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Showbiz Tonight

Tom Cruise Opens Up; Oprah Investigates Failing Schools; Rebecca Romijn Talks about Body Image, Future Projects

Aired April 11, 2006 - 19:00   ET

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

A.J. HAMMER, CO-HOST: What shocked Oprah about American schools? I`m A.J. Hammer in New York.
BROOKE ANDERSON, CO-HOST: And Geena Davis joins us live. I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. It`s only live entertainment news show starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAMMER (voice-over): Tom Cruise in a revealing interview everyone will be talking about. Tom opens up about fatherhood, psychiatry, his battle with Brooke Shields and his wife-to-be, the very pregnant Katie Holmes.

LUCY KAYLIN, FEATURES EDITOR, "GQ" MAGAZINE: Tom is unbelievably excited about Katie and incredibly certain that she is the one.

HAMMER: Plus SHOWBIZ TONIGHT with the inside story on the Scientology practice of quiet birth that has everyone scratching their heads.

Kid, TV and sex. Do steamy scenes like these in the Bedford Diaries drive kids to have sex sooner? Tonight the startling results of a new study. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT investigates.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Hi there, I`m Brooke Anderson, and I`m live in Hollywood.

HAMMER: I`m A.J. Hammer. I`m live in New York City.

And, Brooke, the hits keep oncoming from Tom Cruise.

ANDERSON: They sure do.

HAMMER: And they`re coming right from his mouth. Tom Cruise back in Cruise control. We`re waiting for Katie Holmes to give birth to their baby. That`s going to happen any day now. But don`t think that`s going to stop Tom Cruise from letting the world know, once again, how he feels about psychiatry, Brooke Shields and becoming a father.

SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`s Sibila Vargas, live tonight in Hollywood with Cruise`s revealing interview. What is he saying now, Sibila?

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it`s the interview that definitely everybody`s talking about. An outspoken Tom Cruise opening up on fatherhood, his relationship with fiancee Katie Holmes, and of course, Scientology. No regrets, is what Tom`s saying, and it`s all in the upcoming issue of "GQ" magazine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VARGAS (voice-over): He says he`s delighted to be a dad-to-be.

KAYLIN: Tom`s unbelievably excited.

VARGAS: "Mission: Impossible 3" star Tom Cruise and his fiancee Katie Holmes are expecting their first baby together any day, and now the superstar is letting his guard down. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT has obtained the revealing new interview in "GQ" magazine about his life, his future wife and the baby.

Writer Lucy Kaylin interviewed Cruise for the upcoming May issue.

KAYLIN: In typical Tom fashion he`s researching like crazy and learning everything he can possibly learn about, you know, pregnancy and delivery and all of that.

VARGAS: A lot of research, but the decision is still out on where the baby will be born: in a hospital or at home. The couple does know that the delivery will be a silent one. It`s a tradition practiced in the Church of Scientology, Tom`s religion.

KAYLIN: Tom explains what silent birth was to me, which is a Scientology concept, and wanted to clear up some misconceptions along the lines of, you know, mothers are supposed to be silent while they`re delivering a baby. He says it`s not about that at all. It`s really about other people not shouting at her to push or create unnecessary stress and noise that will be bad for both her and the baby that`s on its way.

VARGAS: It`s been a whirlwind year for Cruise, who is now 43. His romance with 27-year-old Holmes has been nothing less than a media spectacle.

The tabloids went crazy at first glimpse of the couple in Italy a year ago this month. Then came this: Tom`s very public display of joy on Oprah, something he says he doesn`t regret in the slightest.

KAYLIN: Tom is unbelievably excited about Katie and incredibly certain that she is the one. Every moment he`s excited and he doesn`t have any regrets about stuff like that at all.

VARGAS: Tom also says he has no regrets about his heated discussion on behavioral drugs and psychiatry on "The Today Show" with Matt Lauer.

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: I never approve of psychiatry. It`s a pseudoscience.

VARGAS: It was an exchange that was arguably uncomfortable.

MATT LAUER, CO-HOST, NBC`S "THE TODAY SHOW": This was not against her will, though.

CRUISE: Matt, I`m asking you a question. Matt, I`m asking you a question.

VARGAS: Tom disagrees. He told "GQ" he thought the interview was, quote, "terrific."

KAYLIN: I asked Tom about his interview with Matt Lauer, which to a lot of people looked like a very heated exchange, and he really disagreed. He said he knows what it is to be angry and that wasn`t angry.

VARGAS: On "The Today Show", Tom also criticized actress Brooke Shields for taking antidepressant to treat postpartum depression.

KAYLIN: Tom definitely feels that his comments about Brooke Shields were misconstrued. And there`s no sense as far as he`s concerned in which he was, you know, beating up on her or criticizing her career. It`s just that he cares about her and cares about, you know, what she was going through and wants, you know, the best for her. And obviously, he thinks that the best would mean, you know, no drugs for postpartum depression.

