Transcripts For WRC Today 20100525 : vimarsana.com

and welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i m meredith vieira. i m matt lauer. you take a look at some of the numbers coming in from the asian stock markets overnight. you get the feeling it could shape up to be a rough day on our own. it might be. it has been overseas. asia stocks fell sharply because of ongoing worries about europe s economy and whether it could be lead to a global slowdown. monday the dow fell 80 points in the last 15 minutes of trading for the lowest close since february. we ll go live to the new york stock exchange for the latest in a moment. a short time ago the queen of england arrived at parliament to open a new government. but everyone is really talking about that embarrassing scandal involving her former daughter-in-law the duchess of york sarah ferguson. she was caught on tape trying to sell access to her ex-husband, prince andrew. will the queen strip her of her royal title? will the prince kick her out of the home they share? we ll hear from royal biographer andrew morton later. does the good life begin at 50? a new report seems to back that up. coming up why hitting the half-century mark should give you a reason to smile. smile. let s begin with the breaking news, a sharp drop in the overseas market overnight and what that all means for the dow. cnbc s maine lisa lee is at the new york stock exchange. what s the latest? tell me about the number. in asia sharp declines across the board. there are a couple of worries. overall in china there s concerns that chinese government officials will do too much to slow its economy down, an economy by all accounts growing a little too quickly. also inflation runs ram pant. food prices up 6% year over year. imagine if your box of cereal costs 6% more than last year. already they have restricted bank lending in an attempt to cool the economy down. there is some concern that the officials will slam on the brakes as opposed to tap on the brakes and that could have repercussions throughout the region. also specifically today, matt, there are some concerns about tensions between north and south korea and concerns as well that there will be an impact from europe in terms of the european slowdown. europe after all is china s number one trading partner. before i let you go, back to china for a second. there seems to be a little schizophrenic nature. monday the shanghai markets were up 3.5%, down 2% yesterday. why the quick turnaround? as volatile as the u.s. markets seem, the chinese markets are actually much more volatile. they re a younger stock market so they don t have a lot of the things like short selling here in the united states that keep it more efficient. we re used to seeing wild swings. make no mistake, though, from january its top the trajectory has been lower precisely for the reasons i outlined earlier. melissa lee. thank you very much. let s bring in cnbc s maria bartiromo in chicago this morning. good morning to you. we just heard about these numbers overnight coming out of asia. so the two questions are what impact will this have on our stock market this morning and then take it bigger for me. what s it going to have on the overall health of our economy? hi there, matt. we are already seeing indications of a lower opening for wall street today. we ll probably see a similar situation for the dow jones industrial average and the s&p 500 that we ve seen on international markets, probably an open of down 2% or so. but i would keep this into perspective here. there seems to be a bit of a perfect storm developing around the world. but most indications show that we are seeing that debt crisis in europe stay contained. remember we are seeing a lot of positive economic data here in the u.s. but i think you asked the right question in terms of the economy. it is a vicious circle. when you re seeing weakness in the stock markets globally and upset in terms of the consumer sentiment, that does cut into economic growth and we probably will in fact see a lower economic story here in the u.s. at least fractionally because of what s going on internationally. based on the news the last couple of days, the average investor might gasp a little bit. but let s put things into bigger perspective. you look back a year ago today and we re in a lot better shape than we were then. you re absolutely right, matt. that s the key that people need to remember because you don t want to have a knee-jerk reaction when you have this kind of a perfect storm. the dow jones industrial average is 2,000 points ahead of where it was just one year ago. so we re starting on a much higher base. we re starting at a different situation in the u.s. versus europe and we continue to see much better signs for the economy here. it will be slow going and the employment situation probably will be unhappy for the rest of the year because we re looking at double-digit unemployment. but the u.s. economy is growing and things are not what they seem to be in europe right here in the u.s. all right, maria bartiromo. thank you very much. it is now five minutes after the hour. here s meredith. one company whose stock is falling fast is bp. it has plunged 31% since its oil rig exploded last month sending millions of gallons of crude into the gulf of mexico. tomorrow bp will try to plug the leak with a technique never used before so deep a water. nbc s environmental correspondent anne thompson is in venice, louisiana, with the latest. reporter: with oil now washing up in three states and this leak five weeks old, the region is holding its breath as bp prepares to try the top kill technique. a mile beneath the surface, remote-operated vehicles ready the blowout preventer to pump drilling mud through it in an attempt to plug the relentless leak. but even bp s ceo cannot ignore the fact of oil washing ashore on grand isle beaches. it s clear that the defense of the shoreline at this point has not been successful and i feel devastated by that, absolutely gutted. reporter: black hawk helicopters use sandbags to try and block the oil s path through the state s barrier islands. it s already hurting mitch. last friday his oyster boat was alive with work. now it lies tied up at the dock, his oyster beds closed. mitch worries not just about the oil but also the disperse and. you know, i m not afraid of a snake i see. i m afraid of a snake that s in the grass that i don t see. and that s what this dispersant i m afraid of it. reporter: monday epa administrator lisa jackson directed bp to significantly reduce the gallons of dispersant used from the air and under the sea. it seems to me if we want to have it as a tool, 10,000, 15,000 if we need it. reporter: though some administration officials are frustrated with bp we are not standing on the sidelines and letting bp do what bp wants to do. reporter: the man the white house put in charge to oversee the response defended bp. right now the relationship with bp is the way we should move forward. to move them out would raise the question to replace them with what. reporter: but at a town hall meeting in chaumette there were few defenders of bp or the government. what are you thinking? with no back-up plan? reporter: now, as everybody worries about the oil washing ashore along the louisiana coastline, today the 11 men who died in the fire that started all of this will be remembered in jackson, mississippi. matt? all right, anne, thank you very much. anne thompson in venice, louisiana. as anne just mentioned this oil is devastating people who live along the gulf coast among them residents of plaquemines parish. billy nungesser is the parish president. i know you re hearing it from the people who live in that parish. give me the sense of the range of emotions you re hearing on a daily basis. it s fear. it s disgust. it s you know, people in plaquemines parish aren t used to sitting around and waiting. we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. and we just don t see the efforts out there, number one. we told them it would come ashore. they said, no, it will be a few tar balls. it s come ashore. they re not equipped. there s no plan in place. the leadership is really lacking from all aspects of the coast guard and bp. seven skimmer boats in pla plaquemines parish as you see it takes them four or five days to get out there. it s just unacceptable. the people are disgusted, frustrated, as i am. and putting more troops on the ground is not the answer. we need a leader to step up and take charge and build this berm out there that the keep most of the oil out. mr. nungesser, would you say the frustration level is equal or equally shared between the federal government and bp or are the people in that area blaming one over the other? well, i think we re pointing the finger at both and they keep pointing the finger at each other. and the coast guard ultimately has the decision. they can direct bp to do anything. had they directed them to pay and build this berm 30 days ago, we would have over 20 miles of berm out the water receiving this oil on the beach. it s easy to clean it up off the beaches. you won t clean it up out of the marshes where it s destroying the habitat for the pelicans and all the wildlife in louisiana. it will destroy it for many years. and we told them that. it s now coming ashore. they need to admit they made a mistake, take a step back and let s get working out there, pull all stops out to protect our coastline. but they re still pointing the finger. more people on the ground is not the answer. organization, the equipment and building that berm to protect our coastline is the answer. we need to pull out all stops. we ve got the memorial day weekend fast approaching here, mr. nungesser. obviously the traditional start to the tourism season. what impact are you expecting? all the tournaments, all the big fishing tournaments are canceled. all the festivals in this area have been canceled. we have no tourism. all we have is the workers here that are working on this spill. and it s pretty devastating. and we re talking about long, long-lasting effects in these marshlands. i m so disappointed they won t spend $300 million to build a barrier island to protect us but i heard yesterday bp put up $500 million to check and research and study what s going to happen after the fact. we re not going to need that money because there s not going to be much left here to study. put that money up front. let s save the marsh while we still have a chance. we lost the battle. we haven t lost the war. it s time for a true leader to step up and let s make something happen. all right. plaquemines parish president billy nungesser. thank you for your time and our thoughts are with all of the good folks in your parish. 7:12. once again here s meredith. the duchess of york sarah ferguson is here in the u.s. this morning days after she was caught in a newspaper sting taking money to set up a meeting with her ex, prince andrew. she s still putting up a brave front as she appears in public. stephanie goss is in london where the queen opened up a new session of parliament earlier today. good morning. reporter: good morning. that s right, the queen was here today opening up that new session. it s one of her many official duties as monarch while at the same time trying to manage yet another family crisis. the queen arrived on schedule this morning in full regalia making no statement on the scandal involving her son s ex-wife. sarah ferguson was ready to sell prince andrew s business connections for a lot of money. 500,000 pounds when you can to me open doors. prince andrew? yeah. reporter: although not illegal, improper for sure. but the duchess of york couldn t resist the tabloid trap. overnight, new video was released of fergie accepting a charity award in los angeles, the day the scandal broke. whew. quite a heavy day. reporter: and managed to charm the crowd. i hate grownups and i love children. thank you so much. sarah is very resilient. she s recovered from a lot of scandal and i think she ll bounce back from this as well. reporter: as a young woman from no royal background, she married prince andrew, the queen s second son in 1986. they called her a breath of fresh air at first. but next to princess diana, the spotlight was harsh. struggling with her weight the media dubbed ferguson the duchess of pork and then proof of an affair. embarrassing photos in the south of france followed by divorce in 1996. saddled with debt and infamy fergie flew to the u.s. americans love reinvention. and soon loved the duchess. tired of being called the duchess of pork. reporter: she became the spokeswoman for weight watchers and kashld in on her royal name making millions and dedicating much of her time to charity. but with lavish royal tafrts, the money quickly disappeared. the u.s. company fergie created to market her image went bankrupt last year and now owes nearly $1 million. a uk law firm is suing her for another $300,000 in unpaid bills. now it seems she s gone full circle and lost all this money again. you have to ask yourself is this a serial problem of hers. reporter: before the videotaped deal fergie tells the undercover reporter i m a complete aristo crat. love that, don t you? it s tremendously fabulous. it doesn t seem that way now. british media quote friends saying it put her in a fragile state. reinvention this time won t be easy. fergie has boldly kept her speaking arrangements in the u.s. this week. she s scheduled to appear at a book fair tomorrow in new york promoting a children s series. the british press say she s flying back here on thursday, where prince andrew is very eager for a face-to-face. meredith? all right, stephanie gosk, thank you very much. andrew morton is a royal biographer who has written a book on sarah ferguson. good morning to you. good morning. you wrote that book about sarah ferguson, that bio in 1987 right after she had married prince andrew. i understand you were not at all surprised by this latest scandal. why not? well, she s always been someone who has taken the notion of being royal equals a license to print your own money. i remember when she first got inside the royal family she was asking kitchen manufacturers, dress manufacturers for heavy discounts for things. and while she s seen that happen with other members of the royal family, she took it to an nth degree. the assumption is this was motivated by debt. do you have any idea how much financial trouble she is in? she s come back from virtual bankruptcy in the past. she owed something like $8 million to banks when she divorced from prince andrew. she paid that debt off by books, by author by joining weight watchers, $2 million a year. now she s very much in debt. she s got debtors chasing her in new york and the rest of america, in london. she s in debt to a substantial six-figure sum. i don t see any way that she can really use her name now to reinvent herself. she was talking to that undercover reporter posing as a businessman, she told him that she left the royal family with as she put it, friendship, no money. reportedly she only received $20,000 a year in her divorce settlement from prince andrew. is that common in royal circles or was the family basically trying to ice her out? well, she was what diana used to call the canary down the mine shaft. she went first. diana went second. diana got a big settlement of something like $30 million from prince charles who, after all, is quite a wealthy man. prince andrew was treated just as a divorce between man and wife and the queen was not involved. so he was a naval officer on a naval salary and she got half of that. the buckingham palace has issued a very brief statement saying that the principles says he has no involvement in any of this, although sarah ferguson seemed to imply that he did know about the deal when she was talking to that undercover reporter. once she was caught she denied that and said he knew nothing about it. does he have any explaining to do in all of this? i m very suspicious of this whole thing. the news of the world didn t wake up and say let s give fergie $30,000 in a sting operation. they had to have evidence she had done this before. they mention in their article there are two other tycoons involved. either prince andrew is very naive to take his wife s word at face value because above all else he ll know fergie better than anyone else in the country. or he s in on the scam. two final questions, andrew. do you believe that the queen will take away her title of duchess? and what about her relationship with andrew? she s staying at his country home i understand right now. well, i mean, the queen can as she gives, she can also take away. nobody would be surprised if the queen now stripped her of the remaining aspect of her title duchess of york. as to prince andrew he s coming back from singapore. they re going to have a showdown. there will have to be some hard talking because she s agreed to leave the royal lodge where she s been renting rooms from prince andrew. but where will she go? she has no money. she s in debt. she s literally the loosest of loose cannons. they have two daughters in the early 20s. you have to feel bad for what they re going through as well. andrew morton, thank you so much. let us get a check of the rest of the morning s top stories from ann at the news desk. earlier we had melissa leigh talking about how tensions on the korean peninsula might affect the stock market. today south korea resumed propaganda broadcasts over the border and a monitoring groups of the north has ordered its own military to prepare for possible combat. this morning, russia called on both sides to show restraint and avoid war. the new york times is reporting this morning the pentagon has approved greater use of covert military operations to disrupt militant groups in the middle east and also paved the way for possible strikes in iran should nuclear tensions escalate. relatives of some of the 29 coal miners who died in the worst mining disaster in 40 years told members of congress on monday that their loved ones feared going to work. nbc s tom costello is in beckley, west virginia with more on this story. reporter: the miners and miners families say they never spoke up about safety because they feared losing their jobs or their insurance and they say safety took a back seat to coal production. in coal country where every miner seems to be related to another, heartbreak and defiance. this is my brother. i don t have him no more. this is my other family of brothers. reporter: members of congress heard story after story of how safety was repeatedly compromised at the upper big branch mine and how employees outside the mine routinely tipped off managers inside when federal safety inspectors showed up so they could be distracted from problem areas. stanley stewart said he had been so worried about safety, he kept a diary of concerns. did you feel that you could complain to a federal investigator? not 100%, no. i felt if you would complain and you were found out, you would be hitting the road. reporter: in the months leading up to the explosion that killed 29 miners, mine operator massey energy was cited hundreds of times for safety violations. now it s under criminal investigation and many employees accused it of intimidation. that s part of appalachian culture. not sure i like it. but it goes back 100 years the way companies operate. reporter: mallsy energy says it does not put profits ahead of safety but now congress is talking about significantly beefing up mine safety laws. ann. tom costello this morning. thanks. the end of the line. the last humvees rolled off the assembly line monday in shreveport, louisiana. a deal to try to sell the brand to a chinese company fell through. those are so of the top good morning. i m meteorologist tom kierein. we have low clouds and patchy fog. radar showing no real precipitation. a few scattered showers, panhandle in the west virginia now. we re in the 60s all around the entire region. 