Transcripts For WRC Today 20110427 : vimarsana.com

britain s armed forces hold a full walk-through to prepare for the event today, wednesday, full walk-through to prepare for the event today, wednesday, april 27, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. welcome to a special split edition of today on a wednesday morning. i m matt lauer in new york. as you heard, meredith made her way to london s trafalgar square. good morning. hey, matt. good morning to you. the square will be filled with thousands of people on friday. you can see behind me big ben and westminster abbey where the couple will be married. 5,000 members of the military did a full dress rehearsal this morning along with the rolls royce kate will take to the abbey and the carriage the royal couple will take back once they are married if it doesn t rain. that was the open carriage. the marching bands were there but didn t play music. in half an hour the royal air force will practice the flyover it will do after the kiss. it will fly over buckingham palace. that rehearsal will take place at an air force base about an hour from here. meanwhile, what s up with kate and william driving themselves to london? that happened yesterday? kate was going from her family home through london. her sister was with her. where is the security for them? what s with kate s hair? the up-do? is that a hint of the way she ll wear it on the big day? those are pressing questions, matt, that i know you want answered. i ll help you get to the bottom of them. imagine if you re the guy on the side of the road when kate middleton asks for directions to london. that would make your week. i know. crazy. we ll talk to you in a second, meredith. thank you very much. we re going to have more on the breaking news out of afghanistan where coalition forces were gunned down by an afghan military officer at the airport in kabul. nbc s pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski has the latest. mick, what do we know? it was on a military side of the kabul airport and u.s. military and, in fact, afghan sources tell us that it involved an altercation of some kind with an afghan pilot, an experienced pilot with 20 years of military service. whatever the argument was about, the afghan pilot allegedly pulled a weapon of some sort, opened fire, killing at least six coalition members. the numbers here are sketchy. we do have confirmed that one american was killed, at least three other americans were killed, but, in fact, there are other reports out this morning that all six of the coalition members killed were americans. the pilot himself was shot to death by other afghan forces, matt. this hasn t happened since 2009. there were 21 such incidents involving a member of the afghan security forces opening fire on coalition forces. i think 42 have been killed. this is supposed to be a situation where these groups work side by side. there is supposed to be a level of trust and that s not the case now. reporter: a high level of trust. when you are walking in the battlefield side by side with another afghan soldier with a weapon, you have to have a believe he s not going to turn the weapon on you. unfortunately, that s not the case. i have stood outside the training centers and seen lines of ragtag recruits. you have to wonder which is the enemy. compounding that fact is because many of them are illiterate they have no documentation, birth certificates and the like. it is impossible to tell if they are friend or foe. jim miklaszewski at the pentagon this morning. as always, thank you very much. the powerful storms that rocked a big section of the nation s midsection this week are expected to intensify today. that could spell more trouble for storm-weary states like arkansas. eric fisher is in west memphis with the latest. good morning to you. reporter: good morning, matt. it s groundhog day again across the south. how many times can we wake up to damage like this. roofs sheared off. the main boulevard in memphis. tree limbs down. more severe storms are rumbling this morning. it s not over by a long shot. yeah. it s all the way. reporter: this has become an all too common sight this month. tuesday from texas to tennessee, twisterers through the south and midwest. [ sirens ] reporter: in texas, sirens blared as the skies opened up, dropping funnel clouds like this one. amazing. reporter: severe weather rocked mississippi where violent winds tossed heavy debris and created something of a dust storm. it s not looking good. reporter: in gould, arkansas, two storm chasers were trapped in their car by the hail. heard a big crack. reporter: further north in michigan, nine people were struck by lightning during a youth soccer practice leaving behind a piece of scorched earth. one person was seriously injured. we heard a really big bang and then we heard people yelling. reporter: in southeast missouri an earthen levee oozing water in 30 places is all that stands between the rising black river and the residents of poplar bluff. this is bad. reporter: likely to get worse. 1,000 homes in the small town south of st. louis have been evacuat evacuated. hundreds spent the night in shelters. we still have our lives. that s what we ve got to be thankful for. reporter: more than a foot of rain has fallen in missouri in the past four days. the mississippi and ohio rivers are rising quickly and are expected to spread widespread flooding this week. rkansas where the death toll from monday s twisters reached ten, the sounds of cleanup. i have my crew here working. my family s helping.s neighborsd neighbors begin to rebuild. after more than 30 tornadoes ripped through four states on monday. leaving behind memo hries of an unforgettable april with tornadoes numbering nearly 300. we ll take it one step at a time, do the best we can. reporter: more storms will be arriving here shortly. heavy rain in southern arkansas now. the main focus today is central eastern tennessee, north georgia, alabama and mississippi. more tornadoes are expected. the sun comes out tomorrow but the flooding story isn t going anywhere. the mississippi river down the street from me won t crest until early to mid may. it may be one of the top three highest crests ever on record. matt? al s upstairs at the weather center. i know you are concerned about what the systems could deliver today. the reason we have seen the record-setting april and normally we would get this tornado count in may. we have had four things happen. we have a la nina year pushing down the jet stream, making a warmer than normal gulf. so we have rich moisture coming in. that s energy. we have an enhanced jet stream pushing south and movinging through the mississippi river valuelely and cooler than normal temperatures from canada comb e combining with energy created this situation. we have a frontal system moving into the warm air. tornadoes from louisiana into kentucky. heavy rain falling with the system. rainfall amounts, we have a risk of strong storms. a high risk of storms right now throughout parts of north eastern mississippi, alabama into northwestern georgia. this is where we are looking for the highest risk of long track storms. tornadoes that stay on the ground for a long time. we are looking at anywhere from three to five inches of rain. the other part of the story is flooding. we have flood watches and warnings stretching from texas all the way into central new york. we are not out of the woods yet. the next 24 hours will be very dangerous. matt? we ll get your local forecasts in a moment. first, back to meredith in london. matt, thank you very much. as the countdown to the royal wedding hits two days the couple has arrived in london. this morning traffic was brought to a standstill as members of the military held a full dress rehearsal at 5:00 a.m. today natalie morales has details from westminster abbey. good morning. reporter: good morning, meredith. as erp seeing final glimpses of prince william and kate middleton before the big day when they talk down the aisle on friday, it was all about the full dress rehearsal. we saw horses, carriages, the full royal treatment. at westminster abbey, streets were blocked off this morning for the horses and carriages that rehearsed the ceremonial presentation. members of the military practiced marching the entire route but without the massive crowds expected on friday. thousands of trees and flowers that will adorn the abbey have been delivered, many chosen by kate middleton herself. i suggested from the beginning that we would use things from the royal estates and prince william spoke with her majesty who was delighted to supply these things. reporter: a quick glimpse of the bride to be, kate middleton, leaving her family home with her sister pippa. kate behind the wheel, headed for london according to dup. it could be the last time we see her before she appears in a wedding gown on friday. the groom, too, left the middleton home and headed to london to get ready for his big day. with all the final details in place, the wedding guests are getting themselves ready. prince charles wife camilla was spotted leaving a hair salon in london, and chelsea davie, the off and on girlfriend of prince harry, spotted shopping in chelsea just days before the wedding. as for the best man, prince harry delivered a hand-written speech before wounded war vets tuesday, a warm-up perhaps for the one he ll read on the big day. on the streets of london, oddsmakers, always trying to make money, are taking wagers on everything from kate s tiara will her something borrowed be the tiara from the queen s collection, to the ridiculous bets. we are betting on prince william to fall asleep and whether william will wear spectacles and whether kate will jilt william at the altar. reporter: i don t think they will make money on the last one. as you can see the crowd of spectators camping out has grown significantly from yesterday. no need to camp out. the city of london is setting up for viewing parties across the entire city. as i went running through hide park i saw the jumbotrons and port-a-pottys as they expect the huge crowds. meredith? ben fogle is a special correspondent for nbc news. good morning. good morning. given the spectacle, are you surprised to see kate and william driving themselves into london? not at all. for the royal family, it s the one time they can be independent. there will be security around as well. we didn t see it. there will be security there as well. i thought the photo was poignant. this morning my wife looked at the paper and said, oh, that makes me sad. it s kate driving from one life into another. it was a significant photograph. it doesn t surprise me at all. they are very down to earth. it does underscore the fact that they want to remain a normal couple. how easy will that be? i think that s going to be the biggest battle. there is so much attention on them, more than any other event certainly in my lifetime and the fact that they will want to return to privacy starting with the honeymoon. i m not sure how they can. but if anyone can, william will work out a way of approaching that. i don t need to remind the audience they will go back to wales where he s with the air force. that provides a bit of a barrier. i went up and it s a remote place. they will have privacy there. every woman noticed her hair was up in that car. you don t normally see her with her hair up. is that an indication that she ll have an up-do for the wedding? there is so much speculation. every did-bit. i wouldn t speculate. she has a few days to visit various hair dressers or they will go to her and we ll see. thank you very much. you ll be back. i ll be back later. coming up tonight, matt and i take a special behind-the-scenes look. watch inside the royal wedding at 8:00/7:00 central time on nbc. now back to new york for a check of the other top stories of the morning. ann curry is at the news desk. good morning. hey, meredith. good morning. good morning to all of you. in the news we begin with a breaking story. the associated press is reporting that cia director leon panetta will take over the pentagon. general petraeus has been nominated to replace him as cia director. in syria, bloody government crack downs on protesters have the u.s. considering sanctions against syria. in libya, intense nato air strikes may be making progress. we have richard engel in benghazi, libya, with the latest. good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. we ll start in syria where units of the republican guard have been deployed all around damascus and witnesses report seeing dozens of tanks leaving damascus heading south. many reinforcements have also been brought in to the city of daara, a center of the protest movement. international condemnation of syria s crack down continues, but so far there s no action to back it up. witnesses say syriana troops fanned out near damascus and in the southern city of daara, witnesses say it s too dangerous to even collect bodies from the streets. human rights groups say hundreds of activists have gone missing. the white house is considering targeted sanctions. but the u.s. state department is stopping short of asking the president to step down. the u.n. is calling for an investigation. syria says it is the victim of a foreign plot to destabilize the government. it says it is fighting terrorists for telling the world they are prodemocracy activists. president sasad is blaming outsiders while seeking iranian assistance in repressing syria s citizens. reporter: in the region s now other conflict in libya, nato is claiming progress on a mission dismissed as a stalemate. helped by more intense air strikes this week and the introduction of american predator drones, rebels have taken ground in misrata. the progress by the rebels has been very small and they are still nowhere near in a position to threaten tripoli. ann? richard an geengel, thank yo. the americans are fighting prices at the gas pump. the suspect in the attempted colorado mall bombing on the 12th anniversary of the massacre at columbine high school appears in a denver federal courtroom today. earl albert moore was apprehended at a grocery store yesterday after a six-day man hunt. reporter: sony is apologizing for what could be the biggest data theft ever as the hack may have stolen credit card information from 77 million playstation user accounts. the security breach could cost sony billions of dollars. if you can t make it to the royal wedding, why not make up your own? a groom in china gave his bride a wedding that made her feel like a princess. they tied the knot with a procession of guards and horse drawn carriages. what was the tab on the wedding fit for a king? apparently a bargain at $7,000. that is without the crown. it s 7:18. now back to matt and al. that s a nice gesture. making her feel special. mr. roker is back. the weather in the mid section today, headed in our direction tomorrow but not as severe. it about in the midsection heading our direction but not so severe. yeah, that s the good news. we look as what is going on for london. sunny today and 63 and breezy. looking ahead to friday, we have showers in the forecast, but by the time noontime rolls around when they are finishing the ceremony, 50% of showers, and temperatures in 50s to 60s. around the rest of the country here we are expecting to see th york down into the gulf coast. and breezy, sunny, and southern california through the southwest, look for rain showers in the central plains. that s what s going on around the country and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. on this wednesday morning we have low clouds producing scattered sprinkles. one area, with light rain in southern prince william county and a few sprinkles. right now in the 60s throughout the entire region. washington at 66 and later today up near 80 pap slight chance of a afternoon thunderstorm, and tomorrow we could get that s your latest weather. matt? al, thank you very much. the trial of a florida newlywed accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill her husband is under way. the defense made a bold claim in court on tuesday. nbc s mark potter is in west palm beach with details on that. mark, good morning. reporter: good morning, matt. there are wildly different versions of what happened in this case. the prosecution says it was an attempt at murder-for-hire. the defense said it was a bad attempt at reality tv. after nearly two years the warring couple was again face to face. this time in court. at the defense table, dahlia dipolito, accused of trying to kill her husband. michael on the witness stand, pointing out his wife, the defendant for the jury. gray sweater, right there. reporter: police say in august 2009 she tried to hire a hit man to murder her husband, but the man she met to allegedly hatch the plot was an undercover police officer with a camera in the car as they discussed the price. okay. $3,000 from you today. right. $3,000 when it s done. right. reporter: officers set up a fake crime scene and told dipolito her husband had been murdered. [ crying ] reporter: arriving home, she began to sob, but police say it came crashing down when she was taken to the police station to be arrested and saw her husband still alive. oh, my god. he s alive. reporter: in court the prosecution told the jury that she was 5,000% sure she wanted her husband killed. without hesitation, as if she had ice running through her veins, she says, there s no changing, i m determined already. reporter: but dalia s lawyer claims there was no murder plot at all. the evidence will show that the plot for the contract killing of mike dipolito was never real. reporter: the defense attorney blames michael claiming the husband orchestrated the whole thing, tricking his wife and others to fake the murder plot to create a reality tv show. mike s hoax to orchestrate his own murder, to achieve fame and fortune was a bad prank. it was no different than what balloon boy s parents did, or the couple that crashed the white house. reporter: the defense says the police were also duped and were blinded by their own desire for publicity. on the witness stand michael dipolito has not yet been asked about the defense theory about reality tv, but you can bet everyone in the courthouse today will be listening for what he has to say about that. matt? mark potter in west palm beach, thank you very much. just ahead, we ll have more live from london including what it takes to get perfect pictures of the royal family. we ll meet a man whose mission it is to capture their every move. first this is today on nbc. just ahead, details in the search for a missing mother whose car was found abandoned, her toddler inside. that woman s mother and sister speak out. meredith? plus, princess diana s legacy and impact on the royal wedding after your local news. we re here because we wanted to come as much as they did. (girl) it s really hogwarts! because i can fly with harry! because i love seeing him like this! (screaming) ahhhhh! (narrator) from unforgettable adventures to the wizarding world of harry potter, only at universal orlando resort. to the wizarding world of harry potter, you gotta try honey bunches of oats with almonds! it s got real, sliced california almonds with a third less sugar per serving than honey nut cheerios. wow! delicious! try honey bunches of oats with almonds! it s breakfast ont the go! want some? negative. commencing standard breakfast procedure. sfx: bzzzzzzz. humanize your morning. emerald breakfast on the go! good morning. it s 7:26 on this wednesday, the 27th of april. i am joe krebs. people in maryland will pay their final respect to donald schaefer. he served as mayor, of course. you can watch live coverage on washington nonstop at 11:00 this morning. we ll take a break now and come back and look at our weather a [ male announcer ] edmunds.com says that lexus holds its value better than any other luxury brand. intellichoice proclaims that lexus has the best overall value of any brand. and j.d. power and associates ranks lexus the highest in customer satisfaction. no wonder more people have chosen lexus over any other luxury brand 11 years in a row. see your lexus dealer. in the 60s now around the region, and later today up around 80, and then tomorrow morning we could get strong storms with damaging winds and hail all the way from dawn until noontime clearing out after that and dry into the weekend. traffic is tough on 395 northbound. a broken down truck is on the beltway. germantown all the way down, stop and go, but all lanes are available. get the news, weather and traffic beginning at 4:30. we will see 7:30 on this wednesday morning, april 27, 2011. you are looking live at london s westminster abbey where just about 48 hours from now, william and kate will emerge for the fist time as husband and wife. the ceremony will be followed by a carriage procession to buckingham palace where the couple will share their first kiss on the balcony. i m meredith vieira coming to you from historic trafalgar square. matt getting set to make the trip to london tonight. matt, you will be glad to know we had a talk with the press department and they said there was a male body guard in the back of kate s car. she was driving herself but did have protection. but the picture of her in the car, any picture actually of the royal family is in high demand. just ahead we introduce you to a photographer who documents their every move and captured some iconic images of the royals. plus, what is it like to work with kate middleton? we ll talk to a woman who collaborated with her on a line of jewelry. matt? we begin in new york with serious news. the fbi has been called in to help investigate the mysterious disappearance of a missing mother. police found krista ditmeir s car over the weekend, her 14-month-old daughter inside. we ll speak to her mother and sister. but first, today national correspondent amy robach has the latest on the case. good morning. reporter: good morning. 20-year-old krista was working here as a waitress and raising her daughter. from the moment she went missing police made it clear they do not believe krista voluntarily left her young daughter in the running car. in fact, reports insist instead that krista may have met violence in her car. blood was found in the car according to a local paper quoting the sheriff s office. this as the fbi has been brought in. we are making progress. reporter: krista s car was found idling at a ski parking lot in new hampshire, 60 miles from her home in maine. her daughter was sleeping alone in the back seat. krista s mother is caring for aliyah. her older sister is sick with worry. she has friends in the area. that s about it. we have no idea what she was doing. reporter: although the family isn t clear how the car turned up in conway, they are certain of one thing. she s a very loving mother. i just know she never would have abandoned her daughter ever. reporter: the family believes krista convinced whoever took her to leave aliyah behind in a place where she would be found. if she was a victim of a kidnapping she may have struck a deal. you can take me, but not my baby. reporter: officially authorities are calling it a missing persons case but investigators maintain krista is not a runaway. with air and ground searches over for now, police say the investigation is in full swing. police have krista s car and cell phone records as well as a second car although they aren t saying who owns the other vehicle. we are analyzing physical evidence we received and reviewing cell phone records and analyzing them for clues. reporter: police would not confirm reports that blood was found inside krista s car. we have no comment on that statement. reporter: with each hour krista remains missing, police say concern grows, but they remain focused on bringing the beloved mother home. our responsibilities pale in comparison to the stress the family is feeling. we will do everything to reunite them with krista. reporter: in case of a missing single mother, very often the first question surrounds the child s father. officially police have said only he was not in the area at the time of the disappearance. they have also said they have ruled out no one as a suspect. nbc news learned through its affiliate in portland, maine, that the father is 26-year-old kyle ackers. he s serving an 18-month sentence in prison in maine for drug trafficking, clearly putting him physically out of the area at the time of krista s disappearance. krista s mother and sister are with us now exclusively along with a family friend, kathy pratt. good morning. good morning. let me ask you. we heard the law enforcement official in amy s piece say they are making progress. have they informed you of what progress they are making? no, not at this well, they have been keeping me updated. but they are only limited on what they can tell me. i know you last spoke to krista friday. she was driving at the time. did she tell you where she was going, who she was going to see? any pertinent information like that? i talked to her friday night. i didn t ask her if she was driving or whatever. but we were just a quick conversation. she was expecting something in the mail at my house. i told her she didn t get it. it was just brief. she was normal. i would see her on easter sunday. what about in the days prior to that? kayla, did you notice a change in your sister? was she under any extra stress? did she talk about pressures in her life? anything like that? no. i never noticed anything at all. she never talked to me. she always seemed happy. i talked to her that morning because my birthday was the day before, thursday the 21st. i talked to her the next morning and nothing seemed out of the ordinary at all. did she talk to any of you about being afraid of anyone? was someone angry at her, someone jealous of her? no, nothing at all. i don t believe she had anybody that had a vendetta against her. she s lovable, outgoing. i have asked her friends. they tell me the same thing. they don t know who would want to hurt her. when you think about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of her car. it s in a ski resort parking lot running, the door is ajar, her baby in the back seat and the lights are flashing. when you add up the pieces what comes to mind? what do you think happened? obviously somebody wanted to attract attention to the car. i don t know if krista was in the car at that point. we really don t know if she was and she wanted her baby to be found and she knew she d be taken care of. i have to ask you about the father of the baby. we just identified him as kyle acker, the former boyfriend of your daughter. they lived together until january when he was sent to prison. do you think though he physically could not have been at that location at that time might he have anything to do with this? i don t have any comments about him at this time. i would like to focus more on finding my daughter. tell me about your granddaughter. she s staying with you now, i understand. how is she doing? she s doing well. she has her moments like any 14-month-old baby would do. she s got restless nights. she sleeps with my daughter every night. she definitely misses her. she s been crying at nighttime and very clingy to me, very confused. all these people are around she s not familiar with. daytime she s happy. nights, she s having a hard time. i know you wanted the opportunity to make a plea to anyone holding your daughter or who may know where your daughter is. what would you like to say? first, i would like to say, krista, i know you re out there. i love you. aliyah loves you, your sister and your family loves you. we want you home. whoever has her, drop her off wherever. just let her be found, please. let her be found. ladies, thank you all. we ll keep following the story. thank you. let s get a check of the weather from al.al. today s weather is brought to you by roundup extended control waed and grass killer and waed preventer. our morning temperatures here in the east are mild. as we look at what will happen this afternoon. 40s and 60s in the northern new england areas, and 90s through the gulf. warm, moist air there. and then where the two meet you see the frontal system and that s where we have the strongest risk of storms, and high risk in alabama and into missouri and kentucky. we are looking at a risk of dangerous tornados. hail, damaging winds and torrential rain. that s what s going on around the country and here s what s happening in your neck of the woods. low clouds and temperatures in the region are in the mid-60s now. and the radar, picking up a few scattered sprinkles. these are moving south to north and there is a slight chance of a isolated thunderstorm this afternoon, otherwise a mostly cloudy day with highs near 80 and then tomorrow morning we have the threat of severe storms from dawn until noontime, clearing out during the afternoon. friday, saturday and sunday, dry that s your latest weather. matt? al, thank you very much. up next from london, the photographer charged with documenting the royal family s every move. first, these messages. hit the road, jack and don t you come back no more no more, no more, no more hit the road, jack and don t you come back no more [ male announcer ] want your weeds to hit the road? hit em with roundup extended control. one application kills weeds and puts down a barrier to stop new ones for up to four months. roundup extended control spray once. stop weeds for months. what?! -match it! -match it! -match it! match it! -match it! -match it! 20 cents less. what?! just match it. -match it! -match it! -match it! -match it! -match it! -match it! -[ horn honks ] -match it! -match it! -match it! thank you, got it. i ll match that price right here. oh! cool. 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[ female announcer ] hallmark recordable storybooks. welcome back to london. with just two todays to go until the royal wedding, interest in the family and the royal wedding itself seems insatiable. imagine if your job was to document it all and the happy couple s every move? michelle kosinski has that part of the story. michelle? reporter: sometimes you think of a member of the royal family, what pops into mind is a photograph we have seen a million times. that s how important photographers are to their global images. a lot of rules have been established limiting the paparazzi since the days of princess diana. but today for the established agencies like getty, some of the best photographers in the world, they feel renewed energy and stress as the world clamors for ever more william and kate. barely dawn on a cold british morning that promises its work and christopher jackson is beyond early. first in line but soon enough planning becomes printing. about to have a heart attack? reporter: dozens in the rain for a few seconds of will and kate that will make or break their day. she s a beautiful girl. reporter: until [ cheers and applause ] reporter: showtime. and while chris is snapping, he s also sending via laptop. nowadays, speed is close to being his most vital skill? you take it, five minutes later it s global? absolutely. it s incredible. it will be on the picture desks all over the new world. when you see you picture on news stands that s incredible. reporter: don t think the artistry has gone. you re documenting history. reporter: he s passionate. when you click and get the right picture. reporter: that magical moment that radiates beauty. something different, maybe that side of humanity. something between smiling and laughter. it s very rare. if you can just catch it, it shades it a little bit of personality, i suppose. reporter: the smile you don t always see not planned or posed. prince charles, dancing in the amazon. the milliseconds, the interaction or the unintentional comedy that strikes them as well. it s what you live for as a photographer. reporter: part celebrity that really stay with us and almost become, at least in our memories who they are. special moments like that when something unexpected happens and you see a human side to the royal family, that s exciting. reporter: and the not so pretty moments for princess diana and, yes, kate middleton long before this wedding to find their way out there. for chris who s gained the trust of the royal family over years of documenting their lives, he s looking for something else. i m trying to create something to make someone laugh, smile or just generate some kind of emotion. then that s what i m looking for. trying to get the viewer to see something different and feel something. reporter: he said the stress level is up now because there are 50 or 60 photographers at every event and getting images out there the fastest is of the essence. i asked who s the most natural? front of the cameras and he said camilla. he said you see kate looking much less nervous now and that she s kind oh photographers. she gives them the moments they are looking for. he said prince charles and prince william tend to focus on whomever they are speaking to. meredith? she s smart actually. michelle kosinski, thank you very much. let s bring in ben fogle along with the royal editor for the daily express in the uk, camilla tominy. good morning. good morning. whether kate likes it or not, the press is now a part of her life. it s great that she s had a decade to practice. there was a period in her life when she was really followed too intensely by the paparazzi from her flat in london to work and back again. that was partly why she had to give up her job at jigsaw and work for the family business. now there is a laying off. the mistakes made in diana s era, i don t think will be repeated. also, prince william has said, look, i need to protect this girl. i love her. i love her family. he said when he thinks we are overstepping the line. we have come to a point of mutual respect, i think. william is a good teacher for her. he s been through it. the photographer we were just following, i have worked with chris and he s gained the trust of those around the royals. i think that s the key. it s about hand-picking those you can work with. because there is an insatiable interest in the photographs, the stories. she s smart to give them a little bit of what she wants. she had a lesson and he said, just smile for the cameras. you will always look good. and she does. she s a photographer s dream anyway because she s so beautiful, but she s always poised and just says, no comment. it s made her an elusive figure. we d like to know more about her. we don t know much. that shot of her in the car driving herself to london with the hair up, is it a hint, camilla? i don t think so. richard ward told other stylists he thinks her hair should be 100% down and flowing. this is her stylist, the head hair dresser at her salon. james price is doing the do, but she has lovely cascading locks so the theory is she ll go for hair down. her sister pippa is in the car and she s organizing the post wedding party. we read that the royals are upset or the palace is upset that she ll hang shiny mirrored balls in the throne room. they can t get it right, can they? there is so much speculation on all the elements to the wedding. i think a lot of it is just to keep everyone on their toes. listen, it s their wedding. i think the fact that it was announced that a thousand guests are genuine friends, it s not a state occasion. they re going to have the party. they have decided whether they want trees in the abbey. this is their wedding, not inelsein el anyone else s. our coverage of the royal wedding kicks off bright and early friday morning, 4:00 a.m. eastern. get up. 1:00 a.m. pacific time. don t go to sleep. here on nbc. still ahead, we ll talk to a woman who collaborated with kate on a jewelry line about the bling that will be on display during the ceremony. what jewelry will kate wear? first, these messages. woman: till all the books are read. man: and all the pens are put down. woman: and everything there is to learn is learned. man: till the heroes retire and the monsters return to their dens. woman: and all the plots are wrapped up. man: till that day. boy: by hook or by crook. girl: by book or by nook. woman: i will read. still ahead, kate hudson live in studio after your local news. 