tv New Day Sunday CNN January 12, 2014 5:00am-6:01am PST
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more calories than you take in. at the end of the day the foods you eat and how much you get up and move are all that really matter. so good luck. stay connected with me at cnn.com/sanjay. keep the conversation going on twitter @dr.sanjaygupta. "new day sunday" continues now with christi paul and victor blackwell. suspended for an entire season. that's the decision on the immediate future of new york yankee alex rodriguez. we've got his reaction. what his team is saying and a-rod's next move -- ahead. you believe that? buildings collapsed, trucks turned over, and et cetera's just from the wind. severe weather -- ooh. it is nasty across the country. religion is coming to a
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theater near you with a heavy roster of biblical films this year. hollywood is betting it could pack the seats. could they anger the faithful though? your "new day" starts now. we are so glad to have you company, as always. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor plaqblackwell. it is 8:00 on the east coast. former nba star charles smith wants to set the record straight. he is talking exclusively to us right here on "new day sunday" about the very controversial trip he made with dennis rodman to one of the most reclusive nations in the world -- north korea. >> i mean this trip and rodman's comments in particular about the man he calls "his friend," north korean leader kim jong-un, and about american kenneth bey who is being held prisoner in north korea. all of that just sparked this firestorm amongst conversations. this is what smith had to say when he arrived in beijing friday. >> we set out on a mission to
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use basketball as a bridge for cultural change. we accomplished that mission. we were in north korea with tourists, with other americans and our documentary film crew. all of us agree the trip was simply incredible. >> smith was at rodman's side and seemingly tried to calm him down as rodman spoke out about kenneth bae. smith says the visit was not about politics. it was about interacting with the north korean people. >> well, charles smith joins us now live from beijing. first, thanks for being on. you say you want to set the record straight, charles. what needs straightening? you have the floor. what have people misunderstood? >> well, i think everyone knows that the trip was based on sp t
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sport. we've used the term diplomacy but this trip and the things that we do are a lot more than that. it is more about cross cultural ambassadors. we go out and we get engaged with other cultures. we get engaged from the standpoint of really getting into their customs and their beliefs for the purpose of understanding from a compassion standpoint and being able to represent them. we've been doing this all over the world so my relationship with dennis and the things that we've been doing have been just phenomenal. i think this trip had -- because this is dennis' first time doing an event on his own -- there was a lot of pressure added to him, the extent of the event and the things that transpired were, from my experience with him,
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were very unlike dennis. >> unlike him in what way? well, you know, he's been engaging. we saw what happened on the show. it was unlike him from my experience in dealing with him over the years. he definitely felt a lot of pressure. what people do not understand about him, he's had his hall of fame speech which stated that he's a terrible dad, he said that publicly several times and what dennis wants is he wants to -- he has a deep desire to do something good in a big way for his family, his kids, and so his kids can be proud of him. i felt for him. i felt for him on this trip because i saw the pressure mount. i saw him change and it was very
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difficult keeping him and everyone together. >> okay. well, he very passionately, as you know, told cnn's kw a's chro "all of you left your families over the holidays saying it was a sacrifice for you to go to this country. i'll play it quickly. >> you got ten guys here -- ten guys here -- that left their families, left their damn families to help this country as a sports venture. there are ten guys. all these guys here. do anyone understand that? >> so, i'm just wondering, how was this trip presented to you and who asked you to go? did dennis ask you to go? did -- who asked you to go and what did they tell you about your duties beforehand? >> well, this was an amazing
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trip and how it came together was pretty amazing. but my involvement in it was a phone call from dennis. it was a phone call from a friend that needed some assistance and he mentioned what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go, and i went to my advisors and my wife, lisa, is probably my biggest advisor. initially she said, no, i don't think that's a good idea. but i went through a lot of my advisors and we talked about it and we had some concerns, but when it came down to it, as i mentioned at the start of the show, we're cross-cultural ambassadors and this was going to be a great event from the beginning to the end -- and it was. i had no regrets in making the decision from the time i start
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to the time i left. there will be some great outcomes coming from it, very positive outcomes. and dennis needed the assistance so i helped him with getting the players and helped him with the -- some of the execution and took a lot of the pressure off of him. >> okay, charles. you talk about getting a call from a friend who needs some assistance. let's talk about someone else who needs some assistance, kenneth bae. being held by the government of north korea with no reports. reportedly kim jong-un reportedly ordered the execution of his uncle as well. were you aware of the case of kenneth bae -- the execution of kim jong-un's uncle before you decided to go and help your friend and play basketball in north korea? >> oh, absolutely. i think, you know, the reports
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were widespread throughout the u.s. definitely knew some of the things that transpired in the media involving north korea. but we were not going there for that. we've been to some other places around the world that were controversial as well -- not as controversial as this, no doubt -- but we didn't go there for that. we went there to do what we normally do, and that's to be cross-cultural ambassadors and use the game of basketball as a bridge for exchange and we did that. we knew going in that, one, it was going to be historic -- >> here's what i don't understand. because one portion of your explanation is sports diplomacy. the other portion is we're not going for politics. actually, i want to play a portion of an interview you did with cnn's karl penhaul last week talking about this sports diplomacy angle of your trip. let's listen to that.