VARGAS: Between Oprah`s couch and "The Today Show", some people were beginning to think that Tom, had, well, gone off the deep end. But Kaylin thinks she thinks Tom is grounded, positive and she says he doesn`t think he needs to do anything to repair his career.

KAYLIN: I think he thinks it`s been a terrific year, and he`s incredibly happy. And there`s no sense in which -- that I saw in which he feels like there are some amends that he has to make or some impressions that he has to adjust.

VARGAS: Kaylin adds Tom`s biggest joy seems to come from being in love and being a dad once again.

KAYLIN: I think he`s in a happy mood these days.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VARGAS: And "GQ" will hit newsstands on April 25.

Being a good dad is something very serious for Tom Cruise. It`s something he says his father never was. In fact, he recently told "Parade" magazine that his dad was abusive, calling him a bully and a coward.

Cruise`s mother divorced his father in 1974. Cruise reunited with him 10 years later, right before he died of cancer. A.J., it certainly paints a larger picture of Tom Cruise.

HAMMER: It does, and it`s really interesting to get his insight on some of the things we`ve seen over the last year, including that very public or highly-publicized interview with Matt Lauer. So surprising to hear him say that he liked the interview, because you look at him and he seems angry, but he`s saying he wasn`t.

VARGAS: Now all he says his words were misconstrued.

HAMMER: Interesting. Well, we finally know. Thanks so much, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`s Sibila Vargas joining us from Hollywood.

Coming up a little later, we`re going to take a look a bit deeper into that so-called silent birth that we were talking about, the tradition that is encouraged by Cruise`s religion, Scientology.

ANDERSON: Tonight Oprah Winfrey is taking on one of the most startling epidemics in this country: the crisis in our schools from coast to coast. Oprah is investigating all of this in a special two-part show called "The Silent Epidemic," "National Geographic Explorer`s" Lisa Ling worked with Oprah on it, and she joins me now from Sacramento, California.

Lisa, welcome.

LISA LING, HOST, "NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER": Thank you so much, Brooke.

ANDERSON: OK, the numbers here are very alarming. One student drops out of school every nine seconds. Oprah and "TIME" magazine did a poll on this that shows that a million students per year are dropping out. Lisa, what are you hoping this show is going to do?

LING: Well, I`m really hoping that this show wakes people up. I mean, it really is a catastrophic crisis in this country. And you`re right, one in every nine high school kids drops out. And it`s not just minority students who are dropping out.

I visited a neighborhood in Indiana, Shelbyville, Indiana, which is a middle-class, relatively affluent, Caucasian community, and one in three high school students drops out. That`s really alarming. And...

ANDERSON: It`s unbelievable. And we`ve got a clip of you, Lisa, visiting those classrooms in Shelbyville, Indiana, and before we continue, I do want to take a look at that.

LING: Great.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LING: So how many of you know someone who has dropped out of school? Every single one of you.

(voice-over) And I got the same answer in classroom after classroom.

(on camera) Quite honestly, it kind of trips me out that everybody in here knows people who have dropped out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: That is remarkable, Lisa. Were you as shocked as I am to see that and to hear that?

LING: I was shocked because, you know, I flatter myself and say that it wasn`t that long when I was in high school. But, you know, I went to a fairly decent-sized high school, about 2,000 kids, and I knew so few kids who had dropped out. And in a fairly decent amount of time that`s changed, and it`s something that we all really need to be concerned about.

ANDERSON: It has definitely declined in the past couple of decades. Who`s to blame here? Is it the parents? Is it the kids? The schools?

LING: Well, the thing that I found, you know, these kids at Shelbyville High School were perfectly good kids. The principal told me that they didn`t particularly have problems with unruly kids or gang issues or anything like that. There`s just a general lack of motivation. It just seemed like kids were not particularly enthusiastic about being there, and that`s a big problem.

You know, there`s so much information available to kids right now. There`s so much stimulation, but yet when kids are in the classroom, somehow the school system and we are failing them. And we`re not -- in the fact that we`re not providing them with the opportunities to be stimulated.

ANDERSON: Well, what are those opportunities? What is the solution? Or is there not one specific solution? Is this just a crisis that, unfortunately, could continue for a long time to come?

LING: Well, I think we really need to start very closely examining what exactly is going on in schools today. And I`m not -- I in no way mean to chastise educators or teachers, because they are clearly doing everything they can do. But we need to really evaluate how schools and education is different now than it was even when, Brooke, you and I were in high school. I mean, you`re probably a bit younger than I am, but things have changed.

ANDERSON: Oh, not really.

LING: Things have changed and technology has changed. And kids are now so much more stimulated. There is this plethora and abundance of information that`s competing with what`s going on in schools. And somehow we need to figure out a way to utilize technology and implement it in the classroom.

