Newsmakers
by Keith Morrison, Dateline NBC correspondent
Eric Volz is a nervous man. Understandably so, too, given the nightmare he has been living through. Has been - is still - living through.
So on the morning we meet for the second time, he is driven the short city block from New York's Today Show studio to Dateline's interview facility. He's accompanied by his mother, step-father, and a young woman who has been acting as a publicist for the family (together, these three generated and kept alive the international pressure that helped Eric win his freedom). All of them greet us warmly, and all, especially Eric, wear the look that says this isn't over.
I'll back up a minute. The first time I met Eric he was the best-known inmate of the Modelo Prison, a huge maximum security institution not far from Managua, Nicaragua.
He'd been sentenced to 30 years, convicted by a Nicaraguan court of murdering his one-time girlfriend, a striking beauty named Doris. The killing was particularly shocking for its extraordinary brutality, and Doris's mother, as well as many people in her town, and one of
Nicaragua's most popular newspapers, appeared determined to ensure Eric was held responsible.
In fact, after one of his court hearings, a local mob chased him through the streets of town, intent on - well, we don't know what. After Eric's parents hired security guards to protect him, rumors circulated in Nicaragua that Eric's people were trying to bribe their way to an acquittal. And, in spite of clear and convincing evidence that Eric was hours away when the crime occurred, he was convicted.
So, to say that Eric was living through a nightmare was, if anything, something of an understatement.
CONTINUED >>
by Hoda Kotb, Dateline correspondent
You never know quite what to expect when you sit down to do an interview. So when Drew Peterson took a chair opposite me, I'll be honest: I wasn't sure what was coming.
I knew his backstory well. My producer Sue Simpson had provided me with information, news articles, police reports, autopsy reports.
His life did seem complicated -- when it came to women. This was a police officer with almost 30 years on the Bolingbrook Police Force. He'd been married four times. His first three marriages ended in divorce; after he split from his third wife, she was found dead in her bathtub and his fourth wife, Stacy, was now missing.
I wondered if he was the unluckiest man on earth, with two of his four wives either missing or dead, or if there was more to the story. What would he tell me?
CONTINUED >>
In her first interview since the final chapter of the Harry Potter series went public, J.K. Rowling revealed the secrets she could never previously discuss to TODAY’s Meredith Vieira in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Rowling covered all topics including the rationale behind her plot choices; the character she saved and the ones she decided to kill later in the writing process; what Harry, Hermione and Ron are up to these days; her plans for the future; and the way Harry Potter has saved her own life.By Joe Delmonico, Dateline Producer
Let me be candid: I was predisposed not to like these guys.
You see, I am not a royal watcher. Quite the contrary. It’s always been hard for me to care about the doings of people who were born into immense wealth, guaranteed admission to the finest schools, and assured of a lifetime of total privilege, comfort and security, without having to earn any of it. William and Harry don’t just automatically go to the head of the line—they never see the line. How can they possibly have insights that are relevant to those of us leading normal lives? And aren’t they so programmed to always say the right thing that they’re incapable of the spontaneity that makes an interview interesting?
Add to that the inherent hassle of interviewing such people. It’s nobody’s fault, just the way it is. For example, you can’t interview two princes just anywhere. Their representatives decided the interview should take place at Clarence House, which is the official London residence of the Prince of Wales. It’s a lovely old building with manicured gardens and a courtyard where there’s a footprint reputedly left by Henry VIII. Clarence house also has security cameras watching your every move, machine guns on the roof, and guards who wear those very photogenic red coats and beaver hats and carry very impressive assault rifles. We were cautioned – only half in jest-- not to stray too far from the area assigned to us, lest bullets start flying.
Also for reasons of security and the princes’ comfort level, the palace representatives required us to severely limit the size of our crew and radically simplify our usual lighting setup. (The fact that this ancient building has ancient wiring also argued in favor of the fewest lights possible.) We all of course underwent the usual background checks, and all our camera and lighting gear was gone over by bomb-sniffing dogs.
All the while I am asking myself: for what? So we can interview a couple spoiled kids with nothing much to say?
Then the interview started.
CONTINUED >>
by Josh Mankiewicz, Dateline correspondent
This will be Paris Hilton’s eighth night behind bars, probably the most-discussed jail term ever.
