Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless and if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should. One. It's $15 a month. Two, seriously, it's $15 a month. Three, no big contracts.
Four, I use it. Five, my mom uses it. Are you are you playing me off? That's what's happening, right?
Okay, give it a try at mintmobile.com/slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 per three-month plan, $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com.
We all love a legendary comeback and degree original Cool Rush is back and better than ever. Cool Rush isn't just a scent, it's a movement, a fan favorite that delivers bold, fresh vibes and all-day sweat protection. Whether you have a man that spends hours in the gym, heads into the office early, or is just trying to stay fresh on a long day, Cool Rush has their back. Head to your local Walmart or Target and grab Degree Cool Rush, the fan favorite scent from the world's number one antiperspirant brand. Good morning.
I'm Jane Pauley, and this is Sunday morning. Jeffrey Epstein, you've heard his name, you probably know about the charges of sexual abuse and trafficking which have been leveled against him. Virginia Duffray was the first person to publicly share her story of abuse by Epstein. She died by suicide six months ago at age 41. But Juffray's death hasn't silenced her.
Her memoir is out this week. And this morning, Tracy Smith will be talking with Juffray's brother, sister-in-law. and co-author Amy Wallace. It was a wicked time in my life. It was a really scary time in my life.
In her new memoir, the late Virginia Dufray goes into heart-wrenching detail about the abuse she says she suffered at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and others. Did Virginia believe that the Epstein files contain the names of other men who abused her? and maybe others. that have not been revealed yet. She didn't just believe it.
She knew it. Virginia Duffray, in her own words, ahead on Sunday morning. You might say actor and director Ben Stiller has comedy in his blood. His parents, Jerry Stiller and Ann Mira, were a beloved comedy duo.
Now he's putting a spotlight on his family's legacy in a new documentary, and he's talking with Jim Axelrod.
Now the comedy of Stiller and Mira. Sherry Stiller and Ann Mira. The comedy couple, Stiller and Mira, were TV stars for decades. This is the mother of my two kids. This is the father of one.
After they died, their son. wanted to examine their lives. Did you understand? how deep it was going to go.
Well, no. I didn't, I mean, I didn't know where it was gonna go. One way, Ben, one way. A candid conversation with Ben Stiller. Leader.
on Sunday morning. Her videos have racked up an astonishing 13 billion views online. And if you have a toddler in your life, you've probably heard the unmistakable songs of Ms. Rachel. The teacher turned streaming sensation will share the secrets of her success with Jolene Kent.
Hop little bunnies, hop hop. For toddlers, there are few faces more hypnotizing than Ms. Rachel's. What's the real Miss Rachel like? Yeah.
Yeah, she just talks a little bit lower, people on the bus go behind the scenes with a rock star for preschoolers. Love a ring. Ms. Rachel coming up on Sunday morning. Ben Mankiewicz sits down with actor Tim Currie.
who is looking back on his life, career, and recent health challenges. With Lee Cowan, we're on the U.S.-Canada border. at a most unusual landmark. Josh Seftel takes us out to the ball game with his mom Pat. and more, on this Sunday morning for the nineteenth of october, twenty twenty five.
We'll be back after this. Before we begin this morning, a few words of caution. The following story touches on mature subjects, and viewer discretion is advised. It's the story of Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Juffray. whose posthumous memoir comes out this week.
Here's Tracy Smith. I was recruited at a very young age from Mar-a-Lago. And entrapped in a world that I didn't understand, and I've been fighting that very world to this day. If the tragedy of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring had a face, it might have been this woman. Virginia Roberts Duffray.
Before she died from suicide last April at the age of 41, she wrote an unflinching memoir, Nobody's Girl, with the hope it would be published in case of her death. Do you think about that when you're walking around New York, that so much of it actually happened here? I absolutely do. It's changed the city for me. Co-author and journalist Amy Wallace spent more than four years writing with Dufray, who's been celebrated for her honesty and questioned by some about the accuracy of her memories.
So, as far as you could tell, her memory was pretty crystal clear. What she always said to me was, I may not remember days times, dates. But when you have a man raping you. His face six inches from your own. You remember that face?