And that`s what people like Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, are trying to do. He`s currently wanting to invest $20 billion to help fix education. And on the one hand I commend him for doing it, but why is it that this private entrepreneur feels the need to do it?

ANDERSON: Why is he the one that has to take on this big challenge?

Lisa Ling, we are going have to leave it there tonight. Disturbing information. Hopefully, this will encourage many people to get involved and find a solution to improve the education system. Thanks for joining us.

LING: Thank you for having me.

ANDERSON: And you can catch Lisa`s coverage on part two of "The Silent Epidemic" special report tomorrow on "Oprah".

HAMMER: So is it possible: could your kids` TV viewing habits make them have sex sooner? Tonight we`ve got the startling results of a new study. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT investigates.

ANDERSON: And from "X-Men 3" to her own show, Pepper Dennis Rebecca Romijn has a lot to talk about. Plus she opens up her struggles with weight and body image. Rebecca Romijn, coming up with the interview you`ll see only on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

HAMMER: Also tonight, that`s ridiculous! An 82-year-old woman crosses the road and ends up with a ticket? What the heck is going on here? SHOWBIZ TONIGHT hears what she has to say, coming up next.

ANDERSON: It is -- it is really ridiculous. But first tonight`s "`Entertainment Weekly` Great American Pop Culture Quiz." Who was the author who inspired the 1975 Steven Spielberg movie "Jaws"? Was it Robert Benchley, Peter Benchley, Gary Benchley or Stephen King? We`ll be right back with the answer. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go 15. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT is back with a "SHOWBIZ Sitdown" from Rebecca Romijn in a second, but first to L.A. and the quiz answer from Brooke. Ready, seven. Dissolve, go.

ANDERSON: Thanks, Charlie.

So again, tonight`s "`Entertainment Weekly` Great American Pop Culture Quiz." And it is this. Who was the author who inspired the 1975 Steven Spielberg movie "Jaws"? Robert Benchley, Peter Benchley, Gary Benchley or Stephen King? The answer is B, Peter Benchley.

HAMMER: Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. We`re TV`s only live entertainment news show. I`m A.J. Hammer.

So Brooke, this is one of those stories that came to us and just made us say, "That`s ridiculous!"

ANDERSON: Yes, it did, A.J. Listen to this. An 82-year-old woman in L.A. says she got a ticket for crossing the street -- get this -- too slowly. Mayvis Coyle says she was walking with a cane across the street but couldn`t make it to the other side before the light turned. She says an officer told her she was obstructing traffic. He wrote her a ticket for $114. There she is with the ticket.

HAMMER: Look how sweet Mayvis is. Now, the police tell a completely different story, but we still think it`s ridiculous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYVIS COYLE, SLOW WALKER: I can`t make it across in the amount of time that the light is set for.

SGT. MIKE ZABOSKI, LOS ANGELES POLICE: The violation had nothing to do with the time it took to cross the street. The ticket is strictly for stepping off the curb illegally against the traffic control and pedestrian control saying not to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: But the sergeant says police are cracking down on people who improperly cross the street because pedestrian accidents have gone to a higher rate than normal. And he says he doesn`t want pedestrians to be angry, but he`s also -- he`d also rather that they`re alive. But...

ANDERSON: I understand that. What`s she supposed to do? She can`t very well hop on a skateboard, break into a jog.

HAMMER: Maybe she could hop on a skateboard. I don`t think she could. But what is she supposed to do? She can`t make it across the street any faster than that. I don`t think this is going to deter people from taking their time across the street if they need to take their time to cross the street. I don`t think.

ANDERSON: Right. Let`s lengthen the time before the light changes, maybe.

HAMMER: Yes. Lengthen the time. And then it won`t be so ridiculous.

ANDERSON: That`s right. OK.

Moving on now to Rebecca Romijn. She has had her own run-in with tabloids that dish about her weight. When she stopped by for her "SHOWBIZ Sitdown," the actress talked to me about what it was like to have her body dissected in the gossip pages.

She also talked about everything -- and I mean everything -- she has going on right now, from her new TV show, "Pepper Dennis", to her big-time summer movie, "X-Men 3," to her engagement to actor Jerry O`Connell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: The tabloids, what was your reaction when the tabloids printed that your weight was fluctuating, that it went from 125 to 150? What did you think?

REBECCA ROMIJN, ACTRESS: I mean, it felt -- I felt like I was a crazy person, because I was like I shouldn`t be affected by this. I`ve never felt better in my life. I mean, I had had just had this amazing year. I`d met Jerry. He was wining and dining me. I was like -- I was relaxing. I was having the best time.

And I was still hiking a lot and still doing Pilates, but I was -- you know, I was kind of taking it easy. I wasn`t concentrating on being red carpet ready.

And then I was, like, wow! I cannot believe this. This is crazy. And they were, like, assigning numbers to it. Like, she went from 120 to 150, and I was -- like. First of all...

ANDERSON: How would they know?

