this morning, remembering carrie fisher, playing the iconic role on "star wars," looking at her life and legacy, and hear from her brother, one of the people who knew her best. breaking details of possible u.s. retaliation against russia for a role of hacking in the presidential election. the russians denied any responsibility, but now it seems president obama is set to act. new this half hour, a special visit creates a heart warming moment in a hospital. see the little boy who literally jumped out of bed to greet his football hero. see their once in a lifetime meeting coming up. later, look at unique parts of carrie fisher's life, some things many people didn't know about her, including her love life and plenty about her famous dog, gary.

that's in the skinny on this wednesday, november 28th. from abc news, this is "world news now." >> we do say good morning to you, everybody, on this wednesday morning of the seems as if we start newscasts with this in 2016. >> it's sad. enough already. >> yes. this year has claimed another one. this one, carrie fisher, a big loss for hollywood. >> princess lela in star wars, 60 years old, dying days after going into cardiac arrest on a flight from london. >> child of hollywood royalty who struggled with drugs and bipolar disorder, wrote about her experiences, and fought to remove the stigma from mental illness. david wright has more about her life on and off the screen. >> this is our most desperate hour. help me. you're my only hope.

>> a long time ago in a galaxy far away, it was the cry for help that beamed carrie fisher to her place among the stars. >> i love you. >> i know. >> reporter: fresh faced and full of the force, she stole hans heart. she was unbelievably young as she told amy. >> i've been princess for over 40 years and never got out again. >> reporter: even before, she was already hollywood royalty. the daughter of america's sweet heart, debbie ren nods, her father, eddie fisher, who dumped debbie to marry elizabeth taylor. not an easy family to grow up in. >> somebody had to save our skins. >> reporter: fisher was the only female lead in the star wars trilogy, an action hero and love interest. >> who are you?

>> reporter: she played dozens of roles over 30 years including on "harry met sally," and "the blues brothers." in her personal life, she struggled. family life strained. her battle with drugs off and on. all of it chronicled in her book, "postcards from the edge" inspired by her own life and made into a movie. >> i don't understand how i almost died. >> reporter: fisher returned to the spotlight in 2007 with amazon prime, plus, revamping her most famous role -- >> find luke and bring him home. >> reporter: now leading the rebellion in the "force awakens," her real life daughter even making an appearance by her side.

iconic princess, she signoff all the more poignant now. >> may the force be with you. >> reporter: carrie fisher was 60 years old. david wright, abc news, new york. >> david, thank you. fisher's family was by her side when she passed away, and her mother is now expressing gratitude for everyone's prayers. >> fisher's younger brother, todd, reflect the on their close relationship in an interview with kabc. >> do you think your sister knew how loved she was around the world based on what you've seen over the last few days? >> when she did these star wars comicon events, there was a lot of people who poured out their love and wanted to be with her just for a second. you saw it there. those are small moments compared to what's happened here, so, obviously, it's, i'm sure it's very, very gratifying in that regard.

past few days, you have a great memory that floods in your head, gosh, i remember when carrie and i, blank. >> i was the younger brother. she drug me around the house like a doll, and whenever my mom caught her, like, no, that's your brother. he's real. he's not a toy. you know, so we've really been close our whole lives, and it's a very strange place to be looking at the world wous her. >> can't help but feel for the family now. her brother, todd, another glimpse of another side we never knew. much more about fisher coming up, including things few people know about someone who was nay mouse for her entire life. >> an interesting love life. stay tuned for that. we move on now, and apparently the white house could announce new sanctions to punish russia for hacking during the

presidential election campaign. >> this morning's post reports the punishments include economic sanctions. president obama pledged earlier this month that there would be a response to russian interference in the election. russia, though, denied wrong doing and president-elect trump said he doused the accusations. >> trump now is still in florida at his home on vacation, but he's still active on twitter. >> the president-elect is congratulating himself saying the u.s. confidence index for december surged nearly four points to 113 preponderate 7, the highest level in more than 15 years. thanks, donald. and with more on trump's tweets, let's go over to abc's, mary bruce. >> reporter: donald trump still on vacation, but not taking a break from twitter, tweeting, president obama campaigned hard and personally in the very important swing states and lost. the voters wanted to make america great again. trump's digging in after president obama suggested he could have won. >> i think i could have mobilized