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>> the concept that we're doing is not new to the world. people have used port for conflict resolution. one notable sport diplomacy issue was in 1972 between china and the u.s., the ping-pong diplomacy. so the concept is not new. we're new going to north korea. we're new as u.s. players going to north korea to play an exhibition game against their national team. but conceptually we're doing what's been done before. >> so there are two things i have to ask you about. first, people, as i understand, don't engage in sports diplomacy. governments engage in sports diplomacy and the u.s. government, through their state department spokesperson, has said that the members of this team, especially dennis rodman, don't represent the u.s. government. second, this was not, as dennis rodman has explained, a sports diplomacy trip. this was a gift to the supreme leader of the democratic republic of north korea. did you know that this was a
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birthday gift to kim jong-un? >> well, let's first unpack the first question you asked. you said there is a contradiction regarding what i stated and you just played the tape. there's no contradiction. what i said is that people do engage in sports diplomacy. the difference here is that we're athletes not being led by an organization or a company. we're athletes doing it ourselves. i think that's the key difference and we're very successful at it so there's no contradiction there. i also mentioned in 1972 ping-pong diplomacy. yes, the difference is that we had a u.s. president and a vp engage in the diplomacy there. but diplomacy isn't left just
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for politicians. we had in 1970, we had red auerbach, bill russell, oscar robinson, they did a game behind the iron curtain in russia when it was unheard of. so there's been sports examples of athletes doing that so i wanted to make sure you understood that there is no contradiction there. the second thing you ask is regarding -- i believe it was kenneth bae? >> no. this is about it being a birthday gift to kim jong-un. that's how dennis rodman has characterized this game. you say it is sports diplomacy. >> yeah, you know, in addition to that, dennis added that it was a gift to kim jong-un. that's the date that was set. i didn't know it was his birthday and to that, it didn't matter to me and it didn't matter to me once we got there and it didn't matter to me once i found that it was his
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birthday. it was a date that was set and we went and did the event. so that really didn't matter. >> well, charles, we've got some more questions for you but we have to take a quick break. if you'd be so kind, please just stick around for us and we'll be back in just a moment. stay close. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... 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
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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. welcome back to "new day sunday. "if you're just joining us, we're having a conversation with ex-nba star charles smith. his first interview since that interview you saw with chris cuomo with dennis rodman and this basketball game in north korea with the north korean national team. we were picking up on -- you said that you wanted to see the cultures and beliefs of north korea.