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[ male announcer ] ge technologies help doctors detect cancer early so they can save more lives. bringing better health to more people. we have 69 degrees here in the nation s capital with clouds over head above the capital. it s 7:56. beginning today, you will have to pay more attention if your car gets towed in arlington. the board voted to raise the base towing fee from $115 to $125. that s the highest amount allowed by state law. drivers will get better warning about where not to park and where their car will be towed if it s towed. and then out of nine candidates, he received 28% of the votes. we ll tak good morning. here is the washington and area forecast for the next several days. this morning, maybe an isolated sprinkle or passing shower, and highs near 80 and mostly cloudy. tomorrow morning, severe storms are possible ending by noontime and then dry, friday and into the weekend. south of town there was an accident on telegraph road and quickly cleared to the shoulder. and then one more stop, heading over to 270, about germantown, a slow roll all the way to the beltway. get the news, weather and 8:00 now on a wednesday morning, the 27th day of april, 2011. two days until the royal wedding. that s why you see so many crowds on the plaza. we have great weather in the northeast. look at the blue skies in london where meredith has taken up a position in trafalgar square. wish we could hold on to it for friday. think positive thoughts. meredith s in london. what s coming up? hey, matt and al, the memory of princess diana s wedding 30 years ago is not far from anyone s mind. her devotion to william and harry and her tragic death cast a long shadow over william and kate s day. ahead, a look at diana s lasting legacy. al? thanks, meredith. keeping the wedding theme going, we ll talk with kate hudson. she s in a new movie called something borrowed. very nice. the oscar-nominated actress is also expecting in real life. fantastic. patting the tummy. showing us the bump. staying on the royalty theme, a different kind of royalty next week. we ll have an interview with steven tyler, music royalty, the front man for aerosmith for years and also white hot as one of the judges on american idol. he invited me to his home and his closet. take a look. my new favorites. look. they zip all the way down. i put this on the leg just because i can. you re steven tyler. and i get to sit next to j-lo every night. remember, i m beat, she s street and the dog s in heat or whatever. we ll have a lot more with steven tyler. how long were you in the closet? next week on a special dateline and monday on today. also we have american idol s other judge jennifer lopez another of the judges right here on our program. wow. she ll unveil her new single, i believe. music video, i believe, here on the show. anyway, before we go further let s go inside to ann curry with the headlines. thanks, guys. good morning, efb. we begin with news of major changes in leadership at the pentagon and the cia. nbc s chief pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski joins us with the latest on this. good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. this is a major reshuffling of the security team. administration officials say president obama decided to name cia director leon panetta as the secretary of defense at the pentagon and that general david petraeus, the commander in afghanistan, will replace panetta at the cia. the current secretary of defense, robert gates, made it well known he wants to leave before the end of the year. the changes probably would not take effect until late summer, early fall. in another story, mick, the attack at the airport in kabul this morning. reporter: it s another case of what appears to be somewhat friendly fire. reports that an afghan military pilot opened fire on coalition forces on the military side of the kabul airport this morning, killing as many as eight coalition members. u.s. military officials will only confirm now that one american was killed, three wounded. there are reports that as many as six americans may have died. jim miklaszewski, thanks so much. in other news violent weather ripped through the south for a second straight night on tuesday raising the at the time toll in arkansas to at least 11. more than 100 homes for damaged in rural east texas and many communities in the central part of the united states are fighting to stave off rivers surging from days of rain. the forecasts say the weather could worsen today. there are reports of gunfire and explosions in the southern city of daara after the syrian army sent in tanks and reinforcements. the uprising began there last month and human rights activists say a relentless crackdown killed more than 400 people across syria. this while moammar gadhafi s forces continue to pound misr a misrata, the only city with a significant rebel presence in the government-controlled west. egypt doesn t know if an explosion today at a vital gas terminal was sabotage or an accident. it happened near egypt s border with israel. the blast sent flames shooting into the air and forced a shut down of the pipeline. israel expects a shortage of natural gas. someone we know around here, katie couric will be leaving the anchor desk at the cbs evening news after five years. she s yet to reveal where she ll go next. a teenager in utah has an unusual talent and he s showing off on youtube. the 13-year-old is amazingly accurate with a football. even making faraway shots into a basketball net. his online video received more than 150,000 hits in just a few days. good for him. sign that kid up. it s five minutes past the days. let s go to al for a check of today s weather. today s weather is brought to you by kay jewellers. we re here with friends. what school are you from? it s just outside of louisville, kentucky, where they have strong storms this morning. and cloudy, cool, and 57. as we show you where the risk of strong storms are, we re looking at a very likely area for northern mississippi into kentucky of a strong risk, and then a high risk in birmingham, huntsville, and also into northwestern georgia for tornados into tonight. we also have a lot of rain to talk about with this system. rain moo into the pacific northwest as well, and showers in the western great lakes. here is what is happening in your neck of the woods. good morning. mild and cloudy on this wednesday morning. we are in the 60s now with a few scattered light sprinkles around the reswrun, but generally speaking it s dry and a slight chance of a isolated storm. tomorrow morning, from dawn all the way until do not tinoontime a chance for thunderstorms. clearing out tomorrow afternoon. friday, saturday and sunday, sunshine returns, and and that s your latest weather. matt? al, thank you very much. coming up next, meredith back in london. she ll talk about princess diana and the huge shoes she has left for kate middleton to fill. but first, these messages. are uniquely beautiful. one look, and it s easy to see why his rings are worn by hollywood s biggest stars. now you can have a neil lane ring for the star in your life. introducing neil lane bridal at kay jewelers. - this scrollwork is a vintage technique, very intricate. - each hand-crafted ring is an original neil lane design with diamonds hand-selected by kay. neil lane bridal: the newest reason kay is the number one jewelry store in america. you know that comes with a private island. really? 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[ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what s in your wallet? uh, it s okay. i ve played a pilot before. so let s plant some perennials that ll turn up every year. trees and shrubs to give us depth. and fill it out with flowers placed in just the perfect place. let s spend less, but plant more. what do you say we plant a weekend, water it, and watch a summer spring up? more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. we re lowering the cost of flexing our green thumbs. this mulch is just $4.97. 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. become back with more of our countdown to the royal wedding. in two days when kate walks down the aisle in westminster abbey it will be hard not to think of the day 30 years ago when lady diana spencer became princess diana. how similar are the late princess and the future one? kate snow is at buckingham palace. good morning. reporter: good morning. most people don t expect this wedding to be much like 1981 with the 25-foot train that diana had. still, we will be rememberi ini diana. it was william who ensured his mother would be a part of the big day. she won t be around to share in the fun and excitement. this is my way of keeping her close to it all. you look at william, you see diana. reporter: author christopher anderson say the two had an exceptional bond. she sought his advice and called women her little wise man. reporter: william learned how to be a modern monarch. princess diana redefined the monarchy making it modern, accessible and glamorous in the dynasty, dallas era but right to the end of her life she was the most fascinatinfascinating, int person that emerged from the monarchy in the last hundred years. reporter: they are big shoes to fill. last fall when they were engaged kate was asked if diana s image was intimidating. i would lo to have met her. she s an inspirational woman to look up to. it s a wonderful family and very inspirational. so, yeah, i do. reporte if you think of princess diana s legacy and you look at kate middleton in the future, what a daunting task that is going to be. i think kate is wise enough at 29 years old to make her own mark. reporter: kate has had more time to get used to the role. friends say she s nervous and confident in the limited public appearances she s made this spring, crowds seem to love her. while diana and kate are very different women, nbc news royal expert camilla tominy says kate s ability to connect is similar. in the end of the day she s normal. that s the system reason diana was popular. people believe there is something to identify with. she s aspirational and also touchable. reporter: kate is likely to do things differently from diana. kate and william will be more careful. they will try to present a dream double act rather than two solo superstars like charles and tien i can t presented themselves. reporter: the memory of diana can t help but shape the future, the altar where william and kate marry is the place he walked to behind his mother s casket. friends say he s protective of kate, that he learned from his mother kindness, the ability to love. william once said not a day goes by he doesn t think about his mother. on his wedding day, the world will be thinking about her, too. reporter: william is expected to give a speech after the wedding. it s a tradition that the groom speaks. many expect, meredith, that he ll speak about his mother and her influence on his life. meredith? kate snow, thank you very much. martin bashir joins us. good morning. good morning. prince william had a very close relationship with his mother, princess diana. how do you think her influence shaped this lead-up to the wedding? i think that the tragedy of his mother s life means that he s actually chosen to delay his wedding and conduct himself in a much more controlled fashion. it s amazing that we haven t seen him or harry apart from a brief appearance yesterday and we have barely seen kate. in the run-up to diana s wedding she was being followed everywhere by paparazzi. the sadness and tragedy of the way his mother was hounded has shaped the way he s preparing for the wedding. and the interview he gave when he became engaged to kate, he said, i don t want her to have to step into my mother s shoes. he s been explicit. for that reason we don t by people who know him that when he was talking about the possibility of marrying he wanted to delay for as long as he felt he could commit for life. you re married, i m married. we say our vows before god and family and hope to pledge and keep them. 50% of people in the united kingdom don t. 50% of people, their marriages fall apart. in this case this is not an arranged marriage. she s different from diana. she s university-educated. that s unprecedented. older than diana by ten years. and had more of a courtship with william and diana had with prince charles. i m sure those things put her in a better position. when i interviewed diana in 1995 she said, it was like being tossed to the wolves. she said nobody sat down with her and prepared her for her royal responsibilities, explained what the media would do in her life and the kind of pressure we placed upon her. this girl has seen william with his own private detectives at university for four years. she s been living virtually here with him for the last five years. she knows what this means. for that reason she enters the marriage with her eyes completely open. i think with an acknowledgment that if she s going to marry prince william, this is what her life will be. does the british public expect her to be pregnant within a year? that seems to be the tradition. have you seen the front page of the daily star today? it says they are going to have a baby. if you look at the headline it s almost as if she s pregnant already. of course, she isn t. but there is a huge amount of expectation. she s 29, which for many people in the royal family, as you know, is very old. also interesting. what you said. she s the first woman to marry the air to the throne with a university degree. that can t be understated. martin, thank you so much. much more to come from here in london. speaking of pregnant, up next from new york, another famous kate who is pregnant. actress kate hudson right after this. nothing beats the taste of honey bunches of oats with real strawberries. it s full of sun ripened strawberries. and 10 grams of whole grain per serving. mmmm delicious! nothing s better than honey bunches of oats with real strawberries. whatever lola wants lola gets and, little man, little lola wants you [ cellphone dings ] [ cellphones ringing ] [ women screaming ] make up your mind to have one diet pepsi, please. no regrets ahh. what s going on over there? 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[ male announcer ] it s the most fun you can legally have. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers on the c-class. for exce onal offers intr[ male announcer ] beyond introducing pizza hut s ultimate stuffed crust pizza. introducing purina one beyond with toppings and cheese baked right into the crust, it s unlike anything you ve ever seen! choose meaty or pepperoni for your crust, then choose up to three of your favorite toppings. the ultimate stuffed crust pizza. only $12.99. and only at your pizza hut. actress kate hudson has been wowing audiences since almost famous 11 years ago. now she plays darcy, a self-involved party girl engaged to be married. take a look. darc, you okay? no, i m fine. i m just i want to cry on the day. so i want to check my mascara, make sure it doesn t run. so i m trying all these different ones. no question. she s a horrible person. your worst nightmare. we all know one of them. we ll talk about the movie in a second. congratulations. look at you. i am a pregnant person. you are. i saw you on tv not long ago. you had the normal walk. i don t mean it in the wrong way but you walked in today and you started to take on the waddle? a bit of the waddle. i m in my third trimester, so i m slowing down. has it been a good pregnancy? the first three months was rough. then it was great. now it s starting to i m starting to get, you know, heavier and slower. right. i love being pregnant. you do not officially know the sex of the child. no. however, you have an incredibly scientific way that you have gone about trying to determine this. it s the pendulum test. describe it. you could patent this. tell people what you do. we shouldn t talk about it then. the pendulum, you know, you get something weighted like a ring and your hair. you put it over your belly and swing it. everybody has a different method. how does that determine whether it s a boy or girl. it goes in a circle if it s a boy. back and forth if it s a boy. this one s a circle. it s saying it s a girl. a girl? and i m carrying so different than i did with ryder. it just feels like and she. i keep saying she. she s so nuts in here. she s so wild. frisky? yeah. i feel like it s got the hawn gene. my mom s lyineage. she s dancing every day. place your hand in mine for a second. i just want to see something. is this new? this is new. you re engaged! congratulations. thank you. it just happened a week ago. i m so glad you noticed. i haven t announced it. the camera members are saying, can someone turn the lights off on her hand, please? i haven t announced it. i felt like the announcing thing feels so silly. i was waiting for somebody to notice. so this is the first time we have talked about it. yeah. do we have a date? no, no. this is not just a random guy off the street. no. matt bellamy. i think we ll sit into the baby thing for a little bit. how did he propose? i m not going to tell you that. come on. you already broke the news. no. it was very sweet. it was very romantic. save a little for yourself. we ll come back and talk and the movie.movie, something borrowed. we will have more with kate after your local news. 8:26 is your time now. 69 degrees out there. storms are on the way. when they will arrive? tom will have your forecast after the news. it s april 27th, 2011. today people in maryland pay their final respect to former governor, william donald schaefer. his funeral will be held in baltimore where he served as mayor. you can watch nonstop at 11:00 this morning. on comcast channel 208, and cox cable channel 203. we wil mostly cloudy today, and then tomorrow morning a likelihood of strong storms. ending in the afternoon time. sun returns friday into the weekend. and an accident 95 northbound, just moved out of the roadway and everything over to the shoulder, and backed up to the north. for now, back to the today show after this smoert b [ male announcer ] with the most branches and atms in the dc area, it s hard to miss a capital one bank. alright, let s get ready to work alex. rosslyn! arlington! falls church! nice save! 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[ metal dings ] [ male announcer ] capital one bank. the most branches and atms in the dc area. ovie. we still got maryland. what s in your wallet? ovie. we still got maryland. i never wear the same thing twice. not together, anyway. i m in t.j.maxx every week. i used to think it was old school, but it s not. i get this season s designer clothes that i absolutely need. and i still get to eat. fashion direct from designers. savings direct to you. that s right. i m a maxxinista. t.j.maxx. let us make a maxxinista out of you. 8:30 on wednesday morning, april 27, 2011. you are listening to the wonderful group, blake. four guys who took london by storm several years ago. today is their u.s. debut. classically trained but they call their sound a mix of classic and pop. we look forward to talking to them. two of them know the royal couple well. we ll have a chat and listen to their beautiful voices. [ applause ] did i mention, matt, al, and ann, that they are not hard to look at? they are really good-looking guys. i noticed you gazing. wow. you just kept looking at them. you know, i didn t know this group. i listened to the record yesterday. i said, wow, they are really good. then i saw the picture and said, whoa! they are lovely guys. meredith s got some man candy. you guys are coming tomorrow. we are! we can t wait to see you in the morning. we ll be there bright and early. meanwhile, a lot coming up from here. carrie bradshaw is here, kidding. candice bushnell. she has a prequel about how carrie became who she is how she became a writer, met samantha and others and also just some of the ways she discovered her fashion sense. the back story. and then we have what you need to know if you are a first time home buyer in this challenging market. a lot to get to. first we have to have a check of first, a check of the weather from mr. roker. first of all, as far as today is concerned, we are looking at a risk of strong storms all the way down to the gulf coast. a high risk in northern alabama, georgia, and mississippi. rain in the pacific northwest. morning showers in the central plains. and for tomorrow that threat moves through the eastern seaboard. mountain snows out in the western plains. sunny and hot from texas into the southwest, and mild in the ohio and mississippi river valleys. good news for those folks who have been flood and tornado ravaged. that s what s going on around the country. it s mild and muggy and temperatures in the 60s now. still mostly cloudy today. up around 80. still cloudy through much of the day, and a slight chance of a thunderstorm. and then from dawn to noontime, there is the possibility of a passing thunderstorm that could produce damaging winds and hail. clearing out after that, friday, saturday and sunday. highs, sad and sunday into the 70s. and 70s again on monday. and that s your latest weather. matt? thank you very much. we want to talk a little bit more with kate hudson, star of something borrowed. the newly engaged kate hudson. darcy is a pain in the butt in this movie. she s self-centered. she doesn t think about consequences of her own actions and she s, you know it s all about darcy. but she s fun. she likes to party. there is a risk that when you take a role on like this and play it too well people say, oh, she s a great actress or they go, i wonder why they cast her in that? she had to be fun to play. she was a blast. especially because obviously i love playing comedic roles. that character lends itself to great, funny stuff. this movie is based on a best-selling book of the same name. you like this kind of character but it is not your kind of book. no. not my kind of book. i like, you know i read you know, if you looked at my bedside table, right now it s mao which i have been trying to finish for 500 years. i like heavy books. not beach reads. i m not a beach reader. my mom gets me into the beach reads. every once in a while she throws a really good fiction story in there with juice. she got me into the other boelyn girl and those. yeah. when i read the first 20 pages i was hooked. she has this ability to really write relatable characters, especially for my age group. i m not letting you go without asking the direct question as i look in your eyes and say, is it true your next role is a porn star? are you playing a porn star? um, i i think hard to ask a pregnant woman that question. porn star is you know, fascinating. i am intrigued by playing linda lovelace. i don t know obviously with everything that s happened when or how or where that is now going to happen. but it is definitely there and on the radar. it s a fascinating story. to be continued. to be very continued. congratulations on your good fortune. nice to have you here. good to see you. something borrowed opens nationwide may 6. up next from london, meredith speaks to the designer who collaborated on a jewelry line with kate middleton. first this is today on nbc. welcome back to trafalgar square in london and the countdown to the royal wedding. one thing s for sure, there will be lots of jewels on display at the abbey. claudia actually collaborated with the bride to be. they worked together in fashion. good morning. good morning. you worked together at jigsaw. that s right. when kate was working there she commissioned some jewelry from me. what do you think she will be wearing? what sense do you have? that s the million dollar question. i think there are three or four options that could be in the running. for the romantics amongst us it would be nice if william commissioned jewelry and gave it to her the way prince albert gave it to victoria with the sapphire broach which she wore with the dress. she has the ring. that was synonymous with protection and care which is a lovely touch. william was able to do that, it would be amazinging. i know a lot of diana lovers would love her to wear the love knot tiara the queen gave diana as a wedding gift but she chose to wear the spencer tiara. i feel it s quite fussy. she s a clean, lean stylistic girl. and she liked clean lines and simple jewelry. i personally rather love the fact that queen victoria wore flowers in her hair. lots of people have said, oh, that s far too boho sarah ferguson did it as well. she game in flowers and left in the tiara. her mom carol, do you think she ll be understated? i think the interesting thing for me about jewelry is it tells a story. that s either a personal story of your history like your engagement ring or your eternity ring if you had children but also the status jewelry confers on you. the tiara was really only worn by royal brides and royalty. i m sure no one knows what anyone will be wearing but the story it tells of who everyone is and how they respond to a royal wedding will be very fascinating to watch. this is some of your jewelry. this particular piece is something you worked on with kate. yes. she commissioned it from me. i contacted her to see if she was interested in doing real jewelry because jigsaw only did costume jewelry and she said she had a specific idea to do a silver nugget necklace that could be sold for children and also worn by a mother. so mother and daughter could buy a necklace together or share a necklace. from that i developed a range to celebrate and mark the wedding. that s terrific. you will be a part of the wedding, one of the fwess. yes. lovely to have you here. claudia bradley, thank you. our live coverage kicks off friday at 4:00 a.m. eastern time, 1:00 a.m. pacific. up next from new york, the woman behind sex and the city reveals how carrie ended up in not that long ago, many families were priced out of an overheated housing market. but the times have changed. get the facts at remax.com. it s a great place to see all the listings in thousands of cities and towns. with lots of houses to chose from and down-to-earth prices the dream of owning a home seems more attainable than ever. find out what an experienced re/max agent can do for you. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. now at 8:43. fans of the sex and the city franchise followed carrie bradshaw and her friends samantha, miranda and charlotte since 1996 since they navigated life s ups and downs. now the author is revealing the story of how carrie got to new york and met the people who meant the most to her. it s called summer & the city. good morning. good morning. why am i not surprised the book is pink and pretty. you had to be on the design team. when i saw the pink i was like, no, please not pink. we tried yellow, light blue, anything but pink. the reality is, who am i kidding? you re writing about carrie brad show. i m a grown woman and i love pink. it s embarrassing. my husband has been reading it on the subway. he loves it. he takes the cover off. if you re a guy, take the cover off and you will be fine. inside the cover is the second installment of the prequel series and there may be more. there may be. the first was the carrie diaries. that was carrie s senior year in high school. at the end of the book the dream is to leave her small town, get to new york. she gets there and immediately, of course, gets mugged because it s 1981. she happens to have one phone number which wasn t stolen and it belongs to samantha jones who she s never met. the second book picks up right where the first book leaves off. they are stand-alone books. you don t have to have read the carrie diaries. you can jump right in. she s in samantha s apartment and samantha is giving her advice. walk fast, look like you know where you are going and, for god s sake, get rid of the shoes. which brings us to how she developed this iconic, maybe quirky sense of fashion. how did she get it? part of it comes from simply not having any money. back in the early 80s, the only people who could afford labels were really rich people on the upper east side. otherwise you would shop in vintage stores. then she meets a designer called jinx who s kind of maybe could be inspired by a patricia fields kind of character. she has a shop on 8th street. jinx gives her free clothes because she says, like, nobody can wear these. if you can wear this, you can have it. so then carrie s wearing, like, plastic dresses and all kinds of crazy things. we discover how she become as writer like you. you have called her your alter ego. she is. you re in many ways writing about yourself in some ways. i am. well, after my father read the book he called me up and said, what in this is true? i said, dad, it s all fiction. he said, i bet some of this happened to you. i said, something similar, dad. i m really close to it. it was so much fun working on the book. i m sure it will be fun. it s a fun read to see the characters in new iterations. the book is called summer & the city. thank you. thank you. coming up next, from london, a live performance from one of britain s hottest musical groups who have a connection to william and we are back in trafalgar square with the television debut of one of the hottest musical acts in britain. mixing pop and classical songs blake already has a brit award. the new single is all of me. guys, good morning to you. good morning. debut on american television. yeah. doesn t get better than this. what does it mean to you guys? we have been waiting for four years to launch in america. we have been excited. it s great to get the opportunity to come on the today show, the biggest breakfast show in the world. it all started on our show. james morrison, james blunt all debuted here. there is hope for you guys. i know you grew up with prince william and harry. in fact, we dug up a picture. yeah. i was a childhood friend. what do you make of the celebration? it s wonderful. you have only to look around and everybody s happy and excited. there is a wonderful feeling in the air. it s summer. flags everywhere. amazing union jacks all over town. it s fantastic. london is so excited at the moment. we re happy to be a part of it. jules, you went to st. andrews with william and kate. i did. what did you make of them as a couple back then? the first thing that strikes you is they are both normal, down to earth and charming people. they take a real interest in what other people are doing. it was lovely to know them for the four years i was there. i was lucky to study history of art and get to know them well. you were singing all of me for us. you re performing it at a wedding this weekend? we are. so when you re at the royal wedding. what are you hoping people will take away the message of the song? it s simple. people are scared to write songs about marriage. but it s one of the most wonderful, romantic things you can do in your life. we want to celebrate the connection of two young people. we felt all of me did it. i understand your next recording you hope to record in the u.s.? we have been talking about it. we may come to nashville and see what s going on there. it will be a close harmony sound, quite contemporary and cool as well. they love you here. blake, take it away. thank you very much. [ applause ] the first day that i met you i think i always knew that you were meant to be the one and then the feeling grew with god and friends my witness our love will never die i take the gift you gave me don t need to question why for all the faults i m made of and all the wrongs i do i m not asking you to judge me just be true all of me is what i give to you and everything i have i want to share with you and with this ring for all eternity i make this vow when i give you all of me this life is short and precious a one-way ticket ride i thank you for the journey i know you re on my side and we are only here once i m glad we shared this day of knowing something special that will never go away for all the faults i m made of and all the wrongs i do i m not asking you to judge me just be true all of me is what i give to you and everything i have i want to share with you and with this ring for all eternity i make this vow when i give you all of me le all of me is what i give to you and everything i have i m fwon that share with you with this ring i give for all eternity my love i make this vow all of me is what i give to you and everything i have i want to share with you and with this ring for all eternity i make this vow when i give you all of me i give you all of me blake, thank you. much more from london ahead. then tomorrow morning, matt, al and ann join me here. looking forward to that very much. we re back after your local news. back after your local news. 8:55 is your time. it s 70 degrees out there. heavy clouds in the sky. storms are coming this way. when they will arrive, tom has your forecast after the news. today is wednesday, april 27th, 2011. and bob mcdonnell wants the military to delay the army s move into alexandria. and he is asking robert gates to hold off moving the employees until a traffic situation in the area has been addressed. the army maintains there will be no traffic problem, but the pentagon s inspector general announced last week that the army used faulty data in its traffic studies. traffic studies. wa great looking lawn like this, but trying to grow grass from seed in tough areas like deep shade, along the driveway, and where the kids play can be a little intimidating. until now. with scotts ez seed. it s scotts best grass seed, starter fertilizer and a growing material that absorbs water and expands to surround and protect the seeds, you ll get a thick, green scotts lawn even if you ve never been successful with other seed before. the revolutionary scotts ez seed. grow grass anywhere. good morning. slight chance of a storm today. high near 80. a likelihood tomorrow morning. dry into the weekend. heavy 395 headed for matt lauer, everybody! [ applause ] my suit makerer you look great. has ingeniously crafted a catheter inside no, no, no. i can t move for seven hours. that s insane. how will it work? no, no. matt [ cheers and applause ] calm down. this happens to a lot of our guests. matt lauer making quite a show on the jimmy fallon show last night and making a great statement about fashion and medical possibilities. it was a test drive. i was making sure the suit would work for the royal wedding. when are you going back to the monopoly game. that s what he said, or the planters peanuts commercial. you look good in the top hat. anyway, we are here in studio 1a. natalie is in the heart of london in trafalgar square with the latest on the preparations for the royal wedding now only two days away. you look really excited, matt. debuting the morning tails. that s the perfect look. you will be very apprapos. they finished up this morning a full dry run of the procession. you will see a little bit about the preparation. what was interesting was seeing kate middleton, the bride herself, at the wheel, driving herself back from her house in bucklebury down to london where she s getting ready. you can only imagine her nerves right now. she looks calm and pretty cool as a cucumber there with her sister pippa. i have a preview of the final preparations here in a little bit. great, natalie. we ll check back in a couple of minutes. talking about saving money. our money 911 experts are in the house to help answer financial questions whether you are a first-time home buyer, underwater with your house or looking to buy life insurance. they have you covered. first, ann, you have a look at the headlines. we have a big story that s been breaking. major changes in leadership at the pentagon and the cia. the president is expected to tap leon panetta to take over as defense secretary replacing robert gates and general david petraeus would take on the role of cia chief. the changes would likely take effect over the summer. u.s. military officials say at least five americans were killed in today s shooting at the kabul airport in afghanistan. they were among as many as eight total nato service members killed when a military pilot opened fire. afghanistan s forces responded to the attack, killing the gunman. deadly storms claimed another life in arkansas overnight bringing the death toll to 11 people this week. a woman was also injured in rural east texas overnight. a tornado toppled her mobile home as she was inside. many communities in the united states are fighting to stave off rivers surging from days of rain. forecasters say that the weather could worsen today. there are reports of gunfire and explosions today in the southern city of daara after the syrian army sent in tanks and reinforcements. human rights activists say the crackdown killed more than 400 people across syria. this while libyan leader moammar gadhafi s forces continue to pound misrata. donald trump is making his first visit as a potential presidential candidate. ron allen has the latest from portsmouth, new hampshire. good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. it s hard to believe we are here in new hampshire covering politics. the primary is perhaps eight months away, but donald trump coming to town is a big political event. he s been generating so much publicity with his blistering attacks trekted at president obama. doubling down on his drum beat of doubt about the president s birthplace, hawaii, hunts for the birth cat are all over cable tv. i said there may be something on it and they asked me, like what? i don t know. reporter: trump questioned whether president obama deserved to get into two ivy league colleges. i heard he was a terrible students. not like, oklahoma. okay. how does he go to harvard? reporter: they feel a duty to vet candidates and some say the donald needs to change his tune. we want to hear what he ll do to stimulate job growth, help the place out. reporter: trump said he ll decide whether to run by june. big name republicans say trump is just looking for publicity. i congratulate him for getting all the attention he s getting. reporter: and if trump runs and gets more attention he may be haunted by unflattering themes from his past. here s what happened when trump took access hollywood along to watch him vote in 2004. our cameras captured his temper when the bodyguard led him to the wrong polling station three times. you figure out where the [ bleep ] you re going. okay? you come back here and figure it out. reporter: today we ll follow trump to several spots in portsmouth, new hampshire. it will be entertaining. he will host a big fund-raiser to raise money for the state gop, something trump knows how to do. ann? all right. ron allen, thanks for the report. politicians, actors and especially news anchors are remembering the inventor of the teleprompter who made our lives easier. hubert schlaffley died and his tinkering gave us the teleprompter which allows me to read the news while looking directly into the television camera. all right. there you are. six minutes past the hour. you are now up to date. my hero. how you doing back there? jimmy, you okay back there? normally it s just elmo back there. ann, let s get a check of the weather from mr. roker. we have severe weather to talk about. we have been talkinge have seve talk about. we have been talking about this all april. we have a lot of moisture coming out of the gulf. this is a la nina coming up through the south. and that s what is triggering all of the april storms. record-breaking storms. we have tornado watches now stretching from alabama and mississippi all the way up into kentucky and on into west virginia, and they are going to continue to pound that area. we have a risk of storms from the gulf all the way into new england. the strongest risk is from mississippi to alabama and on into georgia where we will look at long-track tornadoes, tornadoes that stay on the ground a long time, and heavy rain, and three to five inches of rain, and flood watches from texas into new england. that s what s going on around the country and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. that storm system will probably be affecting us early tomorrow morning. right now no storms are threatening us, and mild temperatures, and mostly cloudy and near 70 throughout most of the region. and remaining mostly cloudy, a slight chance of an isolated storm this afternoon, and then that likelihood of storms tomorrow morning from around predawn all the way until noontime, and then clearing out after that and mild temperatures as we begin into the weekend, and that s your latest weather. ann? announcer: today s countdown to the royal wedding is brought to you by mcdonald s. i m lovin it. al, thanks. this morning on the countdown to the royal wedding, just two more days to go. and the finishing touches are being put on the festivities. natalie morales joins us from trafalgar square with the latest. reporter: good morning, ann. now as the clock is ticking away, we saw our final glimpses perhaps of william and kate before they walk down the aisle. this morning there was a full dress rehearsal of the procession, horses, carriages, all the king s horses, all the king s men. it was the full royal treatment. at westminster abbey, streets were blocked off this morning for the horses and carriages that rehearsed the ceremonial presentation. members of the military practiced marching the entire route but without the massive crowds expected on friday. thousands of trees and flowers that will adorn the abbey have been delivered, many chosen by kate middleton herself. i suggested from the beginning that we would use things from the royal estates and prince william spoke with her majesty who was delighted to supply these things. reporter: a quick glimpse of the bride to be, kate middleton, leaving her family home with her sister pippa. kate behind the wheel, headed for london according to buckingham palace. it could be the last time we see her before she appears in a wedding gown on friday. the groom, too, left the middleton home and headed to london to get ready for his big day. with all the final details in place, the wedding guests are getting themselves ready. prince charles wife camilla was spotted leaving a hair salon in london, and chelsea davie, the off and on girlfriend of prince harry, spotted shopping in chelsea just days before the wedding. as for the best man, prince harry delivered a hand-written speech before wounded war vets tuesday, a warm-up perhaps for the one he ll read on the big day. on the streets of london, oddsmakers, always trying to make money, are taking wagers on everything from kate s tiara will her something borrowed be the storied george iii fringe tiara from the queen s collection? to the ridiculous bets. we are betting on prince william to fall asleep and whether william will wear spectacles and whether kate will jilt william at the altar. reporter: i don t think they will make money on the last one. we certainly hope not. when kate middleton made her first public appearance after she became engaged she wore a hat designed by vivian sherip. now the hat maker has been designing hats and fascinators we ll see on the wedding party. that s true. will we see one on carol middleton? that s a secret. but i will show you pieces you will see on the wedding day. starting with this one. it s a beautiful hat. on the wedding day you will see this on a very prominent face. not saying who. it s a good shape, elegant. a very english hat. the colors are good. what s the etiquette for a royal wedding. do you wear a hat or a fascinator. we call them headpieces. this is one that pippa actually wore. right. i will put it on for you. there is a little comb. even on a windy day like today it will stay in place. it looks great on you. it s quite a tailored piece. very youthful, too. this is a craze in the united states. hilarious. people are buying them from the website. and the actual etiquette of the hat versus the fascinator when you re in a church and you have a wide brimmed hat, should you be concerned? you should. i think out of politeness, out of respect you should. but we have made whoppers for this wedding. i love this one. it is a whopper. we have some really wide pieces. speaking of whopper and sassy, look at this one. like this? slide it forward in your hair. it s like a veil. it s beautiful. what should i look for? i m wearing something neutral. you re keeping it a secret as well. yes. i will give you a neutral one called mistress. this is the shape you wille see at the wedding. we may see it on you at the wedding. that s lovely. quite sculpted. french lace. looks great on you. a good today show hat works as well. thank you so much. you re welcome. can t wait to see what everyone wears on the wedding day. what do you think? looks very cute on you. i m mortified. what would you like to wear? i need one. i didn t know i had to wear a hat. pick one you think is pretty. thank you so much, natalie. coming up later, how the prince and his princess-to-be lived parallel lives and had near meetings before falling in love. up next, closer to home, answers to your money emergencies. that s after these messages. [ boy ] there s something inside your mcdonald s happy meal. where? it s really good. do you see it? it s called hope. hope? yeah, hope. i don t see any hope. i don t see any hope in here. you can t see it there, but you can see it here. cause every time you get a happy meal or a mighty kids meal some of the money goes to ronald mcdonald house charities to help lots of kids and families. hope s good! happy meals. the simple joy of helping. happy meals. the simple joy of helping. you gotta try honey bunches of oats with almonds! it s got real, sliced california almonds with a third less sugar per serving than honey nut cheerios. wow! delicious! try honey bunches of oats with almonds! tastes so luscious, i enjoy it with lobster. mmmm. shrimp. oh. and mussels. [ male announcer ] fresh butter taste with 70% less saturated fat than butter. [ kim ] you can have it all. - definitely the one on the right. - yeah, are y - seriously, the clorox one. - oh, okay. the difference is obvious. for the whitest whites, use detergent, plus the advanced whitening formula of clorox bleach. now you can brew over ice for delicious iced coffee or tea. hot or cold, keurig is the way to brew everyone s favorite cup in under a minute. choose. brew. enjoy. keurig. choose. brew. enjoy. here s to my pants not leaving marks on my waist. achieve small wins with a healthy lifestyle and dannon light & fit. the light fresh yogurt with 80 calories vs. 100 in the other leading brand. here s to 80 calories tasting crazy good. live light and fit. hey walgreens, i m kinda liking matt here. but i m kinda allergic to bruce. [ sneezes ] got any ideas? [ female announcer ] try 24-hour zyrtec for prescription strength relief from your allergy symptoms. indoors.and out. and right now when you buy a zyrtec 45 count, you can get a 14 count free. at walgreens. this morning on today s money 911 our panel is here to answer your questions. sharon epperson is cnbc s personal financial correspondent, david bach is author of debt free for life and carmen ulrich is author of the real cost of living. good morning. good morning. we re starting off with the skype. serena from arizona is on the line. good morning. what s your question? good morning. my question is i am 23 years old, fwrgraduating with my masts degree. i want to purchase a condo, but i don t know where to start being a first-time buyer. how does she save for the first purchase? it s tough to do. at 23 it s great she s thinking of buying her own home. now worry about having 20% of the purchase price of the house, condo or whatever you want to buy. if you don t, you need to keep saving. one of the things you could do perhaps is get a government-backed loan, an fha loan which takes 3.5% but then you have to pay private mortgage insurance. those fees continue to go up. so pretend you have the condo or the house already. start making payments into a savings account for condo fees or mortgage fees and insurance and utilities. everything that you will need to spend on a house. put it in a savings account. start building up for the down payment and you will be in great shape for when you want to actually purchase it. pay all the bills on time. good credit rating. good luck. donna from brooklyn calling in. good morning. what s your question? good morning. my question is how do i know which company to trust when