66 in washington. afternoon highs climbing to near 80 degrees and sunshine breaking up. tomorrow, mostly sunny and hotter. hot and humid thursday and friday. could get passing afternoon thunderstorms both days. should be cooler. lower humidity for the weekend. that s your latest weather. matt. thank you very much. coming up tareq and michaela salahi, the couple accused of crashing that first white house state dinner. they even had a run-in with the secret service last week during the second state dinner. what s going on? . coming up. wi withmortgage rates falling fast, should you buy or refinance now? simon monjack found dead in his home. good morning to you. at 7:26, i m joe krebs on this tuesday, the 25th day of may, 2010. parents of prince william county are outraged after learning a burglar stole a thumb drive with their children s personal information on it. lakewood middle school held a meeting to address the concerns. it includes e-mail addresses and i.d. numbers. we ll come back with a look at our weather forecast and check out [ male announcer ] what is performance? 0 to 60? or 60 to 0? [ tires screech ] how a car performs in a quarter-mile? [ engine revs ] or a quarter-century? is performance about the joy of driving? othe importance. of surviving. to us, performance is not about doing one thing well. it is about doing everything well. because in the end. everything matters. performance without compromise. that is what drives us. at this hour, temperatures around the region are in the 60s. we ll climb to 80 degrees. patchy fog and drizzle as well. wednesday, sunny, hotter, hot and humid for thursday and friday. could get afternoon storms both days. how is the traffic now, jerry? tough times. trip south on 270 jammed from at least germantown on down. earlier accident involving the motorcycle remains on the shoulder. so, the lanes are open. quick check elsewhere, just volume but plenty of it. outer loop of the beltway crawling. win a pair of the hottest tickets in town. taylor swift s sold-out june concert, search taylor on nbcwashington.co 7 :30 now on a tuesday morning. the 25th of may 2010. take a look at some of the nice people outside the studio rockefeller plaza on a bright, sunny tuesday morning. we re going to go outside and say hi to those people in just a little while. meanwhile inside studio 1a i m matt lauer alongside meredith vieira. coming up in a moment tareq and michaela salahi. they grabbed national attention when the white house accused them of crashing the obama administration s first state dinner. they say they were invited. the white house says no way. now the salahis have had another run-in with the secret service. an exclusive interview with them in a few minutes. the silver lining in a dark cloud. while europe s trouble has the financial markets reeling, it also means mortgage rates are falling to 50-year lows. will they go lower still or should you jump in to refinance? jean chatzky will have perspective. much more on the hollywood mystery. the deaths of actress brittany murphy and her husband just five months apart. let s begin with tareq and michaela salahi, the controversial couple accused of crashing the state dinner last fall. their limo driver was stopped for running a red light after he tried to turn into a restricted park very close to the white house. we ll have an exclusive interview with the couple in a moment. but first an update. it was the obamas second straight dinner for the president and first lady of mexico. cheers. accused party crashers sal hee said it was an unbelievable incident they were so close to the white house. they were accompanied by a camera crew from inside edition and told authorities they were on the way to a nearby restaurant for a dinner party with friends. in november the salahis grabbed worldwide attention when they made it through several secret service checkpoints gaining entrance into a state dinner even meeting president obama and vice president biden. appearing here they denied crashing that dinner. we were invited, not crashers. there isn t anyone that would have the audacity or the poor behavior to do that. the white house said they were not invited and the incident led to the dismissal of prominent social secretary desiree rogers. subpoenaed to testify before congress, the salahis took the fifth. advice of council i assert my rights. . let me ask you a question were you there? on the advice are you here today, mr. salahi? are you here right now? and in a recent interview the salahis said they deserve an apology. it would be nice if somebody sa poll jized to us or if someone would i would just like to move forward. the publicity-seeking couple could still see charges for crashing the state dinner last year. while nbc s sister network bravo has not officially announced they re part of the cast, it s been widely reported that they will be part of the popular franchise the real housewives of d.c. tareq and michaela salahi, good morning. welcome back. let s just start with last week, okay. on the night of the second obama administration state dinner you re in a limo. that limo runs a red light, try is to make an illegal turn on to the ellipse which is directly adjacent to the white house basically. you re stopped by secret service uniformed officers and detained for a little while. and in the limo with you is a camera crew. why? well, first, the limo driver actually never pulled into a restricted area. we re in the back, so obviously we weren t giving directions or anything to the limo driver but we re driving down constitution avenue to turn up 17th and i to go to the buddha bar. a friend s dinner party? yes. why would you have a camera crew? we were doing a lifestyle report. we ve done those over the last decade quite a bit. more recently for a lot of activities that are surrounding us. let me throw the speculation at you, okay? night of the second state dinner. we all know what happened on the night of the first state dinner. and the cynics out there are saying here come the salahis. they want to get close to the white house again with the camera crew. they want that photo op standing in front of the gate of the white house on the night of the second state beginner. you say not true. we had the camera crew and we whether going to the dinner party. that was planned for weeks. with our friends. even our attorneys were at the dinner party and came down when we got stopped. pure coincidence. not an attempt at further publicity based on the date and the timing? no. actually in the front seat with the limo driver was the virginia tourism corporation, one of the representatives. she was in the front seat with that driver. let s go back to the first state dinner. when you were on this program just a couple of days, at the time of the white hot media spotlight on you guys and there was a lot you told me you couldn t tell me, you couldn t speak about at that time. so let me ask you now. you ve told me there s a lot of evidence you have that will completely exxonerate you. what is the most significant piece of evidence you can share with me right now that clears you in that case? well, we have certainly we have witnesses third-party witnesses. that listened to conversations that have been affidavits and declarations that have been done. do those witnesses say, yes, you were invited to that party? yes, without a doubt. and those are credible witnesses from within the white house or the administration or someone else with an official title? yes. that s right. that s right. an official title. it was a phone call that we had, a conference call. and there were witnesses to that call. can i say the name of the person on that conference call? it was michelle jones, correct? correct. your contact within the pentagon and within the obama administration and according to a document you ve shown us we don t have right in front of us after this all happened, after the media glare, after the accusations of crashing the party, you had a conversation with her where she said, this is all just a big misunderstanding. right. absolutely right. it s been a series of misunderstandings over six months and recently we saw the vice president, vice president biden and president obama speak at the correspondents dinner and joked about us. that s why we decided to come today. we thought if they can joke about us, maybe it s time just everyone move forward. the conversation you had printed out on that affidavit i believe it was an affidavit have you shown that to the secret service and law enforcement and have they seemed to be convinced by it? yes, they ve seen it. they in fact stated yeah could this be a misunderstanding. michaela, i want to ask you about another thing i wanted to ask the first time. there are reports that on the day of the first state dinner you were in a salon getting ready and you were asked about this. you were talking to people going to the white house tonight. and someone asked to see your invitation and you said it s in the car. in truth there was no invitation. no. why did you say that? i was asked to say that to go along with something. and the stylist i had just met five minutes prior. and i asked her first of all, someone asked by who to say that? that s you know, we ll have to wait and see. i can t say that. to share something that wasn t true. that would be important. that s a good point. that s a very good point. so let s talk about that for a second. i was witness to that and that s something that probably took about 10 or 12 different shots to take that day. there were cameras there we want to mention. the cameras weren t recording spontaneous conversations? it was scripted? it s i asked her why are you asking me? you asked who? the hairstylist. she said, i m sorry, michaela, i m being told to ask you this. by? producers. so you re leaving open more questions than you re answering on this. it was producers. they had told u.s. and we both signed nvas with that organization. we re not allowed to talk about a lot of things that happened later to that. you have not been completely clear. it s still a possibility that charges could be filed. do you know why you ve been left twisting in the wind a little bit? i m not certain but recently like i said, i saw them both making jokes about us and i feel in my heart if someone is making a joke about you, the president and vice president, they wouldn t want to hurt you. you ve said on this piece of tape that we ran earlier that you would like an apology or at least end of the road type thing. it s probably you re probably not going to get an apology from the white house. you realize that. let me clarify that. at no time did i ask for an apology from the white house and i m still not. when that was done and that was done months ago, i was very troubled with the way the media was treating us, the way the media was coming to our home, going through our cars looking at our registration and invading the privacy in our home. other networks. and being prejudged. prejudged by members of congress. before the hearing even got started. we hadn t even gone to it. we were told you are guilty before you can go there. that s one of the main reasons we had to take the fifth. so i wanted some sort of apology by the media the way they treated us or members of congress calling us things before we even had a chance to go to congress. that video was not ever supposed to be released. honestly, michaela, we re sorry to the president and first lady for this really, the situation that s happened. the storm of media. short of asking for an apology from them, you re actually sorry for what this created? we re sorry for what this created for the president and first lady. final point, although our sister network bravo has not confirmed it, there are there s a lot of speculation and reports that you both will be a part of a new franchise the real housewives franchise and they re doing one the rel hous wial housewives of d.c. and you are part of that cast. what can you tell me about that? oh, my gosh. i love the housewives series. if they are doing a show i ll watch. watch or be a part of? we have to wait is this at all related to this area that we seem to be hedging over in terms of who told you to say what? we re simply prohibited and not allowed to talk anything about a series or anything about the we re happy to be here just to talk about, you know, that we just want to move forward. we ve been strongly told by a lot of people not to talk about a lot of different things. okay. which sets us up for round three. okay. we will see you soon. thank you both for stopping by. thank you. appreciate it. nice to see you. tareq, thank you very much. it s 7:41. let s get a check of the good morning. easterly and southeasterly wind will keep us cooler here today. highs by mid afternoon 80. this hour, low clouds and patchy drizzle around. temperatures around the low 60s. we ll have highs near 80 with sunshine breaking out. mostly sunny and heating up tomorrow into the 80s. it will be in the 80s thursday and friday with more humidity around. could get afternoon storms both thursday and again friday. cooler, less humid for the weekend. i ve got some fsome folks h. trying to get new york to get that super bowl. 2014. making history, new york, new jersey. mu meadowlands. go for it. get your weather any time of the day or night on weather channel on cable, online weather.com. it will be cool. cold weather super bowl. we like that very much. why turning 50 could mark the happiest time of your life. mortgage rates falling fast. is it time for you to refinance? 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[ donkey ] i m lovin it! soak our yards in color. get our hands a little busier. our dollars a little stronger. and our thinking a little greener. let s grab all the bags and all the plants and all the latest tools out there. so we can turn all these savings into more colorful shades of doing. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. we veade a special buy on 32 quart miracle-gro moisture control potting mix for just $8.97. woman: i just joined extracare advantage for diabetes at cvs/pharmacy. i m taking the right steps to manage my diabetes and my budget. extracare advantage for diabetes is a new program that helps me save money and earn double bucks on over 100 items, so we can stay a step ahead of. all: our diabetes! join extracare advantage for diabetes today and receive a free gift when you enroll. only at cvs/pharmacy. we are back now at 7:46. this morning on today s money, falling mortgage interest rates. in a big surprise they re at a 50-year low. is it time to refinance or buy a new home? today s financial editor jean catski has important advice. mortgage rate on a fixed rate 4.84%. 