ROMIJN: I haven`t been 120 since I was, like, 15 years old, and I have never hopped on a scale. So nobody -- those numbers are just like made up out of nowhere.

So, yes. It`s a very bizarre thing to go through.

ANDERSON: I thought, give the girl a break!

ROMIJN: Yes. I mean, I just -- and the thing is, like -- you know when you need to take off a few when your jeans start getting tight. You know what I mean? And like, I knew that I had to start getting in shape again for Mystique, and it was just a matter of getting my butt back on the treadmill, you know?

ANDERSON: Right.

ROMIJN: And so we did.

ANDERSON: We girls know when it`s time.

ROMIJN: We know.

ANDERSON: I thought you looked fantastic.

ROMIJN: Thanks.

ANDERSON: How hard is it, though, in Hollywood with the pressure to be so thin all of the time?

ROMIJN: Well, it`s -- it`s something I try not to buy into too much. I mean, I know that there are some people that are really obsessed with it. And it`s, you know, I`m just all about being healthy. I think it`s important to know what your body type is and try and treat your body with respect and eat well and exercise and just feel good and just feel good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go! Go!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: "Pepper Dennis", you play a local news reporter in Chicago competing with that handsome anchor...

ROMIJN: Charlie Bishop.

ANDERSON: ... for air time. I know. Your character is quite a character. She`s witty. She`s wacky. She`s a little bit of a basket case.

ROMIJN: Right.

ANDERSON: So how much of you is in Pepper Dennis?

ROMIJN: I mean, I`d like to think that I`m not as obnoxious as she is, but it`s not really for me to judge, sadly. I mean, I completely -- I identify with her drive and her ambition, but she takes it a little bit too far.

ANDERSON: You have, what, three films coming out this year?

ROMIJN: "X-Men 3."

ANDERSON: Including that one. That`s right.

ROMIJN: Mystique, all that blue paint that covers you.

ANDERSON: I want to know, can you sit down when you`ve got the blue paint on? When you have a break from filming or do you just have to stand?

ROMIJN: Honestly, it`s a messy, messy costume, obviously. I mean, I`m leaving tracks of blue behind me everywhere I go. Toilet seats, doorknobs, everything I sit on. It`s awful.

ANDERSON: You`re engaged to be married. You have a beautiful ring that you showed me. Do you have a date, a location, a dress?

ROMIJN: Yes, I don`t have any details. I mean, both of us have been very busy with work, and whatever we do is going to be something pretty spontaneous, something very small, I think, probably just our family and us. And -- I mean, we`re -- you know, it will be some time this summer, I think. We don`t have any details yet.

ANDERSON: Does it ever surprise you how interested people are in your personal life?

ROMIJN: It`s shocking. It`s shocking. Because it`s really not that interesting when it comes down to it. It really isn`t.

ANDERSON: A normal person like the rest of us? You put on your pants one leg at a time.

ROMIJN: That`s right. My legs bend at the knees just like everyone else`s.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: She also told me that she and Jerry have a vineyard on their ranch, and they are hoping to make some wine in the future. Their very own wine. So we can look forward to that, too.

Rebecca`s new show, "Pepper Dennis," airs Tuesday on the WB network.

HAMMER: Shocking words from Ben Affleck about what the president has done and what deserves to happen to him. That`s coming up.

ANDERSON: Plus, as Tom and Katie get ready to welcome their baby, there`s been lots of talk about "quiet birth," a Scientology practice that`s raising some eyebrows. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT gets some answers about the controversial practice still ahead.

HAMMER: Also kids, TV and sex. Could how much TV your kids watch affect the age at which they start having sex? Tonight, we`ve got the startling results of a new study. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT investigates.

First, we want to hear from you on the subject. It is our SHOWBIZ TONIGHT question of the day tonight. Sex on TV: does it make kids promiscuous? You can vote by going to CNN.com/ShowbizTonight. Or you can e-mail us at ShowbizTonight@CNN.com. We`ll get into some of your e-mails later in the show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SHOWBIZ TONIGHT takes you on a very special tour of Mariah Carey`s home right after the break. Master, roll it, effect live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAMMER: Tomorrow on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT the pay-per-view seance that will try to contact John Lennon from beyond. The mastermind behind the show tomorrow on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

ANDERSON: It is time now for "Tuesday InStyle." Well, we all know Mariah Carey for her chart-topping voice, but tonight, we take you inside her home. "InStyle" walks us through her very glamorous apartment in the Big Apple.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES PATRICK HERMAN, "INSTYLE" MAGAZINE: InStyle chose to highlight Mariah`s penthouse because her CD, "The Emancipation of Mimi" is the top- selling album of last year.

Mariah totally redid her entire apartment, because a water tower burst on the roof of her penthouse and it flooded all 12,000 square feet, all three floors. So she had to take out all of the furniture, put it in storage, repaint every wall, rip out the floorboard.

