Transcript of Charlie Sheen interview

2006-03-25

Richard Moore

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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/23/sbt.01.html

SHOWBIZ TONIGHT

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

A.J. HAMMER, CO-HOST: New information about the death of
Princess Diana. I'm

A.J. Hammer in New York.

ANDERSON, CO-HOST: I'm Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. And a
look at a workplace phenomenon, the office spouse. TV's only
live entertainment news show starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAMMER (voice-over): On SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, Charlie Sheen
speaks out on a controversial theory that the government
covered up what really happened on 9/11.

CHARLIE SHEEN, ACTOR: Taking over four commercial airliners
and hitting 75 percent of their targets. That feels like a
conspiracy theory.

HAMMER: Tonight, we dig even deeper. The host of the radio
show on which Sheen leveled his startling allegations joins
us live right here on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. Plus, the
overwhelming response from you, the viewers.

Rebuilding communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Tonight, how a TV reality show is going in to fix what some
say the government could not.

HARRY CONNICK JR., SINGER/ACTOR: I'm Harry Connick Jr. If it
happened today, it's on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAMMER: Hello, I'm A.J. Hammer, live in New York City.

ANDERSON: And I'm Brooke Anderson, live in Hollywood.

A.J., it's been incredible. Pretty hard to believe,
actually, the response we got today to the incredible story
SHOWBIZ TONIGHT broke last night. Actor Charlie Sheen's
startling claims that the government may be covering up what
really happened on September 11.

HAMMER: So many e-mails coming in. We've been really
overwhelmed today. Between the e-mails, the blogs, the web
sites, everybody is writing and talking about it.

Charlie Sheen made the comments during a hard-to-believe
interview on a radio show. And don't move because in just a
moment the host of the radio show, the guy who actually
spoke with Sheen, is going to join me live here on SHOWBIZ
TONIGHT. But first let's get you up to speed on the latest
developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHEEN: The more you look at stuff, especially specific
incidents, specific events, in or around the fateful day, it
just-- it just raises a lot of questions.

HAMMER: The questions Charlie Sheen is raising about the
9/11 attacks are raising a lot of eyebrows. Our e-mail inbox
immediately started to overflow. And the coverage on SHOWBIZ
TONIGHT is getting a lot of attention.

The web site 9/11 Blogger calls SHOWBIZ TONIGHT's coverage,
quote, "The first time a major news station has covered 9/11
questions in any reasonable format."

It all started with a radio interview Sheen gave to GCN
Radio Network host Alex Jones, a cult hero of sorts to 9/11
conspiracy theorists. During the interview, Sheen made clear
that he backs Jones' views.

SHEEN: We're not the conspiracy theorists on this particular
issue. It seems to me like, you know, 19 amateurs with box
cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting 75
percent of their targets, that feels like a conspiracy
theory.

HAMMER: Sheen also made another shocking suggestion: that we
may not know the full story about the collapse of the World
Trade Center.

SHEEN: I have a hard time believing that a fireball traveled
down the elevator over 110 feet and still had the explosive
energy to destroy the lobby like it was described.

I said, "Hey, call me insane. But did it sort of look like
those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?"

If I was your age, I could only dream about my parents
splitting up.

HAMMER: As the star of the sitcom "Two and a Half Men,"
Sheen is seen weekly by about 10 million people. And many of
them may end up paying attention to his controversial
comments about 9/11.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAMMER: As I mentioned the radio host who interviewed Sheen
is Alex Jones of the Genesis Communications Network. Alex
joins me live from Austin, Texas, to talk about Sheen's
riveting comments.

Alex, as I mentioned, the response that we got from doing
this story last night absolutely shocking. So I want to know
how it actually all came about. How did the interview with
Charlie Sheen actually happen? Did you guys reach out to
him? Did he call you? What was the deal?

ALEX JONES, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, just to make
something clear, Mr. Sheen has amazing courage to do what
he's done. And he contacted me. He's been watching my
documentaries for years. He's one of the most informed
people that I've talked to in Hollywood on this subject.

Listen, for years Hollywood's been on fire with people
knowing the truth about 9/11. And I was the first to expose
9/11 on the day. In fact two months before I had intel that
elements of the military industrial complex were going to
carry out the attack. I said they'll use bin Laden, the
known CIS. That is their patsy to take the blame for
attacking the towers.

So Mr. Sheen is only exceptional in that he has courage in
going public. Courage that no one else in Hollywood had.

I mean, here's a CNN poll from Anderson Cooper a year and a
half ago where they said is the government covering up 9/11?
Could they be involved? Ninety percent when the poll closed
on CNN said this.

So listen I have my own syndicated show. I've done 4,000
radio interviews in the last 4 1/2 years. Almost no one
calls in and disagrees now. We have the majority view and we
have the evidence.

And bottom line, there are declassified U.S. government
documents like Operation Northwoods that ABC News reported
on back in 2000. Operation Northwoods. Google it.

And in there the U.S. government -- an element of it -- said
we want to hi-jack jets by remote control, crash them and
blame it on the Soviet Union in Cuba. Now that was decades
ago. This is why we believe this.

Then you look at the official story. The firefighters, the
police, hundreds of them saying there were bomb in the
buildings. They were told to shut up. You look at building
seven, detonators going off. You can see the explosion.