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>> yeah. so we were wondering, as we -- and as you know since you've been there, how upsetting this has been to some people based on north korea and its past and what we know of their cultures and pleefs. how much of north korea did you see and when it comes to jim jong un, did you meet him and what was your impression of him? >> well, i'll answer the latter because it is a little bit quicker. i met him after the game very briefly and just basically shook his hand and that was about it. nothing more than that. when i did meet him, he appeared to be very engaging. i've seen him at the arena. the people of north korea really love him as a leader and they showed that by -- they were clapping for him as long as ten minutes when he walked into the
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arena and everybody stood up. it was a different kind of activity and a different kind of match. i'll get into that later. but when i did meet him, you know, he smiled, he was very engaging. direct eye contact. he seemed very confident and that's pretty simple. but regarding the culture of north korea, i did get around quite a bit. i did get out of the hotel and walk up the street be one morning. did it again the second morning. just to get out. it appears that, one, that north korea is probably one of the safest, cleanest cities that i've been to around the world. >> i can jump in here, please -- >> which is very surprising. >> i hate to cut you off, but you say that you left your hotel and you walked up the street. i think the question gets to, did you get outside of
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pyongyang? did you get outside of the palaces? did you see that more than 25%, according to a study, is nothing more than grass and leaves. did you see what is making so many people angry about this "gift" to kim jong-un? >> well, i was talking to you about the cull tour a little bit and you asked me what i got a chance to see. but to answer your question further, i didn't answer the first question, i did get outside of pyongyang. took a drive through the countryside of about -- it was probably 2 1/2, three-hour drive outside. and the agriculture -- the country is very mountainous,
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first of all. i did not see anything dealing with people being hungry or -- i didn't go to those parts of the country. i did ask about that and found that, you know, the terrain in the country is very mountainous and it's not very great for livestock. they don't have very many import/export relationships throughout the world. >> there's a reason for that. >> their beliefs is the juche, which they believe in being self-sufficient and self-sustaining and working with any outside groups kind of make them believe that they lose control or lose power. >> but there's also, charles --
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>> i'm not defending. >> i hate to interrupt but you say that because of their beliefs they don't interact with outside groups. there are sanctions against north korea, and for a reason. so some of the interaction that's been limited was a decision made by the rest of the world and i think -- i guess this gets to the question of, do you understand why so many people are angry? >> oh, absolutely. i'm just answering your questions from what i saw. i think just being inside there and seeing some of the things that i did, i'm just trying to explain to you. i absolutely understand why so many people are angry and that's why i went. you know, when we don't have information, it creates -- the lack of information causes a sense of fear and what we don't know we tend to draw opinions that may or may not be true. i'm not defending north korea, by far.
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i'm just explaining to you what i saw and what i've experienced. look, while i was there, i had an experience with one of the people there as an african-american. i went to go shake their hand and the guy kind of winced and stuck his hand out and shook my hand and rubbed the back of my hand as if my skin color is going to go off. i later chatted with him for a while to find that i was the first african-american person's hand that he ever shook and the images of african-americans that they have, they are not that great. then the next day after we talk for a while, he came up to me and said he was sorry. you know, there's a lot that happened on that trip above and beyond playing a match and i'm only sharing with you my experiences, good, bad or indifferent. it was just something that i experienced. >> well, one of the things that i know you had said when you came back was dennis rodman
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characterizing kim jong-un as a friend and you said maybe we need to look at that characterization a little differently. don't know if you agree with it. we have to take a quick break. stay close, we'll be right back. so you can have a getaway from what you know. so you can be surprised by what you don't. get two times the points on travel and dining at restaurants from chase sapphire preferred. so you can taste something that wakes up your soul. chase sapphire preferred. so you can. of the dusty basement at 1406 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. ...and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories.
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welcome back to "new day sunday." if you're just joining us, we are continuing our exclusive interview with charles smith, the ex-nba player who is just -- he's in beijing after leaving north korea, that controversial basketball game with dennis rodman. he's talking about what he saw, what he learned, and also before we went to the break we talked about the term "friend" that
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dennis rodman. >> dennis rodman has used this is a good "friend of mine" to talk about kim jong-un, which he is obviously a very controversial figure in the u.s. and in north korea. so charles, i wanted to ask you, when you came back, i know that you had said maybe "friend" isn't the way that you would characterize him. can you help us understand the relationship between rodman and kim jong-un? >> i will try the best way i can. you know, it started with it being publicized in the paper that kim jong-un was a bulls fan. dennis met a gentleman who would go in and out of north korea, out of new york, at an event -- an auction event that dennis was a part of and he spoke korean. he's been in and out of there.
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he's a professor. and that was kind of the start of dennis going to north korea to getting an invite to meet the leader. one thing that i found in their relationship is that dennis is able to be accepted for himself and how he is there. it's very interesting dynamic. and dennis enjoys -- they had all the -- i saw some of the propaganda about dennis going there and women and lavish lifestyle and all. it was none of that. >> not that you saw. >> basic meals -- no. i mean even i went with dennis. it was just he and i and we drove to the ski resort an it was reported that we were in a helicopter and did all this stuff. we went to the ski resort, saw it, had a lunch and, you know -- and it was nothing more than that. >> we heard about that.
