Gloria Allred Represents Twin of Petraeus Whistle-Blower; Reality TV Stars Weigh in on Gaza Conflict; Voice of Elmo Leaves `Sesame Street`
A.J. HAMMER, HOST: Tonight, Elmo resigns. The voice of Elmo, Kevin Clash, steps down as a second accuser comes forward claiming sexual abuse. And famed attorney Gloria Allred speaks out with the twin of the Petraeus whistle-blower. But which will top the SHOWBIZ Countdown of news breakers tonight? Hello, and thank you for watching. I`m A.J. Hammer. We`ve got two big SHOWBIZ Countdowns tonight, including five outrageous star stories today. Stars doing things that made us say, "What the...?" But we begin with our first SHOWBIZ Countdown of the night. It`s today`s top three news breakers. Kicking it off at No. 3 with famed attorney and protector of mistresses everywhere, Gloria Allred. Yes, today Gloria became the latest character in the cheating circus that brought down former CIA chief David Petraeus, the very same Gloria Allred who, of course, represented several of Tiger Woods` mistresses and the mistress at the center of Sandra Bullock`s split from Jesse James. All right. I know what you`re thinking. I`m thinking it, too. What the heck does Gloria Allred have to do with General Petraeus and all the craziness in this story? Well, it turns out she`s representing the twin sister of Jill Kelley. Jill is the whistle-blower who reportedly got threatening e-mails from the general`s mistress. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT was right there this afternoon for Allred`s news conference with the woman who revealed Petraeus has been supportive of Natalie in a bitter custody fight with her ex-husband.</s>GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY: Natalie Khawam is a loving, caring mother to her 4-year-old son, a supportive, loving sister to her twin, Jill Kelley. And an aunt to her ten nieces and nephews. She is part of a strong and devoted family.</s>HAMMER: OK. And to be very clear, Gloria`s client, Natalie Khawam, is not being accused of any inappropriate behavior or inappropriate relationship with Petraeus, but she feels like she`s being misrepresented by the media. I want to bring in my colleague, Jane Velez-Mitchell, host of "THE JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL SHOW", weeknights, 7 p.m. Eastern, here on HLN. Jane, I see Gloria Allred entering the picture here and I`m thinking, this can`t get any weirder.</s>JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN ANCHOR: But it can, A.J.! We don`t know how many more militarily-obsessed desperate housewives are going to come out of the woodwork and say what. My question is, why was General Petraeus, who turned into the nation`s top spy, writing letters on behalf of a woman who was engaged in a custody battle? That is wildly inappropriate! And that is why these things happen when you get involved with people. It sets off a chain of events and you don`t know what the consequences are going to be. And it can actually hurt the very people you`re trying to help. If his name hadn`t been associated with this, we know we wouldn`t be talking about this woman. So I say, General Petraeus, bad idea. Bad idea. Put the pen down, sir.</s>HAMMER: Listen, I`m thinking, you write this up as a screenplay, and you bring it into a pitch meeting and you get tossed out of an office. Nobody is believing this story at all. Let`s go to defense attorney Midwin Charles. She`s also in New York tonight. Midwin, doesn`t it seem a little bit weird that Gloria Allred would hold a news conference with the woman just to declare that General Petraeus supported her in a custody battle? I don`t quite get it.</s>MIDWIN CHARLES, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it seems there`s been a lot of turns and twists in the real housewives of Petraeus. I mean, this is really what I`ve called this scandal. But Gloria Allred has always been an attorney who represents interests of women, and she`s gone back years in doing this. It is odd in the sense where we haven`t really heard that much about this twin sister, but now here she is in the forefront in the public, and I think we can all agree that Gloria Allred does public very well.</s>HAMMER: She does. And Gloria, to be clear, you know I love you, and you know I appreciate how you support women and you stand up with these women. I`ve got nothing against that. It`s just all very surreal to me, especially when it`s a story of national security interests. I`ve got to tell you, we were all saying, are you kidding me? When Gloria Allred got into the middle of all of this. And the No. 2 in our SHOWBIZ Countdown of news breakers also had us saying "Are you kidding me?" We have a tie tonight. Tied at No. 2, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton, actually worrying about their reality star business interests in the Middle East while the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians explodes. Listen to this. Kim actually just got into trouble. She even got some death threats by tweeting this to her 16 million followers. "Praying for everyone in Israel" and then followed it up with, "Praying for everyone in Palestine and across the world." Nice going, Kim. She`s revealed she`s planning this whirlwind trip now to the region in order to educate herself on the issues. But Jane, you know, it doesn`t get any more serious than this in terms of world events. And now we have Kim Kardashian inserting herself in the Mideast conflict. Are you with me when I say, Kim, just stay home?