Transcripts For WRC Today 20100316 : vimarsana.com

good morning. soaked. widespread flooding throughout the northeast after a fourth straight day of heavy rain. we are live outside boston where a state of emergency has now been declared. together again. the first photos of tiger woods with his wife, elin, since the sex scandal broke. what is the state of the marriage? and, still the king. michael jackson s estate signs the richest recording contract in history. the details of the $200 million deal today, tuesday, march the details of the $200 million deal today, tuesday, march 16th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i m meredith vieira. i m david gregory, in while matt is on assignment this morning. always nice to see you. also nice to see that the rain is finally over but it is still pretty wet around the northeast. four days of downpours have forced rivers to crest and in many cases overflow up and down the east coast. let s look at the scene in wayne, new jersey right now where roads and parking lots have literally been turned into lakes. and in billrica, massachusetts, near boston, an entire neighborhood is under water. also this morning, the sad new details in the murder of a u.s. consulate official and her husband who were shot and killed in an suv right in front of their 7-month-old daughter. apparently that woman was also pregnant. we ll get the very latest on the investigation and find out what is happening with that couple s little girl. and a little later this morning, kirstie alley opened up about her new reality show and her roller coaster ride with weight. then more of our special series ask away today, the questions we get asked all the time. this morning what i would do if i did not have this job. my answer i would like to be a producer. believe it or not, someone around here actually listened to me. my first assignment was a doozy producing kathie lee and hoda on the fourth hour of today. i developed a tip shortly after i had to do that. doing this all the time now. it was a nightmare. let s just put it that way. i would imagine. how did it go for them? oh, man. matt! anyway, you ll see. we ll begin with the dangerous flooding brought on by days of rain here in the northeast. the weather channel s julie martin is just outside of boston in billricca, massachusetts. reporter: the people of massachusetts finally getting a chance to dry out after four days of rain. many rivers are well up over their banks, and the consequences are in the streets. you can see here dozens of homes and businesses pretty much under water. this scenao is playing out all over the northeast and new england right now as a result of, as i mentioned, four straight days with as much as nine inches delivered to some parts of this state in particular. so it is going to take some time for people to start to dry out. fortunately, the river situation is going to be getting better over the next day or so. most of the rivers have now crested. the skies are clear but once again, we re talking about flooding, so it is going to be quite a process for the people here to begin to clean up. i do want to take you now live to wayne, new jersey. this is an area that was also hit hard by the weekend storm. 44-mile-an-hour gusts now down to about 20, but 60% of the rivers there are also floodg at this point. power has been a major issue with this storm as well. as many as half a million folks without power as a result of this storm. certainly some widespread effects. the governor of massachusetts has declared a state of emergency that goes for rhode island and connecticut as well. once again, it is going to take some time to start to get back to normal, get all this water out of here and start to dry out here in the northeast. only then can they really assess the damage. julie martin, thank you very much. we ll have more on the weather in a moment. first with ann on assignment this morning as well, natalie morales is at the news desk with the top stories. good morning, everyone. president obama is putting pressure on fellow democrats as a crucial vote on health care reform draws near. nbc s white house correspondent savannah guthrie joins us again this morning. savannah, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, natalie. no question, the president has made his final public push, his closing argument, to a group of supporters in cleveland. but it was very clear his real audience was democrats on capitol hill telling them essentially, it s time to step up. there is a lot of hand-wringing going on. we hear a lot of people in washington talking about politics, talking about what this means in november, talking about the poll numbers for democrats and republicans. we need courage. did you hear what did you hear what somebody just said? that s what we need. reporter: the president has been meeting one-on-one with some fence-sitting democrats and he will continue to do so this week. and because house democrats are basically being asked to pass a senate bill that many of them do not like, house speaker nancy pelosi has come up with a somewhat unconventional way to get the bill through. the plan under consideration would have the house pass a series of fixes, and those fixes would then deem the senate bill passed. so house democrats would be able to vote for it without having to directly cast a vote on that senate bill. but of course, republicans say all of this would be a political sleight of hand, natalie. savannah guthrie this morning, thank you. the president will likely have another supreme court vacancy to fill in the next few years. justice john paul stevens tells the new yorker magazine he will retire within three years. at 89, stevens is the oldest member of the supreme court. tragedy on the beach at hilton head, south carolina where a small plane making an emgency landing struck and killed a man who was walking or jogging along the shore. oil leaking from the plane spread over the windshield and blocked the pilot s vision. today sony s expected to announce the biggest recording deal in history. it is a $200 million guaranteed contract to the estate of michael jackson for ten projects over seven years, including an album of never-before released jackson recordings. and people around the world are remembering a small man with a very big heart. the guinness book of world records announced monday ping ping, the world s shortest man, died last weekend from heart trouble at the age of 21. ping ping sto just 2 5 but he spread joy wherever he went. he was such a cutie. 7:07. he was in new york last year and he was on our show. he was such a hit all over the place. that s very sad. good to see you, mr. roker. can t believe spring is coming because it is such a mess out there. i know. but the good news is, it is changing. you can feel it. let s see what the trouble spots are right now. the low pressure system, good news is it is finally moving away and rain is going away with it. that s good news. then we ve got a subtropical jet bringing moisture to southern texas. that s got a little bit of mixed precip. nothing too heavy, about a quarter-inch to half-inch of rain. pacific northwest will see some showers and we got another weak system moving onshore there, fronta good morning. there s the sky over washington. live view from our sky watcher camera, showing cloud cover as we start off this tuesday morning. and it s chilly. temperatures in the 40s. it s 46 in washington and we ll climb, though, to the upper 50s to near 60 later today. we may see some sun breaking out. clearing out tonight, upper 30s tomorrow morning. should be mostly sunny wednesday and a bit milder and even warmer thursday and friday. sunny both that s your latest weather. we re learning more this morning about the murders of three people with ties to the u.s. consulate in a mexican border town. a texas couple was shot to death in an suv as their 7-month-old daughter sat in the back seat. and now we are learning the woman was pregnant. nbc s mark potter is in el paso with the latest. good morning, mark, to you. reporter: good morning to you, david. what mexican president felipe calderon is scheduled to visit juarez today, u.s. and mexican authorities are working together to t to solve those weekend killings which left three adults dead, two children wounded, and one child an orphan. u.s. consulate official leslie and her husband arthur thought saturday would be a safe day to attend a birthday party in ciud ciudad juarez, mexico across the border from their home in el paso, texas. but coming home from the party they fell victims to the mexican drug war and were both shot dead by assassins feet from the border fence right next to the mayor s office. there is a police station very close. this is a very patrolled street. it happened in an instant. reporter: from his window, the mayor described how the american couple was killed in broad daylight at a major intersection. it s a line that we didn t think that criminals would cross. they did. it creates a lot of more worries for us. reporter: adding to the tragedy, leslie was pregnant and in the back seat of their car was their 7-month-old girl who escaped injury and was pulled from the car by mexican police. she is now an orphan and was taken to el paso to be cared for back in the u.s. by her aunt and uncle. within minutes of the downtown shooting, another killing across town claimed the life of jorge salcido, the husband of another u.s. consulate official. two of his children, ages 4 and 7, were wounded. they had attended the same birthday party. as mexican and american law enforcement officials try to catch the killers, the u.s. state department warns against assuming the victims diplomatic status make them victims for drug traffickers. be leery about jumping to any conclusions. that s all part of the investigation. reporter: in fact, law enforcement sources say investigators now believe the killings may have been a case of mistaken identity making these three deaths an even greater tragedy. now among the american officials working on that murder investigation are agents from the dea, the fbi, atf and other agencies, along with an araray f intelligence specialists trying to track down those killers. a horrible story. mark potter, thank you. 7:11. toyota is casting new doubt on a california man s claim that his toyota prius sped out of control o its own. the embattled automaker says its investigators cannot find evidence to back it up. nbc s miguel almaguer is in san diego with more on that. good morning. reporter: meredith, good morning. even though federal investigators say we may never really know if that prius sped out of control, toyota engineers say they are certain that the driver s story simply does not add up. the system was tested under driving conditions. reporter: toyota didn t just release a statement. they made a statement by putting on a show. company executives rolled out a handful of 2008 prius hybrids to demonstrate the car s brake override system. so we re going 45. reporter: toyota was so eager to prove their point, they allowed reporters to get behind the wheel of a similar prius at speeds of 50 miles per hour, and then had their drivers now bring speed up to 60, 70, 80 reporter: try to simulate an out-of-control simulation at 85 miles an hour. but in every instance when the brake was pushed firmly down, the car slowed down. and the car comes to a stop. reporter: shown here in this toyota video to simulate a stuck accelerator, toyota test drivers punched the gas pedal, then simultaneously hit the brake with pressure. they say that overrides the throttle as the brakes slow the car. what s going on? is your accelerator stuck? yeah. reporter: last week, james sikes told investigators he lost control of his prius when it accelerated over 90 miles per hour for more than 20 minutes. he claimed he was pressing hard on his brakes but the car wouldn t slow down. toyota says their investigation shows that s simply not possible. i can tell you that the information we found did not was not consistent with what the claim was that was made. reporter: the national highway traffic safety administration, nhtsa, agrees. their investigators, who worked alongside toyota, were also unable to o replicate james sikes claims using his car. toyota really feels like the media hasn t been in its corner, so it s trying to re-establish its reputation and regain credibility. reporter: according to nhtsa, their probe did reveal that sikes front brake pads were almost completely worn out. toyota says that shows sikes may have ridden the brakes off and on but never applied constant pressure. the gas pedal felt like it was stuck in fast position. reporter: james sikes is no longer speaking to the press and continues to stick by his story. his attorney says just because toyota couldn t replicate the incident doesn t necessarily proves sikes sudden acceleration didn t happen. james sikes attorneys says the 61-year-old won t sue, and while last week he told us he would never drive that prius again, today toyota officials say they re going to give him back the car, and that it s safe to drive. meredith? miguel almaguer, thank you very much. 7:14. here s david. the dow is on quite a tear right now up for five straight trading days. but how long will it all last? jim cramer, the host of cnbc s mad money, all eyes are on the fed today. they are expected to raise interest rates. you actually think they ll remain unchanged. yes, i do. that could have a big impact on the market though. we need to hear the fed chaian, ben bernanke, say, look, things aren t so great that we can raise rates. that s because unemployment is so bad in this country. but things are better than we thought. so be on the lookout. by year end we will do something. let s talk more about the dow. go to almost about a year ago, march 9, 2009, the dow is at 6,500-plus. a year ago a year later, opening now at 10,642. that s a gain of 62%. this is real wealth now. yes. where do you see this going? i think as long as interest rates stay low, it means that there s not going to be a lot of money made in cds, you make nothing in your savings account. people will be continually drawn to stocks. not aggressively because it is such a tainted group of well, people are scared of stocks. they don t think they re honest. you still have an issue where people are saving a lot more than they are committing their money to any kind of investment. yes. i think people have been burned and they say we were burned in 2000-2001, we were burned last year, enough already. let s just keep it inur checking account. the senate banking committee is working on new rules of the road for wall street, a new financial regulaon. what s it really going to mean to the average person, and would it prevent what they re talking about now, another financial collapse? no. i think that the average person s not going to feel anything, frankly. i think that things are better and that the scrutiny is tougher on the banks. but until we see prosecutions of the people who did things wrong, say a justice department task force and see that senator dodd has enough people to be able to vote this plan, it s going to be business as usual. talk about business as usual on wall street. you have executive compensation about where it was, bonuses up 17%. not much of a cultural shift. no. i think one of the things that s outrageous and the american people feel it these banks wouldn t have made it without our help, without the taxpayers help. as soon as they made it, they gave themselves giant bonuses. they are a hated cohort, that s why in the end we will get some reform. they argue on the other side you can t have a competitive wall street or competitive firms unless they are being appropriately compensated. what were they doing with the money from 2000 to 2008, the peach houses, big bank accounts, municipal bonds? they could afford a couple years taken off or given to charity. mad money, five years. what s your success? we talk to real people. real people are much smarter than people realize. they call in all day, they re there at the show. it is amazing thing because i figured we d be canceled after a month. you, mr. cramer, has some staying power. good to see you. thank you very much. catch the special fifth anniversary edition of mad money right here, 30 rock, tonight at 6:00 and 11:00 eastern on bc, of course. coming up on 7:18. here s meredith. sports reporter erin andrews came face to face with her admitted stalker in court on monday. the insurance executive was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for secretly recording videos of andrews in the nude. a punishment that she says is not nearly enough. nbc s lee cowan has details. reporter: peeping tom may be exactly what this 48-year-old insurance executive is. but it hardly seems a vicious enough term to describe the depth of michael barrett s crime. i m at the angry stage right now. i m mad. reporter: erin andrews was barrett s prey. she s an espn reporter with a fan base almost as big as the sports teams she covers. but, as she traveled from city to city, barrett, a father from chicago, followed, too. lurking in the shadows. he has children. if you have children, how could you do this to somebody else s kids? reporter: the fbi says barrett manipulated the peep holes in the doors of her hotels rooms to then use his cell phone to take secret videos of andrews naked. but that wasn t all. barrett then posted those videos online where they were seen by millions which essentially meant that andrews was victimized by a strangers eyes almost every single day. these people who prey on women and children and others really should be lock up and made to crush stones for the rest of their life. reporter: in court, andrews told the judge she still fears for her life and asked for the maximum sentence. for his part, barrett sobbed as he apologized to andrews, begging for her forgiveness. we tried to paint a picture and explain to the court why someone who h lived what would otherwise be an exemplary life would engage in the conduct that mr. barrett did. reporter: in the end, the judge sentenced barrett to 2 1/2 years, 30 months, well short of the maximum. for videos that can never be erased. i won t get this down in 30 months. i won t get it down in 30 years. my kids, my future husband, will have to deal with this. reporter: still, she says her life goes on. in fact, she s now scheduled to appear on the upcoming season of abc s dancing with the stars. if i run and hide that s showing all the other stalking victims and video voyeurism victims you should be ashamed of yourself. reporter: a victim-turned-advocate for a crime far from over. for today, lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. 