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who could question such simple rules of thumb? tonight how the presidential pep talk provoked a back to school brawl. captions paid for by abc, inc. good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. we begin tonight with a woman who at 35 has already deeply influenced with popular culture. she won an emmy for her talk show last week and "forbes" magazine estimates her yearly income is in excess of $20 million. tyra banks once a supermodel and now a super mogul has made a remarkable rise from her childhood in a one-bedroom apartment in south central los angeles. she is a woman used to beating the odds. as she told me in an exclusive interview she's just getting started. >> by day on her talk show, tyra

banks is everybody's girlfriend. [ cheers and applause ] supportive. >> why don't you come give me a hug. >> sympathetic. >> these women are victims of our society. >> the queen of self-esteem. >> look in the mirror. and try to love what you see. >> but by night, she's the princess of pretty. for the battle of the beautiful on the set of "america's next top model." >> oh, my god, she was so ugly in the pictures i can't even look at it. my god. >> while other judges are left to spew the venom -- >> there's a strange tension in your face, that's not entirely photogenic actually. >> as the show's executive producer she's the one in charge. >> your face looks like it's in a wind tunnel. >> it is she who dramatically

shows each loser the door. >> but i only have one photo in my hands, and the girl i do not call must immediately return to your apartment, pack your belongings and go home. >> not at all what the daytime tyra does. >> to me, there's the hey, y'all, this is the real me. and then i have two photos in my hand. >> we wanted to find out more about the real tyra. >> look at this. shopping traffic, here we go. >> like where is everybody? they're in a meeting. >> at 35, she's the ceo of her own company. >> somewhere we need to talk about what the new season is about, like season five. >> and is reportedly making a fortune. that's been a lot of talk of money and reports that you make upwards of $20 million a year. are they in the ballpark? >> i don't know i always say it could be a hell of a lot less, could be a hell of a lot more. mama told me don't talk about your money. >> she talks about her mother

with whom she and her brother shared a one-bedroom apartment after her parents divorced. she said she was no beauty. >> i was very, very thin. i was 98 pounds, 5'9". that's not supermodel thin, but that's what's wrong with her thin? nothing i would do would make me gain weight. >> we now that story ended. the once ugh willing duckling turned into a gorgeous supermodel swan. but not without some big bumps in the road. >> when i was 15 years old, there were not a lot of black models in the agency. to go to an agency and say, we already have a black girl, singular. there was one girl, who said i know you're excite and you got your pictures in the "seventeen" magazine, but you won't get far in this world, because you're black. so you should learn how to type

because you're probably -- the furthest you'll get into this agency is the head reception like me. she said that to me. >> wow. >> yeah. >> some people it crushes their spirit. for others -- >> it crushes me for half a second and i go -- >> that roar ultimately echoed throughout the modeling world and on to the cover of "sports illustrated" and down the victoria's secret runway. though she laments the image of black beauty is often limited to women like her who have white skin and anglo features. >> cynthia, i got the covers of the magazines because of the fact of my coloring, and my eyes are green and my coloring is carmel colored. i have made it a mission of my life to redefine and to open up the small box of what beautiful is. >> she has done that with a vengeance. from a heartbreaking look at skin bleaching. >> your children?

>> yes, three boys. i bleach them too. >> you bleach your boys? >> mm-hmm. >> to preexceptly exploring weight issues. >> as soon as i stepped off the bus, i saw three people turn and laugh right in my face. >> never more memorably than when she confronted her own weight. these paparazzi snapshots were snapped around the world. and they said she gained 40 pounds and she said it wasn't true and she said she fought back for all the women who felt judged by her weight. >> those women are going -- they're calling tyra fat? what the hell am i? that's when i got mad. i said i have to do something about this. so i was a model, i wouldn't care. >> come on. it had to have hurt your feelings a little bit. tyra pork chop? america's next top waddle? i mean, come on, anybody would be hurt. >> yeah. >> you know? >> i know. other things hurt me.

not that. >> really? >> i mean, like -- >> i'm not -- >> i'm not going to say i'm a human being, yes, it hurt me, but i swear to you, cynthia, did not cry. consider this photo was flashed all over the world -- >> instead she decided on a gutsy move. wear the very same swimsuit on her show. >> at the last minute i called my stylist, i said, yani, do you have that swimsuit i took pictures in? she said i have it right here. i said, pull the baby oil out, put the swimsuit on. she was like, are you serious? i'm like, i'm putting it on. >> to go on television in your bathing suit that you were criticized in -- >> but at the moment it felt like real. but i will honest, cynthia, my body was shaking before i went out. >> i have one thing to say to you. kiss my fat ass! [ cheers and applause ] >> that will be hard to top.