4.24% on a 15-year loan and industry experts believe the numbers could go even lower. they could potentially go to about 4.5 this summer but you don t necessarily want to wait for that. if this makes sense for you right now you probably want to jump in. what happened with conventional wisdom the numbers were going high officer. we were all surprised by this. what s happening is europe and the mess in europe. investors are looking for safe places to put their money. they re putting them in u.s. treasuries. that s taking mortgage rates lower. so the risk in waiting is that should the mess in europe clear up faster than anticipated, this could turn around in under a month. so act fast. let s talk about refinancing. nearly half of all borrowers with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage have a rate of 5.7% or higher. take us through the numbers if we were to refinance. on a $300,000 loan that translates into a monthly payment without interest and without insurance and taxes of about $1,750 a month. at the new rate 4.75% you ll save $176 a month over the life of a 30-year fixed rate mortgage that s $63,000 in interest alone. that s a huge amount of money. essentially, every 1% drop in the interest rate on the mortgage translates into about a 10% reduction on the price of a home, equivalency. is this a good time to buy a house with these lower interest rates? if you were looking to buy a house already. this is not an excuse to get in and buy a house that you couldn t necessarily afford. we have to re mind people that everybody got into so much trouble by biting off more than they could chew during the housing bubble. you not only look at the mortgage payment but what it s going to cost you to live in that house. but if you were on the bubble and you can now get in because of these lower rates, sure, why not. i anticipate the answer to this. should you be waiting for the rates to go lower? probably not. i wouldn t necessarily, though you can look for something called a float-down. which is you pay a couple hundred dollars. and if rates do go lower before you close on your loan, you ll actually capture that additional savings. what about adjustable rate mortgages? they have moved way down to 3.96%, which have sounds great. but is it a good investment? it can be. if you are that s on a 51 adjustable. for someone planning to be in the house five years and retire and move, it could be a very good thing to do. you ll save another $150, $170 a month on mortgage payments. good news for a change. glamorous night for the sex and the city ladies at the premiere of their new film. we ll catch with actress cynthia nixon akk miranda. getting ready to plant? chances are your soil is like this: compacted, drained of nutrients. it ll hold your plants but it ll also hold em back. the solution: miracle-gro garden soil. the perfect mix of rich, organic ingredients, and miracle-gro plant food. just mix it in. and turn bad soil into great soil. helps plants grow twice as big. instead of holding em back, they ll leap ahead. miracle-gro garden soil. and moisture control garden soil. 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 and transforming it an impossible dream? with olay, challenge what s possible. challenge skin creams costing up to $700. olay regenerist outperformed them. challenge the leading prescription wrinkle regimen with olay pro-x. clinically proven as effective at reducing the look of wrinkles. and challenge 7 signs of aging with all-in-one olay total effects. love how you see and feel about yourself more than you dreamed possible. olay, challenge what s possible. coming up new evidence you get happier as you age. after your local news. 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(announcer) it s more than just that great peanut taste, choosing jif is a simple way to show someone how much you care. choosey moms, choose jif. time now is 7:56. beautiful outside. picture from the 14th street bridge as we zoom out to see the washington monument. good morning. i m joe krebs. the white house is asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by virginia over the constitutionality of the new health care reform law. virginia attorney general ken cuchinelli filed that lawsuit, claping that the federal government does not have the right to force virginians to buy health care insurance. the federal government says it acted within its authority. two regular southbound lanes of i-95 between 161 and 163 exits near wharton, traffic will be completely stopped for 30 minutes between midnight and 3:00 am. those lanes will all reopen at 5:00 am tomorrow, though. the same closures will also take effect tomorrow evening. crews in the area will be replacing an overhead sign. so, big traffic problems on i-95. everywhere i go. i ll pass it on, and on.and on.and on. edible arrangements. happiness is always in season. visit, call or go to ediblearrangements.com. good morning. your in our-day forecast, becoming partly cloudy today, high near 80. storms thursday and again on friday. inbound on new york avenue, a manhole cover came loose. as a result, if will be quite slow, new york avenue inbound getting past the problem at florida avenue northeast. joe? win a pair of the hottest tickets in town. taylor swift s sold-out june concert, search taylor at nbcwashington.com to enter. watch news 4 at 5:00 tonight to [ maprogress.cer ] progress is saving tax payers millions of dollars, with the help of visa digital currency. which lets troy reiners, manager of nebraska s child support payment center, put money into pre-paid visa accounts for just a penny. instead of mailing out checks for 59 cents each. now that s progress. visa. currency of progress. 8:00 now on this tuesday morning, may 25th, 2010. we have a sea of friendly faces mugging for the cameras here at rockefeller plaza. not a bad day. getting up into the 80s later on this morning. i m meredith vieira here with matt lauer and al roker. coming up in this half hour, a really sad story out of hollywood. remember back in december actress brittany murphy s mother found her dead in her home out in hollywood. death called by an illness and a combination of prescription drugs. then this past weekend, her mom found brittany s husband dead in the same house. no one has talked about foul play, but we re going to speak exclusively to simon monjack s publicist about that story coming up in just a couple of minutes. later a very big turn on a positive note. you guys are happy, right? i would like to think so. yeah. why do you ask? are you happy? because there s new research that says listen to this after age 50, stress, worry and anger fades and you become happier. we re going to get the details and find out which sex tends to be happier, too. which sex do you think it is? guys. i think men. well, we ll find out. and talk about somebody who just makes you happy when you just think about her, besides you, paula deen. that s right. always has a smile on her face and a howdy for you and she s going to help us put together a spectacular dessert for your memorial day soiree. she keeps rolling that pie, it s going to be a millimeter thick. first a check of the top stories from ann curry. in the news this morning, everybody, good morning. the head of the coast guard overseeing the clean-up of the gulf oil spill rejected the notion on monday that the government should take over the clean-up saying british petroleum has more expertise and equipment to deal with it. meantime, a mile underwater remotely operated vehicles are getting ready for another attempt to stop the leak. the top kill plan scheduled for tomorrow has crews pumping mud and dirt into the well in an effort to plug it up. world markets tumbled this morning amid worries over europe s debt crisis and the falling euro. markets in britain, germany and france sank more than 2.5%. asian markets were also down because of growing tensions between north and south korea. this morning russia called on north and south korea to show restraint over the dispute of a singing of a south korean warship. a monitoring group today said north korean leader kim jong-il ordered the military to prepare for possible combat. tragic accident in turkey today where at least 16 people lost their lives when the bus they were riding in went off a bridge. the bus was carrying mainly russian tourists. a small boy in istanbul is lucky to be alive this morning. he was hanging off an escalator in a mall riding to the top when he suddenly falls and is miraculously caught by a bystander. you can see that in the picture there. who was watching the whole thing. the boy is okay this morning. the u.s. embassy in jamaica suspended all nonessential services as more than 1,000 jamaican police and soldiers are battling gangsters there trying to prevent the extradition of a suspected drug lord to the united states. walmart says that recalled alfalfa sprouts from a california company have already been sold by more than 400 walmart stores in 15 states. the sprouts are being blamed for sickening at least 22 people with salmonella. and a true high school senior in alabama. irlene donned a cap and gown and received his high school diploma on monday at the age of 96. she never got to receive it in 1946 because they were forced to shut down during the great depression. now 8:03 and back outside to matt and meredith. that s cool. very cool. congratulations. ann, thank you very much. isn t that nice? graduating. good morning. east wind bringing in clouds off the atlantic and they are passing right over the nation s capital on this tuesday morning. live view from our skywatcher camera. we ought to get those clouds breaking up as the morning progre progresses. we ll get sunshine out. generally in the 60s all around the region. highs reaching near 80 today and partly cloudy. mostly sunny and hot tomorrow in the upper 80s. hot and humid thursday and friday. both days highs mid 80s. a chance of passing afternoon storms. less humid over the weekend. all right. that s your latest weather. why don t you say, now here s meredith. now here s meredith. all right. very well done. coming up sex and the city miranda actress cynthia nixon stops by. actress brittany murphy s husband found dead in the same home where she passed away five months ago. we ll speak with his publicist right after this. to fund your ideas to make the world a better place. here s how it works. you submit ideas. you vote for ideas, that you like the best. and each month, the ideas with the most votes get a pepsi refresh grant. the pepsi refresh project. it s happening now at refresheverything.com how about a coastal soup and grilled shrimp salad combination? 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(announcer) zyrtec-d®. behind the pharmacy counter. no prescription needed. we re back now at 8:10. today medical examiners are planning to perform an autopsy on the body of actress brittany murphy s husband. simon monjack died sunday night in their hollywood home just months after murphy s own tragic death there. the latest from nbc s janet chapellyian. reporter: classic hollywood heart break. an eerily similar scene at her hollywood home. brittany s mother sharon who discovered the body of her daughter last dees on sunday found the body of brittany s husband 40-year-old simon monjack. it s hard to comprehend losing a daughter and son-in-law so quickly. reporter: foul play is not suspected. investigators are investigating whether it was accidental as prescription drugs were found at the scene. you guys, i ve never had straight friends before. reporter: murphy, who landed her first major role in the 1995 film clueless went on to star in dozens of tv shows and movie. her death was ruled to be from pneumonia and lethal combination of prescription meds. a british screenwriter monjack married murphy in 2007. still reeling from his wife s death, he gained weight and told matt about his heart problems. my heart stopped on december 3rd when we landed from puerto rico. reporter: sharon murphy confirmed her son-in-law needed bypass surgery but kept putting it off. people.com reports it could indeed be a case of what some are calling a broken heart. he was completely and utterly focused on her. and so in some ways, yes, he was incredibly brokenhearted and this was just a loss he couldn t absorb. reporter: he was said to be starting anew with a planned trip to europe and book project but still deeply grieving a loss that may have cost him his life. for today, janet chamlyian. roger, good morning to you. my condolences to you and the murphy and monjack families. thank you, matt. thank you so much. can you shed any more light on the circumstances surrounding simon s death? well, you know, we were all shocked. i got the phone call yesterday morning or early in the morning. and we were all very shocked. this was a man that was full of life, a man that i was with he and sharon until 8:30 saturday night. we were going to be announcing doing a press conference next week regarding the brittany murphy foundation, the legacy awards and an event in september to raise money for their foundation, which is all about helping inner city youth learn the arts, whether it s singing, dancing, composing, ballet. he had so much to live for, so much going for. he was a very busy guy by the way. was he complaining about his health? was he feeling badly in the last couple of days? here s a guy who needed heart surgery and by all accounts continued to put it off. was there no one really close to him who could say, simon, there s urgency in this situation? i think he was 100% focused on this gala coming up in september. and we he told me that he needed bypass surgery. and i said, make sure you keep yourself healthy. he said, i ll be fine. i just need to get through this gala and once i do the gala, i ll have the surgery. so he knew he was on heart medication. he knew his situation but put himself to the side because he was just he wanted to fulfill that last part of the legacy for brittany. in your opinion or to your knowledge, was he using or abusing other prescription drugs? not no, not that i know of at all. and this was a guy that was fully alert. he was very focused. he had so much going on. we had three major events coming up with him between june, july and september. so he was all about the business. in january, simon s mother, linda monjack, was quoted as saying this about her son, quote. some days he wants to kill himself and other days he seems to be coping better. did you or anyone else fear that he might attempt to take his own life? not at all. this was a guy on saturday evening, as sharon and myself and i sat and we talked about these plans these things that were going to be unfolding over the next week or so, he was laughing at some points. we were laughing. he was big smiles on their faces when we talked about brittany, talked about the gala, the awards, brought an event planner in. he was the event planner was hitting the mark on how they wanted to embody her spirit in this event. so he had so much a photo exhibit. he had become the artistic director for a theater here in los angeles. he was going to be producing a ballet and opera at the end of july. he was very focused and very busy. and had so much going. this was a complete shock. and i don t think this i don t think if you re going to check out, i don t think you have going what he had going. and sharon murphy, brittany s mom, think about the last several months in her life, finding her daughter s body and now finding her son-in-law s body. how is she doing? have you spoken to her? i was with her all afternoon yesterday until last evening. all i can say is she s a very strong woman. i don t know if many of us could endure what she s endured in the last five months. she s incredibly strong. she has close friends around her. i think more than ever she s going to be determined to make sure that the brittany murphy foundation goes forward, the gala goes forward and that last part of her legacy she said britdiany wanted to be a movie star and millionaire and change the world. she had two of those and she and simon were focused on the last part of that. she s obviously devastated. she loved him like a son. he loved her like a mother. they were an extremely close family. and she just needs her privacy right now. and she s taking it and she s just you know, she s distraught but she s strong at the same time. all right, roger neal. again, our condolences and thank you for your time this morning. thank you, matt. back right after this. i m taking the right steps to manage my diabetes and my budget. extracare advantage for diabetes is a new program that helps me save money and earn double bucks on over 100 items, so we can stay a step ahead of. all: our diabetes! join extracare advantage for diabetes today and receive a free gift when you enroll. only at cvs/pharmacy. 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 get double miles with every purchase. so we earned a tropical vacation in half the time. we earn double miles every time we use our card. 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( gasps ) what s in your wallet? wait up! go to capitalone.com. have you tried honey bunches of oats with real strawberries? wow. it s seriously strawberry. they re everywhere. it s in the bunches, on the flakes, even real strawberries in the mix. can i have some more? honey bunches of oats with real strawberries. it s delicious. nobody does it quite like us. i ve got good news. you need more fiber. huh? don t worry, it tastes great. froot loops now with 3 grams of fiber. fiber makes your tummy happy so it can absorb the good stuff you need, which your mom is gonna love. it does taste great. fiber is a great way to start your day. i can never read these things. kellogg s froot loops, apple jacks, and corn pops! cereals, now provide fiber. kellogg s makes fiber fun. 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. as they do at the beginning ? only air optix® contact lens materials have tricomfort™ technology. they let up to five times more oxygen through the lens than traditional soft contact lenses. .are designed to retain moisture for comfort all day long. and have superior deposit resistance for cleaner lenses. air optix®, the lens you can survive a long day in. go to airoptix.com for a free one-month trial offer. this morning on 50, living it, loving it happiness at the half century mark. a new study says life is a little rosier once you hit that birthday. author of the nine rooms of happiness. stephen tweet is here. good morning. this is mo small study. 