Transcripts For WRC Today 20110228 : vimarsana.com

says they owe him an apology. they owe me an apology, a big one, while they are licking my feet. i m tired of pretending i m not special. if the show is brought back, what will it take for sheen to return? wait until you hear what he s asking for today, monday, wait until you hear what he s asking for today, monday, february 28, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. welcome to a special edition of today on a monday morning. i m matt lauer in new york. meredith soaking up the post oscar fun and the question we have, are you going to take as much credit for the king s speech winning best picture this year as you did for slumdog millionaire two years ago? yes. congratulations. your movie won. i know. first of all, welcome back, matt. it s nice to see you. such a big night for the king s speech. you may remember when the nominations came out last month i said to colin firth, if you win, i m going to polish your statue. i have my rag right here. i m ready. the king s speech won for best picture, best director and best actor. natalie portman s role in black swan earned her her first oscar. and it was a sweep for melissa leo and christian bale for the fighter. no oscar wrap-up is complete without mentioning the red carpet and the after parties. we have it all covers here in l.a. are you feeling better? your voice sounds fuzzy. i m much better, thanks. we ll see you in a few minutes. also ahead our interview with charlie sheen. the actor didn t pull punches when it came to drug and alcohol abuse, his two new girlfriends and why he thinks the executives behind two and a half men are trying to destroy his family. and bernie madoff, the first time we ll hear from him in his own voice since he went to prison. what does he say about his victims? does he feel like a victim? details of the interview or the series of interviews coming up ahead. let s begin with highlights from the 83rd annual academy awards. with stars showing old world style and flair, the oscars are always regal. but it was a movie about brittle royalty that stole the show. and the oscar goes to the king s speech . the academy didn t stammer in crowning the king s speech with best film, best director for tom hooper and best actor for colin firth. i have a feeling my career s just peaked. a pregnant natalie portman earned best actress for black swan. she thanked her choreographer and fiance for her next role. my beautiful love benjamin who choreographed the film and who s now given me my most important role of my life. reporter: the fighter s christian bale and melissa leo both took home oscars for supporting actor and supporting actress. bloody hell. what a roomful of talented people. what am i doing here? reporter: leo who campaigned for the award seemed genuinely stunned she d won. golly sakes, there s people up there, too. inception. reporter: kwo. reporter: inception s wins all came in technical categories for sound and cinematography. the dance of the brown duck. reporter: first time hosts anne hath and james franco even poked fun at charlie sheen. the weird part is i just got a text message from charlie sheen. reporter: withal all the pressure of a more contemporary oscar, a couple of known faces shared the spotlight. no, no. [ applause ] well, so, where was i? you know [ laughter ] reporter: afterle all the anticipation this was a night of few surprises where favorites took home the gold. reporter: and proved that hollywood dreams can come true. we ll have much more on the oscars throughout the morning from here in los angeles. for now, back to matt in new york. all right, meredith. thank you very much. convicted swindler bernie madoff is serving 150 years in prison for cheating investors out of 65 billion. now he s revealing new details about the infamous scheme in a wide-ranging cover story in new york magazine. peter alexander has details on that. good morning. reporter: matt, good morning to you. welcome back. this is the first time we re getting to hear bernie madoff in his own voice. it s a series of tape recorded phone conversations between madoff and a writer for york magazine where madoff speaks about everything from how he started the ponzi scheme to how he broke the news to his family that it was all a lie. the tapes will do little to satisfy his former clients. you know. i m not a horrible person. reporter: he s described as evil. bernie madoff convicted of swindling $65 billion from investors. for the first time since the scam imploded madoff has been speaking to the media, defending himself in interviews. madoff said he was a victim, too. burdened by is it lie he created and claims he kept secret from his beloved wife of 51 years. it was a nightmare for me, yes, of course, only for me. i was able to explain it to ruth. she s still unhappy about it. she s still embarrassed. she feels sorry for me to a certain extent. reporter: madoff says banks and hedge funds were guilty of what he calls will fful blindne. madoff said some of the clients had to know the business was a fraud and they shouldn t be complaining now. all of my friends, all of my most of my clients, the individual clients all are not net losers. it was the people that came in very late in the game that got hurt. so did i make a lot of money for people? yeah. i made a lot of money for people. did people lose profits they thought they made? yes. you know, but did they lose capital? i m sure i m confident that when this thing is finished very few people, if any, will lose their principal. reporter: how did the scheme begin? he says it was almost by accident in 1992 after several years of legitimate success. up until the last minute, madoff hoped he could escape his financial mess. i kept on, you know, telling myself, you know, that some, you know, some miracle was going to happen or that i was going to be able to work my way out of it. i just didn t know what that what that was. reporter: new york magazine describes the family now shattered. son mark dead by suicide. son andrew and wife ruth no longer speaking to madoff or to one another. ruth, forbidden from seeing her own grandchildren and turned away at mark s funeral. madoff said he will never forget the day he confessed to andrew and mark. it was like stunned. you know, i was crying. right. andy, i remember, took me in his arms. he felt sorry for me at that stage. i don t think that it had totally sunk in to everybody. mark was standing there in shock. i said, look, you know, i just i don t know what else to tell you. bernie madoff also spoke about his son s suicide. during the interview madoff became emotional when asked about mark saying, quote, not a day goes by that i don t suffer. peter alexander for us this morning. thank you very much. steve fishman, contributing editor from new york magazine interviewed madoff for the cover story. steve, good morning. why do you think he s giving interviews now? he spoke to the new york times, someone writing a book and now you. couple interviews in a couple of weeks. why? i wouldn t overplay the fact that he s now turned gabby. he spoke to the times with a business idea he wanted to communicate. it was difficult to get this interview. i think in our case he wanted to let himself go, explain who he is. we had an hour s long session. it was something and i felt at times he was sitting with a psychotherapist. and the armchair psychologist or psychiatrist may say this is a way for him to reach out to his remaining son andrew whom he hasn t spoken to since the day of his arrest. i know you speculate on that at the end of the article. i think there is in bernie a craving for family. he is a family guy. totally estranged from his family. his son is furious with him, rightly so. i think one of the motives was to say, how can i communicate with them? in both interviews he s gone out of his way to say family members knew nothing of his ponzi scheme. if you want to start an argument at a cocktail party a good way is to bring up the question of whether or not ruth mad off and the sons knew. what s your take? i don t think they knew. part of it is what we know about how the dynamics of the scheme, but if you look at the family that was a family that was very centered around bernie. bernie was the master, the patriar patriarch, the bully, information on a need-to-know basis. it was not a place where you challenged dad. you get a window into his personality. you refer to him as a monster a couple of times in the article. he does not see himself as an evil person. he says he s actually a pretty good person. how does that jibe? ber nibernie s view is a goo person who got into something he couldn t get out of. a victim of his own scheme. there was a lot of complicity by big institutions. you know, that said, bernie is a complicated figure and can t quite sustain remorse. he s saying, i m not a monster, i was involved in a system of corruption. he recognizes his own part, takes credit and responsibility for that. but then he quickly slips into this narrative where you have to understand people were throwing money at me. he s talking about the big banks and the big hedge funds. they were. you say something in the article and i think it s fascinating. you say he lost his family, his freedom. you say in some ways prison offers a measure of relief and in some ways he s a happier man now. explain that. i think that s true. when you talk to bernie as i said, there is a relaxation. first of all, you have to know bernie is a survivor. he gets busy in prison, reads, makes friends. he understood for a long time he was going to be there. to hear him talk about the nightmare of leading this double life and that nightmare is over. as a matter of fact, you write and say the most incredible lies he told were the lies he told to his family. absolutely. steve fishman, thank you very much. a fascinating look inside the story. appreciate you coming here. thank you. it is now 7:13. new york magazine will post more excerpts on their website throughout the week. ann is standing by at the news desk with headlines. good morning. good morning. in the news, the noose is tightening around libyan leader moammar gadhafi s regime. more security forces are dete detecting and forces are closing in on tripoli. good morning. reporter: good morning. the latest news is that we understand that according to rebels at least they have shot down a libyan plane about 130 miles east of tripoli. a very strategic town, capturing the two crew members. that would be a huge blow to gaddafi s regime, but worse are pictures that have gone around the world shot yesterday by us and a number of other international press outlets in zawiya. it s important. it s only 30 miles west of us here. it s a gateway to the capitol. the irony is that we were supposed to be brought there to show that things were in the government s control or at least they weren t hiding anything. there might have been protests but nothing serious. reports of bombing were untrue. the strategy backfired, ann. today, you are seeing images of an opposition controlling the center of the town. demonstrators calling for the end of gaddafi and more importantly, rebel soldiers who flipped to the other side with tanks and anti-aircraft artillery. it makes gaddafi look weaker and