Madonna`s Confessions on the Dance Floor Tour Causing Controversy; Katie Couric Says Goodbye to NBC`s `Today Show`
VARGAS: And I`m Sibila Vargas in Hollywood. This is TV`s most provocative entertainment news show. Well, tonight, Jen and Vince. We caught up with them over the weekend to talk about many things. And let me just tell you that Jennifer Aniston was not holding back when it comes to telling us how she feels about the media prying into her business. You are not going to want to miss this interview -- A.J.</s>HAMMER: It`s nice to hear she is actually talking about, though. Good stuff coming up in just a few moments. Also, Sibila, I imagine you`ve seen the show, "The Dog Whisperer?"</s>VARGAS: Absolutely and I`ve done some of his techniques.</s>HAMMER: It is wildly popular. This guy does like this voodoo mind meld with the dogs and makes them speak English or something. Well, actually, he really helps owners, including a lot of celebrities, help their dogs. And what we find very often is that the problem, not with the animal, the problem with the owner. He really knows what he`s doing. And the Dog Whisperer coming to the rescue of SHOWBIZ TONIGHT in just a few minutes. But, first, tonight, the controversy, the protest, and the mystery. "The da Vinci Code" may have topped the box office over the weekend, but it`s at the center of this film, a very real organization that still seems shrouded in s secrecy. The Catholic group, Opus Dei, has sparked a lot of the debate surrounding the movie. And tonight, we are getting and insiders excusive view into the secret world of Opus Dei. CNN`s Faith and Values correspondent, Delia Gallagher, joins us tonight from Rome for SHOWBIZ TONIGHT -- Delia.</s>DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH AND VALUES CORRESPONDENT: Hi, A.J. you know, Opus Dei is a group of conservative professional Catholics. These are people with nine to five jobs, who live a little bit like priests and nuns. They live in communities, they give a lot of their money back to the communities, and they`re celibate. They also practice corporal mortification. You remember in the "The da Vinci Code," the monk who whips himself with the knotted rope? Well, I went to their headquarters in New York City to find out just what they really do.</s>TONA VARELA, NUMERARY MEMBER: This is the exercise room, also known as the torture chamber.</s>GALLAGHER (on camera): Ah-ha, the torture the real chamber.</s>VARELA: Yes.</s>GALLAGHER (voice-over): Tona Varela has been a Numerary for 25 years.</s>VARELA: At Opus Dei we are about holiness, and holiness -- you need to be free to love God.</s>GALLAGHER (on camera): Do you feel brainwashed? Do you feel like you belong to a cult?</s>VARELA: I hope I don`t look brainwashed to you. And I am completely free. I am very happy and free.</s>TERRI CARRON, MARRIED OPUS DEI MEMBER: Hey guys!</s>GALLAGHER (voice-over): Not all members of Opus Dei are celibate. The majority of roughly 3,000 American members are what`s called Supernumeraries. They can marry, have children, and live in their own homes.</s>CARRON: Here you go.</s>GALLAGHER: Terri Carron is one of them.</s>CARRON: I got cheese cake for dessert.</s>GALLAGHER: A wife, mother of four, and public relations consultant, Terri is one of several members the group has been providing to the media in recent months.</s>GALLAGHER (on camera): What is the biggest myth perpetuated by the book or the movie about Opus Dei?</s>CARRON: I think the biggest myth about Opus Dei is that it`s some kind of religious organization, you know, involved in conspiracy to find some elusive holy grail. And the reality is much more down to earth. You know, we`re just people, like Catholics, looking for God in our every day life.</s>GALLAGHER (voice-over): As for "The da Vinci Code`s" hulking albino monk, named Silas, who steals, murders, and then tortures himself.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a secret you will die for?</s>GALLAGHER: Opus Dei wants you to meet a real Silas. Far from hulking or albino, Silas Agbim is a Nigerian-born stockbroker who lives in Brooklyn, works on Wall Street and stands just 5` 5".</s>SILAS AGBIM, OPUS DEI SUPERNUMERARY: I`m not a monk, nor albino. I am married with a wife and three children.</s>GALLAGHER (on camera): And no murders.</s>AGBIM: No murders!</s>GALLAGHER: In your background?</s>AGBIM: No murders in my background. All you find in my background is a jolly fellow.</s>GALLAGHER (voice-over): For all the debate about the book and the movie, neither Dan Brown nor the filmmakers are the first to portray Opus Dei in a negative light. Some former members have told stories of fear, entrapment, and brainwashing on this website, the Opus Dei Awareness Network, which claims to describe the group`s questionable practices in vivid detail. "</s>COLLEEN", FMR.  NUMERARY ASSISTANT: Opus Dei is a cult. And, you know, I want people to know that, a year ago, I would have never said that. Looking at this makes me feel sad.