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Paula Zahn Now

Medical Outrage; Killer Movies?; Tom Cruise vs. 'South Park'?

Aired March 20, 2006 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everybody. And thanks for joining us. Paula has the night off.
Tonight, a troubling question for anyone -- how much do you really know about your doctor?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): A medical outrage -- a doctor loses his license, but he keeps giving patients fake vaccines and phony tests.

KAMALA HARRIS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY: They believed that they passed these tests, when, in fact, the appropriate tests had not been conducted.

COLLINS: More than 1,000 patients are now at risk. So, why was he on a government list of approved doctors? Tonight, a CNN investigation.

The "Eye Opener" -- ordinary people in extraordinary danger. These amazing videos could help save your life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He actually, I think, made the situation worse, more dangerous for himself.

COLLINS: Is there a right way and a wrong way? What should you do?

And the Hollywood you never see -- incredible pressure, killer hours, and way too many accidents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing good happens when there's long hours. People don't function well. People get hurt.

COLLINS: Tonight, the controversial movie about the movies that everyone in Hollywood is talking about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: We begin with that appears to be a dangerous oversight made by the people who are supposed to make sure it is safe when you visit a doctor.

As a result of this one case, officials are now trying to figure out how to contact more than 1,000 people. Some may have deadly diseases and not know it. Others may have received worthless vaccinations, water, instead of medicine. And the most incredible of all, authorities say the man who did it had lost his doctor's license and shouldn't have been practicing medicine anywhere at any time.

So, who is he? And, if the allegations are true, how did he get away with it?

Ted Rowlands has the results of a CNN investigation.

Ted, good evening.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Heidi.

His name is Stephen Turner. And he is admitting to all of the outrageous allegations against him. How do we know that? Well, we had the rare opportunity to sit down with former Dr. Turner in the San Francisco main jail. That's where he is. And, when we sat down with him, we discussed in detail what he has been doing over the past few years. And he admits to all of it. He also admits to getting in trouble before.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS (voice-over): Dr. Stephen Turner's troubles started in March of 1984, when, according to documents from the California Medical Board, he was accused of masturbating in front of two female minors at the USC Medical Center in Los Angeles. In 1992, he surrendered his medical license, after allegedly exposing himself to a woman in Northern California.

STEPHEN TURNER, DEFENDANT: I was in a desperate situation.

ROWLANDS: Despite losing his license, Stephen Turner says he kept practicing medicine.

TURNER: It's one of those things that just built up.

ROWLANDS: Turner's name was still on a government list of recommended doctors to do required medical testing for people applying for green cards. Turner says he took advantage of an opportunity.

TURNER: There was an office in San Francisco that I shared with an immigration attorney. And he -- he did the solicitations and got the patients to come over.

ROWLANDS: The lawyer has not been charged with anything. He denies any involvement. Turner's name is still on the directory at that office building in San Francisco's Mission District.

(on camera): People came to see Dr. Turner, because, in order to get a green card, they needed to be tested for things like HIV and hepatitis, and they also needed vaccinations.

Well, when they got here, Turner would take their blood, but he never sent it for testing. And he would give them injections, but he wasn't giving them vaccinations.

TURNER: It was sterile saline injections.

ROWLANDS: Where did you get it?

TURNER: I got that from a surgical supply company.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): Saline, if sterile, is harmless, if injected into the bloodstream. Turner says the exams took about five minutes. He charged $200 per exam, giving each person a bogus shot, and then taking their blood. Everyone who saw Turner received documentation that they had been vaccinated and passed the medical tests.

KAMALA HARRIS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY: They believed they were being tested, and they believe -- and -- and they believed that they passed these tests, when, in fact, the appropriate tests had not been conducted.

ROWLANDS: What did Turner do with the blood?

TURNER: It was disposed of properly.

ROWLANDS: Prosecutors say it is unclear just how long he was giving these fake exams, but, in just three years, they say Turner took money from more than 1,400 immigrants, making more than $240,000.

HARRIS: You have a number of people who believed the system would work as it has been promised to work for them, and they followed the rules and did what they were supposed to do.

ROWLANDS: Turner, who is now in the San Francisco main jail, says he's sorry and claims he did it to support a wife and three children. He also maintains that nobody was hurt.

TURNER: Everything was clean. The syringes were clean. The needles were clean. All the supplies were clean, brand new, sterile.

