i love the state of washington and the state of colorado. >> you're not running for anything anymore. you won them both. all right. i tried. i tried. >> we here at "state of the union" are rooting for a good game. thank you so much for watching. i'm candy crowley in washington. head to cnn.com/sotu for analysis and extras. if you missed any part of today's show find us on itunes. "fareed zakaria gps" starts now. >> this is "gps," the global public square. welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. the start of the sochi olympics is almost upon us, and we don't know who will get the gold, but we do know that geopolitics could complicate the games. i asked henry kissinger to help us understand the violence next door in ukraine and whether russia might actually do something to stop it.

i also talk to valery gergiev, russia's greatest conductor. ♪ >> and a close friend of vladimir putin about the games and about global concerns about russia's record on gay rights. ♪ but we will start where president obama left off in the state of the union. inequality in america, just how bad it is, and is it fixable? i have a great panel to tackle all that plus janet yellen's first day on the job. also, we're always talking these days about how we should learn from china, but china just took a page from new york. i'll explain. finally, football versus football. who wins the tale of the tape? first here's my take. after iran and the major powers signed op to a deal on tehran's nuclear program expectations were high. over the last week, they have fallen sharply as iranian officials have made tough public

comments, israel's prime minister has reaffirmed his opposition to almost any conceivable deal, and several influential u.s. senators have threatened new sanctions. now this does not mean a final deal with tehran is impossible, but it does mean that both sides, tehran and the west, need to start thinking creatively about how to bridge what is clearly a wide divide and they also have to think about how to get around the main obstacle they will face which will be opposition at home in iran and the united states. the iranian statements that have attracted attention came from the foreign minister and president. the former explained to cnn's jim sciutto that contrary what washington claimed iran did not agree to dismantle anything. later in an interview with me also on cnn president rouhani explained iran would not destroy any existing centrifuges. it's clear iran and america have different views about what an acceptable final deal would look

like. on the basis of my interview with rowhani and talks with other iranian officials my sense is as follows. iran will provide the world with assurances and evidence its nuclear program is civilian, not military. this means the country would allow unprecedented levels of intrusive inspections at all facilities. this process has already begun with inspections of iran's mines for the first time in a decade. but iran's officials are determined not to accept any constraints on their program beyond that. they speak often about the importance of being treated like any other country that has signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which means to them, they have the unfettered right to enrich uranium to produce electricity. now the american vision of the final deal is quite different. it stems from the notion that iran must take special steps to provide confidence that its program is peaceful so america would allow iran to enrich some small, symbolic amount of uranium which means it becomes time consuming to convert to weapons grade levels. iran would dismantle centrifuges

and shut down its heavy water reactor. washington basically wants to lengthen the lead time between a civilian program and what could become a military one. both sides will have to think hard about what they really care about. iran officials will have to come to terms with the fact that iran is being treated differently and for good reasons. iran has a program that is suspicious a massive investment to produce a tiny amount of electricity, and the country has deceived the world about its program in the past. washington will have to realize that while it will get more concessions than it thought possible on inspections, it will get fewer on the rollback of iran's existing program. i've come away from meetings with rowhani convinced that they are moderates who seek greater integration of iran with the world. rowhani hinted to me, for example, that in the next few

months, the leaders of the green movement in iran would be released. but i'm also sure that rowhani and others are operating under constraints with many domestic opponents. of course the same could be said of the obama administration. it's better that both sides start preparing the ground at home for a final deal and the compromises it would involve, rather than hoping somehow that if they work things out in geneva, it's all going to work out in the end. for more go to cnn.com/fareed and read my "washington post" column this week. let's get started. >> average wages have barely budged and inequality has deepened. upward mobility has stalled. >> that's how president obama laid out the problem tuesday night in his state of the union address.

he's right, but does he have solutions to the problem? i have a great panel to talk about all that and janet yellen at the fed, zanny minton beddoes economic editor of "the economist," steve rattner was the obama administration's car czar, currently the chairman of willett advisors and investment firm. chrystia freeland is a member of the canadian parliament, former journalist and author of "plutocrats: the rise of the new global super rich and the fall of everyone else," and ken rogoff the former chief economist of the imf, now professor of public policy and economics at harvard university. so steve, first the problem. you know, there are now the studies that say that social mobility has actually not fallen over the last 20 years, but the basic picture that obama painted, seems pretty accurate. >> yeah. so let's just be absolutely accurate. so economic inequality has gotten a lot worse. there's no disagreement about that, no confusion, it's as bad

