tonight on "nightline," school board shootout. now we can tell you the inside story of the gunman the heroine and the high stakes high drama standoff all captured on camera. plus diet on ice. with frigid temperatures across the nation it might be good news. a weight loss fad that says getting freezing cold is a good way to shed pounds. but does it really work? and, funny girl. the legendary barbra streisand

sits down with abc's robin roberts for tonight's "nightline" interview. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city this is "nightline," december 15th, 2010. >> good evening. we begin tonight with crime and spontaneous heroism. when clay duke leveled his handgun directly at the panama city florida, school board yesterday, he allowed ginger littleton to leave the room. but she decided to come back creeping up behind the armed man with her purse held high poised to strike. well, tonight, she tells us what was going through her head. here's ryan owens with our report. >> reporter: this was supposed to be the exciting part of the school board meeting. awards being handed out to talented students. those kids left the meeting and next on the agenda, updating

classroom technology and preventing head lice. the monotony of the meeting was shattered when this man, 56-year-old clay duke, stead up with a simple declaration. >> i have a motion. >> reporter: with that, he walked to the wall and spray painted a red "v." the symbol for venndettavendetta. his wife was fired from her job as a special education teacher. and police believe the ex-con came to the school board to get revenge. >> everybody in this room, except the [ bleep ] behind the counter, hit the road. >> reporter: most people took his advice and left including the board's only female member ginger littleton. but she couldn't stay gone for long. >> they were lined up, ducks in a pond, fish in a barrel whatever you want to use. they were sitting there, he's a tall man, he was standing there over them and it was a matter of, you know, one, two, three,

four, five and they were gone. i mean, it was point blank. >> reporter: so, ginger snuck back into the room and this time, she, too was armed. with her purse. you're home free you're safe. why make the decision to turn back around? >> once i go there's nobody in there watching these guys' backs. there was nobody. and, so i turned around at that point and saw that he had come up onto the area, and his back was facing me. and i thought, there might be something i could do to buy some time for our guy to get there. >> reporter: so, what did you do? >> well, i took my handy dandy purse, and it was relatively well-stocked, and, so i walked up behind him and in my best olympic-style, whacked him on the hand tried to get him to drop the gun. >> reporter: it didn't work. so, at that moment were you thinking, boy, this was a bad decision. >> i knew that my plan a had fail and i didn't have a plan b.

>> reporter: duke let her leave again and turned his attention back to the men of the school board. mainly, the superintendent bill husfelt, who somehow had the composure to reason with the gunman. >> i don't want anybody to -- listen, just listen to me for a minute. i don't want anybody to get hurt and i've got a feeling that what you want is the the cops to come in and kill you because you're mad. because -- >> i'm going to die today. >> but why? this is -- this isn't worth it. this is a problem. please don't. please don't, please. >> reporter: police say duke fired at least 14 rounds, and every single one of them missed. one bullet hit the desk right in front of the super inten dance and stuck in his noteweekbook. >> i found out today that the bullet lodged in my board book. it's about that thick. and good lord put it there to save my life. >> reporter: ann husfelt

believes the quick-thinking of school security officer mike jones jones. he fired on the suspect, at which point, duke turned the gun on himself. the one shot he didn't miss. on duke's body officers found evidence the gunman was hoping to do far more damage. >> what he was carrying was a. .9 millimeter, high capacity. he had an extra magazine fully loaded in the back pocket and he had another box of ammo, and i believe that was full and contained 50 rounds. >> reporter: duke's wife whose fierily allegedly drove her husband to the shooting described him as a gentle giant. >> what he did was, you know wrong in the eyes of the law and society, probably, but basically, he loved me he loved his family. and he was just trying to have

people stop, as he would say, dump on me. >> reporter: but her husband was in trouble with the law long before she was ever fired. he was released from prison in 2004 after serving four years for aggravated stalking and shooting. police say it appears he wanted his final crime to end in a blaze of gun fire. at his home, officers found a calendar with yesterday's date circled. but tonight, clay duke is the only one dead and at least three people he encountered that day are being hailed as heroes. the cop who fired at him, the superintendent who tried to negotiate with him and the woman who took him on with her purse. do you wish you had more stuff in that purse. >> reporter: i do. i needed to have either a better swing or a brick or two. and i think i was a few bricks shy of a load on that one. >> reporter: i'm ryan owens for "nightline" in panama city, florida. >> what a woman.

