Return to Transcripts main page
Paula Zahn Now
Michael Jackson's High Cost of living; Rania's Story; Angelina Jolie Profile
Aired June 10, 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. Glad to have you all with us tonight.
As Michael Jackson awaits a jury's decision, another crisis looms for the superstar who once had it all.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): Michael Jackson's high cost of living, the personal playground, the private jet, former wives, lawyers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was estimated that Michael Jackson was spending about $20 million a year more than he was bringing in.
ZAHN: With spending off the charts and no new records on the charts...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not that unusual that Michael Jackson would take out $200 million of debt at a bank.
ZAHN: .... is the king of pop becoming a pauper?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Well, the work week is now over for Michael Jackson and its jury, but there's still no verdict. All we see of the jurors is the motorcade of vans bringing them to and from the courthouse in Santa Maria, California.
But sources close to the case tell CNN that the jury asked a number of questions today. Members of the panel also asked to have some of the testimony read back to them. Jackson isn't required to be on hand for deliberations, so he isn't. He is now behind the closed doors at his ranch. Neverland is one of the most visible parts of Jackson's financial empire. And, depending on the jury's verdict, it is an empire that may be teetering at the point of financial collapse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): He may be the most famous entertainer to ever stand trial on felony charges, but being this famous also comes with a price tag. And, in Michael Jackson's case, it's a hefty one.
It's no secret the self-proclaimed king of pop has a penchant for the finer things, like not waiting in airport lines, from routinely booking $15,000 charter jet flights on impulse, even once chartering a smaller jet for friend comedian Chris Tucker, to the tune of $40,000. It cost Jackson $4 million a year just to maintain his 2,800-acre Neverland Ranch. That's not including taxes.
Martin Bashir's documentary revealed shopping sprees that averaged tens of thousands of dollars, when he's not at home, hotel suites at $10,000 a night. It's a lofty running tab. The question is, can he afford it? He is reported to have borrowed $200 million, using his half ownership of the rights to Beatles and Elvis recordings as collateral.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In his trial, it was estimated that Michael Jackson was spending about $20 million a year more than he was bringing in.
ZAHN: Over the course of his career, Jackson has made more than half a billion dollars, building his fortune in the '80s with the release of the album "Thriller" and signing a $65 million 1991 recording deal with Sony.
But, over the last 10 years, Jackson's record sales have taken a hit and so has his bank account. Jackson's criminal trial has given us an all-access pass to the singer's dwindling finances. And it looks like this big spender is in serious debt.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The average American has almost $10,000 just in credit card debt. So, it's not that unusual that Michael Jackson would take out $200 million of debt at a bank. You know, it's a different scale, for certain, but, you know, he is living a bigger lifestyle than the average American.
ZAHN: But living large and mounting legal bills have saddled Jackson with a personal debt of $270 million, according to trial testimony. He owes a lot of money to a lot of people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has his divorce settlement with his second wife, which will cost him about $10 million. And he had the settlement with his child molestation case over 10 years ago, which will cost him about $15 million.
ZAHN: Jackson may have to sell his 50 percent share of Sony ATV Music Publishing, which would mean giving up any rights to his Beatles and Elvis libraries. But, if he sells that, he's buying a tax bill that will cost him in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
For the embattled pop star, who lives on a scale beyond most ordinary mortals, the future doesn't look bright. The jury is still out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: For more now on Michael Jackson's finances, let's go to "Wall Street Journal" reporter Ethan Smith in Los Angeles. He is the co-author of an article published this week which gives a detailed look at Jackson's money troubles.
Good to see you. Welcome, Ethan. In your article, you report that Michael Jackson's advisers have actually consulted with bankruptcy attorneys, preparing for the possibility of a worst-case scenario. How close is Michael Jackson to going bankrupt?
ETHAN SMITH, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, at this moment, he does not appear to be imminently in danger of going bankrupt, but he is far from out of the woods.
In the first two weeks of April, he was in a serious crisis, which is when the bankruptcy attorney came in. At that point, he was actually in default on at least part of the $270 million in loans.
ZAHN: And let's talk about how he got out of that. There was a group that came in that called Fortress Investment Group.
SMITH: That's right.
ZAHN: That bought Jackson's debt from Bank of America and then extended him even more credit.
SMITH: That's right. Fortress Investment Group, which is a large, sort of diversified financial company, bought the debt from Bank of America in roughly -- well, in early May, around the 1st of May.
And they bought it at full face value. And they appear to have extended the deadline. The debt was due in December. They extended it to a point at which we're uncertain and also appear to have extended him more credit.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Now, why would they do that, Ethan?
SMITH: Well, that -- it depends who you ask. There's disagreement among the people around him as to what the motives are there. One camp of people say, well, Michael is actually not such a bad risk, because he owns so many valuable assets that, you know, their rate of interest on this loan is pretty good for them and they can make some money.
And they're just trying to give him a little breathing room to get his house in order.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: But there's a much different theory, right, about trying to take over his publishing company?
SMITH: There certainly is.
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: Another school of thought thinks that Fortress not too long ago, just several months back, made an offer, tried to buy his publishing assets.
And now here they are owning the debt that's secured by the publishing assets. Some people think they're setting him up for a harder, nastier fall when he, inevitably, can't make good on these obligations. Now, maybe he can. I don't know. But -- and I don't know for sure that that's Fortress' game plan.
And, I should add, if they do -- if he ends up defaulting on this debt, it's not certain that they just get to take his assets. I mean, they may get to sell them in some kind of bankruptcy sale.
ZAHN: Sure.
SMITH: But that's all, you know, several steps away.
ZAHN: In spite of this pressure on Michael Jackson, is there any reason to believe he has curbed his personal spending from the time the public probably got the first real bird's-eye view of what his life was like in the Martin Bashir interview, when he wanted to buy just about everything back in 2003?
SMITH: Right.
Well, from what we can tell, he's probably not spending any less. He may be spending his money a little differently. One person close to him told us he spends about $1.5 million a month, before he even gets out of bed, just on overhead. Then, on top of that, he goes on these wild spending sprees that were, I guess, in the Bashir documentary.
Now he's spending all that money on lawyers defending him at trial. I'm not sure, over the last 13 or 14 weeks, he has been doing a lot of cruising at malls for Rolexes, but he's spending around -- we believe he's spending about $10 million or maybe a little more on defending himself in this trial.
ZAHN: And, finally, just very quickly, in closing, his ace in the hole, of course, is his 50 percent ownership of this publishing company. What is that worth today at book value?
SMITH: Well, it seems to be worth at least $500 million. It's a little hard to know. Nobody has done a really thorough analysis.
But many, many people on Wall Street have kicked the tires on this thing over the last couple of years. And it seems to be -- his half seems to be worth around $500 million.
ZAHN: Ethan Smith, thank you for putting this all into perspective for us tonight. Appreciate your time.
SMITH: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: My pleasure.
Coming up, the inspiring story of a young Iraqi woman whom we all can admire and the incredible odds she had to overcome. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You remember that night?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was it like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's the darkest night in my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: She survived Saddam Hussein's tyranny and the war in Iraq. Now she's getting ready to bring her people the truth.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Still ahead tonight, Oscar winner Angelina Jolie and her toughest critic, her Oscar-winning father, an exclusive interview with Jon Voight.
First, though, just about 13 minutes past the hour. Time for Erica Hill, who is really ready for this headline update.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've been waiting all day, Paula.
ZAHN: It's TGIF.
HILL: It is TGIF. And happy Friday.
ZAHN: Thank you.
HILL: We'll start off now with word that even the Navy is steering clear of Tropical Storm Arlene tonight, everybody battening down the hatches. It moved ships away from the first major storm of the season.
Arlene could strengthen to hurricane force as it brushes Florida's Gulf Coast. It's expected to make landfall on Saturday between noon and 3:00. Of course, they're still recovering from last year's hurricanes. At least one death is reported. Hurricane warnings are posted now from Louisiana through the Florida Panhandle.