Virginia Duffray said Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghilaine Maxwell, recruited her to the sex ring in 2000 when she was a 16-year-old working at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump's resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and she was quickly immersed in Epstein's world of money and depravity. In this photo, taken at a party in 2001, Jaffrey is the girl in the foreground. Maxwell's now serving a twenty year sentence for child sex trafficking and has reportedly sought a Presidential pardon, something President Trump has not publicly decided for or against. She should not be pardoned. And explain why you sat there with Virginia for four years.
She did not just procure. She did not just keep the date book. Uh what girls came when. No. This woman participated in the sexual abuse.
and she should absolutely not be pardoned. He knows what happened. I know what happened. And there's only one of us telling the truth. Duffrey also famously sued Britain's Prince Andrew in 2021, to whom she said she was trafficked for sex three times, starting when she was 16.
The prince repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but settled with Duffray the following year and issued a statement saying he regretted his association with Epstein. But the rumors kept flying and Andrew became a distraction to the Crown, so just this past Friday he announced he was giving up all of his royal titles, including Duke of York. And he, Virginia Dufray wrote, was only one of many. Did Virginia believe that the Epstein files contained the names of other men who abused her? and maybe others.
that have not been revealed yet. She didn't just believe it. She knew it. She knew what she'd told them. And some of those names are not public.
So, authorities have those names in the Epstein. Presumably, if somebody kept them in a file cabinet, in an efficient way. Duffrey also believed there might be a trove of videotapes from cameras in Epstein's homes. And in recent months, there's been mounting pressure from people who want the president to authorize the release of all of the Epstein files. Virginia Dufray was one of them.
Did she mention President Trump at all in your discussion? Oh, she absolutely did. She was a huge Trump fan. Because he campaigned on releasing the Epstein files. But she never talked about him in any sense, that he was involved in any of this.
No. No, he was not As far as she knew, and again, she was there for two plus years. But As far as she knew, he was not. involved in the in the ring of trafficking that Epstein was working. Dufray also writes that her sexual abuse ordeal started at home.
She says her father, Skye Roberts Sr., started abusing her when she was seven years old. He didn't respond to our requests for comment, but told Amy Wallace he never abused his daughter. Virginia's brother, Skye Roberts, and his wife Amanda say they believe her. And you confronted him. He knows what he did.
He denied it in the book. You know, Amy reached out to him and he said, absolutely not, I would never touch my daughter. You don't believe that? I believe my sister. And as for Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Virginia Duffray said his abuse went beyond sexual assault, like ordering her to tuck him in at night.
So she would go in. She would Pull the covers up. We didn't want sex. And she was instructed to stay with him until he fell asleep. It just struck me because this is a young woman who Wasn't nurtured all that much as she grew up, and here she's turning around and having to perform this nurturing act to her abuser.
Yeah. And it's one of the reasons that Epstein and Maxwell said to her, repeatedly, you'd make a great mother. Jaffrey went on to say that they asked her to carry a child for them and sign away her parental rights. It's like a modern handmaid's tale. And interestingly, That was the straw that broke the camel's back for her.
Years after Virginia Duffray left Epstein, she was tormented by what she said she suffered at his hands. She married, moved to her husband's native Australia, became a mom and a voice for abuse survivors, but there was turmoil at home. Shortly before she died, she told People magazine that her husband, Robert Duffray, physically abused her. but the courts granted him a restraining order, and custody of their three children. In a statement to Sunday morning, Robert Duffray's attorney said that since the case is still pending, Robert and the children were, quote, very limited in their ability to respond to the various unfounded allegations.
Virginia's brother and sister-in-law say the loss of her children might have helped push Virginia over the edge. And you know there are so many conspiracy theories out there, so I just want to make clear. Are you absolutely sure that your sister took her own life? I am. But I was with her in her her final days.
I mean I was the one that found my sister when she had I'm so sorry. She wrote in her book. My goal now is to prevent the emotional time bomb that lives inside me from ever detonating again. What do you think happened? The worst thing that could happen to a mother.
Her children. She was separated from her children. and that is something that she couldn't bear. That was something she couldn't I don't think any mother could handle. Virginia Duffray left behind an account of her life that's both illuminating and heartbreaking a window into the mind of a young girl preyed upon by demons and a woman who fought them.
Till the end. Who was? Virginia, to you. To me, always my protector. You know, she was her little brother and Um But she just had this strength inside of her that I think if you had the opportunity to meet her was just courageous.
