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Paula Zahn Now

Mariah Carey's Fairy Tale Gone Bad; War-Torn Souls Reunited

Aired April 29, 2005 - 20:00 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: Good evening, everyone. Welcome. Glad to have you with us tonight.
Coming up, the latest on the mystery of the missing bride in Georgia.

And then, Mariah Carey gets personal tonight, a candid conversation about her fairy tale gone bad, her meltdown and now her comeback. But, first, a child in danger saved by a woman on a mission of mercy and, years later, the twist of fate that reunites them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): He was an enemy in his own land, an orphan of war, with an American father, abandoned by his Vietnamese mother.

ROGER CASTILLO, BORN IN VIETNAM: I just hear the gates closed and I turn around and essentially my mother is gone.

ZAHN: She was a flight attendant who helped rescue him and many others.

KAREN RYAN, PART OF OPERATION BABYLIFT: I'm going, this can't be. There is so many of these babies. It was overwhelming. Gosh, it was amazing.

ZAHN: Tonight, a reunion. Two lives touched by war find each other again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: For roughly 2,500 Americans, this month is a special anniversary. As babies and small children, they were crammed on to airplanes and flown out of danger during those final chaotic days before the fall of South Vietnam 30 years ago. It was called Operation Babylift and it was controversial, because not everyone thought that these children of American servicemen and Vietnamese women should come here in the first place.

But there is no denying it was a heroic effort and it has led to lifelong bonds between some of the children and their rescuers.

Betty Nyugen has one of those stories.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN: Hello, Roger.

CASTILLO: Hi, Karen.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a relationship that began 30 years ago in a dangerous, war-torn country. Today, they live just 25 miles apart. Here in Montana, that's practically next door, thousands of miles away from where they first met.

It was the 1970s and Karen Ryan, young and beautiful, was living the glamour life, working for Pan Am. They called them stewardesses back then and Ryan signed up to see the world. Only, America was at war. And she often had the difficult job of shuttling nervous soldiers to Vietnam.

RYAN: You would just grab their hand and say, take care of yourself. And it was just like looking at doomed people sometimes.

NGUYEN: But, on April 4, 1975, an airport telegram changed her life.

RYAN: While we were driving to the hotel, we were reading this, that we had been rerouted the next day. It wasn't in big letters, where you volunteer for this. We just thought we were doing it. And then, later, they told us that it was voluntary basis only.

NGUYEN: That's because this mission was different. Saigon was falling to communism, the plane, packed with baby bottles, the plan, pick up not troops, but children, victims of war, abandoned and possibly marked for death because of their American fathers, children like this boy.

His name then Ng Si Cuong. Abandoned at birth, he was adopted by a Vietnamese family until his mixed features started to show. Then, at the age of 6, his adoptive mother took him on a sightseeing trip that ended at this Saigon orphanage.

CASTILLO: The gate opened. And I remember my mother said, why don't you go in and see what it is like? And I walked in not knowing, because she stood back. And I just walked in. And it seemed almost instant, that I just hear the gates closed. And I turn around and essentially my mother is gone.

And I remember that -- I really -- I don't know if maybe I thought she was kidding. Maybe I -- I didn't know, but I just wanted to get out.

NGUYEN: He never saw her again.

CASTILLO: I constantly tried to climb the gate or I tried to climb the fence. I was trying to find any way to get out and find my way home.

NGUYEN: Whether she did it out of love or fear, he believes his adopted mother saved him from the communists. CASTILLO: They would have taken away my life. I think that they would have, because I essentially am half of the -- quote, unquote -- "enemy" to them.

NGUYEN: Fear for these infant enemies sparked a special American evacuation Operation Babylift, some 2,000 orphans with a ticket to the freedom, among them, Ng Si Cuong.

Tragically, the first flight out crashed in a rice field, killing some 135 people, mostly babies. But the mission was not abandoned. Karen's plane arrived the day after the crash and the children came piling up the steps, not knowing it would be a one-way trip and this would be the last memory of their homeland.

CASTILLO: It was very crowded. There was approximately about 100 of us, from the age of 6 to 8, and we were all into the back of the plane. The babies were up front.

And I remember the stewardess just running around.

RYAN: They were handing me babies, you know, two, three babies. And I get them in their seat belt and here would come more. And, of course, every baby is crying. The children are traumatized.

NGUYEN: And so was Karen. A snapshot captures the moment when this mercy mission became personal.

(on camera): What goes through your mind when you turn around and you have got three to four babies in your arms?

RYAN: I'm going, this can't be. There is so many of these babies. It was overwhelming. Gosh, it was amazing.

NGUYEN (voice-over): The sick children were taken upstairs to the 747's lounge, where, on regular flights, wealthy passengers would dine. Crammed in down below was the little boy who wondered if he would ever have a family on his way to an uncertain future. Everything in his life would soon change and change again, even his name.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And when we come back, an orphan's unexpected detour on his way to the American dream.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASTILLO: I did not know that I was going to a family at all. All I knew is, I was going on a plane. I was taking a trip to a new place and that's going to be my home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: A rough landing in a new country, as our story continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Operation Babylift carried 2,500 Vietnamese children to new lives in the U.S. just days before the fall of Saigon. They flew on military transports and commercial airliners. And most would never see their rescuers again after those flights to freedom.

Betty Nguyen now tells us how one refugee and his rescuer were reunited decades later.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN (voice-over): He was an orphan caught up in a war, the son of an American father and a Vietnamese mother and he was on his way to an uncertain future.

(on camera): Did you realize at the time what was happening? Did you realize that you were headed to America and to an American family that you would now call your own?

CASTILLO: I did not know that I was going to a family at all. All I knew is, I was going on a plane. I was taking a trip to a new place and that's going to be my home. But I did not know their names. I did not know how many kids they had. I didn't even know I was going to a specific destination.

NGUYEN: And he wasn't the only one with questions. Karen was concerned, too.

RYAN: I was legally worried about where they were going, what kind of parents they were going to get. Would they be loved? Would they be received? Would they be nourished, nurtured?

NGUYEN: In America, Ng Si Cuong was given a new name, Larry. He had a family and a home on this farm in Iowa, but it just wasn't working out.

CASTILLO: My American life didn't start on April 5 of 1975, when I was 6. It didn't start there. The wheel was turning. I was getting there. I got here, but I think my real life didn't start until November of 1978, when I came to the Castillos in California.

NGUYEN: Again, he was given a new name, Roger Castillo, the seventh child in a family full of adopted children from all over the world. He was finally home. But he never forgot how he got there.

(on camera): These sandals are 30 years old, the pair that you wore when you boarded that plane. How special are they?

CASTILLO: They're very special. They're my only connection to that era, and just to know that I've essentially walked out of my old life to a new life and these were what carried me.

NGUYEN (voice-over): Today, Roger Castillo is married, father of two beautiful daughters who share his Vietnamese features, a constant reminder of an unfamiliar past and how parents never known can still shape their children. CASTILLO: I have an image of who my father is. And I want to uphold that image. I want to love my kids as though, if he was still there, would he love me? Would my mother would have kept me if she would have had a spouse to help take care? So, I think it really challenges me to be a good father.

NGUYEN: And part of that challenge includes learning about his Vietnamese roots.

CASTILLO: Right now, I can teach my kids the American way of living. But I can't teach them where I came from.

NGUYEN: Sometimes, it is the present that links to the past. Roger made his home amid the mountains of western Montana.

CASTILLO: Can you go...

NGUYEN: He's a physician assistant in an emergency room that serves the city of Missoula, where, just up the road, past the fly fishermen and the fields of sheep, lives a link to what was just a fading memory. He found Karen when she wrote about her plane load of babies in "Reader's Digest." And she hasn't stopped caring for children.

RYAN: Do you to have somebody in mind that is...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I do. I have about four baby nurses interested.

NGUYEN: She owns a company that places nannies in homes.

CASTILLO: She is thinking, yes, I could retire.

NGUYEN: Thirty years after their chance meeting, they have become like family. They share meals and watch their children grow. Karen even keeps pictures of the babies on her flight displayed as if they were her own. And she's made sure Roger never forgets the day they met. "Alive and well, April 5, 1975" is inscribed on a pendant she gave him.

(on camera): That's pretty special. And it is something that you guys are going to carry with you forever?

RYAN: Sure.

CASTILLO: Forever.

RYAN: Yes.

CASTILLO: Forever, because I look at Karen and I look at all the stewardesses that was on that flight. I look at the pilots as, those were my angels. They're the ones that took us up. They're the ones that flew us out. And they're the ones that gave us that new life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: What a great story about humanity.

Coming up, our correspondent Betty Nyugen's own story of coming to America as a refugee from Vietnam.

And a little bit later on, my conversation with singer Mariah Carey. She talks about her music, her troubled marriage and her latest comeback.

But, first, just about 15 minutes past the hour, Erica Hill joins us from Headline News -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula. Good to see you tonight.

We start off with the missing woman in Georgia. At this time, still no word about Jennifer Wilbanks, the Duluth, Georgia, woman who vanished while jogging on Tuesday night. Today, the eve of her planned wedding, family and friends held an emotional news conference to appeal to the public for help.

And there was some frustrating news, meantime, for the family about the painfully few leads that have turned up so far. Meantime, police say also, while Jennifer's fiance, John Mason, did pass a polygraph test that was given by a private examiner, they want Georgia state investigators to give him another test. In the meantime, investigators are questioning former boyfriends and testing hair samples and jogging clothes which have been found during a search of the area around Duluth.

And that is the latest we have on this mystery at this hour. Paula, also, we should mention, the parents, who had planned to attend their daughter's wedding tomorrow, we're hearing now may instead attend a prayer vigil for her at the church where she would have been married.

ZAHN: So sad. Erica, thanks. We'll check back in with you in about a half-hour from now.

Time to vote for our person of the day. Tonight's nominees, Mark Burnett for producing "The Apprentice" and "Survivor," two TV programs that I guess you could say caused the White House to change the time of the president's news conference last night to keep up the rollout of the sweeps season, 80-year-old Madalene Lindill for saving her 67- year-old neighbor from a fire by carrying her down two flights of stairs, or David Luneau for videotaping the ivory-billed woodpecker, helping prove the species isn't extinct after all.

You vote at CNN.com/Paula. I'll let you know who wins a little bit later on in the hour.

Coming up, she went from a refugee camp to a career in journalism. A correspondent reflects on her homeland and her adopted country next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ZAHN: While Operation Babylift carried orphans out of Vietnam in the weeks before Saigon fell, thousands of other Vietnamese were also fleeing from the communists. One of them was our own Betty Nguyen, carried out in the arms of her parents.

Here is her personal story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Like so many who were able to get out in 1975, I feel like I am among the lucky ones.

I'm the daughter of an American serviceman, a Vietnamese college student, a child born of war. But April 19, 1975, changed all of that. We had to leave Vietnam because anyone associated with the Americans were considered marked for death. There was no choice. My mother had to say goodbye to her parents, not knowing if she would ever see them again.

I can't imagine the pain. But we were leaving. We had to go. And, under the cover of darkness, we headed toward a cargo plane with paperwork in hand. We packed in like sardines. We sat on the floor. And we were headed to this new home, this place called America. But it wasn't as easy as a plane ride away. We had to go from refugee camp to refugee camp.

In fact, in the Philippines, that's where we learned that Saigon had fallen to communism. My mother can remember it so vividly to this day. It was as if she had no country, as if she was lost, out there with no place to go back to. She didn't know this new land called America. She was just kind of walking on faith.

But, thankfully, we were able to finally make it to America, to the land of opportunity, the land of freedom. Those of us who came over here in April 1975 are a part of history. We are the keepers of the past. We must make sure that future generations never forget, make sure that they learn their culture, their language, their traditions, make sure that they learn that Vietnam wasn't just about a war. It is about a people.

My family and I started a charity called Help the Hungry. And, every year, we go back to provide humanitarian aid to help those struggling, families, men, women, children. You know, these are people just like us. I was given an opportunity, but now it is my turn to help those who may never see that opportunity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: That was Betty Nguyen.

And tonight on NEWSNIGHT at 10:00 Eastern, Betty will have more on the 30th anniversary of Operation Babylift, including one little boy's moving story of finding a new home in the U.S.

Coming up next, though, singer Mariah Carey on her music, her millions and the man she says tried to control her. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Is it true that you would head for a cheeseburger at McDonald's and you would be getting phone calls on your cell phone, where the heck are you going?

MARIAH CAREY, SINGER: Basically, yes.

ZAHN: How intimidating was that?

CAREY: It was -- it was stifling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Mariah Carey speaks out on what led to her so-called meltdown and her comeback.

And then, a little bit later on, why seeing isn't necessarily believing. Check this photo out. You think it really happened that way, especially in the age of digital photographs?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: All right, what we know now is that birds do it, and they aren't alone. Please stay tuned for some scientific research that shows just about every kind of animal cheats on their mate.

Four years ago, Mariah Carey endured a painful public meltdown that threatened her career, even her mental health. It came not long after she had ended a very troubled marriage. But she has fought her way back and this month released a comeback CD called "The Emancipation of Mimi." And it is a huge hit.

Tonight, with an exclusive interview, the spotlight is on Mariah Carey in "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: The definition of emancipation is freeing someone from the control of another.

CAREY: It is one of the definitions. I actually list the definitions on the album packaging on the inside. So, it is funny that you should say that.

ZAHN: But the subtext of that, of course, takes you straight to Tommy Mottola.

CAREY: Right.

ZAHN: How trapped did you feel by that relationship?

CAREY: We don't have enough time in this interview.

ZAHN: I'll give you all the time you want, Mariah.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN (voice-over): On June 5, 1993, pop's most bankable superstar, Mariah Carey, married Sony Music president Tommy D. Mottola. She was 23. He was 45. It seemed like one sweet day.

CAREY: There were so many stars. I mean, I sat at a table with Barbra Streisand.

PETER CASTRO, "PEOPLE": The wedding itself was modeled after Charles and Diana. Mariah had this ridiculously over-the-top flowing wedding gown, that you could fit five of her into this thing.

CAREY: That day itself, that half-an-hour of wearing the dress was not bleak.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN (on camera): And things went downhill from there?

CAREY: Oh, well.

ZAHN: Oh, well.

(voice-over): To the public, Mariah Carey Mottola was living the fairy tale. But, to some, there was already speculation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a perception of her, one she might take issue with. She was this little porcelain doll. She was Tommy's kept doll to be brought out, to stand there, to be the good girl, and to sing her ballads, to sing her heart out, and to wow us all, as she can, with her voice.

ZAHN: By the fall of 1993, it became apparent once upon a time was not heading toward happily ever after.

CASTRO: So, she moves into this big mansion and realizes that she's living now with this very controlling person. I mean, Tommy, she says, does not allow her to leave.

ZAHN: But is it true that you would head for a cheeseburger at McDonald's and you would be getting phone calls on your cell phone, where the heck are you going?

CAREY: Basically, yes.

ZAHN: How intimidating was that?

CAREY: It was -- it was stifling.

ZAHN: At one point, you and your friends refer to this Bedford mansion you lived in with Tommy Mottola as Sing Sing.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: So, I'm supposed to believe that you were almost imprisoned there and you were expected to sing. CAREY: To sing and sing.

