Country`s Top Couple Criticizes Bush; Dennis Quaid Reveals Struggles with Eating Disorder; Star Salaries Revealed
A.J. HAMMER, CO-HOST: I`m A.J. Hammer in New York.</s>BROOKE ANDERSON, CO-HOST: I`m Brooke Anderson in Hollywood. TV`s only live entertainment news show starts right now.</s>HAMMER (voice-over): On SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, country stars who fear for the country. Tonight, two of music`s biggest stars blast President Bush and the Hurricane Katrina cleanup.</s>FAITH HILL, COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER: It`s a huge, huge problem. And it`s embarrassing.</s>HAMMER: Tonight, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT asks the tough question, has President Bush lost the country, if he`s lost the country music? Plus, pom-poms and passion. Tonight, the inside story of the super competitive world of cheerleading, all caught on tape. The drama.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You never say -- you never say that.</s>HAMMER: The pressure.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am freaking out.</s>HAMMER: The heartache, and the mother and daughter living through it all. Life in the interview you`ll see only on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. Also, they`re in the money. Tonight, the surprising salaries of the rich and famous. "Desperate Housewives`" Teri Hatcher, Angelina Jolie, Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon and many more. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT with the secrets of the paycheck.</s>DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MOGUL: Hi, I`m Donald Trump. If it happened today, it`s on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. Enjoy it!</s>HAMMER: Hello, and welcome to a Friday night. I am A.J. Hammer live in New York City.</s>ANDERSON: Hi there, I`m Brooke Anderson live in Hollywood. And tonight, as if President Bush doesn`t have enough critics breathing down his neck, A.J., guess who he has to deal with now? Two of the biggest and most beloved stars in country music.</s>HAMMER: Yes, that`s right, Brooke. Married country music stars. That is a serious one-two punch. We are, of course, talking about Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, who are absolutely furious about how the government is still handling the Hurricane Katrina mess, and we do mean furious. Listen for yourself.</s>HILL: It is a huge, huge problem and it`s embarrassing.</s>HAMMER (voice-over): The hottest super couple in country music, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, are not singing a happy tune about President Bush. The shocking words from an angry and emotional ABC News radio interview obtained by SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. The super couple blasted Hurricane Katrina cleanup efforts and McGraw aimed his fire squarely at the commander-in- chief.</s>TIM MCGRAW, COUNTRY MUSIC STAR: There`s no reason somebody can`t go down there who`s supposed to be the leader of the free world and step a foot in that town and say, "I`m not leaving here. And you`re held accountable. You`re held accountable. And you`re held accountable. This is what I`ve given you to do, and if it`s not done by the time I get back on my plane, then you`re fired and somebody else will be in your place." To me, there`s a lot of politics being played and a lot of people trying to put people in bad positions in order to further their agendas.</s>HAMMER: But it doesn`t end there. Faith Hill was equally angry.</s>HILL: I fear for our country if we can`t handle our people during a natural disaster. And I can`t stand to see it. It doesn`t take a brain surgeon to figure out, you know, point A to point B. And that`s where, if they can`t even skip from point A to point</s>B. HAMMER: The subject of Katrina is near and dear to this couple`s heart. McGraw from Louisiana, and Hill is from Mississippi. Ironically, the very day they blasted the president, he was visiting both states to inspect the cleanup efforts.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I fully understand, I hope our country understands the pain and agony of the people of New Orleans, Louisiana, and the parishes surrounding New Orleans went through.</s>HAMMER: But with McGraw and Hill`s angry comments, President Bush faced stinging criticism from the biggest stars in country music, a genre whose fans tend to vote Republican. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT getting some context from CNN`s senior political correspondent, Bill Schneider.</s>BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Country music is a red state culture and something that comes out of places like Louisiana and Mississippi where McGraw and Hill are from.</s>HAMMER: Country music has become a signifier in American politics. If you`re a country music fan, it signifies that you are populist, that you have conservative social values. A lot of these people vote Republican.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president of the United States, President George W. Bush.</s>HAMMER: President Bush`s recent visit to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the Mecca of country music, showed just how strongly he identifies with country fans. In fact, many of country`s biggest stars are Bush supporters, including Toby Keith, Darryl Worley and Brooks & Dunn.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I pledge allegiance to the flag...</s>HAMMER: And a lot of country fans don`t like Bush bashing, a lesson the Dixie Chicks learned the hard way. Back in 2003, that popular group criticized President Bush a few days before the Iraq war. The backlash was immediate and stinging.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn`t listen to them for nothing now, and I wouldn`t listen to a station that plays them.</s>MELINDA NEWMAN, "BILLBOARD" MAGAZINE: A number of radio stations, in fact, some radio station chains, pulled Dixie Chicks signals and there was a backlash amongst some radio stations. But wait a minute. What`s changed between now and the time the Dixie Chicks suffered for their anti-Bush comments?</s>MILES O`BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The president`s poll numbers are very low.</s>HAMMER: In other words, attacking a popular wartime president is one thing. But when the same president`s approval rating drops to the 30 percent range, as has happened with President Bush, criticizing him becomes a lot safer.