HAMMER: And Alex, a lot of this is what Charlie Sheen was
covering. I'm actually just curious. Did he reach out to you
guys? Is he the one who put the call into you and how he
wound up on your show?

JONES: Sure. Sure. He called me a few weeks ago and said
that -- said that he loves this country. He has nothing to
gain from this. In fact it's dangerous for him to do.

HAMMER: Sure, sure.

JONES: He said, "I love this country and my kids so much
that I'm going to do this, Alex."

And I said, "God bless you" because now it makes for other
Hollywood people who've got major pull who know the truth to
start going public.

HAMMER: And dangerous indeed to do. Because a lot of what he
said makes a lot of people sort of sit back and say, "Whoa,
I don't know about that."

And what's really important here. You may not agree with
everything that Charlie Sheen had to say. I personally think
it's a good thing that he did go on your show, so he could
go public with his point of view. Because it does get people
talking.

You know, there are a lot of people who may look at this,
however, and say there just goes another Hollywood nut job
shooting off his mouth.

JONES: Listen -- listen...

HAMMER: I imagine that you think, though, having a Hollywood
actor on your side is a good thing and, as you mention, may
bring some more people to the table talking about this.

JONES: Sure, sure. If you knew some of the Hollywood names
that are aware of 9/11. We're talking some of the biggest
people.

HAMMER: Any you can tell us about that you've been in
contact with?

JONES: No, I can't. Because -- because people in Hollywood
contact me because I have integrity, and I've been in a few
films and they know me. And they know I keep my mouth shut.

You know, it was kind of like back in high school. I learned
to keep my mouth shut about girls I was dating and all the
girls started liking you.

Look, it's really simple. Let's understand this, OK?
Nine-eleven was an inside job. It was a self-inflicted
wound. And -- and what Charlie Sheen is doing is just
amazing, and he can only be commended for it. And all he's
calling for is a real investigation.

I go further at InfoWars.com and PrisonPlanet.com. We lay
out how it happened and what took place.

And it's not just Charlie Sheen I've interviewed. CNN has
interviewed some of these people, the only network that I've
seen doing it. You guys have interviewed. There have been
physics professors that have gone public. There have been
the heads of mining colleges that have gone public.

George Bush Sr.'s top CIA adviser who briefed him and Ronald
Reagan, one of the highest little guys at the CIA, says our
government is clearly involved in carrying out terror to
blame it on foreign enemies.

Did you know that on CIA.gov they admit that they carried
out terror attacks in 1953 to blame it on Mohammed Mozadek
(ph) in Iran as a pretext to overthrow Iran?

HAMMER: Alex -- I'm going to rein -- all good stuff and all
stuff that needs to be talked about. But I'm going to rein
you back in here to the topic at hand.

JONES: Sure.

HAMMER: One thing that I think is interesting. You know, as
I mentioned we've gotten this overwhelming response. The
e-mail has not stopped coming in. Most of the e-mail I've
been getting has been supporting the fact that we are
bringing attention to something that is rarely talked about
in mainstream media.

JONES: Yes, sir. You have courage. No one else has done what
you're doing.

HAMMER: And I appreciate you saying that. So the question is
why? Why have so many of the major media outlets not talked
about these alternative theories that exist behind 9/11? Why
is that?

JONES: Mark Twain said that, "In the beginning a patriot is
a scarce man, hated and feared and scorned. But in time when
his cause succeeds, the timid join him, because then it
costs nothing to be patriot."

A lot of people don't have the courage that you have, A.J. A
lot of people don't have the courage of Charlie Sheen. They
don't have the courage of the German defense minister, Andre
Van Bulow (ph), who two years ago went public...

HAMMER: What do you think is afraid of that's going to
happen to them?

JONES: They're afraid of being beaten up by the hordes of
neocon intimidators who try to go out there with their
Gestapo Nazi tactics to try to bludgeon everybody with their
blogs and radio shows to shut up.

But they've lost, pal, because people have learned that
they're a bunch of liars. They lied about WMDs. They lied
about everything. And now their credibility is totally
blown.

The new White House memo just came out where Bush is talking
about staging the shoot down of American planes to get -- to
blame it on Saddam. That's public. That's admitted.

HAMMER: Let's talk about some public documents. Because
obviously experts, government commissions, countless
officials have all come out and supported what is the
official line.

JONES: Yes, they call it Henry Kissinger independent.

HAMMER: Right. Well, we know that those documents are out
there and that people are supporting them. So I guess what
some people watching us tonight may be thinking is, well,
why the heck should I be listening to Charlie Sheen or to
Alex Jones and his web site on this matter?

JONES: They shouldn't. They shouldn't. They shouldn't
believe me. They shouldn't believe you. They shouldn't
believe George Bush. They shouldn't believe the Keane
Commission where almost the entire commission has conflicts
of interest and was appointed by Bush. You've got to love
this. He appoints his own commission, and then the media
calls it independent.

Did you know that the "9/11 Whitewash Commission" claims
there were no columns in tower one and two when they had 47
of the biggest columns in the world up until that time? They
won't say why building seven had blast points going off down
the side.

HAMMER: Well, Alex -- Alex, I'm afraid I've got to cut you
off because we're out of time. But as I said, it's sparking
debate. It's getting people talking. And I appreciate you
help bringing it up.

