himself. 30 seconds to live. under water and fighting for your life. the accident that kills hundreds every year. experts share three must-see steps for survival. a gift of love. the stunning relationship hollywood superstar jane fonda has kept quiet for years until now. why the girl she raised says fonda saved her life.

from new york city, this is "nightline" with cynthia mcfadden. >> good evening. and thanks for joining us. joel olsteen may be america's best known preacher next to billy graham. senior pastor at the massive lakewood church in houston, the televangelist has over 7 million viewers every week in over 100

countries. so when it appeared he renounced the faith, it got an awful lot of people talking. turns out is 2 a hoax to get the mega pastor to change his message. tonight, abc's david wright on the man who says he was behind the plot. >> you got what it takes. this is your moment. the promise is in you. >> reporter: he's the born-again tony robbins. >> god wants you to be celebrated. >> reporter: preaching the prosperity gospel in best selling books and hopeful homilees. >> you're beautiful, you're strong. >> reporter: one of the best known evangelical pastors. so for joel osteen to quit? but more than that, to quit because he was rejecting his faith? that's news. >> joel rejects his faith, doesn't believe in christ anymore. that seems like that's a bigger attention-grabbing than just about anything else you could say. >> reporter: it was news to

osteen. >> people calling from south africa, australia. i thought, this is a big deal. >> reporter: turns out osteen was the victim of an elaborate internet hoax, traced back to a twitter account backed up by a facebook page and a website that had all the bells and whistles of osteen's megachurch home page. look closely at the address. one of the "es" in osteen is missing. the domain was registered april 1st, april fools. to be clear, joel osteen was not renounced his faith or quit his ministry. >> all is well. i have my fade, nothing has changed. the building was full on sunday a few days ago. >> reporter: the building has a seating capacity of 16,000 people. lakewood church in houston. one of the largest congregations in the country. osteen has no idea who created the hoax but the prankster probably did not break laws. >> there's no potential criminal charges here. the only question is whether joel osteen would want to sue.

and say, you've damaged my reputation, you've cost me money, you've cost me some esteem within the community, and you ought to pay for that. >> reporter: osteen won't say whether he has any plans to sue. >> i'm really not angry, i don't feel like a victim. i think a lot of it is my personality. i feel too blessed that life is too short to let things like this get you down. >> reporter: a good christian, he's turning the other cheek for now. >> i think to me, they just had too much time on their hands and wanted to create some kind of stir. i don't see it as malicious. >> that's okay, god has something great in your future. >> reporter: abc news managed to contact a man who claims to be osteen's hoaxster. >> how do we know we are justin tribble, how do we know this is not a hoax? >> you don't. i'm kidding, you do. >> reporter: he sent what he said were the receipts for the go daddy account used to register the phoney domain name,

plus correspondence between him and npr and "the huffing post" who connected with him through the e-mail address on the site. he told us he doesn't like the term hoax. >> i would call it a sort of media campaign. a way to get through and have a dialogue with a man who is essentially unacceptable. >> reporter: he claims he's a fan of osteen's but says his message is shallow. >> i didn't want to hurt the guy, i didn't want to defame him, i didn't want it necessarily to get to this level. but now that it is, i want a message to get through to this guy. tone down the cliches and get real. >> it's so easy to propagate a hoax. if you want to throw up a website, it's never been easier. you can start a rumor on twitter with a few key stokes. >> reporter: osteen is not the first, nor will he be the last, victim of an internet hoax. notre dame star linebacker manti te'o was famously duped by an online girlfriend. actor tony danza's death was

announced a couple of years ago. same for rapper 50 cent, comedian eddie murphy, even though they are very much alive. the prank on is on 10 was relatively mild. it could have been much worse. >> he's lucky it was just what it was, not anything more graphic. it's so easy to photoshop something that's pretty convincing. >> reporter: senior staff writer sam biddel once inadvertently started an internet hoax by tweeting about the death of boo, a cute pomeranian. >> i think the hoax culture has been going online for so many decades, anything is fair game and it's hard to outdo what's come before you. >> reporter: satire and parody are protected forms of speech. what makes this case tougher is that you don't immediately know what is a satire. this is a parody. a reasonable person could very well come to this site and