340,000 were surveyed and found that people in their 50s are happier, experience less stress and worry less than young adults in their 20s. surprise to you or not really? not really. yes and no. i think partly you re getting older, there s more disease, you re closer maybe to death but i think also there are less worries and you understand yourself better and feel better. at 50 ask if they would like to go back to their teenage years and there are few that would like to do that. what is driving this happiness? i think as you get older you know yourself. you re more settled in your life, in your career, with ur family and little kids or other people are off your docket and out of the house and you re able to enjoy yourself more. maybe find a new chapter in your life. didn t the study indicate whether the kids are in the house or not didn t matter, that those things were almost irrelevant in getting happier with age? yeah, but i m not sure i believe that. you have the empty nest and have time with your spouse and have time to form the relationship a little different way. i think it takes a lot of stress out of a relationship. what s interesting about this is the research found that positive and negative emotions varied with age in both sexes but men were happier in general. do they tend to not sweat the small stuff as much? i think there s enormous stress and enormous stress in women also. enormous stress in men 20s and 30s develop a career and identity and a sense of self. they re trying to be good dads. there s no time for themselves. an awful lot of experience says if you hit 40, 50 and start to relieve some of those pressures, you start to be able to relate, start to have a life and be able to integrate some of the good work you ve done in the past and find a little bit different hopeful future. why is that men and not women? i think interestingly biologically men and women are very different. sure. and we know that it s twice as likely for women more than men to have depression and anxiety during their child-bearing years. so from mensees to men yoe pause, women are two times as likely to have depression and anxiety. i think the gap closes a little after menopause, past 50 and beyond but not entirely. so i think we re biologically predisposed to have a harder time. is that why women reported greater worry, stress and sadness at all ages? i think so because of biological differences. sadness doesn t seem to change much with age. why is that the case? well, i think that sadness is a normal part being sad is a normal emotion. it s part of the normal range of things. i think being incredibly sad is a problem. but i think a little bit of sadness helps give perspective on the good stuff. so i think you have it always. let me ask you. it s interesting as we age people tend to focus on the good things in life. but also as you age you have things like illness and death and mortality. why doesn t that play into it more? you ve had a lot of successes and failures in your life and started to integrate those failures. the failures don t add up to as much. you hit 50s and you have this massive amount of experience. so you have some limitations. you have some things that have not gone so well but you have a whole lot of successes in your life often at age 50 that it helps to balance those things and you don t take them quite so seriously. you don t take life quite as seriously as you did early on in your life. what can we learn from this study? what s the take-away? i think if we can get perspective, the long term perspective we have when we re older and have it now we d be in great shape. not easy to do but if we do it now. focus on the good stuff, let the little stuff go, realize now is it, it s all we ve got. try to live every day to the fullest. which i think you feel more as you age, you appreciate it. maybe that would dissipate some of the worries and concerns we have in our 20s and 30s and 40s? in your 50s you can actually be a little more intentional. you ve developed certain parts of yourself. in the 20s and 30s maybe you were not a doer, produce but you learn how to balance that a lot later in life and develop other parts of your life. thank you very much. 8:26 is your time now. 68 degrees. cloudy skies over the nation s capital. once again, what will our forecast look like? tom will have some answers after the news. following breaking news out of capital heights, maryland, this morning. someone has carjacked a vehicle with two children inside. this happened just a short time ago in the 7100 block of hastings drive. we re told the kids are safe. however, the suspect did make the driver get out at gunpoint. police are looking for a beige mercedes with license plate number 4bwk24. anyone with information is asked to call police. we have a crew heading to the scene and will bring you more information as it becomes available. we ll take a break and have your weather and traffic when we come back. good morning. highs near 80 today. right now we re at 70. thursday and friday, hotter. could get passing thunderstorms. how is the traffic, jerry? capital beltway outer loop, heavy and slow. college park around have i ever spring. there had been an accident cleared moments ago. eun? thank you, jerry. win a pair of tickets to the hottest concert in town. taylor swift s sold-out concert at the verizon center 8:30 now on a tuesday morning. it s the 25th day of may, 2010. and we ve got a very good looking crowd assembled out on rockefeller plaza this morning. shopping and sightseeing here in the big apple. we re happy to have them. coming up, one of our favorites is here, paula deen, the dean of southern cooking. she s going to put us to work today. we re going to help her make meringue pie. then war going to dane re go. cynthia nixon who plays the no nonsense laura miranda on sex and the city will open up about the challenges her character faces in the new movie. we re also on a more serious note revisit some of the troubles for the duchess of york and what s been happening. a lot of people across the pond and on this side are aghast at what happened. she seems like a nice lady. does great work for charities, children s charities. and from a duchess to a diva. one of the real housewives of new jersey talks about her part in that table-flipping confrontation on last season s finale. do you think they make this up or it s real? no, they never make it up. that s why they call it reality weird morning to ask me that question. speaking of divas no, i m kidding. one of the stars of parenthood. erica, nice to see you. congratulations. you guys are coming back for season number two. how did the cast take the news? very well. it felt like we just got started, so we re really excited to keep exploring the whole dynamic of this family. when i found out, i was in atlanta doing an interview over lunch and i said, hold everything, i m sorry. i need to call everyone. i started calling everyone including my mother, who is screaming of course. a second chance at taking his film and turning it into a television series. what makes it so successful this time around beside you? i think our writer is incredible. it s an hour long this time, which is nice, because there s a lot of relationships to explore. and they really let us improv and talk all over each other and bring that spontaneity and reality to it and i think that s one of the things people are identifying with. do you ever pinch yourself. ron howard is involved. do you go, my gosh, he s a legend of hollywood working on like my show? it s unbelievable. he called the cast individually all of us to say, hey, the show is looking great. and we re all like, save that message. your character, you play a young mom, wife, an attorney. yes. a triumvirate. how do you prepare for a role like that? i assume you re not necessarily an attorney? yes. well, the mother and wife thing, i think you can t be prepared for anyway in real life. you don t get to practice that before you have your first child. very good point. so i figure the character isn t much further along than me. and i m learning about mergers and acquisitions more than i want to learn in that area. again, congratulations. you re coming back for a second season and remind people they can catch the good morning. low clouds and easterly wind is keeping it cool this morning. take a look now at the view from our skywatcher camera. low, gray clouds over washington. temperatures in the 60s, now 678. we should get the clouds breaking up as the day progresses. sunshine back later. highs near 80. tomorrow, mostly sunny and hot. upper 80s. mid 80s and heat and humidity, feeling like summertime thursday and friday with a chance of afternoon storms. and that s your latest weather. now, the question of the day, will it be michael, ashley, coley or darius. all of them have lost more than 43% of their starting weight. with the competition down to the final four it s anybody s guess who will be crowned the winner on tonight s live two-hour finale of nbc s the biggest loser: couples. allison sweeney is the host. and if anybody had a, i would think, an educated guess, it would be you. so, allison, what do you think? could michael be the biggest loser? well, michael started off weighing 526 pounds, so he had a long way to go. it was amazing. you would never think in day one that he would be a member of the final three. and yet here he is. he s lost over 200 pounds on campus. so in some ways he has definitely already won. now we just have to wait and see what the numbers say. i think it s going to be really close. i mean, it could be down to part of a percentage to see who wins tonight. in fact, coley or darius, america decides if they re the third finalist. who do you think is the bigger threat to michael? it s a good question. darius was young and he s really tried hard. he did amazing at the marathon. he ran a marathon in four hours. but coley has wanted that confetti since day one so i have to give it to coley in terms of threat to win the whole thing. coley has wanted it from the beginning. he felt that confetti on his head. he heard me saying it all along so i know he s in it to win it. these transitions are amazing but darius gained two pounds at the last weigh-in. i wonder how america is going to respond to that if they re going to see him as needing the help and therefore they voted for him because they wanted to inspire him further and knew he needed it or see that as maybe a weakness and maybe they wanted to give their vote to coley instead because of that. how about ashley? she started at 374 pounds. she holds the record for the most weight lost by a woman on the ranch. she could take out the guys, couldn t she? yes, she absolutely could. man, team pink has gone the distance a bunch of times on the show. never underestimate a girl in pink and ashley has lived up to that. she s lost a tremendous amount of weight, more like you said, than any other woman on campus and still going strong. she has a great attitude. darius even said it in the last episode just about her confidence and she always sort of knew she had it and it was always there on the inside. and now her exterior is matching that belief that she has in herself. it was really wonderful to see that in her. all right. well, allison sweeney, the biggest loser: couples airs live tonight. the two-hour finale starting at 8:00, 7:00 central right here on nbc. tomorrow we will have the winner live in our studios. allison, thanks so much. we ll be watching tonight. and up next, sex and the city s cynthia nixon is in our this morning on our countdown to sex and the city 2 it is finally miranda s turn and the award winning actress cynthia nixon the mother, wife in the latest adventure hitting the screens on thursday. good morning. you had the big premiere last night finally. the big premiere last night. i m operating on about three hours sleep but pretty jazzed up. how was it? how was the reaction to the movie? tremendous. it s wonderful when you get to see the film on your own, but then to see it in radio city with hundreds or i guess really thousands of fans, that s amazing. and the four of you are under a lot of pressure. i m looking at the picture of you guys. so many cameras because what were you wearing? carolina herrera. but kim was saying yesterday it s a lot. because you re really under the microscope on a premiere night. and choosing what all the things that go into making that decision about what dress you re going to wear, what color, what designer. speaking about outfits, one of my favorite parts of this movie is the beginning when there are the flashbacks to you all in the 80s. i love that. when you moved to the big apple. and your outfit as miranda. not just the outfit but the hair as well. how hard was it to look as dorky as you look here? because it s perfect. i think the outfit was pretty much a fait accompli but we worked very hard on the wig trying to make it as comical as possible but believable as possible which is always what we re trying to do in sex and the city, get the laugh but rooted in reality. when we start sex and the city 2 you ve gone from that young girl there. you re a highly accomplished lawyer. your marriage is in good shape now. you worked out all those wrinkles but you are having some trouble on the job front. let s take a look and then we ll talk. sit down, please, and have some breakfast. i can t. i have this presentation today and i m sick to my stomach. i used to love going to work and now i m sick at the thought of it. here. two bites. thanks. you don t have to keep putting yourself through this. you can quit. i m a lawyer. that s who i am. a lot of women go through this, an identity crisis. particularly because she was never sure about her abilities as a mother or wife or the whole kind of female part of her. but herself as a working mother that s what she got her strength from. now that s sort of crumbling beneath her feet and making her insecure. so it s so she really has to make some decisions. have you in your own life, cynthia, ever gone through any kind of identity crisis yourself? no, not so much. i thought you were going to ask me if i ever had aboss like that. no. i feel like i ve always been pretty much who i am. my mom was a working woman. my grandmother was a working woman. i think they i was always raised to believe that both of these things were going to happen for me. i was going to have a job. i was going to have a career and i was going to have a kid or two. let s talk about some of the reviews on this movie and this one in particular because a lot of it is set in supposed to be abu dhabi, i think in morocco but the middle east. hollywo hollywood reporter first they say it s going to be a smash but then they re critical of the shot in the middle east calling it proudly feminist but blatantly anti-muslim. do you think that s a fair criticism? i think that s crazy. i mean, i think that it is proudly feminist or whatever but i think it always has been. and i think that there s a lot of love of the middle east and looking at it and trying to figure out, you know, what do we have in common with women in the middle east and what s really different. but i think i think the women are very enthralled by what they see there. in real life you are engaged to christine marianoni. you say if the same sex bill passes you are not going to wait. we re not going to wait for new york. we re trying to get new york to get its act together. if we have to wait too long we ll go somewhere else. which do you think will come first same-sex marriage in new york or sex and the city 3. will there be a part three? come on. we re in the glory of the second one. but it s just like you had a baby and you re sitting there in the hospital and people are saying are you going to have another one and look at this one i have now. i like the one you have now. triplets would be nice. sex and the city 2 opens nationwide this thursday. tomorrow john corbet otherwise ay, yay, yay, yay ay, yay, yay, yay baby, baby, baby, baby. uh-oh plug and play. now understanding my diabetes is that simple. [ male announcer ] the contour usb meter from bayer. [ nick ] look at this. the software s built right in. how cool is that? [ male announcer ] it s the first meter with plug-and-play technology, helping you transform ordinary testing information into deeper understanding. [ nick ] a meter that plugs into my nonstop life that s my simple win. [ male announcer ] the contour usb meter. only from bayer. [ static ] this morning on today s kitchen we re going back to basics with a classic meringue pie in time for your memorial day bash. the queen of southern cooking paula deen is here to show you how. her monthly magazine is cooking with paula. good morning. good morning, now. are y all ready? i need another girlfriend in here to help me. here we go right there. hi. actually, you re over here, ann. what exactly is meringue? meringue is nothing but beaten egg whites with sugar. that s all those are the only two ingredients? a little vanilla and creme of tar tar. you ll want to use creme of tartar, y all, because that will help your meringue get stiff and i do not want you men disappointing me this morning. i want stiff meringue. oh! you worked on that line, didn t you? there are several different ways to use meringue, paula. no, it just comes to my brain, ann. we re going to make a classic lemon meringue pie. we re going to do cookies and what else? a meringue cookie and al is going to do a chocolate mousse meringue pie. he s going to actually fold in his meringue into the chocolate, which is going to give it a mousse-like texture. meringue is temperamental, though? it is. if it s raining do not make a meringue pie. the humidity will get into your it just will not do. so the meringue made in arizona is maybe going to be better than the meringue made in portland, oregon. it could be. there s a few things you can do to help assure that you re going to have a nice stiff meringue. you want to use a glass or a copper bowl. you don t want to use plastic because that plastic can absorb some of the foods from previous usage. you want to make sure your beaters are oil free, that they re spotlessly clean. you want to make sure that your egg whites are at room temperature. not straight out of the refrigerator. now that we know about the meringue, then i would pour in the lemon filling part? yes. this is our lemon filling. okay. we re just going to pour that in. now, you need to put your meringue on using a spoon. that can help you get those pretty curls, matt. the little peaks? yes. the thing is that you want to make sure that you seal your pie good. so you re going to want to start at your edges. you want to make sure it covers right to the edge. you want to make sure it really, really sticks. see how you can use the back of that spoon. i ll continue that. why don t you move on with ann and take over the next step. you have egg whites in here, right? if you ll start beating those. we have creme of tartar so we ll add that next. when do