tonight on "nightline," race against time. the mississippi river crests in memphis, rushing in at twice its normal speed sinking homes, burying toxic sludge and sparking desperate action as residents struggle to escape the waters. entertainment queen. the last word in celebrity news the last 29 years. >> aimi'm mary hart. >> is it true she takes out insurance on those legs. and terminated.

maria shriver and orarnold schwarzenegger announce they split. good evening. i'm terry moran. the last time the mississippi river was this high william folkner turned it into fiction. and there is concerns about what the flood waters are carries. from sewage oil, farm chemicals and visible trash. abc news news is tested that water and the results are expected tomorrow. here is jim avila on the

mississippi. >> reporter: we headed out on the mighty mississippi just hours after she crested and began to fall. the river was just shy of an all time high. our guide, brian miller of the coast guard. he knows the waters well. what is the thing you notice the most with the differences in the river now? >> i would say right now, the velocity is faster than is typical. a lot of the landmarks we are used to seeing are not here. >> reporter: he said that something extraordinary is happening here. >> typically we luld pick up speed here. i'm going to keep it slow and keep my wake down so i don't take the back porch of the houses here. >> reporter: the river hit its highest point. but the city was spared the major flooding that many feared the water has seeped in damaging many homes.

and the dangers lurk in the water. bacteria and snakes in the residential areas. but the river itself she's moved on. as man as 4 million people in her path smoch he follow her flow to tunica mississippi. this neighborhood known for fishing is known as the tunica cut off. now the residents are cut off. melanie has been living in the gym three days. >> i need my soap and my dog, the most important thing. >> reporter: waterer has been seeping in the town since last week slowly submerging her home and most of her neighbors. most have no flood insurance. >> we need fema. we had have to be a tent city. we aren't going to give up. we are going to go home. >> reporter: it will be declared

a federal disaster area. >> the emergency is going what it can right now until the president signs the disaster declaration declaration. >> reporter: it could be the end of the month before they get back to their homes or what is left of them. >> it's a bitch. >> reporter: it's not just the mississippi ritself doing the pummeling down here. when she overflows its banks, the tributaries get backed up as well. which is what we found in carter, mississippi, miles from the mighty mississippi. this small town sits near the yazoo river. and it's seeping in here close to the craps ed is growing and moving in slowly and surely.

he has planted 3700 acres of cotton, soybean and corns, but he says for not. >> it makes you sick to your stomach. you plan and do what you want and you plan and take care and fertilize it and all nor nothing. >> reporter: and he has another business to worry about. carter, mississippi's general store, which his family owned for years. the walls of the store still bear the high water the mark from the last landmark flood. >> we will have another mark. >> reporter: the great mississippi flood of 1928 was the most destructive the nation's seen. following that they built levees along the river. now they are hoping the levees

can stem the tide. ed says while the store has survived a lot, he's been here. he is not sure it will make it through this. >> i don't know. i hate to imagine. what's going to happen. it may -- >> reporter: history follows the mississippi here as she winds her way next to vicksburg. once the site of a civil war battle, now home to casinos. in all, 19 casinos should shut down along the mississippi. closings that mean tax. and it's flooded homes and closed down streets. >> i don't know. i'm running from the water. staying one step ahead of it. as long asky get out of bed and

get more than my feet wet, i will just move on and wait and get there and move to the next one. >> reporter: a game that everyone here seems to be playing, trying to outrun the mighty mississippi as she rushing forward. more "nightline," i'm jim avila, in tunica mississippi. >> the river is expected to hit record levels in the south. a high of 57 feet in vicksburg before cresting in new orleans on may 24th two weeks from today. next "entertainment tonight's" mary hart. how does she make it look so easy and stay looking so good? in the past, when we thought about computing, we thought about boxes. on a smarter planet, computing has left the box. generating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. today everything computes.

which means we need to think differently about computing. how we manage it. how we deliver it. how we design it to run a railroad spot a trend. spot a market change and act on it. a smarter planet is built with smarter computing. i'm an ibmer. let's build a smarter planet. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] try fixodent with a time-released formula. use just once per day for dawn-to-dark hold. it is important to use the product as directed. fixodent and forget it. / [ jane ] here's me. and here's my depression. before i started taking abilify i was taking an antidepressant alone. most days i could put on a brave face and muddle through. but other days i still struggled with my depression. i was managing, but it always had a way of creeping up on me. i felt stuck. i just couldn't shake my depression. so i talked to my doctor. he said adding abilify to my antidepressant could help with my depression, and that some people had symptom improvement as early as

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today, there's "us weekly," perez hilton and tmz. back in the early '80s, media outlets devoted exclusively to seb right news was as rare as a stable hollywood marriage. one interception was "entertainment tonight," the unapologetically star-obsessed tv broadcast that for 29 years has been helmed by one timeless beauty. she is mary hart and tonight, david wright has the "nightline" interview. >> reporter: behind the scenes at "entertainment tonight." >> i'm going to put david in harm's way. >> oh-oh. >> vaughn, let's do a girkous. >> what's that? >> you'll see. >> whoa! >> i hope you don't get motion sickness. >> reporter: for 29 years mary hart has reported the latest celebrity news from this brightly colored perch.