In Iraq, the Army is investigating whether two officers killed earlier this week near Tikrit may have been the victims of an intentional attack by a fellow soldier. So far, there are no suspects in custody. Meantime, in Anbar Province, five U.S. Marines died when a roadside bomb exploded as their armored vehicle rolled past. The number of U.S. troops killed now stands at 1,690.
In Washington, a major step toward debt relief. The White House says the U.S. and Britain have agreed on a deal to erase the debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations.
And the contract that sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919 sold today for $996,000 at an auction of Ruth memorabilia. Almost a million bucks, Paula.
ZAHN: I was expecting it to be twice that much.
HILL: Maybe the next time it goes on the auction block.
ZAHN: Exactly. Give it another year and it might be at that number.
Erica, thanks so much. See you in about an half-hour or so.
And time for all of you to do a little work now. We need you to vote for the person of the day. Your choices tonight, 12-year-old cancer patient Katie Wernecke for being caught in the center of a battle over whether she needs radiation therapy, the co-workers of blinded Iraq war veteran Christopher Paiser for donating more than 306 days to help him recover, and nine Morehouse College students for winning an Oprah-sponsored scholarship to travel to South Africa to study about AIDS in that country.
Vote now at CNN.com/Paula. The results for you at the end of the hour.
Still to come, though, an Iraqi woman who has overcome obstacles few of us will ever confront just to be here in the U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Dictatorship, war, deaths in the family, for one young woman from Iraq, these words are all too real. They're part of a past she can't forget, even as she begins a new life here in the United States.
Contributing correspondent Frank Sesno has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go, in five, four, three, two, one.
FRANK SESNO, CNN CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a television studio in suburban Virginia, Rania Atar (ph) is getting a fresh start. Working for Al-Hurra, an Arabic-language television channel funded by the U.S. government, this 22-year-old soon will read the news back to her native Iraq.
This was her first screen test. Like her country, Rania has experienced a wrenching journey and she's uncertain of what to expect from life in America.
RANIA ATAR: I fear this big country, maybe it's going to be too big for me.
SESNO (on camera): And you felt you would be alone here?
ATAR: Yes. I felt like I am alone at first, first day I am there. SESNO (voice-over): There is an emptiness, filled by sounds of the street, haunting and all too familiar.
ATAR: You know, when you live in a war zone and always you hear this, you will know there are some people dying there, or some people injured or there is someone who has pain and it's not a pleasant feeling for you.
SESNO: Rania feels safe now, but she's scarred by a painful past.
ATAR: I say it's a crazy life. Things choose me. I never choose things.
SESNO: She grew up in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, at first, unaware and untouched by his rule. Her father, Hussein (ph), was a civil engineer and a successful businessman. Rania, the third of four children, remembers a playful man.
ATAR: I remember him always young, because I never see him old. This is my father for me.
SESNO: A memory frozen in time because of what happened one night in 1992.
(on camera): Do you remember that night?
ATAR: Yes, I do.
SESNO: What was it like?
ATAR: It's -- I think it's the darkest night in my life. We just heard like the door knocked after midnight. And my mother, she's scared, you know. And someone starts shouting, said, open the door. And she wait for a while. And then people jump from the roof to enter the house. And they, like, break the door to enter the house.
SESNO (voice-over): Armed security men seized Rania's father.
ATAR: They didn't ask him, who is your name, whatever. They just took him away.
SESNO: Next, they went upstairs, grabbed her teenage brother, Alex (ph), and marched him right past Rania, then a terrified and very confused 10-year-old.
(on camera): When did you see your father again?
ATAR: I didn't see him after this night. That's it. I didn't see my father, not my father, not my brother after this. This is the last thing. This is why this image stick in my mind forever, because I didn't see them after that.
SESNO (voice-over): The next day, Rania's mother asked everyone she could about her husband, but no one, certainly not the police, would offer any information. ATAR: We felt the answer from the neighbors' act, from friends' act, because there no one come to ask, what's happened to our father, you know? And this is -- you know, we felt that we are in trouble.
SESNO: Finally, Rania heard about a friend's uncle who had spent time in prison. He told her about the torture in Saddam's jails, about prisoners having their fingernails pulled out, being forced to sit on a bottle overnight, having hot olive oil poured down their legs, all this told to a 10-year-old girl.
ATAR: He said to me, I think just forget about it and try to forget it.
SESNO (on camera): He told you to forget about your father?
ATAR: Yes, yes.
SESNO (voice-over): Forty days after Rania's father was taken, Saddam's security forces returned to the Atar (ph) home, this time with her father's death certificate. He had been executed for inciting revolution. Rania insists he had never went near politics.
(on camera): Did your father ever have a trial?
ATAR: No, no trial, nothing. No, my father, he just disappeared. We don't know where is he.
SESNO (voice-over): Rania says her father's only crime was refusing to join the Baath Party and turning down a job with Saddam's Foreign Ministry. For this, she believes he was killed, the family house and money taken away.
(on camera): What happens to a 10-year-old girl who goes through this? What happens to your childhood?
ATAR: What childhood? The things that people -- kids are interested about is not interesting for me anymore. The joy of life, it died in my eyes in this time.
SESNO: As for brother Alex, arrested when he was just 16, five years later, the family was told he had joined the army and died in a mine field in northern Iraq. Rania says, in Saddam's Iraq, it was widely believed prisoners were used to clear mine fields.
Still, Rania had her younger sister, Rita (ph). Together, they dreamed of a better life, but their plans would be tragically interrupted, just as they were beginning to take shape.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And, after the break, a new pain to bear, the unlikely cause and a life-changing decision.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: We continue now with the story of Rania Atar (ph), the young Iraqi woman who lost her father and her brother under the most cruel circumstances during Saddam Hussein's regime. But Rania planned a new beginning in the U.S., together with her younger sister.
Once again, Frank Sesno.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SESNO (voice-over): It wasn't supposed to be like this. Rania Atar (ph), this 22-year-old Iraqi woman, wasn't supposed to be all alone in America. She had planned to be here with her soul mate, with her sister, Rita.
ATAR: She look here so -- so innocent and so pretty, you know.
SESNO: It was Rita who kept Rania going after they lost their father and brother to the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.
ATAR: She's full of energy, full of dreams.
SESNO: They shared everything. Rita followed Rania through school. And when Rania began working for the British Broadcasting Corporation, Rita expressed an interest in journalism, too.
(on camera): How was her English?
ATAR: She's fluent in English. She's better, much better than me.
SESNO: For the Atar (ph) sisters, the toppling of Saddam, the arrival of the Americans, the prospect of democracy meant opportunity. But things went horribly wrong.
On October 25, 2003, Rita was working as a translator, traveling with American and British contractors, 50 miles west of Baghdad. A CBS camera crew wasn't far away. Rita's vehicle was near a U.S. military convoy when insurgents set off a roadside bomb.
ATAR: There is small explosions happening in front of the American convoys. And so they stopped. So, the security in the car that she is in, they talked to the American commander, told him, can we pass this way, which is safer, not go forward? He said to him, OK. He gives him thumbs up that he can do it.
SESNO: But others in the convoy saw the vehicle's erratic movements and thought it was part of the attack.
ATAR: The convoy behind start shooting the car or they shoot -- they opened fire on her car. And she is the first one to be shot in this car. One of the shots, they just shot the gas tank. All this car just burned and my sister in.
SESNO: Three other Iraqis were killed and three of the contractors were injured. In Baghdad, Rania learned the details of the innocent from a BBC colleague.
ATAR: I said to him: "You are a liar. You are lying to me. You're saying lies.:
I mean, he said -- he said to me, "I wish I am a liar."
SESNO: It was true. Rita was dead.