american people. >> reporter: trump's also taking credit for the economy, even before he takes the oath of office. boasting, the world was gloomy before i won. there was no hope. now the market is up nearly 10% and christmas spending over a trillion dollars, but lots of factors contribute to economic growth, employment is steadily growing under the obama administration, and after futures plunged on election night, the dow is up, but some experts caution that rally could be short lived. since winning, he's blasted out more than 200 tweets. a far cry from his promise. >> i'm going to be very restrained, if i use it at all, very restrained. >> reporter: incoming press secretary suggests the tweets are here to stay. >> the use of social media in particular is something never seen before. he has a direct pipeline to the american people. >> reporter: trump blasts the u.n. to condemn israeli settlements, calling it a club for people to get together, and republican lawmakers backing him up. >> we should seriously consider withholding all funds in the united nio

rescinded entirely. the democratic leader realizes his party has a problem that needs tackled. he reflected on the age of the party's bench, reid saying the democratic field of candidates looks like an old folks' home. abc news, mary bruce, the white house. >> mary, thank you. president obama is not holding back, no, and he's on vacation with his family in hawaii, but yesterday, he stepped away for a bit and was with japanese prime minister shinzo abe appearing together at pearl harbor in a show of reconciliation. he offered condolences to thousands of americans who died in the attack, but did not make a direct apology for it. >> amazon is calling 2016 the best ever for holiday sales. the online retail giant sold more than a billion items this holiday season. amazing therement the echo home assistant and the smaller

version, ecodot, were the best seller list. sells of the devices were nine times more than the previous season. and some dogs will be making a splash on monday's tournament of the roses parade. eight of them, including coppertone, that you see there, riding the waves on a 125-foot float. a team of volunteers created a base with more than a quarter of a million flowers for that. >> wow. that's cool. the float features a pool filled with 50,000 pounds of water. there's a wave machine producing a new wave every 45 seconds. the float features an underwater view with fish and coral. it's already won, like, my vote. >> i just wish they had more attention to detail. >> well, yeah, maybe there's roses as well. >> lacking details. >>

float. >> reporter: digging out across the wide part of the middle of the country. lots of people set for snow on the way as well. >> what you didn't know about fisher's little known accomplishments for someone being famous her whole life. that's in the skinny. stay with us. you're watching "world news now." >> "world news now" weather brought to you by united health care. ou by united health care. ♪ approaching medicare eligibility? you may think you can put off checking out your medicare options until you're sixty-five, but now is a good time to get the ball rolling. keep in mind, medicare only covers about eighty percent of part b medical costs. the rest is up to you. that's where aarp medicare supplement insurance plans insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company come in. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans,

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strong winds in southern california uprooted ees and power lines and did that to a truck. holy cow. this eucalyptus fell on a house. thankfully nobody home at the time, but they came home to quite a scene. >> digging out in the dakotas after the major snowstorm earlier this week. bismarck inches away from setting a record of snowfall. they got 43.5 inches already this year. crews working to restore power for thousands. that's saying a lot for bismarck, holy cow. george michael's family said they have been touched beyond words by the outpouring of love for the singer. fans are still leaving tributes outside the home in london and in the english countryside. >> likely we won't know a cause of death until next month. the spokesman says heart failure, but this photo shows a battle with drug use may have contributed as well. >> i've spent much of the last is 15-20 years tryg

seems to suffer. i suffer like crazy. i suffer all around it. >> there's no word on funeral arrangements of george michael including whether it will be public or previous. well, we know what caused the death of comedian and actor gary seven months ago. >> autopsy results reveal he died after a blood clot formed in the legs and traveled to the lungs. he had complained of leg pain and shortness of breath the day before he died, and he told friends he planned to see a doctor. >> and nfl quarterback cam newton made a christmas wish come true for a young man. 10-year-old austin has a rare heart condition. the carolina's quarterback made a visit one day before austin is set to undergo a risky procedure. >> the elementary schoolteacher mentioned his wish on social media last week. newton heard about it and just stopped by tuesday. he said he got something special out of it as well. >> oh, that's pretty cool moment. look how excited the kid was. >> i love these videos. i can't get enough of the little kids -- just at such a and then su a

when we come back, there was so much more to carrie fisher than princess lea. >> what you don't know. the skinny's next. "world news now" comets after this from our abc stations. frsh 's next. "world

the skinny, as you imagine, is dedicated to carrie fisher this morning, famous for her entire life, but there's so many things that you probably didn't know about her. so let's start with her life. love life >> oh, yeah. >> married to paul simon for about a year, but here's the thing. even after they divorced, they continued to date for eight more years. >> well, they were the original, like, uncouple. >> not just uncoupled. >> a beautiful couple at the time. >> recoupling. >> something along the lines. in her book, fisher wrote, if you get pall simon to write a song about you, do it because he's brilliant at it. she claims she inspired two songs, hearts and bones, and she moves on. >> >> that's about somebody