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>> the relationship to -- >> there's one other thing. we're running low on time. i hate to jump in but we have a couple of other things we want to go to. >> go ahead. >> this is obviously an expensive venture. we know that from dennis rodman's agent that an irish company, paddy power, paid for the travel expenses but his agent says rodman was not paid by the north korean government. i'll ask you -- were you paid for this game by anyone? >> yeah, you know what? first of all -- twofold. one, absolutely we were paid. it wasn't as much as the guys usually get paid when they do stuff with me or our group, but absolutely. i mean the guys -- >> how much was it? that's a question i typically wouldn't ask, but how much were you paid? >> let me finish answer the question.
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that is no difference from a top ceo requiring from a company and being a consultant. if anybody has an issue with us being compensated, that's absurd. >> how much were you paid? >> that was in answer to -- why should i mention? it's none of anyone's business how much we got paid. >> i think it gets to motive though. >> there is no reason to answer that. >> it gets to motive. >> no, listen. >> a lot of people would ask, why would a person go to north korea as a gift to kim jong-un and the first half of the interview, the first 25 minutes we talked about cultural exchange and now we're talking about the check. >> victor, i already answered the question -- >> i think people were wondering who paid you. >> victor, we already answered the question. we already answered the question about the birthday date and all that. so we're beyond that. what i'm saying to you is, why would anybody have an issue with us being compensated? now who compensated us? paddy power had pulled out so the trip was off and on. then paddy power, along with our
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documentary film crew, paid for the expenses and gave guys honorarium to continue to do the trip. when i say it wasn't about money and it was about the trip, it was about the trip. i had an opportunity to go somewhere, to a recluse country that no one goes to. we were assured by the north koreans that they'd assure our passage in and out and they did. the information that we gathered and what we saw? it was an experience. >> do you, looking back at that now and knowing everything we know, do you have regrets about anything? any part of this? >> no, i have no regrets at all. i think i spent most of my time with a gentleman by the name of ri jungmu who is the sports minister there in north korea. we shared a lot of stories about he played sock tler cer there i
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korea. we shared a lot of stories about sports and how they train and different sorts of things. i don't know in the foreseeable future, but i believe that there are going to be positive outcomes from this and there are already positive outcomes from this. >> what are they? >> i feel very saddened -- >> what do you feel like you accomplished? >> i feel very saddened about -- the reason why i'm here is because you're asking me about the information and things that we saw in north korea that we don't have any intelligence on. >> no, the question was -- maybe you misheard. the question was what did you accomplish? you said there are already been positive outcomes, there will be positive outcomes. what are they? >> yeah. we accomplished a relationship on the sports side in north korea. where it goes from there, i do not know at this point in time. but we established a relationship. they've asked us to come back. whether we go back or not, i'm not sure. i don't know. but there was a relationship
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established between a group of individuals in two different countries that don't communicate. i say those individuals are those athletes on the national team in north korea. we spent a lot of time with them. a lot of guys went to a water park and bowled with them got to really understand their culture. they asked us a ton of questions about how we live and what they do. we asked them a lot of questions about how they live and what they do and the exchange was just -- it was awesome. i think, again, i don't know what the outcomes will be later on but i'm sure that they will be positive. there will be some positive things coming from this. >> i've just been given the wrap-up. we've had it, believe it or not, a 30-minute conversation and we really appreciate your candor and being open and speaking with us. i've got one more question that i think we glazed over and it was about the compensation. i don't mean to belabor the point, but quite bluntly, was there any compensation -- any money that came to you from the
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north korean government? >> absolutely not. i think i'm astute enough to understand the dynamics, especially collecting monetary dollars from north korea. no, we did not get paid from north korea at all. >> just for point of clarity. >> charles smith, we appreciate so much you taking the time to talk to us. safe travels back to the u.s. take good care. we're back in just a moment. stay close.
