Male Divas Strike Back in VH1 Concert; Sandra Bullock Makes Rehab Funny in '28 Days'
LAURIN SYDNEY, CO-HOST: Hi there, everybody. I'm Laurin Sydney in New York. Paul Vercammen is in Los Angeles. Female divas watch out, the men are striking back. Sting, The Backstreet Boys and Enrique Iglesias were among the music-making men who took the stage for VH1's first annual "Men Strike Back" concert. Our very own male diva Bill Tush was there and has more.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the first year that the men have been able to do their own divas concert. It's about time. What do you all think?</s>BILL TUSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You're part of the divas tonight, right?</s>A.J MCLEAN, "THE BACKSTREET BOYS": Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Male divas.</s>TUSH: Male divas. What do you call the whole group -- I mean, the divettes?</s>MCLEAN: Divi's.</s>THE BACKSTREET BOYS: The divi's</s>SUSAN SARANDON, ACTRESS: I guess, male divas are people who, you know, take a long time to get dressed and use a lot of hairspray.</s>ENRIQUE IGLESIAS, SINGER: Divas?</s>TUSH: Yes, that's what I can't figure out.</s>IGLESIAS: Do I look like a diva?</s>TUSH: That what I can't -- I mean, I always thought a woman, a diva.</s>DEBORAH GIBSON, SINGER: I'm dying to see Enrique. Enrique. I've never seen him live. And I'm actually a friend and fan of the Backstreet Boys and I always love when they get out there live.</s>MCLEAN: I think it's cool that, you know, that VH-1 is now, kind of, switching it up a little bit and letting us guys have a shot at doing our thing.</s>TOM JONES, SINGER: The program is called "Men Strike Back." It's for VH-1 and it's all male. So we're going to do some duets, one with D'Angelo, one with Enrique Iglesias and one with Sting.</s>TUSH: What brings you here tonight, besides a car?</s>JENNA ELFMAN, ACTRESS: Men.</s>TUSH: Men.</s>ELFMAN: Men.</s>TUSH: Well, see, I'm talking to you because I'm sick of talking to men.</s>ELFMAN: You did?</s>TUSH: Yes.</s>ELFMAN: That's right because the girls are interesting.</s>SARANDON: I'm getting to introduce Sisqo, who I -- you know, I'm wearing a thong in honor of.</s>ROSHUMBA, MODEL: Their thong parties for Sisqo, you know, the "Thong Song." Look, I even wrote his name on them.</s>ELFMAN: I want to meet Sting really badly. If you can help me do that, that would be good.</s>TUSH: I've got connections. Do you want to just hang out here?</s>ELFMAN: You do?</s>TUSH: He's going to come by. You've never met Sting?</s>ELFMAN: No, I've never met Sting and I love Sting.</s>DYLAN MCDERMOTT, ACTOR: I love D'Angelo and Sting and Christina Aguilera, so I think it's going to be a fun night.</s>PAUL VERCAMMEN, CO-HOST: Matthew McConahay's close friend Sandra Bullock has a new movie opening up in two days called "28 Days." She stars in the rehab comedy as a young woman having a little too much fun. Sherri Sylvester had fun with Sandra and friends in Hollywood.</s>SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is not the first time Hollywood has checked into rehab, but the makers of "28 Days" seem to have followed a 12-step program to ensure successful completion.</s>SANDRA BULLOCK, ACTRESS: It was all there. It was all in the writing.</s>SYLVESTOR: Step one: Buy the script from Susannah Grant, who also wrote "Erin Brockovich." Two: Get Betty Thomas to direct. She has Howard Stern's "Private Parts" to her credit. And she takes critical Step three: Hiring Sandra Bullock.</s>BULLOCK: She had done a lot of research on me, apparently. She'd called everybody I'd worked with and did a little snooping. I was like, well, who can I call about you, you call up Howard Stern?</s>BETTY THOMAS, DIRECTOR: Oh, she hates that I did that. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "28 DAYS") BULLOCK: I can. I can.</s>THOMAS: I didn't know if she was willing to be bad and go to deep, dark spots and have people not really like her.</s>SYLVESTER: Bullock was ready to visit the dark side. She and Thomas then checked themselves into rehab groups with different results. (on camera): I bet they were not happy to see a star.</s>BULLOCK: They were not happy to see that I was there, nor would I be. I wasn't there to do research, I was basically there to do what they did, and please, I mean, have so much to learn.</s>THOMAS: I found at AA meetings and in rehab, both, when I was doing the research, that there was a lot bit of laughter, quite a bit of laughter -- laughter beyond what I had. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "28 DAYS") BULLOCK: Everyone, this is Gwen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I'm thinking booze.</s>MICHAEL O'MALLEY, ACTOR: OK.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Painkillers.</s>BULLOCK: I guess I drank.</s>O'MALLEY: Yes, come to papa.</s>O'MALLEY: They had to take it seriously. We were there for comic relief...</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Yes.</s>O'MALLEY: ... because rehab's funny.</s>SYLVESTER: Steps 6-10: Steve Buscemi, Elizabeth Perkins, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Mike O'Malley and Alan Tudyk, supporting players and fearless improvisers -- to add comic relief. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "28 DAYS") UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: This could be your liver right now.</s>O'MALLEY: Do you you have plans for dinner.</s>O'MALLEY: She really gave us a lot of leeway to continue to come up with different...</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Zingers baby.</s>O'MALLEY: ... smart-ass things to say.</s>SYLVESTER: Step 11: Mix the comedy and drama in a way that won't offend recovering addicts.</s>THOMAS: I kept in touch with a couple of people from that rehab center and I hope to have their final word on everything very soon.</s>SYLVESTER: The final step may be the most difficult: giving the film over to an audience. Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.</s>SYDNEY: Coming up: Why do some midseason TV shows look eerily familiar. And one of the creators of "Flashdance" revisits some old themes in the new film, "Coyote Ugly."