ROWLANDS: Not according to Nino Kobakhidze, who went to see Turner with her sister. They noticed right away that the office was dirty, Nino says, and Turner didn't change his gloves between patients, even after her sister asked him to.

NINO KOBAKHIDZE, FORMER PATIENT: She started crying. She was like, he didn't change the gloves. Then, when I went in, I was like, can you please change your gloves?

ROWLANDS: She says Turner eventually changed his gloves before taking her blood, but what about other patients? Turner admitted to us in jail that some of his patients told him they had HIV. When asked what he did with that blood, he was reluctant to give any specific information.

(on camera): Shouldn't people be concerned about where that is right now? And how -- how did you dispose of it?

TURNER: Yes, that's -- they're right. It was disposed of properly.

ROWLANDS: Where is it now? TURNER: It's -- it's incinerated.

HERMAN FRANCK, ATTORNEY FOR STEPHEN TURNER: I know there are issues about that. He thinks he did it in a proper way. I -- I don't know. I don't know about that. But, to our knowledge, nobody has had an infection or some problem.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): Turner was able to stay in business for years, in part because his name was on that federal list of doctors. Green card applications were approved for many people that saw Turner because he was on that list. No one from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would talk to us on camera about how or if they update their list.

A statement released to CNN said, in part -- quote -- "We were not advised when Stephen Turner surrendered his license."

(on camera): But a spokesperson from the California Medical Board says they did update a national database when Turner lost his license. Whether or not anyone from immigration checked that database is unclear.

(voice-over): San Francisco's district attorney, Kamala Harris, says Turner, who is facing 131 charges, is the one who is responsible and deserves to be punished.

HARRIS: The conduct that this defendant committed is, really, extremely egregious, and deserves serious consequences.

TURNER: This is the worst thing that ever happened. And I'm really, truly sorry. I want to apologize to each and every one. And I just feel awful. I just feel very, very bad about all of this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS: Now, Turner is hoping, because he's admitting all of this, that he will get a relatively light prison sentence.

However, there is a deal on the table from the district attorney in San Francisco. Turner's lawyer says it is very harsh. Turner has a week to think about it. He will be back in court on Thursday -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Ted, it's -- it is an incredible story. So, what about these 1,400 people who got those fake exams? Are -- are authorities tracking them down and trying to retest them?

ROWLANDS: Yes.

And they have been able to track some of them now. The two women that we have talked about in our piece, they have been retested.

But there are over 1,000 others still out there. It's a logistical nightmare, as you might imagine. The DA's office is working with two hospitals in San Francisco. They're hoping to set up a free-clinic situation for those people to come forward. Getting ahold of them may be a different story.

COLLINS: So, ultimately, what are the people at Immigration Services saying about how on earth this could have happened in the first place?

ROWLANDS: Basically, they're saying that they're blown way by it, just like you and I might be by hearing this story. It is not something that they would defend against. They wouldn't constantly update a list of doctors, thinking that someone would be doing this against the system, and, quite frankly, off the record.

One person said, you know, they feel violated. They feel like victims, too. And they just don't feel like this is something that they should be really on guard for and -- and be looking for constantly, because it is so rare and so egregious.

COLLINS: Well, somebody certainly needs to be responsible, though.

Ted Rowlands, thanks so much. Great report.

Tonight, there are new details about the prime suspect in a headline-making crime. Why was he even out of jail on the night a popular grad student was last seen alive?

If you were in a store, and someone pulled a knife, what would you do? Stay with us for an expert's advice.

And Hollywood has got a secret. Are the movies killing the people who make them?

But, first, about 18 million of you check out our Web site today. Here is our countdown of the 10 most popular stories on CNN.com.

At number 10 -- the seven-year, $70 million Whitewater investigation that dogged Bill Clinton for most of his presidency officially came to a close today, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the last remaining appeal.

And, number nine, the Simpsons will be around for a few more years. FOX has renewed the series, guaranteeing that it will be on the air for the 2007-2008 season.

Stay with us. Numbers eight and seven are right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: They're pictures you just can't stop watching, and you can't help wondering, what would you do in the same situation? I will get an expert's advice coming up in just a little bit.

Meanwhile, the Texas mom who drowned her five children will go on trial for a second time in June, two days after what will be the fifth anniversary of a crime that stunned the nation.