ATAR: Anyway, so we tried to find out what's happened. (INAUDIBLE) they said we just suspect this car. We weren't sure who is in this car. And we didn't know that they are civilian, and they feel sorry.
SESNO: Two months later, Rania received an e-mail from the U.S. military, offering condolences for what was described as a very unfortunate incident and $2,500. Rania says she didn't take the money.
ATAR: Really, I felt my soul died with her, you know? The pleasure of life died with her, the happiness gone with her.
SESNO: As her mother, devastated, prepared for Rita's (ph) funeral, Rania said goodbye.
ATAR: And I opened the coffin, and I see my sister. And I kissed her. And there is not actually -- just burned body, you know. But you can't tell from her body that she is sleeping or she wasn't sleeping.
SESNO (on-screen): You lost your brother and your father to Saddam and your sister to the Americans?
ATAR: Yes.
SESNO: How do you make sense of that?
ATAR: You know, they are just in my soul, in my eyes, all the time. Sometimes I ask God to not make me crazy after this, because sometimes I feel like I'm really -- I need them.
SESNO (voice-over): While her story is dramatic, Rania recognizes it's not unique. After all, she's from Iraq, a country of stories.
ATAR: I am symbol of my country. Most of my country, they have these problems. And some of them, they still have these problems.
SESNO: Rania's new life is difficult, but promising. She wishes she could say the same about the lives of her countrymen back home.
ATAR: They cannot survive like this. If they want to live, they have to change themselves.
SESNO: For Rania, change begins right here, right now, remembering the past, but determined to move beyond it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And what an effort she's making. Rania plans to write a book about her experiences. And as for her TV career, Rania will broadcast the news back to her home country as early as next week as a full-time anchor for Al-Hurrah, the Arabic-language news and information channel.
Still to come, a very different kind of young woman, one who seems to set off sparks wherever she goes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She would walk on to set and change the energy of the room. And she was like -- it was as if somebody had released a tiger on to set that was prowling around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Stay with us for more on Angelina Jolie and her ability to light up movie screens, movie sets and tabloid headlines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Breaking news out of Santa Maria, California, tonight in the Michael Jackson case. Earlier, we told you about the jury in that case, it asked a number of questions today. And we told you that some members of the panel had also asked to have some of that testimony read back to them.
Right now, let's go straight to Santa Maria, where our Ted Rowlands is standing by. He has more on that.
Ted, what have you learned?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, we're getting more information from our sources close to the case. And that is that jurors asked Judge Rodney Melville a series of questions today. They also asked for a series of read-backs today.
And we now understand from our sources close to the case that the subject of those read-backs all were testimony of the accuser. And we have also been told that the attorneys from both sides had three separate meetings with the judge. Clearly, a very busy day in that jury room, but still no verdict, no decision on Michael Jackson's fate.
ZAHN: When you hear about what you're reporting tonight, it makes you think back to one of the more explosive days in the courtroom when this 15-year-old accuser was talking about or alleging all kinds of lewd behavior and discussions. And I think we should probably point out to the audience that's when the defense attorney accused this kid of making everything up.
ROWLANDS: Clearly, this has been the focus of the case. And Tom Mesereau, Michael Jackson's attorney, has pulled no punches throughout the case, including when the accuser was on the stand. Many people thought he wouldn't go after a child, but he did go after him. And he went after him in closing arguments, as well. And now, clearly, jurors seem to be vetting that out and making a decision for themselves one way or the other.
ZAHN: Any other insights about the pace of these deliberations? We know the judge left very specific and detailed instructions -- what, 98 pages in all -- for this jury.
ROWLANDS: They have a huge job that they had to tackle. There are 10 separate counts against Jackson. The amount of testimony in this trial has been voluminous. Clearly, this jury is taking its time going through the testimony. We don't know how things are going, whether there are disagreements, whether everybody is in agreement. What we know, obviously, they are taking their time before making this decision.
ZAHN: Ted Rowlands, reporting some very important information out of California today, reinforcing the fact that we can now say that what the jury asked for was more information, specifically on the testimony of the accuser in the Michael Jackson case. Again, thank you, Ted.
Now we're going to move on to our "Person of the Day." Who is your choice? Twelve-year-old cancer patient, Katie Wernecke, who is caught in a battle over whether she actually needs radiation therapy after having been treated with chemotherapy, and the coworkers of blinded Iraq war veteran, Christopher Paiser. They donated more than 300 sick days of their own to help him recover. Or the nine Morehouse College students who won an Oprah-sponsored scholarship to travel to South Africa to learn more about the rage of AIDS there.
Well, 58 percent of you picked the coworkers of the blinded veteran.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): Christopher Paiser is an American hero. He has the medals to prove it, even if he can barely see them.
Paiser left his job as a New York State prison guard when he was called up by the National Guard. A year ago in Iraq, shrapnel from an insurgent attack blinded one of his eyes and took away most of the sight from the other. But that loss showed Chris Paiser who his friends really are.
Paiser couldn't go back to his old job at the prison. But he had to work until spring in order to qualify for disability retirement benefits. That's where his colleagues came in. The other guards donated their own sick days to Paiser, more than 300 days in all, so he can be on sick leave until he qualifies for retirement.
Their generosity also attracted the attention of New York State lawmakers, who are trying to pass a law to immediately give Paiser his retirement benefits. Paiser has just received another award, the Correction Department's Medal of Honor.
You've given his generous coworkers an award of their own. They are the people of the day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And still to come tonight, the award-winning actress whose personal life seems to spark some of the hottest questions in Hollywood.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The buzz started on the two of them pretty much the second "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" started filming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: She's one of Hollywood's main attractions on screen and off. Yes, that would be Brad Pitt with his back to us there. Actress Angelina Jolie, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Angelina Jolie always seems to know just how to get our attention. And now she's back in the spotlight with her new film, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." She would be Mrs. Smith, of course.
Jolie stars with Brad Pitt. And their performance on screen has added more drama to those reports about their relationship off-screen. Not that Angelina Jolie is any stranger to headline-grabbing amorous adventures. And that makes her the subject of tonight's "People in the News" profile.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: By 1999, Angelina Jolie was an award-winning actress, divorced and, at 24-years-old, already controversial.
ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: I'm just bad at press.
ZAHN: She began a short-lived romance with actress Jenny Shimizu, her costar from the film "Foxfire."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to tickle you to death. Do you understand me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, ma'am.
JOLIE: I thought she was the greatest woman I met. I had so much fun with her, and found myself loving her and wanted to express that physically.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angelina has been very public that she's as comfortable making love to a woman as she is to a man. You know, she really is somebody who pursues what feels good to her, what feels right, without thinking much about traditional conventions.
JOLIE: Good to know.
ZAHN: That year, Jolie starred opposite Winona Ryder as a mental patient in "Girl, Interrupted." ELISABETH MOSS, CO-STAR, "GIRL INTERRUPTED": She would walk on to set and change the energy of the room. She was like -- it was as if somebody had released a tiger on to set that was prowling around.
JOLIE: Ronny?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes?
JOLIE: Got any hot fudge?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MOSS: I think we all knew during the filming of that that she was doing something extraordinary.
LEAH ROZEN, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: She was the fascinatingly crazy friend in the institution.
JOLIE: It's good to be home.
ROZEN: And she just walked away with that movie and got an Oscar for it.
ZAHN: In her shocking Oscar acceptance speech, Jolie announced she was in love with her brother and planted a kiss on his lips.
ROZEN: It was a tabloid frenzy. You look back now and you go, "What was that all about?"
JOLIE: There's nothing at all bizarre, sexual, or strange going on. My brother and I are very, very good friends. We deeply love and care about each other. And we came from a divorced family, and we have been through a lot together. And so we're extremely close.
ZAHN: Although the kiss created controversy, 24-year-old Jolie was actually in a serious relationship with 44-year-old Billy Bob Thornton, her costar from the dark comedy "Pushing Tin."