more cornered and that scares people in the capitol. back to you. jim, keep your head down out there. thank you very much. meantime, protesters in bahrain are demonstrating again as president obama praises the king for showing a commitment to reform. but new protests turned deadly over the weekend as at least two demonstrators were killed. still, protesters assembled today, a rare development in a key u.s. ally in the region. the standoff in wisconsin is growing as police allowed protesters to spend another night in the rotunda of the capitol. they are fighting for collective bargaining rights for unions. reporte . sweeping wildfires in texas. a 5-year-old girl was killed. it s being blamed on poor visibility from the smoke. a baby boy is one of the first victims of the earthquake to be laid to rest in new zealand. half of downtown christchurch is facing demolition. the cost of the natural disaster could top $11 billion. now to wall street and trish reagan with the latest on gas prices. good morning. good morning. in the last week gas jumped 4% hitting $3.29 a gallon on average. that is the highest it s been for this time of year when gas prices are normally lower. so concern there about gas prices and what it will mean for the overall economy. a lot of traders are saying to brace yourself. we re going to see $4 a gallon on average in the coming weeks. of course this means less spending power for the american consumer. not good news at the time when the economy is still in a from ale jill state. thanks, trish. the last american veteran of world war ii has died. he died sunday. frank buckles lied about his age to enlist at 15. he served in the ambulance service in england and france. he will be buried at arlington national cemetery, the last survivor of 5 million americans who served in world war 1. he was 110 years old. and a first look at an accident in the washington, d.c. subway when an escalator sped up when the brakes failed sending dozens of riders tumbling on top of one another. several were injured, one seriously. good reason to hold on. the video from a security camera. it s 7:18. now back to matt. scary stuff, ann. let s go back to los angeles for a check of the weather with al this morning.d morning, mamt. we re looking at pretty severe weather through much of the southern part of our country. take a look we ll show you. we ve got severe thunderstorm watches now stretching from memphis all the way to pittsburgh, until later this morning into the early afternoon hours. icy conditions in the northeast and on into new england. but these strong storms may bring tornados, isolated tornados, flood watches from missouri into massachusetts. rain fall from nashville into lexington one to three inches of rain. the heavy rain extends on into new york city with up to an inch into boston, and up and down the eastern seaboard. we will be looking at airport delays today and flood watches as well. flooding on roads and other areas. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. we re getting breaks in the clouds over washington and on the eastern shore getting showers, most locations still in the 40s, 47 at reagan national but we should hit the low 70s by early afternoon. by then we ll have some storms beginning to move in and from 3 to 7:00 p.m. some could be severe with damaging winds, hail, perhaps even isolated tornados again that s 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. today. strong winds tonight out of the northwest bringing in colder and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. now to our interview with charlie sheen, the star of two and a half men who sat down with jeff rossen to talk about his life and the cancellation of his sit-com for the season. jeff, good morning. reporter: hi. good morning. i spoke with charlie sheen inside his beverly hills home yesterday. i met his twin boys and his new girlfriends two women he calls the godesses. they live with him by the way. we talked about his drug abuse, a raise. never showed up drunk or high? never once. maybe having not slept but never loaded, drunk, nothing on set. no. when i step between the lines it s on and i show others how it s done. it s really not rocket science. reporter: you re angry. i m not angry. i m passionate. everyone thinks i should be begging for my job back. i m going to forewarn them that it s everybody else that will be begging me for their job back. i m a man of my word. i will finish the show and even do season 10. at this point because of emotional distress it s $3 million an episode, take it or leave it. you want a raise? well, yeah. look what they put me through. you make $2 million an episode now. roughly. you want $3 million? i m underpaid now. you re underpaid? look at the money they re making. i m tired of pretending i m not special, a rock star from mars. people can t figure me out, process me. i don t expect them to. you can t process me with a normal brain. reporter: charlie said his celebrity friends are offering support, even stopping by the house. friends like colin farrell and sean penn. that, meredith, is the tip of the iceberg. charlie and i talked for a while. there is much more coming up. all right, jeff. thank you very much. we ll be talking to charlie about what he says to people who fear he could o.d. and is he setting a good example for his kids. surprising answers to those questions and more. first, this is today on nbc. just ahead, the fashion hits and misses from oscar s red carpet. and what s next for charlie sheen. more of our revealing interview after your local news. 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[ male announcer ] there s just something about werther s caramel that makes a chocolate so smooth and creamy, you don t just taste it, you feel it. magic [ male announcer ] werther s original caramel chocolate. what comfort tastes like. good morning. 7:26 on this monday t 28th day of february. i m joe krebs. a chance of severe storms. let s go to tom kierein. right. that s later this afternoon but right now no trouble. we have temperatures in the mid and upper 40s, 48 at reagan national, light rain on the eastern shore. but later this afternoon we could get some strong storms, 3:00 to 7:00 p.m., could get damaging winds and hail and isolated tornado. before then may get in the low 70s for a brief time. then windy and much colder, mid-30s by dawn tomorrow. sunny tuesday, upper 40s. dry friday. and we ll check the roads next. [ male announcer ] from maryland to the mall and beyond, it s easy to spot a capital one bank. the most branches and atms in the dc area. one near you. [ all ] what s in your wallet? one near you. go over sales figures, complete this merger, present to the board and do a number of other seemingly impossible tasks today. it s going to be a big one. sink your teeth into some egg, bacon and cheese and nod if you understand. good. you ve got spunk. a big day calls for the new big n toasty, with fried eggs, cherrywood-smoked bacon, and cheese, stacked high on thick texas toast. wrap your hands around one at dunkin . america runs on dunkin . grab a big breakfast with the new big n toasty sandwich from dunkin donuts. adam: we need a good night s sleep. kim: which means a little heat to keep us warm. and a good dose of support for my back. some over the top comfort couldn t hurt. and our perfect dream factory s been built. i m feeling sleepy already. nighty night. good morning. the rush hour in full force along i-95 and 395. may have something going on on the shoulder up here at shirlington. very heavy and slow for downtown. one more stop, the american legion bridge. visibility might be an issue so be careful. we re back with a i think my passion is misinterpreted as anger sometimes. i don t think people are ready for the message i m delivering with a sense of violent love. 7:30 now on this monday morning, the 28th of february 2011. that is charlie sheen opening up for his first morning show interview since two and a half men was scrapped for the season. i m meredith vieira in los angeles. i m matt lauer back in studio 1a in new york city. we ll hear more from charlie sheen, and it is candid stuff, straight ahead in this half hour. meredith? absolutely. also ahead, the stars brought their a game when it came to fashion at the oscars. we ll talk about the best and brightest looks of the night and the gang from the king s speech pay us a visit fresh off their golden night. we ll ep speak to them in a live ber view. we begin with more of the interview with charlie sheen. jeff rossen spoke to him. good morning again. reporter: good morning to you. this was a candid conversation. charlie sheen did not hold back at all, opening up about his drug use, his kids, violence, depression and his new war with cbs network executives who he claims are trying to destroy his family. the first question america wants to know, are you clean right now? look at me, duh. drug tests don t lie. reporter: when was the last time you did drugs? i don t know. score board doesn t lie. reporter: you said you cured yourself. yes. reporter: how have you done that? i closed my eyes and made it so with the power of my mind. i had to unload 22 years of fiction. just decided i don t believe that anymore. i know my own truth. that s what i stand on right now. reporter: what kind of fiction? the fiction of a.a. it s a silly book written by a broken down fool who was a plagiarist. they think it s one size fits all. it didn t fit me and i got tired of subscribing to something with a 5% success rate. as a retired gambler i need better odds than that. reporter: did you turn to alcohol and other substances because you were bored? no. i did that because they work. reporter: work to do what? just change the way you feel, change the way you see things. and yeah, when you re bored with certain aspects of life, yeah, i think that s why people do them. reporter: did you feel out of control a month or two ago? do you feel more in control now? of course. i don t know if i would call it out of control. just the choices i was making weren t leading to results i wanted. i woke up and said, dude, you re 45 with five kids. this thing is boring. i got bored. yeah. reporter: you went to rehab. first of all, you did in-home rehab. what is that first of all? we couldn t call it rehab so it was a crisis management center that we labeled it the sober valley lodge. reporter: your house? well, yeah. that s what it became. reporter: and we wouldn t allow a.a. to contaminate it. its primarily client achieved radical success. reporter: even if charlie sheen is clean damage has been done, damage at the plaza hotel in new york city when in october he allegedly went on a drunken rampage against a porn star inside his room. his kids were down the hall. and the conviction for assault in colorado in 2009. police say he held a knife to the throat of his now estranged wife brooke mueller. the judge ordered sheen to rehab. people have said you re violent toward women. what do you say to that? they don t know me and they weren t there. how much can they discuss a situation they were not involved in. it s just judgment and opinion and the gibberish of fools. reporter: you want to re dedicate yourself to being a dad. sure. reporter: are you embarrassed your kids will read