believe, wow, he's abandoned the church? >> i think 99% of the people that saw it knew it was a hoax. but, you know, it still -- you don't want that going out without making some kind of statement. >> reporter: osteen not only addressed the issue, he incorporated it into his ministry. >> it's a part of our whole message is that, you know what, people can't stop you from your destiny, a bad break, somebody doing you wrong. if you move forward in faith, god will turn it around and use it to your advantage. >> reporter: justin tribble says he hopes to have a meeting with osteen. >> i think it would be nice to have a conversation with him. honestly, i wouldn't mind if he prayed over me. >> reporter: sometimes the internet works in mysterious ways too. david wright for "nightline" in los angeles. >> "good morning america" will have more on the osteen hoax tomorrow. next, under water, trapped in your car. three split-second decisions that could save your life, just

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we've seen the movie 100 times. action stars driving cars into oceans or rivers to evade the bad guys in hot pursuit. the hero adroitly escapes and swims to shore. that's hollywood. but abc's lisa stark meets a team of experts who show us the real thing is far from easy, but

knowing how to do it could save your life. >> reporter: what if you just had 30 second to save your life. >> we got to go, we got to go. >> if your car is crashed into deep water, that's about all the time you have, 30 seconds, maybe one minute to get yourself and your family out alive. >> it's a very critical to get out of this car very, very fast as soon as you realize your vehicle is in the water. >> reporter: emergency responders are learning how to escape before a car sinks. these terrifying accidents happen more than you think. as many as 400 deaths a year in north america. >> help me. i have the fire department on the way. >> usually by the time the rescuers find the vehicle, it is completely under water. it's too late to save anyone. so there are safety precautions

as jeff gets strapped in. the car's back window removes as a last-ditch escape route. and rescuedivers in the water. it's frightening to watch as the car begins sinking. inside it's even more terrifying as the water rushes in. jeff follows a simple but crucial procedure. seat belt off, window down, get out. there's relief when he surfaces from the eight-foot deep canal. >> reporter: how did it go? >> it was very intimidating. the car went down quicker than i thought it would. >> now we're going to make it a little more complicated. >> what if there are more challenges in the car or even children. can everyone really get out in time? >> say good night, boys. in this test, the car is filled with a driver and three passengers. let's start the clock. almost instantly seat belts off, then windows down. within eight second, both front

seat passengers are out. what thor now rushing in. the backseat passenger scrambles. the last one in 16 seconds. everyone is safe. all under 20 seconds. >> clear. >> let's watch it again this time in slow motion. those inside the car have to fight against the current. but they say push through, it can be done. gordon was fourth man out of that car. he's a veteran at this. the canadian researcher has spent the last eight years sinking cars, often with him inside. to try to figure out the best way to survive. he knows in a real crash there would be panic, terror, drivers might freeze up. >> when we're scared is not the time to be figuring things out. that's why we're tryinging to get this message into the psyche of the public. >> reporter: gordon drills that message home. >> get your seat belt off, open the window. anticipate then get out.

>> reporter: gordon says all too often people understandably do the wrong thing. such as wasting precious seconds dialling for help. >> the first thing is don't touch your cell phone. don't call 911. do not call 911 from inside a sinking vehicle. >> and don't open the doors. it's almost impossible to do anyway against the water pressure and it will sink the car faster. look what happened in this test, the door smashes closed. there's also the mistaken belief that you can let the vehicle sink, fit with water and then get the doors open. >> there's this fallacy that you have this magic air bubble and you finally wait for a magic air bubble you can open the doors. for this demonstration, it's roll down windows. auto manufacturers tell us most windows should work briefly but what if they don't.

gordon recommends a simple inexpensive window break tool. this one is called rescue me. i tried it. >> stand back and push it and there you go. >> okay. oh! >> hang the device somewhere easily and quickly accessible. perhaps a rear-view mirror. gordon's tests are leading to a sea change. starting next month, 91 1 operators will begin learning new procedures. if someone in a sinking vehicle calls in, operators will tell them seat belt off. windows down, get out. advice based on hundreds of tests like these. for "nightline," i'm lisa stark in naples, florida. >> so important. well, next it's a fairy tale come true. the little known celebrity relationship that may have saved a life. [ male announcer ] you like who you are... and you learned something along the way. this is the age of knowing what you're made of. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra.