BILLY BOB THORNTON, ACTOR: If you ever want to sleep at night, don't marry a beautiful woman.
ZAHN: In May 2000, the couple eloped in Las Vegas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then they were on the red carpets pawing each other, kissing, making out.
JOLIE: We wouldn't leave the bedroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just got weirder and stranger from there.
ZAHN: Jolie was known to wear a pendant necklace filled with Thornton's blood. For their first anniversary, Jolie bought her true love his-and-her burial plots.
JESS CAGLE, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: He's not really an ugly guy, but there was a beauty and the beast quality to this. I mean, almost no one, except for Brad Pitt, is a physical match for Angelina Jolie, who is, arguably, the most beautiful woman in the world. So, wow, Billy Bob Thornton got Angelina Jolie, that's amazing.
ZAHN: But her father wasn't so amazed. He was worried about his daughter's marriage.
JON VOIGHT, FATHER: There was a time when I was very, very concerned about Angie's behavior. And she was with Billy Bob at that time. And there was so much exhibition and displaying of negative values. I was deeply upset about it.
ZAHN: However, Voight says, because he loves his daughter, he tried to support her relationship with Billy Bob. The two eventually worked out their differences.
JOLIE: We're not as close as me and my brother, and my mom, you know, but we're close in a different way.
ZAHN: Angelina even reached out to Voight, asking him to play her father in the film "Lara Croft Tomb Raider."
VOIGHT, ACTING IN "TOMB RAIDER": If you're reading this letter, I'm no longer with you. And I miss you and love you always and forever.
VOIGHT: It was just the most joyous time for us both. We did nothing but laugh and tell each other how much we loved each other. And it seemed like the beginning -- there was a little hope coming through at that moment in time.
ZAHN: But will that love last? When we come back, the stormy father-daughter relationship takes an ugly turn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's this situation where she surrounds herself with certain people and tries to stay away from me.
ZAHN: And then, what Angelina said about Brad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think Angelina lies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Well, we certainly have seen the Angelina Jolie of Hollywood and the one that seems to star in all the tabloids. But there's much more about her life that's less well known, such as her commitment to helping poor children all over the world, and her very difficult relationship with her very famous father.
We continue now with tonight's "People in the News."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): 2001 was a high point for Angelina Jolie. Her film, "Lara Croft, Tomb Raider" was a box-office hit. And she had rekindled her relationship with her father, Jon Voight. Jolie was also about to discover a new-found passion for helping others.
While researching her role in the film, "Beyond Borders," Angelina Jolie traveled to Africa and Asia as part of a United Nations refugee mission.
JOLIE: They didn't dumb it down for an actress. They did, "You know, we did have bets as to how much luggage you'd have and would you be wearing high heels, and make -- and we did sit around and wonder, what was this kind of strange creature that was coming to the middle of a place that seemed not to fit at all?"
ZAHN: Jolie was such a perfect fit that, in August 2001, she became a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Refugee Agency.
JOLIE: And I'm so proud to represent them. And it means a lot that I do it right.
ZAHN: In public, Jolie appeared to be the perfect diplomat. But her father says he was concerned about her private life.
VOIGHT: You see the way she talks about her sex life and the way she has gone from one marriage to another, which has been very painful to me to watch.
ZAHN: Voight says he try to talk with Jolie about her promiscuous lifestyle.
VOIGHT: As soon as she saw a conversation going in a certain direction, she would push aside. So the only way to reach her was to get her a letter that she would read, somehow fix the circumstance so she'd read it. And the essence of the letter was that I was in pain that she was exhibiting these traits and setting such an example for young people.
ZAHN: Angelina told "Vanity Fair" she found the letter hurtful and stopped talking with her father. Then, in March 2002, just after adopting her son from a Cambodian orphanage, Voight and Jolie's private problems became very public.
TODD GOLD, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: The adoption was done in, you know, in pretty extreme secrecy. And he, without her permission, basically told the world the news that she had become a mother. He did it in the most public of ways, in front of the press at Academy Awards time.
VOIGHT: I had heard that the baby was delivered to her. It just was in the middle of a lot of attention because I was up for an Academy Award. And they asked about, "How is Angie?" And I said, "Well, she just got the baby today. So I guess that makes me a grandfather." I mean, you know, I was happy for her.
ZAHN: When Jolie didn't respond, Voight tried to reach her by appearing on "Access Hollywood" and "Inside Edition."
GOLD: He went in front of the press and said that she was suffering from psychological problems, and was unfit, was unbalanced. And, obviously, she was livid. If there was any chance of a relationship, it ended right there.
VOIGHT: When I was on "Access Hollywood," and obviously deeply emotionally distraught, she used that against me. She used everything -- you know, she turned everything against me. She indicated that I was looking for publicity. Holy smokes.
ZAHN: Jolie would not talk to CNN about personal relationships, but she did release a statement: "I have no anger towards my father. I simply don't know him. My son has never met him. And I'm doing my best at this to focus on a healthy life. I wish my father well."
In 2002, Jolie severed ties with Voight. That same year, her marriage to Billy Bob collapsed.
GOLD: Angelina has explained that the marriage ended because they simply grew apart.
ZAHN: Jolie has moved on and spends her days as a mom and working with the U.N.
JOLIE: Understand how Felix thinks.
ZAHN: She takes film roles, like her recent turn in the epic drama, "Alexander," in order to donate more money to charity and has met with refugees in more than 15 countries.
JOLIE: It's these situations where you're just looking -- you think, "For god's sake, we've got to figure out some way to balance the world. There's got to be something."
ZAHN: Jolie's celebrity has brought a great deal of attention to the U.N. But it's her love life, specifically the rumors surrounding her and Brad Pitt, that continue to fascinate fans and make the cover of magazines.
JOLIE: The buzz started on the two of them pretty much the second "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" started filming. I think that, whatever was happening between them, certainly word from the set got out that there was great chemistry between these two people.
ZAHN: Shooting began in January 2004. Four months later, there were tabloid stories of a romance between Pitt and Jolie. Brad and Angelina denied them.
GOLD: I don't think Angelina lies. I don't think that there was any kind of physical relationship while they were shooting the movie.
VOIGHT: Angie had seen her mother go through that kind of pain, because of my adultery. So you would think she would stay very far way from it. And she has actually said she does. She says it. But does she?
ZAHN: In a recent interview with "Marie Claire" article, Jolie said, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not, could not look at myself in the morning if I did that." Just after New Year's 2005, Brad and Jen called it quits. Only a few months later, Brad reportedly joined Angelina and her son on two African getaways.
GOLD: I think that can be seen as non-denial of a relationship that maybe has become a deepened friendship.
ZAHN: For her part, Jolie says she doesn't pay much attention to reports about her.
JOLIE: People writing about me are saying things about my personal life. And you never want anything that says something nasty against your character. You know, you don't like. But I know who I am.
ZAHN: For the actress accustomed to doing things her own way, any future relationship with dad, Jon Voight, or costar Brad Pitt, would be impossible to predict.
BRAD PITT, ACTOR: Dance with me.
ZAHN: So, could "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" actually end up together off-screen?
CAGLE: Angelina and Brad actually make a nice pair. I mean, they look great together, obviously, and they are both interested in a lot of the same things.
I mean, he has been traveling a lot. He has been educating himself about everything from stem-cell research to, you know, poverty in Ethiopia. She is similarly passionate about certain social issues. So they are a good pair. They make a lot of sense.
ZAHN: Meanwhile, Angelina's father is hoping for another reconciliation.
VOIGHT: Still, my concern is for my daughter. I'm still concerned for my daughter, you know? I want her happiness.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And this weekend, please tune in to "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" with much more on Angelina Jolie along with an in-depth look at Michael Jackson's life and career, Saturday at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.