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mtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmtmt well, everyone knows that to lose weight, it helps to sweat, whetherover the treadmill or on the yoga mat. except now, some fitness buffs are saying the exact opposite claiming the body burns even more calories when it's exposed to extreme cold. but is shivering to stay worm

really a good way to lose weight? here's andrea canning with our report. >> reporter: three times a week tim ferriss fills his bath with ice and climbs in. >> i like it short and sweet like a band aid. >> reporter: he says the extreme cold keeps his body super human and super thin. >> i'll start with water up to my mid abdomen for the first ten minutes and the last four to five minutes i'd lay back, keeping my head and hands out of the water. >> reporter: call it the thermal diet. ferriss, the author of "the four-hour body" swears by it to keep off unwanted fat. >> bring a book with you, get some reading done. >> reporter: so, how can us lose weight just by being cold? >> the body wants to maintain a balance, a homeostasis. so, 98.6 degrees. if you make it cold it will do everything it can to get back to 98.6. it has to burn calories to do that. >> reporter: what is going on at your body? >> there's actually a type of

fat called brown adipose issue. b.a.t. you burn fat tissue. >> reporter: ferriss is not alone. a friend introduced him to ray cronise, who says it changed his life, too. >> we can use the thermal environment to super charge our weight loss. >> reporter: struggling with his weight, ray took a scientific approach. >> when i realized that running a marathon only burned 2,600 calories, i was pretty disenchanted at that point. >> reporter: until he heard something that sounded impossible. olympic swimmer michael phelps' diet of 12,000 call reap as day, the same amount ray consumed in a whole week. >> if most people hear that michael eats that much food they think he's an olympic athlete, of course he eats that much food. but it's way out of proportion. then, it occurred to me michael spends most of the time in the

water, and water is 24 times more thermally conductive than air. what that means is water is sucking that energy and heat out of his body. his body was burning excess calories just to maintain his body temperature. >> reporter: he dug deeper and found that for years, nasa has been investigating the effects of temperature on astronauts. >> reporter: when we were looking at pilots that were in high altitude air craft and exposed to more thermal environments, as mild as 60 degrees, some of these people saw metabolism rates boost by as much as 20%. >> reporter: so ray added space science, swimming in cool water and taking shiver walks to his diet and exercise routine and he tripled his rate of weight loss. going from this to this losing 30 pounds in just six weeks. >> i spent the biggest part of my career trying to become weightless and it turns out that one of the biggest things that i think i can help out is helping

people with weight los. >> reporter: but can it really work? we spoke with doctors who say the physics might be right, diet and exercise are a lot less mess rabble and everyone agreed that people with health problems should avoid shocking the body like this. why haven't we heard about this method before? this seems like a magic cure. >> quite honestly it's because most nutritionists and most trainers get calories in calories out wrong. they don't understand it. >> reporter: can you just go stand in the cold and get slim or is it a quick fix or do you still need to exercise? >> you want to make the other life style changes, but the cold can really multiply the affects. >> reporter: if you're wondering how people in cold climates could be heavy, he has an answer for that, too. >> they keep themselves warm. so, most people, if they live in a cold climate, don't go out of their way to expose themselves to the cold. >> reporter: i want to take the walk. >> i'm ready. >> reporter: i really don't, but -- i would like to try it.

oh, that's cold. >> very, very brisk. >> reporter: ferriss cautions to begin with short walks and always keep a coat nearby. we're below freezing now and we can certainly feel it. what does that mean for us? how many extra calories are we burning because of the cold? >> we are burning at least 50% more. >> reporter: but even advocates admit ice baths and shiver walks aren't for everyone. >> you're all going to get sick! >> reporter: suggesting instead that you start off with small changes. >> leaving the sweater at home. or putting the thermostat down a few degrees. all of those little changes add up to enormous boosts in your weight loss over time. >> reporter: all options a lot less painful than this. >> my toes are turning red. i think i'm getting frostbite. for "nightline," i'm andrea canning in new york. >> ahh, the weather in most of the country certainly has been cooperating this week. when we come back a rare interview with barbra streisand,

as she opens up in her beloved malibu home. i can't believe i used to swing over those rocks... took some foolish risks as a teenager. but i was still taking a foolish risk with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier exercising more... and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol...stop. along with

diet, lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39% to 60%. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. let's go, boy, go! whoo-whee! if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with sit kra mccynthia mcfadden. >> emmy oscar, tony. she's one of only 12 to have taken home them all. and that's not to mention her role as fit m director. barbra streisand is one of the most extraordinary performers of all time. and now to her list of credits, she adds author. tonight, she sits down with robin roberts for the "nightline" interview. >> this is robin, sammy. >> reporter: walking around her place in malibu with her dog, sammy, it hits me. i'm walking around with barbra streisand. and i have to confess, i'm getting a little verklempt. ♪ people ♪ >> reporter: you know, barbra streisand. ♪ they're the luckiest people in the world ♪ >> reporter: the woman behind

the voice. and the music. decades of it. and so much more. >> hello, gorgeous. >> reporter: in "funny girl" she redefined beauty. a girl with skinny legs and that bump on her nose. >> be happy to wait while you change. >> don't have to change too much. >> reporter: the star from brooklyn played opposite some of the sexiest leading men of her time. chris christopherson in "a star is born." robert redford in "the way we were." ♪ memories ♪ >> reporter: what jumped off the screen was that magic all combination of awkward and elegant. and her authenticity. she's like that, too, in real life. i tell you i've interviewed a lot of people. i can't remember the last time family, friends, colleagues were -- whoa! that i was going -- >> really? >> reporter: you have this impact. >> why? >> reporter: maybe it's the span of her career.