(LAUGHTER)

CAREY: I'm a jokester. So, of course, you know, Sing Sing, it was kind of warped. It was a choice I made. I can't blame him, because it was a relationship that I got into. Nobody held a gun to my head, I think.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: Whatever the circumstances, Mottola's methods worked. On September 19, 1995, "Daydream," Mariah's sixth album in just five years, debuted at number one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "One Sweet Day" was this huge sort of pop anthem Boyz 2 Men and it was just a monster. She also released a song called "Fantasy." The original single version fun, up tempo but somewhat unremarkable song. Its remix, however...

That one remix was responsible for, I would argue, an entire wave of music that we have seen since. And that is the pop hip-hop collaboration. You can argue that that "Fantasy" remix was the single most important recording that she ever made.

ZAHN: That remix was also important personally, signaling the start of Mariah Carey's return to her roots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was part African-American and she loved hip-hop. But they would never allow her to do it because she was the ballad queen.

CAREY: It was very much about don't do this, don't say that, look like this, look like that. Don't sing this way, sing that way. And anything else you to is wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't want to tamper with the golden goose. If it wasn't broke, let's not fix it. And Mariah was all about taking chances and really diversifying.

ZAHN: And on a cold December day in 1996, 26-year-old Mariah Carey left her music mogul husband.

CAREY: Something inside me that has always been a fighter just said, you're going to lose who you are if you don't hit the dirt.

ZAHN: Returning to the studio, this time on her own, she emerged with the album "Butterfly."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She really was spreading her wings and flying, flying away from a man that admittedly helped her in a huge way career-wise. But you have to believe was holding her back in other respects.

ZAHN: Tommy Mottola declined CNN's request for an interview, but he did send us comment. Quote, "Over the course of my entire career, I've never commented on my personal life. But I would like to say that I continue to be Mariah's biggest fan. I've listened to the new CD, and I think it's her best work yet. I wish her continued success and much happiness. And I'm glad she got use out of the wedding dress."

(on camera): Now am I seeing things or are you wearing the same wedding gown you wore when you married Tommy Mottola.

CAREY: It is that Vera Wang gown.

ZAHN: So, how did it feel when you put it back on, Mariah?

CAREY: That moment of wearing the dress was a really nice moment. I can't say the same for the honeymoon.

ZAHN: Coming up, all that glitters is not gold -- the tabloids, the talk, the truth behind the meltdown.

CARSON DALY, MTV: Oh, my God. What are you doing?

ZAHN: So what went wrong in 2001 for you?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: In the music world, Mariah Carey seemed to have the 1990s all to herself. A string of hit CDs that never seemed to end. Even a divorce from her music mogul husband didn't stop her.

But as we'll see, there was trouble coming down the road. Now more of our exclusive interview in tonight's "People in the News."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: In 1997, a Mariah Carey like we have never seen before emerged. Just minute from finalizing her divorce to Sony Music president Tommy Mottola, the ring was gone, the hair was down, the butterfly was taking flight.

CAREY: You know, I think it was a moment in time that people saw such a transition between the girl that was always really covered up to jumping in to a pool in the "Honey" video in my Gucci stilettos and ripping off the dress and being in the James Bond bikini which I loved and I lived for.

ZAHN: And with a new Mariah came a new reputation. On April 1998, she headlined VH1's "Divas Live."

Mariah Carey diva. Deserved? undeserved?

RANDY JACKSON, MUSIC PRODUCER: I'm not sure what diva is. Is it a negative thing? I don't know. She's far far, far, far from diva.

ZAHN: Why has she gotten tagged with that over the years?

JACKSON: Because she's so big, she's so successful. What else are they going to say? She's so big, she's so successful, I love you? ZAHN: Officially Mariah was now a diva in training. It was during this time buzz began to build about her short stop in spring training. His name, Derek Jeter.

But the connection didn't last long. Six months later, the romance turned to friendship which was hardly the case of Mariah, her ex-husband, and the label she called home.

CAREY: It was completely horrible to be there after the divorce. And it was a constant battle, a constant I've got survive. I've got get out of here. I've got to succeed on my own.

ZAHN: Album number nine arrived in November 1999. Two No. 1s and one world tour later, a blockbuster announcement, Virgin Records was offering five years, five albums $80 million.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was astounding. It really was. Even given Mariah's status as the biggest selling female artist of the '90s, that kind of deal, you just do not see.

PETER CASTRO, PEOPLE MAGAZINE: That Virgin deal was huge. They felt that they had a money-making machine and then it all unraveled. It was a terrible, terrible sequence of events.

ZAHN: In the summer of 2001, Mariah Carey was everywhere. Her first album with Virgin was soon to be released. Her first motion picture was in the can. 2001, was supposed to be a glittering year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she was just pushing herself so, so hard that this single lover boy and then the soundtrack and then the movie all had to be right. And everyone points to that TRL appearance as the moment where it just seemed like she was on the verge of some sort of break down.

DALY: What are you doing? Mariah Carey is stripping on TRL right now.

ZAHN: And then on July 25, an outburst at her mother's home prompted a phone call to 911. And as the headlines blared, the superstar was hospitalized under psychiatric care.

(on camera): So, what went wrong in 2001 for you?

CAREY: I was working, working, working. I took it on my shoulders and said I'm going to work. I'm going to work every single minute of the day. I don't care, I'm going to make this happen. And then basically, I didn't sleep for like six days in a row. And I just collapsed. And it was a physical thing where nobody could have done that.

ZAHN: But as you were trying to regain your strength, you had to deal with the hysteria of this outside world trying to characterize what had happened to you, whatever way they wanted to. Was that hurtful to you?

CAREY: Yes. It was so astounding, you have no idea. They were making these headlines that were so over the top, it was like I was at my mother's house in my pajamas and somebody was literally in the bushes taking a picture. And, of course, you look ridiculous and crazy in your pajamas on the front page of a newspaper, like why is she in her pajamas?

ZAHN (voice-over): In the fall of 2001, both "Glitter" the film and album flopped. And as tabloids chronicled every move Mariah made, Virgin Records counted every penny they lost.

In April 2002, just one year after signing one of the biggest contracts in music history, Virgin paid Mariah $28 million and terminated their five-year deal.

CAREY: I think that it was a blessing, because I had to take a break. There had been no break since the demo tape. Since the beginning, there had been no break. And when I was in my married life, my breaks were worse than working. I liked working more than I liked being at home. So it was just like, OK, let me have a moment to just regain who I am.

ZAHN: And on April 12th, 2005, a 35-year-old diva walked through the door and re-entered the party.

Her latest is called "The Emancipation of Mimi." Its title honors her childhood nickname and alludes to newfound freedom.

RANDY JACKSON, FRIEND: She's now really in control of her own life and her own music, and guiding herself the right way.

ZAHN: From seven-octave highs to bittersweet lows, from beautiful ballads to restless R&B. The superstar of the '90s has returned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever the drama, whatever the diva image, deserved or not deserved, there is that voice. No one can take that away from her.

CAREY: Anytime in my childhood, anything negative I was going through, I would sing. Any difficult situation, I would write poetry. I would write lyrics, I would write songs. And that's what got me through a lot of those really difficult years.

Making music is the thing that keeps me going. It's the greatest gift that I've really ever gotten.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: She's back, Mariah Carey, back on top after a very rough time. Please join me this weekend for "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," with much more on Mariah Carey. Plus, an in-depth look at Usher, whose latest CD, "Confessions," was the biggest debut release ever for a male R&B act. That's Saturday at 5:00 p.m. Eastern right here on this Cable News Network.

Coming up, a tabloid gets caught doing a little cut-and-paste. Oh, you will be shocked when you hear about this. And a little bit later on, are men and women actually hard-wired to cheat on each other? First, though, just about 15 minutes before the hour, time to check in one more time with Erica Hill of HEADLINE NEWS to update the top stories.