It was she was unlike anybody that you'd ever met. I think it's always important to remember that she was also human and vulnerable and beautiful and funny and beautifully flawed and strong. She was just. Amazing. I think like he said it There was nobody like her.
We're trying to find out who killed him and where. And with what? There's no need to shout! I'm not shouting!
Alright I am! I'm shouting! I'm shouting! I'm shouting! Tim Curry stole the show as a scheming butler in Clue, just one role in a career spanning more than five decades.
This morning he's looking back and in conversation with Ben Mankowitz. Dr. Frankenferter loves to garden. He does. A stroke 13 years ago left Tim Curry partially paralyzed.
Yeah. But it hasn't diminished his memorable laugh or the mystique about him. In 50 years on the screen, He's played so many types. Can't be. Really good.
menacingly sinister. Yet his most inscrutable role is still Tim Curry. which is exactly how he wants it. You're a bit of an enigma. I think it's important.
I encourage it. though Currie is out with a new memoir, Vagabond.
Some secrets he's keeping to himself. One of the keys is to not encourage an identity I think And I've tried to nurse that. You've protected that. I have protected that. and continue to.
Born a military brat at Hong Kong, Curry grew up moving from place to place. As a boy, he worshipped his dad, a chaplain in the British Royal Navy. Tell me about the last time you saw your father. He had a stroke. And As they were about to take him into the ambulance, he said, Look out for your mother.
You were ten years old? Yeah, I was ten. After his father's death, there was no one to buffer the impact of his mother. who'd be kind one minute. then cruel the next.
I actually think now that she was probably bipolar. Because she could turn on a dime. Acting offered Currie an escape, from his mother's moods. and access. to so many different lives.
Do you remember what Excited you about it? The freedom of being somebody else. And and I think that I was like everybody else, drawn to the idea of fame probably, although I Came to kind of rather despise it. Give me a hand with hair. His first nibble of fame came from his first paid gig.
in the 1968 London production of Hair. And that was a big deal. It was a big deal. Not just a sweet transfest. Hair was nothing in comparison to what came next.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. First on stage. Then the movie. Where are you? God caught with a flat whirl.
How about that? He joked that he got the part of Dr. Frankenfurter. Because of his legs. Yeah.
Such an outlet. If you own a new hour. It was a transformative performance. For curry? and the audience.
And what was specific about it to you that made it Uh He had a lot of power, Frank. He gave a lot of teenagers permission to be different and I'm Very happy that He did have that power. Rocky Horror earned Curry stardom. It did not earn him praise. or even respect.
from his mother. Your mother lived well into your success. She did. Yeah. Although she didn't Make much of it.
She never said, oh my God. No, she was scared of it. Scared of what? said to me later that I thought your head was gonna grow too big. She would have preferred me to Operate under the radar.
Yeah. You did not operate unsuccessfully. Give a shit about the radar. When Frank is committing his particularly most heinous act in the Rocky R Picture show, is some of that directed at your mom, baby? is not directed at her, it's just channelling.
Rocky Horror set up Curry to play some memorable screen villains. Please boy. Under a mountain of prosthetics and legend opposite Tom Cruise. Aren't you gonna say hello? as pennywise in it.
See you in your dreams. Rooster. Seth You're supposed to to be in jail. They let me out early. And then Annie.
as Carol Burnett's scheming and duplicitous brother. You loved working with her. I loved touching bits. Mr. McAllister And don't forget the Hotel Concierge in Home Alone 2.
Yeah. There's an insane guest! Yeah. or the manipulative butler in Clue. I'm merely a humble battler.
What exactly do you do? I battle, sir. It's a great line. I enjoyed it. But then came 2012.
and the moment that changed Tim Curry's life. Tell me what happened. It was So strange. I was actually having a massage. Um the guy who was giving me a massage said I'm worried about you.
I think we should Call a doctor. But you felt fine. I felt fine. I had no symptoms that I was aware of. I wasn't in pain.
When did you hear that it was a stroke? When I was in The hospital. You must have thought immediately of your father. I thought immediately of my dad. Um So I was scared.
And then you had surgery. I had brain surgery. You had invasive, serious brain surgery. Yeah, I did. And I had a certain amount of rehabilitation.
You had to learn how to speak again. I had to learn how to speak again. That was very weird. I hated not being able to speak. paralysis on your left side, right?
