Transcripts For WRC Today 20100503 : vimarsana.com

of the leak. the ceo speaks out. michael douglas talks for the first time about his son, cameron s, five-year prison sentence for selling drugs. he was going to be dead or somebody was going to kill had him and i think he has a chance to start a new life. he opens up about his son s future and his own regrets in an exclusive interview today, future and his own regrets in an exclusive interview today, monday, may 3rd, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to today on this monday morning. i m meredith vieira. and i m matt lauer. investigators are pouring over hundreds of hours of videotape to try to find whoever is responsible for what s considered to be the most serious car bomb plot here in new york since that first attempt to blow up the world trade center. that was in 1993. potentially very scary. immediate focus is on this surveillance tape and the man you re about to see. cameras record him looking back at that smoking suv as he slipped down into the subway. in an odd move he took off one of the shirts he was wearing and quickly stuffed it into a bag. mayor michael bloomberg and homeland secretary, janet napolitano. also, an interview with tiffany tehan s husband. we ll find out his thoughts on that episode. the young age of 88, betty white will be here live. we cannot wait. let s begin with that investigation into the attempted car bombing just a few blocks from here in times square. nbc s pete williams has the latest on that story. pete, good morning to you. reporter: matt, good morning. in the usual bombing case, investigators would now be collecting tiny fragments of evidence. but because this bomb did not go off, they have a wealth of material, along with surveillance video and eyewitness accounts. this is the person investigators are eager to find, a white man in his 40s, seen on surveillance video walking away from times square, taking off a dark shirt and stuffing it into a bag, revealing a red shirt underneath. the video, released by new york police, was captured half a block away from an suv caught on surveillance cameras a few moments before it was left with the motor running and a bomb inside. its discovery saturday night caused a scare that shut down one of the busiest tourist destinations. i try to stay on top of things. reporter: street vendor dwayne jackson was the first to notice that the car, nissan pathfinder, was parked illegally with smoke come iing out of the back. you heard a little pop pop sound, almost like firecrackers popping or something like that. you could see dark smoke, you could see the red flashes and you could smell the gun powder. reporter: police say two canisters of gasoline were found on the floor on the rear of the street. between them a can of firecrackers that intended to ignite a fire that would, in turn, cause three propane tanks in the back of the suv to explode. three clocks used as timers, one set for midnight. if this had detonated, in my judgment, it would have caused casualties, significant fireball. i m told that the vehicle itself would at least have been cut in half. reporter: though a few fireworks did go off, they doubt the bomb design would have worked even if all of them had gone off. the valves were closed and they re built to withstand heat. if they explode, they can be very dangerous, as british police demonstrated with this test four years ago. sunday night, mayor michael bloomberg had dinner in times square, to show it s back to normal. his guest, preliminary wayne radigan who sounded the alarm and cleared times square. this is our job. reporter: there s no suggestion that this thing has anything to do with airports. strictly as a precaution, some east coast airports are doing more checks of cars and on some outbound flights from new york, boston and philadelphia, passengers will face more random screening. two street vendors first alerted authorities, dwayne jackson and lance earlman. matt? mayor michael bloomberg is in times square. good morning. little damp here. nothing has dampened the spirit of our tourists. let s talk about this surveillance video. everyone is talking about it and showing it this morning. it shows about a 40-year-old white male in times square near that suv. what is it about this tape that peaks your curiosity and your interest? matt, we have to be very careful. there are hundreds of tapes. we haven t been through all of them. and there are millions of people that come through times square. this person happened to be in one position, which the camera got a good shot of him and maybe he had something to do with it, but there s a very good chance that he did not. we re exploring a lot of leads, some of them trying to track down the car itself, who owned it, where it has been, who might have gotten it and brought it to times square, the person standing outside, other people that were coming and going. i think it s much too early to tell. so far, we do know there is no evidence tied to international tourism. it may very well be one person or one or more people. everything is speculation at this point. what we do know is that when somebody saw something, they mentioned it to one of our police officers, a mounted police officer, wayne radigan, who i had dinner with last night. and he did exactly what he should have done. he looked. it was suspicious. he called in some other cops. they started clearing the area, brought in the fire department, office of emergency management. fortunately, nobody was hurt. obviously, this location was chosen, you could guess, for one of two reasons. one, there are a lot of people in times square. someone wanted to cause havoc. also there s a symbolic element to this, isn t there, mr. mayor? i mean, this is the heart of new york city and someone is trying to say, i can do this right in your heart. matt, ever since 1993 when there was a bomb in the basement of the world trade center, new york has been the symbol around the world of some freedoms that we have in america that others find very threatening. we can practice our religions the way we want to. nobody tells us what we can say and can t say. we can be in charge of our own destiny. some people don t like that. some people didn t like it enough that they killed themselves and 3,000 other people on september 11, 2001. we continue to be the target in america and in america, i think it s safe to say new york is the symbol. it s the skyline they recognize. it s the name that they recognize. that s why we have 1,000 police officers dedicated to ensure to counterterrorism and intelligence. that s why we have so many cops on the street to cope us safe, and we have done it. new york mayor michael bloomberg, thank you for spending time with us this morning. appreciate it. happy to do it, matt. januaet napolitano is homela security secretary. good morning to you. good morning. i m curious if you agree with mayor bloomberg, that at this stage of the investigation, there s absolutely no evidence that there s a connection between this and international terrorism. well, right now, every lead has to be pursued. we would caution against premature decisions one way or the other. we do know that we have great law enforcement in new york city. it s latched up with a joint task be force in which the fbi and department of homeland security participate. everybody working together, tracking down all possible leads. so just to be clear here, you are not ruling out international terrorists? i think it s premature to rule in or rule out. the investigation now needs to take its course. does it seem to you, secretary napo litano, that this was a bomb designed just to harm members of the general public? could there have been a more specific target? there s been some speculation in some reports for example, the viacom building in the near vicinity to this car could have been a target. what s your thought on that? well, i would simply suggest there s been a lot of speculation and a lot of that speculation is just that. we ll know more over the course of the coming hours, days and weeks as the leads are pursued, subjects are identified, interviews can be conducted and we can get to the bottom of this. i think what s most important here, madame secretary, and something the mayor said, and you said on this program probably dozens of times over the last several years. and that is, if you see something, say something. that clearly is what happened in times square. absolutely. there s a great demonstration of very alert street vendors, very alert police officer on the beat who was notified. this thing motived very quickly, was a great illustration of really how everyone has a role to play in security. right. just real quickly, i want to switch subjects and get to this oil spill in the gulf. the president visited that region on sunday and said i want to emphasize that from day one we ve prepared and planned for the worst while hoping for the best. as you know, there have been some critics, madame secretary, who say the government got off to a slow start in the response here. were you ready from day one or are you playing catch up? oh, no, we were ready from day one. at some point, i m sure, there will be hearings and all of that and we ll be more than happy to respond to those questions, but the plain fact of the matter is as the situation evolved, we already had prepositioned 70 vessels. now there are more than 100 vessels. we had moved hundreds of thousands of feet of boom. we set up a joint command center in louisiana in which federal but also state and local representatives were already present. right. everybody leaning forward. janet napolitano, secretary of homeland security. madame secretary, as always, thanks for your time this morning. thank you. for more on that situation in the gulf, here is meredith. matt, thank you. by some estimates as much as 25,000 barrels of oil per day could be leaking into the sea. a new fishing ban has been put into place. lester holt is in venice, louisiana, with more. good morning. reporter: good morning. the president was pretty blunt and said this leak could seriously damage the economy and the environment and extend for a very long time. and those who fish and make  their living in the gulf are already learning that firsthand. cleanup ships are hoping to get back into action today after 30-mile-an-hour winds and high seas kept them at anchor in the mississippi river over the weekend. but they won t have much company in the gulf. the government has announced a ten-day commercial and sport fishing ban across a huge section of gulf waters from louisiana to parts of western florida. we live in the greatest estuary in the world. our estuary right now is in very great danger of being possibly dissemated. reporter: president obama visited the area. the most important task, how do we plug this hole? reporter: he met with coast guard officials and defended the government s response to the disaster. i want to emphasize, from day one, we have prepared and planned for the worst, even as we hoped for the best. reporter: analysts estimate the bill for the oil disaster could exceed $14 billion. for its part, bp, owner of the destroyed oil platform, says it, too, is doing all it can but saying a solution is still weeks off and blaming equipment failure for the runaway leak. charter boat james peters, who took us down river toward the gulf, says everyone is bracing for the next chapter, when the oil starts coating the shore line. it s very emotional for us. it could be, you know, the biggest tragedy for this area. oil could just, obviously, destroy our coast line. reporter: because of the state of the seas, we ve come to the mouth of the mississippi river that meets the gulf of mexico. we re on the west side of the river here. thankfully, no signs of oil. but they know it is creeping closer. with the potential loss of work to follow, many fishermen are turningblamed for the disaster, signing up over the weekend for paid volunteer jobs, cleaning up the spill. i don t want to. either go to work for them or starve. reporter: experts are tracking the slick say it s did he say continued to head toward alabama and florida. they are using strategies to cap the main leak and two others spewing oil into the gulf this morning. tony hayward is british petroleum s ceo. good morning to you. thank you, meredith, for the opportunity to talk to you. not at all. over the weekend, president obama says he holds bp accountable for the spill. does the buck stop at your desk? we weren t it wasn t our accident, but we are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up and that s what we intend to do. how can it not be your accident, sir? we are working very hard to the drilling rig was a translation drilling rig. it was their rig and their equipment that failed, run by their people with their processes. but our responsibility is the oil and the responsibility is ours to clean it up. and that s what we re doing. we have a massive operation ongoing here on three fronts. in the subsea, on the surface and, if necessary, on the shore. what is the worst case scenario? subsea, we re the worst case scenario is that we would need to contain this for two to three months while a relief well is drilled. we are working on two other options that would bring the leak to closure earlier. the first is operate working on the blow-out preventer, big valve at the top that for some reason has failed. we have eight submersible robots working on that. that is like conducting heart surgery 5,000 feet beneath the sea. the second intervention is to construct a collection device. it s like the hood of your oven that would sit over the leak. it would then be channeled to the surface where we could deal with it. that is ongoing. that will be in the field in seven to eight days time. mr. hayward, let me ask you. a week ago, you said you were confident that this spill could be contained and at that point, bp estimated about 5,000 barrels of oil were spilling into the gulf. now the obama administration is worried that number could reach 100,000 barrels a day. why was your company so slow in recognizing the scope of the problem or do you think it was? i don t think we were. we have been planning for the worst ever since this thing came about. we have an enormous operation deployed on the surface to contain it. 100 ships, 20 major skimmers. we re dispersing deploying dispersement through the use of hercules c-130 planes and for the first time ever in the industry, we are applying dispersement at the seabed, which appears to be having a serious impact in limiting the oil that gets to the surface. so, we have an enormous operation ongoing. you say you were planning for the worst, but in a plan you filed with the government, american government, u.s. government last year, you said it was unlikely that something like this would ever happen. well, that is, indeed, true, meredith. what has failed here is the ultimate safety device on a drilling rig. there are many barriers of protection that you have to go through before you get to this. it isn t designed to not fail. it is unprecedented in our industry for this sort of failure. bp ceo tony hayward, thank you. good luck with your efforts. so many people are counting on them. thank you. brian williams has made his way to the region. we have a region here that got two body blows, two major hurrica hurricanes and it left that shoreline area more vulnerable to what could be another body blow on the way. reporter: well, matt, you start hearing from people. call-in radio, people you meet. houc how much is one region expected to take? a period of three years? you drive past new trailer homes, new construction, even new highways that have been put down since katrina rearranged the map in this region. while this is tougher to understand, there is no swirling graphic offshore that says category 4 or category 5, it means the same thing. it s going to dessimate this region. a lot of people living below the poverty line, but making it as oyster men, as shrimpers. no one will have a telethon for them. the image will be different, a different-looking disaster. yet what are they all going to do? you ll have much more on this story tonight on nbc nightly news. brian williams, good luck. thank you for your time this morning. reporter: thanks, matt. when you think this could go on for a couple more months that s pretty disturbing. a long time. let s get a check of our headlines at the news desk with ann curry. good morning to you. good morning, everybody. the rain is not over in parts of the south. over the weekend, at least 15 people died because of the weather, most of them in tennessee. the weather channel s mike seidel is in nashville with more on this. how widespread is the flooding there already? reporter: there s water just about everywhere, ann, especially in suburban areas here in tennessee. all-time two-day record setting rainfall of 2 1/2 inches of rain. the cumberland river filling up city blocks, expect ed to crest later today at 11 feet above flood stage, the highest they ve seen in over 70 years. take you back to yesterday. this is the shot of the storm. have you ever seen a school house floating down an interstate? there s one, i-24, before falling apart. two major interstates shut down, thousands evacuated, many roads closed, washed out bridges