Last year, an appeals court ordered a new trial for Andrea Yates. And, today, a judge granted the request by her lawyer to delay Yates' new trial because two defense witnesses were not able to testify this week, as scheduled. Yates' mother and other family members were in court today. But her ex-husband was missing. Russell Yates got remarried over the weekend. Andrea Yates' lawyer says that was difficult for her.

Now another murder case that shocked everyone -- this week, the prime suspect could be arraigned in the brutal killing of New York graduate student Imette St. Guillen. This story has gripped us all since St. Guillen's body was discovered nearly a month ago. She was last seen alive outside a Manhattan bar. And, tonight, the bouncer at that bar remains in jail, not charged in the murder.

Allan Chernoff has been digging into Darryl Littlejohn's long criminal record and just filed this report for tonight's "Outside the Law."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Darryl Littlejohn, the prime suspect in the rape and murder of Imette St. Guillen, is a career criminal. Indeed, Littlejohn said he was never employed in court papers for his latest conviction, bank robbery.

Littlejohn has pled guilty three times to armed robbery and three times to possessing large quantities of crack cocaine. The 41-year- old has spent almost 19 years of his life behind bars.

Joseph Conway prosecuted the most recent case.

JOSEPH CONWAY, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: He had been incarcerated for a long period of time, and didn't seem to have a problem being incarcerated. It was something he had gotten used to, it looked like.

CHERNOFF: Littlejohn had been working for only three months as a bouncer at the bar where St. Guillen was last seen. The 24-year-old criminal justice student was drinking there until closing time. Seventeen hours later, her body was found in this desolate Brooklyn lot, after she had been raped and strangled. Witnesses told police they saw Littlejohn escort St. Guillen out of the bar.

He had been out on parole since July of 2004, after serving more than eight years in prison for holding up this bank in Farmingdale, Long Island, a crime he committed twice in two weeks.

CONWAY: Mr. Littlejohn was charged with entering a bank, with a weapon, and announcing a robbery. He was with a second individual. They had ski masks on. They had weapons. They announced a robbery. The teller would fill up the bag with money. And they sped off.

CHERNOFF: Authorities investigated Littlejohn for far more serious crimes. Sources with knowledge of the investigation say Littlejohn was questioned for suspicion of being a hit man for drug lords in the crime-infested New York neighborhood of South Jamaica. Sources close to the investigation say Littlejohn told authorities he would cooperate to help the government. At one point, there was discussion of putting Littlejohn into the federal witness- protection program, as this letter from his lawyer indicated. It could have been a ticket out of prison.

(on camera): But law enforcement officials tell CNN, when it came time for Littlejohn to share information about this neighborhood's drug kingpins, he was unable to do so. They concluded he had overstated his connection to the leadership of South Jamaica's drug enterprises.

(voice-over): For all his criminal convictions, Darryl Littlejohn has no history of sexual assault. And an attorney who has represented him says, Littlejohn will plead not guilty to the rape and murder of Imette St. Guillen.

KEVIN O'DONNELL, ATTORNEY FOR DARRYL LITTLEJOHN: He told me all along: "I have never raped a woman. I have never had any history of violence towards women."

Everything regarding his criminal past is related to robbery or drugs.

CHERNOFF: If the St. Guillen case were to go to trial, a jury would decide if Darryl Littlejohn is guilty of her rape and murder. There is no question, though, that the prime suspect in the case is a hardened criminal.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Littlejohn, as we said, has not been charged in the St. Guillen case. He's being held on a parole violation for breaking his curfew.

Well, how would you react if a thief demanded your money? Should you run? Should you argue? Should you fight back? I will ask an expert. Did these people do the right thing?

And what are they losing sleep over in Hollywood? You will be surprised.

But, now, number eight on our CNN.com countdown -- an op-ed piece from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld draws fire. He wrote that the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would be like handing post-war Germany back to the Nazis.

And, seven, President Bush today told an audience in Cleveland that there was a period of -- quote -- "trial and error" in fighting the insurgency in Iraq. But he insisted that U.S. troops will not leave without securing Iraq's future -- numbers six and five after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Sometimes, we see the most amazing and frightening scenes caught on surveillance video, like confrontations between store clerk and thieves, armed with everything from guns to blowtorches.