JONES: Thank you. Go to InfoWars.com, sir. Find out the
truth at PrisonPlanet.com.

HAMMER: Alex Jones, live from Austin.

And as I mentioned we've gotten so many e-mails on the
subject. We'll read what some of you have to say coming up a
bit later in the show.

Nine eleven also happens to be the subject of a new movie
that's coming out in theaters soon. And SHOWBIZ TONIGHT has
your first look at "United 93." That's coming up in a bit in
the "SHOWBIZ Showcase."

ANDERSON: Plus, rebuilding communities devastated by
Hurricane Katrina. Tonight how a TV reality show is going in
to fix what some say the government could not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to get the door for you, like I
always do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: Office spouses. Until desks do us part. In sickness
and in health plans. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT investigates the
phenomenon that's all the buzz in the media. Is it OK to
have a real wife and a work wife?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAMMER: Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. I am A.J. Hammer.
You are watching TV's only live entertainment news show.

We have gotten a tremendous response to the story that we
brought you on Charlie Sheen's comments about 9/11. We do
want to keep hearing from you. It is our SHOWBIZ TONIGHT
question of the day. Charlie Sheen speaks out. Do you agree
there is a government cover-up of 9/11?

Let's see the votes so far: 65 percent of you say yes; 35
percent of you say no, you don't.

A couple of the e-mails we've received include one from
Dylan in Texas, who writes, "There are so many unanswered
questions, and all attempts at an investigation have been
stonewalled by the government."

We also heard from Mike in Hawaii, who writes, "How could
any sane person believe that our government attacked our own
people?"

Do keep voting at CNN.com/SHOWBIZTONIGHT. You want to e-mail
us more of your thoughts, we want to hear from you at
•••@••.•••. Those e-mails coming up later in the
show.

ANDERSON: In tonight's "SHOWBIZ Showcase" we've got your
first look at the movie "United 93." The film is a real-time
account of what happened on the fourth plane to be hijacked
on September 11.

Heroic passengers fought back against the terrorists and
spared what might have been the intended target, the White
House. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome aboard United Flight 93. We're
flying to San Francisco.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Runway is clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Runway clear for take-off.

United 93. United 93. United 93.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Honey, it's me. My flight has been
hi-jacked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two planes into the World Trade Center.
We have to shoot that thing down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God. I think we're heading to
Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to do something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're running out of time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to do something stupid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a bunch of us here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take him down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to take back the cockpit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to go. They're about to storm
the cockpit. I love you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: "United 93" will be in theaters next month.

HAMMER: So just when you thought the case might have been
closed on Princess Diana's fatal car crash, there are some
surprising new revelations and shocking questions
surrounding her death. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT now goes around the
world to get you the very latest.

CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney is in London -- Fionnuala.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A.J., it has been
almost nine years since Princess Diana was killed. But that
doesn't stop the public fascination with the circumstances
surrounding her death.

In recent months, long standing questions are emerging: did
Buckingham Palace want Diana dead? Was she pregnant at the
time of her death? And just what is the deal with the man
driving the car that killed Diana and boyfriend Dodi
al-Fayed?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY (voice-over): Conflicting reports, stray plot lines,
new questions. What really happened the night of Princess
Diana's death?

BETSY GLEICK, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: There have been some leaks
from the investigation.

SWEENEY: "People" magazine has shocking new evidence about
why, almost nine years after the fatal crash, British
authorities still can't close their case.

GLEICK: A lot of people thought that Diana's death had been
settled long ago. But in fact there are some genuine
questions about the circumstances surrounding it.

SWEENEY: Many conspiracies revolve around Henri Paul, the
chauffeur on that fateful night. He, too, died in the car
crash that killed Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi al-Fayed.
French officials say he was drunk.

But now...

GLEICK: It is now unclear. The French had come back and
said, well, actually there may have been some confusion and
some sort of mistake with the blood tests.

SWEENEY: What we do know, Paul was an informant for French
intelligence.

GLEICK: He seems to have been a French secret agent of some
kind, and he had extra money in his account. He had received
a payment of approximately $120,000 in the week or so before
Diana's death. And it's unclear at this point where that
money came from.

SWEENEY: Conspiracy theorists say it came from a plot to
kill the princess, a directive from Buckingham Palace.

GLEICK: Well, the one person who's saying that the palace
orchestrated it is Dodi al-Fayed's father, Mohammed
al-Fayed, the sort of outspoken owner of Harrod's, a
businessman. And he has been claiming all along that this
was murder, not an accident.

He's the one who is fanning the flame. But now, people from
the side of the investigation have come out and said it
turns out that this is a far more complex matter than we had
originally thought.

SWEENEY: And the reason behind this so-called plot, an
impending engagement.

GLEICK: One of the reasons that this controversy continued
is because Mohammed al-Fayed believed that the palace did
not want Diana to have anything to do with a Muslim.

SWEENEY: "People" magazine says Dodi had bought a $200,000
ring just before the pair died.

Another lingering mystery, Diana's body was partially
embalmed just hours after she died and before a French
autopsy could be done. Some people think that was done to
throw off signs Diana was pregnant with Dodi's child.