Thanks so much for being with us tonight. We'll be back same time, same place Monday night. LARRY KING 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 June 10, 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. Glad to have you all with us tonight.
As Michael Jackson awaits a jury's decision, another crisis looms for the superstar who once had it all.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): Michael Jackson's high cost of living, the personal playground, the private jet, former wives, lawyers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was estimated that Michael Jackson was spending about $20 million a year more than he was bringing in.
ZAHN: With spending off the charts and no new records on the charts...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not that unusual that Michael Jackson would take out $200 million of debt at a bank.
ZAHN: .... is the king of pop becoming a pauper?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Well, the work week is now over for Michael Jackson and its jury, but there's still no verdict. All we see of the jurors is the motorcade of vans bringing them to and from the courthouse in Santa Maria, California.
But sources close to the case tell CNN that the jury asked a number of questions today. Members of the panel also asked to have some of the testimony read back to them. Jackson isn't required to be on hand for deliberations, so he isn't. He is now behind the closed doors at his ranch. Neverland is one of the most visible parts of Jackson's financial empire. And, depending on the jury's verdict, it is an empire that may be teetering at the point of financial collapse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): He may be the most famous entertainer to ever stand trial on felony charges, but being this famous also comes with a price tag. And, in Michael Jackson's case, it's a hefty one.
It's no secret the self-proclaimed king of pop has a penchant for the finer things, like not waiting in airport lines, from routinely booking $15,000 charter jet flights on impulse, even once chartering a smaller jet for friend comedian Chris Tucker, to the tune of $40,000. It cost Jackson $4 million a year just to maintain his 2,800-acre Neverland Ranch. That's not including taxes.
Martin Bashir's documentary revealed shopping sprees that averaged tens of thousands of dollars, when he's not at home, hotel suites at $10,000 a night. It's a lofty running tab. The question is, can he afford it? He is reported to have borrowed $200 million, using his half ownership of the rights to Beatles and Elvis recordings as collateral.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In his trial, it was estimated that Michael Jackson was spending about $20 million a year more than he was bringing in.
ZAHN: Over the course of his career, Jackson has made more than half a billion dollars, building his fortune in the '80s with the release of the album "Thriller" and signing a $65 million 1991 recording deal with Sony.
But, over the last 10 years, Jackson's record sales have taken a hit and so has his bank account. Jackson's criminal trial has given us an all-access pass to the singer's dwindling finances. And it looks like this big spender is in serious debt.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The average American has almost $10,000 just in credit card debt. So, it's not that unusual that Michael Jackson would take out $200 million of debt at a bank. You know, it's a different scale, for certain, but, you know, he is living a bigger lifestyle than the average American.
ZAHN: But living large and mounting legal bills have saddled Jackson with a personal debt of $270 million, according to trial testimony. He owes a lot of money to a lot of people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has his divorce settlement with his second wife, which will cost him about $10 million. And he had the settlement with his child molestation case over 10 years ago, which will cost him about $15 million.
ZAHN: Jackson may have to sell his 50 percent share of Sony ATV Music Publishing, which would mean giving up any rights to his Beatles and Elvis libraries. But, if he sells that, he's buying a tax bill that will cost him in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
For the embattled pop star, who lives on a scale beyond most ordinary mortals, the future doesn't look bright. The jury is still out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: For more now on Michael Jackson's finances, let's go to "Wall Street Journal" reporter Ethan Smith in Los Angeles. He is the co-author of an article published this week which gives a detailed look at Jackson's money troubles.
Good to see you. Welcome, Ethan. In your article, you report that Michael Jackson's advisers have actually consulted with bankruptcy attorneys, preparing for the possibility of a worst-case scenario. How close is Michael Jackson to going bankrupt?
ETHAN SMITH, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, at this moment, he does not appear to be imminently in danger of going bankrupt, but he is far from out of the woods.
In the first two weeks of April, he was in a serious crisis, which is when the bankruptcy attorney came in. At that point, he was actually in default on at least part of the $270 million in loans.
ZAHN: And let's talk about how he got out of that. There was a group that came in that called Fortress Investment Group.
SMITH: That's right.
ZAHN: That bought Jackson's debt from Bank of America and then extended him even more credit.
SMITH: That's right. Fortress Investment Group, which is a large, sort of diversified financial company, bought the debt from Bank of America in roughly -- well, in early May, around the 1st of May.
And they bought it at full face value. And they appear to have extended the deadline. The debt was due in December. They extended it to a point at which we're uncertain and also appear to have extended him more credit.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Now, why would they do that, Ethan?
SMITH: Well, that -- it depends who you ask. There's disagreement among the people around him as to what the motives are there. One camp of people say, well, Michael is actually not such a bad risk, because he owns so many valuable assets that, you know, their rate of interest on this loan is pretty good for them and they can make some money.
And they're just trying to give him a little breathing room to get his house in order.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: But there's a much different theory, right, about trying to take over his publishing company?
SMITH: There certainly is.
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: Another school of thought thinks that Fortress not too long ago, just several months back, made an offer, tried to buy his publishing assets.
And now here they are owning the debt that's secured by the publishing assets. Some people think they're setting him up for a harder, nastier fall when he, inevitably, can't make good on these obligations. Now, maybe he can. I don't know. But -- and I don't know for sure that that's Fortress' game plan.
And, I should add, if they do -- if he ends up defaulting on this debt, it's not certain that they just get to take his assets. I mean, they may get to sell them in some kind of bankruptcy sale.
ZAHN: Sure.
SMITH: But that's all, you know, several steps away.
ZAHN: In spite of this pressure on Michael Jackson, is there any reason to believe he has curbed his personal spending from the time the public probably got the first real bird's-eye view of what his life was like in the Martin Bashir interview, when he wanted to buy just about everything back in 2003?
SMITH: Right.
Well, from what we can tell, he's probably not spending any less. He may be spending his money a little differently. One person close to him told us he spends about $1.5 million a month, before he even gets out of bed, just on overhead. Then, on top of that, he goes on these wild spending sprees that were, I guess, in the Bashir documentary.
Now he's spending all that money on lawyers defending him at trial. I'm not sure, over the last 13 or 14 weeks, he has been doing a lot of cruising at malls for Rolexes, but he's spending around -- we believe he's spending about $10 million or maybe a little more on defending himself in this trial.
ZAHN: And, finally, just very quickly, in closing, his ace in the hole, of course, is his 50 percent ownership of this publishing company. What is that worth today at book value?
SMITH: Well, it seems to be worth at least $500 million. It's a little hard to know. Nobody has done a really thorough analysis.
But many, many people on Wall Street have kicked the tires on this thing over the last couple of years. And it seems to be -- his half seems to be worth around $500 million.
ZAHN: Ethan Smith, thank you for putting this all into perspective for us tonight. Appreciate your time.
SMITH: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: My pleasure.
Coming up, the inspiring story of a young Iraqi woman whom we all can admire and the incredible odds she had to overcome. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You remember that night?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was it like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's the darkest night in my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: She survived Saddam Hussein's tyranny and the war in Iraq. Now she's getting ready to bring her people the truth.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Still ahead tonight, Oscar winner Angelina Jolie and her toughest critic, her Oscar-winning father, an exclusive interview with Jon Voight.
First, though, just about 13 minutes past the hour. Time for Erica Hill, who is really ready for this headline update.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've been waiting all day, Paula.
ZAHN: It's TGIF.
HILL: It is TGIF. And happy Friday.
ZAHN: Thank you.
HILL: We'll start off now with word that even the Navy is steering clear of Tropical Storm Arlene tonight, everybody battening down the hatches. It moved ships away from the first major storm of the season.
Arlene could strengthen to hurricane force as it brushes Florida's Gulf Coast. It's expected to make landfall on Saturday between noon and 3:00. Of course, they're still recovering from last year's hurricanes. At least one death is reported. Hurricane warnings are posted now from Louisiana through the Florida Panhandle.