</s>SCHNEIDER: More recently in the polls, there`s more and more Americans across the country turning against this president. And if country music fans are turning against him, then it`s gotten very serious.</s>HAMMER: Well, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT tried to contact the White House for a response, but they did not get back to us in time for our show tonight. Meanwhile, we mentioned the Dixie Chicks. Well, they`ve announced that they are releasing a new studio album in May. Now, this is going to be the first one since they criticized the president back in 2003. We don`t yet know if it`s going to be political. But the first track is called "Not Ready to Make Nice." Tonight, Dennis Quaid is revealing a shocking secret. He struggled with an eating disorder, anorexia. The 52-year-old actor tells "Best Life" (ph) magazine that after preparing for a role in the 1994 film Wyatt Earp he developed, quote, "manorexia." Quaid said, "My arms were so skinny that I couldn`t pull myself out of a pool. I wasn`t bulimic, but I could understand what people go through with that. I`d look in the mirror and still three a 180-pound guy, even though I was 138 pounds." Quaid said that after making the movie, for years he was obsessed what when he was eating, counting every signal calorie. So how common is it for men to have anorexia? Live from New York, Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association. Lynn, welcome.</s>LYNN GREFE, CEO, NATIONAL EATING DISORDERS ASSOCIATION: Thank you.</s>ANDERSON: OK. Here is a man, Lynn, a big movie star in his 40s who says he suffered from anorexia or manorexia, as he calls it. I was surprised when I read this, but should we be surprised?</s>GREFE: No, we really shouldn`t be surprised. There are more and more men that are being identified as having anorexia or bulimia, and as he calls it manorexia. I get concerned about that title, because we`re having a hard enough time getting insurance coverage for anorexia right now. But there are many men and young boys are getting anorexia.</s>ANDERSON: Lynn, is there a common thread among anorexics, whether you`re a kid, a teenager, a 65-year-old woman, a man in his 40s, as Dennis was, a 20-year-old? Jamie-Lynn Sigler of "The Sopranos" said that she has struggled with an eating disorder in the past. Is there something common that triggers anorexia?</s>GREFE: Well, it`s a mental illness, and we find that people have a genetic vulnerability to this, and studies have shown that some children that develop anxiety disorder also then develop an eating disorder if they`re prone to this. So a common thread is that it`s a mental illness and it`s highly treatable. But it`s also very dangerous and potentially lethal.</s>ANDERSON: Do you ever really beat anorexia or do you just control it? Because Dennis even had said that presently he does a lot of exercising. He runs a lot. He can do 700 sit-ups at a time. He lifts weight. Do you just control it?</s>GREFE: Well, the recovery can be four to seven years if the case if really bad. But absolutely, it`s treatable, and people do recover from anorexia and bulimia. That`s why it`s so important. The sooner we get help to these people, the sooner they can get well.</s>ANDERSON: What can you say to people who are out there watching right now who are struggling with some form of eating disorder to encourage them, give them strength and encourage them to get help?</s>GREFE: Well, the first thing is to admit that they have a problem, that they have an illness and to get rid of the stigma. I mean, I`m really sorry that this terrific actor had an eating disorder. But once again, it shows that people can develop eating disorders. And they need to get the help. And it`s out there. It`s harder for men, however. There are fewer treatment facilities that serve young men or men of all ages. So we have to work on that. We have to find facilities for everyone, because this is a serious illness. And we just want to steer people to help and get rid of the stigma and the shame. It`s an illness and it`s treatable.</s>ANDERSON: All right. Lynn Grefe, thank you for sharing your perspective with us. We appreciate it.</s>GREFE: Thank you.</s>ANDERSON: Lynn Grefe of the National Eating Disorders Association. And for more information on resources, for eating disorders, if you struggle from that, and you want help, you can check out that NEDA web site at NationalEatingDisorders.org. Tonight Michael Jackson`s famous -- or perhaps we should say infamous Neverland Ranch is shut down because of labor violations. Employees at the ranch, which is in Santa Barbara, California, have been told to stop working. Jackson has been fined nearly $170,000, because his staff hasn`t been paid since December. Now, the Neverland Ranch is part amusement park and part zoo. Jackson hasn`t lived there in awhile. He headed to Bahrain in the Middle East just after being acquitted of child molestation charges back in June. That leads us to our SHOWBIZ TONIGHT question of the day. Neverland shut down. Do you feel sorry for Michael Jackson? Let us know what you think. Get on line to vote at ShowbizTonight.com. You can also e-mail us your thoughts at ShowbizTonight@CNN.com. We`ll share some of what you had to say later in the show.</s>ANDERSON: Coming up, Teri Hatcher, "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown, child star Dakota Fanning. Who makes the most? Star salaries revealed. Plus, we`ve also got this...</s>OZZY OSBOURNE, ROCK STAR: We`re saying that every penny we made of "The Osbournes," we ended up getting sued and we`ve lost everything.</s>HAMMER: The prince of darkness loses his princely sum. The stunning story of what happened to Ozzy Osbourne after his hit reality show went off the air. You can see it only on</s>SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.  ANDERSON: And two, four, six eight, we`ve got a story you`ll really appreciate. Tonight, the painstaking practice, the down and dirty drama, the no-holds barred competitiveness of cheerleading, caught on tape. The mother/daughter team living through it all, live in a bit.</s>HAMMER: First, tonight`s "`Entertainment Weekly` Great American Pop Culture Quiz." Which original "Love Boat" star went on to serve as a congressman? Was it Ted Lange, Bernie Kopell, Fred Grandy, or Gavin MacLeod? We`re coming right back with the answer.