>> and only in america, best hair-do wins. donny deutch tonight. we're starting right now. good evening. i'm donny deutch. the big story tonight, i am guest hosting for piers while he's on assignment. first up, my one-on-one with michael j. fox on life, live because and keeping live great. and my interview with meredith vieria and what she calls a war on women. and what she thinks this video. >> planned parenthood, i'm going to get rid of that. planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. we're going to get rid of that. >> first up, michael j. fox. how are you, sir? >> good to see you, donny. >> first off, how you feeling? >> i feel good. it's a beautiful day outside and that actually helps me. and do i better when the weather's good. and i feel great. >> good. when you see michael j. fox and we hear parkinson's. take me through a day. take me through what's bad about the day. we see you on the camera, we see you as a crusader. you go home, you have your four kid, you have your wife. take me through your day. >> 99% of the day is the same as everyone else's day. you get up in the morning, have breakfast, see your kids to school, when tracy doesn't let me sleep in. fundamentally my day is the same as everyone else's. when i wake up, my body will tell me what i'm going to have to deal with that day because it changes day to day. so some days i may get up and go this is going to be a bear or this is going to be relatively easy. i may be able to forestall taking medications certain days. and then i look at my day and try to beat it out, almost like a performance, like this is a script, what am i going to bring this this scene, what am i going to bring to that scene, how am i going to organize my energy and be most effective? luckily have i a lot of stuff i want to do on a day-to-day basis, whether it's the foundation, working or writing or doing something with my kids. so i'm really fulfilled. 20 years on i'm doing lot better than i ever thought i would be doing. i was given dire outlooks on how -- what i could expect to feel and experience and be limited to ten years out and that was ten years ago. so ten years on i'm still doing well. >> are you on drugs right now as we speak? >> i'm on all kinds of drugs, acid, lsd, methamphetamine. >> so what -- >> i take a synthetic dopamine, which is one of the things we're doing at the foundation is trying to augment it in a way because that's been the gold standard for 40 years in treatment of parkinson's but it loses effectiveness over time and results in side effects that are pretty outrageous, a thing called diskinny,ia, which is this random movement. so we're looking to find a better medication than that. and i balance it out with an agonist, a drug that makes my brain produce as much of its own dopamine that it can and a drug which tempers the dyskinesia's side effects. that varies. i may take more one day than another. >> you were probably the last most high profile target of attack -- >> is this drugs rush limbaugh? >> we're not going to get into rush limbaugh's drug stuff. just bear with me here. 2006 did you an ad for claire mccaskell, she was running for senate. we're going to take a look at that ad and look at mr. limbaugh's reaction to that ad, as it may be. >> they say all politics is local but it's not always the case. what you do in missouri matters to millions of americans. americans like me. >> in this commercial he is exaggerating the effects of the disease. he is moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act. this is the only time i have ever seen michael j. fox portray any of the symptoms of the disease he had. he can control himself enough to stay in the frame of the picture and he can control himself enough to keep his eyes right on the lens, the teleprompter but his head and shoulders are moving all over the place. so this is really shameless, folks. this is really shameless of michael j. fox. either he didn't take his medication or he's acting. >> my tendency is to want to make jokes about things. i have to laugh when he says remain within the frame of the picture. given rush, it's a challenge for him to remain within the frame of the picture. but, you know, when i set out to support politicians that supported stem cell research, it was the only way that i could find to effectively push the cause of scientific freedom in the country. and really we had a lot of people, a lot of disease communities, if you will, had an interest and have a stake in scientific research and scientific stem cell. to have others did i agree -- the majority of the people in the country supported it and president bush limited funding of it. and so just to make this point, to have people have an ethical problem with it is one thing and it's great and we'll have a discussion about that and that's why i entered the fray was to have a discussion about it but to have it summarily knocked down and marginalized, on the basis of personality, on the basis of he didn't like the way i delivered the message so his bully instinct is to shut down and marginalize that voice, that's another thing all together. >> that's more than a bully. that's vicious. let's show his apology. his current apology against san drew fluke, less than 30 people actually believe it. you've always taken the high road with this. you're a guy that got in noo a lot of fights as a kid. don't you want to just go smack the guy? there's such a level of vulgarity by calling a law student a shut, you just want to go knock the guy. >> i didn't feel that way. i honestly didn't feel that way. i felt like he had done the damage to himself. in the context of our argument, our conversation and attack of my symptoms, i had a bit of a problem with the image of it because i felt it was offensive to my community and to the larger community of people with disabilities. it just was thoughtless and rude. but as far as me, i don't care. but because he said i faked it. i didn't fake it. coming from him that, doesn't threaten me. but with the thing with sandra fluke, i'm a husband to a wife and a father to daughters and a son to a mother and brother to sisters and that was