7:20. here s david. are tiger woods and his wife, elin, back together in new pictures of the couple have now surfaced. the first of them together since days before the golfer s sex scandal broke. nbc s period alexander has the details. reporter: if you thought you d never see tiger woods and his wife, elin, again in the same place at the same time, you were wrong. this is the first photo of the two together since tiger s tabloid tale exploded, taken saturday morning near the couple s exclusive mansion outside orlando. tiger and elin aren t really back together on a day by day basis. they re still legally married, they re still very much part of each other s lives. they see each other, mostly for the purpose of the children but they aren t definitely 100% back together yet. reporter: tiger and elin appear tense and pensive, a far cry from this much happier picture taken last november, the last time the two were seen together, at a stanford university football game with 2-year-old daughter, sam. less than one week before tiger s bizarre crash. perhaps the biggest reason why elin is staying with tiger is for her children. they have a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old. they re very, very young. elin feels strongly that they need both parents in their lives. reporter: just last week, new documents for the florida highway patrol revealed that the paramedics who first arrived at tiger s home after the accident suspected domesti violence and wouldn t allow elin to ride with her husband in the ambulance to the hospital. tiger has strongly denied his wife abused him and recently hired former white house press secretary ari fleischer to help restore his once-well-manicured image. his next appearance may be back on the greens with some sports writers speculating the world s greatest golfer will return for the masters next month. we ll see him at the end of this month, early april. we ll know very soon. reporter: once he returns to golf, tiger will be back in full view. but still up in the air, whether his wife will be at his side. for today, peter alexander, nbc news, los angeles. ju ahead was the death of actor corey haim connected to a drug ring in hollywood and talk to 80s fellow teen idol boss: hey, those gecko ringtones you put on our website are wonderful. people love em! gecko: yeah, thank you sir. turned out nice. boss: got another one for you. anncr: at geico.com, it s easy to get a free rate quote, manage your policy, make payments or even file a claim! boss: now that s a ringtone. gecko: uh yeah.it s interesting.. certainly not the worst ringtone i ve ever heard. ringtone lyrics: a-ringedy- ding-ding-dingy-dong, ringedy-dong-ding-ding. gecko (to himself): yeah, that might be the worst. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. still ahead, kirstie alley opened up about her weight loss. plus, meredith reveals what she would be doing if she did not have this job. bufirst your local news. where your brothers sit. [ birds chirping ] wow! did i ever tell you what it was like growing up with four sisters? that sounds fun. yeah.fun for them! 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hmm. let s go back to the left. uh. waffling is back at dunkin donuts with the return of the waffle breakfast sandwich. two oven-toasted waffles with a hint of maple, complete with fluffy egg, a slice of melted cheese, and now with delicious sausage. so hurry in today because it s only around for a short time. america runs on dunkin . try our oven-toasted waffle breakfast sandwich today, only at dunkin donuts. good morning. it is cloudy and chilly. temperatures in the mid 40s around the region. highs into the 50s later on with a little sun breaking out by mid afternoon. on wednesday, a bit milder with mostly sunny skies. thursday and friday, sunny both days. afternoon highs in the 60s. morning lows in the low and mid 40s. jerry, how is the tuesday traffic? tom, we ll take a look along i-272. two separate accidents, montgomery village and falls, germantown, pretty painful experience on down. over in virginia, 395, just volume. 5 northbound tying up the right side. dropping pounds by popping pills, the new drug that claim morning, the 16th of march, 2010. you are looking at all the lovely folks spending their day in rockefeller plaza. we ll head outside and join them in just a moment. i m meredith vieira, alongside david gregory who s in for matt while is he on assignment. more of our special series ask away today. i get asked all the time what i would dofy didn t have this job. i don t know how to do anything else. i often say if i didn t have this job i d be on the other side of the camera. take a look. meredith vieira is our producer for the day. producing means you stand behind the camera. and do what? and make you look good. when are you going to start doing that? it was a nightmare. that s all i have to say. the chaos i caused just ahead. make that actually attitude when i filled in as hoda and kathie lee s producer. most producers aren t actually on the set. they told me to be on the set. tammy who produces every day is on the set because they don t have these things in our ear like we do. we re talking to master control so you have to control them. it is like a circus. also on a more serious note, new details in the death of a 38-year-old former child star, corey haim, and a possible connection to an illegal prescription drug ring in hollywood. we ll get the latest and talk with kirk cameron about pressures put on young stars. we ll talk with kirstie alley, here to fill us in on her public struggle with weight loss. the latest on the death of actor corey haim. today west coast contributor maria is with us. today corey feldman will not be at the funeral as the death investigation takes a new turn. reporter: one week after dying at a los angeles apartment he shared with his mother, actor corey haim will be laid to rest today. you re a creature of the night, michael. you re a vampire, michael. reporter: the former teen idol and star of the 1987 cult classic the lost boys, burr buried at a private funeral in his hometown of toronto. while california officials wait for toxicology reports to rule on his cause of death, the attorney general has announced that his office is investigating an illegal prescription drug ring that s linked to the actor. we found corey haim s name on a prescription, an illegal prescription obtained, we think, by stealing a doctor s identity, then getting the drug illegally. reporter: a promising career in the late 1980s was derailed when haim, like so many young hollywood stars, fell into a life of prescription drug abuse. sourc have told me that corey haim was flat-broke and destitute and was living with his mom at the apartment in los angeles. he was in a very dire situation. reporter: the family, unable to pay for the funeral, is hoping the city of toronto will help cov costs. they ve also sold the 38-year-old actor s personal belongings on ebay to raise money. both of us made our mistakes. but we grew up. reporter: corey feldman, haim s long-time friend and co-star from the 1980s. you re a good friend. that s right. reporter: and more recently, on their a&e reality tv show, the two coreys announced monday he would not be with haim s mother at funeral. i would love nothing more than to be by her side at corey s funeral. however, due to their strong religious beliefs and need for privacy, the family has decided to make corey s funeral on tuesday a small private affair. the coreys had a very complex relationship. at times they were friends. mostly they were enemies, and oftentimes they were business partners. but at the end of the day, in hollywood, the line between friendship and business relationships can be very blurry and that s exactly what it was with these two guys. skeptics are voicing doubt over feldman s reasons why he s not attending haim s funeral today. i was actually invited and allowed to be inside of the funeral and i only recently met the family. so it seems a little odd that feldman, who is a long-time friend, wouldn t have been invited as well. meredith, i also have breaking news right now. i jt got information from the family that cari, corey s sis r sister, just gave birth to a healthy baby girl yesterday. a bittersweet time for the family. absolutely. kirk cameron was a teen idol in the 80s and often competed for the same roles at corey haim. he s here with dr. drew pinsky, an addiction specialist. good morning. this has been, corey, for you i m sure a very tough time. first your friend and former co-star on growing pains is found dead in vancouver, committed suicide. then this tragic death of corey haim apparently died of accidental drug overdose. how did you take the news? well, we were just talking. it was breathtaking. you know? to have two guys that i knew in less than three weeks take their lives this way. apparently. and i just go to the thoughts of this is someone s little boy, someone who has got a bright and po promising future, then takes their life because of pain or desperate feeling to try to get back to where they once were or something like that. were you sort of in a brat pack of your own with both coreys, back in the 80s, and river phoenix as well. were you subjected to the same temptations they were in terms of drugs and alcohol in particular? well, i would assume that it is very similar. being on growing pains, you re the guy. so when you have opportunity, backed up with all of the money, and people giving you everything that you want, yeah, it s there are demons and temptations that you have that face down and it is very, very difficult. how did you come away from this unscathed? you re shaking your head, drew. he s not an addict. ron howard, not an addict. when people don t have the genetic potential for addiction, you can t make somebody into an aide di addict that doesn t have that potential. they do go through the sort of same developmental success. you re 15, bigger than life one don t go through the usual milestone. that has psychological effects. but obviously they can be overcome. kirk is living proof of this. however, if the addiction is triggered, now you have a permanent arrest in place, and, b, you re somebody with a fatal condition. if you have an addictive personality, maybe being a child star that loses their show, maybe that will kick it in because suddenly your worth is questioned. well, i think that s a huge part of it. you know, life is hard for anyone. when you turn 35, 40 years old, these questions start coming up, who am i really? do i have value? what s the meaning of my life? where am i going? and for someone who grew up and at 15 years old was the superstar, these questions are intensified later in life and you wonder, how do i get back to who i was? but it was a false sort of identity to begin with and you can t get back there. dr. drew, corey haim was reportedly seeing an addiction specialist at the time of his death, yet prescription drugs were found in his bedroom, we understand. why, if you re seeing an addiction specialist and you ve got a problem with drugs, would you be taking them? i hope that doctor wasn t prescribing those drugs or was at least trying to get them taper down, which by the a way, never works as an outpatie. anyone with an addiction has to realize if they re an a prescription opiate even for appropriate purposes there may be reasons you need to be on them for short periods of time. but if you are an addict and are on them, your life is in danger. surprise here is not that corey ha died. addiction is a fatal disease. we ll see more of this, and unfortunately more of this will kill young people because of the pandemic because of prescription medication abused today. i ve been saying this for a while, this is the beginning of a tsunami we re seeing. isn t this a wake-up call to people? i hope so. but it hasn t been happening so far. how many times have we sat here talking about this? it is a phenomenon that s killing young addicts, prescription drugs. what would you say, kirk, to young stars that are out there today, these young child actors? that s a good question. i can say that from my experience, what saved me from tragedy was a mom and a dad who didn t have a perfect marriage but they worked it out and gave me a foundation i could stand on, and then drawing close to god sent me in a direction that saved me from a lot of tragedy. i think that s exactly right. the fact is that things that trigger bad addiction in young actors are the same thing that triggers bad addiction in anybody abuse, family dysfunction. we had on todd bridges yesterday from different strokes. he said his father abused him physically. it wasn t being a child actor. danny bonaduce says the same thing. thank you both this morning. drew will be back later to tell us more about his new show, sober house. kirk will host the fourth hour of today with hoda. now let s get a check of the weather from al. thanks, meredith. warmer temperatures to talk about in the north, though down south much chillier, cold air, austin, texas, 18 degrees below normal. 19 degrees below normal in orlando. billings, montana, 15 degrees above normal with temperatures in the 60s. 60s throughout the gulf. 70s in southern florida. 50s in the pacific northwest. we ll see some showers there today as a weak system moves onshore. sunny through the southwest. more showers working their way through central and southern texas. good morning. a cloudy start to this tuesday morning. temperatures around the region in the 40s. now 46 in washington, but we ought to get some breaks in the clouds this afternoon. little sunshine breaking out. highs in the upper 50s near 60. clear sky tonight and chillier tomorrow morning, into the upper 30s. tomorrow afternoon with lots of sun, we should warm into the low 60s. even milder thursday and friday. morning lows in the low to mid that s your latest weather. if you want to keep track of your weather all day long, check out weather channel on cable or weatr.com online. just ahead, someone who always has plenty to say. we ll catch up with kirstie alley. and then, next, what i would be doing if i had a different job in the morning as hoda and kathie lee s producer. right after this. 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(announcer) side effects were generally mild and included headache. viral infection, sore throat, nosebleeds and coughing. ask your doctor about symptom relief with nasonex. and save up to $15 off your refills. go to nasonex.com for details, terms and conditions. [ wan ] nine iron, it s almost tee-time. time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze, my eyes water. but with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i get allergy relief at liquid speed. that s the fast, powerful relief of zyrtec®, now in a liquid gel. zyrtec® is the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine. it works on my worst symptoms so i m ready by the time we get to e first hole. and that s good because the competition s steep today. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air.™ ask me anything anything whatever s on your mind. back at 7:44 with our special series ask away today. all those burning questions about us that you want answered. one i get a lot is, if you could do any other job on the show, what would it be. i always say, i d like to be a producer. hoda and kathie lee hodi and kathie lee were brave enough to give me a shot. hodi! they wanted to shoot me. announcer: from nbc news, this is today. reporter: it happens each morning. the clock strikes 10:00. a broadcast begins. it s one of those shows that starts and you really don t know what s going to happen. hi, everybody. it is booze-day, tuesday, and black-and-blues day. reporter: there s dancing, destruction and drinking. cheers, my darling friend. reporter: lots of it. a whole bottle. they are lushes. kick it! reporter: and now they re my responsibility. hi. reporter: as their new executive producer. i can handle these two. meredith thinks she s going to tell us what to do. no, seriously. reporter: you bet i am. my new gig came with a new office. in case we forget who really matters around here. and an incredibly supportive staff. here s to the happiest of happy hours. your role of producer is keeping track of the segments on the show, the pacing of the show. reporter: that show was fast-approaching. hello, ladies! it was now my job to prep the anchors. i want to class this show up just a little bit. with my reputation on the line, i went in to the studio for my big debut. show s about to start. nervous? i m a little nervous. about yourself or about us? about you. not delivering. let s do it! reporter: the countdown begins. where are the cards? there s no wine. where s the booze? reporter: i m a producer! i m producing. now you re getting on my nerves. let s really screw it up for meredith. three, two, one music. announcer: from nbc news, this is today reporter: is there any ritual? are you talking, meredith? announcer: with executive producer, meredith vieira. hey, everybody, it is monday, known around here at fun day! meredith vieira is our producer for the day. what s producing mean exactly? it means you stand behind the camera and make you look good. when are you going to start doing that? reporter: from the start, it was clear i needed to take charge and rein these ladies in. what are you looking at? what s wrong? because meredith s distracting me. just finish the story. reporter: even law and order s anthony anderson got in on the fun. miss producer lady. anthony, welcome. are the inmates running the asylum today? anthony, that was great upstairs. reporter: as with any live show, time is of the essence. answer the question! answer the question! three minutes, ladies. i m going with 80%. you got 30 seconds. hoda? 125. nice job, guys. how can you not want salt? reporter: but there are perks