do all the things i should ♪ ♪ have done when i was your man ♪ ♪ do all the things i should have done when i was your man ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: bruno mars! the album is called "unorthodox jukebox" and is out now. i want to thank dr. oz, blake griffin and chris paul. apologies to matt damon, we ran out of time. tomorrow night sofia vergara, and george lois. stay tunes for nightline! goodnight!

tonight on "nightline," femme fatale? a petite 32-year-old charged with stabbing, shooting and slashing her one-time boyfriend. her shocking web of lies, and the other man in her life. hard knocks. the nfl superstar and family man whose suicide shocked the nation, and now an alarming discovery. is the game to blame? tonight junior seau's family speaks out for the first time. they're here. the official oscar nominees. the young, the old, the shoo-ins, the surprises. who ended up in the snubbed

this is "nightline" with terry moran. >> hello, everyone. i'm terry moran. glad you're with us tonight. we're going to bring you the latest in the twisted tale of love turned deadly, centered around a young woman accused of stabbing, shooting and slashing her one-time boyfriend. as the gruesome details of this crime have been exposed in court, the bizarre turns just keep oncoming, including explosive testimony from the other man in her life. abc's ryan owens brings us the latest from phoenix, arizona. >> reporter: admitted killy jody arias has sobbed every day of trial, but prosecutors say tears shouldn't be enough to save her life. they say the petite, soft spoken 32-year-old deserves to die because alexander's death was so heinous. he was found butchered in the shower of his mesa, arizona,

home in june of 2008. he had been stabbed 27 times, his throat was slit so deep he was almost decapitatdecapitated was shot in the head. the testimony of ryan burns this week may have made her look even worse. he was a romantic interest of jodi arias, who she visited in utah less than 24 hours after she committed the crime. >> what was her demeanor like? >> she was fine. she was laughing about simple little things, just like any other person. she was -- i never once felt that there was anything wrong. >> reporter: burns told the jury right after killing one man, she was kissing another. >> at some point, i mean, we were talking and we kissed. >> and did this kissing continue? or did it just stop at one kiss? >> eventually, we kissed probably many times. every time we started kissing, it got a little more escalated. >> reporter: his testimony is especially damaging because jodi arias says she killed travis

alexander in self-defense. the couple only dated a few months after meeting at a work convention in las vegas. but her attorneys claim the 30-year-old successful businessman and devout mormon was actually a sexual deviant who controlled and abused arias long after they broke up. but burns testified she wasn't the least bit distraught when she showed up at his place. >> we were kissing. >> and what else happened? >> she got on top of me pretty aggressively and we were kissing. >> reporter: burns sat down with abc news to discuss their relationship. >> while we were watching a movie, we kissed a few times. we never had sex. but she certainly wasn't acting like she had something troubling her. >> reporter: burns also told the jury while she acted normal, she looked different. her blonde hair was dark, she had cuts on her hands. she told him she broke a glass while bar tending at a restaurant called margaritaville back in northern california

where she lived. prosecutors believed jodi was lying. >> is there a business establishment, a bar, a restaurant by the name of margaritaville? >> no, sir. >> so there is no restaurant by the name of margaritaville there? >> no, sir. >> reporter: that's one of many lies jodi arias has told. >> i didn't hurt travis. i would never hurt travis. >> reporter: in a series of interviews, she first denied being at his house the night of the murder. >> i would be shaking in my boots if i had to answer to god for such a heinous crime. >> reporter: two weeks later, she had a new story, saying she was there but didn't do it. >> i witnessed travis being attacked by two other individuals. >> who? >> i don't know who they were. i couldn't pick them out in a police lineup. >> reporter: she also lied to the lead detective investigating alexander's murder. the day after his body was found, she told him she hadn't seen her ex in months.