about this one day? god no. talk about education. they re like, this, and that s the guy and that s our dad and we can get all our answers and the truth, wow, winning. that s how you perceive it. reporter: until last month sheen was winning as the highest paid actor in tv. are you insane? reporter: making nearly $2 million an episode on the hit sit-com, two and a half men. cbs halted production demanding charlie clean up his act. that s when sheen went on a rampage on the radio. you sound like thomas jefferson. i m not jefferson. he was a [ bleep ]. i dare anyone to bait me on things. debate me on a.a. right now. i had a disease? [ bleep ]. i cured it with my brain, many by mind. reporter: you called into radio shows. pretty passionate. reporter: some would say angry. passion. i think my passion is misinterpreted as anger sometimes. i don t think people are ready for the message i m delivering and delivering with a sense of violent love. reporter: it soon turned to hatred aimed at the cocreator, chuck lorre. it s nothing inside of deploed deplorable that a certain haim le vine, yeah, chuck s real name mistook this rock star for his own selfish exit strategy. last i looked i spent the last decade effortlessly and magically converting your tin cans into pure gold. bring it. reporter: you have been called an anti-semite. yes. no. i have never had that in my past. look as deep and as far as you want. it s not there because i m not that guy. no. that s silliness. reporter: cbs didn t see the humor and cancelled the entire rest of the season. you have told me you re at war now. definitely. reporter: what s the war? they re trying to destroy my family. so i take great umbridge with that. defeat is not an option. they picked a fight with a warlock. reporter: how are they trying to destroy your family? they are trying to take my money and leave we maime with ns to support my family. it s not rocket science. reporter: how do you intend to win the war? with zeal, focus and violent hatred. you love or hate. you live in the middle you get nothing. reporter: didn t cbs have a right to shut the show down? they are reading about you partying, taking drugs, abusing alcohol. it s their show. epic behavior. no. after reading about that they observed a guy hitting every mark, nailing every line, every joke with a full house screaming. reporter: ever miss a day of work? not a day that cost anybody any money. i missed practice. we re talking about practice. to call up the great alan iverson, practice. come on, guys, we re talking about practice. reporter: sheen and lorre haven t spoken since the shut-down but in the interview sheen wanted to address chuck lorre. what do you want to say to him? i have my questions right here. chuck is the only man in the known universe who can answer these and people are begging for an answer. number one, why is it when i was ready to return to work you told me, there are no scripts ready to shoot. that begs the question, what would we have shot had you not ordered suits into my home to shut down my party? reporter: you re saying he didn t write scripts to shoot a show? i can t speak for him. i think they warrant an explanation. clearly he didn t bring gum for everyone. okay? number two, why is it you issued a decree informing me that the remaining eight shows of season 8 had been reduced down to four? i don t recall getting a vote on this, by the way. stating as well that season 8, our highest rated season to date most shows are in decline and headed to will & grace ville was to halt production two weeks earlier than scheduled? you re the only man that can answer this. remind these people. number three, when you were toldle that the crew would suffer gravely as a result of your dictatoial laziness will you explain what you meant by, they are not my problem? i m sure 120-some-odd people would love to hear the answer to that. reporter: then he took out the alcoholics anonymous handbook and took another swipe at lorre and a.a. right here, chuck. if this is your handbook for living i direct your attention to page 417 you know what s coming. acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. when i am disturbed it is because i find some person, place, thing or situation, some fact of my life unacceptable to me and i can find no serenity until i accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. accept me, chuck. reporter: charlie sheen seems confident he ll stay sober without the written guidelines of a.a., but it s never come easy for him. a lot of fans are worried about you. they can worry all they want. that s for amateurs, come on. i m fine. i have always had a plan and executed it perfectly. sometimes i overshoot the mark, whatever. reporter: how do you avoid slipping into that again? i won t do it. i don t believe if i do something i have to follow a certain path. it was written for normal people. people that don t have tiger blood and adonis dna. reporter: strong people have relapsed, started using again. how do you avoid that? fools, trls, weak, defeated. they allowed defeat to be an option. i will not. i m not saying i will never have a glass of champagne or wine again. those are things you celebrate with. i have no interest in cocaine. reporter: what s next? how do you get a producer to use you after being let go? come wednesday morning they will rename it charlie brothers and not warner brothers. duh. winning. guys, imdb, right there, 62 movies and a ton of success. come on, bro, i won best picture at 20. i wasn t even trying. wasn t even warm. i have roman coppola with a script. david ward with major league 3. god is a bullet . reporter: you have offered? well, yeah. they are so excited i might be available because i haven t been for eight years. reporter: do you want to do tv or switch to movies exclusively? i will do both. i m a man of my word. i will finish the tv show. i will even do season 10, but at this point because of psychological distress, oh, my god, it s $3 million an episode. take it or leave it. everybody thinks i should be begging for my job back and everybody elsele will be begging me for my job back. that s how i roll. defeat is not on option. reporter: do you owe cbs an apology? they owe me a big one while licking my feet. people say i m insane. i have no interest in their opinions. ile really don t. i will live the way i want. i will live inside of every moment and they can just find the most comfortable chair in their small house and sit back and enjoy the show. reporter: we reached out to cbs and chuck lorre for comment. didn t hear back from either of them. cbs and warner brothers said they werele halting production based on sheen s statements, conduct and condition. tomorrow morning here on today more with our conversation with charlie sheen. you will hear about his new live-in girlfriends and why he calls them the godesses. plus, what was martin sheen s advice. charlie s surprising reaction when his dad weighed in. you can see he s candid, speaks his mind and that s the end of it. very unapologetic for sure. thank you very much. now a check of the weather fromr from al. thanks, meredith. as we check and show you what is happening as far as here out west, big news this weekend with snow here in southern california. we ve got another big storm coming on in here. we re talking about rain and snow and the puget sound into oregon. we re talking about rainfall amounts up to one to three inches of rain and snow in the mountains up to six to 12 inches of snow in the cascades, the inner mountain regions as well. looking at a risk of strong storms in the east, especially the mid mississippi river valley, could be isolated tornados, icy conditions in northern new england. the sunshine returns to southern california, 62 in los angeles. a little warmer than it s been. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. after overnight rain it s going partly sunny, a few breaks in the clouds. our temperatures around the region are generally in the 40s, now 48 at reagan national but we should rapidly warm up. as we go forward we ll have these showers and thunderstorms coming through our region, and those generally between 3:00 p.m. to as late as 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. some of those could produce damaging winds and perhaps hail. then much colder by dawn tomorrow. we ll be down in the mid-30s, sunny tomorrow with highs in the upper 40 don t forget, you can keep track of your weather all day long on cable, weather.com online. coming up, more on the academy awards from here in los angeles including hits and miss from the red carpet. first, these messages. good morning good morning [ male announcer ] there are sixteen fresh-picked oranges squeezed into each carton of tropicana pure premium and absolutely no space for added sugar, water or preservatives. tropicana we put the good in morning. and more. if you replace 3 tablespoons of sugar a day with splenda® you ll save 100 calories a day. that could help you lose up to 10 pounds in a year. that s how splenda® is sweet.and more. a fiber that dissolves completely, is clearly different. benefiber. it s the easy way to get more fiber everyday. that s the beauty of benefiber. this is mary. who has a million things to pick up each month on top of her prescriptions. so she was thrilled that her walgreens pharmacist recommended a 3-month supply and would always be there to answer questions about her health. now mary gets 3 refills in one and for 3 months, she s done. more or less. ask your pharmacist about a 90 day supply and get a free gift. walgreens. there s a way to stay well. we re back with more on last night s academy awards. co-hosts anne hathaway and james franco kicked the show off by poking fun at some of the nominees. i have good news from the future! microphones get smaller. we have assembled the crowd this morning. ann is in new york and meredith and al in los angeles. let s talk about the hosts. what did you think of james and anne? i personally thought they did a great job. they were not nervous at all which was impressive. they were funny, young. a lot of people are saying they didn t do a good job but i thought it was great. i liked them. james franco makes me laugh and so does anne hathaway. and he looks good in a dress. melissa leo won for best supporting actress and dropped the f-bomb on the air as ann does here. all the time. you know, that didn t sound like it was accidental to me. it sounded on purpose actually. what did you think? really. if you saw the role that was nothing. exactly right. what s funny is anne hathaway said, thank you for the material for the rest of the night. she was thrilled. what did you think of kirk douglas? the legend in hollywood coming out. what did you think of that moment, meredith? i thought it was touching. it was a little uncomfortable for a moment, but he was in great humor and when he wouldn t read the winner that was hysterical. that was really hysterical. you know it was great to see him. i agree. it was nerve wracking. you were hoping nothing bad happened. but he pulled it off in the end. billy crystal was great. tom hopper was great. it was fun to watch. we have a lot more coming up this morning. we ll see you in a couple of minutes. you got it. we ll talk to oscar winner colin firth. he ll join meredith and alive. first, these messages. 