to being the producer. i can take the rice-a-roni? take the pizza? re ste are you stealing these? yeah. i m not steing them, i m the producer, for god s sakes. down to the animals, and i don t mean hoda and kathie lee. you don t like animals? reporter: a good producer is encouraging. you guys are pathetic that you can t do this. reporter: and always leads example. see how i do this, hoda. good job, meredith! yeah! see how it s done? reporter: i had a handle on the animals, but certain guests were downright difficult. you ready? will you leave me alone? get out of my face. oh, i m so scared of mr. lau lauer. today with the one, the only, matt lauer is here. before meredith vieira joined today in 2006, who was matt lauer s co-host? we have to wrap. what do you mean? i m just getting into this. it s over. it was good though, matt. i think she barked at a lot of people. i think she s taeg taken the proing approach of meaner is better. that matt lauer showing up annoyed me that he would hone in on what was myhow. reporter: with everything running smoothly, i headed to the command center of the show. by the looks of it, the party was just getting started. our favorite vino vixen is back. take a sip. because there are goats in the vineyard. what did she say? take a sip, not a gulp. meredith, what are you doing? i m reading kathie lee s book. 99 cents at barnes and noble. you need a drink on this show. the show ended just like it began total mayhem, and out of my control. guys, that is a wrap. thank you so much. thank you. not an easy job. i have never seen people drink as much as you. stop it! it s just for that one particular hour. after that, there s none of that. it s like the 80s in tv. i loved your song that said talk more about me. she borrowed that from kathie lee. kathie lee s not here to defend herself. hoda actually gets to talk more on this show than she does on her own show. stop. the truth is, tammy is a great producer but you guys are a very smooth act. you don t need it. really? what would you do if you weren t producing? this job, i guess. there you go. tomorrow on today, do we hang out on just be quiet, kirstie. all right? she didn t say a word. she said something. i read that. that s not nice. do we hang out outside of work? no. but we ll pretend that we do and we ll see what happens. yes, we do. we love each other. we ll be right back. except matt lauer who we don t like so much. we re dipping ou. wife: why? guy: because we can t find socks that shape to our feet. we re sick of it! son: sick of it! wife: that s really stupid. guy: that s the future. announcer: han makes better-fitting socks the whole family will love. guaranteed, or your money back. something funny happens when you cross over from land to sea. you beco a different person. are you ready? you taste foods you ve never tried. i want to bang on the druall day you swim with animals you ve only seen in aquariums. and somewhere out on the high seas, you get your first water wedgie. i don t want to play i just want to bang on the drum all day [ ship horn blows ] (announcer) right now, all over the country, discover card customers are getting five percent cashback bonus at grocery stores. it pays to get more, it pays to discover. would you like that to hurt now or later? 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[ sniffs ] morning. you got in pretty late last night. dad, i m not sixteen anymore. still, it was late. well. you re not gonna have to worry about that anymore. yeah, why s that? todd s a lucky man. the best part of wakin up. that s what i told him when we talked last week. .is folgers in your cup not to let your immune system become a statistic. support your immune system with patented ester-c. ester-c provides up to 24 hours of immune support. ester-c. the better vitamin c. ester-c provides up to 24 hours of immune support. [ male announcer ] you can get a lot of water where you least expect it. like in here. this detergent has this much cleaning ingredients. the rests water. but with tide, you get more cleaning ingredients more than twice as much. so that you get an outstanding tide clean. tide. you pay for detergent. you get more detergent. let s wind em with precision. open our throttle to even more selection. and turn that savings swagger up full tilt. so when the time comes to bust open a can of doing. we ve got all the tools for all the things we need to make em happen. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. right now, get scotts nature scapes mulch for the new lower price of just $3.88. our time right now is 7:56. we have 46 degrees under cloudy skies in the nation s capital. looks like a little sun is trying to sneak through. we ll get the forecast from meteorologist tom kierein coming up. good morning, i m joe krebs. parents in prince william county are on high alert after someone tried to abduct a teenager on her way to school in st. brook drive in bristow. she stepped out of the house to get on the school bus when a man grabbed her arm and forced her back into the house. she screamed and the suspect then ran away. proposed budget calls for cutting more than 450 county jobs, including dozens of police positions. they also recommend 10-day furlough for employees. they re facing a deficit of almost $48 good morning. a cloudy start to this tuesday. temperatures in the mid to upper 40s now. we should see sun this afternoon, highs reaching near 60. then chilly, clear tonight, highs in the upper 30s tomorrow morning. thursday and friday with sunshine. how is the traffic, jerry? tom, take a look along the outer loop of the beltway at college park, delays begin at route 1, possibly before. all the way to silver spring. large pothole at. volume only, 66, no incidents to report but really jammed to the belt. joe? thanks, jerry. news 4 8:00 now on this tuesday morning, march 16th, 2010. a much drier morning for our friends here in rockefeller plaza. al says we are looking at sunny skies. yes, we are going to have warmer temperatures for the rest of the week. we ll get his forecast in just a moment. i m meredith vieira, along with david gregory who is filling in for matt today. along with mr. roker. just ahead, kirstie alley awon an emmy and a golden globe for one of the most beloved sitcoms of all times, cheers. now she s starring in her own reality show that she created. it is causing a little bit of controversy. we ll talk to her about that as well. between work and a family, you simply don t have enough time during the day. we all go through that, but that s going to change today. we ll suggest some ways to squeeze a little bit more time out of the day. i think we all need to do that. adding 30 minutes to the day. we ve got some good news tied with the housing market. there are places in the u.s. that are showing signs of bouncing back. we ll tell you those along with barbara corcoran in just a little bit. that is good news. first a check of the morning s top stories. natalie morales is filling in for ann this morning. good morning, everyone. rivers are beginning to crest in parts of the northeast following last weekend s torrential rain. but flooding is still a big problem in some areas. monday in new england, some people had to be rescued by boats. hundreds of thousands of homes remain without power. a magnitude 4.4 earthquake struck ten miles east of los angeles today just after4:00 this morning. jolting people awake. no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries. two northwest pilots who overshot the minneapolis airport in october distracted while working on their laptop computers have agreed not to rye the revocation of their licenses but under a deal reached on monday, they will be ai able to apply for new licenses later this year and could fly again. able to detect bombs underneath clothing, a full body scanner went into operation monday s chicago s o hare airport. the tsa hopes to have 1,000 of the machines at airports by the end of next year. former alaska governor sarah palin will campaign for senator john mccain next week in arizona where mccain faces a tough battle for re-election. it will be the first time they campaigned together since the 2008 presidential race. overseas marketsre mostly higher this morning on wall street. cnbc s erin burnett is at the new york stock exchange. lots of attention today on the fed. that s right, there is. we ll have a fed mean ieting. two other things to watch though, walmart, a name we all know, is increasing its so-called walmart banks. they re sort of like banks. by about 50%. it provides debit cards to regular americans. they say regular banks aren t doing the job. another big company in the headlines, america s biggest exporter today, boeing, is losing a big order from germany s second-biggest airline amidst concerns about the economy. erin burnett at the new york stock exchange, thank you. now here s brian williams with a look at what s coming up tonight on nbc nightly news. tonight, remember our friends at fema? we ll look at how they re redrawing the flood lines all over the country. new lawsing forcing existing homeowners to buy flood insurance for the first time ever, even in dry climates. is it another fleecing of america? we ll have that tonight. back to you. 8:03 right now. let s go outside once again to meredith and david. it s so nice to have a sunny day for a change. it is a little chilly right now. we hope it will get a little bit better. mary-kate s 16th birthday. where are you from? louisburg, west virginia. happy birthday. let s check your weather, see at s going on. astoria, oregon, news channel 8, showers, cool, 57 degrees. as we look at the country, you can see the storm system is moving away. that s good news getting the showers out here. got a little activity up around minnesota. duluth looking at some rain. more rain working its way through texas. some showers in the pacific northwest. sunny skies up and down the eastern seaboard. got sunshine through the southwest. some clouds in the upper mississippi river good morning. the potomac river levels have dropped about a foot since sterday. still likely there will be flooding in the alexandria waterfront. high tide around 9:30 this morning. cloudy skies, mid 40s. 46 in washington. should be climbing, though, into the 50s, perhaps to even near 60 by mid afternoon and may get a litt sun breaking out. clearing out tonight, upper 30s by dawn tomorrow. mostly sunny the rolling spring break continues. where you guys from? texas. all right. very nice. david? al, thank you. coming up next, kirstie alley is here to talk about her boit loweight loss struggles. we ll catch up with her. have you ever seen a glacier while sunbathing? why not? have you ever climbed a rock wall in the middle of the ocean? or tried something really wild? why not? it s all possible in the nation of why not. royal caribbean s floating nation where you are free to do anything you want. which may be nothing at all. royal caribbean international. call 1-800-royal caribbean or your professional travel agent today. there s a movement afoot in this country. a student-led revolution. people like me think it s time higher education was held to a higher standard. because it s time traditn no longer stood in the way of getting an education. people like me demand a different kind of university. one that puts my talent first. on-line. on campus. on my terms. it time a university recognized people like me. people like me. people like me. well, the tiguan s great. mm. and the routan has everything we re looking for. plus, every volkswagen includes no-charge, scheduled, care-free maintenance. so, what s this punchdub days about? 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[ computer beeps ] mom: mom, anybody? momhey.where s grandma?o? grandma: here! mom:ow d you fit in there? woman vo: manage your weight at unbeatable prices. woman vo: healthy living costs less at walmart. vo: save money. live better. walmart. emmy winning actress kirstie alley s life embattled with weight loss have been well documented. she s turning the cameras on herself in her new reality show, a big life. but first, a glimpse into kirstie s world. reporter: it s a reality few of us can imagine. being hounded by photographers and having your appearance constantly scrutinized. look at that! oh, my god, that is the ugliest thing i ve ever seen in my life. i look hideous. but you don t look like that. i do. reporter: for emmy-award winning actress kirstie alley who first rose to stardom in the 1980s hit show, cheers, it s a struggle she s shared with the public before. i mean is it so much to ask if i have my own television show again since that s what i do for a living? reporter: she played a thinly veiled version of herself in fat actress. have you called jenny yet? reporter: that same year, kirstie became the spokesperson for jenny craig and lost 75 pounds. in 2006 she made good on a promise to appear on oprah in a bikini. she s a brickhouse reporter: but over the next two years, the single mom of two gained the weight back. what really bothers me the most is that i let myself get that way in the first place, and then i lost it all, then i frickin let myself get that way again. reporter: kirstie has struggled with her weight for years. she s up, she s down, she s back up again. but i think that s what her fans love about her, she s relatable. reporter: so this time, kirstie is turning her weight loss journey into a business venture. welcome to kirstie alley s organic liaison. reporter: the plan costs over $1,700 for for year s membership and supply and supplements. kirstie is a well-known member of the church of scientology. many of these executives seem to be top-level scientologists. the company s headquarters is in clear water, florida, in the same building as one of the scientology offices. so there is a lot of questions about how close these two groups are and if this isn t really just a front for scientology. reporter: the actress says she s lost 20 pounds so far, but viewers will have to tune in to see whether this product can help her finally get to, and stay at, her goal weight. let s do this. kirstie alley, good morning to you. good morning. i wasn t going to start with the whole scientology controversy but i watched you watching that. it s such bull [ bleep ] can we see that? no, we nnot. it s bull-sha. it s not true. no connection between you and the church of scientology? no, nothing. and the top executives i m the top executive and the address in clear water is my accountant. he s a scientology jew. i mean what is the i don t know what to say to it. i think there are a lot of people, truth be told, who think anything connected to scientology is quackery. they look at diets and they start to wonder if any of the profits from this company go to scientology. no, they don t. no, i m way too cheap to do that. did you then we ll drop this but you re a devout scientologist. you talk a lot about the fact that you were addicted to cocaine and it was their drug rehab program that got you off it. yep. in the first place. do you apply any of the techniques that you learned back then to the addiction with food? is there a correlation between drug addiction and food addiction? well, instead of calling them addictions i just call them compulsions. is that a nice word for addiction? well, you think it puts it in a different category for me where i can just examine it a little bit better. addiction is sort of thrown out there all the time now. you know? i think that food is a little bit different in the aspect of it s legal, one. it is something that you re going to do every day. in one form or another. and i don t have i don t have people i didn t have people saying, yeah, do cocaine, yeah, it s really good for you. it s healthy, it makes you look good, it s great for you. food can be something that s something that really nourishes you and really makes you stronger and have more energy. there s all these benefits from it if you use it right. which you have not done in the past. you recently told your fans on twitter that you hate reality shows. yeah, i do. so why are you doing one? well because i think that there is a valid type of reality show. the reason i hate reality shows is because i don t like back-bity, snippy, mean, degraded shows. that s pretty much the arena of most reality shows. so i felt like there was a place where you could see my kids don t do drugs, you know? they re not banging down the booze. they re not our household is happy and we get along and we love each other and the people that work with us, my assistant s worked for me for 20 years. we have long-term people in the house and healthy relationships. yeah, we do. we re not all dysfunctional and but more importantly, we re not all mean to each other. i thought there was a valid arena to see something that was real, that wasn t mean. well, you also the point of this show is to take a look at your struggles with weight, among other things. you re going on a diet throughout the show. yeah. we ve seen you in those struggles before with fat actress, obviously you re a spokesperson for jenny craig. you lost a lot of weight, 75 pounds. you went on oprah, the famous shot of you, you were giggling when you saw yourself in the bathing suit. then you gained it back. what happened? you were doing so great. have you sat back and figured out why you back-tracked? you know, i haven t given a lot of thought to why. i ve given just more credence to did. so i didn t think i d ever get fat again but i m pretty hard-headed and i tried to quit smoking five times and then i finally quit smoking. when i decide to do it i think there was also a bit of an unreality, unlike whoever that reporter was that you had on there talkingbout how i ve yo-yoed all my life, it isn t true. i ve actually only spent about four years of my entire life fat. so i once i lost it the last time, i didn t think this would happen again. but when it started happening again, i realized i need to create something for me that helps me with two things. craving because that s a big deal for me, and wanting to eat too much. i ve eaten a lot of food my whole life because i was an athlete and i could just eat a lot of food and not gain weight. but those two things aren t true for me anymore so i had to create something. that s where i created