In Iraq, the Army is investigating whether two officers killed earlier this week near Tikrit may have been the victims of an intentional attack by a fellow soldier. So far, there are no suspects in custody. Meantime, in Anbar Province, five U.S. Marines died when a roadside bomb exploded as their armored vehicle rolled past. The number of U.S. troops killed now stands at 1,690.
In Washington, a major step toward debt relief. The White House says the U.S. and Britain have agreed on a deal to erase the debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest nations.
And the contract that sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919 sold today for $996,000 at an auction of Ruth memorabilia. Almost a million bucks, Paula.
ZAHN: I was expecting it to be twice that much.
HILL: Maybe the next time it goes on the auction block.
ZAHN: Exactly. Give it another year and it might be at that number.
Erica, thanks so much. See you in about an half-hour or so.
And time for all of you to do a little work now. We need you to vote for the person of the day. Your choices tonight, 12-year-old cancer patient Katie Wernecke for being caught in the center of a battle over whether she needs radiation therapy, the co-workers of blinded Iraq war veteran Christopher Paiser for donating more than 306 days to help him recover, and nine Morehouse College students for winning an Oprah-sponsored scholarship to travel to South Africa to study about AIDS in that country.
Vote now at CNN.com/Paula. The results for you at the end of the hour.
Still to come, though, an Iraqi woman who has overcome obstacles few of us will ever confront just to be here in the U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Dictatorship, war, deaths in the family, for one young woman from Iraq, these words are all too real. They're part of a past she can't forget, even as she begins a new life here in the United States.
Contributing correspondent Frank Sesno has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go, in five, four, three, two, one.
FRANK SESNO, CNN CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a television studio in suburban Virginia, Rania Atar (ph) is getting a fresh start. Working for Al-Hurra, an Arabic-language television channel funded by the U.S. government, this 22-year-old soon will read the news back to her native Iraq.
This was her first screen test. Like her country, Rania has experienced a wrenching journey and she's uncertain of what to expect from life in America.
RANIA ATAR: I fear this big country, maybe it's going to be too big for me.
SESNO (on camera): And you felt you would be alone here?
ATAR: Yes. I felt like I am alone at first, first day I am there. SESNO (voice-over): There is an emptiness, filled by sounds of the street, haunting and all too familiar.
ATAR: You know, when you live in a war zone and always you hear this, you will know there are some people dying there, or some people injured or there is someone who has pain and it's not a pleasant feeling for you.
SESNO: Rania feels safe now, but she's scarred by a painful past.
ATAR: I say it's a crazy life. Things choose me. I never choose things.
SESNO: She grew up in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, at first, unaware and untouched by his rule. Her father, Hussein (ph), was a civil engineer and a successful businessman. Rania, the third of four children, remembers a playful man.
ATAR: I remember him always young, because I never see him old. This is my father for me.
SESNO: A memory frozen in time because of what happened one night in 1992.
(on camera): Do you remember that night?
ATAR: Yes, I do.
SESNO: What was it like?
ATAR: It's -- I think it's the darkest night in my life. We just heard like the door knocked after midnight. And my mother, she's scared, you know. And someone starts shouting, said, open the door. And she wait for a while. And then people jump from the roof to enter the house. And they, like, break the door to enter the house.
SESNO (voice-over): Armed security men seized Rania's father.
ATAR: They didn't ask him, who is your name, whatever. They just took him away.
SESNO: Next, they went upstairs, grabbed her teenage brother, Alex (ph), and marched him right past Rania, then a terrified and very confused 10-year-old.
(on camera): When did you see your father again?
ATAR: I didn't see him after this night. That's it. I didn't see my father, not my father, not my brother after this. This is the last thing. This is why this image stick in my mind forever, because I didn't see them after that.
SESNO (voice-over): The next day, Rania's mother asked everyone she could about her husband, but no one, certainly not the police, would offer any information. ATAR: We felt the answer from the neighbors' act, from friends' act, because there no one come to ask, what's happened to our father, you know? And this is -- you know, we felt that we are in trouble.
SESNO: Finally, Rania heard about a friend's uncle who had spent time in prison. He told her about the torture in Saddam's jails, about prisoners having their fingernails pulled out, being forced to sit on a bottle overnight, having hot olive oil poured down their legs, all this told to a 10-year-old girl.
ATAR: He said to me, I think just forget about it and try to forget it.
SESNO (on camera): He told you to forget about your father?
ATAR: Yes, yes.
SESNO (voice-over): Forty days after Rania's father was taken, Saddam's security forces returned to the Atar (ph) home, this time with her father's death certificate. He had been executed for inciting revolution. Rania insists he had never went near politics.
(on camera): Did your father ever have a trial?
ATAR: No, no trial, nothing. No, my father, he just disappeared. We don't know where is he.
SESNO (voice-over): Rania says her father's only crime was refusing to join the Baath Party and turning down a job with Saddam's Foreign Ministry. For this, she believes he was killed, the family house and money taken away.
(on camera): What happens to a 10-year-old girl who goes through this? What happens to your childhood?
ATAR: What childhood? The things that people -- kids are interested about is not interesting for me anymore. The joy of life, it died in my eyes in this time.
SESNO: As for brother Alex, arrested when he was just 16, five years later, the family was told he had joined the army and died in a mine field in northern Iraq. Rania says, in Saddam's Iraq, it was widely believed prisoners were used to clear mine fields.
Still, Rania had her younger sister, Rita (ph). Together, they dreamed of a better life, but their plans would be tragically interrupted, just as they were beginning to take shape.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And, after the break, a new pain to bear, the unlikely cause and a life-changing decision.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: We continue now with the story of Rania Atar (ph), the young Iraqi woman who lost her father and her brother under the most cruel circumstances during Saddam Hussein's regime. But Rania planned a new beginning in the U.S., together with her younger sister.
Once again, Frank Sesno.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SESNO (voice-over): It wasn't supposed to be like this. Rania Atar (ph), this 22-year-old Iraqi woman, wasn't supposed to be all alone in America. She had planned to be here with her soul mate, with her sister, Rita.
ATAR: She look here so -- so innocent and so pretty, you know.
SESNO: It was Rita who kept Rania going after they lost their father and brother to the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.
ATAR: She's full of energy, full of dreams.
SESNO: They shared everything. Rita followed Rania through school. And when Rania began working for the British Broadcasting Corporation, Rita expressed an interest in journalism, too.
(on camera): How was her English?
ATAR: She's fluent in English. She's better, much better than me.
SESNO: For the Atar (ph) sisters, the toppling of Saddam, the arrival of the Americans, the prospect of democracy meant opportunity. But things went horribly wrong.
On October 25, 2003, Rita was working as a translator, traveling with American and British contractors, 50 miles west of Baghdad. A CBS camera crew wasn't far away. Rita's vehicle was near a U.S. military convoy when insurgents set off a roadside bomb.
ATAR: There is small explosions happening in front of the American convoys. And so they stopped. So, the security in the car that she is in, they talked to the American commander, told him, can we pass this way, which is safer, not go forward? He said to him, OK. He gives him thumbs up that he can do it.
SESNO: But others in the convoy saw the vehicle's erratic movements and thought it was part of the attack.
ATAR: The convoy behind start shooting the car or they shoot -- they opened fire on her car. And she is the first one to be shot in this car. One of the shots, they just shot the gas tank. All this car just burned and my sister in.
SESNO: Three other Iraqis were killed and three of the contractors were injured. In Baghdad, Rania learned the details of the innocent from a BBC colleague.
ATAR: I said to him: "You are a liar. You are lying to me. You're saying lies.:
I mean, he said -- he said to me, "I wish I am a liar."
SESNO: It was true. Rita was dead.
ATAR: Anyway, so we tried to find out what's happened. (INAUDIBLE) they said we just suspect this car. We weren't sure who is in this car. And we didn't know that they are civilian, and they feel sorry.