HILL: Paula, a shocking development in the stabbing of two children in suburban Chicago. Tonya Vasilev has been charged with murdering her 3-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son. Police say their father found them when he returned home from work on Wednesday night. But they wouldn't say if their mother has confessed to the crime.

A legal blow for the Michael Jackson defense. The judge said two books taken from the pop star's home showing pictures of nude teenage boys can be used as evidence. They were found during a 1993 search of Neverland ranch. Jackson's lawyers argued the material was too prejudicial and wasn't directly related to the current case. The books are considered to be sexually explicit but legal under California law.

And you may remember this stash of old bank notes, those two New England guys who say they found them buried in a backyard? Well, today, police arrested them. They say the guys found the money, all right, but not in the ground. It was in the attic of a home where they were doing roofing work. Barry Billcliff and Timothy Crebase pleaded not guilty. Police, though, say the $100,000 bankroll belonged to the homeowner, who didn't even know it was there. And they might have gotten away with it, they say, too, if they hadn't gone to the media.

And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS. Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Yeah, that might have saved them. Thanks, Erica.

Coming up next, Jeanne Moos with a picture that's worth a thousand very descriptive words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh. How deceptive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's sleazy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's shocking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And that's just the beginning. See what all the fuss is about in just a minute.

And please don't forget to vote for the person of the day. Will it be TV producer Mark Burnett, whose shows "The Apprentice" and "Survivor" are so popular that it actually sort of forced the White House to move the start time of the President Bush's news conference so it would be seen on the broadcast networks? Madalene Lindill, the 80-year-old woman who carried her 67-year-old neighbor away from a fire, saving her life? And bird watcher David Luneau, for proving that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is not extinct. You can vote at CNN.com/Paula.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: So the question of the night is, can you really trust your eyes anymore? There was a time when seeing really was believing. But as Jeanne Moos found out, the art of faking it in photography is fooling us all. See if it pulls the wool over your eyes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The headline says "Brad and Angelina Caught," but caught in the act was "Star" magazine itself. Take it from the editor of archrival "Us Weekly."

JANICE MIN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "US WEEKLY": "Us" real, "Star" fake.

MOOS: "Us" paid half a million bucks for real photos of the pair on a beach in Kenya. But "The Star" electronically slapped together two old photos from two separate beaches taken months apart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brad is just inserted into it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How deceptive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's shocking.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's sleazy.

MOOS: Though at first glance hardly anyone could tell.

(on camera): See anything wrong with this picture?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. It's got two people I really care nothing about and shoving it down my throat.

MOOS (voice-over): "The Star's" defense is that it tells readers the cover is a composite, in teeny-tiny print on page 8.

MIN: I think they were thinking "Us" magazine paid a lot of money to get these exclusive photos. Let's try to confuse the consumer out there so they might think that these are actually those photos.

MOOS: At least "The Star" didn't do what Stalin did -- pose with people, later have them executed, then erase them.

We have seen everything from "TV Guide" putting Oprah's head on Ann-Margret's body, to Kate Winslet upset because "GQ" reduced the size of her legs.

Someone on the Internet took this real photo of George Bush reading and turned his book upside down to make him look dumb.

A telltale sign in the Brad Pitt photo, even though he's walking on dry land in the composite...

(on camera): He still has waves around his feet.

MOOS: Back in 1992, "National Geographic" moved the pyramids. Squeezing them to fit in the vertical cover. Back then they called it retroactive repositioning of the photographer. Talk about positioning. The 9/11 tourist guy was posed atop the World Trade Center as a plane closed in. Next thing you know he was popping up at the Hindenburg and the Titanic. These days anyone can photo shop -- take this woman's husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He took a picture of us in the Adirondacks and added our dog to do it who hadn't been there.

MOOS: Pranksters claim this picture won "National Geographic's" Photo of the Year, when all it really was was a shark photo combined with this army chopper. Doctored to appear together, John Kerry and Jane Fonda can commiserate with Brad and Angelina, make that Brad and Jeanne.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, not really on a Beach in Kenya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Looking good there, Jeanne, if seeing is not quite believing. Our original Jeanne Moos.

Coming up, we're going to find out why no matter how hard many of us try, the urge to cheat on your spouse may be awfully hard to resist from a scientific point of view.

But first, time to reveal the "Person of the Day." Your choices were Mark Burnett for producing "The Apprentice" and "Survivors", shows that changed the timing of the president's news conference, might have paid off for Mr. Burnett and the start of his sweep series. Eighty-year-old Madalene Lindill for saving her 67-year-old neighbor from a fire. Or David Luneau who caught the Ivory-billed Woodpecker on videotape, helping prove the species isn't extinct after all.

And you choose David Luneau.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Call off the search. The sudden sighting of the Ivory- billed Woodpecker ends a 60 year quest for what a lot of people thought was a ghost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To actually see it was just absolutely unbelievable. It was 33-year dream-come-true for me.

ZAHN: This magnificent bird long thought to be extinct was not only spotted, it was captured on video for the whole world to see. Over the past few years, undocumented sightings of the bird triggered conservationists to intensify their search. Conservationists like David Luneau. Luneau arrived with his trusty camcorder. Under took an exhaustive year long search in the Cash River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. The result is this. The bird disappeared in the 1940s, but even then people kept reporting they had seen the bird. But there was never any proof until now.

GALE NORTON, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR SECRETARY: I cannot think of a single time we have ever found a species, once thought extinct, and now found to be in existence. This is such an exciting opportunity. Second chances to save wildlife thought to be extinct are extremely rare.

ZAHN: This video proves the ivory build woodpecker might be in trouble, but hasn't disappeared completely. So there is still hope, giving us hope and making David Luneau the "Person of the Day." We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Beautiful crisp evening here in New York City tonight. As we leave you tonight, for us humans, cheating on your spouse is probably one of the oldest taboos, so strong a taboo that no one really knows how many folks cheat out there because who really wants to admit to that. But if the animal world is any indication cheating may be completely natural.

Here is Kathy Slobogin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to be taking a turning right through the zoo. I would say penguins are probably the most romantic animal in the zoo.

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Penguins in love. They look innocent enough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have a month of foreplay.

SLOBOGIN: But looks are deceiving according to zookeeper Jane Tolini (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a penguin we name Joan Collins who would literally sashay in front of the burrows where pairs are stting on their eggs. And the males, you would watch them come out. And they'd go out and shtupp Joan in the hall and then pick up a palm frond and carry it back to the nest, acting like that's where I've been.

SLOBOGIN: And penguins aren't the only ones. It turns out most animals are cheating on the side.

DAVID BARRISH, ZOOLOGIST: I would have to say a species that doesn't cheat is exceedingly rare.

SLOBOGIN: Zoologist David Barrish (ph) and his wife psychologist Judith Lipton (ph) studied monogamy in the animal kingdom. You may be surprised by how little of it they found. BARRISH: I know of one species of animal that I can be fairly confident -- in fact, quite confident is monogamous. And that is a flat worm that lives as a parasite in the intestines of fish.

SLOBOGIN: In fact, the desire to stray in both animals and humans may be deeply imprinted on our psyches. Part of the instinct to survive --anthropologist Helen Fisher (ph).

HELEN FISHER, ANTHROPOLOGIST: What Darwin said, was if you have four children and I have no children, you live on and I die out. So who breathes, who reproduces, who passes their genes to the next generation survives. Men seemed to have a tendency to sleep around with a lot of different women, so that that they could pass more of their genes into the next generation.

SLOBOGIN: And women?

FISHER: When a woman sleeps around she can collect extra resources for the children she has. So through millions of years of having genetic payoffs to both men and women, we evolved whatever it is in the male and female brain to be somewhat adulterous.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And there's a whole lot more this weekend on the front lines of society's shifting mores on "CNN PRESENTS: INFIDELITY" Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We want to thanks you all for joining us tonight. We'll be back same time, same place Monday night. Have a great weekend.

"LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.

END

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 April 29, 2005 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Welcome. Glad to have you with us tonight.
Coming up, the latest on the mystery of the missing bride in Georgia.

And then, Mariah Carey gets personal tonight, a candid conversation about her fairy tale gone bad, her meltdown and now her comeback. But, first, a child in danger saved by a woman on a mission of mercy and, years later, the twist of fate that reunites them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): He was an enemy in his own land, an orphan of war, with an American father, abandoned by his Vietnamese mother.

ROGER CASTILLO, BORN IN VIETNAM: I just hear the gates closed and I turn around and essentially my mother is gone.

ZAHN: She was a flight attendant who helped rescue him and many others.

KAREN RYAN, PART OF OPERATION BABYLIFT: I'm going, this can't be. There is so many of these babies. It was overwhelming. Gosh, it was amazing.

ZAHN: Tonight, a reunion. Two lives touched by war find each other again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: For roughly 2,500 Americans, this month is a special anniversary. As babies and small children, they were crammed on to airplanes and flown out of danger during those final chaotic days before the fall of South Vietnam 30 years ago. It was called Operation Babylift and it was controversial, because not everyone thought that these children of American servicemen and Vietnamese women should come here in the first place.

But there is no denying it was a heroic effort and it has led to lifelong bonds between some of the children and their rescuers.

Betty Nyugen has one of those stories.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN: Hello, Roger.

CASTILLO: Hi, Karen.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a relationship that began 30 years ago in a dangerous, war-torn country. Today, they live just 25 miles apart. Here in Montana, that's practically next door, thousands of miles away from where they first met.

It was the 1970s and Karen Ryan, young and beautiful, was living the glamour life, working for Pan Am. They called them stewardesses back then and Ryan signed up to see the world. Only, America was at war. And she often had the difficult job of shuttling nervous soldiers to Vietnam.

RYAN: You would just grab their hand and say, take care of yourself. And it was just like looking at doomed people sometimes.

NGUYEN: But, on April 4, 1975, an airport telegram changed her life.

RYAN: While we were driving to the hotel, we were reading this, that we had been rerouted the next day. It wasn't in big letters, where you volunteer for this. We just thought we were doing it. And then, later, they told us that it was voluntary basis only.

NGUYEN: That's because this mission was different. Saigon was falling to communism, the plane, packed with baby bottles, the plan, pick up not troops, but children, victims of war, abandoned and possibly marked for death because of their American fathers, children like this boy.

His name then Ng Si Cuong. Abandoned at birth, he was adopted by a Vietnamese family until his mixed features started to show. Then, at the age of 6, his adoptive mother took him on a sightseeing trip that ended at this Saigon orphanage.

CASTILLO: The gate opened. And I remember my mother said, why don't you go in and see what it is like? And I walked in not knowing, because she stood back. And I just walked in. And it seemed almost instant, that I just hear the gates closed. And I turn around and essentially my mother is gone.

And I remember that -- I really -- I don't know if maybe I thought she was kidding. Maybe I -- I didn't know, but I just wanted to get out.

NGUYEN: He never saw her again.

CASTILLO: I constantly tried to climb the gate or I tried to climb the fence. I was trying to find any way to get out and find my way home.

NGUYEN: Whether she did it out of love or fear, he believes his adopted mother saved him from the communists. CASTILLO: They would have taken away my life. I think that they would have, because I essentially am half of the -- quote, unquote -- "enemy" to them.

NGUYEN: Fear for these infant enemies sparked a special American evacuation Operation Babylift, some 2,000 orphans with a ticket to the freedom, among them, Ng Si Cuong.

Tragically, the first flight out crashed in a rice field, killing some 135 people, mostly babies. But the mission was not abandoned. Karen's plane arrived the day after the crash and the children came piling up the steps, not knowing it would be a one-way trip and this would be the last memory of their homeland.

CASTILLO: It was very crowded. There was approximately about 100 of us, from the age of 6 to 8, and we were all into the back of the plane. The babies were up front.

And I remember the stewardess just running around.

RYAN: They were handing me babies, you know, two, three babies. And I get them in their seat belt and here would come more. And, of course, every baby is crying. The children are traumatized.

NGUYEN: And so was Karen. A snapshot captures the moment when this mercy mission became personal.

(on camera): What goes through your mind when you turn around and you have got three to four babies in your arms?

RYAN: I'm going, this can't be. There is so many of these babies. It was overwhelming. Gosh, it was amazing.

NGUYEN (voice-over): The sick children were taken upstairs to the 747's lounge, where, on regular flights, wealthy passengers would dine. Crammed in down below was the little boy who wondered if he would ever have a family on his way to an uncertain future. Everything in his life would soon change and change again, even his name.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And when we come back, an orphan's unexpected detour on his way to the American dream.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASTILLO: I did not know that I was going to a family at all. All I knew is, I was going on a plane. I was taking a trip to a new place and that's going to be my home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: A rough landing in a new country, as our story continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Operation Babylift carried 2,500 Vietnamese children to new lives in the U.S. just days before the fall of Saigon. They flew on military transports and commercial airliners. And most would never see their rescuers again after those flights to freedom.

Betty Nguyen now tells us how one refugee and his rescuer were reunited decades later.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN (voice-over): He was an orphan caught up in a war, the son of an American father and a Vietnamese mother and he was on his way to an uncertain future.

(on camera): Did you realize at the time what was happening? Did you realize that you were headed to America and to an American family that you would now call your own?

CASTILLO: I did not know that I was going to a family at all. All I knew is, I was going on a plane. I was taking a trip to a new place and that's going to be my home. But I did not know their names. I did not know how many kids they had. I didn't even know I was going to a specific destination.

NGUYEN: And he wasn't the only one with questions. Karen was concerned, too.

RYAN: I was legally worried about where they were going, what kind of parents they were going to get. Would they be loved? Would they be received? Would they be nourished, nurtured?

NGUYEN: In America, Ng Si Cuong was given a new name, Larry. He had a family and a home on this farm in Iowa, but it just wasn't working out.

CASTILLO: My American life didn't start on April 5 of 1975, when I was 6. It didn't start there. The wheel was turning. I was getting there. I got here, but I think my real life didn't start until November of 1978, when I came to the Castillos in California.

NGUYEN: Again, he was given a new name, Roger Castillo, the seventh child in a family full of adopted children from all over the world. He was finally home. But he never forgot how he got there.

(on camera): These sandals are 30 years old, the pair that you wore when you boarded that plane. How special are they?

CASTILLO: They're very special. They're my only connection to that era, and just to know that I've essentially walked out of my old life to a new life and these were what carried me.

NGUYEN (voice-over): Today, Roger Castillo is married, father of two beautiful daughters who share his Vietnamese features, a constant reminder of an unfamiliar past and how parents never known can still shape their children. CASTILLO: I have an image of who my father is. And I want to uphold that image. I want to love my kids as though, if he was still there, would he love me? Would my mother would have kept me if she would have had a spouse to help take care? So, I think it really challenges me to be a good father.

NGUYEN: And part of that challenge includes learning about his Vietnamese roots.

CASTILLO: Right now, I can teach my kids the American way of living. But I can't teach them where I came from.

NGUYEN: Sometimes, it is the present that links to the past. Roger made his home amid the mountains of western Montana.

CASTILLO: Can you go...

NGUYEN: He's a physician assistant in an emergency room that serves the city of Missoula, where, just up the road, past the fly fishermen and the fields of sheep, lives a link to what was just a fading memory. He found Karen when she wrote about her plane load of babies in "Reader's Digest." And she hasn't stopped caring for children.

RYAN: Do you to have somebody in mind that is...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I do. I have about four baby nurses interested.

NGUYEN: She owns a company that places nannies in homes.