we add the sugar? she can start adding it now. about a tablespoon at the time. let s whip it fast. guys, you can t hardly find a restaurant anymore where you can go in and find a good home-made pie because they all come from the purveyors. so about the only way to get a wonderful pie is do it at home. what about these little meringue pies? how do you do that? listen, i messed up the whole platter. taste it. wow! just delicious. all right. now, you put your chocolate filling out. so you re going to take your egg whites and you re going to fold these in. and it s not going to get any baking. so if you re worried about egg whites, i m going to show you how to fold. that s stirring. that s stirring. aah! wait just one second, honey. so if you re worried about consuming a raw egg, you can use pasteurized. now, to fold we re going to taste this in a little bit. can i just call attention to the peaks on this? unbelievable. it s right out of the diner s show case, isn t it? building a forest one tree at a time. but first this is today on nbc. what do you care about today is brought to you by the pepsi refresh project, giving away millions of dollars to fund refreshing ideas. under a shady tree you and me and this morning on what do you care about today doing your part for the planet. all this week meredith, al, natalie, hoda, kathie lee and i are turning the spotlight on groups making positive effects in their community. pepsi has given us $50,000 in grant money to award to each organization. today we ll introduce you to a group that started with a few trees and grown into something much bigger. i grew up here in los angeles. it was really smoggy. the trees were dying. this was 1970 and we kids went, well, we can t accept that. so then 15-year-old andy lipkiis got friends together and planted some trees. to see life return in a hopeless situation, that s what got me started. his organization tree people has been greening los angeles county ever since. trees are absolutely critical to quality of life but they re here filtering pollute ants and producing oxygen. often they re producing food. from helping the reforestation efforts in areas devastated by wildfires to weekend planting events like this one in weddington park. volunteers not only plant trees but name them as well. trees need people. people need trees. welcome, tree. i think it s wonderful. i think everyone should try it at least once. one of the most amazing scenes is martin luther king boulevard. we brought together 3,000 people. they planted the whole street in three hours, 400 trees. you can now see that from google earth, a stripe right down south los angeles. it s stunning. that s what our country needs is people say, wow, i can actually make this place better, make this place stronger. and that s why we re here. today tree people has planted more than 2 million trees in the los angeles area. and to learn more about tree people and the other groups featured on what do you care about today you can head to our website at todayshow.com. that s a nice organization. very cool. coming up, we still have more to do. that in fact includes the latest on that scandal involving the duchess of york sarah ferguson. first your local news and weather. 8:55 is your time now. 69 degrees. warm start to your tuesday morning. tom will have your forecast after the news. good morning, everyone. i m eun yang. new information about a carjacking we first told you about earlier this hour. police in prince george s county say the whole situation appears to be a misunderstanding. the two children believed to be involved in the incident are safe and police say they were never in any danger. we are still piecing together exactly what happened and we ll bring you more details as they become available. become available. we ll take a quick break and the gas prices are going down, they go back up again. we know saving money is important. this summer, shop with your giant card and save on shell fuel. earn one point for every dollar you spend. every 100 points earned gets you another 10 cents off per gallon. the more you spend, the more you save. i m saving money at the store, i m saving money at the pump, and that works for me. more savings every time you shop, only with your giant card. let the sun shine [ male announcer ] open yourself up to a whole new driving experience. introducing a mercedes-benz convertible that controls the wind and keeps you comfortable in any season. the e-cabriolet, newest member of the amazing e-class family. see it in sex and the city 2, in theaters may 27th. good morning. at mid morning, still cloudy. temperatures near 70 degrees. we ought to see some sun back and into the afternoon. highs near 80. tomorrow hot, into the upper 80s, mostly sunny. hot and humid thursday and friday. could get passing afternoon thunderstorms both days. how is the traffic now, jerry? still jammed in a couple of spots. 270 southbound a little snow as you head south out of germantown. part of the reason was the accident much earlier in the day in rockville, which is long gone. one more stop, beltway interloop still crawling from springfield on up toward i-66. just heavy. lanes open. win a pair of tickets to the hottest concert in town. taylor swift s sold-out june 2nd concert at the verizon center. search taylor at back now with more of today on a tuesday morning. the 25th day of may, 2010. it is a really nice late spring morning here in midtown manhattan. we re thankful that these peopl have stopped by to share some of it with us. we appreciate it. out on the plaza i m matt lauer along with natalie morales and al roker. coming up, more on the duchess of york sarah ferguson. she is as the expression goes, in dutch with the royal family after being caught on videotape selling or trying to sell access to her former husband, prince andrew. it s not the first time that she has crossed the royals. we ll get the latest on that and discuss how greed and i would imagine we should also include financial difficulties can really force people to cross the line. that s right. then on joy s diet sos what s the best nut butter to buy? it s a question we ve often asked ourselves. not everybody can have peanut butter because of allergies. there are dozens of varieties. joy bauer will be here with her advice on peanut and other kind of nut butter. i like almond butter. i m a bill almond butter fan. how to eat a healthy diet even if you have strict food restrictions. she ll answer all your questions coming up. i don t know if you are fans of quou housewives but on last season s finale the real housewives of new jersey things got a little ugly. there was that whole table-tipping scene where the object of the hostility was danielle staub. there s the table. having a past including being a call girl. danielle is here and going to set the record straight. so the table-flipping scene is different than the flipping table scene. different thing altogether. don t get her upset whatever you do. maybe we should bolt the coffee table. let s go inside. ann curry has a check of the headlines. in the news, growing outrage over the massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico as more oil is now washing up on the shores of louisiana, mississippi and alabama. helicopters are dropping sand bags to try and hold back the flow of oil toward louisiana s shoreline. tomorrow british petroleum will try the so-called top kill method using mud and dirt to plug up the gushing oil well under the ocean. legislation is expected to be introduced today in the house that would repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the military. the measure would allow the pentagon time to review how to implement a new policy. north korea s news agency reports the military is on alert and ordered to defend itself against south korea as tensions escalate over the sinking of a south korean ship blamed on the news. officials tell nbc news as of now there is no evidence of any large-scale movements or unusual activity by north korean forces. this morning secretary of state hillary clinton criticized a proposed nuclear fuel swap between iran and turkey as a ploy by iran to evade sanctions. speaking during her trip to china, clinton said that she had productive discussions with her chinese counterpart on how to move forward with a new round of sanctions against iran. and if you re planning on flying this summer, expect some higher prices. the nation s five largest airlines are declaring most of the summer season peak travel days and they re charging up to $30 extra each way. according to a fare tracking website, a passenger with one checked bag who flies round trip on peak days could expect to pay as much as $110 extra in fees. it is now three minutes past the hour. let s go back outs good morning. a few shots of sunlight breaking out around the region. that s the live view from our skywatcher camera. at this hour, temperatures still holding steady in the 60s to near 70 degrees. as the sun does break out later today, we should climb to near 80. mostly sunny and hotter tomorrow into the upper 80s. hot and humid thursday and friday, chance of afternoon passing thunderstorms both of those days. over the weekend, should cool down a bit and turn less humid. and that s your late latestweather. natalie? al, thank you. the duchess of york sarah ferguson is here in the united states this morning days after she was caught in a newspaper sting taking money to set up a meeting with her ex, prince andrew and still putting up a brave front. stephanie gosk is in london where the queen opened up a new session of parliament earlier today. good morning. reporter: good morning. the queen has left. she opened up that new session. it s one of her many official duties as a monarch. even though she also is trying to manage yet another family scandal. the queen arrived on schedule this morning in full regalia making no statement on the scandal involving her son s ex-wife. sarah ferguson was ready to sell prince andrew s business connections for a lot of money. 500,000 pounds when you can to me. open doors. to prince andrew? yeah. is our deal? yeah. reporter: although not illegal, improper for sure. but the duchess of york couldn t resist the tabloid trap. overnight, new video was released of fergie accepting a charity award in los angeles, the day the scandal broke. whew. quite a heavy day. reporter: and managed to charm the crowd. i hate grownups and i love children. thank you so much. sarah is very resilient. she s recovered from a lot of scandal and i think she ll bounce back from this as well. reporter: as a young woman from no royal background, she married prince andrew, the queen s second son, in 1986. they called her a breath of fresh air at first. but next to princess diana, the spotlight was harsh. struggling with her weight the media dubbed ferguson the duchess of pork and then proof of an affair. embarrassing photos in the south of france followed by divorce in 1996. saddled with debt and infamy, fergy flew to the u.s. americans love reinvention. duchess, great to see you. reporter: and soon loved the duchess. tired of being called the duchess of pork. reporter: she became the spokeswoman for weight watchers and cashed in on her royal name making millions and dedicating much of her time to charity. but with lavish royal tastes, the money quickly disappeared. the u.s. company she created to market her image went bankrupt last year and now owes nearly $1 million. a uk law firm is suing her for another $300,000 in unpaid bills. now it seems she s gone full circle and lost all this money again. you have to ask yourself is this a serial problem of hers. reporter: before the videotaped deal fergie tells the undercover reporter i m a complete aristocrat. love that, doesn t you? it s tremendously fabulous but doesn t seem that way now. british media quote friends who say the scandal has put fergie in a fragile state. reinvention this time won t be easy. fergie has boldly kept her u.s. engagements. she has another one tomorrow in new york, a book fair. she s going to be promoting a children s series. british press say she is expecting to come back here to the uk on thursday where she will have a face-to-face with prince andrew. natalie? all right, stephanie gosk, thank you so much. out of london. psychiatrist gail saltz is a today contributor and joins us. trying to figure out the motivator and what exactly happened. as we know, she s had some past history with negative press and bad behavior. yes. so what is the motivator? is it purely greed? i mean, money is the motivator and money equals power. and this is a woman who has felt always on the outside, has sort of always tried to be on the inside live beyond her means. her identity is very tied up in being super special, a royal, et cetera. and money is necessary for that. it enhances that. so unfortunately, there are a lot of people who might be able to relate to this, that when you try to be something you re not and feel entitled to it, you can be driven to do things that end up being downright self destructive. trying to buy herself into that world. in fact, in her memoir, my story she wrote back in 1996, i was never cut out for the job and the more i pushed. talked about being the highest of the highs knowing the clock would strike 12:00 and vaenl actually she d have to realize she it wasn t cut out for that person. is this somebody who accepts the fact she had so many failures and get continues to go down that road. a combination of when somebody does not have a solid moral compass you see them break rules in all kinds of ways and feel that that s okay on the one hand. on the other hand, a person who has a lot of self confidence and likes them for themselves does not feel the constant need to try to be something else and feel driven to do things that are even terrible. and you look, this is terrible particularly for her family, for her children. right. she has two daughters in their 20s. so you can imagine the repercussions there. there s quite a bit of debt that she over a million plus dollars in debt. yes. is that partly to blame for that greed again? well, fear will certainly drive you to strive for money. but, again, this is not a situation of a person living in the depression whose family is starving and they have to steal a loaf of bread. this is a person who is consistently tried to live beyond their means, spent and engaged in a lifestyle that they really could not do. and so, you know, i m sure there s fear here of losing that. but i would still unfortunately, this is very amoral behavior. and the sad part is money at this level doesn t bring you happiness. it s relationships that bring you happiness and she sadly has blown up her relationships over trying to get something that i think she thought would make her happy but probably wouldn t have. that s the lesson i guess for all of us. coming up, from your hair to your skin to your sunscreen we check out the award winning cosmetics picked out. on joy s diet sos dealing with food allergies to picking the best nut butter and your answers to eating healthier. we asked real people to film themselves taking the activia 14-day challenge. i m mary ellen smith. so i m really excited to see if this really works. have just started to notice a slight difference in my digestion. take the activia challenge. j-e-l-l-o j-e-l-l-o j-e-l-l-o j-e-l-l-o j-e-l-l-o j-e-l-l-o [ giggles ] music plays [ sneezing ] [ male announcer ] what are you gonna miss when you have an allergy attack? benadryl® is more effective than claritin® at relieving your worst symptoms runny nose, sneezing, and watery eyes and works when you need it most. benadryl®. you can t pause life. this morning on joy s diet sos healthy eating. from allergies to proteins to blood disorders knowing how to make up for the items you can t have is awfully important. nutritionist and today contributor joy bauer has solutions and answers more importantly to those answers. good to see you. we re going to go to skype. this is sara. she s on the skype phone from sheboygan, michigan. good morning. good morning. what s your question? i was diagnosed with a blood clotting disorder and will be on coumadin for the rest of my life. in order to keep blood levels normal i have to limit my vitamin k and have cut out green veggies altogether. can you recommend any foods that have the same benefits as green vegetables but low in vitamin k. first off, sara, you may not have to completely avoid the green vegetables. here s why. like you know coumadin is a blood thinner. doctors will regularly put people on coumadin and other blood thinners when they have either clotting issues or want to prevent a clot during heart disease. at the same time, they tell them to lay off the green vegetables because they re rich in vitamin k and vitamin k helps to clot the blood so it can lessen the effect of these medications. but nowadays because doctors know the beneficial value, the health effects from these vegetables, what they ll do quite often is they ll tell patients to eat these vegetables in moderations and then they will adjust the medication, in fact they ll up the medication according to what your personal blood results look like. so before you completely nix the green vegetables from the diet, i would say have a conversation with your physician or cardiologist and see if it s an option to eat a moderate amount throughout the week of the vegetables. if she doesn t want to do that are there some ears? if you can do that that s a home run but if you can t there are vegetables low in vitamin k but highly knew frent dense. green beans, carrots, all colors of bell peppers. potatoes sweet and white. pumpkin. tomatoes. artichokes and the winter deep orange squashes. these are low in vitamin k, so you can eat them as often as you want and they have a lot of nutrient overlap with the green leafy vegetables as well. most importantly, feel good. that s right. good luck, sara. thanks a lot. now to the phones. we have shirley in byron, missouri. how can we help you? . i m allergic to chicken, turkey, fish and shellfish. i m very disappointed that no one seems to have an answer for me for these items. i need to have some other foods to eat besides chicken. i know it s low in calories, but so, shirley, you re looking for a protein substitute for those items? right. and i imagine this is very frustrating because when you do look at diets and meal plans are loaded with these lower calorie lean proteins. but the good news is that there are a lot of other options. protein is very important when you re trying to manage your weight because it helps to keep hunger at bay and we know that through research. so things that you can feel good about eating, pork tender loin. it can be substituted ounce for ounce when anything calls for chicken or fish. lean beef. think of the words loin and round. sirloin, beef tenderloin all great choices. one cup of lentils can be used instead of chicken or fish in things like tacos or casseroles or stews. don t be afraid of tofu. people are nervous to try tofu. i m very afraid of tofu. it s very neutral and really takes on the flavors of the seasonings that you marinate or add to it. so you can stir fry with it. you can even take a big block and bake it. we want to get this last e-mail in. tried every kind of peanut butter. almond butter, soy butter. what kind is the healthiest i love it. i am a personal fan of all nut butters and seed butters as well. but the key is you want to buy natural. look at the ingredient list. all you should see are whole nuts and sometimes salt. you don t want any added sugar and you don t want added oil. specifically you don t want to see hydrogenated oil. that means there is some lel exp trans-fat. try to buy organic? if you don t mind spending a few more dollars go for organic but not mandated. in terms of creamy or crunchy, the same wonderful profile. so whatever you prefer. good to see you again. coming up she was the target of all the fireworks of last season s finale of the real housewives of new jersey. now danielle staub aims to set the record about her past. we ve kept all the tables away from her. find out what she thinks about the other housewives. can you blink, danielle? but first these messages. 