Yeah. Okay. my face kind of went sideways. From reading the book and from talking to the people who care about you, there hasn't been a lot. I'm sure there was some.
self-pity. But the doesn't sound like there was a lot. I don't think so. I hope not. Because I don't admire self-pity much.
Yeah. Um Another legacy from my mother, I guess. It's one that I'm thankful for. Why are you so important that we have to Pitchy you Right.
Now seventy nine. He's reached an age he didn't think he'd see back in 2012. Yeah. He's not remotely afraid of dying. Though exactly what he means remains fittingly A mystery.
I don't fear death. I try to avoid it. Yeah. As I think we all do. But I suspect that In the end I will welcome it.
What does that mean? I think it may be very comforting to go by by. And I want to earn it. The World Series gets underway this week. Reason enough for us to check in with Josh Seftel to find out what his mom Pat thinks about going out to the ball game.
Hi.
Now it's working. Oh good. Do you like baseball? Yes. Wind up the pitch.
Baseball is slow enough that I know what's going on. I understand it. I think it's a great way to enjoy yourself, to relax, to get out in the air.
So I heard you went to a Washington Nationals baseball game. It was great. Ah. Excited about the game? Hope we don't get rained out.
We were able to be in the owner's suite. What? Is it because you're famous? No, it's because my son-in-law knows somebody. That's a step up from where we usually have sat when we go to games.
It was wonderful. You could see everything. I met a lot of wonderful people. What did you eat while you were there? Everything.
I think when you go to a baseball game, a hot dog is kind of good. There was a mascot that went around and the big screen. Oh my goodness. They have something that says, make noise. Did you make some noise?
Oh, yeah. Who won the game? They lost the game, but It was really quite a day. What role has baseball played in your life? I used to go to baseball games at Griffith Stadium.
To see the senators. Yeah. I went by myself actually because I just enjoyed the whole atmosphere. It's happy and it's exciting. They used to give us little scorecards.
I kept score, and I knew the players And I coached a little baseball team, if you remember. Yeah, my little team. Your father was going to coach it, and he never could get there. And the team was quite unusual. I think it was called Stumps and Lumps.
Oh, yes. An orthopedic surgeon sponsored the team. You were afraid of the ball. We lost almost every game, I think. Yeah.
But I did love coaching you. You know, there have been some declines in attendance for pro baseball over the last decade. Smaller than expected crowds. Shocked over the number of empty seats in the face. Do you worry about baseball disappearing at some point?
Yes. What would you say to someone who says, oh, I don't like baseball, it's too slow? You're missing out on all the good things. It's just good. clean fun.
You think people need to slow down a little, maybe, and that could help them? Yeah, I do. In this world nowadays, We need more baseball. Do you think you'd go to another game? If I'm invited.
I would go in a minute. From early education teacher to one of the world's biggest YouTube stars, the performer known as Ms. Rachel has had a meteoric rise to fame. But it hasn't all been child's play, as she tells Jolene Kent. In millions of homes around the world, Rachel Griffin Acurso's voice is unmistakable.
Especially to anyone with a toddler. I'm just so happy to be helpful to people. It's the best community to have tired, appreciative parents. Love the ring. For those tired parents, Acursa was better known as Ms.
Rachel. Thickaboo. Can you do that? An educational YouTube star with billions, yes, billions of views. Um Her videos captivate kids with sing-alongs, lessons, and lots of dancing.
Why the overalls and the pink?
So I just, I've always liked overalls. They have pockets, they're easy. Pink is my favorite color. And then headbands was definitely the tired postpartum mom with just like flyaways and just like. Greasy hair.
Yes. With 17 million YouTube subscribers, those headbands are now iconic. But her journey to becoming Ms. Rachel began in 2019 with an audience of just one. her son Thomas, who experienced a speech delay.
I was looking for a show that might be helpful to him because he did learn very well from visual things. I thought. Wow, this doesn't exist. And then it dawned on me that maybe we could try to create something that would be helpful to him and kids who need that extra support. At the time, her husband Aaron was a composer and Broadway music director.
We have a part where they're pretending to be a bubble. And it turned out, his most compatible duet partner was under the same roof. Erin just brings this kind of quality of excellence to everything. We're both very involved in shaping the show.
So once we have an idea, Rachel does a lot of research. I'll write a song or we'll write a song together and map out the order of the episode. Erin is my equal partner in everything. What happens when there is a creative difference? We both give our sides and we try to convince each other that we're right.