SESNO: Two months later, Rania received an e-mail from the U.S. military, offering condolences for what was described as a very unfortunate incident and $2,500. Rania says she didn't take the money.
ATAR: Really, I felt my soul died with her, you know? The pleasure of life died with her, the happiness gone with her.
SESNO: As her mother, devastated, prepared for Rita's (ph) funeral, Rania said goodbye.
ATAR: And I opened the coffin, and I see my sister. And I kissed her. And there is not actually -- just burned body, you know. But you can't tell from her body that she is sleeping or she wasn't sleeping.
SESNO (on-screen): You lost your brother and your father to Saddam and your sister to the Americans?
ATAR: Yes.
SESNO: How do you make sense of that?
ATAR: You know, they are just in my soul, in my eyes, all the time. Sometimes I ask God to not make me crazy after this, because sometimes I feel like I'm really -- I need them.
SESNO (voice-over): While her story is dramatic, Rania recognizes it's not unique. After all, she's from Iraq, a country of stories.
ATAR: I am symbol of my country. Most of my country, they have these problems. And some of them, they still have these problems.
SESNO: Rania's new life is difficult, but promising. She wishes she could say the same about the lives of her countrymen back home.
ATAR: They cannot survive like this. If they want to live, they have to change themselves.
SESNO: For Rania, change begins right here, right now, remembering the past, but determined to move beyond it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And what an effort she's making. Rania plans to write a book about her experiences. And as for her TV career, Rania will broadcast the news back to her home country as early as next week as a full-time anchor for Al-Hurrah, the Arabic-language news and information channel.
Still to come, a very different kind of young woman, one who seems to set off sparks wherever she goes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She would walk on to set and change the energy of the room. And she was like -- it was as if somebody had released a tiger on to set that was prowling around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Stay with us for more on Angelina Jolie and her ability to light up movie screens, movie sets and tabloid headlines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Breaking news out of Santa Maria, California, tonight in the Michael Jackson case. Earlier, we told you about the jury in that case, it asked a number of questions today. And we told you that some members of the panel had also asked to have some of that testimony read back to them.
Right now, let's go straight to Santa Maria, where our Ted Rowlands is standing by. He has more on that.
Ted, what have you learned?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, we're getting more information from our sources close to the case. And that is that jurors asked Judge Rodney Melville a series of questions today. They also asked for a series of read-backs today.
And we now understand from our sources close to the case that the subject of those read-backs all were testimony of the accuser. And we have also been told that the attorneys from both sides had three separate meetings with the judge. Clearly, a very busy day in that jury room, but still no verdict, no decision on Michael Jackson's fate.
ZAHN: When you hear about what you're reporting tonight, it makes you think back to one of the more explosive days in the courtroom when this 15-year-old accuser was talking about or alleging all kinds of lewd behavior and discussions. And I think we should probably point out to the audience that's when the defense attorney accused this kid of making everything up.
ROWLANDS: Clearly, this has been the focus of the case. And Tom Mesereau, Michael Jackson's attorney, has pulled no punches throughout the case, including when the accuser was on the stand. Many people thought he wouldn't go after a child, but he did go after him. And he went after him in closing arguments, as well. And now, clearly, jurors seem to be vetting that out and making a decision for themselves one way or the other.
ZAHN: Any other insights about the pace of these deliberations? We know the judge left very specific and detailed instructions -- what, 98 pages in all -- for this jury.
ROWLANDS: They have a huge job that they had to tackle. There are 10 separate counts against Jackson. The amount of testimony in this trial has been voluminous. Clearly, this jury is taking its time going through the testimony. We don't know how things are going, whether there are disagreements, whether everybody is in agreement. What we know, obviously, they are taking their time before making this decision.
ZAHN: Ted Rowlands, reporting some very important information out of California today, reinforcing the fact that we can now say that what the jury asked for was more information, specifically on the testimony of the accuser in the Michael Jackson case. Again, thank you, Ted.
Now we're going to move on to our "Person of the Day." Who is your choice? Twelve-year-old cancer patient, Katie Wernecke, who is caught in a battle over whether she actually needs radiation therapy after having been treated with chemotherapy, and the coworkers of blinded Iraq war veteran, Christopher Paiser. They donated more than 300 sick days of their own to help him recover. Or the nine Morehouse College students who won an Oprah-sponsored scholarship to travel to South Africa to learn more about the rage of AIDS there.
Well, 58 percent of you picked the coworkers of the blinded veteran.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): Christopher Paiser is an American hero. He has the medals to prove it, even if he can barely see them.
Paiser left his job as a New York State prison guard when he was called up by the National Guard. A year ago in Iraq, shrapnel from an insurgent attack blinded one of his eyes and took away most of the sight from the other. But that loss showed Chris Paiser who his friends really are.
Paiser couldn't go back to his old job at the prison. But he had to work until spring in order to qualify for disability retirement benefits. That's where his colleagues came in. The other guards donated their own sick days to Paiser, more than 300 days in all, so he can be on sick leave until he qualifies for retirement.
Their generosity also attracted the attention of New York State lawmakers, who are trying to pass a law to immediately give Paiser his retirement benefits. Paiser has just received another award, the Correction Department's Medal of Honor.
You've given his generous coworkers an award of their own. They are the people of the day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And still to come tonight, the award-winning actress whose personal life seems to spark some of the hottest questions in Hollywood.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The buzz started on the two of them pretty much the second "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" started filming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: She's one of Hollywood's main attractions on screen and off. Yes, that would be Brad Pitt with his back to us there. Actress Angelina Jolie, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Angelina Jolie always seems to know just how to get our attention. And now she's back in the spotlight with her new film, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." She would be Mrs. Smith, of course.
Jolie stars with Brad Pitt. And their performance on screen has added more drama to those reports about their relationship off-screen. Not that Angelina Jolie is any stranger to headline-grabbing amorous adventures. And that makes her the subject of tonight's "People in the News" profile.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: By 1999, Angelina Jolie was an award-winning actress, divorced and, at 24-years-old, already controversial.
ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: I'm just bad at press.
ZAHN: She began a short-lived romance with actress Jenny Shimizu, her costar from the film "Foxfire."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to tickle you to death. Do you understand me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, ma'am.
JOLIE: I thought she was the greatest woman I met. I had so much fun with her, and found myself loving her and wanted to express that physically.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angelina has been very public that she's as comfortable making love to a woman as she is to a man. You know, she really is somebody who pursues what feels good to her, what feels right, without thinking much about traditional conventions.
JOLIE: Good to know.
ZAHN: That year, Jolie starred opposite Winona Ryder as a mental patient in "Girl, Interrupted." ELISABETH MOSS, CO-STAR, "GIRL INTERRUPTED": She would walk on to set and change the energy of the room. She was like -- it was as if somebody had released a tiger on to set that was prowling around.
JOLIE: Ronny?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes?
JOLIE: Got any hot fudge?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MOSS: I think we all knew during the filming of that that she was doing something extraordinary.
LEAH ROZEN, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: She was the fascinatingly crazy friend in the institution.
JOLIE: It's good to be home.
ROZEN: And she just walked away with that movie and got an Oscar for it.
ZAHN: In her shocking Oscar acceptance speech, Jolie announced she was in love with her brother and planted a kiss on his lips.
ROZEN: It was a tabloid frenzy. You look back now and you go, "What was that all about?"
JOLIE: There's nothing at all bizarre, sexual, or strange going on. My brother and I are very, very good friends. We deeply love and care about each other. And we came from a divorced family, and we have been through a lot together. And so we're extremely close.
ZAHN: Although the kiss created controversy, 24-year-old Jolie was actually in a serious relationship with 44-year-old Billy Bob Thornton, her costar from the dark comedy "Pushing Tin."
