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New Day
Growing Calls for Oscar Boycott; Turning Points: Living an Adult Life in a Boy's Body; The Person Who Changed Alisyn's Life. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired January 20, 2016 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Consistently too white? That is the charge. Is there a bigger problem? That is the question. And what will Chris Rock do about it all? Answers ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go with the five things to know for you NEW DAY.
At number one, at least 19 people killed in a militant attack at the University of Northwestern Pakistan. There are conflicting reports emerging about whether the Pakistan Taliban is to blame.
Back here at home, Donald Trump hoping an endorsement from Sarah Palin will get him voters in Iowa. Palin throwing her support behind Trump for president, spurning Ted Cruz, who she supported in his Senate run back in 2012. Meanwhile on the Democratic side, another boost for Bernie Sanders. A new CNN/WMUR poll shows the Vermont senator with a staggering 27 point lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.
And to Michigan. Governor Rick Snyder apologizing now for the water contamination crisis in Flint and vowing to fix it. This as President Obama plans to meet with Detroit's mayor talking about the school closures over teacher sick outs.
One of the Americans freed in the Iran prisoner swap is speaking out for the first time. The Marine veteran says he feels alive for the first time after four and a half years in prison. What an amazing story.
[08:35:06] For more on the five things, be sure to visit newdaycnn.com.
All right, we have to talk about what's going on in Hollywood. Calls for an Oscar boycott growing louder this morning. Academy Award winners like George Clooney, Whoopi Goldberg speaking up, saying Hollywood needs to change after actors of color were shut out of the nominations for a second year in a row.
Joining us now, cultural critic Michaela Angela Davis and chairman of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations, Howard Bragman. He is a Michaela sandwich today.
MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, CULTURAL CRITIC: Lucky (ph) man (ph). PEREIRA: We - we - I want to play some sound - yes, he is a lucky man. We want to play some sound right now because we know that Spike Lee, who has said he simply is not going to go to the Oscars this year, nor is he going to watch. He's going to the Knicks game, in fact. He was on "GMA" this morning. Let's listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPIKE LEE, FILMMAKER: The Academy - OK, my man Michael Strahan over here again, he know what I'm talking about. This whole Academy thing is a misdirection play.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": OK, how?
LEE: We're chasing the guy down the field and he doesn't even have the ball. The other guy is high stepping in the end zone. So this goes - it goes further than the Academy Awards. It has to go back to the gate keepers.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Studios?
LEE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PEREIRA: So the gate keepers, Michaela. It's interesting. He goes on to say that he is not boycotting, he's simple not going.
DAVIS: Not going.
PEREIRA: He and his wife are not going. He is not calling for a boycott. He wants to make sure people don't keep their eye off the ball.
DAVIS: Right.
PEREIRA: That there's a bigger problem in Hollywood.
DAVIS: Right. There's an - you know, I so appreciate Spike and Jada Pinkett's always been a bad ass, but I would like to see more of the George Clooneys. I would like to see Leo DiCaprio go "wtf." Like my comrades need to be here.
PEREIRA: Link arms.
DAVIS: Yes, and to - and to - because their integrity is what's at stake, right? So if - if your full experience isn't there, meaning are you really the best if you don't have to contend with Idris? Was the best director really the best if Avrey Juvena (ph) wasn't even on the ticket? So everyone's integrity and Hollywood's humanity is at stake. And so while the black voices are out there, we need more George Clooneys. We need - we need the industry to say that we all suffer if we don't expand, right?
PEREIRA: Howard, it interesting, you know, so many people have pointed to the fact that Chris Rock is African-American (INAUDIBLE) producer of the (INAUDIBLE) is a - is a -
HOWARD BRAGMAN, CHAIRMAN, FIFTEEN MINUTES PUBLIC RELATIONS: Reggie (ph).
PEREIRA: Yes, Reggie's a fantastic producer, African-American. And the president herself. And she's in a really curious position because she has tried to implement change. There's only so much the Academy can be expected to do. And as Spike goes on to say in his conversation today is that you can't expect it to be presto change, it changes overnight.
BRAGMAN: Right, well Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who's the president of the Academy, an African-American woman who's broken many glass ceilings in Hollywood -
PEREIRA: In her own right, sure.
BRAGMAN: Last year, when the same thing happened, she said, the Academy members have to open their thinking. This year she said, we have to make some dramatic changes. You have an Academy membership that's 93 percent white. And it's really hard to fathom how this could happen two years in a row, particularly in a year where there were such extraordinary performances by African-American actors.