Some people fight back. You could call that brave or stupid, depending on the outcome. So, we decided to find out what you should do if you're ever unlucky enough to be caught in a life-or-death situation. It is tonight's "Eye Opener."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): In California, a robber armed with a blowtorch gets the surprise of his life when a convenience store owner attacks him with a bat. In Orem, Utah, a woman working at a check- cashing store tries to negotiate her way out of being robbed by a man with a gun. A robber in a ski mask armed with a foot-and-a-half-long machete goes into a Mobile Mart in Massachusetts and demands money. The clerk complies. And a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, clerk decides to take the law into his own hands. He attacks a hooded robber wielding a knife.

So, what would you do, if you were faced with a situation like this? We set out to find someone who could help us break it down.

New Jersey Detective Brian Reich takes a close look at these different scenarios, so we all know what to do if ever we're caught up in this kind of life-and-death situation.

(on camera): Brian, let's go ahead and show everybody this video of our first case. It is a convenience store. A guy comes in, demands to get money from the clerk. The clerk apparently says, 'Forget it,' goes after him with a baseball bat. And now he comes up against the guy with the blowtorch in his hand.

BRIAN REICH, BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE: Yes.

COLLINS: Let's go back, if we could, and you tell what he did right and wrong.

REICH: Heidi, a very, very volatile situation -- we see here that the subject was using this type of device to conceal a weapon. The victim comes around the corner and chases him, actually escalates the violence by chasing him. Then, he chases him outside of the store -- and a very, very volatile situation.

He actually escalated the -- the force. In the beginning, you can see how the perpetrator is not doing any overt acts against him. And he actually, I think, made the situation worse and more dangerous for himself.

One of the things that the victim did not know at the time, as he presented a blowtorch in the initial robbery, he chased him outside. He doesn't know if this subject is waiting with somebody else who has a gun or if this subject himself has a weapon, and now shoots him and -- and kills him when he's running after him.

COLLINS: OK, so lesson learned. Certainly, don't run after your attacker.

Let's go ahead move on now to the video here from Utah -- this robbery taking place at a check-cashing store. A guy jumps right over the counter, pushes the woman to the ground. You can see, she's resisting, but not violently. I mean, it looks like she's talking to him, almost negotiating, because, here, now, we see that she goes ahead and she begins taking the money right out of the safe, which is exactly what he was after.

REICH: You could see her talking to him, trying to plead with him. We don't have the luxury of the audio, but I think there was some information on what she was saying, telling him that she has a family and she's a mother and so forth.

But you to be extremely, extremely careful when you're engaging these people, when you're talking to them, because they're irrational. They could be under the influence of a narcotic or a drug, and you really need to be careful.

COLLINS: The other thing here we're about to see, she follows him out the door after he leaves. You say, uh-uh, don't do that. Why?

REICH: Well, we learn later on that she actually ran out to lock the door after he left. But you don't know if he is sitting there waiting to see if she's going come after him, if she's running into an ambush.

And you don't want the violence to start all over again. Sit tight. Wait five, 10, 15 minutes, and let him get out of there, and then go ahead and call 911, because your object is to survive this, not actually apprehend him.

COLLINS: All right, so, let's move on, Brian, to this incredible scene. It happened in Massachusetts.

A guy comes in with a ski mask on. And he has got a foot-and-a- half-long machete. Look at that thing. I mean, you can see, it is huge. He goes after the store clerk. The store clerk basically just says, here you go, backs away. You see his hands go up there. The guy goes out the store, and the robbery is over. Tell me what he did right and wrong.

REICH: Well, he did everything that was right. He gave the money, in the -- in the face of a weapon.

He also created distance between himself and the weapon. And you could see the counter right here -- if we could just pause it for one second -- you could see, the counter right -- is right here. And he actually backs up and creates distance.

He throws his hands up in the air -- we could roll the tape -- saying to the robber: "Look, here is your money. I don't have anything else. I am not going to put up any resistance."

COLLINS: Gets even further away, right. REICH: "I'm not calling the police. Go."

And the guy takes his money, and he runs out of the place. And that's exactly what you want to do. So, money is certainly not worth giving your life over.

COLLINS: And now to a pretty scary seeing in a mini-mart in Pennsylvania. A guy walks in. He has got a big scary-looking hood covering his face, puts a plastic bag down on the counter. Don't know what is in there, but, from the looks of it, he was demanding money, because this guy just goes ballistic, takes out a bat and starts beating him over and over and over again.

Let's talk about this one.

REICH: Yes. There is a lot to be learned in here.