Mariah has a Moroccan room that was inspired by a trip to Marrakech. It looks like something out of "Arabian Nights". She loves to entertain there and also listen to music.

Dozens of antique art deco sconces can be found throughout Mariah`s apartment. She likes to nickname her interior designer the king of sconces, because he has such a knack for finding them from all over the world.

Mariah`s closet is definitely one of the biggest closets I`ve ever seen. It`s sort of like being in an airplane hangar full of clothes. She keeps her clothes climate controlled, and they`re separated by color and also material.

Mariah doesn`t know exactly how many pairs of shoes, but she estimates it`s less than a thousand.

What Mariah calls the family room is filled with personal photos, many of which belonged to her late father, who died of cancer. Looking at the photos, Mariah said, "They illustrate who I am."

Mariah says the greatest thing about her apartment is that it`s the first place she`s ever owned by herself. It`s all her. So if anyone were to ever buy it, they would have to be a total diva.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: For more on Mariah Carey`s New York City apartment, pick up a copy of "InStyle" magazine, "InStyle`s" special home issue, and it`s on newsstands now.

HAMMER: So did Calista Flockhart have an eating disorder during her Ally McBeal days? SHOWBIZ TONIGHT sets the record straight on that, coming up.

ANDERSON: Plus, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and the controversial Scientology practice called quiet birth. What does it mean, and what do doctors think about it? SHOWBIZ TONIGHT gets some answers, still ahead.

HAMMER: And the "Commander in Chief" herself joins us. Geena Davis live in the interview you`ll see only on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWS BREAK)

HAMMER: Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT for a Tuesday night, it`s 31 minutes past the hour. I`m A.J. Hammer in New York City.

ANDERSON: And I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. You`re watching TV`s only live entertainment news show. A.J., television`s female president is back on the air. "Commander in Chief," the show is returning to television after a long hiatus and it starred Geena Davis who joins us live in just a few minutes to tell us how her role parallels real-life politics and what we can expect in upcoming episodes.

HAMMER: We look forward to welcoming her back to SHOWBIZ.

Also, a study, I`m still trying to wrap my head around, it`s so incredible. It`s a study about kids and sex and how much TV your kids watch. How much TV they watch could determine if they have sex at an early age. Not what they watch. How much they watch. It`s fascinating.

ANDERSON: Some kids are easily influenced so it`s pretty frightening. Looking forward to that.

But first, we`re on celebrity baby watch here at SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. As you`ve probably heard by now, Katie Holmes is very pregnant. She and Tom Cruise are expecting a baby any day now. And as SHOWBIZ TONIGHT told you earlier, you might have also heard about a Scientology practice that could make the delivery an unusual one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(voice-over): It will be the birth heard or not heard round the world. For months, many have eagerly awaited the offspring of Tom Cruise and Katie Homes.

Speculation has been rampant that Katie will deliver her baby via silent birth, a tradition encouraged by Cruise`s religion, Scientology. If Katie, a Catholic, does have a silent birth, she`ll join a growing list of celebrities who have done the same including actresses Anne Archer and Leah Remini, who actually allowed cameras inside the delivery room providing these rare silent birth images for VH-1`s "Inside Out: Leah Remini, The Baby Special."

(on camera): But the notion of birthing a child while being completely silent leaves many scratching their heads. So we went straight to the source, the Church of Scientology, to find out about this unusual practice.

(voice-over): Michelle Seward is an active Scientologist. Five years ago she gave birth to son Sage, following the church`s guidelines and her belief.

MICHELLE SEWARD, ACTIVE SCIENTOLOGIST: The least amount of words said as quiet as it can be, having the most natural child birth as possible will create a great experience for a mother and for a baby.

ANDERSON: Seward and the Church of Scientology calls silent birth a media misnomer. They say it`s really a quiet birth they strive for.

SEWARD: If a noise is made or if a moan is done, it`s OK.

ANDERSON: Church officials released this statement to CNN. "Chatty doctors and nurses, shouts to `PUSH, PUSH,` and loud or laughing remarks to `encourage` by attending husbands are the types of noises that are meant to be avoided. Words spoken during moments of pain and unconsciousness can have adverse effects on an individual later in life."

SEWARD: I don`t want to be told, push, Michelle, push harder. Come on, push. And then we fast forward to three years later, and Sage is riding a bike and I say, Sage, push, harder, Sage. And all of a sudden, he`s got a headache and he`s crying and he doesn`t like the bike.

ANDERSON: But what does the medical community say about quiet birth? The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has no official position on the subject, and some doctors, like Beverly Hills OBGYN Dr. Peter Weiss question how a loud delivery room could lead to any problems.

DR. PETER WEISS, OBGYN: If that were the case, all the boys who have had circumcision in this country over the last 30 years would be on a major rampage, and it would be like Paris, France, right now.