I usually give in to Rachel. I was waiting for you. At the end of the day. Acurso, a former public school music teacher, was raised in Maine by a single mom. Her love for teaching began after an experience working with refugee children.
I just saw how much music helped me. Bond with them and how much they delighted in saying, I found a new song. Skip little funny skips. Little did she know just how many kids she would end up teaching. We put the green screen here in the early days, we just put it right in front of that window over there.
From right here in this one-bedroom apartment in New York City. And I map out the episode with note cards. Can I say what I contributed, which is these doodles right here? Their mom and pop operation is now a global brand with Ms. Rachel Books, Toys, and a Netflix deal.
And for Rachel Ocurso, the fame has given her a new platform. Children living in conflict, Gaza, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine. She's also become a high-profile advocate for children around the world. I feel like. Amir Worm is pleading not to kill Thousands of children.
Her main focus, war-torn Gaza. Where according to Save the Children, more than 20,000 children have been killed in the last two years. Why in your in your heart do you feel so compelled to speak up? about Gaza. I just put myself in the parents' shoes, and every child in Gaza is somebody's.
world. There's a great quote from a Jewish text that every life is a universe. They are everything to us. Her advocacy has also been met with criticism, hate, and even death threats. Are you at all worried or nervous that what the critics have said.
To you, could damage the business that you've built or affect your family. 0% the business. I mean, I could care less. I have very strong morals and values. Write articles.
attack me. I know who I am. God knows who I am. I'm here. to serve children and I will not back down.
The safety It is so difficult. That's been the hardest part. Championing the well-being of all children has mostly won her praise. even comparisons to mister Rogers. mister Rogers Oh, sorry.
Oh yeah, there's his signature. Sits right above the piano. Uh It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood. She's especially moved by this 1969 episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
Hi, Officer Clements. Come in. Rogers, how are you? Fine, won't you sit down? Schools were segregated around that time.
I don't know. Did I feel great? He put his feet in the water with Officer Clemens.
Well, that was so enjoyable. I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer. And they just shared a towel and it was Such a simple moment, but it's So meaningful. That moment inspired one of Acurso's upcoming episodes. Featuring a three-year-old from Gauda.
Nimrahaf. who lost her legs during an Israeli airstrike. Can I just tell you, Joe, three-year-olds everywhere are the same? Oh. I think we really have to see ourselves in each other more.
Ocurso, now 42, certainly wears her heart on her sleeve, all while balancing the exhaustion of raising two kids. The sleep's not good.
So she gets it. Parents? Need her videos too. What are your screen time roles? Oh man.
We struggle with it because I have to use it sometimes. I've tried everything and the live show, Miss Rachel, isn't isn't working. And I'm like, maybe I need to put on the show. On the screen. Yeah, fit.
Big feelings are Okay. Parenting is never pitch perfect. Uh-oh. But Rachel and Erin Accurso are grateful to bring families whatever harmony they can. We were singing songs and being silly to one child, and now it's to many, many children.
Millions of children all over the world. How fortunate are we? We just, we didn't plan it, but we're.
So amazed and lucky. Ben Stiller is best known for his many comedy roles and for being an executive producer and director of the hit series Severance. But as he tells Jim Axelrod, his latest project is far more personal than anything he's ever done before. How about one wave man? One wave?
Hollywood A-list actor and director Ben Stiller. knows a good story when he sees one. When my dad died in 2020, My mom had been gone for about five years.
So he knew that profiling his late parents would be compelling. But even he had no idea. where it would take him. Did you understand how deep it was going to go.
Well, no. I didn't I mean I didn't know where it was gonna go. We come from a showbiz family. And now the comedy of Stiller and Mira. Jerry Stiller and Ann Mira.
Jerry Stiller and Ann Mira. had been the husband and wife comedy team of the 1960s and 70s. You're looking at not only my hunting comedy, this is the mother of my two kids. This is the father of one. appearing on Ed Sullivan thirty-six times.
My hate for you is such a hate. Such a hot hate. But for Ben and his sister Amy, Stiller and Mira. I hated you before I met you. I hated you before you were born.
We're also mom and dad. And that could get confusing. Like, yeah, that's the laugh, that's the funny joke. But what is the reality of that story though? We don't know, Ben.