also washing out. meanwhile today, ann, the tornado threat goes away and the sun is back out most of the week here in nashville. thanks so much, mike seidel, this morning for your reporting. two big airlines are merging, united and continental, in a deal to create the world s biggest airline. tom costello joins us from washington with more. what does it mean for the companies and the customers? reporter: experts have been arguing for years there are too many airlines, all struggling to eek out a profit and the only way for them to survive is for them to combine. the new name will be united based in chicago, offering the biggest frequent flyer program. for passengers, it will mean they ll be able to fly on one single airline across the u.s., into asia, south america and europe, but will regulators allow the deal to go through? analysts believe continental and united overlap on 13 nonstop routes and leaves the u.s. with just three big international airlines. that could mean higher ticket prices on routes where there is less competition. tom costello this morning. tom, thanks. today, a court in india convicted a pakistani gunman in connection with the 2008 attacks. he was the lone survivor among the attackers. in an, a showdown. tougher sanctions when he speaks at a nonproliferation treaty meeting. officials around boston today are hoping to lift a boil water oil for 2 million people. water service was disrupted by a broken pipe over the weekend. and it was a close shave sunday for people in a barber shop in southern california when a driver lost control of her suv and crashed into the shop and sent glass flying and customers running. no one, however, was seriously hurt. that is some good that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you. just ahead, the had husband of that ohio woman who ran away to florida to start a new life with her boyfriend speaks out. exclusiv i stand before you today. to apologize. the system has failed you. i have failed you. i have failed to help you share your talent with the world when the world needs talent more than ever. yet, it s being wasted every day. by an educational system steeped in tradition and old ideas. well, it s time for a new tradition. it s time to realize talent isn t just in schools like this one, it s everywhere. it s time to use technology to rewrite the rules of education, to learn how you learn so we can teach you better. it s time the university adapted to you, rather than you adapting to it. it s time time time for a different different kind of university. it s your time. just ahead, more on that attempted bombing in times square. we ll talk exclusively to the street vendor, being hailed as a hero for notifying police. a few laughs as well with the ageless betty white. first, these messages and a check of your local news and weather. select diamond jewelry from kay, the number one jewelry store in america. - i love you guys. - we know. 7:26 and rain around the region the third of may. i m joe krebs. a man is in custody accused of shooting two neighbors on charm court in brandy wine. they had all been involved in an ongoing dispute. the father died and the son is expected to survive. the son has not identified the shooter or the victims. we will come back to look at the weather and traffic. we had passing rain showers and they continue to move southwest to northeast and it taper off. we could get passes thundershowers with highs around 80. a small chance of a shower and otherwise partly cloudy. how is the traffic? very tough this morning. this is the inner loop of the capitol beltway jammed and dealing with an accident from. in maryland, outer loop is crawling and activity on the shoulder at university boulevard. be careful. coming up tonight, a lot of people send flowers for mother s 7:30 now on this monday morning, may 3rd, 2010. not the best start to the day weather wise here in new york, but we are happy to see people lining the plaza. matt will head out in a minute to keep them company. i m meredith vieira. just ahead, the exclusive interview with the husband of tiffany tehan, the ohio runaway mother who turned up in florida with another man. this is the first time he has spoken out since his wife s affair was exposed. also, lighten things up with betty white at 88 years old. she is hotter than ever. she is set to host, get this, saturday night live this weekend. we ll talk to her about her major resurgence. we saw her over the weekend at the white house correspondents dinner. one thing she won t do, she says, on saturday night live is nudity. that s it. she draws the line. other than that, anything goes. that s unfortunate. also ahead, the street vendor who is being hailed a hero for notifying police about that suv. lance ortman, good to see you. good to see you. he asked me do you ever get used to the cameras? and i said do you ever get used to all the crowds in times square? he said i could have been here playing a harp. i never sit and my docs would kill me, but my leg was bothering me so i sat down. the first thing i noticed, that the sunglass hood across the street, it s already crowded and someone comes out with a disco hookup and starts blasting the music. hundreds of tourists start coming over on 45th, across the street from me. right. this is why i didn t pay too much attention to the suv at first. i sat down and i went to tie my shoe and i looked to the left. i said to myself, that looks like smoke is coming out of that vehicle. i looked around to see if anyone else noticed. was it a lot of smoke or just a little smoke? at first just a little. whoever did this, luckily they did an amateur job. first, it was just a small amount. so, again, i was distracted by the crowd. but i also was wondering why no one noticed the smoke. and then it got steadily worse and it was coming from all sides of the car. at that point, did you contact the police? did you hail down a policeman or actually, there was some guys behind me. i heard someone yell, listen, you see smoke, maybe you should call 911. and i m the main vendor on the block. it s hard to get into what that is, but i said, listen, there s no sense bothering the guys for that. there s a patrolman right there on the horse, officer wayne. so i asked one of my guys. by the time i got there, something might have happened. i said get over there and grab that officer. he came over on horseback and he saw what i saw. it was getting steadily worse. and there were popping noises, little red flashes from inside that suv. when you now hear what was in that car, the gasoline, the pro pane canisters and things like that, how do you feel this morning? glad to be here. well, we were glad you were there at the time, too, for sure. when you look at the surveillance tape that shows that man taking off one shirt and there s a red one underneath, does he look at all familiar to you? i m putting you on the spot here. i wondered if you saw anything suspicious. it s hard to say. hundreds of people go through there. they change. the camera isn t that sharp. not as nice and sharp as it is here, or maybe i could see it better. right. again, you ve been in times square, working there more than 20 years, right? yes. we say it all the time. if you see something, say something. that really was a smart thing in this case. people kind of, i don t know, take it lightly or take it for granted. i had a few situations where i ve told people about things, they said oh, that s nothing. it s no big deal. but you can t take that attitude the way things are these days. job well done. thanks. good for you, mr. ortman. good morning. rain showers moving through over the last couple of hours that snarled the morning commute around the region. multiple accidents with wet roads, streets and sidewalks. the radar showing this rain, the bulk of which is exiting the area and moving north and east across the bay. we are not done. we have a front coming through later in the day that may trigger a shower or thundershower into the afternoon. drying out tonight and a slight chance of a shower tomo and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. now to new details on that so-called runaway mom case in ohio. in a moment we ll have an exclusive, live interview with david tehan, his first since his wife returned to ohio on the arms of another man. first, natalie morales has the latest. go morning. good morning to you, meredith. tiffany tehan turned up in florida a week and a half ago with her new boyfriend, tre hutcherson. the couple now admits to plotting their getaway from months. when tiffany tehan from xenia, ohio, never returned home from a shopping trip, her husband, david s, life was turned upside down. her suv was found in a local park, tires slashed, keys in the ignition, prompting a nationwide search. an unexpected twist when police released surveillance videos, showing tiffany with a man visiting a convenience store on several locations over the past two months. police identified the man as tre hutcherson, but he was unknown to tiffany s family. the family, including husband david, with their daughter, lexi, appeared on today. she loves being a mom. there s no way that she would ever give that up. we miss you so much and we really want you to come home. nearly five days after she disappeared, detectives found tehan with hutcherson. she was found. she is safe. still, her husband was forgiving. she may have made some mistakes, but everyone does. she s a person, like everyone else and it s not always easy. hutcherson and tehan have since returned to ohio. are you sorry for what happened? yes, of course. and an interview with inside edition, hutcherson and tehan now admitted they planned the disappearance to look like an abduction, even slashing tiffany s tire on her suv. tiffany suggested to me if we did it, she could be found, she would want to be gone forever and how could we arrange that? now in hindsight, obviously, i know this decision to run away was not right, for me at the time it just seemed like the best option. they will make full restitution an attorney for the couple say they are working with police to pay back the $5,000 spent for the nationwide search and prosecutors say it will take several weeks to evaluate evidence with possible charges to come in the case of the runaway mom. most people wonder why tiffany tehan simply would not divorce her husband. she says because of her spiritual beliefs, that was not an option at the time. meredith? natalie, thank you. david tehan is with us now exclusively. good morning, david. good morning. the last time we spoke, tiffany was still missing, as natalie just reported, a lot has happened since then. your world has literally been turned upside down. how are you doing? i m doing all right. we re doing pretty well. we have a lot of support from a lot of people. you mean you and your daughter, lexi? yes. yes, we do. our church has been amazing, family has stepped up. how did you hear the news, david, that tiffany had been found in florida with another man? what was that like for you? i know when we spoke, it was a mystery to you, why she would have left. i actually the when they found her, they actually had her contact me. so, i did actually hear from her when they found her, very briefly. what did she say to you then? it s actually really hard to remember exactly what she said. but just that she was coming back to ohio. it was a very brief conversation. so, there really wasn t any more detail than that. david, i know that she did come back to ohio with this man and she has since spoken to you. again, you ve met with her. can you tell me about that conversation? we ve had several conversations. i really can t say what they would have been about. we ve talked about a lot of different things, but, you know, they re all still very much things are still very unresolved for us. you know, she has said this is hard for me to say to you that she is in love with somebody else and that once she leaves ohio, she is not coming back. in retrospect, were there signals that you missed, warning signs that you missed, david, in your relationship? there was nothing that was that would have given me a clue as to something like this happening. you know, we re a married couple and we have a relationship with ups and downs. so, there would have been small things, but nothing that would have given me a clue to something like this. the fact that she is leaving, is it still a mystery to you? i suppose so. i understand what she s talking about with the pressures. and so i could see how potentially, given certain circumstances, she could have been thinking that way. david, do you know whether she will be seek iing a divorce and custody, possibly, of your daughter? i don t really know details on that at the moment. really, it s still unresolved. so, where do you and lexi go from here, david? from here, at least for the moment, lexi and i are learning to get along, just the two of us. seeing how that s going to work for us. like i said, we ve got all kinds of support from our church and from our families. and i think what amazes a lot of people, or might, is how forgiving you are of your wife and what she did. very quickly, i know there s a message you wanted to get out here this morning. can you tell us what that is? i just wanted to say to everyone who was involved in searching for tiffany, i know at the moment it kind of looks like maybe it wasn t a good thing to do, that it may not have been important, but it really was. at the moment, we had no idea that tiffany was even safe. and so finding her was extremely important. she could have been in danger. i would say when it comes to future things, next time something like this happens and people get involved, it s important to be involved. it s important not to just let this kind of thing go, thinking it may be a situation like this, where it might just be something you could ignore or not pay attention to. absolutely. david tehan, thank you so much. good luck to you and your daughter. thank you. just ahead, michael douglas speaks out for the first time since his son was sentenced on drug dealing charges. our candid, exclusive interview. first, these messages. - oh, honey. - oh, yeah. he went to jared. - he totally went to jared. female announcer: this mother s day, celebrate life s unforgettable moments with pandora charms and bracelets, now at jared, where you ll find a fabulous pandora selection. all: awwww. - they are so cute at that age. announcer: jared. the galleria of jewelry. 0 to 60? 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[ male announcer ] there s only one place you can get a clarity commitment for your mortgage or credit card. bank of america. real chicken and salmon and the goodness of leafy greens. you live well. you eat right. help your cat do the same. naturals from purina cat chow. as long as there s sun, you and your family can go have fun. because banana boat blocks up to 96% of harmful uva and uvb rays. so you can go, go, go, confident you re protected from sunburn and long-term skin damage. banana boat. we ve got you covered. we are back now at 7:47 with president obama and actually meredith showing a little of her head there. president obama showing off his lighter side over the weekend at the white house correspondents dinner. here is nbc s norah o donnell. reporter: it s where washington meets hollywood, where the capital s best known politicians and reporters walk the red carpet with celebrities and pop stars, the annual white house correspondents dinner, a black tie gala so eagerly anticipated inside the beltway, it s known as the oscars on the poto mac. the real star of saturday s dinner, the president of the united states, who wasted no time showing off his comedic chops, lampooning his vice president. i wasn t sure i should actually come tonight. biden talked me into it. he said mr. president, this is no ordinary dinner. this is a big [ bleep ] meal. reporter: mocking wall street. by the way, all the jokes tonight are brought to you tonight by our friends at goldman sachs. so you don t have to worry. they make money whether you laugh or not. reporter: tweaking his republican opponents. i hear that i m still pretty big on twitter, facebook or, as sarah palin calls it, the socialized media. reporter: even taking a jab at the night s keynote speaker. the only person s whose ratings fell more than mine last year is here tonight. great to see you, jay. reporter: tonight show host jay leno had a hard act to follow. the president has the most diverse staff in history, they represent every ward of chicago. i think that is fantastic, mr. president. i can see the white house press corps, very excited tonight, this is about as close to a white house press conference they ve had all year. enjoy it while it lasts. reporter: a night to remember as washington gets back to work today. for today, norah o donnell, nbc news, washington. we were there. he was on fire. small room. only 3,000 people. 3,000. it s crazy. that s why you lost your voice, we were all shouting. trying to talk over the room. he could go on the road if this white house thing doesn t work out. timing. timing is everything. just ahead, our exclusive interview with michael douglas, his first since his son was sentenced to a five-year prison term. first, these messages. only. 