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CNN Showbiz This Weekend

Love Story 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' Hits Theaters; 'American Outlaws' Is a Lighthearted Look at Jesse James; New Talk Show Premieres

Aired August 18, 2001 - 10:00   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.
BILL TUSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Once or twice a year, "NYPD Blue" cast and crew load up and come to New York to do exteriors. And we all know this man, a pop cultural icon he created in the character of Andy Sipowitz - Dennis Franz, good to see you.

DENNIS FRANZ, "ANDY SIPOWITZ": Thanks, good to see you.

TUSH: Congratulations again on another Emmy nomination.

FRANZ: Thank you very much. Yes.

TUSH: I was just saying to you before we started rolling what a trooper you are, because it is hot. You guys picked the hottest week.

FRANZ: You know, that's all I keep hearing about is how beautiful the summer has been here in New York. Now, everybody's been saying this is like the one summer that I really want to stay in the city. And it's been beautiful here.

And then we get here -- the minute we get here it turns into this 100 degree weather, high humidity and we are sweating our brains out every day. And then it's going to go back to comfortable again, I guess the day we leave.

So it is -- you know, we time it.

TUSH: Well, do me a favor, would you get out of town? I'm dying here.

FRANZ: Yes, no kidding. Do you all a favor.

TUSH: Andy Sipowitz, it's going into the ninth season now?

FRANZ: It is, yes.

TUSH: And, as I said, you're nominated for another Emmy? Four- time winner.

FRANZ: Four-time -- yes. I received the -- four times, the nomination.

TUSH: Which I understand is sort of unprecedented, to be in the same show, same character and go on to four Emmys, and maybe a fifth.

FRANZ: Well, hopefully.

TUSH: And unlike a lot of other actors who get into a role, and after a couple of years leave it, you got into this and you love this guy.

FRANZ: I love not only my guy, I love all of the characters in the show. I love the work that goes into the development of every episode. I love the writing.

And we have created such a wonderful family here. And for an actor to be able to be in a comfort zone like this where you are surrounded by your friends and what you consider your family, we have to spend many hours together. So it is great when you like the people you work with for 16 hours a day. It's pretty wonderful.

For so many reasons, we're very fortunate to be in this position. And I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I've been very grateful for it.

TUSH: Super. We are going take a preview of a movie called "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," which stars Nicolas Cage.

FRANZ: Oh, yes.

TUSH: The Academy award winner.

FRANZ: Yes, and Penelope Cruz.

TUSH: And Penelope Cruz, Tom Cruise's latest squeeze.

FRANZ: That's what I understand.

TUSH: And we are going take a look at that from Sherri Sylvester, and then a little later in our show we are going to be talking to you again.

FRANZ: Good deal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's dating Lisa Marie Presley, she's seeing Tom Cruise, but both Penelope Cruz and Nicolas Cage would like to focus your attention on the language of love in "Captain Corelli's Mandolin."

NICOLAS CAGE, ACTOR (on screen): I thought I could watch you forever.

PENELOPE CRUZ, ACTRESS (on screen): You think can you come here and turn my whole world upside down.

CAGE (on camera): I was emotional. I liked the original idea that love can spawn over many, many years, that you can still be -- you can grow old and still be in love with the same woman that caught your eye.

You know, I'm a romantic that way.

SYLVESTER (on camera): Do you think there's one soul mate out there?

CAGE: I don't know.

SYLVESTER: You set that up. I don't know. I had to follow up on that.

CAGE: Yes, I don't know. I don't know. I just don't.

SYLVESTER (voice-over): As for Cruz on Cruise:

CRUZ (on camera): I never talk about my private life in interviews.

SYLVESTER: She is torn between two loves in this World War II epic.

CRUZ (on screen): Come back to me.

CAGE (on screen): Promise me.

SYLVESTER: Cage and Cruz fell for the bestseller on which the film is based, but director John Madden left Cruz hanging on these words after their first encounter:

CRUZ (on camera): Well, I tell you that some characters belong to certain people, but he didn't finish the line. In the second meeting again he said, some characters belong to certain people. Then finally, after the last audition he called me and said, I tell you some characters belong to certain people, and this one belongs to you.