GLEICK: The investigators are trying to determine who gave
the order for that embalming? However, other medical experts
that say embalmed, not embalmed, she was not pregnant.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: Well, here in London we're expecting the final
British report on the crash to come out next month. It's
said to dismiss these conspiracy theories, and simply put,
the report will reportedly say there was no foul play.

SHOWBIZ TONIGHT will be on top of the controversy which will
no doubt arise from it. A.J., back to you in New York.

HAMMER: And conspiracy theories will no doubt live on.
Thanks very much, Fionnuala. CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney,
joining us from London for SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

Well, when you think of MTV and spring break, charity work
is probably not what springs to mind. But MTV's Gideon Yago
is going to be joining me live in a few moments to tell us
how it's not all about beer and bikinis this year for some
spring breakers.

ANDERSON: Plus, rebuilding communities devastated by
Hurricane Katrina. Tonight, how a TV reality show is going
in to fix what some say the government could not.

HAMMER: And do you have an office spouse in your office
space? Lots of people do these days. We're going to take a
look at relationships forged around the conference table
rather than the dinner table. That's coming up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And dissolve. Let's get Gideon Yago from
MTV stated. Master. Roll the tape and then black.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Tomorrow on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, Jared Leto, actor,
front man of his own band. Now a role that's been 25 years
in the making. He's playing Mark David Chapman, the man who
killed John Lennon. We'll ask him about the amazing
transformation he underwent for that role. That is tomorrow
on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

HAMMER: Well, it's here: spring break season, and for
legions of college students across the country, that means
beaches, beer, tequila shots and of course, lots of
unsupervised partying.

Well, now a new MTV series called "The Amazing Break". It's
showcasing how some students decided to spend their time off
working to help rebuild communities and improve the lives of
those in need.

Joining us live, MTV News reporter Gideon Yago.

Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

GIDEON YAGO, MTV NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks very much.

HAMMER: I think of the -- you know, the beer guzzling and
the partying going on.

YAGO: Right. Funnels and foam parties, students in
decadence.

HAMMER: But not in this particular documentary. In fact you
have some students who went to South Africa. Why?

YAGO: Well, these were students from San Diego State who had
done a drive to raise money and supplies for an orphanage
right outside of Johannesburg. And they got a chance,
because the amount of stuff that they raised, to actually
fly and deliver this stuff themselves and take a look at
some of the living conditions and some of the effects of
AIDS, AIDS and poverty that have really ravaged that
country.

So you know, that's just one of five very interesting
alternative spring breaks that we showcase in our program.

HAMMER: The Gulf Coast another place. That was a
destination. You know, we saw, finally, with Fat Tuesday and
with the Mardi Gras, we saw the partying going on. But we
have students there also doing good.

YAGO: Absolutely. You know, and I think that's one of the
things, that you look at Katrina. And especially in the last
year with all of the natural disasters, with the tsunami
and, obviously, with what hit the Gulf Coast. And it had a
galvanizing effect on campuses across the country. And we
felt that that deserved recognition. And that deserved
support.

So we paired up with the United Way and Home Depot and
FedEx. We sent 100 kids down there to actually do work in
Biloxi. And you know, as you can probably see with some of
the footage that's being rolled right now, you know, they
had an incredible week.

HAMMER: What types of things were they -- I mean they were
getting in down and dirty, getting their hands dirty.

YAGO: You know, demolition; cleaning houses for, you know,
to get sprayed for mold; doing roof repair; just lifting
debris. I mean, we forget that, you know, there's still so
much damage. All the way on that belt from Pensacola all the
way, you know, past the lower Ninth Ward. That, you know,
with three months away towards the next hurricane season,
just needs to get out, get out somehow.

HAMMER: You mention the fact that, you know, people seeing
all of this going on in the Gulf Coast on television
galvanized the community to help out. Is that really what
motivated a lot of these kids to get involved to get down
there instead of hitting the beach?

YAGO: You know, I think so. I mean you -- look, you're going
to have body shots and banana hammocks galore going on all
throughout the U.S. during spring breaks. But you know, more
and more there's an increasing number of kids that
volunteer. And, you know, we wanted to give that a platform.

HAMMER: I know the very first time I had the opportunity to
volunteer, I did it not so much because, oh, I thought it is
going to effect my life in some drastic way. It just seemed
like a cool thing to do. It radically changed my life. Do
you see a lot of that happening with these kids?

YAGO: I think you do. And it's really funny that, you know,
we were watching these things go through the edit. We were
like wow, how many times do you have somebody say that this
was a life-changing experience? Or this was, you know,
amazing and it changed my outlook on things.

But you actually see what these -- you know, these young
volunteers go through. And seeing the stuff firsthand,
whether it's the damage in, you know, in the Gulf Coast or
helping out in a homeless shelter or going to South Africa
or doing equality rides and how it affects them.

HAMMER: You watch this transformation.

YAGO: Yes. And we hope that in the future more people might
make that decision that we can facilitate.

HAMMER: Thanks very much for sharing this with us.

YAGO: Thank you for having me on.

HAMMER: Gideon Yago from MTV.

And you can catch "The Amazing Break" this Saturday on MTV.

ANDERSON: Spring breakers aren't the only ones lending their
time for a good cause. Coming up, how a TV reality show is
helping Katrina- devastated communities rebuild.

ANDERSON: Plus a reality check for the reality show that
Americans love. Coming up, a revealing new look at the
"American Idol" judges.