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[ female announcer ] exercise your right to breathe right. get two free strips at breatheright.com. hey, it s your right to breathe right! so, you got a chevy malibu. nice. a consumers digest best buy three years in a row. and an epa - estimated 33 miles per gallon highway. and what does your neighbor have? a bad case of car envy. 7:55 is our time right now. live picture out at ronald reagan washington national airport where the sun is up over the nation s capital and we re in store for something of a spring like day. that means warm and sunny weather but also possibility of severe storms. good morning. i m joe krebs. 7:56, monday, february 28. let s go to meteorologist tom kierein for a look at the forecast. after overnight showers we ve seen our clouds break up, we have some sunshine now breaking out. temperatures are in the mid and upper 40s to around 50 but they rapidly warm up today in the low 70s by early afternoon. then we could get strong storms this afternoon, 3:00 p.m. to programs as late as 8:00 this evening, some of those could produce damaging winds and hail, maybe an isolated tornado. windy and colder after that. thanks very much, tom. traffic is next. here s what we re working on for news4 at 5:00 tonight. tonight on news4 at 5:00, tossing out your tech trash. the three things you can do to get rid of your old cell phone and help the environment. we go behind the scenes at the oscars. the move that wil good morning everyone. i m jerry edwards in the news 4 traffic network. look at that, starting to see sun break through. that is affecting commute so we re having sunshine delays now off and on in from the west so be aware of that. let s head over to maryland along the 270 corridor, southbound from gaithersburg packed in tightly. the travel lanes are open. out on the rails, marc train, brunswick train 878 is running 10 minutes behind schedule. joe. thanks very much. we ll be back in 25 minutes. 8:00 now on a monday morning. it s the 28th day of february 2011. got to get me one of those. look at that. you ve got the oscar winners from last night. from the king s speech we have the actor, director and screenwriter. they are academy award winners. meredith and al will chat with them in just a couple of minutes. meanwhile here in new york where it s raining i m matt lauer. you all watched the academy awards last night? [ cheers ] meredith and al are out in los angeles indoors. i know you guys love this. you must have had a great time last night. it was so much fun. we are so proud of these guys. we loved this film from the first time we saw it. i m gliend eblinded by the glar oscars. lots of gold. we ll catch up with the gang from the king s speech. they haven t gone to sleep but they seem sober. so that s good. looks can be deceiving. of course. you can t talk about the oscars without mentioning the fashion. the stars sparkled on the red carpet. who shined the brightest? we ll have more on that also coming up. i had a busy night last night hitting some of the hottest after parties and sir elton john s big bash. our cameras were there. we ll bring it all to you. also ahead, with only 60 days to go until the royal wedding how is kate middleton holding up under the spotlight? we ll talk about that and some of the appearances she s made in the last couple of days. we ll get to that as well. meredith? first, as promised, oscar winner colin firth, director tom hooper and screen writer david seidler from the king s speech. thank you very much for joining us. we were saying in the break sometimes it s hard to be the front runner going into the oscars. in that moment when they say and the winner is the thought must go through your mind, it s not going to be us. absolutely. i could hear a little voice saying inception. what does it feel like for you guys, colin? has it sunk in? somebody referred to it as last night? earlier. exactly. i don t think it s quite this morning yet for most of us. yeah. people have asked what you think, what do you feel. i don t think the thought goes through your head just yet really. it is quite wonderful. hearing your own name read out really does sound like someone else s. out of body experience? particularly if you re not used to it. maybe if you re somebody who has the record for wins or something like that. but, you know, if you reach my age and you still haven t heard your name read out then it s not something it doesn t have a familiar ring. well, it sounded good. you said you were a late bloomer. very, very late. it s a little bit different. colin s been in the public eye and a major star and tom has had lots of awards. this came out of the blue for me. it s very strange. i haven t absorbed it yet. and it s a personal film for you because you grew up with a stammer and the king was an inspiration for you on a personal level. absolutely. something you believed in for a long time, wanting to write this story. i loved your speech, tom, yesterday when you talked about your mom and how she was the one who wanted you to read the story. she s australian, invited by australian friends in late 2007 to make up a token australian audience for a play reading of a play called the king s speech. she called me up and said, i think i found your next film. look at us now. is this a year, colin, where you see a number of films that actually are for adults? a great number of films that people of a certain age would be willing to see. yes. i don t know if i m the best judge because i don t get out much. i think people with small kids are not the biggest frequenters of the movie theater. i have seen toy story 3 and despicable me and high school musical 3 . but i actually managed to see most of these. i don t know if it s a special year or i just thought, what have i been mising? there s been some wonderful stuff. certainly in my category. i would have expanded the nominations to seven or eight people. you know, i think all the people in my category deserved the prize. i would have included robert duval, ryan gosling, sean penn. i looked around and this is a wonderful thing. i sometimes think it s a shame that it s a competition. can i have that? i promised i d polish it. you did! oh, wow. it s heavy, too. it was that easy to get an oscar. thank you. congratulations to you all. thanks for joining us this morning. now back to new york for a check on the top stories from ann. thank you very much. in the news, secretary of state hillary clinton and other diplomats are meeting to pressure moammar gadhafi to step down. on sunday secretary clinton said it is time for gaddafi to leave. today the european union said it will adopt sanctions. meantime, the international criminal court said it s started gathering information on civilian deaths during the libyan uprising. the white house condemned what it called an organized campaign by iran s government to intimidate opposition leaders and other activists on sunday. the national security council says that tehran is arresting political figure, students and journalists and jamming internet traffic. the u.s. and south korea started large scale war games today despite threats of war from north korea. 12,000 members of the u.s. military are taking part in the annual drills. president obama is dealing today with the crisis in libya and pressing money matters at home. we have chuck todd with the latest on the story. good morning. reporter: good morning. the president has a meeting today with the head of the united nations where the topic will be libya. the administration s posture now on all things having to do with the potential no-fly zone or anything in recognizing one of these opposition or rebellions. they are going to wait for united nations lead. so that meeting could lead to interesting news there. also, ann, the president is meeting with a group of bipartisan governors where the topic will be trying to figure out how to both jump start the economy and deal with the budget crisis that s affecting both the federal government and many state governments. ann? thanks, chuck todd. parents are overtreating childhood fevers according to a new report from the american academy of pediatrics. the report notes most fevers are caused by viruses and will go away without medicine. basketball hall-of-famer duke snyder died sunday at a hospital in southern california. known to dodgers fans as the duke of flatbush he was part of a golden era in new york city baseball in the 50s. he was 84 years old. and the awesome power of the sun provided magnificent images on sunday when a massive solar flare erupted for 90 minutes. it was pointed away from earth so it is not expected to interfere with electronic communications. now back to al with a check of the weather from los angeles. hey, al. news anchors, ann.n amazing images. let s look at what s going on. first of all our pick city of the day, here on the today show, happens to be billings, montana. nbc 8. 41 degrees. we ve got some really chilly stuff to talk about. we ve got those cold temperatures over the northern plains, in the western great lakes with 20s and 30s. warm down in southern florida, 80s there. 70s through the gulf coast. that s where we re going to see severe weather in the mid mississippi river valley, isolated tornados, rain, wind and snow in the pacific northwest, sunshine, temperatures moderating in los angeles, 62 today. and the cold windy weather continues along the western great lakes. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. sunshine now breaking out around the region, and temperatures are in the upper 40s to near 50 here but just a little to the south it s near 60. and that warm air will sweep in, we will likely make it in the low 70s to mid 70s by early afternoon. and then we ll have clouds rolling in from the west, producing some thunder and lightning and heavy downpours and maybe even isolated tornados possible from some severe thunderstorms 3:00 p.m. to as late as 8:00 p.m. after that gusty winds will bring in much cooler weather for and that s your latest weather. al, thank you very much. definitely lit up the show last night. our red carpet oscar fashion round-up is after this. 3 o clock. my daily meeting with a salty snack and then a 3:15, with my guilt. 