ANDERSON: Of course, Scientologists don`t claim the benefits of quiet birth as medical fact, and even Dr. Weiss, who is not a Scientologist but has performed numerous quiet births over the years, sees no harm in the process.

WEISS: I think any time you`re in a stressful situation, that puts everyone in a more calm environment I think only can be beneficial.

SEWARD: The moment that he was delivered, he was actually wrapped in a blanket and on my chest for a good hour.

ANDERSON; But while the birth of Tom and Katie`s baby may be a quiet one, newborn babies, like that of Leah Remini`s tend to be the opposite.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

The baby could be born any day now. And we at SHOWBIZ TONIGHT will certainly keep you posted. A.J., the woman I spoke with in the piece, Michelle, who gave birth quietly, went through 30 hours of labor, and she told me that it was a piece of cake, that it was a calm, beautiful, quiet experience. Now, I haven`t had kids. I know you haven`t had kids, but that does seem like quite a challenge, doesn`t it?

HAMMER: As the doctor said there`s no harm to the silent birth and quite honestly I prefer quiet to shouting.

ANDERSON: That`s right. They don`t advocate total silence, just quiet and calm.

HAMMER: We`ll continue to wait for Tom and Katie`s baby, but now let`s get to tonight`s hot headlines with Sibila Vargas live in Hollywood.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi, A.J., sad news in the world of rap. Eminem`s close friend rapper Proof was shot and killed. Proof`s, whose real name is Deshaun Holton, was gunned down at a night club along Eight mile in Detroit. That`s a strip made famous by Eminem`s 2002 movie "8 Mile."

Eerily, in Eminem`s music video for "Like Toy Soldiers," doctors are seen trying to revive Proof. Proof was also Eminem`s best man at his January wedding.

Jennifer Lopez is slapping ex-hubby number one with a lawsuit. The singer/actress claims Ojani Noah tried to shake her down for $5 million to keep him from publishing a tell-all tale. The manuscript violates a confidentiality agreement between the two of them.

And Madonna and Guy Ritchie are on the mend after a so-called rough patch in their marriage. The singer`s father-in-law was quoted saying the couple`s time in Los Angeles has relieved the pressure on their relationship. John Ritchie says his son and Madonna seem to have left the bumps behind them in Great Britain and are enjoying family time in L.A. He says it`s the children, Rocco and Lourdes, who will keep Madonna and Guy Ritchie together.

Those are the hot headlines. It`s about peaks and valley, folks. That`s what a marriage is all about. You`ve got to hang in there. A.J.?

HAMMER: Sibila Vargas in Hollywood.

ANDERSON: So much has been said recently about immigration reform, but let me tell you a story about a young woman who came to this country as a refugee. Chloe Dao is her name. She won Bravo`s "Project Runway," but before you go, not another reality show winner. Her life story, how she got to where she is now is so fascinating and her future is so bright, it will be make you proud to be an American. Here`s CNN`s Alina Cho for SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She`s petite, but Chloe Dao more than makes up for it in personality.

(on camera): 4`11.

CHLOE DAO, WON FASHION DESIGNER REALITY SHOW, "PROJECT RUNWAY": Three-quarters. It`s very, very important.

CHO (voice-over): This under five foot fashion designer is everywhere.

The winner of the hit reality show "Project Runway," 34-year-old Dao is you in something of a celebrity.

DAO: I`m in "People Magazine" and "Us Weekly." That`s bizarre to me, to me. I`m just still who I am.

CHO: Who she is is as interesting as the clothes she makes. Born in Laos, Dao is Vietnamese, the sixth of eight girls. Her family fled the Viet Cong in 1976, lived in a refugee camp in Thailand before immigrating to the United States three years later. They eventually found a home in Houston.

DAO: My mom didn`t speak English and she worked and had three jobs and my dad had a full-time job.

CHO: By the time she was in junior high school, Dao was working too. Mom wanted her to be a doctor, it wasn`t meant to be. At age 10 she already had other plans.

ELSA KLENCH: This is style and I`m Elsa Klensch.

CHO: After watching style with Elsa Klensch on CNN, Dao was captivated and found her calling. She later moved to New York, studied fashion and learned from other designers. Her dream was to open a boutique back home in Houston and design under her own label. So in 2000, she did exactly that. Enter Lot 8, named for the eight girls in her family. Business is a family affair.

DAO: My sister, Sydney, is my partner. She does PR and sales and manage the paperwork. My sister Christine is the hair stylist in the back in the salon. My mom helps me sew and do alterations. My aunt helps me sew my production.

CHO: Most of the production is still done in Dao`s garage, though these days she is having a hard time keeping up with demand.

(on camera): Because this is the one piece that`s left, right?

DAO: One tiny piece in the store.

CHO: That`s it? It`s sold out.

(voice-over): All the success means Dao is much busier. She still finds time to go to her store, help clients, even advise them on alterations.