Then I started crying and it was beautiful. This is a very important character for me. I love this woman.

SYLVESTER: As Captain Corelli, Cage had to play the mandolin and conduct a chorus of military men. While he's not musical, his grandfather was.

(on camera): Did you channel Carmine Coppola a little bit musically?

CAGE (on camera): I tried to. I mean I don't know if that's even possible, but I would just sort of meditate on him and just say, all right help me out here because I have to conduct in this movie and I don't know how.

SYLVESTER (voice-over): Carmine, Frances Ford Coppola's father, was the Oscar-winning composer of the "Godfather" films, as well as a conductor.

CAGE: He was a very strong presence, a very proud man who would conduct with gusto. And I have those images in my head. SYLVESTER: While Cage learned the music, Cruz tackled the emotional scale of the piece.

CRUZ (on camera): I couldn't eat, talk to my family because they came to visit. I had no more energy after those scenes, but everything was worth it.

SYLVESTER: Now, if they can just get moviegoers interested in their on screen romance.

Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Still to come, a lighthearted look at bad man Jessie James in "American Outlaws," and more with the cast of "NYPD Blue."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUSH: Now, when you watch any television show the people you see in the background are not real people. They are professionals, and these are professionals right here. Some people used to call them extras, but that's a passe term.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we are called background artists.

TUSH: Background artists. Ladies and gentlemen you've seen these guys in the background, jogging up to the murder scene, and then being told by the police to get out of the way and then they jog back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.

TUSH: And you have been doing this all day long?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been doing it all day long, in the heat.

TUSH: Recreate your role that you're doing today, right now for us, if you could. Just recreate it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he's the man. Go ahead.

TUSH: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am the jogger.

TUSH: Yes, recreate it. That is amazing. Look at that. That is truly -- that is an artist at work. You guys are great.

We are going to go to the movies now and see a new movie that is a light hearted look at Jesse James. It's called "American Outlaws". It stars Colin Farrell. Do you know him? I'll bet at one time he was a background artist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, sure.

TUSH: Sherri Sylvester.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER (voice-over): This is the Jesse James story for the MTV generation. "American Outlaws'" three leads even turned 25 together. They have admittedly taken some liberties with the story, beginning with Irishman Colin Farrell as Jesse.

He lost his brogue and went to cowboy camp where he...

COLIN FARRELL, "AMERICAN OUTLAWS": I just drank Coors Lights and learned how to ride horses with these bunch of cowboys, bunch of mad cowboys who were telling jokes and stories, and real old fashioned gentlemen at the same time.

But dirty bastards and filthy mouths. And we just drank beers and learned how to ride horses. And it was a great time.

SCOTT CAAN, "AMERICAN OUTLAWS" (on screen): Jesse, we've got to have a word.

FARRELL (on screen): Sure, cousin.

SYLVESTER: Also saddling up for the ride, James Caan's son, Scott. Although he learned more from another relative for this one.

CAAN (on camera): My uncle's a stunt coordinator and he works with horses, been working with horses for like 30 years. And he -- I would go from there to his house and then I'd go ride and rope cattle.

SYLVESTER: Well, maybe dad did teach him a few tricks.

ALI LARTER, "AMERICAN OUTLAWS": Scottie's always up to his crazy antics, you know, and they were just playing around. And during lunch they'd be getting all sweaty and dirty lassoing, and it was just -- it was easy and it was a family.

SYLVESTER: On screen they play the ultimate in outlaw chic, but behind-the-scenes they say some of their stunt work was embarrassing.

FARRELL: I fell off the table more times and dropped my guns, and the blank went off two yards on someone's kneecap, and it was like, oh, point that thing down.

You know it looked so cool on the film, but it wasn't as cool on the day.

SYLVESTER: When not playing infamous characters, Farrell is taking his own shot at fame. Suddenly a hot property, he has been cast in several high-profile films, including one with Al Pacino that will bring him a $5 million paycheck.