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talk to your doctor. and go to cymbalta.com for a free 30-capsule trial offer. depression hurts. cymbalta can help. woohoo! whoa. haircolor is a chore no more! you gotta come see what s new. c mon! tadaaa! welcome to haircolor heaven. aa-ah-ahhh! courtesy of new nice n easy colorblend foam. permanent, dimensional color, now in a delightful foam! just three shakes, foam it, love it! simply saturate hair root to tip, front to back. with tones and highlights. it s foamtastic! home haircolor, make room for foam haircolor! new nice n easy colorblend foam. your right color. welcome back to los angeles and today at the oscars. natalie portman and colin firth may have taken home the oscars but which stars shined the brightest when it came to fashion? i was on the red carpet for a look at the tuxes and the gowns. how s our boy tonight? oh, good. mom s wearing red. that s why. he recognizes red. al roker! how are you? this is so cool. this must be a dream come true. it s beyond a dream come true. your bustle is fantastic. my boum. it doesn t worry that it s big. nothing worse than somebody stepping on your train. i have had it happen. you have? i never have. who are you wearing tonight? i m wearing a tuxedo. i can run but i can t hide. you can t hide. how do you feel? very grateful to you guys. i hear you have been cheering from the beginning. i think for the most part everybody looked good. who were you wearing, by the way? zanya. very nice. we have two experts to help rate the oscar fashion. julianna rancic worked the red carpet and is from e and hal rubenstein is the fashion director. good night for fashion? i think so. if you were waiting for the jaw-dropping moment like the swan dress from bjork or gorgeous ball gowns it didn t happen but hollywood s a-list women looked beautiful. it seemed like nudes, sparkles and sleek dresses were happening. the red carpet is coming closer to the runway. the stylists and actresses are paying attention to fashion. there is not as big a disconnect where the red carpet is a fantasy element. the huge expanse of 25-foot trains. a lot of the clothes you saw last night you could imagine a woman sitting at home saying, oh my gosh, i want reese s dress. i want a dress that looks like michelle williams. i could actually wear it. exactly. that s important because those clothes do generate sales when they hit. you call this the anne hathaway fashion show. she changed dresses eight times. eight times. she went from valentino the red dress. to givenchy, west wood, versace, and finished with tom ford. this is a girl who can truly wear clothes. you can see it in the spirit of her being a host. she was having a blast. the tux, i m sorry. i loved it. i think the tux is the new lbd. i want a tux for my next cocktail party. she was adorable. so sexy. one of my favorites was the red dress, but toward the end was each dress got 27 seconds. they were running out of time. oh, bring that back. that was good. a lot of young, fresh faces. hailee steinfeld. unbelievable. she s a 14-year-old girl and pop stars are young and show up looking like they are wearing mom s dress. whoever is putting her together between the marchesa she wore. that she helped design. she s putting herself together to some extent. she looked sophisticated but also like a kid, you know, in a good way. a princess. the little tea-length dress. she wore a great dress to the sag awards. look how winning she looks. definitely. what about 20-year-old jennifer lawrence s dress? a lot of people the commentary was it s baywatch read and t yes, it s a simple calvin dress. it s more intricate close up but frankly, she s 20 years old. i thought she was beautiful. i loved hit. she worked beautiful. especially in winter s bone. she wanted to come and really impress. she really did skewer squirrels. it looks great in person but not great to the audience at home. michelle williams. that dress, again, looked simple on the red carpet. i think everybody said demure. that chanel dress if you see it close up is an absolute marvel, a mastery. it s karl lagerfeld at his best. sometimes you have to let a dress grow on you like watch it over the course of the evening. when i saw mila kunis, i wasn t sure. by the end it was beautiful. we expected her to come in something dramatic like a big full skirt, long train. i loved this. it was simple but the color was stunning. i think the color got everyone s attention. that gorgeous lavender. it was very romantic, understated and beautiful. my only objection was it was cut a little bit too low and because of the lace on top at first i thought i did, too. again but when you saw it in person it was spectacular. on tv it looked like it should be up an inch. what about the over 30 crowd? halle berry? oh, gorgeous. come on. i wasn t arguing. the woman is flawless. she can do no wrong. 65 years old, vivienne westwood. you expect halle berry to show up but helen mirren has one of the most beautiful bodies in hollywood. she knows how to work it, too. she knows she s rocking. that s the point. she s a class act. do you know who looked great? gwyneth paltrow. i loved it. best dressed so far. we agree on that. sleek, modern and with the stick straight hair she looked incredible. it s great. that was calvin klein? there is a wonderful tan with the earrings. she sang and wore a fun collection from michael kors. all night long i thought it was a wonderful return for her to the oscars. how about helena bonham carter? i love her. her or her fashion? do you know, she s a pure british eccentric. she loves westwood. the dress was atwood. if she was there in calvin klein you would be so disappointed. that was safe for her, what she wore last night. this is a safer look for her. compared to the other dresses. to her credit that s the way she always it had a bustle. that s the way she always dresses. on camera, off. that s her look. what about cate blanchett? this is a dress you love or loathe. a lot of criticism happening over the dress. i think it s absolutely gorgeous. this is when a dress this givenchy dress goes from being a dress to art. this is a beautiful dress. she s not going to show up in halle berry s dress. i agree. it was funny. we were at the instyle event. the women swooned over it. the men looked at it and thought it was a wedding cake on its side. my husband couldn t bear to look. what the heck is that? i m sorry. i agree. i think the dress is amazing. overall it was a great night for fashion. it was a really good night. thank you very much. my pleasure. we ll have much more on the oscars ahead. first, these messages. 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[ female announcer ] plavix is not for everyone. certain genetic factors and some medicines such as prilosec reduce the effect of plavix leaving you at greater risk for heart attack and stroke. your doctor may use genetic tests to determine treatment. don t stop taking plavix without talking to your doctor as your risk of heart attack or stroke may increase. people with stomach ulcers or conditions that cause bleeding should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines, including aspirin, may increase bleeding risk, which can potentially be life threatening, so tell your doctor when planning surgery. tell your doctor all medicines you take, including aspirin, especially if you ve had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, reported sometimes less than two weeks after starting plavix. creme body wash with nutrium moisture. after 1 week we took their close-ups. when they saw how much more beautiful their skin looked they had only one question. new dove visible care creme body wash. introducing honey bunches of oats, raisin medley. there s nothing like it! the only cereal with 1, 2, 3 kinds of raisins and crunchy multigrain flakes. you gotta try new honey bunches of oats raisin medley. um, i thought this was going well for a first date. it is. look at your suckometer. oh, i just quit smoking, and the craving s really suck after a meal. okay. ding! [ male announcer ] quitting sucks. nicorette makes it suck less, doubling your chances of success. and just ahead from here in los angeles the post oscar buzz. al hit some of the town s hottest after parties. matt? all right, meredith. also ahead, new details on the royal wedding and how kate middleton is doing on her road to becoming a princess which happens in just 60 short days. first your local news and weather. 8:26. breaking news a plane that took off from reagan national airport just a short time ago made an emergency landing at dulles. continental flight 1554 was supposed to fly to houston. it s not clear what the emergency was but the plane did land safely. we ll bring you more details. good morning. i m eun yang. the other story is the weather. we could get severe storms later today. let s get right to tom. we do have sunshine now and that with the southwest breeze should warm us in the low 70s by early afternoon. then we could get strong storms 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. which could produce damaging wind and hail. small risk of a tornado. colder on tuesday. thanks, tom. your traffic is next. here is a look at what we re working on for tonight. tonight on ne news4 at 5:00 tossing out tech trash. the three things to get rid of your old cell phone and help the environment. we go behind the scenes at the oscars. the single move that will cut the drive time. my me time is when i thought i parked on level 2. or maybe 8? my me time is when there s a 10% chance of rain! 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[ male announcer ] the simple joy of a frappé. good morning. make sure good morning. paul ? oh, hey, charlene. what are you doing ? this is to help me with my online investing. i m so overwhelmed by jargon and trading tools and data that i need to get as much blood to my brain as possible, just to make sense of it all. touch the ball. whoa ! get sharebuilder from ing direct. hey, my headache s gone. 8:30 now on this monday morning, february 28, 2011. a rainy morning here in new york for these folks. give them gold stars for starting their day in rockefeller plaza. i m meredith vieira along with al roker in los angeles. matt and ann are back in new york. mr. roker is fresh from the oscars after parties. that s right. i dropped by some of the biggest parties of the night including sir elton john s impressive bash and the vanity fair party. coming up, we are going to take you all along for the ride. matt, ann? sounds like fun. lots to get to here. before we do you may have seen the pictures of beautiful children behind us here. quickly, what is this about? we are here to raise awareness about a disease. these children are all fighting it and this is our campaign to get the word out and raise awareness so no more children go undiagnosed. thanks for being here. good luck to you and your families. did a good job. you can see the foetraphs. we want to talk about what s coming up. we ve got a look at kate middleton, how she might be dealing with after following public outings and how she is dealing with becoming a princess, and also new latest buzz on the royal wedding. we have a live report from buckingham palace. also ahead eric is here, he s going to talk about using a latin condiment and he s going to make that with us for fish and rice and beef. and in case you missed it, more of our interview with charlie sheen, the two and a half men star opens up about what s going on in his life and career right now. when i say opens up, of course stunningly candid interview. we ve got more of that. let s go back out to los angeles. al has a check of the weather. hey, thanks a lot, matt. as we show you today we are looking at severe storms down through the southeast, some of these could spawn tornados where we re keeping an eye on that. more wet windy weather in the pacific northwest, with mountain snows, sunshine in the southwest, a little bit warmer in southern california. icy in new england. tomorrow we re looking at beautiful weather through the midwest, sunny, cool, mild through texas on into the southwest, the west continues wet from northern california into the pacific northwest with frigid conditions through the northern plains. stretching on through the great lakes. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. climbing out of the 40s into the 50s over the next hour or so, some sunshine, by noon time upper 60s, early afternoon low 70s. and then between 3:00 p.m. to as late as 8:00 p.m. we could get strong thunderstorms, some of which could produce damaging winds and hail, frequent lightning, heavy downpours and perhaps an isolated tornado. then strong winds out of the north and west later tonight. colder weather tuesday. sunny tomorrow. winds diminish by afternoon. on wednesday partly cloudy, highs mid-50s. turning chilly again on thursday. and don t forget you want to keep track of your weather all day long, check out the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. matt? all right, al. thank you very much. as we help these ladies celebrate their 80th birthday. happy birthday. when we come back, al takes us to some of the hottest post oscar parties. we ll check out the action. first this is today on nbc. and welcome back to los angeles and today at the oscars. if you stayed up and watched the show you may have missed a lot of excitement but not al roker. he went to some of the hottest after parties. some of the gorgeous elbows i have ever touched. the hottest ticket in town to the legendary vanity fair bash and sir elton john s academy awards viewing party. a supermodel. what are your party plans tonight? we ll start with elton, the vanity fair party and you have to end at madonna s. at madonna s? i didn t get that invitation. i m going home to see my kids. i like to go home while it s still enjoyable. oh, that was a great evening. why do you like coming to the party? it s fun. just going to kick back. does elton know how to throw a bash? it s always the best event in town. you feel like you are supporting an incredible cause and at the same time having an incredible time. there is a lot to be excited about. we watched the oscars, eat, drink, have fun a little bit. did you think when you started this, elton, 19 years later you would still be doing it? we never thought so. we raised $300,000 in the first one and thought we were kings of the world. i ll probably be doing it in 10, 15 year ifs i m still here. one of the people who was so ahead of the cause, elizabeth taylor is ailing. it s her birthday and she was a big supporter early on. without elizabeth we wouldn t be doing this. she got us all off our backsides and was the forerunner of all of this. i can t tell you how much i love her, how much she means to me. i m sorry she s sick. i hope she gets better. she s a fighter. she s been down before. don t ever count elizabeth out. she s one hell of aly di. for the first time since doing this you left your baby home. he s coming by at about 7:30 backstage and i can say good night to him. that s great. after stopping at the aids foundation party, a lot of the stars make their second stop, vanity fair s party at the sunset tower. this is definitely the party to go to. awards season is done. now we can just enjoy. i m ready to party. are you kidding? this is unbelievable. thank you. who is this? i don t know. you know, i don t care. i m wearing mrs. social. it snowed here. is it warm in there? it is. i love this place. good seeing you both. what are you expecting in there? the usual. melissa leo dropping the f bomb was lovely. i have the mouth of a sailor. good luck. this will be fun. if i could i would be in sweatpants right now. the official dress here. jennifer hudson, looking spectacular. of course keep people off the back of jennifer s dress. there he goes. it s a dirty job, but somebody s got to do it. by the way, meredith, in his 19 years, elton john s aids foundation raised $20 million in research for aids. first time out it was $300,000 and he thought he was king of the world. i don t know and i don t care? sofia s dress i i i i she said it was a mystery. there was very little left. up next, how is kate middleton doing as she prepares to be a princess in 60 days. first this is today on nbc. [ male announcer ] new inventory. new equipment. new trucks. new hires. new space. new markets. achievement seizes new opportunity. go to pnc.com/cfo to see how we can help your cashflow situation. pnc. for the achiever in us all. we re back at 8:42 with the countdown to the royal wedding just 60 days away. prince william and kate middleton made their first official appearances since their engagement last week. how is kate doing as she prepares to become a princess? nbc s keith miller is at buckingham palace. good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. well, in fact, the reviews came in over the weekend and kate middleton scored a 10 on her debut as a princess in waiting. all the right moves at just the right times. accepting flowers with grace, passing out compliments with ease. kate middleton and her prince were a big hit with the british public during their first public appearances following their engagement. making a splash at a lifeboat dedication in wales. [ cheers and applause ] reporter: to a reunion at st. andrews university in scotland. middleton never missed a step. this flipped camera view put us all on the receiving line. hello! oh, my goodness. reporter: the official guest list of the wedding has not been made public by the palace but this weekend the butcher, mailman and pub owner in middleton s home village all allowanced they were invited. the palace did reveal the queen would prefer the public use kate s given name, catherine. this is a special moment for catherine and me. it feels like coming home. reporter: prince william calls his bride to be catherine, but the press seems unlikely to call her by any other name. and the british press is starting to make comparisons to william s mother, diana, princess of wales. there is diana s engagement ring now on kate s finger. both wore blue outfits to show off the luster of the diamond and sapphire ring, but william says there is no pressure on kate to fill his late mother s shoes. people will in many respects compare her with william s mother. and there will be an expectation that she will undertake a full share offal royal duty. reporter: now that william is taken people are asking what about prince harry, who will be the best man at the wedding? his off and on girlfriend chelsea davy was back in the spotlight this weekend attending a society wedding with kate middleton s younger sister pippa. she s been spotted around london in royal circles. seen leaving a nightclub with her prince. leading to speculation that she will be on prince harry s arm for the royal wedding. the palace won t comment on prince harry s private life and won t say who will or will not be on his arm on wedding day, but the palace did reveal to us, matt, that kate middleton and prince william will be making more public appearances before their wedding day. matt? keith miller at buckingham palace for us this morning. keith, thank you very much. martin bashear is the host of the martin bashear show which premiers today. great to see you. are you as crazy about this as we are? are you marking the days on your calendar? america has gone royal nuts. the king s speech last night, the royal wedding. everybody is excited. i was in britain and there is not as much enthusiasm. why sit at home it isn t as big a deal as it is here? in britain we have been close to the royal family and have seen marriage failure. prince andrew, prince charles, the princess royal princess ann. therefore it s hard to imagine that another fairy tale will work. but in this case i think we have reason to be omt mptimistic. i think the americans have it right. this is a relationship that has been developing, is being shaped properly and she s being very, very well prepared for these public responsibilities. yet it seems to me that the strategy so far, martin, is less is more. they are not putting her out there all the time. a couple of appearances last week. keith said there will be a couple more, but they are not making her available everywhere. good idea? they learned bitter experience from diana. 1981 she gets engaged and walks out of the engagement party, goes back to her apartment followed by 300 journalists. she was never given any preparation for the role. suddenly, remember, there are 11 national daily newspapers in london. each has at least two royal correspondents. right. they were across her immediately. do you know after the engagement involving kate and william some reporters thought she d gone overseas. she was that invisible. in 1995 you sat down with princess diana for a remarkable interview sad at times. she talked about the pressure of the media. so what is the lesson that kate can learn from her experience? one of the first things she said in that interview was nobody prepared me. i had no preparation for this role. and what they had done with kate middleton is they have given her videos. they have been through coaching sessions. they have explained the effect of the media. and also more importantly they have given her a royal protection officer. remember, she s living in a remote place in the united kingdom. she s not in kensington where princess diana was. she s on the north wales coast. one of the things that s been released is some of the guest list. from kate s hometown some of the people included there the butcher, the postman, the deli owner. sounds like the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. but down to earth, everyday people. what does that tell us about kate middleton and her family? it s interesting. kate middleton s parents booked the goring hotel. it s about 500 yards from buckingham palace. they booked the entire hotel. they are inviting friends, local people who are coming to the wedding but who have not been invited to breakfast with the queen. they will host them. that tells you that this is a family that s trying desperately to cling onto relationships they have in their immediate environment. the other thing it tells you is, remember, when diana got married her parents divorced when she was 7. she d been through a terrible adolescence of bulimia and anorexia nervosa. kate s parents have been married 30 years. this is a secure, loving basis for the responsibilities for which kate is soon going to come into. 60 days to go. we continue to cross off the days but we don t have to cross off the days until the debut of your show. you re a genius. i can t wait to see it. thank you very much. that airs today at 3:00, martin s show on msnbc. up next, delicious uses for is savory latin spice, safrito. first this is today on nbc. [ computerized voice ] do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? [ beep ] [ beep ] [ whirring ] [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] when did customer service go from above and beyond to just under and short? the world seems to be moving in one direction. we decided not to follow. this morning, cooking step by step puerto rico style. chef eric rippert of le bernardin from here in new york city joins us. good morning. what is sofrito? sofrito in spain is just garlic, tomato anden i don t know. in puerto rico it s garlic, pepper, onion. in santa domingo it s more complex. you re making an adaptation of sofrito. i understand it s hard to get some of the peppers in the