Monday on “The View,” Barbara Walters talked about the phone call she received from Hilton, who’s in the medical ward of the L.A. County jail.
Harvey Levin, TMZ.com: She’s doing better. She’s adjusting to it. She’s still fragile. But I think, just psychologically, from what I’m hearing, she’s not this ping pong ball anymore. She knows she’s going to be at this facility for awhile.
Last week, Harvey Levin’s TMZ.com was reporting Hilton was disintegrating under the pressures of incarceration...saying she’d become sullen, withdrawn...a train wreck....and being visited by her psychiatrist.
That set up last Friday’s tug-of-war between a sheriff who sent her to home detention and a judge who wanted this Hilton back in the crossbar hotel.
What’s also astonishing about this case is not just the attention it has received, but the venom it’s generated. Browse any Internet board—you’ll find a legion of posters wishing Ms. Hilton a long, unpleasant stay in the hands of the law.
It’s not just the blogosphere—one Web site is selling “Paris Go Away” T-shirts.
And while she’s a familiar target in the late-night cross hairs, the huge audience reaction to any mention of her plight is so enthusiastic, it’s become predictable.
Why do people care so much about her fate? CONTINUED >>
In a rare television interview, Angelina Jolie sits down exclusively with NBC News' Ann Curry to discuss her upcoming movie, "A Mighty Heart," in which she plays Mariane Pearl, the wife of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. Click here for a transcript.
In a separate interview, Brad Pitt talks to Curry about his behind-the-scenes role as a producer in "A Mighty Heart," which is produced by his Plan B shingle in conjunction with Revolution films. Dede Gardner and Andrew Eaton, two producers of the movie, will also join Pitt in the interview.
The interviews will air on NBC News' "Today" and "Dateline NBC" Wednesday, May 23.
by Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent
It was a perfectly sunny L.A. afternoon, a charming curb-side restaurant right there in the sweet spot of the Sunset strip, lunch with a couple of members of an extremely exclusive club.
And one of them popped up and was across the place — and back — before I quite understood what was up.
“______,” she told me, sitting down again. “He was the guy in the Paris video...” THAT Paris video.
A friend of hers, apparently. Or was he? As we had been discovering, the tight little world inhabited by the people who show up week after week on the covers of tabloid magazines is not quite the bright wonderland lots of us like to imagine.
Behind those velvet ropes, our lunch companions told us, it's a sometimes dangerous world, inhabited not just by the famous or the wanna-be famous, but by dark characters, bottom feeders and bad boys intent on making use of those very faces you see on the tabloids.
CONTINUED >>
by Josh Mankiewicz
This week, two strange soap operas attracted an audience of millions. On TV, on the Internet, and in print, the sagas played out. And depending on how you see all this, you can choose your own storyline -- women gone wrong, women done wrong, or girls gone wild.
Singer Britney Spears, more than accustomed to headlines for her sexy onstage persona, found her image publicly deep-fried for behavior that could only be described as very troubling. CONTINUED >>
Even though the life of Anna Nicole Smith was defined by tragedy and high drama, the news of her death still came as a shock.
Controversy and scandal, success and failure trailed Anna Nicole from the moment she came into public view — make that full view — as a Playboy centerfold 15 years ago. Her sudden and still mysterious death today is a final ironic chapter for a woman who modeled herself after her idol, Marilyn Monroe.
And this week, it may have been one of the strangest court battles you've ever seen: Since the death of Anna Nicole Smith more than two weeks ago a battalion of lawyers has been fighting over her final resting place.
Meanwhile, another fight is raging over the question of who fathered Smith's baby girl, an infant who could inherit millions.
But it was the complex and often colorful court battle over Smith's remains that riveted the nation over the past few days. Click here to read the Dateline report on the legal drama. Click here to read the interesting quotes from Judge Seidlen.
Use the comments section, below, to share your thoughts on the death of a centerfold.
In dramatic display, pop princess Spears shaves her head and gets a couple new tattoos.
Dateline is watching this story. Last year, before her divorce, a defiant Britney spears took on the tabloids in an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer.
Weigh in and sound off on her new look (slideshow here.) Can fame drive celebrities over the edge?