>> it was around april that you left, right? you haven't been back in town since then? >> no, i haven't at all. >> reporter: when faced with a mountain of forensic evidence, arias finally admitted she was the killer, but says she did it to protect herself. >> in just two minutes, jodi had to make a choice. she would either live or she would die. >> reporter: prosecutors say it's nonsense, that jodi arias stalked her victim long after they broke up, that she flew into a jealous rage when she found out he was dating other women. they say she snapped these pictures of travis alexander posing in the shower, then pulled out a knife and attacked him. >> when you say they weren't up to the bones, it means that they stopped there or did the knife blade continue past the bone? >> they appear to all have been stopped by the boens. >> reporter: the medical examiner testified that alexander's body was covered in

stab wounds. he told the jury that some of the wounds were defensive, that he was fighting for his life. >> if you have injuries to the back, to the forearms or to the palms or backs of the hands, it's consistent with someone trying to either grab the knife or fend off wounds, or fend off injury. >> does that mean that there alexander was alive at the time that these injuries were inflicted? >> i believe he was. >> reporter: prosecutors have introduced what seems like an unending parade of gruesome photos and bloody items from alexander's bathroom where they say arias slit his throat and shot him in the head. >> there's different color ration on the shirt, but i don't know the cause. >> reporter: alexander's sisters often cry in court. they sit in the front row to honor their brother but at least once they've had to leave the courtroom. the graphic pictures just too much to bear. there is one picture in particular which may seal jody arias's fate. after she took those shots of

travis alkpaexander in the show she dropped that camera. one shows her actually moving his bloody body. police recovered those images from the memory card of this camera they found inside alexander's washing machine. they believe arias was literally trying to wash away the evidence. but like so much in this case, that too caught up with her. jodi arias won a christmas carolling contest behind bars, but she may have a tougher time winning over this jury. most expect she will take the stand to try to justify why she killed. if she can't, jodi arias may soon have a lot more to cry about. i'm ryan owens for "nightline" in phoenix. >> thanks to ryan for the report on that trial. just ahead, from the nfl, could those famous blows on the field have led to the shocking suicide of football legend junior seau? the new discovery, and an abc

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we're going to turn now to the alarming discovery providing some answers to the questions surrounding the suicide of nfl great and father of four, junior seau. today a team of doctors confirmed that he suffered from degenerative brain disease, which could be linked to the years he spent taking blows and giving them on the football field. tonight, seau's family is speaking out for the first time

about this discovery in an abc news and espn exclusive. here's abc's jim avila. >> reporter: for 20 years, he was a warrior on the field. junior seau, the monster in the middle, a defensive icon whose devastating hits, more than 1,850 tackles in his career, knocked out opponents. but after his sudden and shocking suicide just eight months ago, a gunshot to the chest, some speculating he knew his brain needed to be preserved for examination, and many agree that all those hits in the 43-year-old's head could have played a role in his own death. >> he just toughed everything out. >> reporter: and now seau's family says they did play a central role. did he know that he was getting concussions? >> oh sure, he did. >> reporter: and the family has results from a study on seau's brain at the national institutes of health to back them up. abc news and espn have learned exclusively that seau's brain

showed signs of cte, chronic traumatic encepolopaty. >> what was found in junior seau's brain was cellular changes consistent with cte. >> it means that he had a lot of head-to-head collisions over the course of 20 years of playing in the nfl. >> reporter: the actual cells in his brain you now know suffered damage. >> exactly, yeah. >> reporter: gina seau, junior's former wife to whom he remained close and his four children decided to donate his brain to the nih to try to understand why the man they loved and knew as an outgoing leader on and off the field changed so drastically in his final few years and ultimately ended it all, detached and alone. >> a lot of things towards the end of his life, patterns that

we saw and things that worried us. his decision making and his ambition decreased. >> he would sometimes lose his temper. he would get irritable over very small things. kind of go off the grid for a couple weeks. >> reporter: all symptoms, experts say, of cte. >> impulsivity, aggressiveness, depression, sometimes suicidal. >> reporter: a once deeply respected and highly devoted family man, seau's behavior became confusing for his children. >> at the end, it just became more and more apparent that he was disconnecting, and i didn't understand, but i just took a different seat and just went with it. >> now do you understand? >> now i do. i had no idea it could be something this serious. >> reporter: the night before he shocked everyone by shooting himself, seau sent out this short phone text of love.

