Showbiz Today

Judds Reunite For Nationwide Tour; Matt Damon Surrounded by Oscar Buzz For Latest Film; European Hackers Figure Out How to Copy DVDs

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LAURIN SYDNEY, CO-HOST: Hi, everybody. I am Laurin Sydney, and they're back and they're better than ever, although they're really not behaving. Yet they are straight from their New Year's Eve reunion concert: the mother-daughter duo, the one and only Wynonna and Naomi Judd.

Welcome to SHOWBIZ TODAY.

Are you going to be good?

WYNONNA JUDD, SINGER: No, it's her birthday.

NAOMI JUDD, SINGER: She says she's going to put me in mother jail.

SYDNEY: Already. Have you ever been in mother jail? That's a good way to start.

N. JUDD: No, but I've been on a bus with her before. That's worse.

SYDNEY: And have you ever been in daughter jail?

W. JUDD: I've been -- I will be for the next six months.

(CROSSTALK)

We're going on tour.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the next half hour, we'll all behave.

SYDNEY: Now, before you sing for us and before you strangle one another and before we plug your new CD and your new tour, just to get serious for one moment: Everybody wants to know, Naomi. How do you feel?

N. JUDD: In case you haven't guessed.

SYDNEY: We know you're happy.

N. JUDD: I feel wonderful. Radiantly healthy and spicy as ever. W. JUDD: And it's her birthday.

SYDNEY: It is that.

W. JUDD: Place your hand on the screen.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

N. JUDD: If everybody could just send me one dollar.

SYDNEY: Where would it go that one dollar? Where would you give that dollar?

N. JUDD: To the hepatitis C fund, because I want to find a cure for my disease.

SYDNEY: OK. We're going to talk a lot more about this and that. We're going to play -- we have a lot of stuff to do. But first, we're going to play with Mr. Jim Moret. He's waiting for us out there in Hollywood.

Good luck, Jim. Help.

JIM MORET, CO-HOST: I'm behaving, OK? Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas are making the rounds before they go a few rounds. They were in Hollywood last night to promote their new boxing comedy, "Play It to the Bone." Kevin Costner, Chris Isaak and Jenna Elfman were out and about to see the bout.

Harrelson says he learned something from climbing into the ring.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOODY HARRELSON, ACTOR: I didn't realize all of the technical things you needed to know, and I thought you just went out there and started throwing punches. You know? And there's a lot more to it.

JENNA ELFMAN, ACTRESS: My husband boxes. It's totally sexy. I think it's -- it's kind of symbolic of just men showing off their stuff.

LUCY LIU, ACTRESS: I guess it's something that's innate, you know, something hormonal. I don't know. Something really animalistic about it that people enjoy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: "Play It to the Bone" is one of 244 films eligible for Oscar consideration this year. Nomination ballots went out Tuesday to the Academy's more than 5,300 members. The nominees will be revealed in an early morning announcement February 15th. Of course, we'll be there live.

One of those whose names could be announced is Matt Damon. He's getting Oscar buzz for his work in "The Talented Mr. Ripley," a movie one critic dubbed "Bad Will Hunting."

Sherri Sylvester talked with the young star in Hollywood.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT DAMON, ACTOR: The stuff that normally comes across my plate is pretty standard 1-2-3-hike Hollywood film-making, and this was something I'd never seen before. I just -- I begged to be in it.

SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Matt Damon is talking about "The Talented Mr. Ripley." And while his career has been anything but standard-issue, the film seems to secure his place at the top.

The role not only requires him to fill nearly every frame, but to make music as well. He plays the piano.

DAMON: I learned one Bach piece. It took a long time. It was about six to eight weeks of, I guess, two to four, four to six hours a day, depending. And I finally got this thing down, and then it got cut out of the movie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY")

DAMON: Stay, little Valentine. Stay...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: Not on the editing room floor, "My Funny Valentine," which he recorded with the Guy Barker International Quintet.