BILLY BOB THORNTON, ACTOR: If you ever want to sleep at night, don't marry a beautiful woman.
ZAHN: In May 2000, the couple eloped in Las Vegas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then they were on the red carpets pawing each other, kissing, making out.
JOLIE: We wouldn't leave the bedroom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just got weirder and stranger from there.
ZAHN: Jolie was known to wear a pendant necklace filled with Thornton's blood. For their first anniversary, Jolie bought her true love his-and-her burial plots.
JESS CAGLE, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: He's not really an ugly guy, but there was a beauty and the beast quality to this. I mean, almost no one, except for Brad Pitt, is a physical match for Angelina Jolie, who is, arguably, the most beautiful woman in the world. So, wow, Billy Bob Thornton got Angelina Jolie, that's amazing.
ZAHN: But her father wasn't so amazed. He was worried about his daughter's marriage.
JON VOIGHT, FATHER: There was a time when I was very, very concerned about Angie's behavior. And she was with Billy Bob at that time. And there was so much exhibition and displaying of negative values. I was deeply upset about it.
ZAHN: However, Voight says, because he loves his daughter, he tried to support her relationship with Billy Bob. The two eventually worked out their differences.
JOLIE: We're not as close as me and my brother, and my mom, you know, but we're close in a different way.
ZAHN: Angelina even reached out to Voight, asking him to play her father in the film "Lara Croft Tomb Raider."
VOIGHT, ACTING IN "TOMB RAIDER": If you're reading this letter, I'm no longer with you. And I miss you and love you always and forever.
VOIGHT: It was just the most joyous time for us both. We did nothing but laugh and tell each other how much we loved each other. And it seemed like the beginning -- there was a little hope coming through at that moment in time.
ZAHN: But will that love last? When we come back, the stormy father-daughter relationship takes an ugly turn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's this situation where she surrounds herself with certain people and tries to stay away from me.
ZAHN: And then, what Angelina said about Brad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think Angelina lies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Well, we certainly have seen the Angelina Jolie of Hollywood and the one that seems to star in all the tabloids. But there's much more about her life that's less well known, such as her commitment to helping poor children all over the world, and her very difficult relationship with her very famous father.
We continue now with tonight's "People in the News."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): 2001 was a high point for Angelina Jolie. Her film, "Lara Croft, Tomb Raider" was a box-office hit. And she had rekindled her relationship with her father, Jon Voight. Jolie was also about to discover a new-found passion for helping others.
While researching her role in the film, "Beyond Borders," Angelina Jolie traveled to Africa and Asia as part of a United Nations refugee mission.
JOLIE: They didn't dumb it down for an actress. They did, "You know, we did have bets as to how much luggage you'd have and would you be wearing high heels, and make -- and we did sit around and wonder, what was this kind of strange creature that was coming to the middle of a place that seemed not to fit at all?"
ZAHN: Jolie was such a perfect fit that, in August 2001, she became a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Refugee Agency.
JOLIE: And I'm so proud to represent them. And it means a lot that I do it right.
ZAHN: In public, Jolie appeared to be the perfect diplomat. But her father says he was concerned about her private life.
VOIGHT: You see the way she talks about her sex life and the way she has gone from one marriage to another, which has been very painful to me to watch.
ZAHN: Voight says he try to talk with Jolie about her promiscuous lifestyle.
VOIGHT: As soon as she saw a conversation going in a certain direction, she would push aside. So the only way to reach her was to get her a letter that she would read, somehow fix the circumstance so she'd read it. And the essence of the letter was that I was in pain that she was exhibiting these traits and setting such an example for young people.
ZAHN: Angelina told "Vanity Fair" she found the letter hurtful and stopped talking with her father. Then, in March 2002, just after adopting her son from a Cambodian orphanage, Voight and Jolie's private problems became very public.
TODD GOLD, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: The adoption was done in, you know, in pretty extreme secrecy. And he, without her permission, basically told the world the news that she had become a mother. He did it in the most public of ways, in front of the press at Academy Awards time.
VOIGHT: I had heard that the baby was delivered to her. It just was in the middle of a lot of attention because I was up for an Academy Award. And they asked about, "How is Angie?" And I said, "Well, she just got the baby today. So I guess that makes me a grandfather." I mean, you know, I was happy for her.
ZAHN: When Jolie didn't respond, Voight tried to reach her by appearing on "Access Hollywood" and "Inside Edition."
GOLD: He went in front of the press and said that she was suffering from psychological problems, and was unfit, was unbalanced. And, obviously, she was livid. If there was any chance of a relationship, it ended right there.
VOIGHT: When I was on "Access Hollywood," and obviously deeply emotionally distraught, she used that against me. She used everything -- you know, she turned everything against me. She indicated that I was looking for publicity. Holy smokes.
ZAHN: Jolie would not talk to CNN about personal relationships, but she did release a statement: "I have no anger towards my father. I simply don't know him. My son has never met him. And I'm doing my best at this to focus on a healthy life. I wish my father well."
In 2002, Jolie severed ties with Voight. That same year, her marriage to Billy Bob collapsed.
GOLD: Angelina has explained that the marriage ended because they simply grew apart.
ZAHN: Jolie has moved on and spends her days as a mom and working with the U.N.
JOLIE: Understand how Felix thinks.
ZAHN: She takes film roles, like her recent turn in the epic drama, "Alexander," in order to donate more money to charity and has met with refugees in more than 15 countries.
JOLIE: It's these situations where you're just looking -- you think, "For god's sake, we've got to figure out some way to balance the world. There's got to be something."
ZAHN: Jolie's celebrity has brought a great deal of attention to the U.N. But it's her love life, specifically the rumors surrounding her and Brad Pitt, that continue to fascinate fans and make the cover of magazines.
JOLIE: The buzz started on the two of them pretty much the second "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" started filming. I think that, whatever was happening between them, certainly word from the set got out that there was great chemistry between these two people.
ZAHN: Shooting began in January 2004. Four months later, there were tabloid stories of a romance between Pitt and Jolie. Brad and Angelina denied them.
GOLD: I don't think Angelina lies. I don't think that there was any kind of physical relationship while they were shooting the movie.
VOIGHT: Angie had seen her mother go through that kind of pain, because of my adultery. So you would think she would stay very far way from it. And she has actually said she does. She says it. But does she?
ZAHN: In a recent interview with "Marie Claire" article, Jolie said, "To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could forgive. I could not, could not look at myself in the morning if I did that." Just after New Year's 2005, Brad and Jen called it quits. Only a few months later, Brad reportedly joined Angelina and her son on two African getaways.
GOLD: I think that can be seen as non-denial of a relationship that maybe has become a deepened friendship.
ZAHN: For her part, Jolie says she doesn't pay much attention to reports about her.
JOLIE: People writing about me are saying things about my personal life. And you never want anything that says something nasty against your character. You know, you don't like. But I know who I am.
ZAHN: For the actress accustomed to doing things her own way, any future relationship with dad, Jon Voight, or costar Brad Pitt, would be impossible to predict.
BRAD PITT, ACTOR: Dance with me.
ZAHN: So, could "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" actually end up together off-screen?
CAGLE: Angelina and Brad actually make a nice pair. I mean, they look great together, obviously, and they are both interested in a lot of the same things.
I mean, he has been traveling a lot. He has been educating himself about everything from stem-cell research to, you know, poverty in Ethiopia. She is similarly passionate about certain social issues. So they are a good pair. They make a lot of sense.
ZAHN: Meanwhile, Angelina's father is hoping for another reconciliation.
VOIGHT: Still, my concern is for my daughter. I'm still concerned for my daughter, you know? I want her happiness.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And this weekend, please tune in to "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" with much more on Angelina Jolie along with an in-depth look at Michael Jackson's life and career, Saturday at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.
Thanks so much for being with us tonight. We'll be back same time, same place Monday night. LARRY KING 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