</s>GALLAGHER: Colleen was a Numerary assistant in Opus Dei for 20 years. Living and working in its residences throughout the U.S., including the one in New York. But last year "Colleen" left for good. "</s>COLLEEN": Opus Dei preaches goodness and peace and love. But really what they do is not ethical. It`s deceptive and it`s scary and it`s not so good. I still have nightmares every night that I`m in Opus Dei and I can`t get out.</s>GALLAGHER: "Colleen" says she was expected to practice strict rituals, like corporal mortification, striking herself with the knotted whip called a discipline and wearing a spiked metal chain called a cilis as a reminder of Christ suffering. "</s>COLLEEN": We believed that the more you mortified yourself, the more graces you would win for people.</s>GALLAGHER (on camera): The albino monk in the "The da Vinci Code" wears a cilis so tightly, he makes himself bleed. They is an actual cilis sworn by Numeraries around their bare thighs for two hours a day. You can see for yourself just somehow sharp these spikes are. Depending on how tightly you tie it, it could be pretty painful.</s>REVEREND MICHAEL BARRETT, OPUS DEI PRIEST: Corporal mortification is harmless to your health. It doesn`t cause any physical damage, whatsoever.</s>GALLAGHER: It doesn`t make you bleed?</s>BARRETT: Not a bit.</s>GALLAGHER (voice-over): Reverend Michael Barrett insists that Opus Dei is not a cult and thinks that "da Vinci Code" director Ron Howard should have left out any mention of Opus Dei in the movie.</s>BARRETT: The trailer`s that is I`ve seen are so seen are so sensational, I have this little bit of hope that maybe it`s going to fall on its own foolishness.</s>GALLAGHER (on camera): He says it`s a work of fiction.</s>BARRETT: It`s a work of fiction, but it still doesn`t entitle a person to say whatever he wants about real institutions.</s>GALLAGHER (voice-over): Opus Dei asked Sony Pictures to add a disclaimer to the movie reminding viewers that its fiction. But Ron Howard declined; saying spy thrillers don`t start off with disclaimers. (on camera): What would you say to moviegoers of "The da Vinci Code?"</s>BARRETT: I say to see the movie with your eyes open, not to just take things in as though everything presented is fact and true.</s>GALLAGHER: And A.J., I wanted to show you this headline from an Italian paper. Now, this man is the real head of Opus Dei Worldwide. He says that Dan Brown doesn`t know it, but he`s strength enned Opus Dei. I think that about sums up what Opus Dei thinks of "The da Vinci Code" --</s>A.J.  HAMMER: It says quite a bit. Thanks very much Delia. That`s CNN`s Faith and Values correspondent, Delia Gallagher, joining us from Rome tonight. And that leaves us, once again, to our SHOWBIZ TONIGHT question of the day. We`re asking: "The da Vinci Code" No. 1, Do you pay attention to movie critics? You an keep voting at cnn.com/showbiztonight and also write showbiztonight@cnn.com is our e-mail address and we`ll read some of your e-mails tomorrow.</s>VARGAS: Madonna has never been one to pay too much attention to critics. She busted out old and new material to kick of her worldwide tour in Los Angeles this week weekend. There was stuff from her new album, "Confessions on the Dance Floor," and classics like you just heard, "Like a Virgin." That`s a horse saddle she`s straddling there and we`re guessing those are x-rays in the background that are from when she was thrown off that hose last year. Well, plenty of other controversy in the show. She hangs herself on a cross and puts up pictures of President Bush next to Adolf Hitler. Rosie O`Donnell, Nichole Ritchie, and Selma Hayek were at the concert.</s>HAMMER: Well, are you ready? The big network news shuffle is almost here. Next week Katie Couric says goodbye to NBC`s "Today Show" after 15 years to take over the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News. Well, today, her soon to be competitor, NBC News anchor, Brian Williams, had a little goodbye message for Couric.</s>BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: This is tough. I can`t say I have ever done this before, bid farewell to a friend who happens to be a colleague, a coworker, and then turn around and face them as a competitor. Three great men named Tom, Peter and Dan, who knew long ago the competitors in this job can be close friends. We, you and I, will continue that tradition starting this fall. Welcome to 6:30 Eastern Time. Oh, and that`s 6:30 p.m.</s>HAMMER: What a nice guy. Couric officially starts on the CBS Evening News in September.</s>VARGAS: Look, coming up, Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn talk with SHOWBIZ TONIGHT about "The Break Up." No, not theirs, the movie.</s>HAMMER: Plus, the Dog Whisper has celebrities lining up to find out how to train their troubled pups. He`s going to join us with his secret. That`s coming up in the interview you`ll see only on</s>SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. VARGAS: Also ahead, why a man turned himself into a great ball of fire. It`s a story you won`t want to miss. That`s coming up on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.