she's had nine number one albums over the course of 46 years. the latest last year's "love is the answer." and she's had an influence in pop culture. take this song from "glee." ♪ nobody ♪ >> reporter: a tribute to her show-stopping number from "funny girl." streisand's latest film "little fockers," -- >> that is your own personal came yarmulke. >> reporter: hers is a supporting role. your husband has said you've got one big movie at least left in you. >> my husband said that? only one? >> reporter: i said at least. >> oh, i see. >> reporter: at least. >> i'd like to direct again. after doing this movie, it's easier than building a house. >> reporter: ahh, the house. her latest project, and her passion right now. she confesses that she poured

over every nail, every beam every detail that went into her home. >> and you'll see my beautiful black and white fish that match the trim of the house, the shutters and the moldings. >> reporter: some people would say, just a little obsessive, just -- >> yeah, well -- a movie that i was going to do fell through, so i had the need for creative expression. i like to be obsessed. i like to have it fill my thoughts. >> reporter: streisand's strength and her famous attention to detail have fueled her reputation for being a diva. it's an image she rejects. >> these crazy stories people make up. i guess if you don't give interviews much, and they want to write about you, they make it up. >> reporter: can you remember a story that you picked up and you were like, oh give me a break. there's -- that is so not true. not even --

>> when i was doing madison square garden the person who puts flowers on the set and in my dressing room i guess, put some flowers in the toilet. now, this is not my idea. i was like, whoa that is going a little too far. all of a sudden the story is that i insist on these petals. i was like, what are you talking about? >> reporter: she points out that men, with her exacting standards, are called commanding rather than demanding. she prefers passionate. and she's now written a book a best seller already, called "my passion for design." and her home, and put aside part of the proceeds for women's heart disease. >> reporter: the proceeds going to something that's very dear to you, that you've worked on. i'm a cancer survivor though people don't realize, heart disease, you combine all the cancers -- >> can you imagine that? that's what got me so crazy. i was so shocked by that fact

that heart disease in women kills more women than all cancers combined. you know at first, i thought, was it just breast cancer? for everyone person that dies of breast cancer ten die of heart disease. and i couldn't believe it. and, actually, i was told about a thing called the yentl syndrome. if a woman different present herself as a man, she wouldn't be treated right, you know for her symptoms. but do you know that more women die of heart disease than men now? >> reporter: yentl of course was another of her signature roles, and in so many ways it is the role that best sums her up. ♪ try to understand me ♪ >> reporter: it is the story of a girl who cut off her hair so she could make her way in the world as a man. streisand spent five years trying to get the picture made and ultimately wrote, produced starred in and directed the

film, the first woman to play all those parts in the same film. so, you see yourself directing before starring in a major production again? >> well, it would be nicer. you don't have to you know get up and do your hair you don't have to learn lines, you don't have to have costume fittings makeup and all that stuff. i don't really like that part of it. >> reporter: if you had to choose, if someone said you can sing act, direct or design -- >> probably said direct. because it's the whole. i knew it would be kind of dangerous to try to direct a movie and -- it was scary. to go into you know a man's world and know i'm going to be criticized, in a sense. but that's -- that's what interests me. i like the challenge of how do you tell a story? how do you get the best out of actors' performances? and you can be in the molt. you can turn the camera and say,

oh, my god, a bee just flew in and, you know put that closeup on that bee and let's watch him just sip from the nectar of that flower. you know, it's just so alive. >> reporter: and so is barbra streisand. >> aren't they beautiful? >> reporter: gorgeous. for "nightline," i'm robin roberts in malibu. >> the one and only. we'll be right back but first, here's jimmy kimmel with what's coming up next. jimmy? >> jimmy: tonight, mark wahlberg, beau garrett, music from the temper trap and frosty the snowman meets maury the povich. "jimmy kimmel live" is next.

mmmm. you don't love me anymore do you billy? what? i didn't buy this cereal to sweet talk your taste buds it's for my heart health. so i can't have any? if you can deprive me of what can help lower my cholesterol... and live with yourself. right. mmm, i worry about your mother. cry herself to sleep every night over my arteries but have yourself a bowl. good speech dad. [ whimper ] [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios

tastes great and its whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy.