Jackson Trial Winding Down; Media Buzz Over Racy Paris Hilton Ad
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: "Now in the News," is a suspected terror mastermind dead or alive? Iraq's prime minister says he can't confirm reports that Abu Musab al Zarqawi has been wounded. Islamist Web sites offer differing accounts. One says al Zarqawi may be dead, another says that he was never injured in the first place. Imagine a terror attack as devastating as September 11th, but it's one that you can't see. The CIA is finishing up a secret war game to protect against a massive attack on the Internet. It's meant to test how government and industry would respond to escalating Internet disruptions. Embassy closed. The State Department has shut its embassy in Indonesia, citing the terrorist of -- threat, rather, of a terror attack. Earlier this week, thousands of Muslims held an anti-U.S. march in Jakarta. Officials say they'll look at re-opening the embassy when it's safer. And a drama high above Atlanta, Georgia. Live pictures right now. It's in its second day. Carl Roland has been perched up on this 18-story crane since yesterday, about at 4:00 in the afternoon. Police now say that Roland is wanted in the murder of his former girlfriend in Florida. And although he's been talking with negotiators, he has refused food and water.</s>MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The latest now on the Michael Jackson trial. Jurors will apparently get a look at a videotape interview police made with the boy accusing the pop star of molestation. CNN's Ted Rowlands with a quick update for us -- Ted.</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, it should extend the trial a bit. The judge said yes to a prosecution request to show the initial police interview conducted with the accuser in this case. In response to the defense has said, well, we want to bring the accuser and the accuser's mother back and the judge said yes. The judge said no to a prosecution request to show pictures of Michael Jackson's private parts and a sketch made by the accuser in 1993 of Jackson's private parts. The judge said no, he's not going to allow that in. But he will allow the accuser and the accuser's mother to take the stand as requested by the defense. The estimates that the jury would get this in mid next week most likely will not hold now. We expect that the Jackson trial will extend through all of next week, at least, meaning the jury most likely will not get the case for a few more days -- Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: All right, Ted Rowlands, thank you very much -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, forget the burger. It's really the ad that sizzles. The controversy over a hot new hamburger ad featuring Paris Hilton, Miles' favorite, has created a lot of buzz, proving that any publicity is good publicity. And the more folks hear about it, it seems, the more they want to see it for themselves, so we're shameless. CNN's Jeanne Moos shows it to us just a few more times.</s>JEANNE MOOS, CORRESPONDENT: Once again, Paris is a towering presence. Not that Paris, the one watch washing the car. So far this commercial has run only west of the Rockies. Think, the viewers elsewhere might have been deprived if it weren't for us, the media.</s>BILL HEMMER: ...some say is too hot for</s>TV. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this too hot to handle?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ...may be too hot for your kids, this would be a good time to get them out of the room, because...</s>MOOS: But if you decide to stay behind, prepare to see it for the umpteenth time.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See if you can guess what this ad is selling.</s>MOOS (on camera): Do you know what it is for, the commercial?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sex.</s>MOOS: No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Must be a car then.</s>MOOS: No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lather, soap suds, bubble bath, shoes?</s>MOOS: Does this make you want to buy a hamburger? (voice-over): Carl's Jr. barbecue burger, to be exact. The chain says media interest in the Paris Hilton spot has "exceeded our expectations."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, love it!</s>MOOS: They say one day's coverage alone accounted for about 500 TV hits, free news coverage, versus a mere 12 to 15 times the spot ran as a paid ad, even as critics lambasted the images.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if Carl's want to have the brand of being launched...</s>MOOS: The pictures ran right over them in a single show.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it going too far, too much?</s>MOOS: One for "Good Morning America..." A spot, or teases for it, ran three times on "Good Morning America," four times on "The Early Show," three times on the first 10 minutes of "The View" -- what a view it was.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Soft pore corn.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Soft core porn.</s>MOOS: Paris, too hot? Not for CNN when she's hot news. The spot provoked a gender gap.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, it is too much. It is too much.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do I enjoy it? Yes,</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's her at her finest, in her beauty and power of her youth. What is not to like?</s>MOOS: If it's more you would like, Carl's put what even they say is too hot for TV on their Web site. After all, this is the same chain that gave us the mechanical bull commercial. There is no question who Paris is aiming her hose at.</s>MOOS (on camera): You're who they're after.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I like a more meaty girls, though.</s>MOOS (voice-over): Meaty girls?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where's the beef?</s>MOOS: Who needs beef when they're showcasing buns? In the past two-and-a-half minutes, we've added 13 more glimpses of Paris taking it to the hilt. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.</s>O'BRIEN: All right, so it smut? Is it very smart? Or is it both? It's an interesting question and an interesting environment in the nation right now. Let's talk about it with someone who knows a lot about what sells and how to sell two people. Robbie Vorhaus is a media strategist and founder of PR firm Vorhaus Communications. He joins us from -- where else? -- New York City. Robbie, let's talk about this for a moment. Obviously, sex sells. That's not news.</s>ROBBIE VORHAUS, MEDIA STRATEGIST: Nope.</s>O'BRIEN: But when you inject Paris Hilton and a lot of things along these lines....</s>VORHAUS: Yep.</s>O'BRIEN: ... that are sort of on the fringes into this divided country in which we live...</s>VORHAUS: Yep.</s>O'BRIEN: It makes for an interesting dynamic, doesn't it?</s>VORHAUS: Well, it sure does. You know, truth is the ultimate spin. And my 8 1/2-year-old daughter looked at the ad and said, yuck. Somebody else, a friend of mine, looked at it and said, ah, Paris Hilton is too scrawny for me. My European friends -- my European friends look at this and they laugh. They think that we're so ridiculous because this wouldn't sell a hamburger or a croissant in France because they think that we're so puritanical anyway. But there is a problem here, is that we are feeding the monster, where, if you really look at this, what does this saying? That sex is OK< but that's an adolescent behavior. If we, as a parent, if we as an adult, if we have a more moral center, and say, you know something? This has gone too far. Then all of a sudden the youth or the people who want to sell to the youth say oh, you're too far to the right, or you're a moralist or you're part of the Christian coalition. And I'm neither. I'm just -- I think that it's soft porn.</s>O'BRIEN: All right, let's listen to what's going on, some of the rhetoric which is coming from the right on this. Media watchdog Brent Bozell. Listen.</s>BRENT BOZELL, PARENTS; TELEVISION COUNCIL: I know Carl's is just loving the publicity, but let me ask you this. The more people talk about this, the more -- how many families are going to want to take their children to this restaurant chain? Now, they make a good hamburger, there's no question about that. I love their cheeseburgers. However -- however, I don't think that this is going to work in the long-term.</s>O'BRIEN: True or false? Will it work in the long-term?</s>VORHAUS: Oh, it's worked now. There are people going in there right now, we're talking about it. It's working right now. And if the audience, from a point of view, from the ad agency, from Carl's, from the parent company -- they're getting -- I don't know what their stock is doing today, but you know, a media stock pundit the other night on another network said buy it now, because they're going to get a spike on their stock. It's working.</s>O'BRIEN: Well, who on the East Coast even heard of Carl's, Jr.? At let's listen briefly to the CEO of the holding company which owns Carl's Jr., quoted in "USA Today": "To call it porn in any sense is overreaching. This is an attempt to sell hamburgers. Get a grip!" he says. Does he have a point?</s>VORHAUS: This is the big con, Miles. This is the absolute big con. There's -- whether it's porn or not, whether it's right for our kids or not, whether it sells or not, is irrelevant. This is directed at young boys who don't know they're being manipulated, because sex does sell. We all look at "Sex and the City" and, you know, "NYPD Blue," where a couple years ago, Dennis Franz showed us his butt. We now see people peeing on TV. You've got, you know, "The Passion of the Christ" on one hand and "Desperate Housewives" on the other. And there's this big silent majority running right down the middle, saying I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual. I don't want my kids to have, you know, sex too young. I don't want them to get sexually transmitted diseases. I don't want them getting involved or addicted to pornography. And I think that the guy from Carl's Jr. is just trying to sell burgers and he's doing it.</s>O'BRIEN: Well, wherever you look, you see a lot of noise from the fringes of our society, and the people in the middle must feel a bit under siege, and as if they have to sort of choose a side here. Will they vote with their feet, will they not buy anything, will they just sort of opt out or do they have to choose a side, do you think?</s>VORHAUS: Well, I think that's a question that everyone has to ask themselves, is do they answer to a higher authority? Who do they believe is in charge? Do they believe the media is in charge or Carl, Jr. is in charge or that their heart, that their spirit, is in charge? And if they believe that, then what they do is they do what we did at home, is we gather our kids around the table and say what did this make you think about? Do you see how the media is trying to manipulate you? This is a learning, a teaching moment, if you'll give it the opportunity. But as long as we keep energizing it -- I mean, if you really want to win an argument, if you want drive somebody crazy, Miles, just shut up and walk away. Then they're arguing with themselves. And that's what we need to do.</s>O'BRIEN: And of course what we're doing right now is juicing it up ourselves. Let's put it in context here, let's talk about the continuum here that this is a part of. That Abercrombie catalogue or magazine, whatever they called it, which many people viewed as borderline pornography...</s>VORHAUS: That's right.</s>O'BRIEN: And then look the games that, you know, your 12-year- old son will play, "Halo," that kind of stuff. Very dark material out there, and of course, there's stuff that's much worse than this. It gets into all kinds of, you know, dark side worshipping, Satan worshipping, whatever the case may be.</s>VORHAUS: That's right.</s>O'BRIEN: You have to ask yourself, it's such a predictable action and reaction, how long will it last? Where will it end?</s>VORHAUS: Well, I mean nothing lasts forever, Miles. And if you look, the darker is getting darker and the lighter's getting lighter. I mean, this hostage situation in your neck of the woods in Atlanta was ended when this woman quoted to the murderer "A Purpose-Driven Life" by Rick Warren and sales peaked. There is a real divide today and that no one would say that they their kids to be sick, to be addicted. No one says that they want their children to go off onto the fringe. But at the same time, they don't want to be parents who are so strict or judgmental or righteous that they sound like -- parents.</s>O'BRIEN: We'll leave it at that. Nobody wants to sound like Dad. You know that line, you know, because I said so, that you promised you'd never say?</s>VORHAUS: That's right.</s>O'BRIEN: You say it.</s>VORHAUS: Exactly.</s>O'BRIEN: All right. Robbie Vorhaus, always a pleasure. Thank you.</s>VORHAUS: Hey, thanks, Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: Very thought-provoking. Appreciate it -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, two words you're going to be hearing a lot today: "American Idol." SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT; That's right, Kyra. America has voted and you have a new "American Idol." Whoa, whoa, whoa. Was it a rocker with soul or a country starlet. I'll have all the answers and more when LIVE FROM returns.