PEREIRA: Yes, it's not as though there was a lagging -
DAVIS: Right.
PEREIRA: So is a boycott, to either of your estimation, is a boycott the right course of action? Will it spur change?
DAVIS: Well, you know, I think - I think it has to be a multi-platform strategy, right? And some people will boycott, some people will resist, some people will demonstrate, you know, maybe, you know, there was a "Charlie Hebdo" demonstration last year. Maybe Chris Rock will have some amazing biting commentary. Again, I -
PEREIRA: Chris Rock? He's not known for that, is he?
DAVIS: You know, I really do hope that others - that the white actors and the - you know, four-fifths of the world is not white, right? So these actors of whiteness -
PEREIRA: You'd like to see solidarity from other actors of -
DAVIS: People of whiteness have to get involved, right, in a way that it shows that this is - this is a community.
PEREIRA: OK, but real quick, I want you to make the quick point and then I want to get to Howard again, is, there going to be people who say, look, Jada Pinkett, that's just sour grapes. Her husband didn't get nominated. This is just PC gone too far. Make the case of why diversity in Hollywood matters to society -
DAVIS: Right.
PEREIRA: And to the business of Hollywood? DAVIS: Well, I just - what I just said, most of the world is not
white. We must know each other's stories. It - you know, in the time that we're saying black lives matter, our stories matter. And if we don't share our stories, we are doomed as a culture not to expand, not to evolve. And it always takes pressure from the people to change institutions, to change systems. And these - this is - you know, when Stalone got his Golden Globe and did not recognize his director, Ryan Cougler (ph) was looking right at him. He did not recognize his leading man, Michael B. Jordan, the fine Michael - sorry.
PEREIRA: Editorializing.
DAVIS: But - but what happened, he said he had a senior moment.
[08:40:01] PEREIRA: Right.
DAVIS: Is Hollywood having a senior moment and not recognizing.
PEREIRA: So, Howard - Howard, we've all been around this game for a while.
BRAGMAN: Yes.
PEREIRA: Do you think there's going to be a clarion call for Hollywood? Do you think this is going to be a time that we look back on 20 years from now and say - or even longer from now and say, yes, finally Hollywood woke up and realized something's got to give?
BRAGMAN: Well, I think Spike Lee really called it. Yes, the Academy has some problems with its - with its - some of the decision making they've made. The Academy's typically been very liberal, which is interesting. I don't think it's - it's inherent racism among Academy members, but there is a structural problem in terms of heads of studios, heads of productions, people who are able to green light movies.
And what my left hand Michaela said is really important, that we have to start looking at - at -
PEREIRA: Telling all of our stories.
BRAGMAN: Telling stories -
PEREIRA: Right. Yes.
BRAGMAN: That will resonate around the world and the movie business every day becomes more and more a world business, number one.
DAVIS: Yes.
PEREIRA: Yes.
BRAGMAN: Number two, every day America and the world becomes more and more diverse.
PEREIRA: That's true. BRAGMAN: And if you're not there, you're behind.
PEREIRA: Right.
DAVIS: That's right.
PEREIRA: All right, well the two of you, thank you so much. You handled both Michaelas very well today, Howard. Michaela, good to have you here.
Chris.
BRAGMAN: Wait till later.
PEREIRA: Oh, no. OK. OK.
Please, help.
I'm looking to you for help? This is - this is (INAUDIBLE).
CUOMO: You'll get none after the room (ph) treatment (ph).l
All right, here's a question that one New York man gets all the time, how old are you? When you see him, you're going to know why he gets asked this. Here's CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta with this week's "Turning Points."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Mario Bosco was pulled from the audience on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," he seemed like a typical kid from Brooklyn.
MARIO BOSCO, ACTOR: Oh, he had a cigar. He would sit back in his chair and I would come by.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You sure it was me?
GUPTA: But looks can be deceiving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old are you?
BOSCO: Thirty-six.
GUPTA (on camera): Mario has this rare condition known as Panhypopituitarism. His pituitary gland was damaged when in utero and that means his gland doesn't make enough essential growth hormones. He spent much of his childhood in and out of hospital.
BASCO: When being in this hospital, I had to watch my sit coms. I'd curl up into the bed and I would watch Barney Miller, Maude, "Give Me A Break." And why? Because I wanted to be an actor.
GUPTA (voice-over): Mario got bit parts in movies and on TV, including "NYPD Blue," in spite of and because of his size.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old are you?
BASCO: How old you want me to be?
GUPTA: When doctors suggested the actor take testosterone to force puberty, he said no.
BASCO: My life was OK. My career was moving forward. You know, they say, don't break something that doesn't need to be fixed.
GUPTA: And now 43, Mario has added author to his list of accomplishments, hoping to inspire others.
BASCO: I am happy being Mario Basco, this height, this size, this weight.
GUPTA: All 4'10", 90 pounds of him.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: What an incredible story. All right, well, we've been getting personal at CNN this week, introducing you to the special someone who had a big impact on all of our lives individually. Up next, the person that changed my life.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:46:58] CAMEROTA: All right. So this morning we continue to share the stories of the people who changed our lives. This is part of a CNN special airing this Sunday hosted by Michaela and some guy named Anderson Cooper.
PEREIRA: Some fella.
CAMEROTA: Today is my story about my dear friend Maria Villalobos who changed my life and my love life.
PEREIRA: Oh.
CAMEROTA: When she became my relationship guru.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA (voice-over): My wedding, 14 years ago. A day that for many years I thought would never happen.
My story begins on the crime show "America's Most Wanted" when I was 26 years old.
(on camera): What did you think when you started reading in the paper that he was a serial killer?
(voice-over): No, I didn't fall in love with a serial killer. And no, the person who changed my life was not a fugitive. She was fellow crime reporter, Maria Villalobos. (on camera): Maria was this 32-year-old married woman and I was in my
20s and the idea that I would become great friends with some -- what I considered to be an old married lady -- at the time seemed impossible.
MARIA VILLALOBOS, ALISYN'S FRIEND AND FORMER COLLEAGUE: I met her when she was 26, very cool. Life progressing fast for her. Dating lots of guys.
CAMEROTA (voice-over): Though we were in different life stages, Maria and I did become fast friends and started spending almost all of our free time together.
CAMEROTA (on camera): Come on, time to go.
VILLALOBOS: Let's go see the (inaudible).
CAMEROTA (voice-over): I soon started vacationing with Maria and her husband.
VILLALOBOS: Alisyn and Matt looking at the map.
CAMEROTA: Even following them on one trip all the way to London. It was during that time with Matt and Maria that I started feeling something was missing in my own life. I had relationships, but I did not have what they had: my own family and commitment. And I had no idea how to get it.
(on camera): My parents got divorced when I was 8. So I wasn't around a lot of happily married people. And to have Matt and Maria, who were six years older than me, and I just saw how they worked together and I had never seen anything like that.
(voice-over): Maria and I reunited recently in Boston at the aptly named Mama Maria. One of the many places I crashed their dinner date almost 20 years ago.
VILLALOBOS: Oh, I remember. You had just gotten a cellphone.
CAMEROTA (on camera): I had?
VILLALOBOS: And you were always on it checking boyfriends calling you.
How your new year last night?
CAMEROTA: Fun.
VILLALOBOS: She would bring over every boyfriend to meet us. She really wanted the seal of approval from us. And we would always sometimes tease them and say to the boyfriends like, we better not get too close because someone else is going to be coming. We'd all laugh.
MATT DANILOWICZ, MARIA'S HUSBAND: She typically had about three or four guys she was spinning around at any given time. But I think I've come to learn with the wisdom of some years that actually for women that is not the ideal situation. [08:50:03] CAMEROTA: Everything throughout my 20s felt like I had been
sort of repeating possibly not productive patterns in my love life. I had just turned 30 years old and I felt like I don't know what I'm doing with my life. It felt very empty.
VILLALOBOS: That is when my Mama Maria's advice came in ad I had to like start -- cutting you off at the knees.
CAMEROTA: I remember that. You would be like you need to straighten your room. And I was like why? And you were like pick up your clothes off the floor.
VILLALOBOS: Right. And when I would tell you you need to cook for your boyfriends. You need to make them dinner. You need to make them cookies. You probably thought -- you know, you're being so sexist. And I wasn't --
CAMEROTA: No, I didn't think sexist. I just thought old-fashioned.
VILLALOBOS: What I was trying to say is take your mind off yourself and put it to someone else. Let them know that you care about them. Give them your time. And I always thought that you pretended that you didn't like them. Like you didn't need them. And I was like that's not working for you.
CAMEROTA (voice-over): Like a football coach, Maria began videotaping my bad plays, documenting my selfish behavior and playing it back for me. Like this time when I was complaining about my life right in front of my boyfriend.
VILLALOBOS: And you walk in the door, it's New Year's Day, and here is what you do.
CAMEROTA (on camera): Worst year of my life. Horrible year. I'm so happy that '97 is over.
So embarrassing.
VILLALOBOS: She wasn't as giving. The concept of giving of your time to go buy someone a present or bake them cookies or make them dinner was very foreign to her.
CAMEROTA (voice-over): I started to follow Maria's advice. I never baked any cookies, but I did start thinking about other people's feelings and letting them know I cared.
(on camera): After about, I don't know, three years I guess -- three or four years in Boston -- Matt got a job far away in Madison, Wisconsin, and I was really bereft and upset because I thought that I was not going to be able to figure it all out without Maria.
VILLALOBOS: So I was like I'm going to leave and you're going to fill that hole, the hole I left, with other people, with new people, and you are going to get married.
When she met Tim things became quiet. There was no drama. It was easy.
The wedding makes me very emotional because her mother came up to me when I least expected it and said like the most beautiful thing to me. And she said Maria, you changed my daughter. And it was one of the nicest things that anybody has ever said to me.
CAMEROTA: When I thought about what really changed my life the most, it was getting married and having kids. And then I had to think who helped facilitate that and the answer was Maria.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Husband and wife.
VILLALOBOS: I think that you had it in you all the time. You just needed like a little tweaking at the beginning. But it is like -- it is such an honor to see you so happy.
CAMEROTA (voice-over): Sometimes you just need a little tweaking. And of course, a dear friend to tell you that. I credit Maria with helping me find my way to a happy marriage and three children who allow me to love unconditionally every single day.
(on camera): She was just so loving and supportive. I really don't know what I would have done without her in my life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PEREIRA: Young women need someone there to kind of show them the way and you had Maria. That is so great.
CAMEROTA: Totally. I mean, I didn't have any older sisters or anybody and you do need somebody to slap sense into you and just say you are being a spoiled brat or whatever it is that they want to say.
PEREIRA: I had no idea you were such a player, girl.
CAMEROTA: I was afraid that was going to be one of the --
CUOMO: When you put it in the piece, what do you think is going to happen?
PEREIRA: She thought it was going to come from him.
CAMEROTA: But you know, I think that -- well forget it. I'm not even going to try to justify it --
CUOMO: And also, you know, I think it's important. You know, a lot of that stuff that Villalobos is talking about, you can still do, by the way.
CAMEROTA: Be nice to people?
CUOMO: It is not too late to sink in. Did you see the head butt she gave Tim at the wedding? (Inaudible) conk right in the head.
CAMEROTA: Watching this piece with Chris heckling me throughout the whole thing was a whole new added dimension to it. PEREIRA: I'm over here with tears in my eyes and he's heckling you.
CUOMO: I know. It is hard for me to believe it because you are so not the way you are painting yourself in this piece. I'm just surprised by it.
CAMEROTA: I appreciate that. Maybe I've learned something.
PEREIRA: Well that's the thing, right? I mean, part of it is growing up but part of it was also like acknowledge -- staring something in the face that you might not have been ready to see.
CAMEROTA: Yes. That's what Maria's great at is holding up a mirror to you.
[08:55:00] CUOMO: And the right person at the right time.
CAMEROTA: Yes. Absolutely.
CUOMO: We know her husband. This is a guy, if you don't like him, there is something wrong with you.
PEREIRA: So great.
CUOMO: So the right guy at the right time.
CAMEROTA: Absolutely.
PEREIRA: He's kind of my boyfriend.
CAMEROTA: Yeah, he is your boyfriend. You and Tim love each other. Um, no -- I really do feel that way. If somebody is going to tell you what's wrong with you, to do it with love and support, is wonderful.
PEREIRA: That's tough love. That's the true definition.
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: I love this week.
CAMEROTA: Yeah, me too. So "LEGAL VIEW" anchor Ashleigh Banfield shares her story in the 10:00 hour of CNN's "NEWSROOM." So for more from our anchors, you can visit CNN.com/lifechangers and tell us who changed your life. We'd love to hear those stories. You can tweet us using #mylifechanger. Also on Sunday you can catch Michaela and Anderson Cooper hosting a two hour special, "The Person Who Changed My Life," 8:00 p.m., right here on CNN.
CUOMO: Three men at a time.
PEREIRA: She was not juggling that many. "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello after the break. I'm trying to save her.
CUOMO: I think that was the low bar.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