this year's season premiere, earlier today, tyra shed another layer. >> i show myself with no makeup. i have shown myself with my cellulite hanging out and unretouched self hanging out and now i'm showing my real hair. >> dumping her famous weaves, no doubt good for ratings, but was there another reason as well? >> years ago when i started to wear hair extensions, young girls would say, tyra, you have the most beautiful hair. wow, i can never grow hair like that i would say, child, this is a weave. i'm like, this ain't my hair. you girls need to know. >> we girls have survived it all. >> and the messages do seem mixed. at night, the competition is based on such things as good hair and even fans of "america's next top model" why the winners are not household names like the

winners of "american idol." a lot of the girls who have gone on to less than stellar modeling careers, i mean, modeling for for j.c. penney's and other things like that, have they achieved what you have hoped for them? >> i'm creating careers for them, and it's sad that the title is "america's next top model" but who the hell is right now? >> one might be forgiven for suggesting that the real star of "america's next top model" is miss banks herself. how much of a diva are you? >> i wish i was more of a diva. i wish i was harder -- i wish i didn't care so much about being the nice girl all the time. because a lot of the times people can take kindness for weakness. so i wish i had a little bit more oomph, you know, in me.

>> oomph. paula porizkova and janice dickinson when they left the show were not very nice about you. >> let's not go there. >> well, i am going there. i am going to ask that question. when we come back. still haven't tried activia? listen to this story. my problem was occasional irregularity. my commercials didn't convince you? i am definitely a skeptic. actually, my mom convinced me. and i have activia every morning for breakfast. activia definitely helped with my occasional irregularity. activia is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system in two weeks when eaten every day. chances are someone you trust can recommend activia. take the activia challenge. it works or your money back! ♪ activia! it works or your money back! crime in new york city has dropped 27% since 2001. response times in madrid... ...have been cut by 25%. cities all over the world are getting smarter... ...and safer. every time an emergency happens...

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no doubt with fame and popularity comes criticism and superstar tyra banks is no exception. i asked her about some of it. no, you're not watching a brawl at a european soccer game. or some sort of political protest. no, these 10,000 women showed up for a spot on "america's next top model." many of them came and 60 women ended up in the hospital. that's not the only controversy surrounding the program. two judges also generated

controversy. >> i think you're the problem of why women are leaning over the toilets and vomiting. >> it's not something that tyra or her publicists wanted to discuss. both paulina porizkova and janice dickinson when they left the show were not very nice about you. >> let's not go there. >> well, i'm going there. i am going to ask that question. paulina for h-- said that you lacked respect for the cojudges, janice said you were righteous. why do you think they had such negative things. >> what do you think? >> i was there aren't. >> she doesn't want to go there. >> jealous. >> i didn't say that word. you said it. what do you think? you said it. is that what you think? >> i'm asking. >> you said it, i didn't say it. >> she's not going to go there. >> i think she just did.

>> no, you said it. i didn't say anything. you said it. is that what you think? i interview people, cynthia. so i'm saying you said that. why did you say that? >> because i think every time women don't get along it's the first thing that people think. sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not true. and i think that that's probably what a lot of people assume. is that they're jealous, that your show -- that it's your show, not theirs. but when two people say it you wonder if there's a problem behind the scenes. time to move on to a topic that fascinates her fans -- her love life. so much has gone right in your life, but the man thing has never gelled. anything you'd want to tell us know? >> i wouldn't say it hasn't gelled. i'm not married. >> because we don't know.

>> exactly. >> you have been very private about all this. >> quite. >> why? >> because sharing a relationship does nothing except sharing your relationship. doesn't help like people or do anything. it creates gossip fodder. >> there have been reports of late of tyra sightings, with a financier. that's financier john utendahl. they have been dating since 2007, but if wedding bells are in the offing, she won't say. >> i just feel like talking about that does nothing. i don't know what it does, whereas i'll talk about oh, my god, i had cramps yesterday, let me tell how sick i was from cramps because that's giving something back. but to open up my life, i don't think. so oprah said don't talk about your man unless you want the whole world in your business. she told me that. i said okay. >> what about children? are we going to see little tyras? >> i think you will. i don't know when. but sooner than later. yeah, definitely. i mean, you know, i have a lot

of success and, you know, i make a good living. after a while, you start going, why are you doing all this? you know, especially i'm not materialistic, so it's not like, oh, yeah, i'm making all this, let's get the jet -- you know? i don't have that. so i need to be able to pass this down to my family. i need to be able to share it with a family and, you know, go to toys "r" us and boy a lot of toys for my child. what is the point? >> that is actually a very good question. what is it all for? it's a subject she's given some thought to. why she's working so hard and why she's driven to achieve. >> it might have to do with being a model for so long, and maybe there's something inside of me that wants to prove you know like how dedicated i am to something. >> you want to be taken serious? >> yes. i am now. i know i am now. but i didn't think i was before. i wasn't before. you know, i had people like just going you're a model and what