DAMON: I felt guilty for being able to go. I mean, there are people who really sing and who really take it seriously who would, you know, give a lot to be able to sing with Guy Barker. But you know, it was just one of those lucky things that I get to do as an actor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY")

DAMON: I always though it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.

GWYNETH PALTROW, ACTRESS: I don't believe a single word you said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: His character is a pretender by design. Ripley covets the life of wealthy playboy Dickie Greenleaf and fakes his way into Greenleaf's inner circle.

DAMON: The movie's very much about image and what your image of yourself is and what your feeling of your own worthiness is, and not being able to get away from who you are, but trying to get away from who you are.

SYLVESTER (on camera): Do you think you're more Greenleaf or more Ripley?

DAMON: In real life?

SYLVESTER: Yes.

DAMON: I think we're all Ripley. It's not part of the human condition to live in some constant state of ecstasy or elation.

If we hold up our heroes too high, we're taking away their humanity. Part of their humanity is some unhappiness at times.

SYLVESTER (voice-over): Ripley has brought him a Golden Globe nomination. He already has an Oscar for his "Goodwill Hunting" screenplay. His next project is with Robert Redford, and his biggest problem is waiting for all of his work to catch up to the hype.

So seriously, why would Matt Damon trade places with anyone else?

Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYDNEY: From "The Talented Mr. Ripley" to the very talented Ms. Judds, who are about to start a brand-new tour on February 4th in Denver.

N. JUDD: Whoo-hoo.

SYDNEY: I see you're excited about it. How did the dynamic come about of deciding to take New Year's and just expand it a little bit?

N. JUDD: The fans. They kept saying, we want more, we want more. And we felt like "The Power to Change," which is what we're calling the tour, is something that Wy and Ashley and I feel very strongly about, reminding people that they have the power to make choices and change.

W. JUDD: You can reinvent yourself at 54. You can get a bus, follow your daughter around, and do a lot of shows.

SYDNEY: So you're not on the same bus?

W. JUDD: No.

N. JUDD: Heck, no.

SYDNEY: Have you ever been on the same bus?

N. JUDD: Oh, yes.

W. JUDD: Oh, yes.

SYDNEY: But those days are over.

W. JUDD: Yes. Actually, that healed our relationship. Now, I have two kids and it's a day-care center. So I'm trying to give her a break.

SYDNEY: Now, so much has happened since you retired. In those years, did you ever think that this day would ever come, that you would be on tour again?

N. JUDD: Yes. Not that I actually planned or wanted it to happen, but I used it as one of the psychological tools, because when you have an incurable illness and the doctors give up on you, you have to step out and say, and you have to say, I'm a child of the most high God and I'm claiming my healing, my birthright. And studied holistic medicine and I just kept doing imaging. And part of that whole process was imagining the fans again and the fans standing next to her.

SYDNEY: You're pulling out all the stops for this. Is Ashley going to be involved at all?

N. JUDD: She'll be around.

W. JUDD: It depends on what mood she's in.

N. JUDD: No, it depends on what country she's in for her movie.

SYDNEY: There's little Ashley. Do you miss her?

N. JUDD: There's my baby.

W. JUDD: Yes, I do.

SYDNEY: And you've going to...

N. JUDD: She lives next door. She's literally and figuratively the star next door.

SYDNEY: But you are going on tour, so you will be away from Ashley.

N. JUDD: Well, she has a bunk on my bus, and the three of us are so intensely bonded. She just left two days ago. She's doing the cover of "Vogue" in Paris today.

W. JUDD: I just did it last week.

(APPLAUSE)

SYDNEY: Oh. OK. Well, right now we're going to get a little bit of taste of that tour. So I'm going to step out so you can step on in. Take it away: a little taste of the tour.

W. JUDD: Are you ready?

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORET: Cher is taking her share of abuse from Mr. Blackwell. The famed fashion critic came out with his 40th annual list of the worst-dressed celebrities on Tuesday. Unfortunately for Cher, she came in number one. The entertainer beat other contenders, including Queen Elizabeth, Martha Stewart, Britney Spears and Cameron Diaz. Blackwell's harshest words were reserved for Cher.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MR. BLACKWELL, FASHION CRITIC: She gets in these jeans, and between that waistline and that rear end, that bustline, and she puckers up her mouth, and I can't take any of it. And her own hair is a nightmare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORET: Ouch.