</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. I say, yes, Kim, oh no you don`t. No, you don`t. And do not wear those revealing outfits that show off your cleavage. Not going to go over well in that part of the world. I`d say, go to Vegas. You know the territory. And please do not try to tweet about religion and politics in 140 characters or less. It`s going to bite you, and it did.</s>HAMMER: Yes. No clubs to open in the Mideast right now, Kim. Then there`s Paris Hilton and her Mideast mess. She`s getting slammed for opening a store selling luxury items in the Saudi Arabian holy city of Mecca. A lot of Saudis are saying her image shouldn`t be associated with such a holy place. You think? Now Midwin, you`d have to admit, it is a strange association, Paris Hilton`s brand in Mecca? Huh?</s>CHARLES: Very, very strange association. But listen, I think Paris Hilton is doing the most that she can to hold on. Thanks to the Kardashian clan, she`s no longer really relevant here in the United States, and so she is looking to see where she can take her brand and so that it can grow and expand. And I guess this is her last grasp or resort. Not that she`s not profitable. I know that her perfumes and all that stuff rakes in billions of dollars, but she`s clearly branching out, because she`s not really popping and locking it here in the United States.</s>HAMMER: Listen, it keeps her out of our hair, so that`s OK with me. Listen, out of all the shocking stories that we never expected to happen tonight, only one can be No. 1 on the SHOWBIZ Countdown of news breakers. It`s the stunning news breaking today that the voice of Elmo, Kevin Clash, resigned from "Sesame Street" after another man claimed today he had sexual relations with Clash when the accuser was underaged. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`s Nischelle Turner is with us in Hollywood tonight with all the details -- Nischelle.</s>NISCHELLE TURNER, HLN CORRESPONDENT: Well, A.J., as we know, the first accuser later retracted his claim that Clash had sex with him when he was underaged and said it was a consensual relationship. Now, he has since claimed he was coerced into recanting. But today SHOWBIZ TONIGHT was right there as this new accuser, Cecil Singleton, said he`s asking for $5 million in damages. Watch this.</s>CECIL SINGLETON, ACCUSER: Most of you, I`m sure, may question my motives for waiting a near decade before coming forward. The truth is, in retrospect, it has occurred to me as an adult how truly inappropriate my relationship with Kevin was. But another sad truth is that I was sexualized at a very early age, and while Kevin may have been the oldest man that I`d ever been with at the time, he was certainly not the only older man I`d ever been with.</s>TURNER: All right, Jane, so after hearing yet another accusation like that, did Kevin Clash have any choice but to resign in the situation?</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I say this. After the first accuser took back his story initially, I publicly suggested, "Kevin, go back to work, you`ve done nothing wrong. Get back to work and do what you do best." But now that this second accuser has come forward, the fact is only Kevin Clash knows how much, if any of it, is the truth. So only he can decide in his heart, and he has made that decision. So that could indicate -- could -- that where there`s smoke there`s fire. This is a very, very sad story, and it`s one, obviously, that Kevin is the only person ultimately to know how to deal with.</s>TURNER: Well, Kevin`s employer, Sesame Workshop, is weighing in, as well. They`re the production company that makes "Sesame Street." They told SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, quote, "Unfortunately, this controversy surrounding Kevin`s personal life has become a distraction that none of us want, and he has concluded he can no longer be effective in his job and has resigned from `Sesame Street`. This is a sad day from `Sesame Street`." It seems to be a sad day for a lot of people, because "Sesame Street" has affected generations. You know, there`s a lot of people who have come to love it. But did they have any choice but to accept his resignation?</s>CHARLES: No, they didn`t. You know, and I think the irony here is we are talking about not just Kevin Clash but also General Petraeus, two men both brought down because of sexual relations. And I think it`s just unfortunate and really sad. But given these allegations, and I think all of us know that we can`t really look against the creep factor, which is the sense that, as someone who does Elmo, he entices young children and what have you. And who knows whether or not he was using, you know, that platform in order to, you know, get younger or underaged men.</s>HAMMER: "Unfortunate" being the operative word there, Midwin. Midwin, Jane, also Nischelle, thank you all so much. Tonight, Rihanna`s chaos in the air, a streaker, angry journalists, a mob scene on her 777 tour. What`s really going on up there on her exclusive tour plane? Also, outrage after Madonna is more than three hours late for her own concert. Her fans are obviously up in arms, but what was her excuse? Will Madonna`s party outdo Rihanna`s sky fail? Yet another SHOWBIZ Countdown. The spectacular stories that are making us say, "What the..." This is SBT, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, on HLN. And how the stars share their Thanksgiving plans with us. Carrie Underwood tells SHOWBIZ that she`s giving thanks with good friends.</s>CARRIE UNDERWOOD, SINGER: All of our friends that are in town that don`t have family around them like us, we`re going to get together and celebrate and cook and eat and eat and eat and drink and have fun.