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alex rodriguez. we now know he's going to be sitting out the 2014 season after losing an appeal over his record setting drug suspension. >> 162 games, to be exact, this season. can't play in any post-season playoff games either. rodriguez denies the drug use alleged in the investigation though and the thing is, he says i'm going to keep fighting this. cnn's sports rachel nichols has more on the story from charlotte, north carolina. i know a-rod has claimed in the past the yankees aren't behind him on this because they want to get out of giving him that huge paycheck for the season. what more do you know about that? >> reporter: well, this is a tactic. look. alex rodriguez's legal team has clearly decided in the past few months that the best defense is a good offense so they are trying to make this into a larger issue, really trying to make this about anything that is not did alex rodriguez let someone inject him with steroids. take a look at the statement that he released here. "this injustice is major league baseball's first step toward
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abolishing guaranteed contracts in the 2016 bargaining rounds." he's trying to point to that. "instituting lifetime bans for single violations of drug policy, further insinuating its corrupt investigation program from any variety of defense by accused players, any variety of objective review." now he's criticizing the process there. he's really taking a shot at three different things that he wants to point out as being wrong with major league baseball, wrong with his teal maybe, to take away from the idea that, hey, did alex rodriguez use drugs that he wasn't supposed to. i did talk to many other players around the league. some of them do have concerns, these larger issues with is baseball overstepping its bounds in cases like this. so it is a smart tactic of alex to try to gather support. however, those same players that i've spoken to don't want their cause tied up with alex rodrigu rodriguez. they feel like this is a separate issue. i do have to thoet for you guys. you mention that he is going to continue to fight this.
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alex has said that he wants to take this to federal court. most legal analysts don't think he has much of a case there since he is part of the players union. the union has agreed to this binding arbitration process that produced this suspension so they don't think he has much of a legal case. even within the rules, even with the way things are now, alex is allowed to show up at spring training this coming year. he is allowed to participate in some of their spring training and pre-season activities. that should be interesting considering, as you noted, he is a bit at odds with his own team. >> we see you're in charlotte for the 49-panthers playoff game. >> they had record viewer ship for last weekend's playoff games. if they have it again this weekend, it might be because of this game. colin kaepernick for the 49ers, cam newton for the panthers, really a heisman trophy winner
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coming into his own in the league. this is the first time he'll be in the playoffs. even the koefcoaches, jim harba and ron rivera used to be teammates for the chicago bears back in the '80s. we get a little bit of a rivalry there as well. should be a great game today, guys, and a great weekend of the playoffs. this is one of the best. remember, we're only three weeks away from the super bowl in new york so lot of excitement around here. >> i want to ask you about last night's game, for one. secondly, i know you were just listening in to our interview with charles smith. want to get your take-away from that. >> yeah. we can start last night's activities certainly pretty exciting. we had chalk in those games for a change since last weekend we had a bunch of upsets. certainly you got to be excited about the idea of tom brady and the patriots possibly, if peyton manning and the broncos win today, going to play the broncos next weekend. if that does happen, you will have one of those great peyton manning/tom brady match-ups that
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we've all grown to love over the next decade. we'll have to see how all this plays out but some exciting games yesterday. then when you did talk about charles smith, i found that fascinating what you guys were talking about over the past half-hour. we'll all known charles to be one of the smarter players in the nba when he was playing. certainly a thoughtful guy, as you guys discovered upon talking to him. so it was a little bit surprising to see him take this trip and to see him trying to jump in in the interview that cnn had earlier this week with chris cuomo, jump in and defend dennis and defend the trip. he said a variety of things since that moment. sort of whether he regrets it or not, i heard him on the air just with you guys saying he doesn't have any regrets. i think this is a complicated situation for a lot of these guys. i had the opportunity to ask david stern when he was a guest on "the situation room" with wolf blitzer why a guy like charles smith would take this trip since we know that charles is a different guy than dennis rodman who tends to do this sort of thing. we wouldn't expect this from charles. he just said, look.
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i think these guys were blind by the payday. i know that was the topic of the end of your conversation with charles smith and i do think that money was a factor. >> rachel nichols, thank you so much. you know what? it's noah's arc like you've never seen it before with millions of dollars, an all-star cast. this isn't the only bible tale hollywood wants to turn into a blockbust he. your hotel. adore the pool at anna, your hotels have wondrous waffle bars. ryan, your hotel's robes are fabulous. so i'm choosing all of you with hotels.com a loyalty program that requires no loyalty. you wouldn't have it she any other way.our toes. but your erectile dysfunction - it could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently.