We -- we -- we go back to the beginning, we could see right there that he has a plastic bag. Apparently, there is a -- some type of knife in there. And he is making some kind of demand for the money.

The store owner wasn't having it. He takes out a bat, begins to beat him with it. And we can see the two people -- if we could just stop it right there for a second -- we can see one, two people are working in the store. Then, they must think, you know what? I got this guy outnumbered.

I'm going to come around with the bat with my buddy, and we are going to beat this guy down.

COLLINS: Yes, 2-1.

REICH: We're going to throw him out.

But what they don't realize is -- and they don't actually think about it at the time -- is, maybe this guy has got another guy or two outside that are now going to come in. Maybe there is somebody surreptitiously hidden in the store.

And we always say in law enforcement, the plus-one rule. This guy has one knife, they knock it out of his hand, maybe he has another knife. Maybe he has got a gun. And he's saying, you know what? I pulled a knife. That didn't work. I'm going to take my gun out this time and I'm going to shoot the two of these guys.

And we could roll the video.

COLLINS: Yes.

REICH: In this particular...

COLLINS: They just don't stop...

(CROSSTALK)

REICH: Yes. And, in this particular case, they were lucky. It worked. He went out of there.

But, if he did have a gun or he had another suspect with him that had a gun, these guys would have been in -- in a world of trouble. And, certainly, for a couple of hundred dollars that may be in a register, it is certainly not worth it.

COLLINS: And 13 years experience in law enforcement, you should know.

Detective Brian Reich, thank you very much.

REICH: My pleasure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: You think a Hollywood career is glamorous? Wait until you see what is going on behind the cameras. Is it actually hazardous to people's health?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brooke Anderson.

Scientology and the case of the disappearing "South Park" episode -- what this mystery may say about the power of Tom Cruise and the faith he follows. I will have more -- when PAULA ZAHN NOW returns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And is the nation's most popular sleeping pill causing people to sleepwalk, or sleep-paint, or even have sex in their sleep? Hmm. Stick around for that one.

(LAUGHTER)

COLLINS: Time now for number six on our CNN.com countdown -- the Pentagon trying to get a handle on its fuel bills.

Last year, the U.S. military spent $8.8 billion for 128.3 million barrels of fuel.

And, five, in Ohio, a couple accused of abusing some of their 11 special-needs children by making them sleep in cages today lost permanent custody. The judge said a history of sex abuse allegations against the father was a key reason for his decision -- number four straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: What is so unusual about this picture? Would you believe the artist says he did it while he was asleep? How is that possible?

Have you heard about the outrage over some irreverent cartoons? Well, they aren't from Denmark. They're from "South Park." And at the top of the hour, veteran newsman Bob Schieffer is among the guests as LARRY KING LIVE marks the third anniversary of the war in Iraq.

All this week we're going to be reporting on something every one of us needs, but a few of us get enough of, sleep. Researchers say most of us need seven and a half to eight hours of sleep every night. But we average only six and a half during the week and maybe a little more on the weekends.

And the consequences of our sleep debt, health problems, mental lapses and sometimes tragic accidents. Just ask the people who work 15-hour days and more behind the scenes on movies. It turns out over the last 20 years or so, their workdays have become longer and longer.

Oscar winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler spent the last eight years producing and directing a documentary called "Who Needs Sleep?," a subject our senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been working on as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looks like he's in very bad shape. Like his car is pulled around. There is a whole lot of smoke.

HASKELL WEXLER, PRODUCER, "WHO NEEDS SLEEP?": I started shooting the documentary when a friend and fellow worker died driving home after a 19-hour day.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Brent Hershman fell asleep after working more than 15 hours for five straight days on the movie "Pleasantville." Normally Oscar winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler is the quiet guy behind the camera, shooting movie classics like "In the Heat of the Night" and "Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

But in his own documentary "Who Needs Sleep?," Wexler becomes vocal...

WEXLER: So I'm saying who do we go to?

GUPTA: ...calling on union leaders, even the federal government to set limits on the number of hours a day movie crews can work. Wexler points out in documentary that working long hours on movies is now the norm in Hollywood.

WEXLER: Since then there have been a lot more accidents and a lot more people injured and killed.

