. >> announcer: once again, elizabeth vargas with "seeing the future." >> iceberg right ahead. >> reporterwho could forget the movie's epic recreation of the ship sinking in 1912? but remarkably, the story of the "titanic" was first told 14 years before the ship left port in this book, almost exactly foretelling the ship's name, the iceberg and the month of the disaster. how could that be possible? and what about a strange pattern of empty seats on doomed trains discovered by an accident investigator back in the 1950s? >> it almost invariably on the day of the crash, the occupancy rate went down, the vacancy rate went up. >> reporter: were passengers tipped off by a force from the future? do premonitions really happen? the answer may lie where we all begin, with our mothers. lynn darmon's daughter ali is a healthy, happy 20-year-old, but her bright future almost never was, something lynn sensed while ali was still in her womb. and when did you start having a feeling something might be wrong with the baby? >> probably end of my second trimester. >> reporter: but when ali was born, and she l

elizabeth vargas. josh nursing the bad back. >> i'm glad to fill in for josh. hope that back gets better soon. we begin with breaking details about the worst of the massive wildfires burning across the west. thunderstorms could cause flooding in the same area where 160-square miles has been scorched. on evacuation order in some resort communities there has been lifted. and residents are returning. crews are battling the fire from the air, along with 1,200 firefighters on the ground. meantime, some strong winds in oregon pushed another wildfire across nearly eight-square miles, forcing new evacuations. >>> also breaking overnight, a massive fire at one of the largest metal recycling plants just outside new york city. heavy flames and smoke could be seen for miles in the early-morning sky. firefighters are battling it from air and from land. and with a fireboat, as they try to bring it under control. >>> in los angeles, a deadly chain-reaction crash shut down all lanes of interstate 10 last night, one of the nation's busiest highways. traffic was backed up for mi

>> here's elizabeth vargas and david muir. >> good evening. if you're like some 34 million americans tonight, the highest number in years, you're already planning your get away for next week's long labor day weekend. a last hurra for the last summer. so, how do you get to where you're going? >> plug in your trusty gps, right? well, as jay schadler finds out tonight, it eelgs not always so trustworthy. reretraces a journey that was quite literally hell on wheels for one family. lost in the hottest place on earth. the one thing they were counts on to save them didn't. their gps. ♪ on a dark desert highway >> reporter: inside the little grey hyundai, sailing along with "hotel california" playing on the radio, is donna cooper. donna, her daughter gina and their friend jenny leeung visiting from hong kong are on a day trip to an old mansion turned tourist museum in death valley. >> i had never been to scotty's castle, i'd been saying for years i'd like to go, but i never went. it's a nice day trip. >> reporter: they recently returned to death valle

here's elizabeth vargas. >> good evening. david muir is off tonight. want more friends, more money, even more sex? then, research says be better looking. it is the naked truth of lookism, especially during these stripped down summer months. in fact, just this week, a new jersey judge ruled that some atlantic city casino waitresses could be legally fired for putting on weight. so, how to lose it? just take a look at the newest diet craze that might have you saying "hold your tongue." literally. here's cecilia vega. >> reporter: from the surgical, think liposuction, stomach stapling and the lap-band, to scary, like the cotton ball diet. >> i've heard of people eating the cotton balls with the orange juice. and it makes you think you're full but you're not. >> reporter: to the downright disgusting. that's not a jar of noodles. it's the main ingredient in the tapeworm diet. >> everybody looks like they want to vomit right now. >> reporter: you dine out while the parasite dines in your digestive tract. there's seemingly no limit to the lengths people will g

here's my "20/20" co-anchor elizabeth vargas tonight. >> no more hangers! what it was like growing up as the daughter of a hollywood star. joan crawford as the caricature of the mother no one would want. >> yes, mommie dearest. >> reporter: now the spotlight is on another hollywood icon's parenting skills. shirley maclaine. her lookalike daughter, sachi parker, writes about her childho childhood, "lucky me: my life with and without my mom shirley maclaine." >> shirley maclaine is bigger than life. she is a force to be reckoned with. and she's big in everything she does. she's big in eating an ice cream sundae. >> from war and peace, down to -- >> reporter: now starring in the global sensation "downton abbey," maclean, at one time, was a triple threat. who sang, danced and acted and went on to win an oscar. >> i deserve this. thank you. >> reporter: -- for her portrayal as a mother who has a love/hate relationship with her daughter in "terms of endearment." >> why should i be happy about being a grandmother? >> reporter: but maclean's real life daughter says

>> here now, david muir and elizabeth vargas. >> good evening.e looked great on paper and his photos weren't bad, either. good enough to have a lot of women cheque out his match.com dating profile. but it's what happened afterward that turned those dream dates into nightmares. >> in fact, it's the big question everyone at home will be asking themselves, especially if you have gone online looking for love. how could more than 20 smart, sophisticated women be fooled by the same charming imposter who called himself dr. jeff? he was hardly a doctor, and as they would painfully learn, he was something else. >> i love being a lawyer so much, you know, the cases, it's always different. >> reporter: jessika rovell has an impressive resume. she's an attorney in our nation's capital, a naval reservist, a former beauty queen. she's devoted to her career. >> there's always something that's, that's going to challenge you. >> reporter: devoted to her health and her pets. so, it's not surprising when one of jessika's friends tried to set her up on a date, she m

. >> reporter: in may, douglas talked with abc's elizabeth vargas, about his wife's battle with bipolarc. it reminded me when i had to come out about the cancer. you know, just clears up a lot of rumors. >> reporter: but according to "people," zeta-jones may not have felt the same about douglas' own openness, in a june interview with "the guardian" newspaper, in which he blamed a sexual transmitted disease. >> he gave interviews about his sexual past that she was not happy with his comments about that. that got the ball rolling. >> reporter: douglas' oldest son's incarceration also created tension between the two. abc news has reached out to reps for douglas and zeta-jones. neither has responded. the couple hasn't been seen together since this event in new york, holding hands in april. questions about a breakup have been in the headlines. aditi roy, abc news, los angeles. >> they have been through a lot. we are wishing them all the best. >> yeah. >>> coming up, we showed you the pictures of princess kate out shopping. how she and william are striving for a normal life, now, with their b