DAO: Tack that closed for now.

CHO: The kind of hard work she knows is necessary to become a household name.

(on camera): Do you want to be the next Vera Wang or Ralph Lauren?

DAO: I want to be me. I want to be the next Chloe Dao!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: She`s well on her way. That was CNN`s Alina Cho for SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. And as part of the show, Chloe got a chance to show her line to the biggest names in fashion at New York`s Fashion Week. Not bad at all.

OK, coming up, did Calista Flockhart have an eating disorder during her "Allie McBeal" days? SHOWBIZ TONIGHT sets the record straight. Plus, we`ve got this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN AFFLECK, ACTOR: You can be hung for that! That`s treason! You could be killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: Ben Affleck all fired up. The actor let loose on "Realtime With Bill Maher," comparing President Bush to Benedict Arnold. He has one hefty penalty in mind as well, and SHOWBIZ TONIGHT has his angry rant coming up.

ANDERSON: And TV`s presidential recess is over. "Commander in Chief" is back. Geena Davis joins us live next for an interview you`ll see only on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. Stay with us.

HAMMER: Plus, we have a story about Calista Flockhart in the news today. Master, roll your break. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAMMER: First female president, Geena Davis, in a SHOWBIZ sitdown here in New York in a second, but first to L.A. and Brooke.

ANDERSON: Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. You`re watching TV`s only live entertainment news show.

Tonight, does Ben Affleck think President Bush committed treason? The actor appeared on HBO`s "Realtime with Bill Maher" saying it was President Bush who, quote, "probably also leaked the name of ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame." Plame`s husband was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war. Affleck says if Bush leaked that information, he`s guilty of treason, which is punishable by death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even the...

AFFLECK: He probably also leaked it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, no, even the prosecutor, even Fitzgerald is saying Bush didn`t leak the name. So let`s be clear, Bush didn`t leak Valerie Plame`s name.

AFFLECK: Because if he did, you could be hung for that. That`s treason. You could be killed. That`s not like a joking around Tom DeLay, I`ll do a year, I`ve bribed state officials with corporate money. That`s like -- they shoot you in the battlefields for doing that!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: In 2004, Affleck told CNN`s "LARRY KING LIVE" that he would consider running for public office himself. The actor is no stranger to the campaign trail --- he`s pushed hard for former presidential wannabes Al Gore and John Kerry.

HAMMER: Well, we`re betting that Geena Davis is watching President Bush`s every move. That`s because she plays the first woman president on ABC`s "Commander in Chief." The ABC drama finally back. We`re thrilled to have it back on the air after three months of being off the air, and Geena Davis joining us live here in New York. Pretty strong words from Ben Affleck, Geena, but I couldn`t see President Mackenzie Allen, the character you play, ever committing treason. It`s just not in her spirit.

GEENA DAVIS, ACTRESS: No. No, I have a very strong moral compass, no.

HAMMER: A very virtuous woman.

DAVIS: Absolutely. Absolutely.

HAMMER: I always wondered if it gave you a little insight, because obviously the president, as powerful a person as there is, playing the president, does it give you a little insight into perhaps why people in such positions of power are led to do the things that they do and make bad and unpopular decisions?

DAVIS: Well, you know, I can say that when I do interviews or, you know, press events or something, people invariably ask if I intend to run for president. And I always say, you know what? I get zero practical experience in being the real president by playing the fake president. So, you know, it actually doesn`t give me insight into that. It gives me insight into what it`s like to work countless hours. That`s about it.

HAMMER: But people do, probably more than any other character you have played, tend to confuse you with your character, because you just play the president, as you said. It`s just a role, but I`ve heard other people who played the president, Martin Sheen for example, says people treat me presidentially.

DAVIS: Right, right. Well, it`s helpful in a restaurant. You know, right this way, Madam President, if you`re looking for a good table. And it`s so -- it is, it`s different and fascinating, people`s reaction. And often I get asked questions like, well, what would you have done about Hurricane Katrina?

HAMMER: They wouldn`t have asked you that coming off of "Thelma and Louise," perhaps.

DAVIS: Exactly. "Stewart Little," they wouldn`t have asked that.

HAMMER: But I would like to believe that just as Geena Davis, you`d get a fine table in a restaurant without having played the president.

DAVIS: But I wouldn`t get the Madam President part.

HAMMER: Probably not.

So a lot of people, since you have taken on this role, have asked you, do you think Hillary Clinton would be a good president? Do you think we should have a woman president? What I`m curious about is why do you think, even just your perspective as a human being, why have we not had a woman president yet?

DAVIS: You know, it`s fascinating to me to think about, because so many other countries have had female presidents, female premiers, prime ministers. We are actually 61st in the world as far as female representation in government. It`s stunning.

HAMMER: What`s the deal with that?