RICHARD DONNER, PRODUCER, "PLEASANTVILLE": When we were shooting the "Lethal Weapons" series, it got so bad that we had three or four major automobile accidents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I fell asleep at wheel a quarter mile from my house after working 17 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wake up going...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ended up falling asleep at the wheel, taking my car into a tree at 50 miles an hour.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I woke up when a cop stopped me, and I said what did I do wrong? And he said well, I've been following you, you ran seven red lights in a row.

GUPTA: Wexler interviews stars who confirm the long grueling days.

JULIA ROBERTS, ACTRESS: As an actor, I am given a kind of union buffer in that I have to be allowed a certain number of hours between the time I leave work and the time I have to come back to work. So if I see the crew getting worn out and tired and overworked, then I won't -- then I'll say, no, I have to have my 12 hours because if I have 12 hours, I know they have a fighting chance at a nap or something.

PAUL NEWMAN, ACTOR: The question is how much do these long hours affect creativity? For actors, maybe not as much as one would think because we go back to our dressing rooms, we sack out. The people on the line, though, the cameramen, the assistants, the people who don't get that chance to rest for a while, you know, imagine what 18 hours does to their concentration.

BILLY CRYSTAL, DIRECTOR, "61": When we were making "61," I knew it was going to be hours. We had a lot of baseball stuff to shoot. If you think a baseball game moves slowly, try shooting a baseball game. Haskell was very eloquent in it saying nothing good happens when there is long hours. People don't function well. People get hurt.

GUPTA: Putting in long hours on the set is a relatively new phenomenon. When Wexler worked on movies like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," 12 hours was considered a long workday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Mr. Murphy doesn't want to take his medication orally, I'm sure we can arrange that he can have it some other way.

WEXLER: "Cuckoo's Next" was not long -- it was long hours at that time because long hours then was like going over nine hours. The average day is 15 hours, 14 or 15 hours.

GUPTA: Nowadays, Wexler says a group called 12 on, 12 off is fighting the movie executives and those who budget and schedule movie crews to reduce the workday to 12 hours. Not everyone agrees with Wexler's message. Some crew members in the movie industry say if you can't work the long hours, get out of the business.

GERALD CLARMONT, ASST. CAMERA: Sometimes our jobs require long hours to get our shots. And there is plenty of 9:00 to 5:00 jobs out there if you can't hack it.

GUPTA: Wexler's response, be careful. Because studies show a lack of sleep dumbs down intelligence, slows reflexes and reduces memory. It can also lead to diabetes, obesity and then again, it just might kill you. And another thing, says Wexler, isn't there more to life?

WEXLER: It poses the question what do you want out of life? What is really important to me? What do you think that bloody tenth hour of overtime is going to buy you that is going to make you happy? And it has to be guys like me who don't give a [ bleep ] or are at least at a point in their career where you can make a lot of noise and realize that there is more to life than rolling cuts.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And join us this Sunday as Sanjay explores how we sleep and how lack of it affects our health. On "Sleep," a Dr. Sanjay Gupta special at 10:00 p.m. eastern Sunday here on CNN.

Well, people in Hollywood may not be getting enough sleep, but one artist says he actually got work done while he was sleeping. Other people say they had sex. What do they all have in common? Stick around for that.

And when it comes to making "South Park" behave, is it mission impossible even for Tom Cruise?

Number four on our CNN.com countdown, nearly seven months after Hurricane Katrina, the bodies of two more victims have been found in New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward. So far 10 bodies have been recovered since searches resumed this month. More than 1,100 people died in Louisiana when Katrina struck.

Number three on the countdown coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: For several weeks we have been bringing you incredible stories from people who say Ambien, the nation's most widely prescribed sleeping pill, not only caused them to sleep, but also to sleepwalk, sleep eat and even sleep drive. And that's just the beginning. As Jeanne Moos discovered, some people's sleeping stories are real beauties.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You can bet the makers of Ambien are losing sleep. First came the stories of sleep driving. Then came the stories of sleep eating. And now sleep painting? This oil painting wasn't anywhere near done when "Itsi" Atkins went to sleep only to awaken in paint splattered sheets.

EDWIN "ITSI" ATKINS, SLEEP DISORDER PATIENT: I was a mess. Oil paint all over my shirt, all over my hands.

MOOS: In his sleep, he grabbed whatever he could get his hands on. ATKINS: With a toothbrush, my fingernails, and with a Q-tip and my hair brush.

MOOS: "Itsi" has a long history of sleep disorders. The door man at his Manhattan apartment building describes him sleepwalking to the corner in the middle of the night. He would often eat while sleeping.