FARRELL: I feel that I'm doing the same job I have been doing for six years, except for I'm getting to work with bigger names and I'm getting ridiculous amounts of money.

SYLVESTER: Meanwhile, back at the ranch, his co-stars are offering blurbs on this picture.

CAAN: You can see Colin Farrell with his shirt off. You can see Ali Larter do some good hair swings.

LARTER: It's a popcorn movie: you take your date, you go and have some laughs, you skip reality for a couple of hours.

SYLVESTER: It's the old west made young.

Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUSH: Bill Brochtrup is such a nice guy, OK. He's on the show -- you started off -- I say he is nice guy because he doesn't have to be out here today, he came out just to do this.

BILL BROCHTRUP, "P.A.A. JOHN IRVIN": Just to see you guys here on CNN.

TUSH: Your character is P.P.A?

BROCHTRUP: P.A.A.

TUSH: P.A.A.

BROCHTRUP: Public Administrative Aide.

TUSH: John Irvin.

BROCHTRUP: Yes. The civilian aides who sort of help out the cops with the clerical stuff. Kind of like the secretary.

TUSH: But you're always in the precinct.

BROCHTRUP: I hardly ever go outside, which today is a very good thing.

TUSH: Oh, jeez. So when you started out, as I recall, he was not going to last on this show, your character.

BROCHTRUP: No. I came on to do two episodes and that was going to kind of be it, sort of the funny, gay temp.

Then, happily, they kind of fell in love with the character and they have kept me around ever since.

TUSH: Good to have a steady job.

BROCHTRUP: Very nice.

TUSH: All right, I'm going to let you get out of here. As I said to everybody, get back in to -- find some air conditioning somewhere. Go back to your trailer.

BROCHTRUP: At least I am not in a bullet-proof vest. TUSH: Oh, jeez.

BROCHTRUP: Running over the railroad pass.

TUSH: That's right.

BROCHTRUP: I am the lucky one.

TUSH: Thanks, Bill. Good to see you.

BROCHTRUP: Thank you.

TUSH: We're going to take a break and be back.

We were -- oh, I wanted to mention, I promised Court TV we would mention this. They had a party last night because "NYPD Blue" was going to be running on Court TV.

BROCHTRUP: Yes. We're going to be on Court TV starting on Labor Day, and we're having a marathon. Then we're on twice a night on Court TV:

TUSH: It was quite a party last night.

BROCHTRUP: It was good.

TUSH: David Caruso was tending bar.

We'll be right back.

(LAUGHTER)

BROCHTRUP: No, not true.

TUSH: I'm just kidding.

Still to come: she's so hot. Can we get enough Many Moore?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "NYPD BLUE")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anyway, we got nothing to hide. Right boss? Let the rat squad ask what they want.

GORDON CLAPP, "GREG MEDAVOY": They are expecting you to know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUSH: Detective Greg Medavoy, Gordon Clapp. How many years is it now on the show?

CLAPP: This is the ninth season.

TUSH: Ninth season for you. Nice to have steady work.

CLAPP: Yes. It's been good. I think unemployment has moved since I was there.

TUSH: You are OK now, you don't have to worry about a thing.

CLAPP: Yes. I'm going to have to find it again in a couple of years.

TUSH: Just sit at home and collect the residuals. Just take it easy. Why do you want to be out here in the heat.

CLAPP: It will just keep rolling in.

TUSH: Let me ask you, what's going on here today? I notice a lot of time -- we've done this before with you guys. And you come to New York to do all the exterior stuff, and a lot of times you don't even know the plot of the whole show.

CLAPP: Right.

TUSH: Was that the case today? I know you founded a body.

CLAPP: That was the case when we came in this morning. Bill Clark did kind of a synopsis of the whole episode. And it was actually a case that he worked, it's based on a case that he worked years ago.

And so he gave us too many details actually, it took about an hour and a half for him to explain the whole case. But now we have that.

TUSH: All right, good deal. Because of the heat I am keeping all of this short, and we're going to let you get out of the -- get in the air conditioned police car over there.

CLAPP: Yes, we've got something over there that's air conditioned.

TUSH: All right.

CLAPP: We'll be all right.

TUSH: The show is doing fantastic, it never losses steam, even now going into its ninth season. Correct?

CLAPP: Yes.

TUSH: All right. We are going to meet Mandy Moore now.

Do you know Mandy Moore? Hot new teen sensation, has a new CD out. She's also in the movie "Princess Diaries," great movie, take the kids.

CLAPP: Really?

TUSH: Yes.

CLAPP: Cool. TUSH: There you go. Cool.

CLAPP: All right.

TUSH: All right.

(LAUGHTER)

I didn't know there was film in there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAUREN HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 17-year-old Mandy Moore has a new CD, and a role in "The Princess Diaries." Don't forget about her MTV show...

MANDY MOORE: Thank you so much.

HUNTER: ... or the Neutrogena ad campaign.

MOORE: Gives you smooth skin and clear skin.

HUNTER: With such a busy schedule there's barely enough time to go to the record store, where we caught up with her.

MOORE: I need to get my shop on and try to find some music.

HUNTER: Just as her new self-titled CD has an eclectic sound, Mandy's musical taste is broad. For instance, the pop princess loves Alien Ant Farm.

MOORE: I put it on in the car and I can groove, and rock out, and stuff like that, and feel like a rock star.

HUNTER: She's also partial to Alicia Keyes.

MOORE: I think this is really something and someone that was missing from the musical landscape.

HUNTER: Mandy's wild musical landscape includes singing lions and apes.

MOORE: I have one of these, Disney's Greatest Hits. Come on, all of you out there, you know that you sing along "The Little Mermaid," and goodness, "The Lion King," "Tarzan," "Mulan," all of that.

HUNTER: You might be surprised at Mandy's response to her own CDs.

MOORE: Bad. Not good. Better, but still quite embarrassing. We try and walk past the M's very quickly in the music store, we run past the M's.

HUNTER: The singer felt her first album, "So Real," was anything but. MOORE: Shortly after we released the first record, I was kind of like, you know what? Candy's a great place to start from, it's a great platform, but maybe that's not what I'm all about musically.

HUNTER: Mandy even has a disclaimer for album number one.

MOORE: All right, you can listen to the record but skip tracks 8, 12, the last half of 13, and maybe number 2 as well.

HUNTER: But now with more creative control and a live band behind her, Mandy's singing a different tune.

MOORE: It was a challenge to find out that I was someone different, that I wasn't the pigtails, and the tube-top and dancing on stage all the time. Now I can just say, you know what, go ahead, you can listen to the whole record and maybe it's not your favorite type of music, but I stand behind it. I'm proud of it.

HUNTER: Lauren Hunter, CNN entertainment news, Hollywood.

MOORE: What's up, guys!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

IDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my gosh. Look at the face.

TUSH: I don't know if I can do that face again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the guy right here.

TUSH: You got my mug shot.

We learned how to say open Oprah, now learn Iyanla, TV's newest talk show host.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "NYPD BLUE")

HENRY SIMMONS, "BALDWIN JONES": How about we start over, Derek? Johnnie D..

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Johnnie D., what?

SIMMONS: Lying to a cop when a cop knows the truth, it is an insult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUSH: This is Henry Simmons' third series as Detective Baldwin Jones.

SIMMONS: Third season. We're on the third series.

TUSH: Third season, thank you. You caught that. Anyway, what's happenings with him this year? SIMMONS: Well, right now I am just sweating bullets in New York where it is over 100 degrees. It is killing me.

TUSH: You guys picked the best week to come here, didn't you.

SIMMONS: Yes, we certainly did. But, this year it's still early in the season. But, what I hope we can look forward to is progression of the relationship with Garcelle Beauvais' character.

That's what I hope happens, because when they do that there are more dimensions. You get to see more dimensions with my character and her characters. Outside of the squad you get to see what our lives are like.

TUSH: I'm going to let you go into the shade.