HAMMER: And when you see your co-workers more than your
family, it's bound to happen. And SHOWBIZ TONIGHT takes a
look at the phenomenon of office spouses. That's coming up.
Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAMMER: Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. It is 31 minutes
past the hour. I'm A.J. Hammer in New York.

ANDERSON: And I'm Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. And you're
watching TV's only live entertainment news show.

HAMMER: Well, Brooke, one of America's favorite reality
shows that is well-known for doing good things for people
one house at a time is now getting set to showcase how
they're doing good things down in the Gulf Coast, in the
devastated region, one community at a time. I will speak
with one of the stars of that show, find out exactly what
they're up to, coming up in just a couple of minutes.

ANDERSON: It's heart-warming to watch that.

Another reality show garnering still unbelievable ratings,
"American Idol," A.J. But sometimes the judges put on a
bigger show than the contestants. And coming up in just a
few minute, we will have an inside look at Paula, Simon,
Randy and also host Ryan Seacrest.

But first, home may be where the heart is, but for lots of
people, it's their co-workers, not their families, who get
the majority of their time. And that has led one magazine to
look into the growing phenomenon of the office spouse.
Here's CNN's Rusty Dornin for SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LORRAINE WILDERMAN, "OFFICE SPOUSE": I'm hungry. I want to
eat.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They like the
same things...

MIKE O'REAR, "OFFICE SPOUSE": Let's go to the Chinese
restaurant.

WILDERMAN: OK!

DORNIN: ... like where to eat...

M. O'REAR: Let me get the door for you, like I always do.

WILDERMAN: Thank you.

DORNIN: Mike and Lorraine have built a close relationship on
banter.

WILDERMAN: Mikey, Mikey, Mikey, you know the routine. You've
got to let the teabags set in there for a while.

DORNIN: A longtime married couple out for lunch? Hardly. How
about co-workers? Mike O'Rear and Lorraine Wilderman met
when she joined the faculty at Chattahoochee Technical
College in Georgia. Over eight years, they've become part of
a new phenomenon: office spouses.

WILDERMAN: Mike has a lot of the same traits as my husband
does. And when I'm at work, it's like, "Where's Mike? Help,
I need something."

DORNIN: In a national survey by the research company Vault,
Inc., 32 percent of workers say they have an office spouse.
Advertising executive Tina Chadwick recently wrote a
magazine article defining this new kind of relationship.

TINA CHADWICK, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, MATCH, INC.: When you get
particularly close to someone and in terms click with them,
that starts to develop a spouse relationship, where you rely
on them, you ask for their advice.

WILDERMAN: Mike, do you have a pocket knife or a pair of
scissors?

M. O'REAR: No, I got some scissors.

WILDERMAN: Can you open that for me?

CHADWICK: There's a synergy that develops that can be quite
energetic, you know, and quite enlivening, rather than just
the drudgery of work.

WILDERMAN: You can hand these two at a time, if you want.

M. O'REAR: My other hand's busy.

WILDERMAN: Put your water down, and hand me some, or we're
going to be here until the cows come in.

M. O'REAR: Yes, ma'am.

DORNIN: As they grew closer over the years, Mike and
Lorraine started relying on each other for much more than
business.

WILDERMAN: If he's even had a bad weekend or something's
happened to one of his grandchildren, I can almost tell by
the expression on his face.

M. O'REAR: There's always problems you're going to have.
That's just part of life. But if you have someone you can
share it with, it makes it a little bit better.

DORNIN: Tina Chadwick says she's had several office spouses
over the years. Her colleagues, Jason Turner (ph) and Jeff
Stewart (ph), say that long hours and business trips with
co-workers make it part of modern life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, they become your best friends,
basically, because you're spending, you know, every day with
them. And you're with them longer than you're with, like,
your wife, our your spouse, or whoever. So, yes, it kind of
-- a line could possibly get crossed, mentally, but not
really physically.

DORNIN: But whether it's 9:00 to 5:00 or 9:00 to midnight,
if things begin to border on the inappropriate, business
experts say, "Step back."

CHADWICK: You have to decide, "OK, I'm at my boundary with
this person, and I need to kind of start drawing that line
in what I say and what I divulge."

DORNIN (on camera): How important is it to take your
relationship home and tell your spouse about this other
person?

M. O'REAR: I tell Dianne everything. If you don't lie, you
don't have to remember what you told, so you don't get
caught.

DORNIN (voice-over): Mike is open, not only with his wife.
He likes to shock people by introducing his "wives."

M. O'REAR: This is my first wife, Dianne...

(LAUGHTER)

... and this Lorraine Wilderman, my office spouse.

JESSICA NETTLES, "OFFICE SPOUSE": We don't know which one I
am, two or three.

M. O'REAR: And this is Jessica Nettles, my second office
wife.

DORNIN: Oh, yes, there can be multiple office spouses.
Jessica Nettles is Mike's other "other woman." He befriended
her four years ago when she was new to the college.

NETTLES: I can't finish his sentences yet; I haven't know
him that long. But I can walk by on the phone and know what
he's thinking.

DORNIN: Business management expert Chris Riordan says close
relationships in the workplace can make people happier on
the job, but she doesn't like the word "spouse."