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sadly, there are 250 million children in the world without parents. children whose lives can be changed by the love of adults willing to step in and care for them. in hollywood, angelina jolie and madonna have famously built their families with more than their own biology. but superstar jane fonda shows us that some of the most inspiring stories are the ones we have never heard. abc's juju chang reports. >> reporter: she's hollywood royalty who went from va va voom to uptight office girl in "nine to five." on golden pond, she got to ask opposite her oscar winning father. she went on to earn two oscars herself and is still working

playing a monster in law. >> don't you touch me you two-bit tramp. >> she was known for her radical politics, then involved into an exercise emperess. >> make the burn. >> then married a billionaire media mogul. but if you think you know everything there is to know about jane fonda, you would be wrong. the woman who lived so much of her life in public has a very private story. this is her other daughter. her name is mary womy williams. >> last time we walked was the first time since the surgery. >> reporter: theirs is a complicated mother-daughter relationship, one that began as a friendship. one that mary williams laid out in her memoir "the lost daughter." they first met at a summer camp in southern california. >> she's striking. partly because she's beautiful and also she has this bubbly personality. >> reporter: mary grew up poor in oakland, california.

her family belonged to the black panthers. politically active, but in such a tough neighborhood it eventually began to swallow her up, a victim of sexual assault at 14. >> this is a hugely smart person, but she was failing, you know? she wasn't -- she wouldn't let anyone touch her. nobody could come near her. there were clear signs of trauma. i said if you bring your grades up by the end of the year and your mother permits, i'll make sure that you go to school in santa monica and live with us. >> i literally felt like i was dying. i really did. when i saw that opportunity, i ran. i ran for it. >> reporter: the inner city kid from oakland took the lifeline. and suddenly found herself living in a beautiful home in santa monica. the child of a screen legend. culture shock. >> i had no idea at the time i was going to end up married to ted turner and my black daughter was going to end up at a table in a southern plantation being served by black people. the only black person at the table. >> reporter: mary merged her old family's values with her new

ones. in her book, she eloquently explains how these vastly different worlds were not so dissimilar after all. >> the black panthers, the fondas and the turners are as different as families can be. but they all had one crucial thing in common -- they were not shy about acting on their political beliefs. for them, the highest form of patriotism was dissent. all in the spirit of the trying to make the world a better place. >> reporter: but mary could never shed her tortured past and it was threatening her present mother/daughter relationship. >> i was alienating people. and the fact that i did it to the person i loved more in the whole wild world. >> she just said the person i love most in the world. >> don't say it again. isle start crying. isn't that beautiful? >> you are. >> makes me cry. >> reporter: what makes you emotional about that? >> love. is there anything else that matters? life? >> reporter: mary threw herself

into work, helping others. she taught english and worked for the u.n. in morocco. she lent a hand in rural tanzania, helped during the relocation of hundreds of lost boys in the sudan. hiked .appalachian trail, biked across the u.s., even conducted research in antarctica, conquering her fears but also running away. she was running away from the anger she felt towards her biological mother. and jane was by her side when she went in search of her birth mom. >> it was a wild experience. the three of us went to lunch. you know, me, white, privileged movie star. and this woman who's had a really rough life. she didn't seem to be angry. she didn't seem to be resentful. she has a good sense of rumor. i found out where mary gets her laugh. >> reporter: is it an overstatement to say jane fonda saved your life? >> it is not an overstatement at all. she doesn't know how amazing she has been and what she has done. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm

juju chang in hollywood, california. >> mary williams' book "the lost daughter" went on sale today. now it's time for tonight's "closing argument." today, mother jones magazine released tapes of senator mitch mcconnell's campaign strategizing againsti actress ashl ashley judd who was expected to run against mcconnell. the senator's campaign says the office was bugged and the fbi is investigating who produced the recordings. so what do you think is more upsetting? the recordings and the release of those tapes? or the mcconnell campaign tactics? you can weigh in on the "nightline" facebook page or tweet us. thanks for watching abc news. tune into "good morning america" tomorrow. and as always we're online at abc news.com. good night, america. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios

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