CASTILLO: She is thinking, yes, I could retire.

NGUYEN: Thirty years after their chance meeting, they have become like family. They share meals and watch their children grow. Karen even keeps pictures of the babies on her flight displayed as if they were her own. And she's made sure Roger never forgets the day they met. "Alive and well, April 5, 1975" is inscribed on a pendant she gave him.

(on camera): That's pretty special. And it is something that you guys are going to carry with you forever?

RYAN: Sure.

CASTILLO: Forever.

RYAN: Yes.

CASTILLO: Forever, because I look at Karen and I look at all the stewardesses that was on that flight. I look at the pilots as, those were my angels. They're the ones that took us up. They're the ones that flew us out. And they're the ones that gave us that new life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: What a great story about humanity.

Coming up, our correspondent Betty Nyugen's own story of coming to America as a refugee from Vietnam.

And a little bit later on, my conversation with singer Mariah Carey. She talks about her music, her troubled marriage and her latest comeback.

But, first, just about 15 minutes past the hour, Erica Hill joins us from Headline News -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula. Good to see you tonight.

We start off with the missing woman in Georgia. At this time, still no word about Jennifer Wilbanks, the Duluth, Georgia, woman who vanished while jogging on Tuesday night. Today, the eve of her planned wedding, family and friends held an emotional news conference to appeal to the public for help.

And there was some frustrating news, meantime, for the family about the painfully few leads that have turned up so far. Meantime, police say also, while Jennifer's fiance, John Mason, did pass a polygraph test that was given by a private examiner, they want Georgia state investigators to give him another test. In the meantime, investigators are questioning former boyfriends and testing hair samples and jogging clothes which have been found during a search of the area around Duluth.

And that is the latest we have on this mystery at this hour. Paula, also, we should mention, the parents, who had planned to attend their daughter's wedding tomorrow, we're hearing now may instead attend a prayer vigil for her at the church where she would have been married.

ZAHN: So sad. Erica, thanks. We'll check back in with you in about a half-hour from now.

Time to vote for our person of the day. Tonight's nominees, Mark Burnett for producing "The Apprentice" and "Survivor," two TV programs that I guess you could say caused the White House to change the time of the president's news conference last night to keep up the rollout of the sweeps season, 80-year-old Madalene Lindill for saving her 67- year-old neighbor from a fire by carrying her down two flights of stairs, or David Luneau for videotaping the ivory-billed woodpecker, helping prove the species isn't extinct after all.

You vote at CNN.com/Paula. I'll let you know who wins a little bit later on in the hour.

Coming up, she went from a refugee camp to a career in journalism. A correspondent reflects on her homeland and her adopted country next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ZAHN: While Operation Babylift carried orphans out of Vietnam in the weeks before Saigon fell, thousands of other Vietnamese were also fleeing from the communists. One of them was our own Betty Nguyen, carried out in the arms of her parents.

Here is her personal story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Like so many who were able to get out in 1975, I feel like I am among the lucky ones.

I'm the daughter of an American serviceman, a Vietnamese college student, a child born of war. But April 19, 1975, changed all of that. We had to leave Vietnam because anyone associated with the Americans were considered marked for death. There was no choice. My mother had to say goodbye to her parents, not knowing if she would ever see them again.

I can't imagine the pain. But we were leaving. We had to go. And, under the cover of darkness, we headed toward a cargo plane with paperwork in hand. We packed in like sardines. We sat on the floor. And we were headed to this new home, this place called America. But it wasn't as easy as a plane ride away. We had to go from refugee camp to refugee camp.

In fact, in the Philippines, that's where we learned that Saigon had fallen to communism. My mother can remember it so vividly to this day. It was as if she had no country, as if she was lost, out there with no place to go back to. She didn't know this new land called America. She was just kind of walking on faith.

But, thankfully, we were able to finally make it to America, to the land of opportunity, the land of freedom. Those of us who came over here in April 1975 are a part of history. We are the keepers of the past. We must make sure that future generations never forget, make sure that they learn their culture, their language, their traditions, make sure that they learn that Vietnam wasn't just about a war. It is about a people.

My family and I started a charity called Help the Hungry. And, every year, we go back to provide humanitarian aid to help those struggling, families, men, women, children. You know, these are people just like us. I was given an opportunity, but now it is my turn to help those who may never see that opportunity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: That was Betty Nguyen.

And tonight on NEWSNIGHT at 10:00 Eastern, Betty will have more on the 30th anniversary of Operation Babylift, including one little boy's moving story of finding a new home in the U.S.

Coming up next, though, singer Mariah Carey on her music, her millions and the man she says tried to control her. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Is it true that you would head for a cheeseburger at McDonald's and you would be getting phone calls on your cell phone, where the heck are you going?

MARIAH CAREY, SINGER: Basically, yes.

ZAHN: How intimidating was that?

CAREY: It was -- it was stifling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Mariah Carey speaks out on what led to her so-called meltdown and her comeback.

And then, a little bit later on, why seeing isn't necessarily believing. Check this photo out. You think it really happened that way, especially in the age of digital photographs?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: All right, what we know now is that birds do it, and they aren't alone. Please stay tuned for some scientific research that shows just about every kind of animal cheats on their mate.

Four years ago, Mariah Carey endured a painful public meltdown that threatened her career, even her mental health. It came not long after she had ended a very troubled marriage. But she has fought her way back and this month released a comeback CD called "The Emancipation of Mimi." And it is a huge hit.

Tonight, with an exclusive interview, the spotlight is on Mariah Carey in "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: The definition of emancipation is freeing someone from the control of another.

CAREY: It is one of the definitions. I actually list the definitions on the album packaging on the inside. So, it is funny that you should say that.

ZAHN: But the subtext of that, of course, takes you straight to Tommy Mottola.

CAREY: Right.

ZAHN: How trapped did you feel by that relationship?

CAREY: We don't have enough time in this interview.

ZAHN: I'll give you all the time you want, Mariah.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN (voice-over): On June 5, 1993, pop's most bankable superstar, Mariah Carey, married Sony Music president Tommy D. Mottola. She was 23. He was 45. It seemed like one sweet day.

CAREY: There were so many stars. I mean, I sat at a table with Barbra Streisand.

PETER CASTRO, "PEOPLE": The wedding itself was modeled after Charles and Diana. Mariah had this ridiculously over-the-top flowing wedding gown, that you could fit five of her into this thing.

CAREY: That day itself, that half-an-hour of wearing the dress was not bleak.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN (on camera): And things went downhill from there?

CAREY: Oh, well.

ZAHN: Oh, well.

(voice-over): To the public, Mariah Carey Mottola was living the fairy tale. But, to some, there was already speculation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a perception of her, one she might take issue with. She was this little porcelain doll. She was Tommy's kept doll to be brought out, to stand there, to be the good girl, and to sing her ballads, to sing her heart out, and to wow us all, as she can, with her voice.

ZAHN: By the fall of 1993, it became apparent once upon a time was not heading toward happily ever after.

CASTRO: So, she moves into this big mansion and realizes that she's living now with this very controlling person. I mean, Tommy, she says, does not allow her to leave.

ZAHN: But is it true that you would head for a cheeseburger at McDonald's and you would be getting phone calls on your cell phone, where the heck are you going?

CAREY: Basically, yes.

ZAHN: How intimidating was that?

CAREY: It was -- it was stifling.

ZAHN: At one point, you and your friends refer to this Bedford mansion you lived in with Tommy Mottola as Sing Sing.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: So, I'm supposed to believe that you were almost imprisoned there and you were expected to sing. CAREY: To sing and sing.

(LAUGHTER)

CAREY: I'm a jokester. So, of course, you know, Sing Sing, it was kind of warped. It was a choice I made. I can't blame him, because it was a relationship that I got into. Nobody held a gun to my head, I think.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: Whatever the circumstances, Mottola's methods worked. On September 19, 1995, "Daydream," Mariah's sixth album in just five years, debuted at number one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "One Sweet Day" was this huge sort of pop anthem Boyz 2 Men and it was just a monster. She also released a song called "Fantasy." The original single version fun, up tempo but somewhat unremarkable song. Its remix, however...

That one remix was responsible for, I would argue, an entire wave of music that we have seen since. And that is the pop hip-hop collaboration. You can argue that that "Fantasy" remix was the single most important recording that she ever made.

ZAHN: That remix was also important personally, signaling the start of Mariah Carey's return to her roots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was part African-American and she loved hip-hop. But they would never allow her to do it because she was the ballad queen.

CAREY: It was very much about don't do this, don't say that, look like this, look like that. Don't sing this way, sing that way. And anything else you to is wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't want to tamper with the golden goose. If it wasn't broke, let's not fix it. And Mariah was all about taking chances and really diversifying.

ZAHN: And on a cold December day in 1996, 26-year-old Mariah Carey left her music mogul husband.

CAREY: Something inside me that has always been a fighter just said, you're going to lose who you are if you don't hit the dirt.

ZAHN: Returning to the studio, this time on her own, she emerged with the album "Butterfly."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She really was spreading her wings and flying, flying away from a man that admittedly helped her in a huge way career-wise. But you have to believe was holding her back in other respects.

ZAHN: Tommy Mottola declined CNN's request for an interview, but he did send us comment. Quote, "Over the course of my entire career, I've never commented on my personal life. But I would like to say that I continue to be Mariah's biggest fan. I've listened to the new CD, and I think it's her best work yet. I wish her continued success and much happiness. And I'm glad she got use out of the wedding dress."

(on camera): Now am I seeing things or are you wearing the same wedding gown you wore when you married Tommy Mottola.

CAREY: It is that Vera Wang gown.

ZAHN: So, how did it feel when you put it back on, Mariah?

CAREY: That moment of wearing the dress was a really nice moment. I can't say the same for the honeymoon.

ZAHN: Coming up, all that glitters is not gold -- the tabloids, the talk, the truth behind the meltdown.

CARSON DALY, MTV: Oh, my God. What are you doing?

ZAHN: So what went wrong in 2001 for you?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: In the music world, Mariah Carey seemed to have the 1990s all to herself. A string of hit CDs that never seemed to end. Even a divorce from her music mogul husband didn't stop her.

But as we'll see, there was trouble coming down the road. Now more of our exclusive interview in tonight's "People in the News."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: In 1997, a Mariah Carey like we have never seen before emerged. Just minute from finalizing her divorce to Sony Music president Tommy Mottola, the ring was gone, the hair was down, the butterfly was taking flight.

CAREY: You know, I think it was a moment in time that people saw such a transition between the girl that was always really covered up to jumping in to a pool in the "Honey" video in my Gucci stilettos and ripping off the dress and being in the James Bond bikini which I loved and I lived for.

ZAHN: And with a new Mariah came a new reputation. On April 1998, she headlined VH1's "Divas Live."

Mariah Carey diva. Deserved? undeserved?

RANDY JACKSON, MUSIC PRODUCER: I'm not sure what diva is. Is it a negative thing? I don't know. She's far far, far, far from diva.

ZAHN: Why has she gotten tagged with that over the years?

JACKSON: Because she's so big, she's so successful. What else are they going to say? She's so big, she's so successful, I love you? ZAHN: Officially Mariah was now a diva in training. It was during this time buzz began to build about her short stop in spring training. His name, Derek Jeter.

But the connection didn't last long. Six months later, the romance turned to friendship which was hardly the case of Mariah, her ex-husband, and the label she called home.

CAREY: It was completely horrible to be there after the divorce. And it was a constant battle, a constant I've got survive. I've got get out of here. I've got to succeed on my own.

ZAHN: Album number nine arrived in November 1999. Two No. 1s and one world tour later, a blockbuster announcement, Virgin Records was offering five years, five albums $80 million.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was astounding. It really was. Even given Mariah's status as the biggest selling female artist of the '90s, that kind of deal, you just do not see.

PETER CASTRO, PEOPLE MAGAZINE: That Virgin deal was huge. They felt that they had a money-making machine and then it all unraveled. It was a terrible, terrible sequence of events.

ZAHN: In the summer of 2001, Mariah Carey was everywhere. Her first album with Virgin was soon to be released. Her first motion picture was in the can. 2001, was supposed to be a glittering year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she was just pushing herself so, so hard that this single lover boy and then the soundtrack and then the movie all had to be right. And everyone points to that TRL appearance as the moment where it just seemed like she was on the verge of some sort of break down.

DALY: What are you doing? Mariah Carey is stripping on TRL right now.

ZAHN: And then on July 25, an outburst at her mother's home prompted a phone call to 911. And as the headlines blared, the superstar was hospitalized under psychiatric care.

(on camera): So, what went wrong in 2001 for you?

CAREY: I was working, working, working. I took it on my shoulders and said I'm going to work. I'm going to work every single minute of the day. I don't care, I'm going to make this happen. And then basically, I didn't sleep for like six days in a row. And I just collapsed. And it was a physical thing where nobody could have done that.

ZAHN: But as you were trying to regain your strength, you had to deal with the hysteria of this outside world trying to characterize what had happened to you, whatever way they wanted to. Was that hurtful to you?

CAREY: Yes. It was so astounding, you have no idea. They were making these headlines that were so over the top, it was like I was at my mother's house in my pajamas and somebody was literally in the bushes taking a picture. And, of course, you look ridiculous and crazy in your pajamas on the front page of a newspaper, like why is she in her pajamas?

ZAHN (voice-over): In the fall of 2001, both "Glitter" the film and album flopped. And as tabloids chronicled every move Mariah made, Virgin Records counted every penny they lost.

In April 2002, just one year after signing one of the biggest contracts in music history, Virgin paid Mariah $28 million and terminated their five-year deal.

CAREY: I think that it was a blessing, because I had to take a break. There had been no break since the demo tape. Since the beginning, there had been no break. And when I was in my married life, my breaks were worse than working. I liked working more than I liked being at home. So it was just like, OK, let me have a moment to just regain who I am.

ZAHN: And on April 12th, 2005, a 35-year-old diva walked through the door and re-entered the party.

Her latest is called "The Emancipation of Mimi." Its title honors her childhood nickname and alludes to newfound freedom.

RANDY JACKSON, FRIEND: She's now really in control of her own life and her own music, and guiding herself the right way.

ZAHN: From seven-octave highs to bittersweet lows, from beautiful ballads to restless R&B. The superstar of the '90s has returned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever the drama, whatever the diva image, deserved or not deserved, there is that voice. No one can take that away from her.

CAREY: Anytime in my childhood, anything negative I was going through, I would sing. Any difficult situation, I would write poetry. I would write lyrics, I would write songs. And that's what got me through a lot of those really difficult years.

Making music is the thing that keeps me going. It's the greatest gift that I've really ever gotten.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: She's back, Mariah Carey, back on top after a very rough time. Please join me this weekend for "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," with much more on Mariah Carey. Plus, an in-depth look at Usher, whose latest CD, "Confessions," was the biggest debut release ever for a male R&B act. That's Saturday at 5:00 p.m. Eastern right here on this Cable News Network.

Coming up, a tabloid gets caught doing a little cut-and-paste. Oh, you will be shocked when you hear about this. And a little bit later on, are men and women actually hard-wired to cheat on each other? First, though, just about 15 minutes before the hour, time to check in one more time with Erica Hill of HEADLINE NEWS to update the top stories.

HILL: Paula, a shocking development in the stabbing of two children in suburban Chicago. Tonya Vasilev has been charged with murdering her 3-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son. Police say their father found them when he returned home from work on Wednesday night. But they wouldn't say if their mother has confessed to the crime.