united states you can get in puerto rico. some you cannot find. in this part of the united states. exactly. what are we making? we are going to wet some onions like that. sweat them you mean saute them briefly? saute the onion. we have nice peppers. of course, garlic. followed with some jalapeno. and sofrito is versatile. you can use it for a lot of things. absolutely. when it s cooked it becomes like that. mm-hmm. sometimes you can freeze it and make ice cubes and keep it in the fridge. that s a modern twist on this. traditionally they would mince these up or mash them up with a mortar and pestle, right? yes, but nobody does that anymore because we have those machines. we are going to put it inside and what we are going to do is a sofrito butter. sofrito butter will be able to go on the fish, cook quickly. i will turn this down so you don t have to we put the butter inside like that and we have to be cautious with these machines. so the quinconsistency, you looking at butter here. right. this is the finished product. butter, salt, pepper. and then can i taste it before we put it on? go ahead. it s really good. delicious. i was supposed to eat that raw, right? that s all right? we ll see in an hour. so we are brushing the snapper and the fish will go in the prebuttered platter like that. we are going to put a little bit of water so it will steam a little bit. and the butter is protecting the flesh so it won t be too dry. when you say a little water you mean to coat the bottom of the glass pan. yes. we are going to put it in the oven. how long will it cook? 400 degrees, about ten minutes. okay. when it comes out, you see snapper is a fish that gets nice and flaky. oh, yes. it s a beautiful fish. when it comes out it s like that. we just have to plate it. so it s fairly easy. you re plating it with sweet potatoes. we have two colors here. the orange and yellowish. we are going to plate for presentation and so on. you can go more rustic if you want. what s in the sauce? we ll put in sofrito like that. that will flavor the sauce. we ll add lime juice. whisk it. whisk it not whiskey. whiskey would be a nice add. that crossed my mind. then you just have to sauce. it s a very light broth. it was a chicken stock, but very, very flavorful because of the sofrito, of course. just to show its versatility, the sofrito, you can add the sofrito butter to rice and you have made a beef dish as well. it s a typical puerto rico dish for winter. eric rippert, a pleasure to have you. how do you feel? so far so good. 8:56. we are following breaking news. a plane that took off from reagan national airport made an emergency landing at dulles because of engine failure. flight 1559 was supposed to fly to houston this morning. a short time later there was a report that its engine failed. the plane landed safely at dulles, we ll bring you more details as they become available. we re also expected to get big storms later today. let s get to tom kierein for the latest. good morning. good morning. we ll have these temperatures in the 40s all morning quickly climb into the 60s by noon time, low 70s early afternoon. then we ll have the possibility of strong storms, 3:00 p.m. to as late as 8:00 p.m. some of which could produce damaging winds and hail, heavy downpours, lightning and maybe even an isolated tornado. that would be 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. cooler tomorrow. thanks, tom. stay with us. traf hey, what are you drinkin ? i m drinkin dunkin . coffee black, straight up. extra cream, three sugars. iced coffee french vanilla. for me. iced coffee with a turbo shot. i m drinkin dunkin . i m drinkin dunkin . i m drinkin dunkin . drinkin dunkin . america runs on dunkin coffee. good morning. i m jerry edwards in the traffic network. authorities dealing with a crash on the beltway south of town, this is the outer loop of the beltway near the eisenhower avenue connector. one right lane gets by. delays begin back in springfield. also activity, 66, eastbound right before the beltway. be careful out there. thanks, jerry. tonight, the single move that will cut d we are back now with more of today on a monday morning, the last day of february, 2011. the morning after hollywood s biggest party of the year. let the monday morning quarterbacking begin. we ll check out the red carpet trends and the hits and misses from the gowns to the hair to the awards handed out. there were awards handed out. exactly. inside studio 1a in new york i m matt lauer along with natalie morales. meredith and al are in los angeles where they have been soaking up the atmosphere. good morning. hey. soaking up a lot of other stuff. exactly. you really haven t gone to sleep. i had a 45-minute nap. but i tell you, it was fun. it was a great night. big night in hollywood. natalie portman, colin firth took home the oscars for best performances. the king s speech wrapped up the royal hat trick grabbing best original screenplay, director and best picture. going to take a look at those who went home with the gold who mayle still be out partying for all we know. that s right. and the winners of the red carpet. a lot of stars kept it elegant and simple when it came to gowns, accessories and hair. we ll see what the critics thought. we ll check in with you in a second. we ll have more including more of the revealing conversation with charlie sheen. just when we thought he couldn t shock more, this morning his first morning interview since production stopped for his show. a little exercise ith the in the form of a costume parade on sunday. the event is part of the lead-up to brazil a little exercise in the form of a costume parade on sunday. the event is part of the lead-up toin the form of a costume para on sunday. the event is part of the lead-up to carnivale costume parade on sunday. the event is part of the lead-up to carnivale this weekend. even a on sunday. the event is part of the lead-up to carnivale this weekend. even a rooster got event is parp to carnivale this weekend. even a rooster got in onlead-up to carnivale this weekend. even a rooster got in on the lep to carnivale this weekend. even a rooster got in on the to carnivale this weekend. even a rooster got in on the fun. carnivale this weekend. even a rooster got in on the fun. and carnivale this weekend. even a rooster got in on the fun. and gnomeo &en a rooster got i fun. and gnomeo & juliet came in g fun. and gnoo & juliet came in the fun. and gnomeo & juliet came in pass at the box office this and unknown. it s one of the weekends where people were seeing the movies for the academy awards they hadn t seen. probably a big jump next weekend. ann, thanks. now to los angeles for a check . that s right. hey guys. as we look, this weekend on saturday there was snow in burbank. crazy. folks going nuts. but now we ve got severe weather in the southeast and mid-atlantic, we have severe thunderstorm watches from mississippi all the way up into western pennsylvania, through this afternoon. as a system makes its way to the east, we bring in warm air, cold air behind it. we ve got flood watches from missouri all the way to massachusetts, besides those tornado watches, one to three inches of rain from nashville into beckley, west virginia, a half inch to an inch of rain up in new york city, icy conditions up in boston. that s what s going on around the country. here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. sunshine, temperatures now climbing into the 50s, and we now have a tornado watch in effect for into the afternoon hours including most of virginia, the district of columbia, the counties in maryland, charles, prince george s, montgomery, howard, frederick and carroll counties for the possibility of some strong thunderstorms that may be producing tornados, and the temperature right now 53, ought to hit low 70s by early afternoon. the greatest threat time for severe storms is 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. cooler tomorrow. and that s your latest weather. natalie? all right, al. thank you. today at the oscars, the red carpet round-up. hollywood s best and most beautiful sashayed down the red carpet. al had the front row seat to the fashion. i sure did. the weather may have been on the cool side in l.a. last night, but a lot of celebrities brought the hotness with their sizzling looks. al, my man! al roker! this is so cool. this must be a dream come true. it s beyond a dream come true. your bustle is fantastic. my bum is big. there is nothing worse than someone stepping on your train. you have had it happen? never. who are you wearing tonight? i m wearing a tuxedo. i can run but i can t hide. you can t hide. how do you feel? very grateful to you guys. i hear you have been cheering from the beginning. from where i was standing, there were a lot of hits and only a few misses. yeah. i really can t say there were too many misses, al. with us now with more on the oscar night trends we are joined by today and us weekly s jill martin. an t jonathan antin is a hair stylist. you think it was respectful? right. this isn t the golden globes where you show up and it s a party. this is the hugest night in hollywood. there were a lot of hits and few misses. it was elegant, bold. i thought it was just beautiful. jonathan, you also felt everything was a win? i thought everyone really looked great. everyone really stepped up to the plate. you know, especially compared to the globes, everybody looked classic, beautiful and timeless. great hair. let s talk about the trends you saw. a lot of sparkle. a lot of sequins. we saw pales, reds. what did you think of the trends last night? well, first of all, a lot of metallic. gwyneth paltrow in calvin klein, absolutely gorgeous. she was my best dressed of the night. great hair. and hilary swank. feathers. i guess the black swan trend. i didn t love that but hailee steinfeld drew her dream dress and marchesa made it. a huge hit. we saw sequins but it was understated in nudes. at the golden globes it was bold color. angelina jolie wore that green gown. this was more understated. the big hits of the night, halle berry is always beautiful. this dress seemed like she was coming out of the clouds. it was stunning. she was beautiful in the nude sequinned dress from marchesa. very simple. very minimal jewelry. i thought it was interesting. you see just the drop earrings on her. everyone in almost a million dollars worth of jewelry but it was understated. jonathan, wearing the pixie cut. her hair is incredible. last time we talked about needing to throw in a weave but i love it short. no one wears short hair like halle berry. let s look at hailee steinfeld. you thought for a 14-year-old, completely age appropriate and stunning. you said marchesa was the designer? she drew the dress. designed it herself. she was so well spoken, looked like a princess. it was totally age appropriate. she looks 14. and she looked like a princess in the tea length dress. her hair was incredible. just that classic. chignon. just a back bun, really simple. not over upstaging anyone or overplaying it. just young and beautiful. i love the length of the dress. so age appropriate as well. let s talk about jennifer lawrence, speaking of age appropriate as well. young 20-year-old. just very simple but completely stole the red carpet. the