SIMMONS: OK.

TUSH: In fact, I am going to go with you.

SIMMONS: All right, let's go.

TUSH: Who are we are going to meet now? Iyanla. Is that how -- How do you say it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Iyanla.

TUSH: Iyanla Vanzant, she has a new talk show. She was discovered by Oprah. We didn't know how to say her name when she first started either.

OK, Henry, thank you.

SIMMONS: All right, thank you.

TUSH: It's good to see you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: The name is -- the name is Iyanla.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JODI ROSS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The name may be new to you, but Iyanla Vanzant is a best-selling author and motivational speaker with a loyal following of millions.

(on camera): Have your fans been wanting you to do a TV show?

IYANLA VANZANT, MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER: I sure hope so.

(LAUGHTER)

VANZANT: I hope they've been waiting, and I hope they're happy when it comes to them.

(LAUGHTER)

VANZANT: Yes, I think -- I don't think "my fans." I think people are ready for a different kind of television, the kind of television that honors the viewer's time, that honors the viewer's interests and that sometimes asks tough questions.

ROSS (voice-over): Tough questions come from tough times, and 47-year-old Iyanla's had her share, from a difficult childhood, to single parenthood at 16 and mother of three by 21. After walking out of her second abusive marriage, Iyanla became a lawyer and turned her life around.

(on camera): Do you think your life experiences have made you sort of an expert on life?

VANZANT: Oh, no. I'm not an expert on life.

(LAUGHTER)

VANZANT: Absolutely not. Oh, you should see me on a bad day. It's quite frightening.

(LAUGHTER)

ROSS: So then what is this ability that you have to help people? Because you do.

VANZANT: Tell the truth. I tell the truth. I've learned to tell the truth, because my life was built on a foundation of lies. So truth, honesty, really just looking at things and calling it the way it is very important to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA WALTERS, HOST, "THE VIEW": I had this idea for a show...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSS (voice-over): The truth is, it was Iyanla's appearance on "The View" that got her two things: a regular spot on "Oprah" and the attention of Barbara Walters, who now serves as her executive producer.

WALTERS: Who the people are that she can play with.

VANZANT: She said, "If you fumble or you stumble in the prompter, you don't have to stop, you can rehabilitate it. Just say, 'Oh my God, I'm sorry. My mouth is not working, I mispronounced your name -- what is it?'" I would never have thought to say that.

ROSS (voice-over): Iyanla will incorporate her best-known "In the Meantime" books into regular segments on her show, and if the inevitable comparisons to Oprah come, she says, bring them on.

VANZANT: This woman is a billionaire. Compare me, please, because maybe it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

ROSS: A prediction Iyanla is banking on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANZANT: You've got the power

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSS: Jodi Ross, CNN Entertainment News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUSH: Dennis Franz, I want to thank you for having us come by and visit you on this day.

FRANZ: I am glad you did. Come out and sweat off a few pound with us today.

TUSH: We don't want to give away what's happening in the new episode, but I see you are here by yourself today. I'll leave it at that.

FRANZ: I'm actually not.

TUSH: You're out here with the stars, the other cast members and a new cast member.

FRANZ: Yes, yes. And a new cast member. And yes, we are not going to give away any secrets, but it is pretty hard to keep secrets nowadays in this business.

TUSH: That's because of guys like us.

FRANZ: That's right.

TUSH: We blow the whole thing.

FRANZ: But it's compelling writing and interesting story lines once again.

TUSH: It's never let down in now nine seasons.

FRANZ: Thank you.

TUSH: Thank you, Dennis Franz.

We are going to leave you guys back in the heat.

FRANZ: All right.

TUSH: Let me ask you one fast question, then I'm going to say goodbye to everybody out there. I noticed you got to that scene where you drive the car up.

TUSH: They don't let you drive the car back? FRANZ: Well I could, if I chose to, but then I'd be putting a couple of other guys out of work. So it is nice for them to have that back-up job.

TUSH: All right, we'll see you next time. Dennis, thank you so much.

(MUSIC)

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