ATKINS: You see, I'm licking the peanut butter off my hands.

MOOS: But peanut butter gave way to magic marker on 20 milligrams of Ambien.

ATKINS: I think I rolled over and started drawing on the floor.

MOOS: It is an image of Incubus, a sex demon. On the back of a movie poster, he scrawled what he calls an abstract Charles Manson. "Itsi"'s doctor at the Monte Fior (ph) Sleep Clinic says this can happen in a state that is half awake, half asleep.

(on camera): It is like your vision is gone and your head is working.

DR. MICHAEL THURPY, DIR. SLEEP-WAKE DISORDERS: That's exactly right. People can do quite complex things while in this state.

MOOS (voice-over): Like having uninhibited sex. On a message board, devoted to Ambien, a husband writes that his wife did thing she normally doesn't care to do. "We had an incredible experience about which unfortunately she remembered nothing in the morning. Once a month or more we'll have an Ambien date."

THURPY: It is a much bigger thing because it is something people don't talk about. And people have all sorts of sexual activities with other people in their sleep.

MOOS: It can be a thin line between dreaming and hallucinating on sleep medication. "I began to hallucinate and thought a house plant was talking to me. Saying please water me." "Itsi" the artist occasionally took drastic action.

ATKINS: I would put a rope around my ankle and tied it to the bed.

MOOS: Many describe Ambien as a Godsend.

Doctors and Ambien's maker emphasize that people with sleep disorders have a propensity to sleepwalk and sleep eat with or without sleep medication. That the number of people experiencing problems with Ambien is --

THURPY: Tiny. It is minuscule.

MOOS: As for the stories of having sex while asleep --

THURPY: There is a whole specialty in that called sexsomnia. MOOS: It's enough to keep you up at night. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: We can't emphasize it enough, the manufacturer says if you find yourself sleepwalking after taking Ambien, please see your doctor. They also say the incidents of sleepwalking in the general population is about four percent.

It is starting to look like the War of the Worlds was only a warmup. Coming up, can Tom Cruise teach the South Park kids a little respect? we'll see in a minute.

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COLLINS: "LARRY KING LIVE" gets underway at top of the hour. Hi, Larry. Who are you going to have with you tonight?

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: We'll take a look at the third year of anniversary of the war in Iraq. And we got an outstanding panel. Bob Schieffer of CBS, United States Senator Barbara Boxer, former Senator Alan Simpson, Michael Weiskopff of "Time" magazine, Robin Wright of The Washington Post and our own Nic Robertson, our senior international correspondent. All that ahead at 9:00 as we take a look at three years in Iraq and diminishing numbers for the president, diminishing support for him as well. All that at the top of the hour, Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Larry, we will see you at 9:00. Busy night for you. Thanks.

It isn't quite the War of the Worlds. When Tom Cruise takes on the kids of South Park who will win?

First, number three on our CNN.com countdown, cleaning up after a deadly spring storm in the plains states. At least two deaths are being blamed on a storm that buried parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado under as much as a foot and a half of snow.

Number two on our countdown, just ahead.

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COLLINS: Tom Cruise is one of the most popular and highest paid stars in the world and he also may be one of the most famous followers of scientology. Now, a lot of people are wondering weather he used his clout in Hollywood to kill a planned rerun of "South Park" because it makes fun of his religion.

The animated cable show has offended just about everybody, at least once in its 10 years running. But maybe this time it offended the wrong person. Here is entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This episode of Comedy Central's "South Park" was set to re-air last week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to reveal to Stan the great secret of life behind our church.

ANDERSON: It makes fun of Tom Cruise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come out of the closet Tom, you're not fooling anyone.

ANDERSON: And his belief in Scientology.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cult? Scientology isn't a cult, Kyle.

ANDERSON: But the repeat was abruptly pulled from the schedule.

ANNE THOMPSON, DEPUTY FILM EDITOR, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Well the firestorm is about whether or not Tom Cruise actually ordered that Comedy Central not air this particularly negative story.

ANDERSON: Tom Cruise does have leverage. News reports and entertainment blogs speculated he threatened not to promote his upcoming film "Mission Impossible III" if the episode re-aired. "M.I.3" is being released by Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, which also owns Comedy Central.

But Cruise's publicist and Comedy Central say the actor had nothing to do with the change of plans. Neither Paramount nor Viacom returned CNN's calls for comment today.