DVDs are fashionable at the moment, with consumers and digital pirates. Illegal copies of "Anna and the King" have been turning up in Thailand already, where the film is officially banned. European hackers have unlocked a way to copy DVDs.

Dennis Michael is our software sheriff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENNIS MICHAEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The post-holiday standings for the new DVD format: In the U.S. alone, five million players are in homes, 100 million software units have been sold. It's a spectacular rise for the new video system.

But there is a fly in the ointment. The protective code that prevents a computer from copying the digital information from a DVD has been cracked. Hackers in Norway broke through the digital shield and the how-to information has been posted on the Internet. DVD's backers aren't happy, but they're not particularly surprised.

JIM CARDWELL, WARNER HOME VIDEO: We expected the source code to be broken. We were surprised it wasn't broken earlier. We believe there is no economic incentive to hack this product. The cost of the blank is more expensive than the cost of the finished product, and the amount of time it takes to download is several hours. There's no real economic incentive for anyone to hack this product.

MICHAEL: DVD burners, or recorders, are just over the horizon. Several manufacturers plan to introduce first-generation DVD-RAM or DVD-RW machines this fall at prices topping $2,000, with blank media still rare and expensive. The DeCSS software was enough of a threat to cause manufacturers to hold off on releasing new DVD audio hardware, because smaller music files are more prone to piracy.

CARDWELL: Certainly, all the copyright holders, all of the studios, all the rights holders, are not going to sit still to see that -- to allow this to become rampant. We are going to continue to protect our products.

MICHAEL: And to that end, Internet lawyers are working to keep the code-cracker software off the Web, while software engineers are at work building a new shield that will thwart DeCSS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to make sure, as a company, there is a secure system that is developed that supports the needs of the intellectual rights owners, and clearly, that, first and foremost, is our agenda.

MICHAEL: And when the hackers break that one? Well, for the video business, it's a new technology, but it's an old story.

PAUL CULBERG, COLUMBIA TRISTAR HOME VIDEO: We continue to work with theaters, we continue to work with the MPAA, and we have programs in place that will be prohibitive. It won't stop it all, but then we've been doing this for 20 years.

MICHAEL: Dennis Michael, CNN Entertainment News, Las Vegas, Nevada.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYDNEY: Of course, throughout the half hour, the Judds will be singing, and playing and kidding around for us. But the song that we should be singing today, as Wynonna said, is "Happy Birthday, Naomi."

W. JUDD: I brought you a little something.

SYDNEY: She's lying through her white teeth.

(LAUGHTER)

N. JUDD: For me?

SYDNEY: We at SHOWBIZ got you something that we heard that you really want. And what do you get for a superstar? We did our research and we found out that you really would appreciate -- a different daughter.

(LAUGHER)

N. JUDD: Actually, I celebrate every day.

SYDNEY: Actually, Naomi, it is a perfumed candle.

N. JUDD: How thoughtful, because I want this for my butt -- bus, because mine is going to be the clean -- my butt, I want it for my butt.

(LAUGHTER)

SYDNEY: That's another show. We'll get to that another time. On your next tour, we'll talk about your butt, all right? But right now, we're not going to.

N. JUDD: I want to thank you from the bottom of my butt, because my butt's bigger than my heart.

(LAUGHTER) SYDNEY: Where did that come from? We don't know. And where are we going?

N. JUDD: There's nothing you can do about it, Wynonna; we're live.

(LAUGHTER)

N. JUDD: My bus is going to be the clean, quiet, peaceful, aroma-scented bus.

SYDNEY: And tell us about your daughter's bus. What the difference?

N. JUDD: Just get a tetanus shot for it.

SYDNEY: You know, I think right now at this juncture, we are safer if you had them sing than talk.

So, ladies, could I ask you again to please do a little something.

