Interview with attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan about Tom Cruise`s Deposition; Richie Incognito`s Playing Defense off the Field; A Homeless Veteran Gets a New Start in Life
HAMMER: Right now on the "Top Ten Countdown," Tom Cruise`s dirty laundry. Comparing his movie work to that of American war vets? Really? Did Tom really say that? Is he getting raw deal? SBT is setting the record straight. From homeless to hopeful. It`s the powerful makeover video of a homeless veteran. But what happens next is way more than skin deep. SBT continues right now. Welcome back. Thank you for watching. This is so great to be here.</s>NISCHELLE TURNER: Yes.</s>HAMMER: I`m A.J. Hammer along with Nischelle Turner, who, of course, is the entertainment correspondent for CNN`s "New Day."</s>TURNER: Thank you for having me, once again, A.J. Let`s get this countdown today top ten must see, must hear stories of the day continuing now with number five. Tom Cruise`s deposition disaster. Cruise was getting flak this Veteran`s Day weekend after a report surfaced that he said making movies is as difficult as serving in Afghanistan. Well, SHOWBIZ did some digging and we learned that Tom just may be getting a raw deal here. Now, with this from Hollywood attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan who represented Kevin Federline`s divorce from Britney Spears. Mark, we`re going to get into what we found out about what Tom really said in a moment. But the headlines from this deposition has not been making him look good. If he were your client, would you advise him to drop this lawsuit before it gets even worse for him?</s>MARK VINCENT KAPLAN, CELEBRITY ATTORNEY: Well, I think that the last thing you want to do is focus on something that in the eyes of the public, you have no ability to really purge it from them altogether. So, I think that those are tough lawsuits. And I think sometimes they are really filed for the purpose of a punctuation mark of being outraged at something that`s not true rather than expectation of really being able to prevail over the long run.</s>HAMMER: But the thing is stuff will come out in those depositions that you really hope wouldn`t actually ever get out there. And it really is turning out that the deposition in this lawsuit has turned into one big headache for Tom. Let`s look at how it did.</s>ALAN DUKE, CNN DIGITAL REPORTER: This is really an ugly defamation lawsuit.</s>HAMMER: At issue in Tom Cruise`s suit, "In Touch", a life and style magazine claims that he abandoned his daughter Suri to film movies overseas following his flip from Katie Holmes. In the September deposition, publishing company`s attorney asks Cruise about a comment that compared his time away from Suri to a soldier fighting in Afghanistan. Cruise responds, that`s what it feels like. And certainly, on this last movie, it was brutal. It was brutal.</s>DUKE: You can take a snippet from a deposition, take it out of context and you can infer something that`s not there.</s>HAMMER: Cruise`s apparent comparison of movie making to war led to an expected backlash. TMZ, "My job is as hard as fighting in Afghanistan." "New York Daily News", "Action Zero." But check out the rest of Tom Cruise`s deposition statement. The publishing company attorney asks Tom pointblank, do you believe that the situations are the same? Tom`s answer. "Oh, come on. You know we`re making a movie." Tom Cruise`s deposition yielded some other headlines, too. For the first time Cruise answering whether scientology played a role in Katie leaving him. He said, did she say that. That was one of the assertions, yes. And about suggestions, Cruise abandoned Suri he said, I mean, come on. That is absolutely disgusting. That is absolutely disgusting.</s>ALEXIS TERESZCUK, RADAR ONLINE: He said in no one`s terms, this was not true. He loved her and he did not abandon his little daughter.</s>HAMMER: So, Cruise is learning a lesson that Paula Dean also learned the hard way this year. Depositions can be dangerous territory.</s>HAMMER: Yeah, Paula Dean was one of the first people I thought of when this whole time Cruise story broke. You know she says something in a deposition that turned out to be far more damaging than anything that was at issue in this lawsuit. Do you kind of see the same thing, Mark, happening here with Tom Cruise?</s>KAPLAN: Well, sure. The last thing you want to do as a deponent in a lawsuit is to argue your case or defend your answer as to why it`s your answer in a deposition. You would be as a lawyer all over that stopping that question from even having to have been answered. So, you don`t win by trying to explain yourself thinking that once I tell the other side my thinking, of course, they`ll see it my way. That is a huge error and there`s a no win situation in that situation.</s>HAMMER: No question about that. And I hate what`s happening here, Nischelle. As far as the veterans are concerned. Because number one, it`s Veterans Day that we`ve been celebrating, obviously. And he`s been a huge supporter of veterans and our men and women in the Armed Forces for years. That is well known. So, anything that takes away from that, I think, is a disservice to those men and women as well as to Tom.</s>TURNER: Exactly. And I was going to - I`m glad you made that point. Because people say a lot of things about Tom Cruise, but what you hear from the people he works with is and people he comes in contact with that he couldn`t be a nicer man.</s>HAMMER: Correct.</s>TURNER: And you do hear that from a lot of soldiers that he does a lot for the veterans. So, I`m with you on that one. Let`s turn out, though, from Hollywood battle to a battle that`s playing out on and off the gridiron. You know, what I`m talking about - those allegations of bullying by Miami Dolphins Richie Incognito. Now, Richie`s playing defense now. Yeah, he`s defending himself in his interview against those nasty and racist messages that allegedly he sent to his teammate Jonathan Martin. Now, Incognito is candidly revealing a lot in this interview. His version of what really went down. And it`s number four on the countdown. Incognito`s blind side.