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 for only $2.50, get a western egg white muffin melt, made-to-your-order, and add a 16-oz. cup. of freshly brewed seattle s best coffee. try the new $2.50 breakfast combo at subway. it can take so much out of you. i feel like i have to wind myself up just to get out of bed. then. well. i have to keep winding myself up to deal with the sadness, the loss of interest, the trouble concentrating, the lack of energy. if depression is taking so much out of you, ask your doctor about pristiq. (announcer) pristiq is a prescription medicine proven to treat depression. pristiq is thought to work by affecting the levels of two chemicals in the brain, serotonin and norepinephrine. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens or you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, teens and young adults. pristiq is not approved for children under 18. do not take pristiq with maois. taking pristiq with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. tell your doctor about all your medications, including those for migraine, to avoid a potentially life-threatening condition. pristiq may cause or worsen high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or glaucoma. telling your doctor if you have heart disease. or before you reduce or stop taking pristiq. side effects may include nausea, dizziness and sweating. (woman) for me, pristiq is a key in helping to treat my depression. (announcer) ask your doctor about pristiq. just ahead, hollywood s new it girl. 88 years young. betty white. we ll catch up with her and talk about her upcoming hosting gig on snl. first your local news and weather. luci: i m luci romberg. i m a free runner. .national champion gymnast. .martial artist. and a stuntwoman. if you want to be incredible, eat incredible. announcer: eggs. incredible energy for body and mind. 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ann has a check of the top news stories this morning. police intensify their search for a man videotaped near the scene of a failed car bombing saturday in times square. the tape shows him removing an outer shirt and stuffing it into the bag. the bomb, though crude, could have been deadly. rivers are still rising in parts of the south where weekend thunderstorms and record rain claimed at least 17 lives in mississippi, tennessee and kentucky. the company operating that damaged oil well in the gulf of mexico says it hopes to install a shut-off valve today on one of three leaks and says it will be about a week before it can try placing containment domes over the other three leaks. british petroleum ceo said his company is absolutely responsible for cleaning up the oil spill. overseas markets are mostly lower this morning. trish regan is at the new york stock exchange. what are you watching there? a lot of stuff, ann. ual and continental have announced plans to merge, creating the world s largest airline if this is approved. greece got that bailout it was looking for, $150 billion. now the country has to figure out ways to raise revenue and cut spending. easier said than done. there s uncertainty regarding oil as a result of the concerns in the gulf of mexico. also, better economic data is helping to move those prices higher. trish regan, thanks this morning. a nightmare, finally a nightmare on elm street took the top spot at the box office over the weekend, taking in $32 million, how to train your dragon was second and date night was third. time to get a check of the weather from al. thank you very much, ann. we ve got the rain out here and this lovely young lady in her pink poncho. what s your name? morgan. where are you from? good morning. a mild and muggy monday going on. we have passing showers this morning most of which are in the northern part of the eastern shore. a few lingering sprinkles in virginia and maryland. just past 8:00 we will have several hours where the weather will be settled. by noon and in the afternoon, an additional shower or thundershower with highs in the low 80s. tomorrow a chance of a passing midday shower. and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you. up next, matt talks to michael douglas about his son s prison sentence and lifelong battle with drugs in an exclusive interview, right after this. 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imported ice? yeah! i mean, people love imported water. so this is the next logical step. i think i ll stick with following my green line. oh, come on! hey, working with my guy at fidelity could have me retiring in a few years. and besides, couldn t people just freeze their imported water? don t be ridiculous. work with the company that s helping more people reach retirement than anyone else because when it comes to investing, you should never settle. fidelity investments. we are back at 8:08 with our exclusive interview with hollywood heavyweight, michael douglas. we sat down to talk about his 31-year-old son, cameron, who was recently sentenced to five years in prison and another five years of supervised release for selling drugs, including crystal meth. i started by asking michael if he thought his son received a lesser sentence because of his last name. look, my son was a drug dealer. he has been trying to kill himself for a while. and i can t condone his behavior. so, i think the court recognized his drug addiction as well as the crime that he committed, and it s an adequate, i think, amount of time for anybody to spend in jail. and the best part is he will be able to start his life afresh. much was made of the letters that you wrote to the judge and catherine wrote to the judge and your dad wrote to the judge, asking for leniency. i m wondering if you ever worried that that was the double-edged sword, that the celebrity side of this, you reaching out in that way, might actually caused the judge to say, wait a second. i m not going to bow to celebrity pressure and that he might have sentenced cameron more harshly. i think any person can understand writing letters for leniency. everybody does it. the fact that the letters were published was not what we understood. we believed that they were personal letters to the judge that were to be sealed. but under heavy pressure from news organization s who basically took a minor drug dealing sentence and blew this into a big story because for their own purposes of selling newspapers or keeping it going. so, all the letters were from the heart. and the fact is, with all the mistakes and the disease that cameron has, he s a great young man and i wouldn t be supporting him if i didn t feel that way. in your letter to the judge, since it has been made public, you said for the past eight months i have cherished my two-hour a week in-person conversation with cameron at the mcc, metropolitan center. he s sober. i get to witness the wonderful young man he can be. he maintains his spirit, blames no one but himself. he is facing five years. that is a long time to a 31-year-old. it s a long time. his spirit is good. the difficulty is he has been in prison, waiting for sentencing for almost a year. and the unknown part of that was really, really difficult. but, as i say in my letter, my son has not been sober for this length of time since he was 13 years old. so, he was going to be dead or somebody was going to kill him. and i think he has a chance to start a new life, and he knows that. from my understanding, this is going to take that amount of time for him to rebuild and start himself afresh. your ex-wife, cameron s mom, deandra, wrote a letter to the judge as well. i read t i thought it was a very blunt letter. she was tough on you as well. when you read it, what was your reaction? well, you know, this disease, as you look at it, certainly the family has a lot to do with it. i ve taken blames about being a bad father. being a bad father is, you know, working your butt off, trying to create a career at one time, i ve also confessed the fact that i was in rehab 20 years ago. so, we had that issue. as far as his mother was concerned, she was a very young mother when she had cameron. and her skills were limited to such an extent. the other part, of course, is genes. i lost a brother with an overdose four years ago. i have another brother who has been on the program for years. my ex-wife s family has alcoholism running in it. so, you have that part. then you finally end up with who you choose to hang out with. in cameron s position, he took, you know, a lot of low lives and he was a very attractive target to hang out with and i don t think that happened either. you have two other chilen. dillon is 9. cara is 7, i believe. right. how did you talk to them about this situation, what cameron is going through? we didn t tell them for a long time. we didn t tell them at all really until the sentencing came up and all the publicity, because i didn t think there was any reason for them cameron was in europe for a long time. but when the sentencing came up and all the publicity, we let them know before they went to school that next day. and we said that cameron was in prison for drug dealing and explained a little bit about it. and they were fine with the knowledge that they knew where he was. he always sent he s been wonderful about sending his sister, cara, cards from prison and all of that. i think with them just that security of knowledge of knowing, and the fact that they will be able to visit and they will be able to see him in the future. you said you re willing to take some of the blame for what happened with cameron and you ve also said, from what i ve read, you ve completely changed your parenting style with dillon and cara. what s the difference? priorities. when i had cameron, i was early in my career as opposed to most jobs, making movies takes you all around the world. you were absentee in that sense. you were away, sometimes working hard. we chose for a large part of our marriage not to be living in los angeles, but to be living outside. so, you had to travel. my priorities have completely changed. my marriage and my families come certainly before my career. finally, this is not just a hollywood problem. this doesn t just happen to the children of famous actors. what s the message that you want other parents what s the lesson you want them to learn, based on what happened to your son and your family? well, you have to catch it early. your options, once your children turn 18, are limited. most of the times, 30 days ain t gonna do it. see what you can do when they re under 18, because after that, it has to be all with their permission. that s michael douglas. again, we ll hear from michael later this month about his new movie called solitary man. up next, we ll lighten things up with the ageless wonder, betty white, right after this. now do it for your lashes. with maybelline new york s lash stilettos the #1 lengthening mascaras. choose original for staggering length and now voluptuous for length with volume. it s hotter than ever. [ female announcer ] lash stilettos. only from maybelline. - i m right here. and i always will be. male announcer: this mother s day, surround her with the strength of love s embrace from kay jewelers. one more reason kay is the number one jewelry store in america. parents magazine and edmunds.com called it one of the best family cars of 2009. the insurance institute for highway safety calls it a 2010 top safety pick. consumers digest has called it a best buy two years in a row. and with a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. we call it peace of mind. chevy malibu. during the spring event, qualified lessees can get a low mileage lease on this new malibu ls for around $199 a month. call for details. see your local chevy dealer. actress betty white is in the middle of a remarkable resurgence. this weekend, she ll showcase the golden wit that s dazzled us for decades when she hosts saturday night live. we ll talk with her in a moment. first, more on her incredible career. betty? i m in the shower, jay. oh, i m sorry. i ll come back. no, it s okay, jay. i m not shy. no, neither am i. could you hand me that loofah? she is hollywood s oldest and newest it girl. let s see if we can find your boobs. she s the golden girl who can take a tackle. you re playing like betty white out there. that s not what your girlfriend says. multiple emmy awards and the reputation as one of the nicest women around. here is the sweetest of the sweet. as she enters his seventh decade of show business, there s still one thing she s never done. live from new york, it s saturday night. until now. i would like to thank everyone on the internet who got me to host saturday night live. who knows, after this maybe i could host the academy awards. i said the academy awards. type, nerds. i m sure it s going to happen. betty white, good morning to you. good morning. how are you? i m doing great. you just arrived from l.a. yesterday with a stop in washington, d.c. for the white house correspondents dinner, where everybody wanted to meet you. and now you re going to host snl. how are you feeling these days? i m feeling it s ridiculous, is what it is. i m scared to death, if you must know. scared to death of snl ? but it s going to be fun. well, yeah. it s i m such a californian and it s so new york, i feel like a fish out of water, but it s going to be interesting. i ll just go with the flow. i know you ve been asked to do that show three times before. you always said no. why this time did you say i m going to take the plunge? it s my agents fault. i said would you thank them very much and said no, thank you? he said you have to do that or i ll divorce you. well, it s hard to get another agent, you know. no, it s going to be fun. i m looking forward to it. i know you ve agreed to do, obviously, any acting, singing, dancing, but no nudity. are you drawing the line? very little nudity. just a little, you know, here and there. just a little? mostly here. and the musical guest is jay-z. yes, isn t that something? someone said this is the oddest pairing they ve ever seen on snl. odd is sort of the name of the game these days. have you met him? no, i never have. tremendous. it s really going to bring an audience. what do you think is going on, betty, with this resurgence in your career? why do you think this is happening now? i don t think of it as a resurgence. i didn t know i had ever been away. i keep working, whatever is coming along. it s phenomenal. i love working, so there s no and people say have you ever thought about retiring? but i don t take the hint. i say no, i ll retire when they stop asking. i was reading your bio. what i didn t realize is born in chicago, moved to l.a. when you were 1 1/2. your dad with his a traveling salesman. yes. start of a lot of jokes. well, he was my mother and dad had a delicious sense of humor. and he would bring jokes home from the time, you know. and they never would explain them to me. if i didn t understand them, that was fine. if i did, as i grew up but he would say, honey, you can take that one to school, but i wouldn t take that one to school. so your sense of humor, it came basically from your dad then, do you think? oh, i think so. well, they were i know people get bored with it, but they were so positive. and it sure beats the alternative. it really does. it keeps no matter how bad things get, you don t sink to the basement. and it just keeps you looking a little on the bright side. these days, you split your interests between acting and animals. you ve been involved with the morris animal foundation. why is that such a passion for yours? in the womb it started. my mother and dad were the same way. i love any creature with a leg on each corner. i just adore them. when they have more than four legs, i get but i m getting better at it. but i used to spiders used to scare me to death. now i can actually take them outside. you can actually pick them up and you would never kill one then, i take it? i would never kill one, but i have jars that i coax them into and then take them outside, but never could do that before. but i m getting better. what mao makes you laugh, be? who makes you laugh? you make me laugh sometimes. not necessarily on this show, but you have a lovely sense of humor that makes me laugh. thank you. i wasn t fishing there, betty, but i ll take that. thank you. it s true. i love people who look on the as i say, i love to laugh. and, of course, carol burnett and tim conway. tim conway can do me in, almost as much as he can do harvey corman in. sandra bullock is another person who can make you laugh. very close with her making the proposal. she is so wonderful, one of the most delightful human beings. she really is. she s not only lovely and gorgeous, but she just she s interesting. and i love her. given what s happened, she s had such an up and down year here between the award and then her husband and now her baby. do you know how she s doing? have you been able to speak with her? i think her business is her business. and i try never to comment on it, because it s what should be the happiest, highest time of her life isn t working out that way right now. so, all i can do is love her and wish her well. when you go back, you re going to star in who the hot i cleveland. can you tell us about that show? i m never going to do another series. we re running out of time. that s what i get for talking so much. they re giving me a signal, 15 seconds. jane leaves, . 