But "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone issued this unusual statement anyway. "So, Scientology, you may have won this battle, but the million-year war for Earth was just begun. You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello there, children.

ANDERSON: This comes on the heels of another "South Park" shocker. Isaac Hayes also a Scientologist, recently quit his job as the voice of the character Chef.

(on camera): Hayes said he left because of, quote, "inappropriate ridicule of religious communities." But it is this most recent controversy that's ignited the current questions about the power of Scientology in Hollywood.

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR/SCIENTOLOGIST: I think that there is a higher and better quality of life.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Cruise makes no secret of his religion as in this interview from the "Today Show" last June. Other famous supporters include Lisa Marie Presley, Jenna Elfman, Giovanni Ribisi, Kirstie Alley, Erika Christensen, Kelly Preston, and her husband John Travolta.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You better start figuring it out.

ANDERSON: Travolta even made "Battlefield Earth" based on his Scientology beliefs.

THOMPSON: It is based on a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, who was the founder of Scientology. John Travolta, who is an avid believer in Scientology, was willing to star in a movie that turned out to be rather foolish to help the cause of Scientology.

ANDERSON: And consider the celebrity advocates who recently turned out for the church-sponsored opening of a new museum that takes on one of Scientology's favorite targets. It is called "Psychiatry: an Industry of Death."

JENNA ELFMAN, ACTRESS/SCIENTOLOGIST: America needs to know this information.

ANDERSON: But box office expert Paul Dergarabedian says the movie industry tends to overlook religious controversies unless they start to affect the bottom line.

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN, PRESIDENT, EXHIBITOR RELATIONS: I think the fact that Tom Cruise is a Scientologist is not going to hurt the opening weekend of "Mission Impossible III" at all.

ANDERSON: Brooke Anderson, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And there's this. Comedy Central does plan to run a brand-new episode of "South Park" this Wednesday. They're calling it: The Return of Chef.

Now we continue our "New Beginning" series with the story of a man who wouldn't let a disability get in the way of chasing his dreams. Here is Linda Stouffer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDA STOUFFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paul Martin is a world-class athlete who has done triathlons and won Olympic medals. But the most amazing part of his success, he does it on one leg. Paul's left leg was amputated below the knee after a horrific car accident in 1992. He fell asleep at the wheel after having a few beers with co-workers. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he capitalized on the challenge.

PAUL MARTIN, PARALYMPIAN: The one-legged part emotionally was easy. I had to deal with learning how to be an athlete. That was the toughest part.

STOUFFER: Paul started playing hockey and skiing again. And three years after the accident, he ran the New York marathon and quit his high-paying sales job. MARTIN: Crossing that finish line in New York City, that feeling never came from a paycheck.

STOUFFER: Paul has done nine Ironman Triathlons.

MARTIN: 2.4-mile swim, 112 mile on the bike and then a marathon, 26.2-mile run. Last event I did in Ironman, I beat almost every two- legged freak out there, so pretty proud of that.

STOUFFER: Paul and his new wife Sharon (ph) are expecting their first child in June. Paul's written a book called "One Man's Leg," and does motivational speaking.

MARTIN: This is the best thing that ever happened to me. I've learned so much about myself and the human spirit since losing my leg, I just can't really describe it.

STOUFFER: Linda Stouffer, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: In just a few minutes on "LARRY KING LIVE," what's ahead for the U.S. in Iraq. An all-star panel joins Larry to mark the third anniversary of the war.

And No. 2, on our CNN.com countdown, a ferocious cyclone hits northeastern Australia, but incredibly no reports of any deaths. Local officials say only 30 people suffered minor injuries. Troops have already begun distributing aid, property damage was extensive. The storm's winds reached 180 miles-per-hour. Stay with us, No. 1 coming up next.

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COLLINS: Now, No. 1 on our CNN.com countdown. And believe me, it is a biggie. The big celebrity wedding that never was. Rumors were false, yes false, that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would tie the knot this weekend at a resort near Italy's Lake Como. But despite all the warnings to local officials, the couple themselves were the no- show. I don't know how we're going to go on.

Well that's it for now. Thanks for joining us everybody. Tomorrow, we are going to be meeting some people who work normal hours, but they wake up at four in the morning and can't go back to sleep, then they conk out when the evening's young, before eight. See you later everybody, "LARRY KING LIVE" is next.

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