the heck, you're going to have a talk show, it will be cancelled, you're a model, nobody cares. oh, you're black girl, you won't be successful as a model, so i feel very taken seriously now. when i walk in a minute and ten men in there in suits, i don't feel like i have to prove myself anymore. i feel like i have proven myself. >> there's no argument about that. it's the fifth -- the sixth season of "america's next top model" premiered today and she launched a new online magazine today called what else, "tyra" beauty inside and out. in her spare time she tells me she'd like to take business courses at an ivy league college. when does she sleep? speaking of education, when we come back, the presidential message that became a philosophical food fight. my name's lisa. i'm from fayetteville, north carolina, ...and i smoked for 29 years.

the one thing about smoking - is it dominates your life, and it dominated mine. and the sad thing about it is that you can always use an excuse if cigarettes don't kill me, oh well - something else will. but, you can't use that as an excuse. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. it was very interesting that you could smoke on the first week. chantix gave me that extra help that i needed to get through a tough time. (announcer) chantix is a non-nicotine pill. in studies, 44% of chantix users were quit during weeks 9 to 12 of treatment, compared to 18% on sugar pill. it is proven to reduce the urge to smoke. i did have an unopen pack of cigarettes in my purse and then i think i opened my purse and realized it was still there. and i said, "what the heck, i don't need these..." ...i said, you know, "bye, i don't need you anymore, you're not my crutch, i don't need a crutch."

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we turn now to a back to school lesson that students today heard in classrooms across the country. the teacher -- president barack obama but not every pupil heard his pep talk? why? partisan politics got the way and a controversy that once again forced the white house to play defense. dan harris has tonight's report. >> a speech where the president urges kids to stay in school and do their homework -- >> that's what i want to focus on today. the responsibility each of you has for your education. >> that comes a burning

political issue, at least in some quarters. >> stand guard, america. your republic is under attack. >> here is the blow by blow, the anatomy of a controversy, if you will. on august 26 t white house officially announces that the president will be addressing students. the next day a conservative website criticizes the speech without even knowing what the president will say exactly. just days later on september 1, the chairman of the florida republican party slams the speech as indoctrination. by september 2, rush limbaugh and glenn beck are all over it. >> so he goes out and tells these kids, got to take personal responsibility, he never even does that in his own life. >> i'm not real pleased with the plans -- >> by september 3, school districts all over the country coming under pressure not to show the speech to students, from irate parents like james noack. >> any time a politician or anyone is going to be addressing your child i think you have a right to know what is going to

be said before they're subjected to it. >> class, we are honored today to have a very special guest. >> when president george h.w. bush spoke to students in 1991, he said many of the same things that president obama echoed today. >> take control. don't say school is boring and blame it on your teachers. >> there was some controversy over that speech, but it was nothing compared to the preemptive and fierce nature of this one. the conservative echo chamber is not new, but this white house is operating in a vastly accelerated media environment. where you no longer need to be in the presence of reporters to make news. >> today, you can arrange that protest yourself, photograph wit a handheld cell phone, post that on youtube and if you can then generate enough views of that video on youtube you can make something into national news. >> that's because the mainstream

media loves a good fight, even if the charges are unfounded. but there's something else going on here as well. some of the conservative complaints do play into larger concerns about this president. concerns that are showing up in his slipping poll numbers on healthcare reform. >> there's a larger resonance of too much government in their lives. auto and bank bailouts, government-run health insurance. >> even though team obama ran such a successful presidential campaign, critics say the white house has been unprepared for the ferocity of the republican opposition. >> you have to be aware of the opposition that is going to arise and have a plan to deal with it. >> a plan that might have prevented students like maverick noack from being pulled out of class today when president obama gave his speech. ryan owens watched the speech with rhis father who was glad hs

son hadn't seen the president, but he admitted there was nothing objectionable at all. >> anything we can do to encourage our youth to stay in school and learn something that can help them tomorrow is a positive. >> but the damage was done. the white house was again thrown off message. even their success you probably shouldn't expect the right to relent any time soon. in fact, today, rush limbaugh urged his listeners to keep at it. >> what happened in august is going to be required behavior of all of us for the remainder of this guy's first term. >> this is dan harris for "nightline" in new york. >> and that's a lesson in politics. dan harris reporting. we'll be right back.