8:26 is the time and 71 degrees. a soggy start to the workweek. tom has the forecast after the news. today a prince georges county man is in custody accused of shooting two neighbors, a father and teen son in brandy wine. they had all been involved in a dispute. the father is son and son is expected to survive. police have not released the names of the shooter or victim. we will have weather and not that long ago, many families were priced out of an overheated housing market. but the times have changed. get the facts at remax.com. it s a great place to see all the listings in thousands of cities and towns. with lots of houses to chose from and down-to-earth prices the dream of owning a home seems more attainable than ever. find out what an experienced re/max agent can do for you. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. rain has tapered off and ended and a few passing sprinkling and light showers to the east, but we could get a passing shower and afternoon thundershower and highs around 80. partly cloud competent a small chance of a shower. a live look and it s a difficult commute, but the good news is no accidents either way at the american legion bridge. one more stop on the beltway. both directions between springfield and the wilson bridge and i-66, crawling because of earlier issues. coming up on news 4 at 5:00, a lot of people order flowers for mother s day, but how do you know what s 8:30 now on this monday morning, may 3rd, 2010. gold stars all around for everyone here on rockefeller plaza on a messy, wet start on a monday workday. it s so funny to look at both of you men. sexy. the way she said it. real is in, flaws and all. the trend is being reflected in magazi magazines. we ll talk with new models. the flaws there would be what? plus-size models that normally would not be on the cover a magazine. we are redefining what a flaw is. also ahead, one of the stars of one of the most beloved shows of all time, little house on the prayirie, melissa anderson better known as mary engels, has written a book about her experience on the show. we ll catch up with her in a couple of minute. wow, look at her. she looks great. we re talking about former first lady roslyn carter. she s written a new book. there she is. talking about a champion for more than four decades. lovely to have her. nice to have her. let s say hello to one of our favorite friends. elmo is here. yeah, elmo is here. he knows how to make an entrance. elmo on the couch. can we join you down there? he has a dvd out called the best of elmo 2. congratulations. thank you, mr. matt. tell us about it. elmo has mr. jason merez, who sings a song about going outside. it s wonderful. and fiest. do you know fiest? very cool. i didn t you knew fiest. you ask that as if we re not hip. david beckham. david beckham, really? did you bend it? huh? can you bend it like beckham? yeah, baby. you have a new friend. who is memory bot? really cool. he s a robot. what have you learned from him? robot 3000. very cool. very cool. doesn t he have a problem, elmo? he wasn t really working so elmo gave him some of elmo s memory. oh, i get it. that was nice of you. you re so generous. thank you. and you re meeting a lot of new people. you say you ve got some new favorite people. yeah. who are some of your other favorite people? miss india irene and the goo-goo dolls. and maybe someone closer to you right now? elmo is always so excited about being here! but you need to get a new couch. we just need to wash this one, elmo. well, you should see it back here, people. we never go back here. there s something crawling! ahh! help, help, help! help him, ann. i ll rescue you. he needs rescuing. thank you for saving me. oh, my lord. we really must do something about the critters down there. yes. all right, elmo. we love you very much, you know that. thank you. congratulations on the dvd. thank you. you know it s available in stores tomorrow. of course elmo knows that. yes. there is something back there, but it s not crawling. good morning. we had morning showers, but now they for the most part dissipated. a few light showers in charles county and further south and west as well as northeast maryland and the eastern shore. those are moving off. the front comes through and we could have passes showers and a thundershower early to mid-afternoon, but we ought to dry out with highs around 80. lower humidity, but a possibility of a passing shower. dry on wednesday and and don t forget, if you want to keep track of your weather all day long go to weather channel on cable or weather.com online. mr. roker, thank you very much. why real is the new beautiful. we ll explain that. first this is today on nbc. yeah. yeah. here s to the believers. the risk-takers. the visionaries. the entrepreneurs. who put it all on the line to build and run their own businesses. at at&t, we know something about that. our company started out in a small lab, with not much more than a dream. and today, we know it s small businesses that can create the jobs america needs. that s why at&t is investing billions to upgrade and build out our wired and wireless networks. making them faster, smarter, and more secure. connecting small businesses to markets across the country, and around the world. we invest now, because we know it will pay off. with new jobs, new growth, from a new generation, putting their belief in the future on the line. now is the time for investment and innovation. the future is waiting. and the future has always the future is waiting. and the future has always been our business. at&t. back at 8:37. on today s woman, bringing back the real sexy. doing an issue by featuring more unique models. editor in chief has brought along two of those models. good morning to all of you. cindy, let me start with you. what do you mean when you say real is the new sexy? i think we have a new or renewed appreciation for individuality, this idea that we all have to be some cookie cutter standard size zero perfect button nosed look in order to be attractive is starting to fade. why do you think that s happening? plastic surgery is dropping for the first time in about a decade. i think there s more of an appreciation for authenticity. women are saying i want to be beautiful. i want to be gorgeous but there might be different ways of doing that. jenny, you celebrate your beautiful curves by saying my curves make me feel sexy. but you didn t always feel that way, did you? no. of course, growing up, high school is always an awkward time for pretty much every girl. and that was also the same time that i started modeling. and i think especially through my career, i learned a lot about, you know, coming to terms with everything that made me unique and realizing that those things that make me unique make me beautiful. at this point in my life i ve been doing this for seven years and really started to understand that. it s taken a long time to get to that point, obviously. a few years, yeah. crystal, you re on the cover and are considered a plus-size model. you re a size 10, is it, or 12? i m a size 12. do you think your size defines you or it doesn t? no. i find that i define what i am at all times, which can change at any time. yes, i represent women because i talk about my size but that s not only who i am. it s interesting, because i think that when it comes to defining by a title, plus-sized model, straight-sized model, i ve done that always more for the public to explain to them. i ve only ever felt like just a model. and i think that s the true key to my success, is that i ve never let my size define me. i came into this and said i m going to be a model. i m never going to let my size stop me. i just am. that s the most important thing. that s a really positive message that glamour has sent, by doing the cover with all different sizes, saying all different sizes can be beautiful. most people look at that cover, i m not sure that they look at crystal saying she s a plus-sized model. the average american woman is a size 14. there is a disconnect. it s one of the eccentricities. once you re over the size of 8 you re considered a plus-sized model which is ridiculous. we all have rolls and curves and not everybody is perfectly straight up and down. there s lots of ways to look great in a swimsuit and crystal s confidence is what you see when you look at that cover. is this a momentary message or is it a movement of sorts? we ll see women the same size of these ladies and hopefully larger? this is something going on in that culture. in addition to the drop in plastic surgery, casting directors are looking for women who are real, the person without the breast implants. they re looking for the person who hasn t had endless plastic surgery and actresses who have had head to toe surgery are finding it hurts as opposed to helps their career. it keeps people from relating to them as human. what is the message you would like to get out to young women who look at your image? i would like to send the message that since my image in glamour is me wearing absolutely no clothing, i want to send a message that if i can show my skin to the entire country and be confident with it, i think every girl should be confident enough to sit in their own home in a t-shirt and underwear and feel sexy and beautiful. i really want to send that message of confidence across to just whatever you look like, you re beautiful because you re a woman. one of the issues i ll let you ladies go is that some women, again the average size being 14, they want to see clothes on women their size, seeing what it really looks like. looking at a stick i don t mean to denegrate these women. that doesn t help them. we have gotten comments, are you starting to promote obesity? first of all, we re not talking about obesity here. right. additionally, if you do have a weight problem, seeing somebody who is not just a size zero, someone who is seeing someone who slightly more resembles you gives you a good idea, nbc. we re back now at 8:44. for eight seasons, melissa anderson played mary ingalls on little house on the prairie. 29 years later, she s sharing her memories in a new book called the way i see it: a look back on little house. we ll talk to melissa in a moment but first a look back. highly sought-after actress, melissa anderson was in demand at an early age. by the time she was 10, she landed a small role on the hit show the brady bunch. but iouse on the prairie that defined her career, as the eldest of the ingalls children, shy, and studios. in the fourth season of the series, mary went blind. i can t see! i can t see! this role earned her an emmy nomination. i m going to write a letter to adam. the only actor on the show to do so in its entire eight-year run. as a staple of nbc s prime time throughout the 1970s and early 80s, little house on the prairie packed each episode with family values, love and friendship. melissa anderson, good morning. nice to see you. it s so nice to see you. i watch you every day. that s nice to hear. this is so exciting. honestly. i was reading about you last night. you started the show, you were 11. it went off the air, you were 18. your whole adolescent life was spent this way. was it a good thing or bad thing? overall, it was a great thing. it was my niche. i was in my element. i was learning. i was thrilled. it was great. it couldn t have been better. there were some awkward moments when you run into teenagers that, you know, think little house on the prairie how uncool. but nothing in comparison to you could go to those girls and say but i get to work with michael landon, who was an enormous heartthrob at the time. that s true. what was it like working with him? it was great. he really knew what he wanted. he was a bit of a control freak, but he and i had always had a very good relationship. i think i kind of reminded him of himself when he was younger, like on bonanza coming up. i was so studious. you write he was a control freak. you write at work he was controlling. he could also be mean at times. he would single out certain people and tease them publicly and relentlessly. were you ever the target of that? thank goodness, no, i wasn t. but yes, he could he had a mean streak. but i don t find that awful. a lot of people have a mean streak. was it a mean streak because he was a perfectionist and it was under the pressure of deadlines of shooting these shows or was it something else? i think it was insecurity. i think it came from his own insecurity. he bit his fingernails down to the quick. he had a very miserable upbringing and i think it was simple insecurity. one of your co-stars on the show was melissa and she played laura ingalls and you say she was hungry for attention. an armchair quarterback or armchair shrink might look 20 years later and say melissa gilbert s character tended to overshadow your character in some seasons of the show. was there any jealousy? no. we weren t encouraged to be totally tight as sisters anyway, because they didn t want us to get too close and then have a falling out or something. so, we always got along professionally great. but, you know, her character, laura, the books were written by her. right. and it was told from her perspective. so, she was always going to the be the central focus of the show. this idea when you went blind. right. it was the fourth season of the show. yes. did you go there to someone and say, wait a minute. this sounds like next season i m dead? right, gone. yeah. i did. what did they say? i went to mike landon at the wrap party before going into the fourth season and i was just i could barely get the words out. i was just heartbroken. i thought they re going to write me out. what can i possibly do? and he said, trust me, miss, it s going to be great. and he was absolutely right. it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to your character. it did. and to you as an actress. exactly. it also brought our show to number two. two-part episode. number two the first week and number one the second week. we never had ratings like that. after work was hard to come by, were people always identifying you as mary? no. i was really fortunate. as i grew up on the show, i didn t go through an awkward phase. one of those people that just luck i was lucky. and so i worked for aaron spelling all the time and i did movies of the week and on our hiatus, i was always doing something else. in preparation, too, so that that wouldn t happen to me. so i can go on and play the equalizer s daughter, my dream job in new york. i could go on and have a career. could a show like little house make it today in today s television landescascape, in yo opinion? i thought about that. if it had mike landon, it could. with the business being such a business now and less creative, you don t have a chance. two or three episodes to prove yourself. i don t know that we would find an audience in that amount of time. it s nice to catch up with you. it s my pleasure. i m so thrilled to be here. thank you. we re happy to have you. the book is called the way i see it. approximately one in four american adults struggles with mental illness. former first lady roslyn carter has fought for better health care in this country. we know that mental illness is a disease, as any other. it can be diagnosed. it can be treated and almost everyone suffering from mental illness can be helped. she has now co-authored her second book on the subject called within our reach: ending the mental health crisis. mrs. carter, good morning to you. good morning. you ve been beating this drum steadily since your husband was governgeorgia. why is this cause so important to you? what motivated you? i got involved during the campaign when i was governor. they were being moved out with nowhere to go before the community centers were established and i had so many people saying, what will your husband do with my loved one who is at central state hospital, a big hospital? so i became really interested in it and the more i looked into it, millions of people were suffering. back then we knew nothing about the brain. you write in your book every american in this country is touched by mental illness one way or another. if it s so widespread why doesn t it get the attention such as cancer or diabetes? stigma. stigma? stigma is so strong. i ve been trying to work on it for years now. the stigma being if you re mentally ill then you re discriminated against, prejudice against. people with mental illnesses, the stigma just exacerbates everything. it humiliates and embarrasses people, but also it holds back progress in the field. funding is very difficult to get for people working on mental illness as advocates. yeah. and it today, the thing that s so frustrating to me, and i get really angry about it, because we know how to treat people. we know what to do. there s been so much information. researching. so much research. we understand the brain as we never did before. there are new treatments, new medications, new treatments and people can recover. consumers have done a great job of helping each other and consumers are those living with mental illness. you say the federal budget for training new psychiatrists and other mental health professionals is actually shrinking. why do you think that is? again, is that the stigma? and how do we change that? as