my weight loss program which was to help me not crave and to not want to eat a lot of food. it s successful. how does it work exactly? well, there s three products basically. it s to called organic liain. it is one one product is called rescue me, the first certified usda organic product in the country. you drink it a it has all of these antioxidants and different things. but in combination with each other it actually makes you not crave. makes you not very hungry. but all organic. it is very healthy. are you sort of the guinea pig? i don t mean that in any negative no, guinea is a little pig. i m happy to be a guinea pig. has anybody else actually used this product? oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. we probably have 50 or 60 or more guinea pigs that have been doing it for the last however many months. we sort of rolled them out and rolled them out and rolled them out. one of my friends has lost over 55 pounds. i sort of had to start when we started the show. i ve been doing it since january. you ve lost 20 pounds so far. do you have a goal weight in mind, kirstie? yeah, i like the way i look at around 145 probably. i always set my goal too low because i think back on i think i need to weigh 120 pounds. i think those days are over of weighing 120 pounds. i think 145 is probably good. i m 5 8 . that seems like a very reasonable weight. we got a sneak peek of some of the first episode. there is a scene with you and your two kids, true who s 17, and lilly, who s 15. you re sitting on the bed and talking about the first time that the paparazzi or tabloids went after you about your weight. let s take a look at this and then talk. okay. you know, when i started out my career i weighed like 118. i think the first time they started doing the fat thing is when i was pregnant and i had a miscarriage. that was really upsetting. and i had actually gained 12 pounds, so they followed me around and then instead of talking about me having a miscarriage they talked about how fat i was. it was mean, evil. that s sick. so it means that fat pictures of me sell tons of magazines. when was that miscarriage? oh, god. i don t know? 1990? a long time ago. yes. i agree with you that you were a target of the paparazzi, but why do you think they focused so much on you? i think it sells magazines. that s all. it sells magazines. for whatever reason, if it didn t sell magazines i wouldn t be on the cover of them. i don t know. i had lch with elizabeth taylor once. she said you and i have something in common. we re always in the tabloids. we talked about how you can t quite figure out why because the paparazzi s followed me since the beginning of my career. do you worry now that they might follow your kids? they follow my kids anyway. i don t worry, they follow my kids to school, they follow my kids, they follow them anyway. so actually, now that we have cameras of our own, instead of ten paparazzi outside our house, there s about zero now. i think part of the reason u do the show is to take back ownership of your life, in a way. yeah, they don t like to be shot themselves. especially like their license plates of their cars they don t like to be photographed. i think they have little records and things. so we re ready and willing to shoot them in front of our house but they don t show up anymore. i also wonder, the whole notion of losing weight in a public way, like you did with jenny craig, or this. is that part of the plan that it puts more pressure on you, now you really got to do it because everody s really watching ery week? my life is about this much and my weight loss is about this much to me. i ve never decided i didn t think, i m going to be the pied piper for weight loss. but you ve sort of become that. i sort of did, because when i did jenny craig and i lost weight, people started looking at me in that way, and it was fun. i had fun doing it. i m having fun doing this. so i think more that now i am i do need to be sort of a role model, and whether it s self-appointed or outwardly appointed, i think that that s my responsibility now. were those folks at jenny craig really mad when you put the weight back on? no. they didn t i don t think so. they weren t over at my house like to hit me or anything. so you left them, they didn t say to you bye-bye. no, it was mutual. whenever you do a campaign for someone, you decide the angle of it. their decision was to make it a little bit more serious and my thing is that i liked doing the really funny silly ads and so i think that s pretty much what happened with us. kirstie, we have literally ten seconds. what s with the lemurs? can t you have a dog, like everything else? i do have dogs, too. i ve had lemurs for 30 years. that helps m learn children about madagascar. that helps m learn children about madagascar. we love you. look at how beautiful. childhood is calling. mmm. [ female announcer ] oscar mayer deli fresh meats. sliced, packed and sealed at the peak of freshness, they re impossible to resist. ah, you gonna eat all that? it doesn t get better than this i love you. so say hello to ocean spray 100% juice. and goodbye to added sugar. i thought we weren t adding any sugar. oh. okay, nobody use these cranberries over here. wore only what i was wild about. had a passion for pink. and pearls. i was a sucker for sequins. always knew what i loved, and insisted on wearing it. [ jazz horns blow ] because expressive is never excessive. i guess some women are destined to wear chico s. chicka boom boom boom, yeah, yeah honda accord and toyota camry stand behind their powertrain for up to 60,000 miles. chevy malibu stands behind theirs for up to 100,000 miles. which makes it pretty clear whose standing out front. a consumers digest best buy two years running. chevy malibu. compare it to anyone and may the best car win. now, qualified lessees get a low mileage lease on this 2010 malibu ls for around $199 a month. call for details. see your local chevy dealer. can your moisturizer do that? dermatologist recommended aveeno has an oat formula. now proven to build a moisture reserve. so skin can replenish itself. that s healthy skin for life. save at aveeno.com. isn t this how fiber should taste? eating well has never been so craveable. with quaker wild blueberry flavored multigrain fiber crisps. isn t this how whole grains should taste? eating well has never been so craveable with quaker caramel baked rice snacks. yeah. that and a dollar gets you a cup of coffee. 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( mockingly ) you hear about sully? 8:26 is your time now. cloudy skies overhead. tom says the sun will peak out today. you ll have the forecast right after the news. good morning, everyone. potomac river rose up over its banks along the georgetown waterfront yesterday. rising water has flooded roads in alexandria, virginia. high tide is expected to happen around 9:30. we ll take a quick break. back to the right? no, back here. how about over here? n let s go back the left. waffling is back at dunkin donuts. for a short time only, enjoy the return of the delicious oven-toasted waffle breakfast sandwich. america runs on dunkin . good morning. mostly cloudy and chilly. temperatures in the 40s now. with breaks in the clouds later on today, we should climb into the 50s near 60 degrees. clearing out tonight and chilly, into the upper0s by dawn on wednesday. during the day tomorrow, it should be mostly sunny and a bit lder. warmer for thursday and friday. morning lows 40s, afternoon highs in the mid and upper 60s. sunny on saturday. might get showers sunday afternoon and evening. now, jerry, how is the traffic? tom, on 395 nohbound, looks like things are beginning to break loose just a little bit. hopeful sign past landmark. one more stop along interstate 250. south out of gatorsburg down to the split. eun? thank you. we stole stick art for valentine s day. they re cute. they cost a dollar. we decided to sell valentine parts to our entire school and we raised over $4,000! and they have the cash to prove it. that s lindsey richards first grade class in san antonio, texas showing off their fund-raiser for earthquake victims in haiti. they re visiting the world of harry potter at universal orlando. they are all hanging out here waiting to hear a little bit more about our wizarding world contest. it is a chance for your kid s class to be there this spring for the grand opening celebration. find out about contest details by going to our website, todayshow.com. you only have until next friday. i broke into kathie lee s candy stash. we have to remind people kirstie alley s big life premiers this sunday on a&e. just ahead, some daily time savers have will keep you squeeze a few extra minutes out of your day. and saving somemoney. you ever have stale bread around the house? we ll show you how to save it. inside sober house, a vh1 reality show where they help treat celebrities battling drug and alcohol adrix. let s say hello to cheryl from the biggest loser. your starting weight was 227 pounds. you left the ranch at 182 pounds but you look skinnier than that. how much weight have you lost since then? i am 162. congratulations. that s fantastic. why do you think you were voted off? you were like the third-highest weight loss why did they give you the boot? i think it all comes down to the young and the old, the younger pretty much voting the older ones off. what s up with that? yeah! how has it been getting back into the working world and keeping the weight off? well, it s different, but i know it is going to be a life-long journey and something i m going to have to do for the rest of my life. so, yeah. your son s still at the ranch. right? yes, he is. how s he doing? he s doing great. meanwhile, you formed a life-long bond with one of the contestants, sherri. how important and crucial was it having that bond at the ranch? well, it was great because your children really when you re there end up working pat a different capacity or intense. and when i worked with sherri, we were there, we pushed each other and it s just you will be life-long friends. definitely, yes. food s a big part of your family s get-togethers and things. how have you changed that to deal with your newfound lifestyle? well, everybody in my family is really learning to eat clean and we are all cooking. do you now like carrots more than carrot cake? i would have to say so. really! i thought i had you there. this is a temptation here. what we deal with every day. you can always have a bite. you don t have to eat the whole thing. that s right, it s all about portion control and moderation. you ought to think about that when you re drinking. cheryl, you look fantastic. congratulations to you. you can catch an all-new episode of the big es l bigges couple couples tonit on nbc. now al has a check of the weather. we ll show you for today we ve got a pretty nice day along the eastern seaboard, little breezy still. rain moves in to the pacific northwest. showers in texas, sunshine in the southeast. tomorrow, st. patrick s day, we re looking at mild conditions here in the northeast. great weather for the st. patrick s day parade here in new york city. also in chicago. north carolina they ve got a big parade with be too. sunshine and warm in the southwest, some showers though in the pacific northwest. that s what tommy good morning. looking off to the west, live view from our sky watcher camera, showing a few breaks in the cloud cover but overall it is still a mostly cloudy. and the temperatures around the region are in the 40s, now 46 at reagan nationa airport. and we will see it climb, though, into the 50s, perhaps even near 60 with more sun by this afternoon. clearing out tonight. upper 30s tomorrow morning. mostly sunny tomorrow in the low 60s and sunny and mi and that s yush your latest weather. let s head down and say hello to willard scott. top of the morning, patio furniture. you know who else has a fantastic st. patrick s day parade? savannah. i m not sure that wasn t one of the first ones. don t forget now, plant your potato tomorrow. if you live in an apartment, put it in a pot but that s good luck. an irish potato, you plant it on st. patrick s day. you wait. things will happen for you. check it out. happy birthday to aun of our birthday buddies in tv land from our friends at smucker s, the pride of orville, ohio, the reverend carl alexander of paducah. i used to be a duke of paducah. paducah, kentucky. 100 years old. preaches at the local church every sunday and can quote bible by memory. how about that? attributes his longevity to eating healthy. i know just how he feels. grace hanley of johnson city, new york. 100 years old today. retired teacher. believes that turning 100 is in the genes. why? because her sister is 102 and i think she s absolutely right. now we have elfreda corlett, galesburg, illinois. 100 years old. attributes longevity staying positive, good sense of humor. loves helping the family cook. i like to cook. mary zbikowski of brick, new jersey, 100 years old today. always the last person to leave the dance floor at parties. enjoys going to the beach with her family and selecting seashells. a lot of people love that. and we have charles ricci of anchorage, alaska. probably warmer than it is here. 100 years old today. still drives. brought a brand-new car in 2006. loves growing vegetables in his garden and is famous for his cucumbers. in alaska, they can grow 40-pound cabbages. did you know that? do you care? frances nordstrom, from right here in ft. meyers, florida. that s how she s lived to be 100. played golf until she was 92. attributes her longevity to the love she feels for her late husband, carl. now back to the big guy in new york. willard, thank you. coming up, time savers you ll want to find. but first this is today on nbc. announcer: today s working woman is brought to you by mcdonald s. i m lovin it. this morning on today s working woman, daily time savers. if you struggle to pack everything in to your day, we have the author of just let me lie down, necessary terms f the half insane working mom. kristin, good morning to you. real simple did a survey. 85% of the women you polled say they did not have enough time in their day, not a surprise at all. was there a specific time of day that was worse? the morning, for sure. 62% said the morning. so what we re going to talk about today is just great strategies to kind of for many of us working moms and non-working women and men just getting out of the house is really tough. we re going to look at time savers. these are multi-tasking products. right. first, this to me is revolutionary, a spf that s a cleanser. it is a cleanser that s an spf. there are a lot of things you can do multi-tasking in the shower. this cleanser for your face has an spf. i would add an additional spf when you get out, but for people who forget that sort of thing, this is great to start with. this is a oil love. it is a fragrance and moisturizer in one. dry oils come in a million different scents and price points, but it is sort after multi-tasking thing. what s that mean, dry oil? it just means when you spray it on you don t have to most oils we spray you have to wait to put your clothes on. you don t have to wait. dries instantly. this is a towel that dries your hair faster. this is like a miracle towel. it is made of this fabric called angel text. it dries your hay ir, 33%. pack your hair, go do something else. a great tip is to not dry your hair in the bathroom after you ve just showered because it is so damp in there. go in another room. between that and going to another room half the time. half the time. getting dressed can always be a production in the morning. this dress not a problem modeled by olga. this dress is by norma komali. at least seven ways dressed. from walmart. i m getting nervous what olga can do. she s going to model a couple of different ways for us. isn t that amazing? it is so drapy and the fabric is so forgiving. because it is so cheap you can get this in a bunch of colors. right. mix it up even more. you can see, she can make it into a halter dress which is just sleeves into halter. it is a great idea. it is a great idea. while olga keeps switching on the dress, let s go over to the multi-purpose bag. this is a bag that can go from work to gym and beyond. one thing that s great about this bag is you can wear it as a messenger bag, wear it ourier shoulder, it can fit work things. find one great multi-purpose stylish bag. it is cute, too. weekday and weekend. you mentioned the kids and organizing them in the morning when they are getting dressed. if you take a humble sweater organizer, this has six compartments. depending on how fashiony and picky your children are, you can take five days worth of closing with shoes at the bottom and plan the week on a sunday afternoon, what a good tip is to sort of let your kids this is kind of obvious, but let them help you pick the stuff so they are a little more accepting. at what age do you think can you start giving them that little bit of responsibility? i would say really early. i have 25-year-old, a 2-year-ol. he can put on his own coat and hat. we can do this together but he d never argue it. the cubby area, if you organize it well is half the battle. this is a command station. there are lots of products you can buy to have one of these ready-made. olga is still doing different outfits. she s gone past seven. but we ve built one that has different areas that function differently for different members of the family. you ll see down here if you have a child who plays sports, backpack, sporting equipment, practice, be school. this is one kid s spot. this is another kid s spot. bally. mom with her laptop, gym clothes. it is good to have this set up near a power outlet so you can charge things that need to be charged. that s a smart idea. everything is there, just grab it to go in the morning. here you can see, this is snack material. just basically customize it for your kids backpacks. up here, baskets, school forms, things you don t want your kids involved with. this is for mom up here. you want to be able to know you got the right kid with the right form. add a perishable lunch, you re good to go. meals take a lot of time. you have recipes here. this is 30-minute salmon. everything in this except the fresh stuff, salmon, salad ingredients, watercress and radishes comes from the pantry. th use frozen hash browns. this is in the april issue of real simple. just let me lie down, you take on life as a working mom. what are the biggest struggles you have day in and day out? getting my kids to hang up their coats. that s 33% of my life. i have a 14-year-old, right by the front door. that s a big one. reading long e-mail chains that have reply all. that s another third of my life. common to a lot of working moms. you can take a pill and stay in bed the rest of your life or you can laugh. i m choosing to laugh. kristin, thank you so much. a quick look at all of olga s different outfits, but first this is today. 