as it has ever been. economic mobility moving from the bottom toward the top, in the u.s., there was a study that came out at harvard by a serious economist, doesn't seem to have gotten worse, but that said, economic mobility in the u.s. is worse than it is in many parts of europe, particularly parts of scandinavia. >> the question becomes, what do you do about it? >> i think one interesting thing to point out, the nature of the inequality is a huge rise in income concentration at the very top. it's not so much the rungs of the ladder have gotten wider all the way down. they have. very rich people has just exploded and where it was 100 years. that's the kind of backdrop of the inequality. the interesting thing about mobility is that is something that both sides of the aisle can agree on. some people don't think inequality matters. it does matter. the american dream, the idea that if you work hard you can make it is very engrained in this country's psyche and that's where there's hope for solutions, politically, to have

both sides come together. what could they be? i would pick two. one i think the most important is education. preschool is the really, really big one. another is something that i am quite focused on, which is the earned income tax credit helping people at the bottom, not necessarily -- >> explain this in 15 seconds. >> i will explain what it is. top ups the earnings of low-skilled workers so they make more money for working. it's different than the minimum wage. the minimum wage forces employers to pay more. the earned income tax credit tops your earnings. the biggest one is education. preschool is the front. 100 years ago it was secondary schools. in the middle of the 20th century the gi bill. the u.s. was at the frontier of education. it's fallen behind on preschool. i think that's a big one to push. >> we're way behind on preschool. >> completely agree with that. i would say education at all levels, including adult education, trying to use new methods. the average american is going to

be changing jobs seven times and they need a vehicle for public education, for learning. they don't have it. also say at the top end we have a system that exacerbates this and doesn't ameliorate it, our tax system. it's ridiculous. the very top end because of the way we have capital gains and the way people are allowed to call things that are really earned income capital gains, the very, very top level are paying much lower average taxes than just below them. >> chrystia, you wrote a book about this "the super rich" this concentration of wealth. you know, the part of the question that i think a lot of people have is, how does that relate to what is really the biggest problem, which is the stagnation of wages for the vast majority in the middle? you think about the inequality as these three things, the rise of the super rich, the very poor, which is growing and unfortunately getting calcified, but for most people in the west, the feeling is, you have reasonable skills, not great ones, and you just can't make

much headway in terms of rising wages. how do you address that problem? >> well, you know, that connection between the stagnant middle class and the super -- the rise of the super rich, i think is an important one and i thought actually the president handled it really well this time. i thought -- i was very struck by the way he sort of shift the focus from rising income inequality to a hollowed out middle class. this wasn't an eat the rich speech. he was really focusing on, as zanny said, he was focusing on what are the things that we can all agree are wrong. and i do think in a time of rising income inequality, stagnant social mobility becomes more of a problem. you can have maybe a social consensus around the idea that high income inequality is okay, as long as you have a system where people feel everybody has access to that, and that's not happening right now. >> so if zanny is right, earned income tax credit is crucial.

education at all levels. none of this can happen by presidential decree. he needs congress. >> so a couple points on this. first, i think we all kind of agree on what the solutions are. i'm not quite as optimistic as zanny about the idea that even if we all agree on social mobility, that we would then all agree on what the solutions are. i think i would say what chrystia said slightly differently in that i think the income inequality would be more tolerable if wages were going up for everybody else, but they're not. getting back to your question that's really the important point, that nothing is happening in washington. there's total gridlock. congress isn't doing anything. everything that we've all mentioned as solutions would cost money, and republicans do not want to spend money. the democrats want to raise taxes. the republicans aren't going to do that. so that's why you saw the president come out with these very small proposals. the minimum wage for federal contractors is a trivial proposal, but he could do it. >> a big part of the inequality problem we see in advanced countries but around the world is that the nature of technology change has been benefiting firms relative to workers. when i was a graduate student

you were taught that labor got two-thirds of income, it didn't matter what was going on, it just worked out that way as long as the economy was growing it was fine. and that has really stopped. all over the world the last 25 years. >> we need to take a break, but when we get back in one moment, janet yellen started her new job, one of the most important jobs in the world. what will she do there? [ female announcer ] every box of general mills big g cereals