>> just three words. "i love you." >> reporter: means a lot. >> sorry. >> the man lived for family. that love was so important to him. so for him to take his own life, i can't imagine how severe his anguish was. >> reporter: the game that he loved so passionately, that gave his family everything may in the end have taken it all away. >> to see that this was the final outcome is really bittersweet and really sad. >> reporter: but sadly, not uncommon. dave duerson of the chicago bears shot himself to death, too. his brain diagnosed as riddled with cte. >> the combination of depression and lack of impulse control probably contributes to the suicide that we see in this group of individuals. >> reporter: dr. robert cantu says junior seau's death may make a difference to football players and fans, a tipping point of sorts and signal that no one is immune to the chronic

hard hits of the game they may love. >> junior seau played a position at high risk for head trauma, middle linebacker where individuals are funneled to you to make the hit. so it's really no surprise to me that junior seau had cte, that he died so violently and so young, that certainly perhaps is a bit of a shock. >> reporter: seau is the highest profile player to be connected to cte and sh rivers went through the league today. marcellus wiley was a teammate. >> to know that that was his fate. the sleepless nights you have, you start to wonder, are you down that path towards cte? >> reporter: the nfl is facing a lawsuit brought by 4,000 former players contending that the league did not do enough to protect them and hid long-term effects from its players. the nfl denies that it intentionally hid any risks from players, and today had this

statement in response to seau's diagnosis. "the finding underscores the recognized need for additional research to accelerate a fuller understanding of cte. the nfl is committed to supporting a wide range of independent medical and scientific research that will both address cte and promote the long-term health and safety of athletes at all levels. we have work to do and we're doing it." cte can only be detected after death by examining the brain under a microscope. so far, 50 brains have football players have been diagnosed with cte. 35 of them, nfl players, and six of them, high school athletes. the seaus say they just want today's players to make an informed decision, to know the risk for even the toughest in the league. what should the nfl be doing? >> i think the nfl has to take a bigger role in making sure that people are aware of what the side effects could be. >> if you're going to play the sport and you love the game, be

aware, and be careful and know the signs and symptoms. be extremely aware of what could potentially happen to your life. >> reporter: there's a big risk. >> there's a huge risk. >> reporter: the man with a thousand hits may now change the game he loved in ways he never dreamed of. for "nightline," i'm jim avila in san diego. >> a huge challenge for the game of football. thanks to jim avila for that important report. next up, hollywood. the agony and the outrage of the oscar snub. we bring you a look at this year's academy rejects. ♪ that'll save the day. ♪ so will bounty select-a-size. it's the smaller powerful sheet. the only one with trap + lock technology. look! one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. use less. with the small but powerful picker upper, bounty select-a-size.

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better cure for the post-holiday blues than the much-anticipated release of the official oscar nominee list. today was the big day. as usual, there were the obvious picks. and the major snubs. abc's david wright brings us this look at this year's oscar outcasts. >> reporter: directors voting on this year's oscar nominations for best director may not have appreciated this line from "argo." >> you teach somebody to be a director in a day? >> you teach a monkey to be a director in a day. >> reporter: ignoring box office success and critical acclaim, the academy snubbed director ben affleck's latest endeavor. >> shoot him, he's an american spy. >> reporter: they also snubbed kathryn bigelow's "zero dark thirty" about the plot to find and kill osama bin laden. >> the directors category was a shock to everybody in hollywood, the fact that both of them were left off the list is shocking. and then you've got tom hooper, who directed "les miserables,"

which a lot of people love. >> reporter: tom hooper's "les mis" also shut out for best director. so too quentin tarantino's "django unchained." but all four movies are up for best picture. go figure. two small independent movies got into the final five for best director, benh zeitlin's "beasts of the southern wild" and michael haneke's "amour." a foreign language film so far showing in just three theaters here in the u.s. 85-year-old emmanuelle riva is the oldest ever nominee for best actress. this year the category also includes the youngest ever nominee -- >> who the man? >> i'm the man! >> 9-year-old quvenzhane wallis. on the men's side, slightly more conventional picks. >> he has won before. he's won before. he has won before. he has won before.

he has won before. >> reporter: all five best supporting oscar nominees are previous winners. but two of the actors left off the list, both from "django unchained," are not exactly slouches. >> what makes you such an expert? >> i'm curious what makes you so curious. >> reporter: no nomination for jamie foxx or for leonardo dicaprio. >> leonardo dicaprio is sort of always the bridesmaid when it comes to the oscar. he's been nominated four times in the past, he's never won. and this year, he didn't even get nominated. >> reporter: as expected, "lincoln" took home a dozen nominations, the most of any movie. those left off the list can take comfort they're in good company. judy garland was passed over for "the wizard of oz." alfred hitchcock never won best director, although he was nominated for "psycho" and four other