CHRIS RIORDAN, NEELEY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, TEXAS: It's a sexy
term, you know, even in the idea of having a spouse in a
work environment, but...

DORNIN (on camera): But that's a negative?

RIORDAN: It is. It's absolutely a negative. Friendships are
very powerful, and you don't want to the diminish the power
of those friendships by coining it or calling it an office
spouse.

DORNIN (voice-over): And there is always the very real
danger of an office relationship going too far.

RIORDAN: If you engage in flirting-type behavior, that's
going to make other people uncomfortable. If you become so
interdependent that you're not necessarily thinking on your
own, if you're making decisions because of the other person
rather than for yourself, those might be danger signs.

DORNIN (on camera): Could you ever see a relationship like
this, though, maybe negatively affecting people in an
office?

M. O'REAR: I guess, if it crossed the line, it probably
could.

DORNIN: But what is crossing the line?

M. O'REAR: I don't know; I've never been there.

(LAUGHTER)

DORNIN (voice-over): In fact, these three don't even
socialize outside the office. And Mike's real wife, Dianne
O'Rear, doesn't worry about her husband's professional
polygamy.

DIANNE O'REAR, WIFE OF AN "OFFICE SPOUSE": A spouse is
someone you share things with, you discuss things with, and
you share a bond with. And there's a bond they have that
does not infringe on what Michael and I have.

DORNIN: This daytime husband and his office wives appear to
have found the right balance.

WILDERMAN: You asked him if you could talk about your
haircut.

NETTLES: And you said no.

M. O'REAR: And I assumed yes.

WILDERMAN: But we both said no.

M. O'REAR: That means yes.

(LAUGHTER)

DORNIN: Comfortable, familiar, but within very well-defined
limits.

NETTLES: OK. I'll see you there. Bye.

M. O'REAR: I'll see you then. Bye.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Professional polygamy, interesting way to phrase
it. That was CNN's Rusty Dornin for SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

HAMMER: Well, tonight a rare and revealing look at TV's most
watched show, "American Idol." Now, aside from the thrill of
seeing which contestants is going to be made into an instant
star, the show has become super-popular because of its
judges.

Randy, of course, the energetic guy that always says, "Yo,
dawg." Paula, of course, the former pop star who brings that
sugary sweet balance to the program. And then, of course,
crusty, old Simon, the blunt Brit.

Well, the new issue of "Rolling Stone" magazine that you're
seeing right here has an inside look at the trio and host
Ryan Seacrest. Joining us live here in New York to spill the
beans, senior editor from "Rolling Stone," Nathan Brackett.

So, Nathan, I appreciate you coming in here...

NATHAN BRACKETT, SENIOR EDITOR, "ROLLING STONE": Good to be
here.

HAMMER: ... to talk about this with us. We see the very
public personas of Randy, Simon and Paula every week. Thirty
million of us were tuning in to see them, and that's the bit
that we get on TV. But you guys got to dig into their
personal side. What private part of their lives would really
shock us?

BRACKETT: Well, I think we went into this thinking, well,
these guys must be -- they're professionals, right? This
must be kind of an act. They must kind of like each other.

The fact is, it looks they really don't. That was a big
revelation. They have a long history of tension on the set.
Simon Cowell just, in real life, doesn't seem like that nice
a person. He doesn't tell his girlfriend that he loves him.
He started calling his mom names when he was, like, three
years old. I think in one part of the story he says that he
told his mom that she looked like a poodle when he was
three.

HAMMER: He was just a kid.

BRACKETT: Yes, he was just a kid. He almost burned down his
parent's house once. So stuff like that.

HAMMER: Nice guy. So based on that, the drama that we're
seeing isn't drama for drama's sake. In fact, I remember at
the beginning of this season, Simon actually stormed off
from the San Francisco auditions and apparently hired a jet
to fly back to L.A. because he was so unhappy and angry at
the rest of the judges.

BRACKETT: I mean, we can't be sure that they don't amplify
it a little bit...

HAMMER: Yes, play it up a little.

BRACKETT: ... but there seems to be some underlying tension,
which is the root of it.

HAMMER: OK, so let's talk about Simon. Let's talk about more
the fact that this is not really an act for him, there are a
lot of other aspects in his life. I mean, one of the
shocking revelations I thought was the fact that he may not
always wear underwear, but you guys...

BRACKETT: I try not to think about that, yes.

HAMMER: But it was in the article, but you guys really show
that this goes on in all aspects of his life, the sort of
rude and crude.

BRACKETT: Yes, he seems like just kind of a difficult
person. You know, he's had an interesting life. He used to
be the owner of this label called Fanfare. It was worth a
couple of million dollars in the early '80s, kind of made
some bad steps, lost all of his money. And now he's a very
wealthy man.

HAMMER: And speaking about the money, in the article,
"Rolling Stone" asks of Simon: What do you want more than
anything else in the world? And Cowell responds by saying,
"Money, as much money as I can get my hands on. It's as
simple as that." So what is this guy worth and what's he
making?

BRACKETT: Well, the writer, Eric Hedegaard, suspected that
he was probably worth in excess of $90 million. Simon
wouldn't give us a real answer. And he probably makes over
$25 million a year.

HAMMER: Well, a lot of people -- it uncovered in the
article, and I thought this was interesting. A lot of other
networks tried to hire him away to sort of put an end to the
juggernaut that is "American Idol."