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! ever seen anything likeme neither. it s new beneful incredibites. uh-huh! it s just the way you like it made with wholesome grains, real beef, even carrots and peas. you love the smaller-size, easy-to-chew kibbles, and i love the carbohydrates for energy and protein for muscles. whoa! wait for me! ha-ha. you only think you re getting spoiled. 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[ female announcer ] have you ever seen a glacier while sunbathing? why not? have you ever climbed a rock wall in the middle of the ocean? or tried something really wild? why not? it s all possible in the nation of why not. royal caribbean s floating nation where you re free to do anything you want. which may be nothing at all. royal caribbean international. visit royalcaribbean.com today. so that loveable green ogre shrek is back in theaters one last time in a brand new adventure that dominated the box office this past weekend. gene shalit has the final chapter of the beloved series shrek forever after. welcome to the critic s corner. good news. shrek forever after is the very best shrek since the very first shrek. whoever brings me shrek gets the deal of a lifetime. no strings attached. but there s sad news because this is it. the end. game, set, match for the matchless ogre. don t you find that a wee bit suspicious? well, the bellow fellow is now a mellow fellow. this movie domesticated, married with three squalling babies who drive him to distraction. there he meets rumplestilskin. just sign it and all your problems will disappear. that crafty dwarf sends shrek back to a place far, far away from far, far away. what happens now? have a nice day. a place where donkey doesn t know him. it s shrek, your best friend. oh! where fionia doesn t even know him. personal space is very important to me. she s mobilizing a revolution to overthrow rumplestilskin s rule. fate has delivered us a comrade in arms and for that we are thankful. suit him up. wait a minute! this 3d spectacle has adventure look out! flying witches, laughter. ha ha ha ha. puss n boots as a fat cat. feed me if you dare. and plenty of what happens next? bring me shrek. where is he? how hard can it be? i want him, i want him, i want him! what happens is shrek finds that mellow beats bellow any time. is your father painted green? no, it s shrek, honest. eddie murphy s donkey is again a ray of sunshine and good-heartedness wins out. come on, donkey. you are a catastrophe. and you are redonkeyless. now, as the sun sets over shrek , we bid farewell to this enduring giant, this giant among animated pleasures. and the critic s corner endouse him with fairy tale immortality. shrek kisses the princess, she turned into a beautiful ogre and they lived happily. ever. after. farewell, shrek, it s been a blessing to know you. and that s the critic s corner for today. i hope it s not the final chapter. i m hoping there s something else. puss n boots is supposedly getting his ahead from the real housewives of new jersey, danielle staub. ed real people to film themselves taking the activia 14-day challenge. i m mary ellen smith. day one of the activia 14-day challenge. my digestive problems are irregularity. so i m really excited to see if this really works. my husband tried this last night. he loved it. he said it s the best yogurt i ve ever brought home, so.mmm. have just started to notice a slight difference in my digestion. help regulate your digestive system. take the activia challenge. it works or it s free. 9:26 is your time now on this tuesday, may 25th, 2010. good morning, everyone. i m eun yang. we have new information coming in about a carjacking we first told you about last hour. police in prince george s county now say the whole situation appears to be a misunderstanding. the two children involved in the incident are safe and police say they were never in any danger. we re still piecing together exactly what happened and we ll bring you more details as they become available. time now for a final check of the morning s top stories. hundreds of d.c. school teachers will get to attend a private concert tomorrow night even though their tickets were stolen. poland family hired stevie wonder at the verizon center as a way to say thank you. someone got the ticketmaster password and stole 1,500 tickets. hard copies of another 600 tickets have been given out by the school system because of the good morning. your four-day forecast. sunshine breaking out. during the afternoon, highs near 80. hot tomorrow, sunshine. highs upper 80s thursday and friday, chance of a passing afternoon thunderstorm. how is the traffic now? 14th street bridge that, guy right there, broken down in the left lane, jamming it up to the pentagon. beltway, finally settling down. good news in maryland. eun? win a pair of tickets to the hottest concert in town, taylor swift s sold-out june concert at swift s sold-out june concert at the veri[ static ] plug and play. now understanding my diabetes is that simple. 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[ static ] this is battery and controller of my heart mate 2. my alvab that keeps my heart pumping. you re listening to 22-year-old texan ali smith living with the help of a pump to assist her failing heart and keeps her alive. we re going to meet her and her fiancee tomorrow here on today. what a story that must be. meanwhile, coming up in this half hour on a much lighter topic, the best in beauty from anti-aging treatments to protecting you from the sun. we ll be checking out products that the cosmetic industry itself voted as best in show. okay. also ahead, she was a lightning rod of controversy last season on the real housewives of new jersey. one costar even said she played the victim but is really the predator. now danielle staub is setting the record straight about her life, her past as a call girl and exotic dancer and what her future holds, not to mention the new seasons of housewives. how to go green in the kitchen. how to reduce energy and be kind to the environment from the water you drink to how you cook your meat. it all adds up. you ll tell us about that and also about the weather. check it out and show you for today we re looking at a risk of strong storms from texas good morning. some supshine breaking out around the region. mostly cloudy around metro area. live view from our sky watcher camera looking off to the west in virginia this hour. few breaks in the clouds as the temperature has hit the low 70s where the sun has broken out. elsewhere in the clouds still in the 60s. increasing sunshine during the afternoon. clearing out tonight. mostly sunny tomorrow. hot, into the upper 80s. thursday and friday, hot and humid both days. coul and that s your latest weather. al, thanks. coming up next, one of the real housewives of new jersey danielle staub talks about setting the record straight. we earn double miles every time we use our card. 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[ female announcer ] the cookies aren t magic, but they make magic happen. that s because glad has partnered with cookies for kids cancer. it s small bake sales like these that help raise big money for pediatric cancer research. together, we can make a difference. one container at a time. because with glad, the care that goes in is the care that comes out. we love summertime fun! .wearing our favorite colors. .and jamming to our favorite bands! but we love eating totino s the most. we live for fun. .friends. [ both ] .and best of all. [ all ] .our favorite. .eating totino s! we re the kids in america oh, oh, oh we re the kids in. it was the table flip heard around the world. teresa, were you not here? pay attention please. obviously there has to be something else. stripping. prostitution. [ bleep ]. you are [ bleep ] engaged 19 times. [ bleep ]. at the receiving end was real housewife of new jersey danielle staub. she has written a memoir addressing many of the allegations by fellow housewives featured on the bravo reality show called the naked truth. a couple of weeks ago when the cast was here you were the only one who was not here. why not? it wasn t because i wasn t asked. i was asked. i just refused to do press with them. i figured i didn t have to be here in order for them to be talking about me and. and my theory proved to be true. because they talked a lot about you. i think it was just about me for the most part. they say you re pretty much the one that stirs up trouble. they say you like to push buttons and play the victim. how do you respond to that? i used to a victim when i was abused but now i m a victor because i m winning every time they speak about me. are you not pushing buttons. you write in your blog teresa you re like an insane asylum without medication. you have no filter or vocabulary and absolutely no room to pass judgment on others. it goes on and on. this is just a blog you wrote last week. that s something that is in rebuttal to what she s saying about me. she talks about my private parts as if she knows them very well. i just think she s a little bit obsessed with me and i think she needs a little bit of vocabulary, maybe an education as well. but i m really not here to talk about them or trash them. i m here to talk about my memoir. let s talk about your memoir the naked truth. was your intent really to write this book to allow yourself to talk about everything, all these allegations that we ve heard over the past season, now season two of the housewives ? the intent was really to get me to a place in my life where i felt more comfortable with who i really am. and as a result of my childhood through my adulthood and the things that have happened to me, with me and for me, it was very therapeutical. and the result was i went on a long journey and it was a very healing one. i feel like nothing in here answers questions. it s not an answer to the book or an answer to the allegations. it s actually a story. it s my life story. so at no point in the book will you see me answering questions as if i m being interrogated. you do talk about things you have done in your life. first of all, answering to some of those allegations, the question of whether or not you were a stripper or a prostitute. are those true, false? i was a stripper, yeah. there s nothing wrong with being a stripper or an exotic dancer. i mean, there s a lot of girls out there and a lot of women out there that won t own up to it. but maybe they will now and find it to be okay. and i think that no matter what you do for a living, it just doesn t define who you are. it was a part of my journey. i m not ashimd of it. i was actually very good at it. do you feel you re better than the rift est of the housew? i don t think anyone should ever place themselves above or beneath anybody. i think you should just be equals. that s all i m trying to be in my life. i don t compete with them. i don t speak about them on a regular basis. i will, however, not back down if they re attacking me anymore. but you re on a show with them. so how much interaction are you all really having outside of what we see on tv? outside of what you see on television? i wasn t brought in here when they were brought in to the studio so that probably answers it for you. not a lot. there was another allegation made on the show and you kind of talked about it in the scene there. in the 80s you had been arrested for kidnapping charges. you write that your neighbor at the time was involved in a drug deal gone bad and you happen to basically be as you say in the wrong place at the wrong time. why did you want to set the record straight about that incident? what i wanted to set the record straight about is that there were seven indictments against me. i pled guilty to the less of the charges. the leaser of the charges was extortion. and if anyone who knows the law or is familiar with the law for a prosecutor to recommend probation for you, it s really huge. and she actually recommended that i plead guilty to the leaser of the charges. the lesser of the charges? yes. overall really quickly, are you having a good time on the show despite what we see people throwing tables at you? yes, i am. this table will stay there. it s not me that throws. i get them thrown to me. and you seem to be holding strong. great to have you here. you can read an excerpt from the naked truth on our website. you can catch it on monday nights at 10:00 on our sister network bravo. coming up next, the best in beauty. we ll check out top award-winning products of the year right after this. 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. your hair mixes with pollen and dust. i get congested. but now with zyrtec-d®, i have the proven allergy relief of zyrtec®, plus a powerful decongestant. zyrtec-d® lets me breathe freer, so i can love the air™. 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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. woman: i just joined extracare advantage for diabetes at cvs/pharmacy. i m taking the right steps to manage my diabetes and my budget. extracare advantage for diabetes is a new program that helps me save money and earn double bucks on over 100 items, so we can stay a step ahead of. all: our diabetes! join extracare advantage for diabetes today and receive a free gift when you enroll. only at cvs/pharmacy. this morning on today s beauty the oscars of beauty products. cdw beauty awards. this year more than 500 new products were entered in categories from skin care to hair color and 3500 beauty professionals voted. we have the president of cosmetic executive women. carlotta, good morning. you i think have the luckiest job in the world. you play with make up and figure out which ones are best. you have gone through a lot of things. we have 3600 women in the cosmetic industry who are members of the organization and they re the women who know the best products. they formulated the products. that s what makes this very unique. plus there are so many products women want direction. so many specifically regarding skin care because especially as women get older they re very concerned. this one was actually chosen as being one of the best. this is an anti-wrinkle product from olay. which was developed by dermatologists and gives the skin the same effect as prescription products without all of the irritation that you can get from the others, the redness and everything. so it s very light and it s a great wrinkle cream. and great for helping with peeling and with redness and dryness. it s a deep wrinkle treatment. all right. you also have what s called a future solution? yes. this really is basically it s a breakthrough of science and skin care because they actually discovered what it was that was causing dry skin. so this really works from the inside out. might have to put it all over. so doing that, they were able to then formulate the kind of ingredients that were needed to actually stop the drying and restore the moisture. smells wonderful. and it goes on very easily. it s great to put on at night. now, moving on to makeup, this is very funny. i ve never seen this before. we re talking about an oscillating eyelash primer? primer. a primer, yes. they made the mascara. now they have the primer. by lancome. you push this button and it oscillates. you put it on your eye and it builds up the stuff? what it does is, it s like a foundation for the lashes and you put just one coat of mascara after that and you will have the thickest lashes you could imagine. they re like having thick eyelashes without the thickness. primer is such a funny word. cars i know get primed. now our faces do as well. is this for our lips? this is a lip compact which is now, of course i have to open this. all right, now. i can do it. i ll figure it out. there we go. look at that. and it has a built-in mirror. oh, look at that sclat that is pretty. it s like a little beauty jewel. the jewelry, the accessory of it