long as i ve been working on mental health issues, when funds have to be cut, mental health is the one that s cut. although i m excited now because the new health bill? i m excited about the new health bill. it provides for the basic health package to include mental health and substance abuse disorders. i m excited. the title of the book is within our reach. do you see a cure in the near future? so much has happened. and i really do believe that it is within our reach, because of what we ve learned and the new medications and the new treatments. and recovery is possible. today, even people who have suffered from major mental illnesses and have lost part of their lives to this illness now can recover. and people don t know that. they will after reading your 8:55 and 72 degrees on this rainy monday morning. tom has the forecast after the news. you have to take 95 or 395 in virginia. they are changing the hours of operation starting today. northbound lanes are closing an hour earlier at 10:00 a.m. southbound will reopen at noon instead of 1:00. hov rules remain in effect during rush hour. changes until november 1st. the parking lot at rhode island metro are closed. they are work on a parking garage and the housing and retail in the state. they had parking perms for the lot and will be able to park at other parking facilities where there is open space. we know the species, know the stain. lanolin-free coat, i know it s an alpaca. walks in here, looks says hey look, it s a llama! cleaning the stain like he would a llama stain. time he s wasting. call 1-800-steemer the steady rain has tapered off to scattered light showers in northern virginia and montgomery county across the potomac river, but elsewhere things are drying out temporarily. a front comes through that may trigger showers and thundershowers. a slight chance tomorrow and otherwise partly cloudy. jer he? checking out 270, heavy and slow, but no accidents. just volume and the weather. another stop to check out. through the construction zone, pretty good shape. you may find standing water though. coming up tonight at 5:00, a lot of we are back now on this monday morning, 3rd day of may, 2010. it is a soggy morning. although most of the umbrellas are down now. it has rained heavily overnight. some sweet 16 action going on there and other nice people on the plaza. thanks for stopping by. inside the studio, i m matt lauer, along with al roker and natalie morales. coming up this hour, new details into the investigation of this attempted bombing, car bombing in new york times square this weekend. surveillance video has been released by police of a man they want to talk to. he was shown walking around that suv that was rigged with explosives. we ll have more on the tape and more on that story, coming up. big scare here in new york, that s for sure. we re hearing exclusively this morning from the husband of that runaway mom from ohio. she was reported missing weeks ago and authorities launched a nationwide search. it turns out she had run off to florida with her boyfriend. her husband speaks to us exclusively for the first time is since she was found. little later on, if you wish you had a pearly smile but don t want to spend a whole fortune at the dentist s office, how you can whiten your teeth at home and which products work best. you ve done all the hard work. now it s time for them to put their best paw forward. today s top dog finalists are here, jami, jake, emma and fluffy will show you why they should be today s top dog and do their best to get your vote. all right. before we get to that, let s swing over to the news desk. ann has all the headlines. hi, ann. hi, guys. investigators are on the case of saturday s failed bombing in new york s times square. taking off a dark shirt, stuffing it into a bag. official s say the bomb inside the suv was crude, but could have been deadly, had it exploded. this morning on this broadcast, homeland security secretary janet napolitano says it s too early to rule any suspects in or out, including international terrorists. parts of the south, rivers are already rising. weekend thunderstorms claimed at least 19 lives in mississippi, kentucky and tennessee. two big airlines, united and continental announced this morning that they are merging in a deal that is to create the world s largest airline. today at the u.n., a showdown over iran s nuclear program. iran s president, mahmo ud ahmadinejad is speaking at a meeting, arguing against sanctions. hillary clinton addresses the same group later in the day. a court in india convicted a pakistani gunman in connection with the 2008 mumbai attacks. he was the lone survivor among the attackers. president obama calls the oil leak off louisiana a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster. he toured the area sunday, saying the government will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop the crisis. you are now up-to-date with some of the top stories at three minutes past the hour. back to matt. for the record, that wasn t me barking. i didn t think it was. that was one of our top competitors. let s get a check of the weather from al. thanks, matt. barely drizzling out here now. this is your first time in new york? we are getting areas of light rain in fairfax and down interstate 95 to the south towards fredericksburg as well as southern montgomery county and prince georges getting a few sprinkles. maybe an additional shower or thundershower with highs around 80 and partly cloudy and a small chance of a got some nice folks from california. adam winnick. jackie winnick. jamie. michelle. nice to see you. next time bring some umbrellas. back now in to ann. thanks, al. to the so-called runaway mom case in ohio. tiffany tehan disappeared, leaving her husband and 1-year-old daughter behind. we ll hear from her husband in just a moment. first, natalie morales has more on the new developments in this story. natalie, good morning. good morning, ann. tiffany tehan turned up in florida a week and a half ago with her new boyfriend, tre hutcherson. now the couple admits to plotting their getaway for months. when tiffany tehan, a married mother of a 1-year-old girl from xenia, ohio, never returned home from a routine shopping trip on april 17th, her husband, david s, life was turned upside down. her ford explorer was found abandoned at a local park, keys in the ignition, doors locked, tires slashed, prompting a nationwide search. days later, it took an unexpected twist when police released surveillance videos showing tiffany with a man visiting convenience stores over the past couple of months. he was identified as tre hutcherson, but unknown to tiffany s family. the family, including husband, david, with their daughter, lexi, appeared on today. she loves being a mom. there s no way that she would ever give that up. we miss you so much. we really want you to come home. nearly five days after she disappeared, miami beach detectives found tehan with hutcherson. she was found in miami beach, florida. she is safe. still, tiffany s husband was forgiving. she may have made some mistakes, but everyone does. she s a person like everyone else and it s not always easy. hutcherson and tehan have since returned to ohio. have you sorry for what happened? yes, of course. and in an interview with inside edition, hutcherson and tehan have now admitted they planned the disappearance to look like an abduction, even slashing tiffany s tire on the suv. tiffany suggested to me if we did it, she could not be found. she would want to be gone forever and how could we arrange that? even though now in hindsight, obviously, i know that this decision to run away was not right, for me at the time it just seemed like the best option. they will make full restitution. an attorney for the couple says they are working with police to pay back the $5,000 spent for the nationwide search. and prosecutors said it would take several weeks to evaluate evidence, with possible charges to come in the case of the runaway mom. many people have wondered why tiffany didn t just divorce her husband. she says because of her spiritual beliefs, that was not an option for her. ann? natalie, thanks. earlier this morning, meredith spoke exclusively to david tehan and asked him how he is doing after all of this. i m doing all right. we re doing pretty well. we have a lot of support from a lot of people. how did you hear the news, david, that tiffany had been found in florida with another man? and what was that like for you? i know when we spoke, it was a mystery to you, why she would have left. i actually the when they found her, they actually had her contact me. so, i did actually hear from her when they found her, very briefly. what did she say to you then? it s actually really hard to remember exactly what she said. but just that she was coming back to ohio. it was a very brief conversation. so, there really wasn t any more detail than that. you know, she has said this is hard for me to say to you that she is in love with somebody else and once she leaves ohio, she is not coming back. in retrospect, were there signals that you missed, warning signs that you missed, david, in your relationship? there was nothing that would have given me a clue as to something like this happening. you know, we re a married couple and we have a relationship with ups and downs. you know, so there would have been small things, but nothing that would have given me a clue to something like this. so the fact that she is leaving, is it still a mystery to you? i suppose so. i understand what she s talking about, with the pressures. and so i could see how potentially, given certain circumstances she could have been thinking that way. david, do you know whether she will be seeking a divorce and custody, possibly, of your daughter? i don t really know details on that at the moment. it s really it s still unresolved. so where do you and lexi and go from here, david? from here, at least for the moment, lexi and i are learning to get along, just the two of us. and i think what amazes a lot of people, or might, is how forgiving you are of your wife and what she did. very quickly, i know there s a message that you wanted to get out here this morning. can you tell us what that is? i just wanted to say to everyone who was involved in searching for tiffany, i know at the moment it kind of looks like maybe it wasn t a good thing to do, that it may not have been important. but it really was. at the moment, we had no idea that tiffany was even safe. and so finding her was extremely important. she could have been in danger. you know, i would say when it comes to future things, next time something like this happens and people get involved, it s important to be involved. it s important not to just let this kind of thing go, thinking that it may be a situation like this. that was meredith s interview this morning with david tehan earlier today. coming up, getting a brighter smile without spending a lot of money. we ve got teeth whitening a alternatives. up next, we are going to let the dogs out, the final four pups vying to become today s top dog show off their talents, right after this. eating healthy is important, but only vegetables can give you vegetable nutrition. one of these will get you more than half way to your five daily servings. v8. what s your number? 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[ female announcer ] when is it okay to lose the cover-up? when you can. take the special k challenge. and lose an inch from your waist in two weeks. so lose your cover-up, and show off your confidence. design your plan at specialk.com. announcer: today s top dog is brought to you by the makers of zyrtec. love the air. this morning on today s top dog, finally, let s meet the finalists. over the past month, we ve narrowed down the competition from hundreds to 12 and now to the final four. they ve each got their own unique talent. it s time to see what they can do, live on the air. let s meet them. jami is accompanied by her owner, carrie, best known as mom s little helper. jake, who stands proudly next to his owner, patricia. jake has the soft spot for the environment, which is always a good thing, and is always cleaning up the park. emma is joined by cindy. emma is one trainable dog who has a closet full of tricks. rounding out the competition, we ve got fluffy, the loveable doberman, who has won america s hea hearts with his singing. jami is mom s little helper. yes. what has she been trained to do? fetch diapers, bibs, ratelles, toys, keys, washcloths. let s see her in action. little owen right here, who is really the one who has been helping train her, right? give her kisses. can you give mama a diaper? hand. thank you. and environmentally good d p diapers, too. yes. high five. good girl. very good. that s your buddy, owen, right? so she has been doing this ever since owen was born, right? about eight months. good job, jami. okay, next? next we have jake and patricia. my understanding is that you didn t really have to teach jake to do this. no. he just learned it all on his own. how did that happen? do you remember how that happened? we used to go to softball teams games and people would row their garbage out and he started picking them up so i said throw it in the garbage. next thing i know, he s standing up, trying to throw it away. i figured we would start going to the parks and volunteering to pick up garbage. he has been doing it ever since. he is a search and rescue dog, is that right? yes, he is. well trained and a very smart dog. yes. i m going to step out of the way. jake has a job to do. we have bottles out here. ready? get the garbage. good boy. bring it here. right in here. good boy. put it in there. good boy. put it in there. good boy. get the other one. get the garbage. right there. good boy. right here. right here. not just plastic bottles? will he pick up other things as well? yeah, anything. you don t give him a treat or anything? he just does it. i usually you give him a treat? yes, i do. i ll give you a pat today. congratulations. you ve got a great dog. thank you. al, who do you have? we have emma with cindy. what was the first trick she ever learned? all the normal obedience, sit down, roll over, dead dog, things like that. as we got more and more complex, i saw dancing on television and so i became interested in some of that. let s see what emma can do. emma, come here. come on. let s go. back up. spin. good girl. spin. spin. spin. and jump through. good girl. and go for a walk. go through. go for a walk. go for a walk. can you go back? back through and back through. that s not easy. and back around. and back around. i m getting dizzy. i know. good girl. and can you take a bow? take a bow. very nice, emma. well done. our little guy is very impressed with that. and finally we ve got fluffy. tommy, where did you come up with the name fluffy for a doberman? it was my wife s idea. someone at work had a dog named fluffy and she said wouldn t that be funny to name our doberman fluffy? i said yeah that s a good one. when did you know he had such a singing voice? you have to work with them. they re like a block of wood. he loves you, al. until he listened to you sing, watching the today show. let s hear him. fluffy and his fine voice. ready? speak. speak. ready? sing. sing pretty. sing. no barking. sing. sing. no barking. that s pretty good. fluffy, all right. very nice. these are some talented dogs. this is going to be a tough one. tough. congratulations. well done. very impressive. and so now what s going to happen, i guess our viewers are going to make a decision, right, on all these dogs? they absolutely are. i tell you, it s so cute. and still picking up. we love that. can i say this is kind of embarrassing to admit but perhaps they re smarter than we are. that s not embarrassing. that s a fact. as you know, they re all vying for our top dog title. that s right. we re leaving it up to the viewers to help us out and make your picks. obviously this is going to be a very tough one. you can vote in two ways. logon to todayshow.com. text your vote to 622639 and press one for jami, two for jake, three for emma and four for fluffy. through noon eastern time on thursday. they re vying for a weekend getaway for two, plus the pooch at the kimpton palomar in atlanta. they ll also be issued in the august issue of ladies home journal. look how she s sitting there with her little crossed arms there. so proper. thanks to all of you for bringing in your dogs and your baby. that s right. coming up next here on today, the newest member of joy s fit club dropped 300 pounds in 16 months. the amazing results of all that hard work. first, these messages. and blur my vision. my eye doctor said there s great news for people with astigmatism. acuvue oasys for astigmatism. they work with the way my eyes move and blink, which helps them stay in place. and this is the only lens of its kind made with hydraclear plus. i m seeing more clearly, crisply, comfortably, all day long. now life doesn t have to be a blur. [ male announcer ] for a free trial pair certificate, go to getacuvue.com. acuvue oasys for astigmatism. winning at losing on weight watchers. i have never been this size in my adult life. so it s a special place for me. i m so comfortable in my jeans. i love the progress. looking back and saying, wow, look at the difference. and it makes me love myself that much more. i win. and you can, too. win, win, i win i win and you can join for free. weight watchers. because it works. announcer: there s an easier way. create your own business site with intuit websites. just choose a style, then customize, publish and get found. sweet. get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. 