8:48 now. this morning on today s kitchen back to basics, stale bread. this is not only for the birds. old bread can be the base of many delicious meals. my friend jose andres is here with us this morning. jose, good morning. good morning. stale bread. a lot of people, i could this is hard. it s stale. don t throw it away. don t throw it away! stale bread is great. what are we going to do with it here? why we don t make breadcrumbs? breadcrumbs cost $2, $3. you have a greater put your favorite music, your favorite rhythm, and look at. you have beautiful, fresh breadcrumbs. you can do something with that. you can save a little money. soup. soup. i grew up with this one. you need to remember always to turn the fire on. always. it is the first lesson in cooking, people of america. so you put olive oil. garlic. everyone loves garlic. you put the garlic, and you start browning the garlic little bit. you don t want color in this garlic. no brown. just nice and white, all the aromas come out. and the bread. you put your children to break the bread in pieces. you ve got wine here though. wine is for drinking. while you re cooking. we always have that leftover bottle we don t know what to do with? it is always good to have it. we put the paprika. now add little bit of the bread. bread or wine? wine. i was only making sure you you good. my wife told me, make sure david learns this recipe. then little bit of water. how much? all. everything in. this is chicken stock. if you want to do it fancier, if you have the time to make a batch, chicken stock. but my mother always made it with water and it was delicious. let s see what you do cracking the egg. one, two, three no! over here! i got carried away. okay. but actually it is a common mistake. we are changing the recipe. look at what happened, the egg is coagulating inside. also you can and then you can two different approaches. see what happened? you have this beautiful soup, very silky. the bread that was stale, all of a sudden is full of life. you want to taste it? i would like to taste it. we have time? sure. take a look. we have more to get to. see the egg looks like that s right. egg drop juice. a lot of people s watching. you have to lie. it s fantastic. no, i need to see your face with more oh! so follow me. so we have more stale bread. we have some shallots. olive oil. the pan is hot. we have the mushrooms. if you have mushrooms. we have thyme. we are making migas here. now the whole thing is saute. you want some prosciutto or some ham from virginia, then you atd bread. you saute the whole thing. keep the eggs away from me. david! wow! david! let s get moving. here we have looks beautiful. you put some grapes. you use mushrooms, we can use other stuff there. you can use sausage. you can use some egg. you can throw an egg right in the middle. if i give it to you. then to finish, we have some apple sauce. if you don t have the time or you get some apples and you cook the apples with butter, sugar, in the end you have like a marmala marmalade. get some brioche. dip it in butter, put it inside. you fill ery one with an apple. put it in the oftenen 355 for 55 minutes. in the end if you do everything i told you, every time. a beautiful bread pudding with apples. this is a staple. huh? this is the number one selling dessert in washington, d.c. back in a moment. this is today on nbc. still ahead, a 15-minute workout you can do any time, anywhere. you re going to need it. huh? plus, celebrities hoping to overcome drug and alcohol addiction. inside sober house. 8:56 is your time now. much-needed sunshine is on the way. tom will have your forecast after the news. i m eun yang. montgomery county could be laying off hundreds of its employees under the proposed budget. it calls for cutting more than 450 county jobs, including do n dozens of police positions. he also recommends a ten-day furlough for nonpublic safety employees. montgomery county is facing a deficit of nearly $780 million. elephants parading around downtown washington today, to kick off its new show, ringling brothers, barnum & bailey will paragra good morning. temperatures now in the 40s. with the sunshine later, we should make it to almost 60. mild tomorrow and warmer for thursday and friday with sunshine. how is the traffic, jerry? in through southeast, couple of problems at the bridges which have all cleared. quick check along the way, outer loop beginning to bog down a bit over the american legion bridge. last check, lanes are open. eun? thank you, jerry. dropping pound business popping here she is. pretty cool, huh? yeah, but. what happened to the back there? well, here s the thing: this was the only sporty two-seater they had on my budget. uh-huh. and the seats go all the way back. (announcer) settling for less is not smart. what is smart is getting more car for your money at carmax. for the money you d spend on a stripped down new car, you could get a fully loaded, guaranteed-quality used car at carmax. now more than ever, the smart choice is carmax. the way car buying should be. back now once again with more of today on this tuesday morning, the 16th of march, 2010. got the sunshine out there, little on the chilly side but the promise of warmer weather coming soon. i m al roker inside along with natalie morales and david gregory. matt is on assignment, as is ann. coming up in the next half-hour, the latest on o the widespread flooding after the weekend nor easter. rivers beginning to crest, hundreds of thousands of folks are still without power. we ll go to just outside of wants where a state of emergency has been declared. also new photographs of tiger woods with his wife, elin. the first photos of the couple together again since the sex scandal broke in november. we ll talk with dr. drew pinsky about the effort to keep tiger s marriage together. the economic downturn has affected most industries in the u.s., especially the housing market. but our real estate expert barbra corcoran says five cities are showing stronger signs of recovery. barbara knows. ann is on assignment so natalie has a check of the headlines. utility crews sll working hard to restore power to hundreds of thousands of homes in the northeast following last weekend s massivetorms forcing many from their homes monday in new england. julie martin is outside boston in billerica, massachusetts. good morning. reporter: good morning. after four days of torrential rain, the people of new england finally getting a chance to dry out. unfortunately, a lot of them are going to be spending this day drying o and mopping up as a result of widespread flooding. we have river flooding here along the river here spilling out in the roadways here. this situation is playing out all over the northeast, including rhode island. i want to take you to cranston where a number of boat rescues are taking place. concern over a dam breaking due to water. as much as nine inches of rain has fallen in some parts. we re still dealing with the widespread power outage situation as well. a real mess in the northeast. as far as the forecast, it looks a lot better. dry conditions throughout the rest of the week here. the rivers are expected to begin receding today, into tomorrow. while that situation will be improving, natalie, the folks here still, unfortunately, have this situation to deal with and that is going to take some time. it sure is a mess there. julie martin, thanks so much. in north dakota, and minnesota, residents there are concerned about potential flooding along the red river because of melting snow. volunteers are filling sandbags and heavy machines and shoring up levees. the red river s expected to crest on saturday. today a suspected u.s. missile strike killed at least nine people in northwest pakistan. it also destroyed a suspected militant compound. tragedy at hilton head, south carolina where a man walking or jogging on the beach monday was killed when a plane made an emergency landing. the pilot said oil leang from the plane blocked his windshield and his vision and he could not see the man. a man convicted of stalking and secretly videotaping espn reporter erin andrews and posting nude images of her on the internet was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison monday. andrews told michael barrett, you violated me and you violated all women. a retaining wall at a cleveland parking lot collapsed on monday sending enormous blocks of stone falling on top of cars. not clear what caused it but no one was hurt. today the federal reserve board is expected to keep interest rates steady when it wraps up a policy setting meeting but it may signal where rates will go in the future and when. and chess as a contact sport? in london, recently it was called chess boxing. a mix of brains and brawn. two men went toe-to-toe in the boxing ring, then in between rounds they played chess before fighting again. you wonder why they re wearing those headphones? apparently they play heavy metal music in their ears while they re playing chess, so that way they don t get any cues from the audience. david and i play that. it s great. you know? wow. that s a mixing of disciplines right there. oh, boy. mr. roker, it is getting warmer here in the east. we ll take it. absolutely. we have three areas of precip today to worry about. low pressure moving away finally from the northeast. th will finally take some of the wind and allow high pressure to build in, much nicer weather. we also have an upper-level low spinning around texas that s going to bring rain there with that subtropical jet bringing showers through the gulf coast, on into florida tomorrow. also light shower activity through the extreme pac a cloudy start to this tuesday. good morning. temperatures around the region now in the mid and upper 40s at 48 in washington and it should climb into the upper 50s, perhaps to near 60 for a brief time mid afternoon with a little sun breaking out. clearing tonight. upper 30s by dawn tomorrow. mostly sunny wednesday. highs tomorrow in the low 60s. bright and sunny thursday and friday and even a bit milder. here is a look at the weekend. mostly sunny saturday, increasing clouds sunday. maybe showers later in the day. that s your latest weather. natalie? al, thank you. the tiger woods sex scandal, the death of former child star corey haim, the growing problem of sex, drugs and alcohol addiction continues to make headlines. enter dr. drew pinsky. eight celebrities are once again turning to h to help them kick their addictions for good in the second installment of sober house with dr. drew on vh1. before we get to the new season of sober house, talk about the latest with tiger woods. we re seeing these newest pictures. first pictures we re seeing of tiger back with his wife, elin, as a couple. is sex addiction though life-long? what kind of work do they still have to do here? it is like many addictions in that it is a long-term chronic condition. but people for instance, patrick carnes, st of the grandfather of the treatment of sex addiction, says it takes, on average, three to five years of intensive treatment to completely treat sex addiction. the fact that they are together is a very positive sign. these marriages can end up in a very good place but we ll see whether these two survive. what are the biggest i guess challenges that he will have to face? well, the biggest challenge is usual turning back to work. people that make a lot of money that have a big infrastructure around them are often pulled back to the limelight before they should get there. it is the same as any other addiction. for instance, robert downey is a great example of this. he kept going back to work, back to work, relapsing. finally he said my life is more important than my work. i ll focus on my recovery. now he has a flourishing career. people are very cynical when it comes to the whole sex addiction rehab thing. you have a totally different viewpoint doing what you do. but what did tiger really learn in rehab? he s learning. in looking at his apology, i m not sure that he learned that much, in fact. you didn t believe that apology? i believed the apology but he was so negative on himself, i m bad, i m a horrible person. that s not the point. the point is he has a condition that took him to an unbelievable place he never thought he d go and he s getting help. the fact that some of the cynicism comes in it is just an excuse because the wife found out. but look, any addiction, whether a chemical addiction or sex addiction, it is not the added step, it s usually courts and families that refer them, when they hit a bottom with consequences that they are brought into treatment. same thing is true with sex addiction. it comes out, the family brings them in. the other big story, it seems sadly every time you re here we re talking about a celebrity passing away from what appears to be some sort of addiction, drug addiction. in this case, corey hm who passed away last week battled a life-long addiction to drugs. we don t know exactly cause of death yet. toxicology report has not been released but now we learn the attorney general is in fact investigating whether or not an illegal prescription drug ring could have been linked to his death. the dock for s identity may have been used to get illicit painkillers. addicts get drugs no matter how. the story is not that an addict dies. people have got to remember, addiction is a fatal condition. it s more likely to kill you than the vast majority of cancers. strangely enough, when i say you have addiction, people want to fight. when i say cancer, theyant to be airlifted. the story now though is that it is killing young people and killing at the hands of pharmaceutical medication and doctors. not just? hollywood. even though we see the headlines and hollywood stars you and i have talked about this a few times. seems like every time i ve been here, i keep saying the same thing. this is the leading crest of a tsunami. this is how my patients are dying today. they are dying young addicts patients. dying young, dying of pharmaceuticals. mixing. if you have addiction, you re on one of those, your life is in harm s way. are doctors really to blame here? i won t blame doctors. it is a very complicated topic. he may have been in this case on some medicines appropriately. but you got to get off them and get intensive treatment afterwards. if you re on them, you re in harm s way if you re an addict. i know your casting department had contacted him about possibly appearing on your show. let me be clear. i don t get involved in the casting. i can t say, now we got a problem, wait until three months until the cameras heat up and we ll treat you. i would have to say we ll treat you right now. i can tell you for sure that all the previous programs we had done his name came up every time and i can tell you people have reached out to him many times but he never followed through. meanwhile, second season of sober house. you took some of the same cast members from last time around, now dealing with the real world, all living together under the same roof again but trying to get back to real life. that s the sober living sort of intent. in this case this particular group is unstable. sizemore, heidi fleiss, the experience was good. i ve just been talking to a lot of them. some are doing very, very well. they feel the like the experience was good but, boy, it was intense. i had to be much more involved. you almost had to live at the house? i almost did. last week i watched the episode. i said if i m here it is because somebody needs resuscitation because i really shouldn t be up at the house. tom sizemore showed up with a speed pipe? he s an addict. s he using it? no, he was not using. if you remember in celebrity rehab, he had heroin, speed hidden all over our unit five minutes after being there. in this case he found some stash found that we found that we were just sort of looking through paraphernalia and found it. are you making any progress with dennis rodman? last season he was under court order. not really compliant. poor dennis. any break-throughs? yes. he softens quite a bit. his mom could not be a more delightful person. we brought her in. we brought in specialists to deal with neuro biological problems. neuro biological? brain. dennis, god love him, he did okay. he pea a tough one to crack. dr. drew pinsky, great job, as always. thank you so much for talking to us on all those different subjects. sober house premiers this thursday night on vh1. next, glimmers of hope in the real estate market. we ll show you the five best cities to buy a home. and then later on, staying fit in just 15 minutes. we ve got some moves you can do any time, anywhere. we promise. first, these messages. gerber good start infant formulas. 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[ giggles ] can you believe how fast kids grow these days? and since 90% of bone strength is developed before adulthood. it s so important that they get enough calcium every day. that s why there s new danonino. danonino! unlike leading kids yogurts, danonino has twice the calcium of milk, ounce per ounce, with vitamin d. so it s power packed for healthy growth. and its rich creamy taste is. yummy! so they can start building strong bones today. for stronger bodies tomorrow. new danonino from dannon. power packed to help kids grow. ladies, raise your spoons. now there s nothing left standing between you and a satisfying breakfast. introducing special k low-fat granola. with 50% less fat than the leading granola. and 5 grams of fiber per serving, it s a satisfying way to help you manage your weight. special k low-fat granola a taste of freedom. in morning on today s rea estate, cities that are leading the housing recovery. with low unemployment and affordable homes, there are five cities starting to bounce back from this recession. today real estate contributor barbara corcoran is here to tell us about it. go over the criteria to make your picks. if you have a city that everyone can t afford a home, that city didn t going to rebound. low rates of foreclosures keep houses from piling up. then the guy down the street can sell his house. home price appreciation, either starting to go up or already rebounding in most of these cities. strong job market and low unemployment, these are people to buy homes. if they didn t make the cut because they just didn t have enough jobs ty were out of the pickings. start with number one, charleston, west virginia. average home costs $123,000. 1 out of almost 4,000 homes go into foreclosure. that s only one-tenth the national average. picture that for a minute. they re doing a great job there. price drops have leveled off there, only 1% decline in prices in the last two years. they re just starting a tip up in the other direction. they have low unemployment and the city in every respect culturally, financially, jobwise is on the verge of recovery. it has great economic underpinnings and as it great city. both. you don t want to get a great deal on real estate if you re not going to love living there. four, memphis, tennessee. 1 out of 400 homes are in foreclosure. unemployment at 10%. but you have to really realize that prices are up there in memphis by 21%. wow! how come? for a lot of reasons. the main reason is jobs. in memphis they have four interstates and four railroads that all intersect. it is totally converted memphis into a giant distribution center. so they ve attracted heavy-hitters like federal express, as well as many of the big companies that just never lived there before. population as a result has grown by 7%. whenever you dump in 7% more people, what happens is they all need housing. supply and demand. you got it. as simple as that. number three, phoenix, arizona. unemployment at 8.2%. 1 out of 150 homes are in foreclosure. but it is also just i guess a geographically desirable place as well. yes. everyone knows that phoenix is a great city. it is the strongest one in arizona, it has the big sky they re famous for, the mountains, those giant cactuses you usually only see in cartoons. people are fascinated with that. house prices were hammered here early. it was one of the first cities to drop down. 85% of the population today could afford the homes. a house there is only $144,000. that low? 85% of people can easily afford that house there. what you really see here is the upside of a downside market. a great recreational environmental state as well. definitely as well. now let s head to number two. this one is surprising to me. pittsburgh, pennsylvania. you know why? because everybody thinks of pittsburgh as a steel city. pittsburgh has been smart enough to totally re-invent itself. today they ve aggressively gone out after new businesses and their job base has biomedical, finance, health care. steel is a tiny portion of their job market so it doesn t really count much anymore. the prices as a result have gone up by a full 5% in the last year alone. they ve invested a lot in infrastructure in the pittsburgh area. they have been very aggressive politically and economically in reaching out for business. that s been the key to turning around that city. the number one pick san francisco. 1 out of almost 750 homes are in foreclosure, which is way below e national average. unemployment at 8.2%. beyond the numbers, san francisco, when the bubble burst, it lost fully one-third of its value in the next two years. it was hit hard and early but it is still one of the most popular cities in the united states for people to migrate to. it s also a port to the asian markets and all of that business that comes from there. they have few houses, construction s limited, and the foreclosures haven t even touched the core neighborhoods. they re all out in the perimeter of san francisco. honorable mention, columbus, ohio. my brother-in-law lives there. i like him a lot. then i m happy i included that today. 9 out of 10 people can afford the city for $133,000. that s the home price. despite the foreclosure rate, despite it because it is still high here in columbus prices are coming back strong. it has a diverse economy and a revitalized downtown. and family people love living in columbus. of course. then ohio state, you know? not a bad team. barbara corcoran, thanks so much. if you have any questions for barbara, check out our website at todayshow.com. coming up today, 80s hunk kirk cameron. all grown up and taking on co-hosting duties with hoda kotb. first, these messages. can you believe how fast kids grow these days? that s why there s new danonino. new danonino has twice the calcium of milk, ounce per ounce, with vitamin d. so it s power packed for healthy growth. yummy! new danonino from dannon. power packed to help kids grow. okay, dark circles. i ve seen enough! introducing anew reversalist eye system. another first from avon. part one brightens instantly. part two lightens the look of dark circles within weeks. my eyes look bright and awake and alive. anew reversalist does it. and only avon has it. now you can have it. anew reversalist eye system. with a love it or return it guarantee. call 1-800-for-avon or go to avon.com to find a representative today. call 1-800-for-avon or go to avon.com (announcer) right now, all over the country, discover card customers are getting five percent cashback bonus at grocery stores. it pays to get more, it pays to discover. let s go to last night s highlights. there s mom and dad cleaning up. and there s the meatloaf. yuck. look what sometimes happens with the ordinary bag. it slips, oh, bingo, it falls in. mom was mad. mom should have used glad forceflex with the new stretchable drawstring that grips the can and stays in place. plus, it has the stretchable strength of forceflex. that all toda for glad tv. both: don t get mad get glad! and this is the warm fresh baked taste. of a strawberry toaster strudel. see the difference? pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. calling all canines and their top owners. if you think your pup has charisma and great thinking, send us a one-minute video showing us why he or she deserves the title. logon to todayshow.com. why are you laughing? that animation. coming up on get fit today, no equipment? no problem. how to work out any time, anywhere after your local news and weather. frequently. maintain a well-balanced diet, get plenty of rest. and support your immune system. for a full 24 hours with patented ester-c. taken daily, ester-c gets into your system quickly. and stays all day to provide. up to 24 hours of immune support. now more than ever, trust your immune health. to clinically tested ester-c. the better vitamin c. to clinically tested ester-c. why do women like you love activia light? sometimes i have no choice but to eat on the run. and to eat whatever happens to be around. heavy greasy food that s hard on my diet. and my digestive system. so i eat activia light every day. activia light, with bifidus regularis is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system. mmmm. the new taste is better than ever. and with only 70 calories activia light helps make it easier to watch my weight. it helps me feel good and look good too! activia! 9:26 is your time now. sunshine trying to peak through. good news in the weather. tom will have your forecast after the news. good morning. i m eun yang. in the news today, metro has n narrowed its pick for director of safety. james daurty is who they want for the top safety job. considering this one of the most important vacancies in metro s senior ranks during a very difficult time of the transit agency. metro has not made an offer to daughtery or anyone yet for the chief safety job, which has been vacant since mid september. the circus is coming to town. to kick off its show, the annual elephant walk will be presented today. 1:00 this afternoon, they ll march in front of the capital and then the national mall. it will be at the verizon center from march 18th through the 21st. good morning. high tide on the potomac right now, flooding under way. through the rest of the day, we ll have sunshine breaking out, with highs near 60. sunny, a bit warmer tomorrow and even warmer thursday and friday. jerry? 66 eastbound at 123, jammed to an accident on the shoulder now at natalie street. one more stop, check out the beltway north of town. finally movement getting around to silver springs. eun? thank you, jerry. dropping pounds by popping pills. the new drug that claims to treat obesity, tomorrow morning at 5:55. i think think i forgot something. i tell you, matt and i are going to give you the scoop on what we do when we hang out together off-air. that s just one of the questions we re answering tomorrow on today as we get to the bottom of your most freakily asked questions. you will you a have to tune in tomorrow to find out. weapons are always involved. coming up in this half-hour, you don t have to have a weapon. maybe you don t have time for the gym but you can t afford one. or you are always on the road. we ll show you some different ways that you can work out. only takes about 15 minutes. so they say. you can do them any time, anywhere to stay fit. once you are toned you ll want to put your best face forward. make sure the clorox bottle is closed. that could really yeah. that would be a disaster. what have you done to your hair? i m just bleaching it. meanwhile, upstairs, bobbi brown will show you how to give your face pop of color. if your kid have already headed to school, set the tivo. the best-selling diary of a womenky kid book series now coming to a theater near you. we ll meet the stars and author of the great book. it is all about life in middle scoop. we saw the movie over the weekend. it is really funny. so glad there are good kid s movie to look forward to. for today, sunshine returns to the east. rain into the pacific northwest. showers move through texas. we got sunny skies back through the plains. for tomorrow, we continue with the sunshine, more mild weather for st. patrick s day. showers along the golf good morning. it is cloudy and chilly on this tuesday morning. temperatures are still in the 40s and the wind is picking up a bit, too, out of the north and northwest, gusting to around 20 miles an hour. 48 in washington. high today, though, should make it into the upper 50s, perhaps near 60 with sun breaking out this afternoon. we should clear out tonight. by dawn tomorrow, be in the upper 30s and then sunny on wednesday, low 60s. sunny and milder for thursday and friday, into the mid and upper 60s. should stay dry saturday. and that s your latest weather. al, thank you. coming up next, have brush, will travel. bobbi brown has the freshest looks for spring. with two scoops! of raisins harvested at the peak of sweetness, and golden flakes of bran with 28% of their daily fiber, nothing gets your family s day off to a brighter start. than the goodness of kellogg s raisin bran cereal. feed their sunny side. is the farmer s vegetable patch, right? there s a full serving of vegetables in every manwich. so you re made of vegetables, yet you re eating vegetables? exactly. 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[ female announcer ] new neutrogena® clinical skincare from the number one dermatologist recommended brand. love to see kids spirits shine. superstar and mom, martina mcbride and sunnyd shine on sunny taste. sunny spirit. sunny d. can you believe how fast kids grow these days? and since 90% of bone strength is developed before adulthood. it s so important that they get enough calcium every day. that s why there s new danonino. danonino! unlike leading kids yogurts, danonino has twice the calcium of milk, ounce per ounce, with vitamin d. so it s power packed for healthy growth. and its rich creamy taste is. yummy! so they can start building strong bones today. for stronger bodies tomorrow. new danonino from dannon. power packed to help kids grow. this morning on today s beauty, embracing color for spring. today s beauty editor bobbi brown says it is the perfect season to experiment with bright and bold hues. bobbi, good morning. bold for me is navy. but you re telling people not to be afraid of color. it could be a pink scarf, makeup, it could be nails. it will brighten your face, make you being that much younger. not younger, just better. youthful. happy. it doesn t mean powder blue eye shadow and fuchsia lipstick. exactly. you need the right tone. you say don t wear color everywhere and do find colors that work well together. exactly. first, make sure that you like the color and make sure it works with your skin tone. pastels look better with fairer skin and deeper, brighter color looks better with darker skin. if you re more olive-toned, it is a difficult in-between. it is not pale pink but maybe more of a peony color. we have two models today. this is dina first, showing us her morning routine. her mom, kathy, by the way videotaped this for us. she told our producer she s not afraid of color. she uses it but it is not exactly what you re seeing. right? when you get the final effect. she was telling me she uses a lot of nude colors, very natural earthy colors. what should she be doing differently as we look at dina here now with us? dina has she s wearing a yellow shirt. that is one way to add color. but yellow what color goes with it? it would not be an orange color so i m going to do a little bit of a pink blush. when you do the brighter blush, make sure that you apply it to the apple of the cheek, blend into the hairline and down. you don t want color just sitting on the cheek. you should only wear color on two places. there s the cheek. that s a little bit pinker than her normal kind of tawny color. then lips. red would be too much. i think i will go for the pink. and staying away from therangey hues. that would clash with the yellow. she also has a lot of red in her skin. the modern lip is really almost line seine. i m using a matte lipstick. mattes are back. that seems to be the trend. mattes are back. the trick is to not have a perfectly applied lip. either use you finger and stain it, it doesn t have to be like overdone. it is not about a pencil. it s just bright. one of my other tricks, you can even take a little bit of the lipstick. i know this is going to be a lot on tv. that s the way to wear color. her eyes you kept more neutral. color on two parts of the face and tt s it. our next model will have it on the eyes. our next models that s color, ladi. over here we have dina and dina also i m sorry. sara. gorgeous. she s got pretty much a nude face on and she actually has a neutral cheek on. i m going to show how you can wear color. it is not just applying a bright, bright color. but this is a nice orchid color and it is a shadow. close for a second. what you do is you do a little bit of color on the lid, and she s the reason it really works is because she s got a dark liner. just color by itself doesn t work. open for a second. see just a little bit of color. pretty. smokey. so the trick is, if you have your neutrals from last spring, just add a little bit of color for this spring. can you use the pallets that you have left over from last year? eye shadow lasts for a couple of years where mascara doesn t and lipstick doesn t. doesn t be afraid to play with texture. i m going to give a little bit of shimmer on the inner corner. it is a little bit of a lilac shimmer. and it is a little bit brighter. but we use the whole pallet. we lined her eyes with a dark color. those are gorgeous colors. this is the blush that goes with it. when there s color on the eye it s not about the runway. when i do makeup for the runway it is ridiculous color. real life, it is about real color. you you a look gorgeous, ladies! thank you so much. bobbi brown, thank you. next, gather up the kids because the diary of a wimpy kid gets ready for the big screen. l those little voices in your head that say, look at that wrinkle. [ female announcer ] introducing the eraser foundation from maybelline. our patented applicator and formula with collagen goes beyond covering. micro-corrects, micro-erases signs of aging. the eraser. only from maybelline new york. food myth number 22. nothing s better after a long day than a giant plate of lettuce. c mon. who s satisfied with that? with lean cuisine you can enjoy dishes that are nutritious and. are you sitting down?. delicious, too! take their new spa apple cranberry chicken. they put in grilled chicken, whole wheat pilaf. sweet cranberries. farm-picked veggies. and an apple reduction sauce. plus 6 grams of fiber. cranberries got you thinking red? turn to page 57 for the red that suits you. lean cuisine. keep life delicious. go-gurt is specially made to freeze and thaw by lunch time? so kids can have their favorite yogurt in their lunch box go-gurt. freeze it. thaw it. eat it up. if you ve got tweens or young kids you may want to head to the movies this friday. because the diary of a wimpy kid book series are going hollywood. the cartoon stick figures from the book are now on the big screen in human form. zach gordon plays greg hepley. this is so we saw the movie over the weekend and, jeff, a lot of authors you talk to are no so thrilled when they see the movie up on the big screen. i would think you ve got to be pretty pleased with this. i m really happy. i entered into this as a collaboratiowith the studios and producers. i stayed with the movie from the beginning until the end. it was really an education and pleasure for me. a lot of books you imagine what the character looks like. greg and rowley are stick figures, cartoons in your books. do you think these guys look like your stick figure cartoons? i think rowley looks like his character. but everybody had a different idea of what they would look like but i think zach brought the personality of greg to life. zach, i understand you were a little disappointed when you heard the movie was coming out. how come? well, actually after i read the book, i told my mom i wanted to produce a movie about this book, direct