and a great lip form u lation. you don t have to carry the purse. you can put this in your pocket. this is for redness. a lot of people have redness on their faces and skin. it s just a powder. doesn t take out the redness but hides it. hides it effectively but also moisturizes and is like a treatment. it s sheer and when you put it over any kind of redness doesn t have to be a skin problem but even if you re stressed and your skin gets red. clinique. to protect our faces from the sun i know there s debate we need some fun for vitamin d but most dermatologists say protect your face. this has 30 spf. and you can use this every day. what it does is you bring it up like this. you like this. i like this, yes. you just put it on. so if you don t want to put a sun protection product on first before you put on your powder or makeup, you can just use this. it comes in three shades. this one has even more. this has 60. it gives you 98% of protection. developed for sensitive skin. only a few second:left. you have this little want of some sort. a magic marker like color mart that colors up gray in between color and it s natural hair color. you get the color that you want. this also will extend your color because it s taking the sulfates out of it. l oreal s shampoo which is very gentle. if you have thin hair this is going to thicken it naturally. all these products by the way, if you ve missed them, are online. carlotta, congratulations. i know your daughter is graduating from college. sarah is grad waiting in a couple of weeks. congratulations to you. always great to have you here. now 9:49. we re coming up with this morning on today goes green saving energy and reducing waste in your own kitchen. create new daily habits that over time are kind to the environment. diet and nutrition editor madelyn fernstrom has tips. these are little things. we re not talking about remaking your kitchen. no, not remaking your kitchen. not big things. even if you do one or two of them it s a real help in saving energy. some of these you can transfer to other parts of your house like the bathroom. for example conserving water. we all want to kick that bottled water habit. get some water bottles that you can reuse. people say i can wash those disposable ones. you can t because heat leachs that out or get a pitcher that has a filter in it. it s perfectly safe to drink water from the tap but if you don t like that get an attachable fewer phier that can go on there so you don t have to worry about pure water. don t run the water. we know it s especially true in the kitchen. we know in the bathroom with brushing your teeth. hi, ann! back to our instead of running this water you want to be able to soak your stuff in a sink and then rinse it out because that will actually get all the debris off. let s talk about composting. composting in contrast to what people think it s not garbage but stuff that grows in the ground that all those leftovers you want to recycle it s nature recycling. ultimately going back in the ground. start with any scams you have. all vegetable peels. nutshells, things like that. that you keep right by your sink when you re doing this and keep it covered. daily you can put it in your compost pile. if you have a backyard you can put that they make indoor composts. or even a garbage pail with a lid but you can purchase these and keep turning it and water it a little bit just like an garden. it turns into organic sludge that you can put in the garden. even if you don t 20% of this goes into the landfill so it s good for the planet. gardeners call it gold. crock pots are making a big comeback. they should because they use almost no energy like a low level light bulb and the things you could have healthy like lean meat and then you have a ton of vegetables that you put in. you cook it all day with less than a light bulb and your kitchen stays cool. clean your fridge? clean your fridge. there s nothing more important like this. we don t want to usually stand in front of a fridge and look for things. this is the perfect fridge but don t have science projects in the back and shove things in. clean it out once a week. less energy. much less energy. your oven. get to know your oven. we always preheat for half an hour. can t be too long. open up the oven and get a thermometer. you can actually see how long it takes to preheat. and use manual appliances. use your hands. no electric can openers. you don t need a mixer. take a whisk. good exercise as well. and have your friends run in and out of the kitchen when you don t expect them. i m so sorry. she opens the door. hello. involving a 7-year-old boy. u.s. park police are still searching for a driver in what appears to be a road rage shooting on the bw parkway. a man was shot twice in the arm not far from route 198 in laurel late sunday night. the victim is expected to be okay. now to the weather, meteorologist tom kierein joins us in the studio. when will things turn around for us, tom? clouds are still hanging in washington. a few locations of virginia, maryland, seeing sunshine breaking out now. as the day progresses, we should see some sun breaking out. highs upper 70s to near 80. clearing out tonight, mostly sunny. hot tomorrow. hot and humid. could get passing afternoon storms both of those days. into the weekend, it looks like it s going to cool down and turn less humid. how is the traffic, jerry? good news, bad news. the broken down car in the left lane inbound 14th street bridge has been cleared. lanes are opened, but still jammed as you head toward the pentagon. and a quick check elsewhere, looking pretty good, i-95 above the capital beltway near 212. moving nicely. eun? thank you, jerry. win a pair of tickets to the hottest concert in town. taylor swift s sold-out june 2nd concert at the verizon center. search taylor at in frbs nbc news, this is today with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotb. hey, everybod it s tuesday. usually called booze day around here, but not today. it s may 25th. we are riding on fumes. you re riding on some fumes. you had a busy weekend. just got in on the redeye from los angeles, so i feel like a bloated blimp and smell like one, too no. stop. that s the only way you have to do it. can you sleep on those long flights? i slept for an hour. i was so exhausted from the weekend. some dear friends, their son got married. army hammer called social network, a new david fincher movie, and his gorgeous wife, elizabeth. they re in bora bora now. and you re here with me. it was cold in l.a., and the reception was held where fergie and josh dumail got married? church vineyard something. there s good wines in malibu. who knew? see, good information we need to know. it was freezing. we had a nice stretch of weather. it was rainy on one of the days. last night, by the way, was picture perfect weather. that s the big news. the sex and the city premiere. very cool, right at radio city, right across the street. i don t know how many thousands of people went, but radio city is huge, and it was packed. there are a bunch of people who came out just to watch. they gave free tickets to people standing outside. they just started handing people i met a bunch of them. they went insane. people came to play. the red carpet stretched forever. i loved her dress. you look beautiful, hoda. that s jennifer miller, who makes the jewelry. she s beautiful. you hadn t seen the movie until last night, right? no. that s andy cohen, he s always next to sara jessica parker. why? i don t know. they re pals. when i was talking to her, she was all about you. no. she said, where s kathie lee? i said, she s not here. she said, she did see the movie before, and she was so sincere and sweet. that s nice. i liked her. they all looked beautiful. all those hunks were there. max s behind is big and prominent in the movie, and she showed up with his mother. i asked his mother afterwards what did she think about the behind? and she says she has seen that behind since she was a baby, and she was all good with it. really? there were a couple scenes that i thought would have been woo-hoo. samantha has not learned her lesson. no, i want to ask you we re not going to give anything away, but one of the four women, who is in a relationship or married, kisses another guy. now, the question becomes, should she tell her significant other that it was a kiss, but it was just a kiss. there was a lot of debate. but there are kisses and there are kisses, you know what i m saying? let s pretend there is a kiss, a good one. right. really for ib, do you tell your spouse, hey, honey, i kissed him, i just feel terribly guilty, i want to confess, i m sorry and let s move forward. would you tell? let me think. you know what? i think because i don t want to give anything away just for you personally. i think everyone has a different relationship. if you have a kiss and you re smart enough to leave after the kiss, you did the right thing. we re all tempted. it s what we do with temptation. if you break it off and don t go any further, you hightail it out of there, i think you see it as a victory. life happens and we find ourselves in vulnerable positions, but it s what you do with them, you know? if you go into the situation dressing up, wearing a low-cut outfit. in this movie she knows she s going to see this person. it did cause some debate, because when you tell, your husband will never forget what you ve told. if you ve truly forgotten it in your head, do you want to burden him with that? again it s your relationship. if your husband is one of those types that s truly jealous and you did the right thing by getting out of there, i don t know that it helps. i may be wrong. we re going to tell our facebook couple. if you re married and have a kid with someone, should you always tell your spouse? what about you? would you? if it were really, like it was going to happen only once and that was the end of it, i probably wouldn t, but if he s in your head that s when it starts to cause problems. what does it say about the relationship you have at home if you re allowing something like that to happen? it means there s some work that needs to be done. right. if any of you guys were watching the french open, you may have noticed i don t even think a lot know the french open is open, but they did after this. venus has one of her outfits. oh, my goodness. that appears as if she s mooning something. it actually looks like max ryan from sex and the city. paernl those are just flesh-colored shorts. so do you find that picture offensive? not offensive. she s a brilliant athlete. oh, wow i find it distracting, not offensive. i like her and i love that she loves style. i just sometimes long for the good old days when there was traditional whites, with some of the tennis clubs on the east coast have traditional it looks elegant, beautiful, and takes you back to another time. we can t set the clock back, hoda. believe me, i d like to today. why are you worried about all of this? what s going on? growing out the bangs, and everybody that does that know it s a problem. they don t grow fast enough, and i ran into debby boone, i ve known her since we were all teenagers. still one of the most gorgeous women in the world. her husband is the one that married the couple. he s an episcopalian priest. i thought if i had the guts. it s all short, crimped, adorable, really cool bangs, but then i realized it looks great because of her face. i don t have her face. you re crazy. it s hard to get one of those radical cuts. i m always sorry when i do. if you are struggling with weight and a lot of people are, they say there s something that might help you, if you tweet, you should tweet what you eat, so you are sort of reminding yourself and telling your follower, hey, i ate a hostess twinkie? i think we have to get over ourselves. who s got time to read about what somebody else is eating? who are you people? i don t understand that. now, maybe if you have a buddy and you make a deal and hoda, i need to lose ten pounds, so i m going promise to tweet you everything i eat so you can tweet me back and encourage me, the better thing to do is tweet before you eat it, and then your friend says, don t eat the twinkie. people don t think things thus. i like that. today we have a bunch of contests. i m telling you right now you re going to win everything today. i like it when you re vulnerable. and also sean hayes. good for you. he s going to be hosting the tony awards. perfect pick. he s on broadway right now in promises promises. what are they saying about the kissing and telling? we re getting mixed review. he says you should tell, but it might be better not to. shelley says don t make your guilt your spouse s hurt. and both say if there s action behind it, then you definitely have to tell. so we re getting both. that s why everybody s relationship is different, and depending on what the kiss was. i know. it s different. that kid in the movie, that was not by my standards. what? just kidding. hod is is like my mother when you go to the movies. you re like. i totally react. i am interactive. in that radio city, it was one of those things, i wanted to talk back to the screen, i wanted to get involved. and she s looking so adorable next to you. she s not bloated. not at all. she s adorable. michael patrick king, though, is first, after these messages. hey bets, can i borrow a quarter? sure, still not dry? i m trying to shrink them. i lost weight and now some clothes are too big. how did you do it? simple stuff. eating right and i switched to whole grain. whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who eat more whole grain tend to have a healthier body weight. multigrain cheerios has five whole grains and 110 calories per serving. multigrain cheerios. try new chocolate cheerios with a touch of delicious chocolate taste in every bite. mine too. my cut s all better. [ female announcer ] cause sara s mom discovered neosporin® with patented technology that heals cuts two days faster than store brands. neosporin®. heals faster than store brands. cause band-aid® s stuck on me [ female announcer ] moms trust band-aid® brand to heal the hurt better than store brands. i am stuck on band-aid® brand cause band-aid® helps heal me! cause band-aid® helps heal me! we asked real people to film themselves taking the activia 14-day challenge. i m mary ellen smith. so i m really excited to see if this really works. have just started to notice a slight difference in my digestion. take the activia challenge. we re back with our revolver door of the men of the hour form it s a great door to be hanging around lately. while most of us feel like the girls are our closest friends, this is michael patrick king, writer, director and producer of the movie. yes. congratulations. yes, you have a big old smile today. i especially am haepg about the revolving door aspect. get in, get out. hi, guys, you re great, get in, get out. you have to say you on the stage last night just before the movie was being introduced i thought was magical. what did it feel like? it s radio city music hall. my family is there, and then 5,000 people. it s an out of body experience. you don t get to go to oz twice, and it s like that, you re in the emerald city twice. did the success of the movie surprise you or the series surprise you? everything surprises me. the success of the series started out so small. it was just we tried to make this well-made episode every week, and it kept getting bigger and bigger. it wasn t like hit this mark and now you re a hit. it slowly grew. i thought ladies wanted to see their gill friends, and what i thought was so amazing was the amount of love to see your girl friends translate into box office and hollywood heard that and we got to make another one, but it s a love of people wanting to see these girls again. when there was a moment on screen, you felt like the crowd felt what they were feeling. for women this is emotional 3-d. it leaps for them off for anyone. there s a lot in here for husbands as well. you were saying that carrie is the hardest one for you to write. always. if you know story, you can tell the rest of the movie. she s everything. if you understand her little problem, then you can spin off or her big problems. that s why we re on at 10:10. so having her get married, that must have been a huge mon mnl decision. she wasn t a traditional girl. that s the theme of this movie. but the really smart women, really contemporary would ask, do you think they ever got married? so i knew that the first movie about her wedding was a story. and then i thought the other question i got asked for this movie, is she going to have a baby? everybody still wants people to go in a traditional thing. i love the idea you get to play with tradition, and embrace what works for you, and let go of what didn t. now they have choices and now they have to live with the consequences of the choices that they made. that s real life. carrie writes a book in the movie, her fictional book is called i do, do i? it s the thought of once you some people get married on their wedding day. she got married in her mind two years later. relationships, they are a living, breathing thing. they change every day. they evolve. and morph and become different things. if you re not ready for the roller coaster ride, you re going to be sorely disappointed. and what i like about the movie essentially is say being your relationship. what do you two need? it s fun for them to figure out how to be a couple. people ask you on the red carpet who do you contest the most with? i feel like a lot of us connect with each of those girls. that s the magic with those girls. those actresses are amazing, but for me, this is like thank you, thank you for going to the first one, thank you for being so interesting in life that i can sit down and good, mothers, what would they say? a lot of people you still live in the same brownstone. yes. i have a picture of you and adriana in the same brownstone writing away. then when i m in california i m on the phone, what do you think? she s like, that s done, honey. do you pay rent to her? rubies, big buckets of rubies, i lay them at her door. she s a great writer. she has a huge heart. she had bells on. we want to hang out more with her. she s the star. michael, great success. golly. the last one made half a billion. this one opens on thursday. and still to come on glamour girl takes it to the beach. turlg don t into definite any dos. es greener. this guy s biking cross-country to help build new homes. a truck s teaching schoolkids to try tasty veggies. and in leland, they re building a diamond. in schools around the nation, special-needs squads are cheering. they want a pepsi refresh grant, too, thanks to you. what ideas will get funded next? 