilton had a sex tape and Nicole Richie went to rehab. This is a perfect time to debut this show.

TOURE: Absolutely.

SIGESMUND: This is absolutely an incredible moment for Fox.

(CROSSTALK)

TOURE: And there might be another tape coming out this week. This is a big moment.

O'BRIEN: One...

BOROWITZ: That's the never before released footage, right?

O'BRIEN: One reviewer said that "Simple Life," Paris Hilton was so dumb that she made Jessica Simpson of "The Newlyweds" look like Christiane Amanpour.

BOROWITZ: There is a clip I saw where she's grossed out by the idea of plucking a chicken. I'm just so glad to know that she draws the line somewhere.

TOURE: That's a good point.

O'BRIEN: Right. A sex tape is fine; plucking a chicken, never.

BOROWITZ: Yes, absolutely...

SIGESMUND: Well, it is an endearing show. I've seen it. It's very sweet. It basically makes fun of the rich, which is one of the oldest traditions we have in sitcoms. I think the ratings are going to be huge, and a lot of people are going to be charmed by it.

TOURE: And Jessica Simpson is clearly not that dumb. Hello!

O'BRIEN: Ka-ching (ph) every step of the way. That's right.

All right, B.J., let's talk a little bit about the box office.

SIGESMUND: Right.

O'BRIEN: Family movies are huge.

SIGESMUND: Yes. For the second weekend in a row, kids dragged their parents to see movies that were popular on the playground, even though those...

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Popular on the playground -- where did you get that from? They're 5. There's no popular on the playground.

SIGESMUND: Yes, they are. Everyone is talking about "Cat in the Hat." You've got to see it this weekend. Or everyone is talking about "Haunted Mansion."

TOURE: You know about that.

SIGESMUND: You know, Soledad. But parents, unfortunately...

O'BRIEN: If my daughter ever came home and said, "Cat in the Hat," everyone is talking about it, got to see it, it's boarding school for that kid.

SIGESMUND: Give her a couple years. But, unfortunately, parents had to go see these things, even though they knew the reviews were bad. The only saving grace for parents was "Elf." If they hadn't seen it yet, they could see "Elf" this weekend, which is in that magical place where parents are happy with it and kids are happy with it. It's already made...

O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the lines today.

TOURE: Yes, me and Andy went to see "Bad Santa," which is not for kids.

O'BRIEN: Well, I was going to ask you. But that's not family...

BOROWITZ: You know, parents did not take their children to "Bad Santa."

O'BRIEN: How did it do?

BOROWITZ: But let them sneak in on their own. It did pretty well, and I think it's going to be -- I think it's going to just -- it's such a nice anecdote to the rest of the sort of trickley (ph) holidays. For all those who have been waiting for Santa, depicted as a horny alcoholic, the wait is over. It's here.

TOURE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Scrooge thing...

O'BRIEN: You know, I was so -- I would say trickley (ph), I hadn't heard anybody say that really on television in a really long time. And then you went with the other stuff that I'm not going to repeat.

OK, we only have time to get to this last one. Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines won an award actually. And let's listen to her acceptance speech for this award she got from VH-1. The best quote of 2003, where she said she was ashamed that the president of the United States was from Texas. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATALIE MAINES, DIXIE CHICKS: There's an old Texas expression that says if you don't have anything nice to say about someone, then go to London and say it in front of 2,000 people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Career for them fine?

BOROWITZ: Well, they're fine. They're selling a lot of records. She handled it had with a sense of humor. I was a little sorry that Kid Rock didn't win the best quote, because he was the guy who said we should kill Saddam and the guy in North Korea, which (UNINTELLIGIBLE) provocative and vague.

TOURE: I mean, the Dixie Chicks have handled this really well. They lost a lot of fans, but they gained a lot of fans as well. I mean, there was a class of dissenters in America who were called un- American, and they stood up and held their ground. And you know what? At this point, they look right. When we lost 73 people last month after, what, six months after mission accomplished?

SIGESMUND: Yes, I think that it's refreshing to see her stand by her remarks like that, instead of cower behind them.

O'BRIEN: And a sense of humor at the end of it all...

TOURE: Yes.

O'BRIEN: ... sort of makes up for a lot. All right, you guys, as always, thank you, Andy and Toure and B.J. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.