really offensive. >> he called our daughters sluts basically. and advertisers now are speaking. another article in "times "say there's a lot of dead air on a the lot of his stations. and basically advertisers that are staying are voting it's okay to say what he said. >> well, the thing about it is i can yell and scream and raise my arms ironically about what he said but let the free market decide. and all the things -- i love there to be voices throughout that i don't agree with. i love for people to say vile, offensive things because then i know who they are and as a voter and consumer i know who they are and they've identified themselves and that's great. all things being equal, the market will balance that out. there's this talk about bill maher. the difference with bill is he's on hbo. he doesn't have advertisers. he was once in the public sector and made statements and advertisers bailed on him and he was relegated to cable. i find it much less egregious, not the content of what he says that may be offensive but it's a different thing than this giant corporate supported bully pulpit that this man has and the way, again, he did the same thing with sandra fluke as he did with me but more egregious with sandra fluke because here's a private citizen expressing an opinion that she has a right to express and was sought out by people that we've elected to represent a point of view of the public and she was knocked down brutally. >> it's interesting. you're a public figure so as you said, could you take it. when you bully down just the average citizens, that's where don imus got in trouble, he's going to pay for this. i really feel that. let's shift to politics for a second. we've got an election coming. we all vote, when i vote it's going to maybe affect my taxes who wins. you've got a lot more at stake. let's talk if rick santorum wins. with is a possibility. that party is connecting with him. if he gets in office he is very vociferous against stem cell research. he gets in, how does your life get affected? >> well, he's spoken out against science, he's spoken out against education, one would say education in the pursuit of science. so obviously it will not be good. but on one hand i'm kind of hoping he gets the nomination because he will be very vocal on these issues and will set up a stark contrast and people will really see -- again, i don't want to suppress ideas i don't agree with. all things being equal and with the vote hopefully things are equal, those ideas can be met and dealt with. so if he tries -- certainly if he was elected, it would be -- stem cell research would be shut down and all kinds of things would be shut down, all kinds of scientific research. i mean, there was a time when they were going after science, they were going after stem cell research and other things that were wielding about and talking all science. fruit flies, why are we spending money on fruit flies, it's a major model for scientific research. many human systems can be replicated in the model of the fruit fly. soap you get people who don't know science railing about science and it's dangerous to those of us who might benefit from it. >> we're going to take a break. when we come back, i want your scorecard on obama, where you think he's done great and where he needs to work on. more with michael j. fox. don't go anywhere. is this where we're at now? we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber one. without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights. [ brad ] at ge we build turbines that power the world. they go into power plants which take some form of energy, harness it, and turn it into more efficient electricity. [ ron ] when i was a kid i wanted to work with my hands, that was my thing. i really enjoy building turbines. it's nice to know that what you're building is gonna do something for the world. when people think of ge, they typically don't think about beer. a lot of people may not realize that the power needed to keep their budweiser cold and even to make their beer comes from turbines made right here. wait, so you guys make the beer? no, we make the power that makes the beer. so without you there'd be no bud? that's right. well, we like you. [ laughter ] ♪ on december 21st, polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space, which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? ♪ new york, new york >> alex, that's wonderful! >> why are you congratulating him, dad? he didn't sing it that well. >> no, mallory, he got the job. you did get the job, didn't you? because you really didn't sing it that well. >> i got the job! >> oh alex, great. >> i'm going to be the youngest executive in the history of o'brien, mathis and clark. i'm going to be rich. >> that was of course a younger michael j. fox on "family ties." we went to break and tracy, your wife is up there and you said "what a beautiful woman." >> she's an amazing woman. >> she's as good as it gets as they say. alex keaton, would he still be republican? >> i said he'd be converted to being a democrat or be in jail back. >> when i see pictures of a young guy, i say who is that? >> i sing like mitt romney. did you notice in a? >> you look good there, man. >> barack obama, give us the scorecard. >> i'm not a politician -- >> you played one on tv. >> i think he's done reasonably well. i think that it's -- it's different to be in there than to be aspiring to be in there. i mean, i think he inherited a big basket full of problems. i don't think he's dealt with all of them. there are things i would like to have seen dealt with. >> such as? >> i think there are some issues around gitmo and privacy and other things like that that i thought would be handled by now. just things that kind of messes around the edges that i thought might have been cleaned up and just from an idealistic point of view. but i think with the economy he's done reasonably well and we're moving forward. i can't know what that mess was. in a way not being a politician, i kind of make my best bet on who i think has similar ideas as i do and similar sentiments and similar emotions and similar leanings. so i've done that