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[ bird chirps, woman sighs ] [ female announcer ] go fresh. it s dove s way to revitalize your mind and nourish your skin. dove go fresh with nutriummoisture. fresh at its best. go fresh is also available as a bar in three revitalizing scents. get out those shades. it s time to travel on a trip to venice beach, california. as temperatures rise, we wanted to see what those who live by the sea wear when the sun shines, so glamour magazine strolled the muscle baefl in search of do s and don ts. this is kind of pulling a bit. it makes me want to style. i do like the hat, though. i don t have any shoes. i ve got my socks. i notice that you tied it in the back to make it nor of a crop top, but maybe the shorts are too small, this is so tight, you re getting that muffin top when you probably don t have a muffin top. your rear end is there, and your pants are literally mid it s the style. what will happened if you pulled them up, just for fun. this is like the perfect casual outfit and it looks comfortable. right? it is comfortable. i like that you re wearing all black, but the bright color adds the punch. this is a time when showing your bull belly is not only accepted, but applauded. you look great. let s talk about mom. comfort. do you think that comfort and fashion can t go together? no, not entirely. can i just straighten you up a put. just cut the leg, if you tighten and roll them, it gives you an edge. tell me a bit about your advice. it s a hodgepodge of things i bought, in different boutiques. something as easy as 1, 2, 3. we re heading in the right direction. we re going monochromatic, but because of the seam and the poof here, it s making this appear to be rounder, even though this is a great neckline. the best shape for you would be more of a pencil skirl. and. those partners an the guy s thighs i don t understand that. and he could walk. they say it came out of the prison situation, they take your belts away. it s a trend i would like to see never come back. i m going to show you some other trends. and some don ts to do s, how to wear them right. i love it, too, but what i don t love is when you put a white bra underneath it. it s tolely see-through. you want to match your skintone. definitely nude. when it comes to cleavage, many of us makes mistakes. some of us can t help it. you can always help it, kathie lee. right now you look amazing. this is what you don t want to do. do you like her tan lines? hoda loves tan lines. i m not offended. but it s the fact that she s exposing her bust, it s just too much. the girl to the right doesn t have a bust. no she does. it s going straight across, and that s always helpful. you say heels with a swimsuit are a big no-no. not the miss usa. or not in sex and the city. that s true, but i don t believe you should wear high heels on a beach with a swimsuit. a, your heels are going to sink. or go for a wedge or go for a flat. hemlines. people never know how short. here areas the situation. if you re bending over and can see the entire rear they blocked it out, because you could, what you do is put your hands down and never go shorter than your thumb. now you re talking. it s very easy. yujulian huff is with us. yo. huh? don t worry, it tastes great. froot loops now with 3 grams of fiber. fiber makes your tummy happy so it can absorb the good stuff you need, which your mom is gonna love. it does taste great. fiber is a great way to start your day. i can never read these things. kellogg s froot loops, apple jacks, and corn pops! cereals, now provide fiber. kellogg s makes fiber fun. doo doo doo woman: there s only one disinfecting wipe with a low streak formula. clorox disinfecting wipes. [music, talking, laughing] what makes hershey s s mores special? hershey s chocolate goodness that brings people together. pure hershey s. so i got my nephew to build a website. i hired someone to make my website. five months ago. we are building a website by ourselves. announcer: there s an easier way. create your own small-business site with intuit websites. just choose a style that fits your business and customize, publish and get found in three easy steps. sweet. all from just $4.99 a month, get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. we re watching the dow fall this morning, down more than 200 points since the opening bell. news 4 midday, we ll have the latest from cnbc. good morning. i m barbara harrison. the latest beauty and anti-aging treatments. we sit down with dermatologist cheryl burgess to talk about what works and what does not. news 4 m we re back on this booze day with one shining star, julianne hough is known as the two-time champ of dancing with the stars, about to emerge as one of the hottest triple threats. the 21-year-old has two films in the work, a second country album on the way and just wrapped up a tour with sugarland. great to see you. thank you. you like great. thank for you making time for us. thanks for having me here. it launched your career? it s such a great show to be a part of. we were talking earlier about how it revamping people s careers, but for me it definitely started mine. you and your brother have both been dancing since you were little. yes, little, little, the whole thing. he s still in contention. i m rooting for him tonight. are you going to go back to the show? i m not sure. they don t decide who going to be on until about a week before. they don t know which celebrities, and then think pair you with them. and when you page through gossip magazines, and we don t do that. we never do. they always seem to put you together with ryan seacrest. really? i don t know what that s about. he s so much cuter than that. i m young, single, enjoying getting to know people. we ll leave it at that. good for you. so tell us about footloose. they haven t cast the male lead? not yet. it s scheduled to go this summer. that kevin bacon role is you re thinking who could fill those shoes? definitely. it s such a great film to begin with, but the director is phenomenal. who is the director? craig brewer. he did hustle and slow and others, so it s a bit edgier. you can did a fwlim with cher. and christina aguilera, burlesque. i m a redhead in the movie. who directed that one? steven anton. it comes out thanksgiving day. you play a burlesque dancer, and then i get knocked up. have your parents seen this film? e know, right? it s definitely different from the girl. i had a scene with cher, where it was really emotional. i had to tell her i was pregnant. she s amazing. she has the right to be a diva, but she s so down to earth. i did a take where i had to be really emotional 17 times, and i m like, do i have to do this again? and she knows exactly what to say. did you take acting classes or just sort of. i had been singing, dancing and acting since i was a child. and you have a new album coming out. i ve got the album in november, but my first single off of it is coming out this next month called is that so wrong? i m excited. i wrote the record, so i m excited about it. what do you want to do that you re not doing already? i m grateful. i m doing everything i want to do, singing, dancing, acting, right now i just teamed up with caress for the launch of their new body washing, and did they video vignetted about girls night out and anybody can actually go online and enter for their chance to win. i ve got some fun things in the works. you re going to have you ll have such a great career. what s it like to be 21 with a great career, talented? i used to like her. not so much. we wish you the best. best of luck with everything, sweetie. up next it s not wines-day, but that s not stopping this woman. she ll share her take on life. big g kid cereals can help.as did you know it s the only leading line of kid cereals with at least 8 grams of whole grain and a good source of calcium? cereals they already love, like lucky charms and cinnamon toast crunch. give your kids more of what they need to be their best. grow up strong. with big g kid cereals. could open a world of wonder ? so sensory so satisfying the discovery never seems to stop it s the magic friskies makes happen every day in so many ways friskies feed the senses hi, jay bush and duke here to introduce new bush s black bean fiesta..whoa. you can t tell everyone about new black bean fiesta. but it s perfectly cooked black beans, in a zesty south of the border chipotle sauce with red and green peppers, onion, and crisp corn. a bold new taste. i know. but i want people to think i m a great cook. so hide. delicious! can i have your recipe? your secret is safe with me. hello. new bush s black bean fiesta. and try new texas ranchero, along with our other grillin beans flavors. if you were addicted to reality tif, how would you break the. it meant tasting cheeses and drinking wine, and she writes it in my fair lazy. you have an interesting story. i have heard that. you lost your job? i lost my job and i started writing, i put my words on the enter net, and a literary agent found me. you started blogging. when you became addicted, what exactly are we talking about? i have three tivos, so i have the ability to record six, and at times they were going with garbage. with what? like for the love of ray jay. we like to talk to them. i don t think we would want to watch the show. i can t watch reality television. it s not real. so much of it is preplanned and contrived situations. i think that s why jersey shore was so good. no one had real expectations. these guys came on and became themselves. it was lightning in the bottle. now they have publicists and get appearance fees. did you love it above the others. i was so addicted. i m so disappointed they re in and out in miami beach, which is wrong. they should be in jersey where they belong. and they all have this self-awareness, so it won t be afraid. how about the housewives? i adore the real housewives of new york, because i feel like i could hang out with them. the real housewives of orange county are so ridiculous, i can t help but watch. in the new york group, who do you like? bethany. you would want to have drinks with her. so those two. what s your standard absolutely. i want to have a drink with reality tv has changed. it used to be the real world, wasn t that the beginning? do you think stuff is getting better? i think stuff has gotten so bad it has nowhere to go but back up. when the real world premiered it was like a documentary. there s a line in your book and we re only interested in this one line. i never met a wine i didn t like. you were trying to break, culture yourself. let s go check some free wine. what s the expensive wine and what is the nonso, right? we re going to do that. we don t say cheap, just less expensive. the key is you drink what you like. what are we doing? we re going to start with the whites and start with a. take a swish. it tastes like wine. what flavor do you taste? see, i don t have the palate. i just like to drink it. ooh, i like a. do you? how about you? i m not crazy about either one of them. i love chardonnays. i would say i really can t tell. i ll say that one is the most expensive. the higher line one is b. really? this one i think is like trader joe s. okay. ripple. love it. there s a bug in mine. can i have yours? that s good protein. i think it s more important if you drink than i do. don t like that one at all. okay. taste b. b is sweeter, so probably cheaper. i think a is better. you think a is better? b is it. last one, this is a syrah. no, no, no. don t get it on your dress. ooh, i don t like either one. i didn t like a at all. b is the better one. not much difference, though. didn t like either one. we ve learned a lot from that segment, everybody. on one hour s sleep, i shouldn t have done that. easy memorial day planning. can vodka 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! you need listerine® whitening® vibrant white™ rinse. the mouthwash that gets teeth four times whiter than the leading toothpaste. and kills bad breath germs. listerine® whitening vibrant white™. i ve got good news. you need more fiber. huh? don t worry, it tastes great. froot loops now with 3 grams of fiber. fiber makes your tummy happy so it can absorb the good stuff you need, which your mom is gonna love. it does taste great. fiber is a great way to start your day. i can never read these things. kellogg s froot loops, apple jacks, and corn pops! cereals, now provide fiber. kellogg s makes fiber fun. time for today s beauty and home remedies that really work. the folks at women s health magazine came up with a list and molly is here to tell us what you guys found out. this is a quiz. this is a quiz. that s why we have the game show setting. i was right about the white wine. they had it mixed up. so you get the point. let s see how you do here? are you ready? we re ready. pour vinegar on a sunburn to soothe your kin and remove redness. i say that s true. vinegar is great for everything. vinegar has an acidic acid to reduce inflammation. do you do it right away? absolutely. but i never recommend just putting vinegar. instead you want to mix. that s a lot of trouble to go through. the cleansing power of your shampoo increases with a splash of vodka? i m going to go yes with that. this is true as well. hello, mama. too weird to not be true. vodka is a great multitasker. what you want to do is mix it with a splash of your shampoo. use it once a week, no more than that. it can cleanse, reduces product buildup. grime. it shoond be that much? not that much, just a splash, but no more than that. like a little drink, a little vodka good, a lot bad. it can overstrip year hair. spritz beer on your hair to give it better hold? oh, no, that s sure. false. you re wrong. do i get that one? no styling ability. save it for drinking. . have a bad hair day? no big deal. fourth question, potatoes can lighten undereye circles. can lighten? yes, true. true. absolutely. you didn t know. i had no idea. po tains a natural skin lightener. but it s a healthy thing. it s a healthy thing, but if you re going to reap the benefit, you have to have a lot of time to do it. great the potatoes, put it in cheeseclos, drank it, put the potatoes on your eyes for 20 minutes. i think you re better off with an overed counter remedy, but if you want to try it, you can. i can t win. it s over. you can tie it. fifth question, a dab of toothpaste can erase a zit overnight. it s supposed to dry it up, but it doesn t erase it. no, it s false. it has been a myth that s been around for years and years, but the truth is it s going to burn your skin, it s abrasive. told you, hoda. i ve tried everything. i think we all have. but no to this one. this is the final one, and this is whether or not we tie or win. okay. less s do it, baby. a white ning toothpaste did lighten your nails? i never thought about that. yes. true. just like baking soda, at women s health put it on your toothbrush with clean, bare nails. the abrasiveness can. when you have a lot of polish you get a little yellow tint. thank you, molly. thank you very very much. up next, your memorial day party and making it memorable. if you re hoping to create the best memorial day bash on the block, you are in luck. lifestyle and entertainment expert annette joseph has advice for one party. i m a party girl. nice to see you. something unique at your party that no one else doesn t have? i lot it to be a little effort and a lot of bang. this looks like nantucket to me. it s an american holiday memorializing and honoring our veterans. so we start with the buddy poppies for everybody to wear. they re very sweet. you can give them to your guests, and you they can wear them. that s terrific. they re very easy to pick up at the veterans of foreign wars offices. they re easy, with a donation. i like a buffet, keep it simple. when people come in, they can get these cute little fans to keep them cool. okay. i love the centerpieces. i like gathering things in trays. it s easy. you can carry it out of look at your shoes, you re all bicentennial. don t run away from the runner. this is a cute idea. lead the way. we have some fun spiked lemonade here, and we ve got a virgin lemonade, these fantastic ice cubes. look at those. with herbs and fruit. put them into your spiked lemonade, add a bit of fruit, and you have a refreshing, great drink. they re beautiful. such a smart idea. you now how they re infusing herbs. that s the great idea. and mash your glasses with rubber bands. that s a genius idea. and we have some for you to try. we do? i think they re spiked, so just be careful. after the wine, that might be good isn t that yummy-looking? this is little girls are like, you re always drinking this early in the morning? you always need an activity. we have the tiki bar for the adults, and pie eating well, for some of the adults. that is actually my assistant natalie. merrill. ashley. you guys are all adorable. my daughter wins this every year in nantucket. are you guys ready? we re going to set a timer. can t use your hands? i look it. go, go, go, go! go, natalie, go. take a breath, don t drown. okay. take a breath. you guys okay? is everybody okay? you guys did good. all right. let s see who s won? thank you. you got down to the lemon. you got down to the lemon. and sometimes what? sometimes things just happen. that s how we treat our guests. happy memorial day. tomorrow, more sex and the city.