BRACKETT: Yes, well, I mean, it just can't be overstated
what a juggernaut "American Idol" is now. I mean, it's kind
of like a throwback to the days where there were only three
networks and things would get these amazing 40 shares. I
mean it's one of the few things that, like, zillions and
zillions of people really tune into every night.

HAMMER: Well, it's a real interesting read with some great
insight, and I appreciate you stopping by, Nathan.

BRACKETT: Thanks.

HAMMER: Nathan Brackett, senior editor from "Rolling Stone."
You can grab your copy of "Rolling Stone" magazine on
newsstands now.

ANDERSON: The Heather Locklear-Richie Sambora divorce could
be getting ugly. We will explain why, next.

HAMMER: Plus, our inbox absolutely flooded with your e-mails
about Charlie Sheen, saying there's been a government
cover-up of what actually happened on 9/11. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT
reads your fired-up responses, coming up next.

Plus, we've also got this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feels like a ghost town. I mean,
there's nothing here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like a war zone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Tonight, bringing hope after the storm. SHOWBIZ
TONIGHT shows you how one TV reality show is fixing
Hurricane Katrina-devastated areas in ways some say the
government has not.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAMMER: Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. I'm A.J. Hammer in
New York. This is TV's only live entertainment news show.

We have been getting an overwhelming response to our SHOWBIZ
TONIGHT "Question of the Day." We've been asking: Charlie
Sheen speaks out: Do you agree there is a government
cover-up of 9/11?

Here's the vote so far: 67 percent of you say yes; 33
percent of you say no.

Some of the e-mails we've received includes one from
Jennifer in North Dakota. She writes, "Charlie Sheen has no
evidence, and it is a shame that celebs get their voice and
opinions heard because of their status."

We also heard from Dan. He lives in Kentucky. Danny says,
"God bless Charlie Sheen for standing up and speaking his
mind on what is the most devastating event to hit our
nation, 9/11."

We also heard from Chris in Ohio. Chris writes, "This is a
very important issue that must be brought into the
mainstream. It is our patriotic duty to make sure we find
out why and how 9/11 happened."

There is the address to keep voting, CNN.com/SHOWBIZTONIGHT.

ANDERSON: It is time now for tonight's "Hot Headlines." And
for that, we go to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT's Sibila Vargas, who is
joining us live here in Hollywood.

Hi, Sibila.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke.

Well, tonight Richie Sambora borrowing a line from Kanye
West's "Gold Digger" song. He says he wants pre-nup. SHOWBIZ
TONIGHT has learned that the Bon Jovi guitarist wants a
prenuptial agreement he signed with his wife, Heather
Locklear, quote, "enforced."

He's also seeking joint custody of the couple's 8-year-old
daughter. Locklear filed for divorce after 11 years last
month.

Well, your friendly neighborhood Spiderman is about to say,
"Hello, Cleveland." (INAUDIBLE) The greater Cleveland film
council says "Spiderman 3" will shoot exterior scenes in the
Ohio city next month. Cleveland beat out the Big Apple, New
York, where production costs are higher. It's doubtful,
though, that the movie stars, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten
Dunst, will be involved. Just a crew will be shooting.

And "60 Minutes" is heading online. CBS said today the
long-running TV news magazine will put segments up on the
Web portal, Yahoo. Starting this fall, "60 Minutes" will
stream content and offer exclusive video. Now, we wonder
what Andy Rooney, who still likes his typewriter, will think
about all that.

And those are tonight's "Hot Headlines."

ANDERSON: Sibila, Andy Rooney might not be too keen on using
that service. Thank you so much.

VARGAS: No, you know, he's always considered himself a
writer who has been on television. Now he'll be on the
Internet.

ANDERSON: That's right. Sibila Vargas, live here with me in
Hollywood. Thanks.

HAMMER: Well, tonight a popular TV reality show rebuilds
towns devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Normally, ABC's
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" remakes one deserving
family's home per episode. But after Katrina leveled the
Gulf Coast last summer, the designers and builders decided
it was more helpful to rebuild town infrastructure, like
medical clinics, firehouses, and movie theaters.

Well, I had the chance to sit down with Paul DiMeo. He's the
show's carpenter and one of the designers, and we chatted
about their show's amazing efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAMMER: You guys have been so helpful to so many for so
long. Now you have the chance to spend some time down on the
Gulf Coast. It's been seven months since the hurricanes.

PAUL DIMEO, DESIGNER, "EXTREME MAKEOVER": Yes.

HAMMER: Were you just shocked by what you saw?

DIMEO: Unbelievable, A.J. I mean, you get down there. And,
you know, I watched it on TV. You know, I watched the news
and saw it on the TV. But when...

HAMMER: Doesn't represent, though.

DIMEO: Not at all. I mean, we got off the bus, and it's just
mile after mile, just gone, just like somebody wiped their
hand right across and it's no longer there.

HAMMER: And any particular things that struck you, that
said, "You know, I couldn't have imagined it was this bad"?

DIMEO: Yes, one, no life at all, no bird life. You don't see
any animals at all. I mean, we saw some wild dogs running
around, but, for the most part, silence.