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! before you head outdoor, don t forget to put on your sunscreen. may is skin cancer detection and prevention month. from the american academy of dermatologists, good morning. nice to have you here. you say today is melanoma monday. what do you want us to know about melanomas? may is skin cancer month. this is our 25th anniversary for the american academy of dermatolo dermatology. 2 million people have been checked and many skin cancers have been found. i found these statistics unbelievable of the one american dies of melanoma every hour, one in five will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. what age should we start being concerned about melanoma? ? it can hit anyone at any time and it s color blind. the most common person to have melanoma is someone who is fair. any new spot on your body or any spot you ve had that s been changing but most people don t even know their skin. we really want people to look at melanoma monday.org and do a self skin check from head to toe, every nook and craynny. know what you have. so when something is new or changing, it will set off a red alert in your mind and you ll get that spot checked. do that once a month and obviously put on the sunscreen. take advantage of the free screenings. you don t need insurance. giada delaurentis is in our kitchen. [ female announcer ] introducing new stouffer s toasted subs. 4 varieties like meatball italiano made with delicious meats and melted cheeses on bakery fresh tasting bread that crisps in the microwave in minutes. the taste of your favorite sub shop without leaving home. new stouffer s toasted subs. it s tough to reach that five servings a day if you don t always like the taste of vegetables. good thing v8 v-fusion juice gives you a serving of vegetables hidden by a serving of fruit. [barking] v8. what s your number? . 9:26 is the time. in the news this morning, we are following breaking news right now. two people are in custody in connection with the murder of brian bets, the middle school principal found murdered in his silver spring home. a 46-year-old woman is charged with crimes related to the murder. a man has been taken into custody and is being questioned. we will have more on this story throughout the morning. are tom has the forecast. it was pouring earlier. a few scattered light sprinkles at this time in parts of anne arundel and charles and heading off to the east. a respite from the rain, but an additional passing shower or thundershower with highs around 80. partly cloudy and near 80 again. a small chance of a midday shower. we are dealing with delays, but they are starting to ease. right at the height of the weather earlier this morning. looking much better en route to downtown. we will check things out over the bridge. below the speed limit, but drying out and no late beings to report. thank you, jerry. coming up, a lot of p every englishman s home is his castle. what we would ask, your majesty, is liberty. liberty by law! you are looking at academy-award winner russell crowe in his new movie robinhood. whether he is a thief or a hero, he is a hollywood movie star. he will be here for a live interview tomorrow on today. love just about every movie he is in. so good. so talented. meanwhile, speaking of celebrities, there is a new trend on the red carpet and in beauty magazines. we re now seeing more women who are volumptuous. is this a fad or shape of things to come? elle magazine weighs in, in a moment. that s right. if you want to add a little meat to your hips, one of giada de laurentiis meals will help. twist on a traditional sandwich. it is delicious. what did she say? taa. a trip to the dentist s chair can be expensive going to the dentist. if you can t afford professional whitening, we ll tell you about the pros and cons about some of the less expensive alternatives, some of the over-the-counter . good morning. the steady rain we had earlier tapered off to showers that are moving to the east of the metro area where you see the color on the radar in anne arundel, prince georges, charles and parts of calvert county drifting east. it will perhaps get going again later on and passing showers and a thundershower later this afternoon with highs around 80. clearing out tonight and near 60 and partly clouty tomorrow and a that s your latest weather. thank you. coming up next, curves ahead. the shifting shape of beauty, right after this. keep you coming back for seconds? it s all in the pepperation. now, for only $5.99, enjoy our famous house-made chips and salsa, and our hot, tasty soups, like chicken enchilada or the new chicken and green chile. slow-smoked chicken topped with ripe avocado and fresh cilantro. plus, enjoy our new house salad with hand-cut romaine topped with fire-roasted corn. all with unlimited refills. it s chili s bottomless express lunch for just $5.99. for a limited time. only at chili s. bye-bye. you be careful on your way home. -happy mother s day. -okay. bye-bye. 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(announcer) right now, all over the country, discover card customers are getting five percent cashback bonus at home improvement stores. it pays to get more, it pays to discover. gotta get that bacon! dog: yummy. crunchy. bacon. bacon. bacon. there, in that bag! mom: who wants a beggin strip? dog: me! i d get it myself but i don t have thumbs! yum, yum, yum. it s beggin ! hm. i love you! beggin strips! there s no time like beggin time! three decadent flavors. 60 calories. it s me o clock. time for jell-o. our family-owned company makes daisy. with 100% natural farm-fresh cream. no artificial ingredients. no preservatives. and no added hormones. daisy, do-do a dollop make that first step easier, with the nicoderm cq patch. nicoderm steps you down from nicotine gradually. doubling your chance for success. nicoderm cq. three steps, ten weeks and you re free. this morning on today s woman, weight wars and the shape of things to come as curvier celebrities walk the red carpet, america s sense of ideal body is up for debate. from elle magazine, one of my favorites, robi, good morning to you. good morning. it s exceedingly well written. there is this shift again. why do you think? is there a cultural reason? i think there are two things going on. we re fatter, as a nation we re heavier than we used to be. the average woman has put on 20 pounds, which is sort of not great news. but i also think that women are more comfortable in their own skin. we have more power, as you know. we re in the workplace. 50% of us are working in some capacity, which means that people are more confident about the way that they look and the way that they feel. you re saying that women are demanding to see we ve opinion hearing people talk about they want to see themselves more well represented in these magazines. but so we need to remember that the fashion world and hollywood, they really are an industry, both of them. that s true. and so they have to respond to the consumers. that s who we are. that s true. that s right. it s fashion s job to reject whatever is going on every six months or so, which is to say we ve had the glamazons, tall, skinny models for a really long time. what was interesting about this season is that the louis vitton closed the show with 47-year-old elle mcpherson. she is not a skinny girl. the clothes are actually built for these curvy women. this is what s going on in fashion. i can see myself maybe not with the the push-up draw, but wearing that dress. you would look great in that dress. the point is, it doesn t feel like i couldn t wear it because it s on someone so thin. it s womanly, a womanly silhouette, which i think is sporn. not only are we seeing this by the way, we should probably say that we re not seeing this on every single runway, right? a victoria secret model down the runway, it s worth noting. is one of the most influential designers. that said, this still doesn t represent the average woman in america. no. what s interesting, we did a big study that average women are not actually inspired to look at women who look like them. in fact, they respond more to women who are a little bit above average. above average? you mean meaning, the average woman doesn t really want seeing somebody who looks like her doesn t send her out and make her go shopping. there is something always aspirational when you look at television and movies and the fact that the culture is moving shifting a little bit to women who look a little more realistic, but not the average woman is 5 3 and weighs 160 pounds. you re not going to see a lot of that on the runways or in the movies or in general. that said when we look at what s happening on the red carpet, women of all different kinds of shapes and sizes. it s sort of the variety. right. let me just kind of remind people, we ve got scarlet johansson, a voluptuous woman and we have gabourey sidibe. the fact that she was big, it was not a hinderance but fundamental to performing the way she did in that role and getting all the chops, which she well deserved. we re happy that women of all sizes are accepting themselves on one hand. on the other hand, obesity is not good for anybody. we don t want to send the message that obesity is good for everyone. on the other hand, can i ask you this? people start talking about body trends, my reaction is why do we need to have one? why is it either thin or not thin or why can t we have a variety? what s wrong with that? i think that you re right. what s happening is now you re seeing a broader range. when we see a broader range, do you think you work at elle magazine, a great magazine. the market forces might be set against actually a range of sizes. you know, i m actually going to on the runway. debate you on that. market forces are plus-sized women and that market is growing. it s enormous, a multibillion dollar industry every year. again, you look at a magazine or see scarlet johansson, beautiful young woman so you can project yourself on to the screen. we do want a little idealization in our models and in our movie stars. we want to project that maybe that s a better version of ourselves. thank you so much for having this conversation with us this morning. thank you. i m sure you ve got a lot of women thinking and rethinking our idea of what it is we want to aspire to be. coming up next, best ways to get a whiter smile, right after this. day and night. new scrubbing bubbles extend-a-clean, a continuous sprayer that lets the bubbles do the cleaning. with broad coverage, you just spray and wipe. then let the water-activated formula take care of your bathroom. let s go! 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[ male announcer ] what are you gonna miss when you have an allergy attack? benadryl® is more effective than claritin® at relieving your worst symptoms and works when you need it most. benadryl®. you can t pause life. gotta get that bacon! dog: yummy. crunchy. bacon. bacon. bacon. there, in that bag! mom: who wants a beggin strip? dog: me! i d get it myself but i don t have thumbs! yum, yum, yum. it s beggin ! hm. i love you! beggin strips! there s no time like beggin time! welcome to progressive. nice calculator. i m just trying to save money on my car insurance. you know, with progressive, you get the option to name your price. is that even possible? uh, absolutely. trade? and i still get great service? more like super great. oh, you have a message. hello. calculator humor. i ll be here all week. i will that was my schedule. the freedom to name your price. now, that s progressive. call or click today. thanks. i got the idea from general mills big g cereals. they put a white check on the top of every box to let people know that their cereals have healthy whole grain, and they re the right choice. (announcer) general mills makes getting whole grain an easy choice. just look for the white check. the merp american dental association says tooth whitening has become a popular procedure. with ligwhitening kits and lase treatments, here to sort it all out for us, good morning, ladies. linda, why did you want to report on teeth whitening as an industry? teeth whitening is so big right now. it s really become a part of grooming and every celebrity has white teeth. they ve all had bleaching treatments. it raises the bar immediately. it turns out we found out after age 30, your teeth start to age much the same way your skin does. bad news. good news is that there s a lot you can do about it. your enamel gets thinner and discoloration shows. it really shows your age, your smile. right, right. were you surprised by any of the research? we were surprised about some of the thing that is cause the darkening of the teeth. some things like white wine make your teeth more vulnerable to darker stains. there were a lot of surprises in it, yes. dr. austin, tooth whitening not for anyone. who, first, should not consider doing the tooth whitening? anyone that has tartar buildup, cavities, gum disease or may be experiencing sensitivity shouldn t do the whitening. consult your dentist first. anyone who has brown or gray discolorations should not consider the whitening. dental restoration, crowns or other moldings, is that something that also will be affected? will enamel be broken down, as we often hear, by doing treatments? no. the gels are very safe. they won t whiten your existing dental restoration. consult with your dentist again. let s talk about the benefits, three different types of treatment, first by a medical professional in the office. what are the benefits, the pros and cons? in the office we use the strongest gels on the market, which potentially can whiten your teeth, average six to 11 shades. moderate to severe discolorations. costs will be a little more. pretty expensive, about $6 h00 to $800. does it last longer because you re getting it in a dentist s office? it will last about the same as any other method, a year and a half to two years, depending on your habits. what if they give you those molds and you get the take-home kits using their solutions, at-home kits, is that any better? gels aren t as strong as the in-office whiteners, but are effective, great for anyone who has mild to moderate discolorations and very cost effective, ranging anywhere from $200 to $400. the benefits of that, is that longer term, too? the benefits is that it s more affordable mostly. you have more control at home. okay. and let s talk about over-the-counter. there are so many products on the market. every day there s something new, it seems. what really works, in your opinion? we see so much out there. anything that has hydro general peroxide, active ingredient. i love what you have on the table, white strips are great, most popular on the market and most affordable. anyone on an extreme budget, this is an option for you. it really works. you have to do these longer, stick with these things a little longer to see results, right? three to ten days. it s very the new ones actually only take three days. and you only have to use them for half an hour. they re actually better than the over-the-counter trays, because they re not fitted to your mouth so the bleach cannot hit your teeth or it can irritate your gums. the crest 3-d white strips. you tested all of these? we did. white strips whiten the teeth. they re not as fast as the in-office procedure, but very effective. listerine whitening rinse you can use before you brush your teeth. not the same kind of power and also a whitening toothpaste. it s easy to use. just a little abrasive that takes off some of the buildup. some of the other tips out there that is interesting is you say you should eat foods high in carrots, celery, kale. you ll have a lot of kale, right? it breaks down bacteria on your teeth. if you re drinking a glass of wine, have some cru d tae with your wine. you can drink them through a straw. if you re so inclined, wine or hot coffee through a straw. put vas lien on your teeth as well. that seems extreme. follow your wine or coffee with a glass of water because it takes a while for the pigments to really get in there and you can chase it with water. then your healthy and don t have stained teeth. appreciate it, as always, linda wells and catrice this morning we re cooking with giada, going beyond deli meat and cheese, cooking paninis. giada is here to show us some of her favorite recipes. always great to see you. hi, al. i like this. one of my favorites. i like it for brunch or a snack. take any kind of bread you want. i like the whole wheat type. i m brushing it, basically, with a little bit of olive oil. right. then watch this. sprinkling it with a little bit of brown sugar. just a little bit. get it in there. creates a little glaze? yeah. put it on both i like to put it on both sides but you can just put it on the outer if you want. then actually, why don t you do that? little bit of raspberry jam and i ll top it with fresh look at that raspberry jam. put it all over there. oh, wow! do you like raspberry jam, al? i like jam. i like jam cause jelly don t shake like that. okay. moving on, a little bit of fresh rosemary. i like the rosemary. tiny with the tart sweetness of the raspberry. then take fresh mozzarella slice. double deal. yeah, you can. mother s day is coming up. right. we can double it up. yeah. then what you do, you put it in the little panini press here. look at that. there we go. let s put this one in here now. how is that? you just grill it. a few minutes and it grills all together. cut that in half. i ll show you how to eat that in a minute. veggie deal. veggie sandwich. i like to keep them simple. right. but lots of flavor. you think of a veggie sandwich, people are like oh, boring. sundried tomatoes, chopped, olive oil, garlic, thyme, taragon and basil. it s all about the fresh herbs. mix that up? yeah. so, you do that. okay. it s all about the fresh herbs when it comes to the veggie sandwich, in my opinion. it s a marinade. i use it to marinade the vegetables but also to put on the sandwich. you re grilling some vegetables? zucchini and eggplant. i like to do panini parties. that s fun to say, too. panini parties. yes. then do whatever you want. put a little bit of that on there. excellent. excellent. then we re going to take the eggplant we grilled, japanese eggplant and nice, we have friends joining us here. yes, we do. then i put fresh spinach over the top. flip it over. and there is your sandwich. you also have a nice grilled tuna. coming up. really quickly. we don t even have to do it. tuna sandwich, my version on a tuna melt, fresh tuna, sharp cheddar, arugula. by the way, you look beautiful today. she looks beautiful every day. thank you, thank you, guys. the newest member of the joy fit club who d cockledoodledooooo! i do 22 more inspections than the government requires. and my fresh, all-natural chickens are never given any hormones or steroids. .and no candy, gladys. [ clucks ] [ male announcer ] perdue. extra inspections. extraordinary chicken. 