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for today's "faces of faith," we're talking about what some people are dubbing hollywood's year of the bible. >> yeah. and the reason is because in 2014, tinseltown's just cranking out some movies of biblical proportions, such as "noah." >> a great flood is coming. we build a vessel to survive the storm. we build an arc. >> noah as you see there, yeah, that's russell crowe and the film has a whopping $330 million
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budget. >> then in february, a son about jesus called "son of god." >> your sin are forgiven, my son. >> i thought god only forgave. >> which is easier to say his sins are forgiven or -- >> there's more. brad pitt is reportedly playing the man who had jesus crucified in upon theous pilot and christian bale is playing moses in "exodus." >> we've listed the films. the question is why? why so many books about the bible and why now? joining us to answer that question, film critic tom o'neil and professor brent strong who teaches religion and theology and he is also an ordained united methodist minister. tom, start with you. why is hollywood now investing so much in these biblical films?
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>> well, the bible miniseries on the history channel last year set new cable viewing records. i think that was a wake-up call to them. it was just ten years ago this year that mel gibson's ""passion of the christ"" made $600 million. i think the question really is, why haven't had he tapped this sooner? because hollywood has the tradition of the biblical epics like "the card that wiinal, "be and "the ten commandments." anything that gets people acquainted for the first time or maybe re-acquainted with some of these great stories from the bible and in the religious tradition is a great thing, but i don't know if it will bring people back to church. it might get them back to reading the bible again or some of the stories but clearly there is up sides and down sides when you compare the original and these massive -- >> do you support films like this? >> oh, yeah.
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i think it is great. again, it engages people. but again, i think there is up sides an down sides. one of the down sigh is the question of accuracy, are these things accurate, will they offend people who think they aren't accurate enough or too accurate, either progressively or conservatively. but they're not documentaries. >> and the approach. we see some big-name directors getting involved. we're seeing -- we've got the list. ridley scott getting involved. other directors who are getting involved in these films. some of them are known for darker movies. horror films with different angles there. are we going to see the darker angle or perception of the bible? >> right. "black swan's" director is directing "noah." i'm concerned about this issue. look, why are they casting russell crowe? this man is more known for bunch thy neighbor than love thy neighbor. the "mary mother of jesus" coming out near christmas is
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from the same guy that wrote "passion of the christ." a movie that was torture it was so violent. are parents going to want to see this movie? are they exploiting the religious stories? >> that's what i was wondering. how accurate are they going to be based on the bible. i know there are certainly it's up to interpretation for people, as they say. and i'm wondering if other people will look at this and say, man, is there something sacrilegious profiting off biblical stories? >> tom pointe out hollywood's done this all the time with the biblical mow teetifs and movies. in some ways it is surprising how they haven't capitalized on it earlier. it will be a little disturbing if we have noah action figures at christmastime. but at the same time, the biblical texts are spare and sparse. the whole noah story in the old
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testament takes less than 200 versus. you got to fill things in. in that sense people can worry about, is this too much license, is this sacrilegious. on the other hand, this is like great religious art, like rembrandt. they afford us unique insights into the texts that we haven't thought of before in comparing the original and this you new artistic rendition often casts new significant light on both items. >> tom, is there any concern that as we go on into the year -- we talk about the ones coming out in the first quarter, but as we get kind of further into 2014 that some of the interest will kind of fade off and this might backfire for people who are adding a late summer or fall release? >> absolutely. two of the biggest ones both come out in december next year competing for holiday moviegoers and that's "mary mother of jesus" and "exodus." both of them. so that could be a big issue. and also, "son of god" is a
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little dubious, too, because this is outtakes from the bible miniseries. this is from mark burnett who gave us "celebrity apprentice." they shot extra footage, repackaging it. the miniseries got very bad reviews. critics say it was too episodic, it didn't really flush out the story. >> this is left over of a miniseries that got bad reviews. >> yes. >> let's rush out and see that! for more stories on faith, check out our belief blog at cnn.com/belief. still to come on "new day," the detroit auto show. oh, car lovers, stick around. we're previewing the year's biggest car show right after this.