purchasing life insurance? i m a new mom with a 9-month-old daughter. i decided i need to buy life insurance just in case something happens. now with the financial debacle i know that companies nowadays can collapse. i don t want my investment in the life insurance company to in the future not be able to pay the money. all right. let s get carmen here to answer for you. very cute little girl. donna, this is ap great question. first of all you need life insurance asap. once the child is here you can t waste a day. she brings up a good point. when you sign a term or whole life insurance policy you re in a relationship for 20, 30, 40 years with a business. try to do all that you can do to make sure the business is sound. look at the credit ratings. with aig and all that happened it s hard. no guarantees but go to iii.org. this is the insurance information institute. there they have three links to the credit ratings that you want to look up. don t go with a credit rating the company gives you. it may not be up to date. may not be the most recent. of course they want to give you a certain rating. but check yourself. that s your responsibility. also look for the insurance management standards association seal of approval. this is an ethics code some companies have to get. this is a great standard. go to imsaethics.org to look for the seal. do what you can to be with the best company you can. now, let s go to an e-mail. we are talking about student loans from robin in new york city. i have a large amount of student loans, one of which is in collection for $15,000. i received some money from a grandfather who passed away. i don t know if it s better to pay off the loan or save for a down payment on a home. everybody thinks having the home, the american dream. this woman has student loans in default. she needs to focus on that first. that s the top priority. if they are federal loans one thing she can do to get them off her credit history is pay over the nine to ten months the full monthly fa lly payment. she may be able to get it off her credit history. so use a chunk to pay off the loan? there may be other debts to pay off. try to get her credit in a better situation. finaide.org is a great place to go for more information. my husband and i have been told by friends we should do a reverse mortgage on our homes. we could use money for repairs on the house. i have heard bad things about them. the house is probably worth $115,000. we owe just over $46,000. first of all, nobody does a reverse mortgage to fix their home. that s presuming you re over age 62 and you need income. basically you are getting money back from the bank but you are losing the equity in your home over time. it s the wrong thing for you. even if you want to do reverse mortgage, go to reversemortgage.org or hud.gov. you have to take a course before you are approved. you can get a home equity loan or maybe enjoy your home the way it is. sorry about that. i like it. sharon, david and carmen, thank you very much. on the east coast, stick around. carmen will be chatting on the web. head to today.com. coming up, after friday, royal fashion will be all the rage. designers, ready to make you look like a princess. first, these messages. 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[ cheers and applause ] whatever lola wants lola gets and, little man, little lola wants you [ cellphone dings ] [ cellphones ringing ] [ women screaming ] make up your mind to have one diet pepsi, please. no regrets ahh. what s going on over there? coming up, secrets from the royal kitchen. what prince william likes to eat. that and royal fashion knockoffs after your local news and weather. ok, allie s spelling bee is monday. sounds like a mini-wheats day to me! and becka s science fair is on the 8th. she s presenting the solar system. hey, i ve got just the wholegrain fiber to keep her full so she can stay focused. um, you rock. she ll be ready to rock. [ female announcer ] make your kids big days, mini-wheats days. packed with 100% whole grain fiber, kellogg s frosted mini-wheats cereal has what it takes to help keep your kids full so they can stay focused on the days that matter most. keeps em full. keeps em focused. 70 degrees. feels like summer, but for how long. tom will tell us about storms moving in after the news. it s wednesday, april 27th, 2011. in the news for today, defensive redskins player is facing six months in jail after being indictmented for misdemeanor sex abuse. he was charged from an incident where a waitress claims he fondled her breasts. he could end up facing 180 days in jail and fined. we ll take a quick break it is a mild morning, near 70. quite a bit of cloudiness, and might have an isolated shower, and then otherwise dry through the day. cloudiness and a high near 80. and then a likelihood of storms midday and ending after that. the outer belt loop will be busy for the rest of the day. construction has it backed up to the 270 super. and then downtown, backup begins at the pentagon. right now through lanes are available. join us tomorrow morning at princess diana was a royal fashion star and today kate middleton has picked up the mantle of style pace-setter. she s being watched by designers and fashion-conscious women around the world. this morning we ll meet designers who want to help you get that princess look. her wedding gown is the big secret of the big day. i m sure there will be knockoffs soon. i m surprised it didn t leak out, you know, what designer is doing the dress. i m comforted that some things can be a secret. also coming up, the prince and the commoner. i m calling not so commoner. he grew up in palaces and privilege while she grew up in more modest surroundings. through their lives prince william and kate had near meetings before becoming college sweethearts. we ll look at how their lives grew apart and came together to create history. because it s only two days from the wedding we ll be talking about secrets from the royal kitchen because one of diana s chefs who cooked for william when he was a boy is joining us this morning with some of william s favorite treats. some of what will be served at the luncheon after the wedding on friday. meantime, let s get a check of the weather. looking ahead wedding on friday. and then today we have strong storms, but first europe, we re looking at london, sunny and beautiful weather. 63 degrees. on the day of the wedding, we re looking at showers. 30% chance in the morning and 0 50% by noon, and later 60% chance. and then for today, we have got strong storms in the southeast. a high risk there. rain in the pacific northwest. a slight risk of storms through western new york. sunny and breezy through the southwest. things drying out in texas, and by the weekend, things will look better throughout much of the country. that s what s going on around the u.s. and here s what is happening in your neck of the woods. mostly cloudy and warm and humid on this wednesday morning. temperatures around 70 right now. later today, up near 80 degrees. a slight chance of an isolated shower this morning, or isolated thunderstorm. and then a likelihood of storms coming through from predawn all the way to noontime. there is a small risk that an isolated storm could produce wind damage and hail. clearing out thursday afternoon, should be dry, friday into the weekend. 70, saturday and sunday. and that s your latest weather, ann. thanks, al. up next, you don t have toer marry a prince to look like a princess for your wedding. how kate s looks inspire brides everywhere right after this. h. because you don t see this everyday. (child) because we read the books . (man) and watched the movies . and now we re living it. because i can fly with harry. follow me! because now i can turn my brother back into a human being. (narrator) from unforgettable adventures, to the wizarding world of harry potter, only at universal orlando resort. pancakes! from dawn til sunset, i ll never walk away blueberry pancakes are so good [ male announcer ] bisquick. pancake lovers unite. here s to my pants bnot leaving marks on my waist. achieve small wins with a healthy lifestyle and dannon light & fit. the light fresh yogurt with 80 calories vs. 100 in the other leading brand. here s to 80 calories tasting crazy good. live light and fit. .save on everything! no exclusions! don t miss big buys now through saturday. .like worthington essentials shirts just $14.99. .and $14.99 st. john s bay and arizona shorts. choose your color with $59.99 protocol carry-ons. .and save big on diamond jewelry just $59.99 each! plus with jcp cash, get $10 off when you spend just 25! no exclusions! unlike other stores, we don t make you come back to save! go to jcp.com to see everything on sale. we make style affordable. you make it yours. jcpenney. just love me oh oh oh just hold me oh oh oh just kiss me oh oh oh just want me l-o-v-e love, love, love don t suffer waiting for your pills to kick in. add alaway. for fast eye itch relief that works in minutes and lasts up to 12 hours. only alaway comes from bausch & lomb. for fast eye itch relief, add alaway. where everyone feels at home. where the company, the conversation, and the food make all who enter feel welcome. a place that feels as warm with a crowd. as it does with just a friend. it s a place you ll find town house crackers. because they re part of what makes your place the place. welcome to town house. where good times reside. this morning on countdown to the royal wedding, have we mentioned that the wedding is two days away? the anticipation is mounting, especially in the fashion world. today and us weekly contributor jill martin has checked in on how designers will be watching every detail as kate walks down the aisle. good morning. there s a wedding coming up? almost every little girl will put on a poufy dress, top it with a tiara and dream of being a real life princess. for one little girl that s about to become a reality. kate s dress will be a gown girls of all ages will swoon over, especially brides-to-be. just because you are not royalty doesn t mean you can t look like it. every move he makes, every fashionable step she takes is snapped and noticed by fashionistas around the world. the world is obsessed with william and kate, every time they step out we cannot wait to see what they are wearing. reporter: it has been reported that prince william will be wearing a military uniform. i hope he wears the naval uniform. i think it will remind us of his father and grandfather. reporter: bernardo is the creative director at joseph aboud. what do you think the guests will wear? reporte elton john will be there and the beckhams. i m sure the morning coat. reporter: he expects traditional morning coats, military uniforms and lounge suits on full display. the lounge suit is basically a dark suit which we have here with the narrow pinstripe, white shirt, a silvery tie. then a pocket square. reporter: so who will be making kate s dress? that is the big question. there are three designers in the running to be the official designer of the dress. we will not know for sure until she walks down the aisle. reporter: but even though the dress is being kept hush-hush, that hasn t stopped designers from announcing plans. the moment kate walks down the aisle we ll watch what she s wearing with pen and paper in hand. reporter: faviana is known for celebrity-inspired dresses. the designer gives women looks for less. for celebrities wearing a dress that may cost $30,000 we make the same look for $300. reporter: they have done versions of kate s past looks going back to 2007. they plan to treat the royal wedding like any other red carpet show. just like the rest of the world we cannot wait to see what kate middleton is wearing. reporter: get this the lookalike dress will be in stores in less than eight weeks. jewelry designers are making sure brides will sparkle in style. roberta chiarella has been designing kate s looks since she stepped onto the royal scene. what s great with kate is people are really watching her. for the jewelry world, i don t think we could be luckier. reporter: they offer kate s priceless looks for prices most women can afford. she plans to give brides-to-be the royal treatment and fast give me the timeline for the big day. 4:00 a.m., pad in hand. 9:00 a.m. sketches are complete. 10:00 the sketches are on the website. two to three weeks later they are walking down the aisle with looks inspired by kate. reporter: if you re a girl who found your true love, just remember you don t have to marry a prince to look like a princess. there is a reason why designers are jumping on the bandwagon early. diana s dress became the most copied gown in history. within five hours of her walking down the aisle her dress was on sale. meantime what s on sale is this number. this little number. that s the bigger one. this is the smaller one here from digsrocks.com. her ring is estimated at $300,000 for the sapphire and over $10 million for the ring. this one? $99. you see a lot of trends here and a lot of designers jumping on early. i talked about one dress designer but so many have their pen and pads in hand waiting for her to walk down the aisle at 4:00 a.m. it s interesting. i wonder when they knock off her work? so good to see you. up next, the parallel lives of a prince and his soon to be princess. coming up after this. woman: till all the books are read. man: and all the pens are put down. woman: and everything there is to learn is learned. man: till the heroes retire and the monsters return to their dens. woman: and all the plots are wrapped up. man: till that day. boy: by hook or by crook. girl: by book or by nook. woman: i will read. here s to my pants not leaving marks on my waist. achieve small wins with a healthy lifestyle and dannon light & fit. the light fresh yogurt with 80 calories vs. 100 in the other leading brand. here s to 80 calories tasting crazy good. live light and fit. no hoops to jump through to get it? even better. not a big fan of hoops. that s why i have the bankamericard cash rewards credit card. we get 1% cash back on every purchase. there s no limit to the amount of cash back i can earn. and the rewards yes. won t expire. bankamericard cash rewards. 1% cash back. no hoops to jump through. nice and simple. just the way i like it. 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[ lane ] here s the trouble with most anti-wrinkle creams. the cream disappears but your wrinkles don t. introducing neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. it has the fastest retinol formula available. in fact, it s clinically proven to smooth wrinkles in just one week. so all you have to do is sit back and watch your wrinkles go away. new rapid wrinkle repair. from neutrogena®. new rapid wrinkle repair. nothing beats the taste of honey bunches of oats with real strawberries. it s full of sun ripened strawberries. and 10 grams of whole grain per serving. mmmm delicious! nothing s better than honey bunches of oats with real strawberries. much has been made of the fact that prince william is marrying kate, a commoner who will one day be queen. keith miller looks at despite such different backgrounds the happy couple, after near misses, finally came together. good morning, keith. good morning. well, everybody assumes that william and kate came together at university. but, in fact, their lives were crossing long before then. they started their lives five months apart but worlds away. prince william was christened by the archbishop of canterbury inside buckingham palace. kate s christening was at the local church. reporter: william grew up destined to be king, always in the public eye. kate was making her mark at school, taking center stage in the school play about a prince called william. i wish to marry you. yes. oh, yes, dear william. reporter: was destiny at work here? kate middleton grew up in this modest red brick house in a stable, middle class family. 