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and we are back with zanny minton beddoes, steve ratner, chrystia freeland and ken rogoff talking everything economic. steve you wanted to pick up on something ken talked about which is technology has been disempowering workers and favoring companies, but you wanted to add to that globalization. >> look at it through a slightly different lens. we can call it technological change, but what i saw when i got into the auto work, and i was not a manufacturing guy, is essentially the fact that companies can now source their labor anywhere in the world they want to. many countries, mexico, southeast asia, not just china, are efficient in the terms of the productive capacity of the workers -- >> give the example of gm and the mexico -- >> so when i was working on the auto thing, gm was paying about $55 an hour total costs for its workers. mexico paying $7 an hour.

and mexican workers were just as productive as the u.s. ones. so if you go back to 2006 and today auto production in the u.s. is about the same, went down, came back up again, and mexico today it's 50% higher than it was in the u.s. and you know where most of those cars are coming, they're coming here. so part of why ken is completely right about his point workers have not gotten their share of total income is because companies can source their labor anywhere in the world they want to. >> one of the president's proposals is to raise the minimum wage. there are a lot of conservative economists who say this is a bad idea. obviously anything you force a higher price on, anything you tax, you're going to get less of, so the very thing you're trying to get lots of entry level jobs in this point in the economy you're going to get less of. ken rogoff, what do you say? >> there's a case for social protection but the national minimum wage can't be too high because we have big differences across the states. i mean that's the problem.

the right minimum wage for new york city is very different from mississippi, and i think that's what makes it delicate also. teenagers, that's been a big part of our work ethic, getting teenagers into the labor force, big contrast with europe. i'm not enthusiastic about having it apply to them. steep, quick rise in the minimum wage right now i don't think is warranted but it's been a while and some changes. >> what do you think? >> you know, i think the minimum wage is where you're right, the textbooks say it is going to hit jobs. the reality from studies, a moderate minimum wage, very little evidence it hits jobs. the u.s. minimum wage, the federal one, is 37% of the median wage, extremely low. i think you can raise it closer to the 50% of the median without hitting jobs too much. i think it's small, but it's helpful. but the way i would do it is undepoliticize it. the u.k. has a low pay commission which changes the minimum wage -- >> on a formula -- >> not a formula but according to criteria, yeah. >> as discussed it's not the

best way to help people at the bottom end of the income scale but it's a way for government to do without having to write a check to anybody the way it would education or earned income tax credit. i think zanny's analysis and ken of course are right. the impact on jobs has been proven to be minimal. it's way below what it's been historically on an inflation adjusted basis and should be raised. >> janet yellen takes over the fed. you have been probably the most outspoken critic of the fed on one issue -- you think they should actively encourage the united states to have more inflation. >> yeah. >> explain why and whether she'll do it. >> well, certainly at the trough of the crisis it was a no-brainer they should have worried less about inflation. inflation would have even been a good thing because there's so much public and private debt to make wages smooth out around the world. >> and the basic argument is if you have a little bit of inflation people will spend money because they will worry that if they don't spend it today it will be worth less tomorrow? >> that's absolutely part of it. it also helps debtors relative

to creditors. also, we live in an economy where it's not easy po push workers' wages down and there needed to be some readjustment. janet yellen has the reputation, very dovish, as someone who cares deeply about unemployment. she's worked on it her whole but maybe not the same way as the average person. i think that is great. on the other hand she doesn't run the place by herself. i should say she is very good. this is not a question of being dovish and weak. >> do you think that -- emerging markets have seen a big selloff. do you think that that is related to janet yellin coming to the fed? the fed saying they are going to end tapering? >> i don't think it is related to janet yellin per se but related to the fact that we are close to the beginning to the end. the u.s. is slowing the pace of tapering and are uncertain of

how fast it will go. the world where capital was going to the emerging markets in search of yields is going to change. may not change next month or this year but it is going to change. >> let me ask you one final question. we haven't had you back since you have been a member following. do you feel like watching the president and hearing him talk about politics you have a new appreciation for the politics of all of this as opposed to the economics? >> much as i respect the esteemed journalists around this table certainly have become a politician i feel sorry for politicians. it's really, really hard. it is hard to be a great journalist, of course. it is easier to sit around the table and make clever points aboutt good things and dumb things politicians have done. moving the ball is head. even if you understand evidence like minimum wage is a great example. the empirical evidence shows as

long as you do it reasonably it doesn't kill jobs so it makes sense to raise minimum wage. i think the british example is a good one. if you can have smart technocrats agree on a policy it is hard to do it. >> we have to close on that. thank you all very much. up next, what in the world? a new york city set the tone for a global trend that is quite literally saving the world? i will explain. [ male announcer ] how do you get your bounce?