9:56 is your time. in the news for today, we are following breaking news. two people are in custody in connection with the murder of brian bets, the d.c. principal found murdered last month in his silver spring home. a 46-year-old woman has been charged with crimes related to the murder and a man has been taken into custody and being questioned. two search warrants were executed, one on third street southeast and the other in the 5300 block of fifth street northeast. we will have more throughout the morning and midday at 11:00. let s go to tom for the forecast. we started with rain and it tapered off looking at the radar. lingering showers heading across the bay, but showers later on and maybe even thundershowers. i don t anticipate severe weather. tomorrow partly cloudy and lower humidity. a small chance of a midday shower. how is the traffic? things are improving and a light at the end of the traffic tunnel. the right side of the screen moving along well. don t anticipate late issues. the inner loop as you make the trip from tyson s corner moving along nicely. one more stop. things are looking good on the beltway. plenty of space between the vehicles. coming up tonight at 5:00 aircraft lot of people send from nbc news, this is today with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. hello, everybody. it is fun day this may 3rd, 2010. we spent a lot of the weekend together. we ll tell you about it, but guess who s with us today? joan rivers. you know when she s here it s a party. we went to the white house correspondents dinner. they are washington insiders, some celebs, politicians, news people. the joint is it s packed. we have a couple photos, i think, from the event. that s ann and deb and al. they were sitting all at our table. that was fun, yes, it is scott brown. it s a scott brown sandwich. and he actually set at that time i said two of us, and he whispers to me i dreamed of this. i m sorry, he probably says it to everybody, but i m taking him at face value. the other picture he s a politician, and at the never lie. that s jim bell, his wife and us. and all four of us. that was the highlight. betty white and morgan freeman. they are dating. they re a couple. they re so sweet together. and chelsea handler was at that table. scarlett johansson is so beautiful. kim kardashian was there. justin bieber, he is so teeny. but kim kardashian said he sent a message to her, basically saying, hey, i m in this room over here, why don t you call me? and she goes, i don t think so. she said she would meet him outside the room. outside. but president obama was brilliant. the funniest i have ever seen him. jay leno was on the stage, as was obama, and the funniest person in the room was the president. it was not the best night for old jay. he s still riding high at his old show, but saturday night was not his night. let s listen to president obama. i wasn t sure that i should actually come tonight. biden talked me into it. he leaned over and he said, mr. preside president, this is no ordinary dinner. this is a big [ bleep ] meal the only person whose ratings fell more than mine last year is here tonight. great to see you, jay. it wasn t real mean-spirited at all. it was really fun, really fun. and then do we have any sound of jay? yeah, we don t you don t want to see that. what we didn t notice is in times square there was a lot of commotion. weather deficient diverted, because they closed down laguardia. what happened was a car was pulled up right in front of the lion king theater. they found propane tanks, fireworks and other things. thankfully because of a vendor who saw something that looked suspicious, called the cops. and the cop was brave. he went over to that this video you re seeing, he s changing his shirt. he s in the frame of the picture. he puts down a bag, takes off his shirr. they re not saying this guy had something to do with it. it may have been a hot day, but he was nearby, a block or so away from that car. matthew mcconaughey is always taking off his shirt. we ll find out the story, but half a million people pass through times square daily. if you think about all those people. it could have been anybody, but they have ways now. it doesn t look like al qaeda at this point. they re thinking pretty amateurish. i was anxious to get home. i have news, frank and i have adopted. we would like you to meet the newest member of the family. that s bambino gifford. he weighs 1 1/2 pounds. we had no intention look how little he is in that field. that s our yard. of course it is. he s so cute. we had no intention at all who talked you into it? we re sitting at terra, one of our favorite restaurants, and my mom, frank and i on friday, just behaving ourselves, very pretty girl neighbor erica walks up holding this darling dog, and she said he s a teacup malta-poo, and i said he s precious. she said he s for sale, i have to find him a home. and frank leans over, and goes, does she come with the dog? all right? you know what? now you just bought yourself a dog, mister. he s going to be paying for the dog the rest of his life. that s it. yeah, bring that dog over here, please. she brings over the dog, and we fell in love. that s it? yeah, he s sweet. we were not looking, but i want him to have a happy home. that s going to be fun. that dog will get along great with your other pooches. that was the big question. anyway he came home yesterday and so far all is well. i want to say congratulations to this one here, because what we didn t talk about last week, your book on the new york times best sellers list. yes. on sale now. apparently it was number three the week it came out, but just got lost in translation, so thanks, everybody. i hope you re enjoying it. the fun part is in the back there s a cd with the song, but there s another song on there, and we re going to start asking you to send in videos of your kids. it s called quiz got to move their swing thing. . this little boy is sawyer. have you ever noticed you re always in motion have you ever noticed that they like a commotion they never stop moving send in your kids doing their swing thing. i m so glad everybody s enjoying it. he s just standing there until the music starts. speaking of songs, you know, something it s intangible. for me it is a song. it s a song that s so terrific. it s called one day. listen. i thank god i m breathing then i pray don t take me soon because i am here for a reason sometimes in my tears i drown by i never let it get me down i know some day it ll all turn around because all my life i ve been waiting for praying for for the people to say that we don t want to fight no more there will be no more wars and you re children will play do not get sarcastic. hold on. hold on. that song, you guys, is written and sung by a guy who is a combination of caribbean and hasid hasidic. it s a cool combo. it s a beautiful song, but to me it s. one day at a time squeeze jesus shouldn t they do a duet? this is from the olympics. it s a whole different thing. everybody has a story what s your thing? you know, we re running out of time. our winner this week is jossie jimenez from los angeles. she wrote us about her mother-in-law. they found strength, love and the power of a mother s touch. joanie fell in love with a man, got married, came from a struggled relationship, struggled with her own mother, so this mother-in-law became her mother. so we don t often hear that story. so even though the marriage didn t last, they re still like mother and daughter. so i think she s on the phone with us right now. joanie, are you there? it s josie, actually. so sorry. that s okay. how are you? good. good morning. how beautiful you are. first time getting a look at you. you are as well, i have to say, both of you. thank you. thank you so much. you re going to fly out from california, right? that s so exciting. thank you so much, it s an honor, and i want you all to meet my mother-in-law who s the most wonderful human building. that s great. we ll see you on thursday. have a safe trip. thank you so much. here is my favorite thing. this is a little pricey. but here s the thing. i m 56 years old, you find an eye cream that works, you would rather go without dinner than an eye cream. this is lamiere icons trait, but here s the cool thing. it comes with this applicator, but i have two now, you put them in the refrigerator, so all around your eyes, take them cold, and go around your eye like this. it wakes you up, takes away puffiness. it s pricey, but not crazy. you don t need a ton on you. it s not insane, insane. sara do you have a favorite thing? it s from a fan, she does this from her home. it s wishdesignshop.com. it s so cute the way she has her little leaf. i like the way people are finding ways to make money without leaving the house. god bless them. gird your loins. the woman more outspoken than we are. the legendary joan rivers. she can t get her shoe on ifrlts she s got lots to talk about, just in time for mother s day. now just $49.99. and maybe a jaclyn smith tunic. [ clears throat ] it s only $14.99! [ female announcer ] the gifts moms want are all at kmart. all women s apparel is on sale, and all women s sleepwear is buy one get one free! plus, all fine jewelry is 70% off. celebrate mom at a kmart price. [ mr. bluelight ] there s smart, and there s kmart smart. why do women like you love activia light? sometimes i have no choice but to eat heavy greasy food that s hard on my diet. and my digestive system. so i eat activia light every day. it helps me feel good and look good too! activia! new dove intensive repair with fiber actives helps reconstruct hair from the inside and leaves it more beautiful on the outside. new dove intensive repair. keep on doing your favorite things. dove takes care of the damage. 100% natural nuts and granola in bite sized clusters. it s a little bit of nature. a little bit better. and nature approves. granola nut clusters from nature valley. [ both screaming ] i got into one of the most expensive schools in the country! [ male announcer ] when stress gives you heartburn with headache. alka-seltzer gives you relief fast. [ low male ] plop, plop. [ high male ] fizz, fizz. pop-tarts®! i ll have a frosted strawberry. as an ice cream sandwich. chocolate fudge. on a stick please! ( crunch ) with the endless possibilities of kellogg s® pop-tarts, it s sure to be a picture perfect summer. pop-tarts®. made for fun. hello from new york city where hillary clinton said in today s papers, when it comes to doctors, we shouldn t have that many highly paid specialists. this coming from a woman lawyer who is a highly paid specialist. that is none other than the always enter taining, except in that clip, joan rivers, from the joan rivers show in the early the 0s. she s very busy. an upcoming documentary, and returning to tv again with a series. she is proving she is still a piece of work. we love you. thank you. so good to see you two. how did you get so rich? sock tonight. it used to be his favorite words, how did you get to ble bleeping rich? that s what i wanted it to be called. this is the most fascinating show. we go after people who made it on their own and are billionaires, and they all have a story. and they spend their money differently. rich people are very different. well, you re rich by anybody s standards. i spit on what i have. wait until you see. $3 million worth of cars. one man has a french garden, one italian, and some live with no help. do you like the people themselves? yeah, because every one of them have done it themselves. john paul digorio was collecting bottles, you know what i mean? and sleeping in his car. the man who does the clapper, you know, billionaire from doing that. come on. you mean the clapper on the movie set? no, the thing that turns off the lights. the wee-wee pads, adorable man. i asked his wife, how do you clean the floors? she says, i have no idea. the documentary. they followed me around for a year and a half, obviously had nothing better to do. it was at the tribeca film festival. it s getting raves. people think think know you until you watch a year in their life. and there was no plastic surgery, so a lot of people will be disappointed. you have another show yet, one with you and your daughter, and it s fitting, because it s mother s day knocking on the door. and melissa sent me i came out of the building and there was a toyota prius with a note saying, mom, get in and drive. isn t that sweet? she loves me. but you re moving into her house in los angeles? what s that going to be like? that will be the reality show. i m moving in there, which already happened for half a year. she called up and said, well, melissa, we love fashion. and you love each other. she s like the gay son i never had. we talk shoes and fashion. but you have a grandson now. yes. god bless him, cooper. so cute. and she has a new boyfriend. but they re not married yet? do you like him? enough. enough. he s fine. he s fine. fine is not good enough. i m from the generation that, where is the wedding ring? you know, he comes downstairs in shorts, perfectly lovely, wonderful with cooper, but enough. here comes the bride but that didn t work out. i went to that wedding, it was magnificent, cost you a fortune. but i had such a good time producing it. i bought all the glassware. i still use it. the china lasted longer than the wedding. joan, thank you. your yulery is beautiful, by the way. qvc. and wednesday nights how did you get so rich? and 20th anniversary of qvc. and if we do the hour with no makeup, joanie is in. i m in. she grew up before our eyes on little house on the prairie. right after this. it goes right where you need it, relieving allergy eyes in minutes. visine®-a. no other allergy eye drop is more complete. the smell of freshly juiced wheat grass and hand pressed shirts. whatever scents fill your household, purina tidy cats scoop helps neutralize odors in multiple cat homes. purina tidy cats scoop. keep your home smelling like home. add three quarters of a cup of clorox regular-bleach per gallon of water, soak for 5 minutes, rinse and dry. go online for more surprising ways to clean with clorox regular-bleach. useful in so many ways! thanks. i did it to let the judges know that my dog is the right choice. i got the idea from general mills big g cereals. they put a white check on the top of every box to let people know that their cereals have healthy whole grain, and they re the right choice. just like buttercup. (announcer) general mills is the only leading cereal company to put healthy whole grain in every box. the choice has never been easier. for whole grain guaranteed, just look for the white check. not anymore. now it describes everything we choose and buy. eat and drive. well, what if green could be simple again? as simple as say, doing the dishes. presenting future friendly from p&g. the products you use every day designed to do one of three simple things: save water, save energy or reduce waste. because when green is user friendly. we can all be future friendly. future friendly from p&g. for eight seasons melissa anderson played mary ingalls. she s the one who went blind. today she s a mother of two with a new book called the way i see it. . so nice to see you. you look great all grown up, by the way. oh, thank you. it s a pleasure for me to