>> feels like a disco or something like that. >> reporter: the entire set moves. >> david, you deliver that copy to the camera while everything is spinning around you and while you're in high heels. do i get more respect now? >> lots of respect. >> hello, everybody, i'm mary hart. >> reporter: nor is it easy to interview someone who after 29 years of celebrity interviews knows all the tricks of the trade. i promise, i am going to try to maintain eye contact. throughout this interview. i am not going to look at your legs. >> that's very funny. >> i did read they are insured for $1 million. >> you did. you did. >> true? >> each. >> each? >> reporter: hart explains early on, someone decided the show ought to feel like an evening newscast. >> we started getting mail and people said, we can't see mary's legs anymore. >> where are the legs? >> yes. and the mail would come pouring in.

and they said, we can't keep the wooden desk. and "people" magazine got word of it and somebody came up with the bright idea to insure the legs, just like betty grable had done. >> fantastic. >> reporter: e.t. not only invented the glass anchor desk it pretty much invented the celebrity news show. >> this was a half hour of showbiz news on the air, it was the first time it was done. and we got scoffed at. >> reporter: do you feel like you sort of have the last laugh? >> without a doubt. we proved. we proved it first, that they want celebrity. >> reporter: not just celebrities. >> thank you for sitting down with me. >> thank you. >> reporter: newsmakers too. just about every pop culture icon can you name. >> people that early in in our e.t. history we started to follow and who made themselves into huge names. you know, we're people. oprah, you sell it, o-p-r-a-h.

nobody knew who she was. and watching those people come into their own and become huge forces and entertainment figures throughout the world has been fun. >> reporter: hart got her start as a beauty queen. ♪ you make me so very happy ♪ >> reporter: finishing in the top ten of the miss america pageant in 1970 which led to a gig -- >> i'm chuck roberts. >> i'm mary hart. >> reporter: -- doing local news. which led to a gig as regis' original sidekick. >> funny thing. we started that show but the highest expectations and promises from the network. four months later, we were canned. >> reporter: at that point "entertainment tonight" was on the air. the new show called her for an interview. >> now it is my pleasure to introduce you to mary hart. >> the day after that interview

for "entertainment tonight," only is 2 six months old at that time. they called again and said we think we might have a place for you over here, would you come over and meet with our producers? and the rest is history. >> hello, i'm mary hart. >> reporter: 29 years on the red carpet. 29 years with a backstage pass. >> everyone watches "entertainment tonight." >> this is leaking so bad. i'm soaking wet. >> reporter: 29 years of being a good sport. she's been sawed in half by siegfried and roy. she starred in her own workout video. she's been serenaded by the best of them. you're at the center of showbiz, in many ways. you've had a front row seat. >> i have. >> reporter: her trademark, aside from the legs, is that energy level. her constant enthusiasm. >> what are you saying? >> she's very peppy, it's going to be hard for me to keep up with her in energy level in this interview. >> reporter: 29 years later, e.t. has entire networks trying to keep up with her.

do you think our society is too obsessed with celebrityies, though? >> we are obsessed with it. that said, i know a lot of very normal people around this country who just like it for a little spice in their lives. >> reporter: the idea of celebrity has changed too. everyone with a cell phone now could be a paparazzi. everyone with the right accent and a drinking problem could potentially star on "the jersey shore." >> we have instant video 24/7. anybody can take it. at any time. and this is relatively new in our world. you're going to somewhat even with the big stars, dim the brightness of them. because it's not as glamorous. it's not controlled. and i think that has impacted who the real stars are and who becomes celebrities. yes, everybody has their 15 minutes of fame. now it's not even that it's five minutes of fame. >> reporter: 30 seconds of youtube.

>> exactly. >> reporter: but after 30 years on the job she's a celebrity in her own right. complete with a star on the hollywood walk of fame and a wardrobe she plans to auction for charity. i do notice something there is nothing below the knee. >> wait a minute. wait a minute. for the official functions. >> reporter: if you're mary hart, you always have to have something to wear on the red carpet. i'm david wright for "nightline" in hollywood. ar on the red carpet. that must cost a fortune. it sure does. well, if it doesn't have to get there overnight, you can save a lot with priority mail flat rate envelopes. one flat rate to any state, just $4.95. that's cool and all... but it ain't my money. i seriously do not care... so, you don't care what anyone says, you want to save this company money! that's exactly what i was saying. hmmm... priority mail flat rate envelopes, just $4.95 only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship.

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could on happen here. there is nothing typical about arnold schwarzenegger and maria shriver. here is a sign of the times. >> reporter: he is not saying why they it there up. and neither is she. they seem they are on the same page act keeping the details private. we came to this decision together, they said in a statement. but privacy is what you give up in the celebrity life. celebrities like oprah and justin and lindsay and brad and angelina and george they just fig reens that the rest of us move around in the doll house of our imaginations as we make sense of your lives. the marriage had the hollywood side. the governor used to be an

actor. he made three words famous. >> i'll be back. >> reporter: and we me that hollywood mages are not made to last. but her us was a political marriage. she was the kennedy he wanted to marry on the way to certify. and political marriages are presented adds enduring partnerships. one was want to follow. they are part of the company. this lady is called first lady. we buy a package want it to work. skip to england. this wedding 30 years ago was packaged as the first day of happily ever after. and years later, the end comes and none of us will feel great about that breakup. john edwards, and his late wife. the beautiful things he said

about her at times. >> my beautiful wife elizabeth. >> reporter: yet his infidelity destroyed the marriage. al and tipper ten years after this famous kiss and 40 years of marriage, they called it quits. yes, there are politician whose marriages crumble of endure great stress there there have been plenty of both kinds, they are human, just like their con constuents. and they are only announced a separation right now, we may well think, till dess do you part, whatever happened to that. for a fascinating look at power couples, not am of them