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now for what in the world segment i want to talk about the week's most important economic story. >> as president i am committed to making washington work better. >> it is not obama's state of the union speech and not the stock markets and has nothing to do with the federal reserve. i'm talking about the decision made in beijing to ban smoking in schools across china. why is this economic news? consider these numbers. china is said to have 350 million smokers, more than the

entire population of the united states. i bring up the american comparison because the surgeon general released a report last month that caught my eye. the fallouts cost americans $289 billion a year, about four times as much as our federal budget for education. 20 million americans have died in the last 50 years as a result of smoking. more than the taley from all of our wars put together. this year nearly 500,000 americans will die prematurely because of smoking. the numbers are just staggering. i imagine that in china the numbers are much, much worse. the good news is things are actually getting better and the ban in china is another big stride forward. according to the world health organization's most recent data from 2010, 109 countries had national bans on smoking in hospitals. 42 on smoking in restaurants and

45 on smoking in bars. every year new countries join this list. india banned smoking in public place s in 2008. so did france. meanwhile a substantial decline in global smoking rates. in 1980, 41% of the men around the world were smokers. by 2012 the number dropped the 31%. at least some of the credit has to go to bloomberg. remember when he proposed a smoking ban in new york in 2002? >> freedom of choice. >> critics derided the plan as heracy. within a few years dozens of major cities followed suit including ones in europe where smoking seemed part of the scenery, paris, rome, london, places where it would have been

unimaginable to limit smoking. the benefits in new york were seen immediately. according to the american journal of public health in 2004 just one year after new york smoking ban there were 3,800 fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks. new yorkers saved $56 million on health care costs that year. critics called bloomberg as a man who wanted to take away choices. when you consider health care costs involved to me it seems like common sense. the irony is that over time most people seem to agree, even smokers. in 1965, 42% of american adults were tobacco users. today that number has dropped to 18%. the lesson is not about helping people make choices but giving the right information and options. the next frontier is obesity. more than a third of all americans are obese. according to the centers for

disease control and prevention the annual medical cost of obesity in the united states amounts to $146 billion. how many lives lost and how many dollars spent before we do something to reverse this trend. what are the smartest ways to help people make informed choices about the thousands of empty calories that they often unknowingly consume. that is not in any state but rather one that helps you stay alive and healthy. just as happens with smoking if anyone is bold enough to start something people might say it is weird and cranky and crazy. a few years later they will be doing the same thing in paris and beijing. up next, ahead of the winter olympics in sochi and with the protests in neighboring ukraine what is russian president vladimir putin thinking? we ask harry kissinger. we ask russia's greatest musician who has known the president for 20 years. recognize back.

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hello live at the cnn world headquarters. governor chris christie is firing back hard at a former political ally questioning the

new jersey governor's account of last year's lane closures at the george washington bridge. in a memo to supporters christie attacked the credibility of wildstein and said he hasn't provided a shred of evidence to back up the claim that the governor knew about the lane closures. louisiana governor bobby jindal is expressing his support for christie saying he should stay on as chairman of the republican governor's association. and a wintry mess in the southern plains. a storm brought mixture of snow, sleet and heavy rain to oklahoma. if you believe the famous ground hog we are in for six more weeks of winter. the national climatic data center said phil is wrong most

of the time. an old allegation against woody allen resurfaces. details on that story and more at 2:30 eastern time. i starting friday the eyes of the world will be on sochi, a resort town sandwiched between the black sea and the caucuses mountains. the geopolitics of the region are moving from background to foreground. there is the revolution next door, just 600 miles away is kiev, the capital of ukraine. ukraine gained independence when the soviet union collapsed in 1991. it is still connected to mother

russia. to get a better grasp of what is going on and what it might mean for the sochi games i wanted to talk to a man who knows the region and players very well, indeed. henry kissinger was secretary of state under nixon. he is chairman of kissinger associated which helps do business in countries reechbd the world. thank you for joining us. >> glad to be here. >> we have talked about this. you think what is going on in ukraine will be of particular interest and sensitivity to russia. explain why ukraine is so central to russia and to russian security. >> the russia of today developed from kiev. and so that the political and

moderate interest development of russia came out of kiev. then they split but since the beginning of the end -- the 18th century ukraine has been part of russia. i don't know any russian whether dissidents or pro government who does not consider ukraine at least an essential part of russian history. the russians cannot be indifferent to the future of ukraine. now, i'm strongly in favor of independent ukraine and strongly in favor of ukraine having organic relationship to europe. but to understand the russian at aitude one has to look at history. >> when you look at what is happening in ukraine how do you