That's why we're so messed up. Ben Stiller's new Apple TV documentary, Stiller and Mira: Nothing is Lost. Not superstars examines how his parents navigated both roles. They're just performers who are married with kids and trying to do their best with both worlds. Married 62 years.
Their family was shaped by Jerry's relentless ambition. And Ann's resentment doing comedy. Act, I was a good actress before I met you. When her dream was to be a serious actress. and the drinking that followed.
She had to go up there and do that act. Because she was so good at it, but it wasn't really her true thing. You know, it wasn't her true happiness. This is an adult's attempt to answer the complicated question that shaped his childhood. Where did the act end?
and the marriage begin. She's the funniest woman in the world off stage and on stage.
Now, the thing is, when she does these funny things, I am being, I am an exploiter, an opportunist. I'll take a pencil and start to write it down. The minute I do it. You see, we can use that on a show. And I'm ready to kill him.
I said, again, where does the act end and the marriage begin? There's so much footage and material and things to show of the good and the bad and the tension and the happy times. I felt it was really important to try to have a balance in the film that would relate to the audience what the reality was. of their relationship, which was, I think, grounded in love. For our first date I was planning on taking you someplace fancy.
It wasn't just old clips from long ago shows that Stiller had access to. Your dad documented everything. He stumbled into some unexpected help while cleaning out the family apartment to sell. Jerry Stiller had taped everything. Success can get in the way of marriage.
Box after box after box. He was secretly taping a lot of stuff. I had no idea that there were these sort of arguments and discussions that he had recorded. All right, you cook, but who has to clean it up? Me?
You leave a mess. Did you hear stuff you had never heard before? All of it I'd never heard before. Yeah. It brought me back to being a kid in the house when they were working together.
When you tell it, it's not funny, and if I tell it, it becomes funny. Ouch. For a filmmaker trying to figure it all out. Ben Stiller. had struck gold.
You know, there's a conversation where my dad talks to my mother about her drink. And he confronts her about it. Was it important to you? in terms of Understanding your dad that you could hear him do that? Yeah, yeah.
I was like, oh, okay, he really did speak to her about this. Because as kids, that was never anything we talked about. But you may be carrying a around the sense of, why didn't dad ever confront your mom? Guess what? Right, he did.
Right, he did. And it changed. The deconstruction of his parents' marriage came while Stiller was wrestling with his own midlife issues. I just felt out of balance and unhappy and kind of disconnected. for my my family.
For my kids. And just kind of a little bit lost. Separated at the time from his wife. Actor Christine Taylor. with whom he later reconciled.
The irony is I thought I was doing so much better than my parents. When you're younger, you think, okay, I'm gonna... do everything better. I'm gonna, you know, I'm not gonna make that mistake. I found myself at a place in my life where things weren't really In sync.
Stiller and Mira now had some company under the magnifying glass. Their son. I didn't want to be some sort of pretend to be some sort of objective uh judge of their relationship. When I had so many issues in my own relationships and my stuff. And was that.
A challenging Journey for you to make yourself? Yeah, then it changed everything because it was like, okay, I'm gonna have to You know? Talk about my own feelings and stuff that I don't really ever talk about.
Sometimes it drove my not exactly where he expected to end up when he started the project. For them, it was the same thing I was going through. As a kid. In honest, raw, and revealing conversations with his daughter Ella. And son Quinn.
I remember at this one time, I literally was on the street. talking to him about the fact that I felt like he didn't pay enough attention to us. And while we were talking, somebody on the street came over and said, Jerry, I love your work. And he started talking. Stiller exposes the excruciating challenge.
Of breaking patterns.
Well, that's actually hilarious because just a few weeks ago, we were all out at a restaurant, and I had been stressed about college stuff, and then the people there wanted to get like a picture with you. And then I just remember I was so frustrated, like world just has to stop to get this picture. I was genuinely surprised. When he told me that, as a filmmaker, I thought, this is an interesting moment in the movie. As a father?
As a father, I was like, oh shit.
So Ben Stiller has done something requiring more courage than simply making an honest movie about loved ones. I see that parallel with your dad. You're trying to balance being a director, an actor, but also just a father. He's made an honest movie. about himself.
One of the most uncomfortable places you can ever be is the mirror. And sometimes your kids are holding up the mirror. You know, it's kind of like It is a bummer because I'm never gonna go back. You know? and that's helped him round the edges from his own childhood.
finding the grace to give his parents by understanding he might need. to seek some of his own. Where are you? Now in your relationship. to your folks.