fisher almost married dan. they were engaged, aykroyd apparently saved her life while choking. >> their relationship lasted two years. after her death, aykroyd tweeted oult, our beautiful, brilliant; funny, wide kind generous blues sister, so ironic, christmas favorite thing next to babies. reacting to the death of someone he knew so well. who knew they had that sort of relationship. >> she was able to keep a very high level of affection with her exs. paul simon so much they kept dating, and dan, with positive things to say about her although they did not get married. >> the heimlich is the key to good relationships. >> let me get that for you. he was talking about babies and christmas time and her favorite

baby of her own, and the daughter's father left her to marry a man, billy lord was born in 1992. fisher refers to her as her, quote, most extraordinary creation and her witty writing sparkled in billy's birth announcements. >> someone summered in my stomach, someone's fallen through my legs. to make an infant omelet simply scramble sperm and eggs. so fisher wrote books, plays, and movies, and was what is known as a script doctor, someone who anonymously fixes plays, movies, and tv shows. she polished the dialogue for "star wars" episodes one, two, and three. >> a lot behind the scenes. >> she did. >> even fisher's dog was famous in later years. she took gary, a french bulldog, an adorable face with the tongue always out, she took him everywhere. >> yeah. he was a therapy dog for her, and even to interviews such as this one last year with am

>> gary's bored as hell, can you imagine? >> his eyes are closing. we've actually lulled him to sleep with our conversation. this is o low moment for me in my interview. >> i never had anyone fall asleep in my interview. >> that you know of. >> thank you. >> her timing, right there. >> such a great sense of humor, and since her death, gary, has been trying to keep everyone's spirits up. sending out several tweets, one after another, this one, he sent a photo of himself with his master expressing his affection for her, saying the best to all of you, and her fans replied. >> speaking of tweets, she tweeted using emojis and her ability was next level, using them overseas, including this one from belgium. >> reads, gary on the street. you could tell, right?

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as we've talked about throughout the morning, fisher had many roles in the entertainment industry, but none quite as iconic as princess leia from "star wars." >> no doubt. she talked about what it meant to her and other women with david muir. >> what do you think? >> the parts where i'm in it are distressing, but everything else is really great. >> when they hear the parts with leia are distressing -- >> i got older, and no one told me, and then they put me on a screen really, really big and high def. i had a round face, and they asked me to lose ten pounds be

my face. >> at 19 years old, they told you to lose weight for a film -- >> you want to hide. on set, you think they say, oh, you didn't lose it. bring in jodi foster. >> reporter: at one point, you wanted to play hans solo. >> now that's true. that's the best character. >> you still feel that way? >> i'm glad the female can yell at the men. >> you hear nothing? you're braver than i thought. >> reporter: from star wars to empire strikes back and the most famous scenes of all. >> i love you. >> i know. >> reporter: the famous moment, where you say, i love you. >> i know. >> that's what he says. >> i know. >> reporter: would he say that today? >> yeah, he would. >> still a wise guy? >> he is still a wise guy, but what we've all been through, like, trying to get it together. >> reporter: you said prin

leia got famous, i just happened to look like her. >> yes. now we look like each other. >> you do? >> yeah. >> she looks like carrie fisher, and i look like leia. i'm still princess leia, it doesn't go away when they say "cut." i'm her, she's in me. >> reporter: what do you say to all the little girls out there who were inspired by princess leia? >> she could do anything, she could do what she can do and do what she can. >> if you're associated role, you can do a lot worse. >> the most famous man this morning in her life, gary, the dog you saw there in the interview next to her. >> she takes him everywhere, and, oh, we love it. don't miss updates on facebook at wnnfans.com. this is abc's world news now, informing insomniacs for two decades. . this is abc'sor

now,

making news in america this morning, the tributes pouring in overnight for the iconic actress and writer carrie fisher from her co-stars from "star wars" and her life beyond the big screen. several states will ring in the new year with extreme weather. a rapidly developing system could bring feet of snow to the east coast while the west coat gets hit with winter weather. best-seller this christmas but can voice activated assistance help solve a murder. the police warrant involving an amazon echo igniting a privacy debate. sliding down a rock face. see what happens when a b.a.s.e. jump goes very wrong. we do say good morning, everything, on this wednesday and ar