describe it? the way it appears on television is you have forces for freedom, democracy and a relationship with the west battling against a pro russian president. is that what is eessentially happening? >> that is not my impression. it's in essence a divided country. the eastern part is orthodox, russian oriented. the western part is a form of catholicism. so i think the opinions are going to be fairly evenly divided. after the parties fighting each other in ukraine my impression is each of the democratic elements, each of them have

elements and i don't consider the threat inevtbly pro russian. >> you know putin well. do you think he is watching what is happening in ukraine and thinking the west and the united states is doing this essentially as a way of surrounding russia? >> i think he thinks that this is a dress rehearsal for what we would like to do in moscow. >> regime change? >> a regime change issue. and the fact that it is happening so close to the sochi games will make him even more suspicious. but putin thinks that the solution of the soviet union was a great historical disaster. so obviously the larger part of

this independence is ukraine with 50 million people. and he can't be indifferent. >> do you think the obama administration is handling this appropriately? >> the obama administration has a tendency to keep making public statements on evolving dramatic events as if it is settled on a sunday talk show. i don't disagree with where the administration is heading but i think it is not necessary to do it so publicly. and one should have a better view of the long term historic evolution. >> and your basic concern is that this will cause deep russian resentment which will make it difficult for us to find the cooperation with them when

syria or iran -- >> relating russia to the rest of the world and to us is a huge challenge because here is a country that has been an imperial country for all of its history, that has identified itself to itself as by its imperial achievement. now they have a deal with china which is a strategic nightmare. they have it with islam and a frontier with europe that is historically very shaky. on the other hand russian rulers have governed by given the impression that they are very important abroad. so how to rally his country while looking fields abroad and yet realizing that huge adjustments are possible and

necessary? i think that is the challenge that putin faces. and it's not in our interest to drive them into a beleaguered attitude where they feel that they have to prove what they can do. >> henry kissinger, pleasure to have you on. up next, one of the big controversial issues of russia's treatments of gays. i asked whether he approves of what his countryman and his president are doing. [ female announcer ] every box of general mills big g cereals can help your kids' school get extra stuff. they're the only cereals with box tops for education. you can raise money for your kids' school. look for this logo. only on big g cereals.

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valerie is one of russia's best known celebrities, director of mariinsky theater. he is an official russian ambassador to the sochi olympics

and a friend of vladimir putin. he has a unique perspective on russia today on concerns about crack downs on anti-gay legislation and much more. i caught up with him last week. >> pleasure to have you on the show. >> thank you. pleasure to be your guest. >> the sochi olympics have raised as a controversy an issue that you have also gotten embroiled in which is the issue of gays and gay rights. what do you think of the law that was passed in russia that internationally is read as being extremely hostile to gays? >> i think it was seen internationally as a bad thing happening in russia. i think in russia the view was different. the way people read the law is threatening or something is different. i hate any form of discrimination. and as head of institution we

have more than 3,000 people working for the mariinsky theater. i would never allow discrimination to take place. in russia i think it is a controversial issue. now because of the olympics everyone thinks of safety. so i'm sure it is not nation number one or two or three. safety and very successful scenario for the games, structure. i think not one sportsman will be upset. i can't imagine anyone wants to upset the community during the sochi olympics or after and of course not before. i, myself, the country needed this law. honestly, i do have time. i learned about this, things start to happen i hear about,

against this in russia. >> you made a reference to safety, also president putin made a reference, which suggests what he said, i have nothing against gays but there's an issue that concerns me about pedophilia. now, what has outraged many people, i think understandably, is the connection that is drawn between gays and people who are pedophiles. why would you single out gays as particularly likely to do it. >> in my view there is no connection at all in my view. all the discussion president putin had was a group of five or six. i had that much time to hear. they spent some time talking about these issues. i didn't hear -- i don't think there is a parallel direct line. >> a lot of people have criticized your relationship with vladimir putin.

they see putin as a strong man, somebody who has not been good for human rights. they view you as an artist, somebody who should stand up for human rights. yet they see you being very close to president putin. what is your response? >> first of all, i think a lot of people are wrong about president putin. that's my view. i myself am not a student. i saw many, many people. i met many heads of states. i look at their policies, their actions, especially the culture. many of them are totally uninterested. i think president putin belongs to a very small group of world leaders, very small, who thinks this is important. he would do something -- he recently came to the commercial of the children's chorus,

rehearsal. it was christmas day in russia. basically the president like all of us has a right to simply be free. he chose to be there with the kids represnting russia. >> having the president show an interest in arts in russia is one thing. on the other hand political freedom in russia has gone backwards in the last 10 years, wouldn't you say? >> yes and no. the '90s was not a freedom you dream of. that's my modest opinion. i've known you for some time. i have no reason to in vent anything. i'm so grown up. i made up my mind on many things already. i looked at mr. putin for many years and looked. i wanted him to act and not promise. that's why today i can talk about him. i just looked. again, it's not only important thing for the country,

culture -- it is important. russia without culture is not a country. it's just a huge piece of land. the country makes it together with culture identity, then it's country. >> valery gergeiv, pleasure to have you on. >> my pleasure. up next, today's america's big day celebrating football. if you want to make real money, some say, you would need to think about real football. i'll explain. liking your flat r. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.

academy award for best actor or role in 2005 during that film. he also received three oscar

nominations over the past five years. our susan candiotti joining us with more on this death and discovery of this actor in his apartment. what can you tell us? >> what a stunning actor he was, "truman capote. accuse me, philip seymour, found dead in an apparent drug overdose in manhattan. sources tell cnn he was discovered by a writer, playwright who apparently was working with him on a project and had access to his apartment, i'm told. he was found about 11:15 sunday morning, discovered in the bathroom of his apartment. sources tell us that his colleague found him with a needle in one of his arms. he was pronounced dead at the scene by the new york police department. they remain at the scene at this hour as they tried to piece more

details together of exactly what led up to this. certainly tragic news. >> susan, graphic detail there. you're talking about eyewitness accounts of a needle found in one of his arms. it has been pretty public his struggle with drugs in the past. he was in a rehab facility last year, in fact, because of his use of heroin. what more do you know about what his friends, colleagues said about his struggle with drugs over the years and struggle trying to get help? >> reportedly, he has been in and out of rehab in the past and acknowledged this problem publicly and had been seeking help. what led up to his death today still unclear. that's why a lot of people will be trying to put the pieces of this puzzle together, try to get to the bottom of exactly what

happened. what kind of drugs are we talking about here, how did he have access to them, what led up to this. of course we'll be talking to a number of people who were close to him, including this person who discovered because it must have been very shocking at the moment to find him in his apartment in the bathroom when he went over to see -- when the person went over to see him today. so those are the questions all of us want to know. >> incredible. susan candiotti, don't go far. i'm going to bring in brian stel, what a remarkable actor. you're joining us live there in new york. we talk about his academy award he won for his role in capote. he has been known as an incredible actor with wonderful

range in so many other supporting roles, twister, boogie nights, the big lebowski, the list went on. a really public struggle, many knew about his struggle over the years, in and out of rehab as susan indicated but at the same time remarkably able to work a lot. he was very much sought-after. >> there's two films in post production right now that he starred in, of course, whenever there's the death of an actor tragic like this, there are questions about what's going to happen to those films. that's for the future. right now so many people are in shock hearing this news for the first time. i'm reminded about the fact he's been pretty public about his struggle with drugs. he spoke to tmz last year after he got out of rehab. he said he went to a facility for about 10 days. this was may of last year.

he said he realized quickly he needed help after using heroin for about a week. quote, a great group of friends and family helped him seek the treatment he needed to get better. then he flew off to europe, flew off to film one of those movies i just mentioned. at that moment he was feeling better. tmz wrote, seems it worked hoffman is clean. as we know about addiction, it's a battle that never ends. of course, we were reminded by that when cory monteith died from "glee," circumstances that were similar. philip seymour hoffman in a category like no others. 46 years old and academy award winner. there was a twitter message from "time" magazine. a lot of deaths feel sad. philip seymour hoffman feels like a robbery.

>> it's tragic, very sad. hold tight for a second. i want to bring in reporter michelle turner, also there in new york. michelle, this news clearly hitting everyone like a ton of bricks. a talented actor, still in the midst of projects ongoing. this discovery made in his west village apartment. his body with a needle in his arm, found unconscious. what do you know? what are your sources telling you? >> what brian is saying. sometimes deaths are tragic, this one feels like a robbery, definitely the reverberation i'm hearing. i'm at metlife where the super bowl will be played later this evening. the word has just started to spread here and they were shocked. talking about philip seymour