it, star in it, write it. i wanted to do everything possible to make a movie about this book. but at least you re starring in it. that s not so bad. you know? it s good. it s all good. it s all good? and robert, what about you? what is it like playing the best friend? kind of the sidekick. if you only know, jeff has been teasing me all the time because zach s on the poster and i m not. jeff s always going like, well, this isn t the post-only club. oh, wow! i actually like rowley because he gets to do all this fun stuff. he s doing a big flip going over do you do your own stunts in the movie? no, they actually use a stunt double but they do use me for a scene. you saw the movie, right? yeah. do you remember when i was going around like when you re flying through the air. i did that. did you that. yeah. they pulled me like 16 feet in the a and act out as if i was falling. i ways wanted to be in an action movie so that like got me closer to. there were some special effects. there s one scene in the bathroom where you with your brother. you re at the toilet. and where you really doing that or did they have something hooked up there? well, they actually had a wire that was connected to one of the special effects guys. had he this bucket of water, they colored it yellow so it looked like it was you know what. you know what. they attached it to my pants. and it sounded like it, too. this sounds like something that would be great to just walk around with. you know? a new toy. you go to school, back away, people! i got a secret weapon. you know what happened to my older brother. that s right. when you see this movie, what do you want people to come away from it when they go to see this movie? i want them to come away wit a laugh. i think what the movie really brings to the story that my book didn t bring is the emotional part. is that you really come to care about these two guys and their friendship and i think that only a movie can do that. i want them to be moved, actually. there s some great supporting actors in this. steve zaun who plays your dad is kind of goofy. the movie s so well cast. there is not a single person in it that shouldn t be. i m just really thrilled. i m so happy for you. you were one of our first book club for kids books. we ve also got the wimpy kid book movie diary. coming up next, a 15-minute exercise routine you can fit in any time. no gym required. unless you re rowley and getting strung out and hung up in the air. more after these messages. get fit today is brought to you by quaker. love life. this morning on get fit today, a no-excuses workout routine. so you hate the gym or are just too busy to exercise? well, those excuses aren t good enough for fitness expert jennifer cohen. the author of no gym required. she has a 15-minute workout that you can do anytime, anywhere. if you re in a hotel room, no excuses. any time, anywhere. traveling, no excuses. only 15 minutes? really? you can get in shape? exactly. no, if you can t find a gym or don t want to go to the gym, it is a cost effective way to keep fit. first we have suzie. she s going to show us one-arm slade pla slade planks. these are furniture sliders. you slide your right arm forward, bring it back up. alternate arms. while making sure you keep your hips up. this is working more than just the arms. it is a great core. it is actually very challenging. if you re not at that level yet, i always like to say a modified version. that s on your knees. suzie, show. you can do the same movement, slide yr right arm, then bring it back in. slide your left arm. while once again trying to keep your hips high. how many repetitions? i always say between 12 and 15. if you can work your way up to eight. just kind of feel how you feel. then from here, with the same furniture sliders, just turn them around and suzie s going to get on to her back. she s going to work her gl glutes and hamstrings. hips up, take your right heel, extend it. same thing with the left. try and always keep your hips up so you are engaging your core as well. keeping good form there. exactly. that is a killer, i know. that s great. this one is one of the hardest things you can do. jen, showing us. mountain climbers. basic paper plates. you can also use dish towels if you want. just doing that with one leg in, left foot, right. you can also do different kind of creative things. basically take your legs, just doing abductor work, for your inner and outer thighs. arms, legs, core. total body workout. and also great for stamina. thank you, jen. now melanie, going back to basics here. jumping rope. this is a weighted rope. cardiovascular but they re also actually strengthen be your body. start with one pound, go to two pounds. it is doing two things for the price of one. if you invest in a little piece of equipment, that s not going to cost you thatch at all. thank you. over here, sharon s going to show us plie squats. what you re going to do, you re going to take that medicine ball and twist from side to side while keeping your while your toes are out. if you want a more challenging workout, you can also just lift your heels up. i see her heels are shaking. this is really working that plie squat. gets your legs, your upper body and your core. if you don t have a medicine ball, use a bottle of detergent, a bottle of water. same type of resistance. again, make sure it is got water in it a the cap s on or something. exactly. very good. over here, we ve got jessica. doing her step-outs with an elastic band. this is great for your outer thighs and core. you can do this for a minute while you re watching the today show commercials. it is simple, it is easy. if that s too easy for you, if the resistance is too light, you can always increase it to a higher one. jennifer cohen, thanks so much. we re exhausted. coming up though, guess who s here? kirk cameron. from growing pains. today he s co-hosting, hanging out with hoda. plus, bruce jenner stops by. 9:56 is your time now. lovely day in the nation s capital. things are warming up. i m have your forecast right after the news. good morning, i m eun yang. the washington capitals will have to deal without their star player for the next two games. nhl has suspended alex ovechkin on campbell of the blackhawks sunday. campbell may miss the rest of the season with broken ribs and a broken collar bone. ovechkin will lose more than just playing time. this will also cost him $230,000. he is now considered a repeat offender, because he was also suspended earlier this season. a check on the forecast with meteorologist tom kierein in the storm center. looking good, tom. brightening sky as the day progresses. right now, it is still mostly cloudy, breezy and chilly with temperatures in the upper 40s. sun coming back this afternoon, we should make it up around 60. clearing tonight. chilly, upper 30s tomorrow morning. mostly sunny tomorrow with highs in the low 60s. even milder thursday into friday with sunshine, we should make it into the mid and upper 60s. how is the traffic, jerry? still dealing with delays the last mile, mile and a half 66 eastbound. lanes are all open. still loaded up headed to the beltway exit ramps. new york avenue, backed up traffic there. both directions, travel lanes are open. eun? thank you, jerry. dropping pounds by popping pills, the new drug that claims to treat obesity tomorrow from nbc news, this is today with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb. ahead, everybody. it s tuesday march 16th, the role of kathie lee is being played by kirk cameron. your truly. we re so excited to have you. i m excited to be here. let s hunker back to years gone by. all right. let s listen. show me that smile don t waste another minute of your crying the best is yet to begin i know the words. we have the world spinning right in our hand i remember most of them. you do remember those years back in the day? oh, yeah. people still call me mike on the street, especially in new york. ahead, mikie, how s it going? i have a bunch of facebook and twitter messages saying my first crush was mike saefr. really? i know people like to talk about the mike seaver days. i go out and speak sometimes, and people are not speaking, because they re thinking that s the guy from. i try to givehem six years in 60 seconds. we want to get 60 seconds of mike seaver. here we go. the collar has to go you know, dad, it s not that i don t want you to go to the bruce springsteen concert with me. you re just, how do i say, old? mom, i was not sneaking out of the house to hang on a school night, i was studying at the library. maybe i was wrong. there you go. there is ten seconds. i love it. i love it. since those days, i was surprised to learn, and i knew a bit of this before, but you married your girlfriend on the show. i married the most wonderful girl in the world. she played kate mcdonald. mike had great taste. how long have you guys been married? we ve been married for 19 years, which is something like 90 in hollywood years. no kidding, right? yeah, and we have six kids. six children. six. one of them is here. i know he s shy, but he s here. hi, guys. how are you? how do you guys do it? you re a hollywood guy, still, you do films and the rest of it, but yet you manage to keep kind of a solid family. how do you do that? well, sometimes it s managed chaos. we have lots of fun, we ve got a nice big backyard so we re not going crazy on top of each other in the house all the time. my wife and i just consider marriage and family to be at the top of the list of priorities. so we love it and we make it work. we were just talking about kate winslet and her husband split after seven years. this isn t rare thing. we see this a lot in holy wid. what do you think it is that makes certainly marriages stick together and others fall apart. i don t know for sure, but for me and chelsie, the first time i met her, she was listen to go great music, and she talked about that she loved family and loved the lord. that s something important to me. that s been the two things that have glued us together, through thick and thin, up and down. the priorities were fily and faith. what was the name of the book? still growing. what is the premise of the book? i was still growing, but it was kin of an autobiography, and what was it like to be growing up in hollywood and not taking the typical path and finding meaning, purpose and value in life, and then eventually going on to get married, have six kids and try to have a strong identity. especially now. we were talking about corey haim passed away recently, and a lot of celeb young stars who get to this point. it seems like you hit a fork in the road, you can go this way or this way, and a lot of guys get stuck. were you ever tempted? you were younger, the guy at the party and on tv is it. it s all there. you re invited to go anywhere you want, whoever you want, and money to pay for anything you want. it s difficult. i remember at 17 years old, when you re trying to figure out how do i make my mark in the world? some people use alcohol, drugs, party, whatever, and i could somehow see that was ultimately leading me down a road i didn t want to go. i chose, god, tell me who i am and who do you want me to be? i went that road and had a very different result. there are a lot of reality shows, i guess it could be called a reality show. very reality. it s something i ve wanted to do for so long. my wife and i have started a company called twenty four seven company. it s about marriage, family, about living life and really making it work. we have films and documentaries, and a television program that are in the works. we re doing it together with my family. we re seeing clips of it. there are cameras in your house? we have cameras in the backyard, going through daily life, what s it like to have six kids, live in hollywood and have a strong marriage and family? do you worry that sometimes because sometimes putting a camera or a spotlight on one s life seems to fracture some families as we ve seen in the reality tv world. are you concerned at all that having a camera on your family might not be a great thing? i am, and we want to make sure, you know, that our family unity is protected. that s not we re going for, to expos the underbelly of a family, as much as it is family is hard, life is hard, and we want to sharing that with people. if you weren t an actor, what s the other thing you re really good at? i would be interviewing for the role of hosting the today show, and i m here now. do you like it so far? look at this, i have my kathie lee and hoda mug. he called kathie lee to ask what it would be like. what did she tell you? she told me that you liked to go to the movies alone. i don t know why you want to go to the movies alone. what else did she tell you? she told me you re egyptian, so you ve inherited beautiful feet genes, and you re very competitive. is that true? i guess we had a game to play. i know. but we do have fans asking questions. sara? suesy wants to know do you ever watch the reruns and do you ever watch the show? do i ever watch the reruns of growing pains ? i have the first season ondvd. i look and think how did i ever think that is hair looked good? that s orable. when did the mull let become something that looked great? that was a good hair day. sometimes my hair looked like kathie lee s hair. i had that look every once in a while. we have a lot coming up. he s going to be with us through the show. if you re having a hard time keeping up with the car dashance, you ll want to hear from the patery arc. bruce jenner is here with us. with two scoops! of raisins harvested at the peak of sweetness, and golden flakes of bran with 28% of their daily fiber, nothing gets your family s day off to a brighter start. than the goodness of kellogg s raisin bran cereal. feed their sunny side. can youmoisturizer do that? dermatologist recommended aveeno has an oat formula. now proven to build a moisture reserve. so skin can replenish itself. that s healthy skin for life. save at aveeno.com. time to deploy the chex mix boring potato chip decoy bag. now no one will want to steal the deliciousness. with a variety of tastes and textures, only chex mix is a bag of interesting. teenagers know him as the real-life dad of the hill star brody jenner, while fans of keeping up with the kardashians as the level-headed dad. do you see my two kids? god s gift. kathie lee is extremely upset. i know. because every single time either someone the whole family is on, she s never here. she s always on vacation or what? are you just the rock of the show? she always on vacation. she s godparents to two of my kids, and she doesn t even want to show up. she could lose just like that. are you astonished as how well the show is going? it seems like every year it grows and grows. i m not only astonished. i m just amazed that somebody thinks my life is interesting, but no, i ve been very blessed. i have a very big family. kris and i blended this family together. we had so many personalities in it, and when kris, it was her idea to put it together, went to ryan seacrest and e and the rest is history. it amazes me that it keeps getting bigger. any parent wants to see their kids do well. it s great. sometimes you get knocked around on the show. i get knocked around all the time. what s the story there? the world can see and have sympathy. now they know what i ve been going through all these years. i am kind of the integrity of the show, but i ve always been that way. i try to make things real, and i know all this stuff is happening, but you ve got to get real and be honest with yourself and what it really means. so i always come back to that and keep them centered. are you concerned with such a huge media spotlight on your entire family, every single thing they do is shown. are you worried about what it will mean to the family dynamic? sometimes the camera does some not soice things. i ve noticed as the kids become more recognizable, i ve tried to keep them grounded in all of this and how blessed they are because of the situation they re in, but with that comes a lot of pitfalls, a lot of bumps in the road. it s a different world today, and the internet today, things don t go away. when i saw kourtney s baby being born, and she pulled it out i wasn t allowed, because the hospital limits people. i was fine. i ll see him thet da you re a big olympian. i did do all that. what do you think of the athletes these days? they re great. i think nbc did a great job, and i love watches the games, just because i don t care what the sport is, but you know at that level it is the best. yeah. and it is the great opportunity right in front of them. i know how hard they have all worked for it, how much it means to them. sure. to see that level of competition, no matter if it s curling or skiing downhill, to me it s fun to watch. i enjoyed it. they re great americans. they re great kids. and you ve got some work on e side with a company, don t you? actually i m out on the campaign right now with tropicana. i have been withhem i used to do the ads 25-ish years ago. they brought me back to do this new campaign. i m excited. first of all, as a family guy, you ve got to get good nutrition in these kids, which by far is the most difficult this to do, and with economic times we want savings. so they put this program do, and buy tropicana, build up juicy rewards, and it s a great program. look at you, doing it all. next time let s see if kathie lee will grow up. what do i have to do? pay her? maybe i have to promise her a vacation. i m kidding. cup next, kirk cameron and drew pinsky will weigh in. announcer: trying to be good to your heart? drew pinsky will weigh in. low in fat and cholesterol, heart healthy levels of sodium, and taste you ll love. chef: we re all kind of excited about it. guy: mmm! i can see why. announcer: campbell s healthy request. m m! m m! good! for your heart. and you re still fighting to sleep in the middle of the night, why would you go one more round using it ? you don t need a rematch but a re-think with lunesta. lunesta is different. it keys into receptors that support sleep, setting your sleep process in motion. lunesta helps you get the restful sleep you need. when taking lunesta, don t drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving or engaging in other activities while asleep without remembering it the next day have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions such as tongue or throat swelling occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. stop fighting with your sleep. get a free 7-night trial on-line and ask your doctor about switching to lunesta. discover a restful lunesta night. about switching to lunesta. can you believe how fast kids grow these days? and since 90% of bone strength is developed before adulthood. it s so important that they get enough calcium every day. that s why there s new danonino. danonino! unlike leading kids yogurts, danonino has twice the calcium of milk, ounce per ounce, with vitamin d. so it s power packed for healthy growth. and its rich creamy taste is. yummy! so they can start building strong bones today. for stronger bodies tomorrow. new danonino from dannon. power packed to help kids grow. new danonino from dannon. where is it written that classes only take place in a classroom? or that a traditional education is the only way to get an education? what if there was a different kind of university? one that s changing the rules. that comes to you, even adapts to how you learn. where is it written that you can t change your life? it isn t written anywhere. actor corey haim will be laid to rest today in his hometown of toronto, another child actor gone too soon. while they wait to toxicology reports, it s believed he died of a drug overdose. dr. drew pinsky, host of sober house with dr. drew is here with us to give us his thoughts. i m glad you re both here. s an interesting discussion. for kirk, it must have been a different time for you, because your friend andrew koenig died. just a few weeks ago. was it surprising to hear? it s always a shock, but honestly not all that surprising. river phoenix and so many others. i d like to ask you the question. do you think we ll see more and more and more of this, like i do? absolutely. it s not just child stars. i ve been saying on this program for the last six months that i ve been talking about young people dying related to addiction that pharmaceutical deaths, this is the leading edge of a tsunami. it s happening not just in hollywo hollywood, but throughout the country. my patients, which are young drug addicts, i dying today with participation by m beers with pharmaceutical. how much of it is learned behavior? people make way too much of that. they really do. addiction is a genetic disorder with a biological basis. you have to be exposed, and as kirk i m sure will attest, there s a lot of potential exposure being in young hollywood, but you were exposed and you re fine. you don t necessarily become an addict. you don t think that s because of choice that is someone makes? no, no, no, i s a biological thing. there s two things that set it up. one is childhood traumt. if a child actor also has a horrible situation at home with childhood destruction, dysfunction of the family, and have the genetics of addiction, they ll become an addict. child stars just have more opportunity, more power, more access and then run into more addiction because of no one pulling them back. think there are probably people who aren t drug addicts who may be predisposed. i don t want to give the impression that genes are destiny, but once someone is exposed, if they have the right the set upis emotional disregulation caused by trauma typically, and i m not saying it s the only way to get to this situation, but they re looking for solutions to their problems. yes, the culture then offers them the solution. that s where the culturation and modeling goes on, but once exposed, it s triggered, they keep using it, you can t tell them oerwise and addiction is triggered. do you think it s covering up something? it s a bid for regulation. for instance, the idea for a cry for help, i ve never seen an addict cry for help. they guntil they can t, and then it s a cry for help, and then it s not a cry for help. they would keep going if they didn t fear for their survival. what about the people who say they blame genetics, you blame pharmaceutica pharmaceuticals, it s everybody s fault except for the person putting it in their mouth. they re response for the recovery. people who reject the recovery process, there s no apology for at. what about you re a good friend, you want to help, what can somebody do to help out? the reality is often nothing. that s a hard pill for people to swallow. i, for instance never go into the room with somebody alone with an addiction. you go in there, you re going into the plant from the little shop of horrors. you can leave and sometimes it gets that person s attention. you can create consequences and leverage any way you can, but ef to leverage them into treatment, not to get them to stop their using. that will not work. all interesting. i wish we could talk about tiger and the rest of it. these are the conditions of our time, sex addiction, drug addiction, these are the conditions of our time, they re fatal, drug addiction anyway. got to run. i m sorry about that. we ll be back with more. er.. not to let your immune system become a statistic. so take every precaution. wash your hands frequently. maintain a well-balanced diet,et plenty of rest. and support your immune system. for a full 24 hours with patented ester-c. taken daily, ester-c gets into your system quickly. and stays all day to provide. up to 24 hours of immune support. now more than ever, trust your immune health. to clinically tested ester-c. the better vitamin c. sears has the prettiest colors, prints, and notice-me pieces at 40 to 50% savings. download your shopping pass at sears.com/style. for an extra 15% off. sears. would you like that to hurt now or later? 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[ gigi ] .you look fabulous with tones and highlights. nice n easy. your right color. after days of cool and sunny weather, how does 60s sound? i m eun yang. coming up on news 4 midday, many of us have been hit hard by the bad economy. what does that mean during tax times? how losing income or property value can change your taxes. we re back on this tuesday with more of today and the wonderful kirk cameron who s doing something kind and sitting in for kathleen. talking about being kind, while many thing the days of holding open doors and giving up a seat and a smile, a study from university of california berkeley says opposite. we set our own sarah haynes to the street to see if it s true. reporter: do you think people are kind nowadays? i think there s an element of kindness out there, just as a testament to what s going on in society now. people are kind of stopping and helping out a lot more. my family my grandmother evelyn, she s the sweetest woman. go evelyn. what does your daddy do that s kind? he makes breakfast sometimes. reporter: that s all? that s all your daddy does that s nice? no. reporter: what are some examples of unkind behavior. cuts you off in line. when you ask them for a direction, they just walk past you like they haven t even heard you. so you figure in the car, what did i do to deserve that for? you get too caught up in what s going on in our little world to look out for other people sometimes. we are here with psychologist jennifer hardsteen, and fay regaski. good morning. are people kind? is that what you re believing? i think it depends. i think we are jaded new yorkers, and i think we notice that no one gets up on the subway, or hold up an elevator door, but i think there is an increase in some ways, and i m sure fay may see it more, but more awareness of other people in certain instances. i think i mean, after 9/11 and other things with so much uncertainty going on, we want to draw closer, help each other out. it s a sense of security. i think that kindness has gotten a bad rap over the years. let s face it, in any given day there s 10 to 15 acts done toward the people, but it s the rude people that you tend to remember. yesterday on my facebook page, i wrote, tell me something nice you did for someone today. my page blew up. they told all these wonderful things they did from carrying a bag of groceries to giving flowers to somebody. how is social networking influenced in terms of kindness? tremendously. i [ male announcer ] looks clean, doesn t it? but look below the surface. your mouth is no different. brushing leaves teeth looking clean, but millions of plaque and gingivitis germs .. its unique penetrating formula destroys germs [ bm! ] brushing leaves behind. [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] .for the deepest clean and the healthiest mouth. listerine®. clean deeper. get healthier. i ve got good news. you need more fiber. huh? don t worry, it tastes great. froot loops now with 3 grams of fiber. fiber makes your tummy happy so it can absorb the good stuff you need, which your mom is gonna love. it does taste great. fiber is a great way to start your day. i can never read these things. kellogg s froot loops, apple jacks, and corn pops! cereals, now provide fiber. kellogg s makes fiber fun. now provide fiber. vo: this season, your home can look like a picture in a magazine with the better homes and gardens spring line. and it s only at walmart. get unbeatable prices on the entire line of better homes and gardens furnishings. it s enough to spark anyone s imagination. the look you love costs less at walmart. vo: save money. live better. walmart. let s go to last night s highlights. there s mom and dad cleaning up. and there s the meatloaf. yuck. look what sometimes happens with the ordinary bag. it slips, oh, bingo, it falls in. mom was mad. mom should have used glad forceflex with the new stretchable drawstring that grips the can and stays in place. plus, it has the stretchable strength of forceflex. that s all today for glad tv. both: don t get mad get glad! we re back with another editioof our who knew? quiz game. we thought we would test your knowledge of tv classics. contestants will watch a short video clip and be asked to name the show. kirk is ready to hand out $100 to those who correctly identify the movie and to those who don t, they get kathie lee s cd. that s right. jeff is here to help me out. by the way, you were a 10 at the oscars. thank you very much. we re glad you re with us. i would like to thank my parents and god. thank you. let s go across the street to kirk. all right. we are so ready. these guys are from texas. here s the question ted danson and kelsey grammer starred in this sitcom in the famous boston bar where everybody knows your name. let s watch. hello, everybody. what s happening, norm. it s a dog eat dog, sammy, and i m wearing milkbone underwear. that s cheers . yes. all right. there you go. you win $100 gift card. excellent. so jeff, that s one of the classics. also the easiest $100 anybody ever made. in 1982, cheers came in, the last rated thing on the air. the first season was a disaster, but had critical support, the emmy voters support. in season two, it became a big hit. you know what happened in season two? part of the key success? woody harrelson came on the show. a game changer. a game changer, and a great show to begin with. kirk? this is crazy hearty. this introduced to the seaver family. let s roll the clip. ahead, dad, what s another rd for election. pleeb ocide. what s the difference? i. the difference is i don t want to know from. the question is what was my sister s name on the show? we loved mike, but carol was your sister. all right. they win. there you go. that was a tough one. a harder question. tell us about carol. well, carol and mike seaver, seriously one of the best teenage actors was kirk cameron. i m not saying that just because he s here. i would say it behind his back. he was fantastic. back to the best actor of the 80s. kirk? one of the most well-known tv families in broadcast history, the huxtables entertained millions for eight long seasons. let s watch this clip. i want to bring somebody over to play. who? my boyfriend. ooh. you have a boyfriend? yes. what makes him your boyfriend? i told him he was. all right. what was the name of the show? the cosby show. yes! yes! congratulations. we still have kathie s cd. these are so easy. keisha knight-pulliam, she was the youngest actor to be nominated for an emmy. and all the kids went on for good lives. before he played muhammad ali, will smith got his acting feet wet with this sitcom about a kid from west philadelphia who winds up living in the swank suburbs of los angeles. here s a clip. ahead, i ve got an idea. the malls are closing. let s cruise down in your new ride and pick up honeys. are you telling me that i should disobey my uncle and do something he specifically told me not to do? won t be the first time. posse out. all right, on the show, who was will s best friend? deejay yes. who was it? deejay jazzy jazz. great job. okay. that s a tough one. i was about to feel so bad for her. jeff towns played jazz, and he was a very good musician. interestingly among the actresses who auditioned for the girlfriend on the show was a young actress named jada pinkett. shgot a better job later. is that it? we re out of time. that s a bummer. jeff, thank you so much. kirk is going to come back over and help me out for the next segment. give it away to kathie lee. coming up next, should you wash your pillows? and other secrets, right after this. 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[ male announcer ] now the best seat in the house is in your house. in fact, with the fios total ticket, it can be in every room. unlike cable, only fios gives you a multi-room dvr that lets you record shows in one room and watch them in up to six other rooms. no one will ever have to miss their favorite shows again. and now you can get a multi-room dvr plus set top box free for six months when you sign up for fios tv, internet and phone. you ll get tv with three times more very satisfied customers than comcast, america s top-rated internet, and phone. get it all together for just $99.99 a month a great low price guaranteed for two years. it adds up to savings of $419 over two years. fios total ticket is an awesome lue that makes every seat in your house the best seat. so why sit still for cable? call now. 1.866.685.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800-974-6006 tty/v. this is beyond cable. this is fios. all you spring cleaners ready to tackle the tough jobs? well, look no further. it s time to take on those nagging household chores that have been swept under the rug all wind, including the scratched wood floors. frank fontana has some solutions. hello, frank. how are you doing? we like when you visit us. we have some treats today. the first one is surprising. we were talking about pillows, should you or should you not wash them? most people don t think about this, but really probably it s the place where most of the sweat goes. so here s the thing. watch foam and synthetic pillows, but most emof them on a gentle cycle, warm water, you don t ever want to watch a down pillow like this, but you can watch it in a basin or sink. some powdered detergent. it s warm water, now, you want to completely push it down with me, make sure it doesn t overflow. you re getting all the feathers wet. that s okay. you know, you want to knead this like a pizza dough. how do you rinse it? empty the water out in a sink. that will get the mites and sweat out of it? you may need that spray they sell, but it s better now not. squeeze out the excess water, and then on a spin cycle, three rotations in the washer, and that would help take out the water. so the others you just pop them in the dryer? and i suggest a dry towel or even a clean tennis ball will help fluff them up. what about windows? my secret is you don t want to clean on a really hot today. i have a touch test. if the window is too hot, it s too hot to clean. you spray the cleaner on, and it evaporates instantly. i ve seen that when i wash the car. same concept. the heat just evaporates the product. get it on a sponge, don t spray directly to the windows cover maybe a foot area at a time, then a soft squeegee, and pull across that s a horrible sound. i hate that sound. and to alleviate that sound, daemping the squeegee first. okay. instead of paper towels, let s recycle using newspaper. i heard newspaper words really great for glass. it works great. you would think it leaves the ink from the paper, but it doesn t. why with the sponge? i like to control the amount, instead of overspraying. we ve got a minute. we have to hustle. for curtains use a vacuum like this, get on the top or a brush like that. now to the sofas, a quick refresh, a nozzle like this, and big power vacuum, get in the crevices. i need that. what s the baking soda? this is my doug, chewie, but using baking soda, it absorbs the dog odor, and then vacuum it up. i use olive oil to cosmetically heal scratches. watch this. a bit of olive oil, boom, it s organic, all natural. does it need to be extra virgin? it depends on your flavor. i don t know. frank, thank you so much. coming up next, kirk will meet one of his biggest fans. did you know that? i didn t know okay. kirk, here s the deal. we found a big fan of yours outside. how big? she s really big, and she says she knows may know more about the show tn you do. let s bring our fan in. come on in, honey. we re going to play a trivia game. here she is. hello. come on over. come on over. hi. hello. how are you? i m kirk. what s your name? amy. i m going to be your mistress of ceremonies. where are you from, amy? birmingham. kirk has a famous younger sister, her name is. candace. okay. there s candace. give me another one. kirk met his wife chels si,. c, on the set of growing pains. all right. kirk has how many children? six. i tried to grab her whistle. she s faster than i am. on growing pains how many siblings? two. three. they had chrissy tess end. she s right. she s right. wait, this is crazy. on growing pains that was six years of new story ideas. they took in a homeless boys, what actor playing that role? leonardo dee kcap rio. i had the whisting. amy, it s clear you are the winner. awesome. congratulations. congratulations. we want to thanks kirk for being a terrific ho, and he brought me they flowers, which i ve got to say, you walked into my dressing room this morning with these. so a big thank you for being