hottest hair of the night. i mean such great i always say babed out. she had the beautiful long babed out hair. i loved it. she looked incredible. baywatch babe in the calvin klein dress and she came early. she didn t want to be upstaged by the bigger stars. but a lot of people are critical of the dress saying it was so simple. she looked so elegant. you don t need anything more with a beautiful girl. she was unbelievable. everything s cool. the future of hollywood. let s look at them. both nominated and incredible talent and gorgeous on top of that. amy adams. you loved the look? the hair, jonathan? she does this pretty regularly. these sort of loose veronica lake-style finger waves. it works with her hair color. i think it s a great look on her. i m a fan of the classic finger wave, especially at the oscars. i love the dress, but i didn t love it with the necklace. beautiful dress, beautiful necklace. that navy sequinned dress but i thought it was too much. competing a bit. then we have sandra bullock in the beautiful bright red. what did you think? old hollywood. red lipstick. lots of red on the red carpet. that was the trend of the night. she s just beautiful but said, i m freezing. it was cold. she looked beautiful in red. her face looked great, her hair. clean, back and tight. she just really looked sharp and together. old hollywood. you know, natalie portman stole the award last night as everyone expected she would. how did she do when it came to the dress. rodarte designed for black swan. everyone asked who she would wear and that was a tribute to the film. the dress is really a maternity dress, with the empire waist. she s due in june but said on the red carpet i m ready to go home, put my feet up. put on the sweat pants. she s done at this point. i thought she was beautiful. the oscar for best hair and best overall look was natalie portman s style. and a beautiful speech as well. i loved the way it was pulled back on one side with her beautiful earring matching the dress. full on the other side. we re not done yet. jill martin and jonathan antin stand by. more next half hour on the least favorite and superlatives you will hand out as well. coming up next, charlie sheen on his drug use, his two girlfriends he calls goddesses and why he s at war with the show s producer coming up after this. announcer ] imagine the possibilities with stelara®. for adults, stelara® helps control moderate or severe plaque psoriasis with 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. in a medical study, 7 out of 10 stelara® patients saw at least 75% clearer skin at 12 weeks. and 6 out of 10 patients had their plaque psoriasis rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and increase your risk of infections. some serious infections require hospitalization. before starting stelara®, your doctor should test for tuberculosis. stelara® may increase your risk of cancer. always tell your doctor if you have any sign of infection, or have had cancer. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. serious allergic reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you or anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine. with 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses, it s stelara®. after 2 starter doses, introducing honey bunches of oats, raisin medley. there s nothing like it! the only cereal with 1, 2, 3 kinds of raisins and crunchy multigrain flakes. you gotta try new honey bunches of oats raisin medley. and then a 3:15, with my guilt. [ female announcer ] new special k cracker chips. 27 crispy chips. 110 delicious calories. mmmmmmm.good meeting. same time tomorrow? [ female announcer ] find them in the cracker aisle. i see a bag and think. i could have a chip. yeah right. that s why they re called chips? [ female announcer ] new special k cracker chips. 27 crispy chips. 110 delicious calories. another cracker chip? don t mind if i do! [ female announcer ] find them in the cracker aisle. back now with more on em battled actor charlie sheen who s speaking out in his first morning show interview since cbs put his hit show on old. nbc s jeff rossen sat down with him. good morning. good morning. i sat down with charlie sheen, met his twin boys and his new girlfriends that s right, two of them. he calls them goddesses. they live under the same roof with him. we talked about his drug abuse, plans to stay clean and what kind of example he says he s setting for his kids. the first question america wants to know, where you clean right now? look at me, duh, drug tests don t lie. reporter: when was the last time you did drugs? i don t know. score board doesn t lie. reporter: you said you cured yourself. yes. reporter: how have you done that? i closed my eyes and made it so with the power of my mind. reporter: you went to rehab. first of all, you did in-home rehab. what is that first of all? we couldn t call it rehab so it was a crisis management center that we labeled it the sober valley lodge. well, yeah. your house? uldn t allow a.a. to we contaminate it. as a result, its primarily client achieved radical success. reporter: you told me you want to rededicate yourself now to being a dad. sure. reporter: are you embarrassed that your children will read about this one day? god no. talk about an education. this, this is our dad and we can get the answers and the truth? wow. winning. that s how you perceive it. reporter: until last month sheen was winning as the highest paid actor in tv. are you insane? reporter: making nearly $2 million an episode on the hit sit-com, two and a half men. cbs halted production demanding charlie clean up his act. that s when sheen went on a rampage on the radio. you sound like thomas jefferson. i m not thomas jefferson. he was a [ bleep ]. but i dare anyone to debate me on things. debate me on a.a. right now. i had a disease? [ bleep ]. i cured it with my brain, with my mind. i m cured. i m done. reporter: cbs didn t see the humor and cancelled the season. you told me you re at war with them now. what s the war? the war is they are trying to destroy my family. so i take great umbridge with that. defeat is not an option. they picked a fight with a warlock. reporter: how are they trying to destroy your family? they are trying to take my money and leave me with no means to support my family. it s not rocket science. reporter: how do you plan on winning that war? with zeal, focus and violent hatred. you love or hate. you live in the middle you get nothing. reporter: didn t cbs have a right to shut the show down? they are reading about you partying atle all hours of the night, taking drugs, abusing alcohol. it s their show. epic behavior. no. after reading about that they observed a guy hitting every mark, nailing every line, every joke with a full house screaming. reporter: ever miss a day of work? not a day that cost anybody any money. i missed practice. we re talking about practice. to quote the great alan iverson, practice. come on, guys, we re talking about practice. reporter: charlie sheen seems confident he ll stay sober without the written guidelines of a.a. but it s never come easy for him. a lot of fans are worried about your health. they can worry all their life. that s for amateurs. no, come on. i m fine. i have always had a plan and executed it perfectly. sometimes i overshoot the mark. whatever. reporter: how do you avoid slipping into that again? i don t know. i just won t do it. i will not believe if i do something i have to follow a certain path because it was written for normal people. people that aren t special. people that don t have tiger blood and adonis dna. reporter: strong people have relapsed, started using again. fools. trolls. weak. defeated. they allowed defeat to be an option. i will not. i m not saying you know, i m not saying i will never have a glass of champagne or wine again. i have no interest in cocaine. reporter: what s next for you? how do you convince a movie producer to take you back on the set after being let go from the sit-com on cbs? well, first of all, come wednesday morning they are going to rename it charlie brothers, not warner brothers. duh. winning. it s not convincing anybody. reporter: do you owe cbs an apology? no. they owe me a big one, publically, while licking my feet. if people think i m insane or what i m saying isn t true, i have no interest in their opinions. i really don t. i m going to live my life, win inside every moment and they can just find the most comfortable chair in their small house and sit back and enjoy the show. charlie sheen speaking his mind. we reached out to cbs and chuck lorre for comment. didn t hear back from them. last week cbs and warner brothers said they were halting production based on sheen s, in their words, statements, conduct and condition. now tomorrow morning on today more of the conversation with charlie sheen. you will hear about his new live-in girlfriends and why he calls them the goddesses and what he s saying about martin sheen s advice about this. charlie s surprising reaction when his dad weighed in. that s tomorrow here on today. thank you, jeff. coming up, a recap on who went home with the gold and talk coming[ female announcer ]went we invited real women to try new dove visible care creme body wash with nutrium moisture. after 1 week we took their close-ups. when they saw how much more beautiful their skin looked they had only one question. new dove visible care creme body wash. combine two pounds of potatoes and some cooking oil with a packet of hidden valley ranch, and we have a side dish that might just upstage the main ranch potatoes. 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[ male announcer ] kids take play seriously. nourish it. quaker chewy the goodness of whole grains, no high fructose corn syrup and 25% less sugar than the leading sweet snacks. coming up, much more from los angeles including fashion hits and misses. nd we ll look at the trends from the gowns to hair to accessories. first, you local news and weather. i decided to pack, um, a chobani for a snack. i went to get my chobani and someone stole it! i had my suspicions. and i never get chicken, i always get fish. you know, it s the quiet ones you have to look out for. you look like you eat a lot of protein. so i found a super secret hiding place. and i outsmarted them all. chobani. rich and creamy yogurt, with only natural ingredients. share your story at chobani.com and this is the warm fresh baked taste. of a strawberry toaster strudel. see the difference? pillsbury toaster strudel. the one kids want to eat. 9:26. most of our viewing area is now under a tornado watch. let s get to meteorologist tom kierein for details. good morning. nothing threatening the immediate metro area but in a few hours it may. tornado watch all of these in yellow, prince george s, montgomery, arlington, fairfax and charles and west, we have a line of storms now coming in to western maryland, highlands of west virginia, some indication of a little circulation and isolated cells along the line could have very strong gusty winds, could have some of the wind gusts over 70 miles per hour from thunderstorms this afternoon. and before then we ll climb into the low 70s. any storminess should be dissipating tonight. colder tomorrow. thanks, tom. your traffic is up next.