be here, honestly. i watch you all the time. you have a daughter 18 yes, she s 18. and a son 14. it s surprising that little girls have it happens, hoda. what makes you decide to write this book? you know, it never, ever occurred to me. when it was presented to me, my husband is a writer, i immediately thought of him, and i said, you mean my muss, and they were talking about me. i thought, no, no. and then i was kind of convinced that i probably did have a story in there if i thought about it and put it together little by little. and, you know, it was fun and i m glad i did it. i am glad now that i did it. it s very difficult to find anything negative anywhere at all about michael landon, because he was beloved. but you re very honest in this book about the fact, hey, this was a man like any other man who had good and bad qualities. here s a quote at work he was controlling and could also be mean at times. he would tease certain people publicly and relentlessly. what was that like on the set with that going on? well, it was uncomfortable. he just went too far. he thought it was funny action and he had a zany, weird sense of humor. he was a big kid at heart, but he did. he teased this man, bob, who stuttered, had a terrible, terrible stutter. you know, that just wasn t funny. but, on the other hand, he had the huge he was incredibly talented. he could be controlling, but it was his baby, his show, he worked hard all his life. and it taught me a life lesson early. i had to accept in someone he was my boss, some flaws like we all have, early on where a kid would normally say, i don t like you anymore. you accept that people are people, and you move through it. but you also explained where it came from. he had a terrible childhood. he did. usually we can understand when we walk a few miles in somebody else s shoes. and i couldn t have written what i wrote without i had a place to put it. if i hadn t written about the loanliest runner that i had a small part in, that was based on his child his, i never could have written those remarks that were more critical of him. i just couldn t bring myself to do it. i truly did love him. when you told you your character was going blind, did you think this was the end of your character? i did. i was horrified. i didn t even know how to approach. at our wrap party, i asked, am i going to be written out? i loved t it was my niche. and you ended up getting an award. i nominated for that. i won for something else, but i was nominated, the only one nominated, so it was a huge they say the nomination is everything. it really was. such great luck with your book. you re a lovely lady. thank you for having me. and going to movies by yourself is perfectly okay. thank you. we ll be right back. okay t? when you can. take the special k challenge. and lose an inch from your waist in two weeks. so lose your cover-up, and show off your confidence. design your plan at specialk.com. if the intense scent didn t work. nothing would. [ sighs ] that s the power of pine-sol, baby. wow, you look great! thanks! it s this new wish yourself thin program. i just wish it and it happens. it s probably those fiber one bars you re eating. i know they help me stick to my diet. the bars are 90 calories and the fiber helps you feel full. 90 calories and high fiber. so that s why this diet thing is working. but it s weird because my wish for lorenzo came true. [ male announcer ] new fiber one 90 calorie bars. hungry no. results yes. we issue following breaking news. police serve search warrants in connection with the murder of the school principal brian bets. we will have the arrest on the arrest. coming up on midday, how a cell phone can help you lose weight. midday begins in a few minutes. see you then. welcome back on this fun day. we re dishing on the hollywood news. we have the inside scoop from bravo host andy cohen. good morning, ladies. you re becoming very big and important. every time you turn on the tv, you re everywhere. well, i m happy to be here. what s the big news? we were with chelsea on saturday night, she seemed very happy. fully clothed. looking beautiful. not betty ford. betty white also has a sex tape coming out next week? have you seen the betty ford sex tape, though? no, she s a wonderful lady. i m just kidding. chelsea handler, crazy lead-up to that conversation. chill se handler, yes, it came out last week there s a sex tape. she did it as an audition to get attention. i m sure she did get a lot of casting agents attention. it s a real thing, and she talked about it on her show, and she said thanks to ray cap online for ruining my christmas present to my staff. it s her doing stand-up, and then suddenly her in a sex act she s not going to do anything. because of her attitude. she s not saying it s always the lie and cover-up that gets you crazy. betty white was a rock star. i loved the photo. you guys tweeted a photo of the four of you. that was fantastic. i don t think either one of them could do better. it is betty white week this week. on saturday night live i was so excited, and i was talking to one of the producers who was saying, look, this is going to be something to see. she s 88 years old, and hosting saturday night live is one of the harders gigs. not only is the rehearsal gig hard, but the changes are really quick backstage, ripping clothes off, putting them back on. she s love that part. so i m excited. i m so excited this is finally happening. the ratings will be huge. what about halle berry? i m excited about this only because two hot people are back on the market. i think anytime two hot people but they have a child. i always hate to do so a breakup. i caught you there, didn t i? yeah, you did. after four years they re breaking up and working out the details of the custody agreement. it is sad. but it s the big lead up-to-the housewives of new jersey. people are hand-wringing danielle wouldn t joe join? no, she said she was concerned about her safety appearing with the manzos. i m going to be hosting live on u-stream and on bravotv.com, a live from the premiere movie at the brownstone. they re going to have a three-hour premiere party. what s going on? well, jersey, maybe there will be a table flip. i don t know. it s going to take more than a table flip this year. why do you think that s the highest rated one? i think it s fun, relatable. i think at the core there is a family of sisters. there s some interesting kind of mother and children thing that come into play this season that are really relatable. you look at the why that klein is with her sons and jacqueline with her daughter, those are really relatable a. and there s the story line that anybody could get whacked at any minute. i m just kidding. what about conan? i thought it was interesting. part i me thought he was whining a bit, because he did get $33 million, and the other part i thought he was relatable, i m fine, it all worked out, it s cool. he was not too psyched about jay leno. he said he would have handled that differently, so i thought it was a fascinating interview. it s hard to feel sorry when he s making all that money. there s a lot of people out there hurting economically putting food on the table, but we wish him the best, and you too, andy. have fun at the premiere. up next curtis stone has a deserving feast for a deserving mom and her family. wow, what s going on there? right after this. alright kid, let s get ready for this morning s quiz. christopher columbus sailed the ocean blue. in 14 hundred and 92. nice! follow me, the missouri river is this way! lewis and clark expedition of 1804. oh, he ll never get this. magellan, 1520. awww, my 8 layers must ve given it away. help keep your kid full and focused with 8 filling layers. of whole grain fiber found in kellogg s frosted mini-wheats cereal. this is one giant leap for mini-kind. keeps em full. keeps em focused. hoo hooo! keeps em full. keeps em focused. [music, talking, laughing] what makes hershey s s mores special? hershey s chocolate goodness that brings people together. pure hershey s. love to see kids spirits shine. superstar and mom, martina mcbride and sunny d sunny taste. sunny spirit. sunny d. brings out the best in kids. sunny d my mom s on her way over. this chair smells. we gotta wash this thing, now. wash it?! [ male announcer ] there s a better way to get rid of odors. for all the things you can t wash, freshen it with febreze. to eliminate odors and leave a fresh scent. [ sniffs ] whoa. febreze. it s a breath of fresh air. we asked real people to film themselves taking the activia 14-day challenge. hi. i m emily ilic. i think from being a skeptic in the beginning i do think that activia actually works. take the activia challenge. it works or it s free. a few weeks ago we asked for your submissions for a mom s night in with curtis stone, care herrera, a mother of three, she was our lucky winner. curtis landed in her kitchen and took dinner to new heights with a special mother s day meal. so here i am, in seattle, very excited to be here. karen happens to be abinternational flight attendant. oh, he s mine! come on in. i m sorry. thank you. how are you? i m wonderful. so nice to meet you. you are karen? yes, i m karen. nice to meet you. this is julie. they re a tame bunch here in seattle. come on in, have a seat. you re sitting in business. we have cocktails for you. so we re wearing our smocks like we re at work, and we have a choice of a bloody mary or a mimosa. we thought for you i don t know if we can show this or not if we had a figure leaf if we had a figure leaf there. i am i wanted to give you these. you have to take that off. i m a little distracted. last year you missed mother s day? yes, i miss my family a lot. that s the bottom line. that s riley, kate, emily, and they just turned 13 on friday. it s your mother s day. tell me who you want to cook for, where you want to shop, what kind of food you want, and we ll make it come true. we would love to take the girls shopping with us at pike place market. so how many people are we going to cook for in total? just cooking for the family, jeff, myself, riley, kate and emily. you re going to take me around? yes, yes, we are. we have our shopping bags. i have my girlfriend bag, so i m ready to go. so this is it, the famous pike place. what do you do when you first come to the market? eat. that is so good. thank you, it was delicious. now that we ve got a full belly have a look at the fish. so i m looking at these beautiful crabs. get them to the scale. maybe a pound. cold and wet. so where do you buy your fresh produce from? frank s across the street. fennel, onions, garlic. fruit and veggies, and then to the store. what time do the kids get home? about 3:00. i ll get unpacked. these are really it s kind of a margarita, i guess, but we re going to need tequila. happy mother s day. thank you. hey, guys. how are you doing? how was school? so this is a special mother s day celebration. do you want to give me a hand in the kitchen? sure. yeah. drop your backpacks, get washed up and start. i m just going to cook a couple more things. why don t you guys set the table for mum. we re going to take our beautiful fish stew. i hope you love it. i m ready to do the entree. it s a bit of a take on surf and turf. dinner is about to be served. here can it comes, ladies first. oh, curtis,ium. look at that, you guys. this is perfect. i ve had so much fun, you ve got some french toast with caramelized bananas and greek yogurt. thank you so much. i ve had a wonderful day. it s been amazing. it sing wonderful. your friends are great, your family is incredible. lovely to meet you. thanks for coming out and spoiling us. i ve had so much fun. what a day in seattle. incredible food, amazing family, huge happy mother s day to area mothers out there. wait, wait, wait. we wanted to say thank you for the dinner you made for us. that s so sweet. my pleasure. anytime. what a day! thanks, guys. take it easy. we love our curtis. love him. maybe jealous of those two girls. yeah, that was inappropriate. certainly was. she s lost nearly 300 pounds, but the newest member of the joy fit club looks like now. he did it in something like 16 months or so. we ll talk to him after this. 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[ female announcer ] 28 delicious flavors at around 100 calories each. yoplait, it is so good. indulge in new blueberry pie and new red velvet cake. yoplait light. it is so good. a new song. we re back with look at me now. 48 years old jerome biggers, an operations manager at the nbc affiliate knsw in wichita, kansas. let s take a look at his journey. my name is jerome. for the past 28 years, my weight has been up, then down, and up again with me tipping the scales at 493 pounds. at my heaviest, i could hardly walk. grocery shopping was an exercise that ended with me dripping in sweat. the only activity i did excel at was eating. i would consume approximately 4,000 to 5 thounz calories a day. i was embarrassed by my wee. i would avoid people, mirrors or any social outings, because i was repulsed by how large i had become. i had high blood pressure, sleep apnea and early signs of kidney issues, yet losing the weight seemed impossible. finally i decided it was time to a change. i joined a doctor-supervised program, and started exercising. i went from barely being able to do 15 minutes on a stationary class, to five spin classes a week, running and lifting weights. it wasn t easy, but i ve lost a whopping 293 pounds in 16 months. losing the weight helped me regain my health, my confidence and ultimately my life. what a story. wow. we re going to meet jerome in just a minute, but first we want to talk to joy bauer. hi. he s going to talk about how he drank a lot of dietsoda, and you would think that would be sort of okay. we ve never gone down this direction before. we always discussed regular soda and theargantuan amounts of empty calories, but he was drinking so much, and from the psychology perspective, i think you sort of relax what else you re eating at that meal, you don t feel as guilty about it, like the burger and fries are okay. it also bathes your tastebuds in sweets, so it only makes sense that you crave sweets more often. he was drinking on a daily basis 18 cans equivalent of a diet soda. we mentioned up the brands a bit, but when you look at how many packets of artificial sweetener, 95 in one day. in a month s time frame, that s just under 3,000 packets of artificial sweet in. again, you know wait too much. you can t help but crave sweet when you re constantly bathing your tastebuds in sweets. we have to meet jerome. he lost an astonishing 293 pounds. let s see the new you. oh, my word. unbelievable. welcome. wichita must be so proud of you. yeah, they are. they stop you at the door, do you work here? that s a lot of weight to lose so quickly. just exercise, that s the key. i m eating clean foods, drink a lot of water, i m doing all that kind of fun stuff. exercise is a big key, too. and support. i get support from my t.o.p.s. group and med i-lost. i still want to lose that extra seven more pounds to say i ve lost 300 pounds. you must feel like a different person. do you feel different every time you wake up? yeah, i look in the mirror sometimes and go, who s that? so many people talk about the loneliness of being overweight and hiding, and not wanting to be out there living your wife. and five spin classes aweek? that s crazy. he does not crave sugar anymore. we are so proud of you. jerome, great for you. god bless you. thank you so much. guess who is here? elmo is here. but first this is today on nbc. oh, we have a very special friend joining us. america s favorite toddlers. we heard, elmo, you have a brand-new dvd out, the best of elmo 2? all of elmo as favorites songs. what are your favorite songs is it. elmo has a lot of them. i got to sing with it was a song about going outdoors. it was really cool. there it is. there you open up the door and be like me open the door and be free that s fun. elmo, you didn t ask me to be on your dvd. you can come anytime you want. next time? you have an open invitation. and i have a new puppy. you can come play with him. and miss hoda, you can come, too. you re very cute. hubba hubba. she s beautiful. her family is from egypt. what do you think about that, elmo? that s cool, with the camels and stuff? yeah, all that stuff. [ laughter ] and the sphinx and everything? but elmo had a lot of wonderful memories, when he made this robot that needed energy, so elmo gave elmo s robot elmo s memories, so he could get rejuvena rejuvenated. is that a lot? yeah. we got to go, elmo. we love you never change. you re a toll her forever. we love you. see you tomorrow. tomorrow toni braxton performs. promise me low prices. and stick to it. like seriously low prices. [ male announcer ] at safeway, we made a promise of low prices. and we re keeping it. [ female announcer ] take our fantastic club card specials like red seedless grapes just 99 cents a pound and 12 packs of pepsi only $2.66. i need to know that when i m here, the low prices will be too. monday, tuesday, everyday. i m a big fan of everyday. [ male announcer ] and with thousands of everyday low prices, you ll save all over the store. [ female announcer ] low prices you can count on. at safeway, that s our promise. that s ingredients for life.