You know, it's like you're looking at a black-and-white
photograph, you know, and it was meant to be in color. So
it's just been -- it really opened my eyes to what was
happening down there.

And, you know, we came down. We would look at it. Right
after Katrina hit and Rita hit, we said, "Well, we got to
get down there. What are we going to do?"

So, you know, right away, you say, well, we're just a bunch
of guys who know how to build a home. You know, what are we
going to do down there? But we thought about it and said,
"You know what? Let's hit, you know, churches, firehouses,
schools, parks, that kind of thing, that a community then
could build itself around those."

HAMMER: So for this whole series, you're not building homes
and you're not helping specifically families that need your
help and communities at large with these other buildings?

DIMEO: Exactly, health clinic. Preston did a great memorial
there in Biloxi. I was in Sabine Pass doing a firehouse, a
great bunch of firemen who waited until the last hour to get
out, and they were the first ones back when they came back.

The little town of Sabine Pass was pretty much gone. So, you
know, it's hard for families to come back and kind of
rebuild, knowing that there's no paramedics or no one to
help them if they were in trouble, so...

HAMMER: You have to have some basic infrastructure.

DIMEO: Exactly.

HAMMER: And people probably would be shocked to learn a lot
of that still doesn't exist.

DIMEO: Still does not exist. I mean, the needs down there
are -- you know, you say to yourself, you know, "When will
it be back to normal?" And I don't know when; I just don't
know when.

I mean, the people have left. Some will never come back.
Some will come back. So it's a tough -- you know, here it is
right here in our own backyard. You know, the size of Great
Britain, that's what's gone, so it's big.

HAMMER: So you're down there working on, let's say, a
clinic. Of course, it's work that needs to get done. But at
any point during the project, are you saying to yourself or
maybe amongst each other saying, "OK, it's great that we're
doing this. But, you know, the government really should be
doing this"?

DIMEO: You know, a government of the people, so we are the
people. And that's who's doing the work. I mean, I met so
many volunteers down there, people from all over the
country, people from New York, New York firefighters that
have come down and helped out.

So, you know, I mean, we can do that. We can wash our hands
and say, "Hey, this is a government thing; let's let them do
it." But, you know, that's a real easy answer, you know? We
got to take the bull by its horns and go down and do what we
need to do to bring these people back home, and that's what
we're doing.

HAMMER: But was it still clear to you, though, through what
you saw, whether it was work you were personally engaged
with it or not, that this is something -- you know, the
government messed up here, and it's not getting done because
they didn't do the right thing?

DIMEO: Yes, I mean, there's certainly -- we can put blame in
a lot of places. Yes, I mean, I know that we can deploy
people very quickly. Why we can't get people out of the
Superdome, I can't figure that out.

But that's the way it happened. And we'll learn --
hopefully, we will learn from that. And in the future, you
know, we'll try to be ahead of the ballgame on that. I'm
sure no one knew the devastation that Katrina and Rita were
going to bring when they came through. So you know, now we
do. So if this were to ever happen again, well, then, yes,
then I'm pointing my finger.

HAMMER: You guys have had such great success over the few
years you've been on the air. This is another great success
story. What does it come down to for you, as why this show
strikes such a chord with people?

DIMEO: Boy, you know, it's funny, because being in it for --
now we're going into our fourth season. And I just think
it's a need of -- how can helping others be entertaining?

And how can it be -- I think we all have that need. We want
to do that. We want to lend a hand out to our neighbor. We
want to help out the person who's down and bring them up.

And, you know, all we're doing is sharing the events of a
week with the viewers at home, and it shows. I think it
shows how genuine we are, and what we want, and how the
community rises with us to do this. It's one of the greatest
experiences of my life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAMMER: They should be very proud of themselves. The
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," after the storm four-part
series begins tonight on ABC. Paul also wants to let you
know about a health campaign that he's working on. You can
learn more about that at GoalStandard.com.

SHOWBIZ TONIGHT will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: It is time now for a SHOWBIZ TONIGHT birthday
shoutout, and this is where we give fans a chance to wish
their favorite stars a happy birthday. Tonight, we're
sending one out to singer Chaka Khan. You remember the '80s
song, "I Feel For You"? Well, Chaka is celebrating her 53rd
birthday today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, this is Michael Zurich (ph) in New
York. And I just want to wish Chaka Khan a happy, rockin',
happy birthday. You're a terrific singer. I enjoy your work,
and I wish you all the best, and many, many happy returns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: Let out a long sigh, if you want to. Tomorrow is
Friday. And to find out what's coming up on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT,
here comes your "Showbiz Marquee."

Tomorrow, we will take an inside look at "Inside Man" star
Jodie Foster. The Oscar-winner dishes with SHOWBIZ TONIGHT
about her new movie, motherhood and the secrets behind her
four decades of success. It's Jodie Foster in the interview
you'll see only on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

Also tomorrow, Jared Leto, versatile actor, frontman of his
very own rock band, and now he's in a role that's 25 years
in the making. Jared Leto is going to be playing Mark David
Chapman, the guy that shot and killed John Lennon. We'll ask
him about the amazing transformation he underwent for that
role, tomorrow on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

And that is it for SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. Thanks for watching. I'm
A.J. Hammer in New York.

ANDERSON: I'm Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. Stay tuned for
the latest from CNN Headline News. Good night, everybody.

END
-- 

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