42 miles away in london, prince william was born in another red good morning, everyone. we re awaiting a statement from president obama from the white house in just a couple of minutes from now. the president is expected to address the so-called birther issue, that first erupted during the 2008 presidential campaign. in response to questions about where president obama was born, just this morning, the white house released a long form copy of the president s birth certificate. this also comes on a morning when we learned word the white house is going to announce a major shakeup to the nation s top military and intelligence posts. let s bring in chief white house correspondent chuck todd. good morning to you. good morning, matt. on the birth certificate issue, the white house has not wanted to talk about this issue for a long time. not wanting to give it credibility. there was some speculation, they liked the talk about it. why are they talking about it so openly this morning? if you look at recent polls, the recent up tick in conversation about the president s birth certificate, led mostly by donald trump, has risen the number of repuck i bl who have questions about where the president was born to record highs. and at this point, according to a white house briefing this morning that was off camera, they felt they had to put the rest to this conspiracy theory. an extraordinary moment. kind of shocking and surreal. even the conversation and chatter here in the pressroom, people scratching their heads, this statement by the president is going to be about the birth certificate. not about these changes. the announcement about the new defense secretary, leon panetta and david petraeus will come tomorrow. today s statement by the president is solely on the release of his long form birth certificate. the president has called this a distraction. with major news coming on the defense department and cia, here we are talking about something that s a distraction to key issues and so many other issues that are key to our country. wait a second. let s listen to what the president has to say. now, let me just comment first of all on the fact that i can t get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions. i was back there listening to chuck, saying it s amazing that he s not going to be talking about national security. i would not have the networks breaking in if i was talking about that, chuck, and you know it. as many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the site of my birth. now, this issue has been going on for 2, 2 1/2 years now. i think it started during the campaign, and i have to say, over the last 2 1/2 years, i have watched with bemusement, i have been puzzled by the degree to which this thing kept on going. we had every official in hawaii, democrat and republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, i was born in hawaii, august 4, 1961, in kelahani hospital. we posted the certification that is given by the state of hawaii on the internet for everybody to see. people have provided affidavits that they, in fact, have seen this birth certificate, and, yet, this thing just keeps on going. now, normally, i would not comment on something like this. because obviously there is a lot of stuff swirling in the press on any given day, and i ve got other things to do. but two weeks ago, when the republican house had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences, potentially, to the country and when i gave a speech about my budget and how i felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors, even as we were closing the deficit, during that entire week, the dominant news story wasn t about these huge monumental choices that we re going to have to make as a nation, it was about my birth certificate and that was true on most of the news outlets that are represented here. so i just want to make a larger point here. we ve got some enormous challenges out there. a lot of folks out there still looking for work. everybody is still suffering under high gas prices. we re going to have to milwauak series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future and also get a hold of our deficit and our debt. how do we do that in a balanced way? this will generate a huge and serious debate. important debates. and there is going to be some fierce disagreements, and that s good. that s how democracy is supposed to work. and i am confident that the american people and america s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. we always have. but we re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted. we re not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other. we re not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up. and pretend that facts are not facts. we re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by side shows and carnival barkers. we live in a serious time right now, and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grandkids and great grandkids proud. and i have every confidence that america in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top just like we always have. but we have to get serious to do it. now, i know that there is going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. but i m speaking to the vast majority of the american people. as well as to the press. we do not have time for this kind of silliness. we have better stuff to do. i ve got better stuff to do. we ve got big problems to solve, and i m confident we can solve them, but we have to focus on them. not on this. thanks very much, everybody. the president at the white house this morning, in the press briefing room, taking on the issue of his citizenship, in an extraordinary moment, saying we have lots of big problems to face in this country, we don t need distractions to these real problems. we can t solve them if we re dealing with side shows and carnival barkers. i believe we ve got chuck todd. cluc chuck, still with me? yes, sir. you got called out in the beginning. extraordinary what we just watched. somebody was joking around here, almost like out of an episode of the west wing. you would expect this out of a fictionalized drama. the president felt he to do this. the problem was, he brought up some troubling points. more than half of republicans said they had questions about the president s citizenship. it made it so it was becoming a distraction. and he brought up the fact that, yes, it may be blaming the media, but this has to do with the fact that had you a lot of republican leaders, or not necessarily the official leaders, but unofficial leaders, talking about it to the point that he couldn t talk about the budget. david gregory joining us from the white house. donald trump taking credit for this, saying i m glad i could play a role in getting the information out. an incredible split screen. the president using the background of the white house insisting he was born in the united states and donald trump, talking about how he play aid role gelting this on there. all of this in the middle what we re facing right now. david gregory, chuck todd. we re facing right now. david gregory, chuck todd. thank you very much. bree: sis, help me create my oasis. marcy: ok, romantic garden? bree: oh, is there a castle nearby? marcy: no, but there s a charming farmhouse. bree: right next to my posh castle! i m sensing a theme here. well, i am the queen, dear sister. love those jeans. $175. ch-ching! excuse me? ever consider showing your customers what other stores charge for jeans? um.no. when it comes to car insurance, progressive direct does. i saved hundreds when switching. that s a lot. the jeans are skinny. the savings. are fat. out there with a better way. now, that s progressive. temperature, and we are at 9:56 on the clock, wednesday april 27th, 2011. i am barbara harrison. today people in maryland pay their final respect to former governor, donald schaefer. his funeral will be held where he served as mayor. a tom is with us now to tell us if this kind of not such great looking weather will be with us all day? quite a bit of cloudiness, and a mild and muggy morning that we have been dealing with. it will turn into a warm and muggy evening, too. and then tomorrow morning, from predawn to fi11:00 in the morni, there is a slight risk of severe storms and then drying out into the weekend. we re watching carefully for the midday roadwork scheduled to get under way at this hour. at the dulles toll road, once they set up in the left lane it will back upcoming off 270 quickly. and then 66 headed for the beltway, cleared out and good news there. coming up on new news4 mid, a lesson from nbc news, this is today with kathie lee gifford and hoda kotbe live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. just two days until the royal wedding begins. i did not sleep last night. worried about it? no. let me tell you my plan. if the dress is going fit. this is my big night in. i was going to watch the voice and fall asleep by 9:30 or 10:00. this show, the voice is insane. finally. thank you, lord. i was so excited this is how they do it. all of the judges, we love them, they just listen. they don t look at the singer. i have seen the promos. if they like what they hear they turn their chair around. there was a duo i loved. they are a couple who lives in the basement of the wife s parent s house. they got nothing going on. by choice? yes. and they need a break. good for them. so they sang this duet. [ applause ] one turned around? two. what happens is then the couple looks at the judges and says one of you is going help me with my career. who did they choose. who did they choose? they chose blake. i was watching the show. i don t know why, i m emotional. i was crying watching it. they do a little back story. it s what happens when the television show is done well, you care about the people. and sometimes they don t turn their chair around and that means they don t get picked. their family is watching in a secret room. oh, that s frenchie. remember her? the parents are watching in another room and crying. this is very sweet. look at her. come on. it s such a fun show. it s like a hit. i love it already. i we can see it tonight. they re repeating it. glee was sneaky. they didn t do an hour, they did an hour and a half. that was foxy of them. we re going to run it again tonig tonight. i m happy for all of them. the opportunity for people. it s very, very hard to get noticed in this crazy world. good for them. we have a big day of music today. yes, we do. we re going to announce the cmt awards for the 2011 year. we re doing it one place only, here on our show. we have band perry with us. evan farmer is the big cheese at the cmt music awards. what we re going to do is we re going to tell you the music video nominees, the male vocalists, and it s going to be live. live here. i m thinking about what happened yesterday. thinking about what happened yesterday. you and i went off to the friars club to do, i think we raised money for charity. show the pictures. we actually sit there and talk and people pay money and it goes to charity. that was liza. she came to lunch and stayed afterwards. who else? angela. she was a host of the show. and look over there, frank gifford showed up. he needed his wine so there he was. and what else? that is freddy. he has been a member of the friars club for probably 100 years. my very first performance was with him. he was so kind. i love you, freddy. see that dress? we both had on what we wore to the show. i usually leave my clothes and shoes here in new york and go home and put on my sweats. this morning, most times i get a little present left by a certain member of my family. guess what the little member of my family left me this morning? my favorite shoes, my valentinos, eaten. this is a tragedy. who did that? that guy! he was the orchestratchestro. he doesn t know the difference between payless and valentino. what is wrong with him? throw them away. look at you. i am shameless. get another pair. the right shoe size, 7. you re a 7? now i wear a 7. before i had my babies i was a 5 and a half. men look for women with small feet. i shows fertility. no it doesn t. i don t believe everything i read in the papers. good luck. i m begging. i m begging. usually i keep things like this in perspective. not today. we like her. it was tara, or stephanie. really pretty girl. kathy was entertaining and regaling the folks with all kinds of stories. we were having a good time. at one point somebody asked about jay, her boyfriend. and i said are you kidding? what s better than a boyfriend who actually has a job. and he has a good job. are. i don t think he reads these things. i don t think he cares. we have a little more music news. we have a music video premier on monday. it s a j-lo song. we have a snip of it right here. oh. i m into you. i m into you. she s adorable. the most beautiful woman on the planet. she will be with us on monday. matt lauer was busy. he went to fallon. he dressed in a british outfit. he has to sit there for seven hours and not have any time to go to the men s room. apparently they talked about the royal wedding and who is going and who is not. meredith is there, al is there, ann will be there, i will be there. who will be here in new york? hoda and kathy lee. they will have a kegger. we won t have a party. there will be nothing left behind. yes, we have already decided we were going to trash to place while everybody was gone. they didn t have to tell us to do that. very excited today. when ray is here, guess what? it s all about wine. apparently we have two red wines in front of us. both of them with dirty glasses but i won t say anything. as long as jerry touched them, i m in love. one of them is cheapish $17. that s cheap for a bottle. one of them. i will tell you right now, i always like the less expensive. did you smell? this is the cheaper one. how do we know? you know? okay. i absolutely you like that one? i think the short round glass is the less expensive. don t tell. i would say that in an instant. this is the $17. the less expensive is the short one. wrong. are you positive? i want to order six cases of this. a gallon. so the splurge is the big glass. the short one is the this one is the most expensive. okay. all right. there you go. i will pour my wine into my one cup and my shoe. matt told me when i showed him the shoe, he said that s because bambino was attracted to your foot odor. apparently that s why dogs do that. even dogs have fetishes, too. it is time for our derby hat contest. you must send in the photo to our website. you must be wearing the hat and you have to have designed and created it. you have to tell us a little bit about it. the contest starts today and ends on tuesday, may 3. the winner will be announced on the fourth. guess what they are getting. the winner will get round trip air fare for two. it airs may 7 beginning on nbc. i don t understand why we re not going to that, too. i m starting to get they don t want us going anywhere. we used to travel. not any more. this is it. these are the awards that you will actually decide on. we re going to announce this year s cmt award nominees coming up. [ male announcer ] when mike rowe heads home, his family knows what to expect. hun, mike s coming let s get crackin . [ male announcer ] but what mike rowe doesn t know is that his parents have armed themselves with unquilted viva® towels. place looks great. [ male announcer ] mike doesn t know that every concentrated viva roll is made of strong, fiber packed sheets, making it one tough towel. but his mom sure does. wow, for me? you shouldn t have. i insist. [ male announcer ] hey, if viva can handle mike rowe s mess, just think what it can do in your home. grab a roll for yourself and grasp the unquilted difference. here s to my pants not leaving marks grabon my waist.yourself achieve small wins with a healthy lifestyle and dannon light & fit. the light fresh yogurt with 80 calories vs. 100 in the other leading brand. here s to 80 calories tasting crazy good. live light and fit. don t suffer waiting for your pills to kick in. add alaway. for fast eye itch relief that works in minutes and lasts up to 12 hours. only alaway comes from bausch & lomb. for fast eye itch relief, add alaway. oh yeah, great wings. so.why did you call? just want to give you your menus back, fridge magnet, and two unused coupons. okay! [ male announcer ] new digiorno pizza and boneless wings. it s not delivery, it s digiorno pizza and wings. if you are a country fan, put down that beer and take notes. today we re so excited because we get to bring you the exclusive announcement of some of this year s nominees. is he here? host of the top 20 count down. hello. these fans can vote. the only entirely fan voted award show out there. at cmt.com you vote and chose. we re starting with female video of the year whoch. who do we have. sarah evans, a little stronger, miranda lambert, reba, taylor swift and carrie underwood. miranda is favored a little? nine nominations, i think. yeah. she is such a nice person, too. she has this reputation of a gun toting fire cracker. she s a doll. she is a doll. her fiance has a hit show on nbc. there you go. a power couple. next, male video of the year. get to the men. jason aldean, kenny chesney, blake shellton and keith urban, without you. jason aldean s video there is a back story. he was telling me that they showed up to some property in tennessee to shoot the video and ryan smith didn t get a permit or something like that and the landowner is like get off my land. so he went and found jason is like oh many gosh, this is never going to work out. they had already spent a lot of money. boom, number one song. been on the count down for pretty much half a year. kathie? we re going to do group video of the year. lady antebellum, little big town, rascal flats, the band perry. congratulations you guys, and the zach brown band for colder weather. you guys are such the hot ticket this year. did you expect all of this attention? i think we knew we had a strong song. could have never imagined the last year we have had. you guys are going to sing for us. glad to have you with us. the minute i heard your vocals, i thought that has to be a family. yeah. you guys are amazing. congratulations. we will see you wait wait wait. i have more. we will see june 8. today is the day. today it starts. you kick it off. come on. so you want to do the last segment. video of the year. jason aldean, kenny chesney, lady antebellum, rascal flats, sugarland, carrie underwood and zach brown band. what an unbelievable group of people. massive talent. going to be the best show ever. tell us when we can see it. june 8. do you host it? i might as well. we wish you the best. thank you for being with us. we will hear you sing for us. all the nominated stuff. you can go to our website and vote for your favorite artists. up next the cutest web tasks. [ female announcer ] at the jcpenney biggest sale of the season. .save on everything! no exclusions! don t miss big buys now through saturday. .like worthington essentials shirts just $14.99. .and $14.99 st. john s bay and arizona shorts. choose your color with $59.99 protocol carry-ons. .and save big on diamond jewelry just $59.99 each! plus with jcp cash, get $10 off when you spend just 25! no exclusions! unlike other stores, we don t make you come back to save! go to jcp.com to see everything on sale. we make style affordable. you make it yours. jcpenney. ever wish vegetables didn t taste so vegetably? well, v8 v-fusion juice gives you a full serving of vegetables, plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. v8. what s your number? just love me oh oh oh just hold me oh oh oh just kiss me oh oh oh just want me l-o-v-e love, love, love [ chanting ] do it! [ all cheering ] [ female announcer ] it s fun to get dirty when it s this easy to get clean. that s because clorox 2 stain fighter & color booster works better than detergent alone at removing the toughest stains. [ female announcer ] when is it okay to lose the cover-up? when you can. take the special k challenge. and lose an inch from your waist in two weeks. so lose your cover-up, and show off your confidence. design your plan at specialk.com. notice. and we re back with our special series we call webtastic. it s the time of the week when sarah puts you ahead of the curve. what can be cuter than a laughing baby and a dog? pretty much nothing. check out 10 month old molly and benny the dog and their encounter with mom s bubbles. [ laughing ] this is molly. she turned ten months old on monday. the mom had bought bubbles before. she never showed any interest until benny showed interest. the family adopted him from a shelter in 2008 this video started with 50 views. the mom was thrilled. it now has over 1 million and a half. so cute. you know that the little girl is just going you re killing me. she could never get her to react. then benny gets involved and she can t get enough. i still can t believe what happened to you, kathie. it doesn t bother me at all. now we count down to will and kate s wedding and who knew trivia. and the band perry is going to perform live for us downstairs. and it s wednesday, which means winesday around here. wait a minute. wait a minute. don t tell that take that back. we will be right back. what lola gets and, little man, little lola wants you [ cellphone dings ] [ cellphones ringing ] [ women screaming ] make up your mind to have one diet pepsi, please. no regrets ahh. what s going on over there? what s going on over there? call on me, brother, when you need a hand we all need somebody. brawny now comes with a money back guarantee. when you want a paper towel that can do it all, lean on me. when you need something strong brawny never lets you down. we ll handcraft an arrangement that is sure to delight. ohh! take our tote-ally original, tote-ally mom bouquet, a stylish gift that fits her perfectly. let us arrange a smile for you, starting at $29.99. here s to my pants not leaving marks on my waist. achieve small wins with a healthy lifestyle and dannon light & fit. the light fresh yogurt with 80 calories vs. 100 in the other leading brand. here s to 80 calories tasting crazy good. live light and fit. claimed 13 lives in arkansas and mississippi in the last couple of nights. tom is tracking the storm and will let us know when our area could see severe weather. coming up, we get a lesson in baking french [ male announcer ] are you paying more and more for cable and enjoying it less and less? stop paying for second best. upgrade to verizon fios and get tv, internet and phone for just $99.99 a month for a year. call now and you ll get this special bonus: $100 back. there s no term contract required. if you don t absolutely love fios you cacancel any time with no early terminatiofee. fios is a 100% fiber-optic network that delivers the best channel lineup, superior picture quality and more hd, plus the fastest internet in the u.s. why keep paying for cable? get fios tv, internet and phone for just $99.99 a month, plus $100 back. this is a limited time offer, so don t wait. call 1.877.827.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that s 1.877.827.3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. get the network that delivers more. get fios. a network ahead. and we re back with more of today and it s time to get royal. kathie is with the crowd across the street and ready to hand out 100 bucks to those who know what we re talking about and to those who don t will get kathie lee s music. anya is here to help us. lovely ladies from ohio. how many people tuned in to watch princess diana and prince charls wedding? it s an hour show, may i remind you? 750. there you go! when you think about it, this time around we re expecting one to two billion people to tune in. live or will people tivo it? that probably includes the computer, ipads and more. look at these darling girls. everyone is from lockport, new york. how many wedding cakes did princess diana and prince charles have to have at their wedding? what do you think? 14. what do you think? 3. you re both wrong. i gave them a chance. all right. be like real sisters and fight over my record. the actual number is 27 wedding cakes. is that because of all the people? yeah. all occasions. why not. they had one official cake made by the naval armed forces. several tiers and took 14 weeks to make and supposedly edly 12 to bake the bottom layer. think we will see something similar with will and kate? i doubt 27. all these great kids from a high school in louisiana. in what country did prince william propose to kate middleton? kenya. yeah, momma. uh-huh. so kenya, on safari? it was a nice destination proposal. pretty trendy. he did ask the queen s permission and also kate middleton s dad. i m curious where they will go on their honeymoon. i m thinking down under. these lovely people are from florida where there is great surfing in the wintertime. true or false, prince william is older than kate middleton. false. good girl. i did not give her the answer. you are right. there you go. she is in reality a year older. she is just six months older. she is 28 years old and that makes her one of the oldest royal brides to ever be married. diana was young. she was like 25. back across. they are from kentucky! how long was princess diana s wedding dress train? 25 feet. how did she know that? 25 feet long is the longest train in royal history. you know, david and elizabeth designed the dress just for the cathedral there. that was a bigger church so she had a big, grand dress. just a few days away. thank you so much. kathie is going to come on back. tricks to get the wine out of your rug and the dust out of your window screens after this. [ male announcer ] crisco. blue bonnet butter. pam non-stick cooking spray. and a stanley saw. did your brother have anything to do with this? no. yes. [ male announcer ] only walmart has low prices every day on everything you need. backed by our ad match guarantee. save money. live better. walmart. a body at rest tends to stay at rest. while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you ve had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. if you are about to start your spring cleaning, you have come to the right place. all of the solutions you need may be right in your kitchen pantry. how would you know? we have the editor for thenest.com. we have five surprising house products that double as stain and dirt remover. so you can start cleaning right now well after the show. you are starting off with cleaning the micro wave. and if you leave them for a while they get really grimy. you put water in a glass pitcher or anything that is microwave safe and you pour vanilla in it and you close it and put it on high for about five minutes. it will steam up, smell delicious. when you open it you can wipe it down and it will come right off. and smell like vanilla like you have been baking cookies. and a clean microwave. this can get nasty. how do we get that cleaned up? you don t want to wipe it with the wrong piece of paper or anything. tvs, computer screens, mirrors. if you have coffee filters, they are perfect for wiping off all the dust. no product on it? don t use any product. don t use win dex. i do. nothing is wrong with my computer. you don t have to run to the store. sometimes you have a vase and it you put knit in the dishwasher. especially if it has a narrow neck. you put in egg shells. these will act as an abrasive and get all the gunk off. they will do the scraping when you mix it around. this is water with dish washing detergent and it goes in and you have your cleaning. it will get all the grime off. you can fill it all the way up. very cool. that s clever. so this has happened a million times. you shatter a glass in shards. you will sweep this up and try to get it away. you still see the flints of glass. you can take bread and it will just squeeze up the little flints. look at you. you can get it on there. look at you. what do you do about a dog that eats your shoe? come up here. talk to us about the wine stains. this is a lot of times people will spill their wine. which is a common problem and you want to get after it right away. this is corn starch. and you add water. corn starch and water. and stir it. and kathie, if you want to spill the wine. because she has never done that before. is it the cheap stuff or expensive? let me see. i m not spilling it. i ll pour a little, where. i m not wasting it. jerry is wrong. so it s wet. you want to put some of the corn starch on it. quickly and efficiently. you don t have to do a lot. this is perfect. corn starch thickens gravies and stews. let it dry. it will turn into a crust like this and it peels up and you have the whole stain. isn t that great? you can take it off and vacuum it and the stain is gone. up next, wines, the thing that will please the palate of a princess and us. coming up, they re going to sing for us. the band perry is down stairs and they will sing live right after this. man: and all the pens are put down. woman: and everything there is to learn is learned. man: till the heroes retire and the monsters return to their dens. woman: and all the plots are wrapped up. man: till that day. boy: by hook or by crook. girl: by book or by nook. woman: i will read. [ female announcer ] wake up to sweetness with honey nut cheerios cereal. kissed with real honey. and the 100% natural whole grain oats n help lower your cholesterol. you are so sweet to me. bee happy. bee healthy. whoooo, let s do this! what s with the milk? digiorno comes with tollhouse cookies now! we got milk! awesomeeeee! [ male announcer ] new digiorno pizza and nestlé tollhouse cookies. it s not delivery, it s digiorno pizza and cookies. [ male announcer ] from the first fire, perhaps every light since then has been leading up to this. advanced led technology from ge, lasting over 20 years with 75% less in energy costs. available now in a bulb and soon in forms as limitless as our imagination. [ caveman chatter ] [ caveman chatter ] ever wish vegetables didn t taste so vegetably? well, v8 v-fusion juice gives you a full serving of vegetables, plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. v8. what s your number? a place that changes lives every day. welcome to the sleep number store. a visit here can improve your whole life. as the sleep number setting goes down, the mattress gets softer. that s nice. as the sleep number setting goes up, the bed gets firmer. it s really molding to my body. here, you ll learn how your bed may be causing pain and how the sleep number bed can relieve that pain right in the store. the small of my back was not being supported before. now it is. we have a left and a right so you can each control your individual side. there s no debate, because you can have it your way and i ll have it mine. we save a lot of marriages. wow. they do that a lot. when you find somebody s perfect level of comfort, that may be the first time they ve ever felt a bed that feels exactly like they re hoping it would. hurry in now to the sleep number white sale, for amazing savings through april 30th. and queen mattresses always start at just $699. only at the sleep number store. to us, you re not just a person. you re a number. count down to the royal wedding. absolutely. food and wine magazine s executive editor has brought along noble reds and highest ranked whites as well as affordable options. we will have a taste testing. you nailed that wine at the start of the show. you got it. it wasn t jerry s fault, it was ed. you don t have to drink the cheap wine. the royal wedding they will have champagne. what we have here is really wonderful champagne. and you guys have to figure it out. you cannot call it champagne unless it comes from the champagne region. take a sip of that and the next one. which is the $550 bottle of champagne? i like the cheap one. you know which is which? that is true. this was served at princess diana and prince charles wedding. a fantastic champagne. it is nice. how much is that? $14.99. that s good. okay. kate loves white wine. i knew i loved her. we have a couple of white wines. one from australia, one from france. okay. you might guess the french is more expensive but which is which. that s the key question here.i expensive one. give me a chance. the pressure is on here. which do you think? one is australian and one is french? come on. that s australian. that is correct. you nailed it. wait. what do you mean you nailed it. you nailed it before i had a drink of anything. what the heck are you doing? stop copying me. now pinot noir. one fit for a royal wedding and one fit for commoners. the rest of us. which one? one of these is a burr burgandy. one is an affordable $20. this is the hardest one for me. they are very similar. i m going to say this that s the most expensive. this is the affordable. i think you nailed it again. what a palate i have got. this is the $14. it is nice. the royal family, big family, we have one of these is we get paid for this. bottled in 1969 for charles investiture of crown prince. look at her. 45 bucks for the other. quick quick determination? expensive. expensive. expensive, not. kathie lee wins on that one. of course she wins the wine contest. mike gifford you must be so proud of me. the band perry is going to play for us live downstairs but first this is today on nbc. [ male announcer ] are you paying more and more for cable and enjoying it less and less? stop paying for second best. upgrade to verizon fios and get tv, internet and phone for just $99.99 a month for a year. call now and you ll get this special bonus: $100 back. there s no term contract required. if you don t absolutely love fios you cacancel any time with no early terminatiofee. fios is a 100% fiber-optic network that delivers the best channel lineup, superior picture quality and more hd, plus the fastest internet in the u.s. why keep paying for cable? get fios tv, internet and phone for just $99.99 a month, plus $100 back. this is a limited time offer, so don t wait. call 1.877.827.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that s 1.877.827.3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. get the network that delivers more. get fios. a network ahead. okay now for the moment we have been talking about. the band perry has had an extraordinary year. the group s self-titled debut album was certified gold and they have been showered with award nominations including three this morning from the cmt music awards. they are not only talented but they are also siblings, neil, kimberly and reid. where did you grow up? mobile, alabama, the hot sweaty south. a lot of good music comes outs of the south. it is like the cross roads of rock and roll, country and blues. this is such a big hit. thank you for coming to see us. thanks for having us. it s called if i die young. you are all so young now. we want you to live long time and make a lot of great hits. here they are, the band perry, everybody.