W. JUDD: I'm not singing. I'm not singing.

SYDNEY: Please. Pretend it's your birthday.

N. JUDD: Sing or you can't do shows for two months, you're grounded.

W. JUDD: Are you ready everybody? Everybody.

(SINGING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORET: By the end of the year, the merger of America Online and Time-Warner could be complete. In the meantime, look for more cross- promotion between the companies, including a higher profile for Entertaindom.com. That's the Time-Warner Web site you'll be seeing more of through AOL.

Paul Vercammen pays a visit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You are looking at what could be the forerunner to on-demand entertainment in the not so distant future. Entertaindom, part of Time-Warner's online division, is a virtual entertainment site packed with original content as well as familiar faces.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You mean Lex Luthor is involved in this.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VERCAMMEN: One of those is the last son of Krypton in his own online films. The "Multipath Adventures of Superman" lets Web surfers guide the man of steel through interactive stories.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: Welcome to "The God & Devil Show."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: The name pretty much says it all here. The virtual talk show pulls no punches in skewering the famous. Celebrity voices impersonated, of course.

Change the cyberdial over to Rhino Records' retro pop section to get a daily download of classic rock clips. Entertaindom is a massive site with more features then we can describe here. Your best bet is to log on and surf it for yourself.

This is SHOWBIZ ONLINE.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYDNEY: Look, we are at the end of the half hour, they have actually calmed down. So I'm going to take this opportunity to speak for a second.

In the eight years as recording artists, The Judds have sold more than 26 million albums, and won six Grammys, and you know what? They are not through yet. Wynonna's got "A New Day Dawning," and that is her new album, which will be in stores February 2. And she did not leave out momma on this release.

W. JUDD: You can't leave home without her.

SYDNEY: You actually produced a lot of the songs.

N. JUDD: She's my boss.

W. JUDD: And I played all the instruments and I took that picture.

SYDNEY: But is she really your boss when it comes to recording?

N. JUDD: Wynonna and I have this musical shorthand. We can almost read each other's minds when it comes to music.

W. JUDD: I know what you are thinking.

(LAUGHTER)

SYDNEY: Why don't you share it? You've shared everything else. Why should this spot be different?

N. JUDD: But when we go on tour it's the big Kmart Power to Change Tour.

SYDNEY: Correct.

N. JUDD: Because we want to remind everybody that you do have the power to change.

W. JUDD: You can reinvent yourself, yes.

N. JUDD: We'll be doing the new Judd grooves.

SYDNEY: And there is a new type of music here. There is old fashioned Judds and then there is contemporary Judds.

W. JUDD: Yes.

N. JUDD: We are new and improved.

SYDNEY: And in what way? Which way are we in the new millennium with you?

W. JUDD: I think the production is -- technology wise it's with the times, yet we have the family values, and we have -- it's sort of like, it's OK to be hip and spiritual, and it's OK to be weird and...

N. JUDD: We're spirited and spiritual.

W. JUDD: Yes, yes.

SYDNEY: And it's OK to be funny.

N. JUDD: And fun follows us around.

W. JUDD: Yes.

SYDNEY: And what about the togetherness factor? I asked you when we were off. What is it going to be like the last day of the tour? Are you going say good bye?

W. JUDD: You know what? We live in the moment. I can't even imagine the first show, because that's going to be official, that's going to -- that's when it's going to sink in. It's kind of like your wedding day. We had the first show and I felt like I wasn't even there almost. It was surreal. I think when we hit Denver February 4 it's going to really hit me, and then we'll live in the moment and then it'll be like the day after Christmas, I guess.

SYDNEY: Right now, I do have to separate you, because Wynnona is going to do it all by herself, but momma will be waiting in the wings. So take it away, Wynonna.

N. JUDD: Well, this is Wynonna's current single called "Can't Nobody Love You Like I Do," but for all you English teachers out there, I did teach her proper English, but can't nobody sing like Wynonna.

W. JUDD: That's what a woman says to a man. SYDNEY: And thank you for coming.

(MUSIC)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com