A legal blow for the Michael Jackson defense. The judge said two books taken from the pop star's home showing pictures of nude teenage boys can be used as evidence. They were found during a 1993 search of Neverland ranch. Jackson's lawyers argued the material was too prejudicial and wasn't directly related to the current case. The books are considered to be sexually explicit but legal under California law.

And you may remember this stash of old bank notes, those two New England guys who say they found them buried in a backyard? Well, today, police arrested them. They say the guys found the money, all right, but not in the ground. It was in the attic of a home where they were doing roofing work. Barry Billcliff and Timothy Crebase pleaded not guilty. Police, though, say the $100,000 bankroll belonged to the homeowner, who didn't even know it was there. And they might have gotten away with it, they say, too, if they hadn't gone to the media.

And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS. Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Yeah, that might have saved them. Thanks, Erica.

Coming up next, Jeanne Moos with a picture that's worth a thousand very descriptive words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh. How deceptive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's sleazy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's shocking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And that's just the beginning. See what all the fuss is about in just a minute.

And please don't forget to vote for the person of the day. Will it be TV producer Mark Burnett, whose shows "The Apprentice" and "Survivor" are so popular that it actually sort of forced the White House to move the start time of the President Bush's news conference so it would be seen on the broadcast networks? Madalene Lindill, the 80-year-old woman who carried her 67-year-old neighbor away from a fire, saving her life? And bird watcher David Luneau, for proving that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is not extinct. You can vote at CNN.com/Paula.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: So the question of the night is, can you really trust your eyes anymore? There was a time when seeing really was believing. But as Jeanne Moos found out, the art of faking it in photography is fooling us all. See if it pulls the wool over your eyes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The headline says "Brad and Angelina Caught," but caught in the act was "Star" magazine itself. Take it from the editor of archrival "Us Weekly."

JANICE MIN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "US WEEKLY": "Us" real, "Star" fake.

MOOS: "Us" paid half a million bucks for real photos of the pair on a beach in Kenya. But "The Star" electronically slapped together two old photos from two separate beaches taken months apart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brad is just inserted into it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How deceptive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's shocking.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's sleazy.

MOOS: Though at first glance hardly anyone could tell.

(on camera): See anything wrong with this picture?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. It's got two people I really care nothing about and shoving it down my throat.

MOOS (voice-over): "The Star's" defense is that it tells readers the cover is a composite, in teeny-tiny print on page 8.

MIN: I think they were thinking "Us" magazine paid a lot of money to get these exclusive photos. Let's try to confuse the consumer out there so they might think that these are actually those photos.

MOOS: At least "The Star" didn't do what Stalin did -- pose with people, later have them executed, then erase them.

We have seen everything from "TV Guide" putting Oprah's head on Ann-Margret's body, to Kate Winslet upset because "GQ" reduced the size of her legs.

Someone on the Internet took this real photo of George Bush reading and turned his book upside down to make him look dumb.

A telltale sign in the Brad Pitt photo, even though he's walking on dry land in the composite...

(on camera): He still has waves around his feet.

MOOS: Back in 1992, "National Geographic" moved the pyramids. Squeezing them to fit in the vertical cover. Back then they called it retroactive repositioning of the photographer. Talk about positioning. The 9/11 tourist guy was posed atop the World Trade Center as a plane closed in. Next thing you know he was popping up at the Hindenburg and the Titanic. These days anyone can photo shop -- take this woman's husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He took a picture of us in the Adirondacks and added our dog to do it who hadn't been there.

MOOS: Pranksters claim this picture won "National Geographic's" Photo of the Year, when all it really was was a shark photo combined with this army chopper. Doctored to appear together, John Kerry and Jane Fonda can commiserate with Brad and Angelina, make that Brad and Jeanne.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, not really on a Beach in Kenya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Looking good there, Jeanne, if seeing is not quite believing. Our original Jeanne Moos.

Coming up, we're going to find out why no matter how hard many of us try, the urge to cheat on your spouse may be awfully hard to resist from a scientific point of view.

But first, time to reveal the "Person of the Day." Your choices were Mark Burnett for producing "The Apprentice" and "Survivors", shows that changed the timing of the president's news conference, might have paid off for Mr. Burnett and the start of his sweep series. Eighty-year-old Madalene Lindill for saving her 67-year-old neighbor from a fire. Or David Luneau who caught the Ivory-billed Woodpecker on videotape, helping prove the species isn't extinct after all.

And you choose David Luneau.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Call off the search. The sudden sighting of the Ivory- billed Woodpecker ends a 60 year quest for what a lot of people thought was a ghost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To actually see it was just absolutely unbelievable. It was 33-year dream-come-true for me.

ZAHN: This magnificent bird long thought to be extinct was not only spotted, it was captured on video for the whole world to see. Over the past few years, undocumented sightings of the bird triggered conservationists to intensify their search. Conservationists like David Luneau. Luneau arrived with his trusty camcorder. Under took an exhaustive year long search in the Cash River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. The result is this. The bird disappeared in the 1940s, but even then people kept reporting they had seen the bird. But there was never any proof until now.

GALE NORTON, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR SECRETARY: I cannot think of a single time we have ever found a species, once thought extinct, and now found to be in existence. This is such an exciting opportunity. Second chances to save wildlife thought to be extinct are extremely rare.

ZAHN: This video proves the ivory build woodpecker might be in trouble, but hasn't disappeared completely. So there is still hope, giving us hope and making David Luneau the "Person of the Day." We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Beautiful crisp evening here in New York City tonight. As we leave you tonight, for us humans, cheating on your spouse is probably one of the oldest taboos, so strong a taboo that no one really knows how many folks cheat out there because who really wants to admit to that. But if the animal world is any indication cheating may be completely natural.

Here is Kathy Slobogin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to be taking a turning right through the zoo. I would say penguins are probably the most romantic animal in the zoo.

KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Penguins in love. They look innocent enough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have a month of foreplay.

SLOBOGIN: But looks are deceiving according to zookeeper Jane Tolini (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a penguin we name Joan Collins who would literally sashay in front of the burrows where pairs are stting on their eggs. And the males, you would watch them come out. And they'd go out and shtupp Joan in the hall and then pick up a palm frond and carry it back to the nest, acting like that's where I've been.

SLOBOGIN: And penguins aren't the only ones. It turns out most animals are cheating on the side.

DAVID BARRISH, ZOOLOGIST: I would have to say a species that doesn't cheat is exceedingly rare.

SLOBOGIN: Zoologist David Barrish (ph) and his wife psychologist Judith Lipton (ph) studied monogamy in the animal kingdom. You may be surprised by how little of it they found. BARRISH: I know of one species of animal that I can be fairly confident -- in fact, quite confident is monogamous. And that is a flat worm that lives as a parasite in the intestines of fish.

SLOBOGIN: In fact, the desire to stray in both animals and humans may be deeply imprinted on our psyches. Part of the instinct to survive --anthropologist Helen Fisher (ph).

HELEN FISHER, ANTHROPOLOGIST: What Darwin said, was if you have four children and I have no children, you live on and I die out. So who breathes, who reproduces, who passes their genes to the next generation survives. Men seemed to have a tendency to sleep around with a lot of different women, so that that they could pass more of their genes into the next generation.

SLOBOGIN: And women?

FISHER: When a woman sleeps around she can collect extra resources for the children she has. So through millions of years of having genetic payoffs to both men and women, we evolved whatever it is in the male and female brain to be somewhat adulterous.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And there's a whole lot more this weekend on the front lines of society's shifting mores on "CNN PRESENTS: INFIDELITY" Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We want to thanks you all for joining us tonight. We'll be back same time, same place Monday night. Have a great weekend.

"LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.

END

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