with obama and i look at it and say, okay, i have to assume he's done the best he can do and i hope that he can do better. but the alternative doesn't appeal to me so i would have to say that he's done a pretty good job. >> has he done enough on stem cell? >> he kept his promise. he opened up the stream of funding. but with our foundation, you know, for me it was -- it was about the scientific freedom. with our foundation, we funded over $285 million of research. >> other than the government, largest -- >> it's not like we sitting around saying to the government, fund this stuff, take care of us. we're saying just free us up, we'll fund it. we'll take it from there. just don't tell us we can't pursue the best research that's out there. >> so let's play the side the republican wins and they repeal stem cell research. what happens to parkinson's? you are the main fund-raiser for this disease in the world. what happens to that? >> we can't fund that. there are other avenues that we're eveneding and other areas that we're supporting. we work a lot with farma. we'll fund research that they're doing and we'll give like $5 million loans or grants to multi-billion dollar companies so they'll continue to work on compounds that are of interest to us because the pipeline is so expensive and so time consuming, we wanted to keep things moving. so we'll continue to do that but, again, if you have people that based on ideological reasoning can just make summary decisions about what you can pursue, it would really be dangerous for us. >> i asked you about your day today what it's like. as you're sitting here, are you struggling? are you aware of trying to keep your movements in check? i want to get inside of you because we know you and i know you personally and you're a dear friend and such a special guy. is this a fight for you every second? or is this just you're talking like i'm talking -- >> no, i'm talking like you're talking and i'm aware that i'm moving. i strive for comfort and ease more than vanity and appearance. it a given that i'm going to look like what i look like. again, that goes to the rush limbaugh thing. i mean, that's why again i personally could care less but knowing that there's a patient population out there that does struggle with this, that doesn't have -- that is hiding from employers, that is worried about insurance on the basis of existing conditions, that is worried about the person down at the store. somebody went to get a bottle of wine and the person wouldn't sell it to him because he thought he was drunk. >> you hated it at the beginning. >> not criticizing that but it's clearly something not easy to come forward with. >> i hid it for seven years. it's difficult for people to are caricatured like that was hurtful to the community. but for me people know who i am, they know what i'm going through, they know the work that i do. so i don't feel i need to hide anything, i need to cover up anything anymore. and so it's different for me. so when you ask how i am it's easy for me to say i'm fine,om great. i'm secure, i have a great family and friends and things to do that keep me busy but others don't. that's who you work on behalf of. that's who we have to protect in a sense in helping them know that the best research is being done and being pursued and is open and academics that pursue certain avenues are free to do it and not worry about -- when you save government funding of stem cell research. it wasn't that we were fighting for the government to support those projects. if they used pencils that the government paid for, then they couldn't do stem cell research. ffs there was any funding of the university or hospital that was doing stem cell research, they would lose their funding. it was a broad paint brush. >> you've got four kids. what would you say if there's a young person out there and just yesterday they found out they have parkinson's, what would you say to them? >> just doesn't let others project on to you what you're experiencing. experience it, learn as much as you can, educate yourself. don't project as to what your future will be. just experience one day at a time and leave yourself open to possibilities and know that others don't -- others that take care of you, that care about you say you feel this, i'm going to take care of that. they don't know how you're feeling. as much as you respect and love them for their attention and care, don't let them characterize what you're experiencing. >> you have creatively walked right into your parkinson's. you've done it with larry david. you've played an afflicted character and with dennis leary, you've done some brilliant stuff. we'll talk about that when we come back. i'm robert shapiro. over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. at legalzoom we'll help you incorporate your business, file a patent, make a will and more. you can complete our online questions in minutes. then we'll prepare your legal documents and deliver them directly to you. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. >> doc, i'm from the future. i came here in a time machine that you invented. now i need your help to get back to the year 1985. >> mcfly! you've certainly turned the corner creatively. i got to start with the larry david said "the parkinson's. let's show a clip of that and i want to talk about turning it around. >> because i did notice before you left you were looking at me and you kind of, you know, shook your head. >> yeah, my head shakes, larry. i have parkinson's. i'm a head shaking fool. >> so you're saying it was a parkinson's shake. >> yeah, it wasn't a larry shake. can i get you a soda or something? >> sure. the thing is hitler ruined that mustache for everybody. it's an interesting mustache and now nobody could wear it, you know. oh, thanks. oh, jesus christ! what the hell. did you shake that you on purpose? >> parkinson's. >> when he called you, what did he say, let's do parkinson's? >> the show improv and he lays down the beats and you take it from there. he wanted do something about we'll be neighbors and thought it was passive aggressive of directing my direction toward him. i thought