DAVIS: So I can only speculate that it might be -- it might be that we haven`t been able to picture it. You know, that it`s just -- it`s been so foreign to our thinking. Founding fathers, you know, and that iconic image of a man being our leader, maybe it is just a deficit of imagination.

HAMMER: Because it`s certainly not out of a lack of having qualified candidates.

DAVIS: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. We are in effect ruling out half of the talent pool by not even considering female candidates, you know, that we had this thing of like, should we even? Are you crazy?

HAMMER: Some would say even more than half of the talent pool.

DAVIS: A little bit more, but let`s not quibble over that.

HAMMER: I want to shift gears for a moment. Something that we`ve been talking an awful lot about lately here on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT is body image in Hollywood, and the pressure that is put on young stars or older stars in Hollywood to remain impossibly thin. It`s a problem. Now, you`ve been at this acting gig for a while now, actually coming up on 25 years in film and TV. Have things changed a lot from when you first started? Are we much more obsessive about it now than perhaps when you were first getting going?

DAVIS: It certainly seems so. I don`t remember that insanely thin image bleeding over into actors. I know that it had been in and out of fashion with modeling.

HAMMER: Which you`ve done as well.

DAVIS: Right. Right, and I was never stick thin anyway, but it certainly has now gone over into the acting part of it, and we see it. You know, we see a lot of actresses that are just unbelievably thin.

HAMMER: So you don`t think it`s just something that the media now perpetuates and just focuses so much attention on?

DAVIS: Well, I think they know that -- that increased focus on that in the media makes it more hurtful, you know, the more images you see of unattainable body types, the more you`ll thank that`s what you`re supposed to be. By the time girls are 17, I think they`ve seen a half a million messages.

HAMMER: And images.

DAVIS: Of how they are supposed to look. You know, commercials or ads telling them this is how you`re supposed to look. It`s massive. Yes.

HAMMER: Geena thanks for your insight on that and congratulations by the way on "Commander in Chief" coming back. It will be back on ABC this Thursday.

ANDERSON: There`s a story out there and you may have heard about this. It is about Calista Flockhart and a reported eating disorder. But tonight, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT can set the record straight. The British tabloid "The London Daily Mirror," reports that Flockhart admitted for the first time that she did not eat properly during the height of her fame on the TV show "Ally McBeal."

The tabloid quoted Flockhart as saying, "I started under-eating, over- exercising, pushing myself too hard and brutalizing my immune system. I am much more healthy these days."

The story has been picked up by a number of other news outlets. But when SHOWBIZ TONIGHT called Flockhart`s reps, they told us it simply isn`t true. They say, "the story is a complete fabrication. "The Mirror" was never granted an interview or any access to Calista."

HAMMER: Brooke, I want you to listen to this. There`s a stunning new study that just came out that claims just by watching more than two hours of television a day, I`m not even talking about what they`re watching, I`m just talking about watching more than two hours of TV a day, your kids are a lot more likely to start having sex.

ANDERSON: They`re startling findings, A.J. It`s published in this month`s "Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine." Here`s the deal.

A few thousand kids under the age of 16. These kids had never had sex before. They were asked to keep track of how much TV they watched.

HAMMER: The kids that watched more than two hours a day. They were 35 percent more likely to start having sex. Again, I`m not talking about what they`re watching. Just the fact that they were watching TV. They could have been watching SHOWBIZ TONIGHT and Bugs Bunny. That makes them want to have sex.

ANDERSON: I don`t know about that, but it is pretty incredible. Here`s another thing to come out of the study. If their parents kept telling me them don`t have sex, they were actually more likely to do it. Researchers say probably because of the mixed messages, parents saying no and the TV saying yes through all of the steamy shows out there, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT not being one of those steamy shows.

HAMMER: It might have something to do with wanting to do the opposite of what your parents are saying, like don`t stay out too late. What it seems to me is you shouldn`t let your kids watch TV and you shouldn`t tell them not to have sex.

Anyway, we want to know what you have to say on the subject. We`ve been asking you to vote online on our SHOWBIZ TONIGHT question of the day. Sex on TV. Does it make kids promiscuous. Keep voting on CNN.com/showbiztonight. Your e-mail`s next and SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`s coming right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: We have been asking you to vote online on our SHOWBIZ TONIGHT question of the day. Sex on TV, does is make kids promiscuous? SO far, 62 percent of you say yes, it does, 38 percent say no it doesn`t.

Jennifer from North Dakota writes, "Sex scenes are inappropriate to be on TV. Young kids are like sponges that demonstrate what they see."

And Kyra from New York says, "Sex was a normal part of being a teenager as we experienced on many TV shows like "Dawson`s Creek" or "90210". Keep voting, CNN.com/showbiztonight.

A.J., parents, kids, the whole family can watch SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

HAMMER: Safe programming for everyone. That is it for SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. I`m A.J. Hammer in New York City.

ANDERSON: I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. Have a great night and stay tuned for the latest CNN Headline News.

END