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nice. this is your stop. [ male announcer ] find out what aflac can do for you and your family... aflac? [ male announcer ] ...at aflac.com. all right, car enthusiasts, this is your time of year. the detroit auto show kicking off tomorrow. >> joining us now with a preview, johnny lieberman, senior features editor at ""motor trend."" good to have you. what's making headlines this year? what's the hot, new "it" car? >> for this show, it is going to be the mustang, the new ford mustang. this is the 50th anniversary of the mustang. first came out in 1964. this is 2014. so this is going to be the car that is probably going to be the
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hottest thing. however, there's a rumor going around that ford is also going to show off the new f-150. that's been the best selling vehicle in the u.s. for over i think 34 years. they sell over 700,000 just last year alone. so it's a huge deal, if it's true. >> good heavens. what are some of the top trends you think we'll see in vehicles? top trends. >> besides pick-up trucks, i think what's called small premium. so this is a segment kind developed by me but mercedes came out with the cla 45. bmw has the new 2-series, eventually the 1-series. audi has the a3. lincoln started to make some small cars, cadillac starting to sell a lot of small cars. luxury brands but smaller vehicles from these established luxury brands. then also i'd say car
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connectivity. being able to do social media and all that kind of stuff from within your car. in other words, hook your cell phone life up to your vehicle. >> we're just on the back end of the consumer electronics show in vegas and there was some talk about the driverless cars. do you think that we're going to see any of these concept cars and we're going to see this transition into not having to drive your own automobile? >> yeah, you will. in fact, we're already seeing it. at the frankfurt motor show late last year, mercedes showed something what they called the s class intelligent drive and it can drive itself. it basically takes an existing mercedes s-class, adds a couple of cameras and a computer and it is able to drive itself. lawyers are preventing this from happening. the technology is just about there but the cars can do it. they do know how to do it. >> i would think fear would also keep it from happening because i mean, let's face it, technology
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does not always work and -- what happens if a car goes rogue on us? how safe are the technologies that you're seeing? >> i mean how safe are human beings? >> that's true. >> over 30,000 people die a year in car accidents. again, it is really fear of lawsuits that's preventing this technology. and when you do start to see these autonomous vehicles, you're still going to have to have a human being in a driver seat buckled in holding a steering wheel. car will drive itself but in case something does go wrong, they want a human there to take control. by 2050, will that be the case? i doubt it. but in the next five years when we really do start to see these things, that will be the case. >> just in time for my daughter to get a driver's license. >> she won't need much. just sit in the seat. >>. jonny lieberman, thank you so much. next on cnn "new day
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sunday," severe weather wreaks havoc across the south. have you seen this? some of the video is unbelievable. we've got a live report next. [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ diarrhea, gas, bloating? yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. live the regular life. phillips'. live the regular life. explaining my moderate to severe so there i was again, chronic plaque psoriasis to another new stylist.
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tornado warnings, flood watches, dangerous winds. severe weather is causing headaches for a lot of people who live in the midwest and also in the south. >> let's see what's in store. meteorologist jennifer grey in the cnn severe weather center. severe weather? is that what we're going to see? >> well, it is over. this storm system that pushed through yesterday is out of here. we are waiting on another one at the beginning of the week but it
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is not going to be as stron by any means. 87-mile-per-hour winds in boulder, colorado, around the raleigh-durham airport. 86-mile-per-hour winds. we actually is some video in north carolina of what happened with these strong winds. this apartment building completely collapses. it was under construction, of course, but it just collapsed in those winds and we also had icy conditions and high wind in wisconsin that caused quite a bit of crashes as well. so it was a wild day across all of the nation yesterday. good to report though that we are going to have better weather as we roll through the beginning part of the week. rain totals in georgia, athens, almost four inches of rain yesterday. that was for the past three days combined. and another system starting to take shape across the south. it is going to pull in to the southeast late monday night, into tuesday. doesn't look like we're going to see quite the punch that we saw with this other system. meanwhile, temperatures staying mild in the east. the system could bring slightly
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cooler temperatures but nothing that we saw last week. >> jennifer, thanks so much. go make some great memories today. >> will do. thank you so much for joining us. state of the union with candy crowley starts right now. a leading presidential possibility trips on a bridge, and iraq may be slipping away. today, how did he do? >> i'm heartbroken about it and ima incredibly disappointed. >> another potential 2016-er, governor martin o'malley, gives his take on a minimum wage hike. >> it's not about whether we move left or whether we move right, it is about whether we are making the better choices that allow us to move forward. then, al qaeda on the move in iraq. >> by fleeing i
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