</s>RICHIE INCOGNITO: It sounds like I`m a racist pig. It sounds like I`m a meathead. It sounds like a lot of things that it`s not. And I want to clear the air just by saying I`m a good person.</s>TURNER: Miami Dolphins` lineman Richie Incognito defending himself against allegations that he bullied his teammate Jonathan Martin.</s>INCOGNITO: I`ve taken stuff too far and I didn`t know it was hurting him.</s>TURNER: Incognito explained the threatening voice message he left for Martin, which reportedly said, in part, "Hey, what`s up you half n-word piece of blank. I`m going to slap your real mother across the face. Laughter. And you`re still a rookie. I`ll kill you."</s>INCOGNITO: I`m embarrassed by it. I`m embarrassed by my actions. But what I want people to know is, the way Jonathan and the rest of the offensive line and how our teammates, how we communicate, it`s vulgar. It`s not right. When the words are put in the context, I understand why a lot of eyebrows get raised, but people don`t know how Jon and I communicate to one another.</s>TURNER: Incognito chalked up his use of the N-word to locker room rapport.</s>INCOGNITO: I`m not a racist. And to judge me by that one word is wrong. There`s a lot of colorful words thrown around a lock room that we don`t use in everyday life. The fact of the matter that means, though, that that voicemail was left on a private voicemail for my friend and it was a joke.</s>TURNER: Incognito said he and Martin have exchanged 1,142 text messages in the past year and continued to communicate as the scandal plays out.</s>INCOGNITO: He texted me and said, I don`t blame you, guys. I blame some stuff in the lock room, I blame the culture. I blame what was going on around me. And when all this stuff got going, swirling and bullying got attached to it. And my name got attached to it. I just texted to him as a friend, I was like, what`s up with this man? And he said it`s not coming from me. I haven`t said anything to anybody. And I`m like, you know, OK. As his best friend on the team, that`s what has me miffed. How I missed this. And I never saw it. I never saw it coming.</s>TURNER: Of course, so, all eyes are on the Dolphins as they play Monday night football. Richie and Jonathan, of course, not playing. But they`re still the ones people are talking about. And people are asking who do you believe? So, back with us in New York is TV personality and Pocket Protein founder Mark Long. Now, Mark, you know, this was a very candid interview that Richie did, but not altogether apologetic, I guess. What`s your take on this?</s>MARK LONG, FOUNDER POCKET PROTEIN: This is a slippery slope. And I think the story is going to get even crazier as we go down the line here, but the people from outside looking in, they think he`s disgusting, he`s a racist. But then you go inside the locker room, even the players of color, and they say that`s just the culture and what not - and however, you look at it, it`s still a work environment. And I feel like it`s inappropriate. So, I feel like this guy for all the apologizing he`s trying to do, it`s just going to be a real big mess as the thing unfolds. And he`s just - he`s coming up with the raw deal. Ad I think he knows it and he should come up with the raw deal because it`s inappropriate.</s>TURNER: And late today there was a report from ESPN that said Jonathan Martin feels like he`s not going to come back to the Dolphins at all. But he still wants to play NFL, but he doesn`t think he could ever do it with the Dolphins. Again, some people say the same thing about Richie Incognito. Do you think either of them will ever play for that team again?</s>LONG: Well, definitely, Martin - I mean either people at the lock room have kind of made him be the bad guy at the moment. That`s how it`s getting played out.</s>LONG: Yeah, getting played out in the press. As far as incognito, I don`t know. The culture of the NFL is so - it`s almost like a fraternity. And things .</s>TURNER: It is.</s>LONG: The rules - the rules are a little different. So, even Mike Ditka said I`d get rid of the bully and the baby.</s>TURNER: And the baby.</s>LONG: He saw that.</s>TURNER: He said that yesterday.</s>LONG: So, people see it a lot differently, especially if you played football and (inaudible) an environment and the people who haven`t. So, it`s going to be interesting how it plays out.</s>HAMMER: He didn`t take his pocket protein, which makes you a nicer person.</s>LONG: Yes! Would have evened him out.</s>HAMMER: But this is classic Hollywood spin control. It`s classic spin control anywhere in the spotlight when you really screw up like he did. And now, he does this big interview.</s>TURNER: Right.</s>HAMMER: And you were saying he didn`t seem apologetic enough. And, of course, it did feel very rehearsed and the talking points were all laid out there. Do you think this is really going to get him the help that he hoped it would?</s>TURNER: Well, I think it`s interesting that you said that, because we heard the term locker room culture from him over and over again, and some people say - were saying was he deflecting the blame off me so if a lawsuit comes up it`s about the lock room culture and not me. I have one player that I spoke with yesterday who said I felt like I was watching Richie Cunningham, not Richie Incognito because they didn`t feel like that was the guy .</s>HAMMER: That sounded like an excuse. All right, Mark, thanks for having me here.</s>TURNER: Mark, thank you.</s>HAMMER: And we move on out to Ellen`s extraordinary new surprise. So, you saw that she gave the New Hampshire waitress $10,000 for this great act of kindness. She picked up a check for two soldiers. Now, Ellen`s got something else up her sleeve. Favorite - you`ve got us in.</s>ELLEN DEGENERES: Hello. Hey, Sarah.</s>SARAH: Yeah.</s>DEGENERES: It`s Ellen. I`m just checking in. What are you doing?</s>DEGENERES: Ellen handed for it for the millions tower. And wait until you see Jessica Simpson revealing her post-baby body. Looking amazed. That`s not the picture, though. Wait till you see the one we`re going to show you. It`s killer. But will it take number one? This is "SBT" on HLN.