I don't know. Yeah. All this work and you don't know?
Well, I mean They're still not here. That was the sad thing for me about finishing the movie. It was like, oh, now I don't have an excuse. to kind of just be connecting with them here. But But this was an intense reconnection.
When it sounds like you needed it. the most. Yeah, for me it was. What my mom probably would have said, like, yeah, go make a movie about it if you want to figure out how to process your feelings. With Lee Cowan, we head north to a most unusual landmark that for more than a century has served as a cultural welcome mat between the United States and Canada.
There's still a place where you can walk freely across an international border. No questions asked. The only protest is the squeaking floorboards near the well-worn boundary line. painted on the floor. This is the Haskell Free Library and Opera House.
A Victorian Palace to art. Culture. and education. that actually has dual citizenship. Because Part of it sits in Stansted, Quebec.
The other half? stretches into Derby Line, Vermont.
So this is the actual border.
So you're standing in Canada here in the United States. It was the vision of Martha Stewart Haskell. A wealthy Canadian who married a wealthy American. She had it built in 1901. As a gift.
What was the point of having it specifically sit across the border? She wanted it to be welcoming to both communities and at that time this was family, both sides. American Kathy Converse has been volunteering here for 20 years. She's seen kids and parents. This is the ticket office.
tourists and residents French speakers and English speakers. I was talking about. All coming and going freely. But this month. It changed.
And it's just sort of I'm gonna stick with my one word that I use for the situation, sad. In January. The same day President Donald Trump was sworn into office, U. S. Border Patrol Agent David Mayland.
was shot and killed during a traffic stop. It was about fifteen miles from the library. A Seattle woman? has been indicted for his murder. Hundreds turned out on the streets of Burlington in January to say goodbye.
A week later, Secretary of Homeland Security Christy Noam flew to Vermont to pay her respects. She also made a surprise visit. to the library. How'd that go? I have to say she was very polite with me.
But a few weeks after Nome's visit, Sylvie Boudreaux, President of the Library's Board of Trustees, was notified the building's literary loophole was closing. Ending Martha Stewart Haskell's Century Old Vision of cooperation. Getting emotional, but I don't think she she would have thought. you know, because her first mission was really to reunite people, not to divide. Starting this month, Canadians are no longer allowed to use the U.S.
sidewalk that leads to the library's grand front entrance. Instead, have to report to a legal US port of entry. First. Welcome to Canada. Welcome to Canada.
Yep. But in the back of the library on the Canadian side was a rarely used emergency exit. They turned that exit. into an entrance. Not as welcoming to Canadians as the front, perhaps, but...
For now. It'll have to do. It's like When you're losing a friend, a dear friend? That's what it feels like. Yeah.
You know, like you backstab me. It's gonna take a while before I forgive you. Canadian Susan Brothwell. Wasn't about to take a chance. U.
S. Customs and Border Protection said the changes were necessary, because of incidents of smuggling. An illicit cross-border activity. around the library. Around the library?
Outside? Yes. We have people crossing often. But it's not because of the library. Yeah.
She should know. Whoudreaux worked for the Canadian Border Services Agency? for 20 years. And to think that the library because of one little sidewalk would have that big of an impact uh on border security. For me, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
That's Jody Stone. He's the mayor of Stansted, Quebec. Yeah, well, I think community. He's just as well known in Derby Line, Vermont. If you look at the community, if it wasn't for the borders, you wouldn't know that it was two separate countries.
We share water and sewer. Our fire departments come to each other's aid when needed, but we've tried to keep it as open as possible. Take a drive down Canoosa Street, as in Canada USA Street.
so named, because the border is essentially that yellow line down the middle of the road. On the American side, Signs of support. and solidarity. On the Canadian side, a morphing of our two flags into one. I'm proud to be in a community.
where our neighbors appreciate us as much as we appreciate them. That back entrance will eventually be getting a makeover. A donation box shows that the dollars don't discriminate. Both sides want to make it right. Oh shit, I couldn't.
Despite all the noise outside, in here, under the mournful eyes of a massive moose, The Haskell Free Library and Opera House remains a place where no sides are taken. Where differences are celebrated. and were the promises of the past. Arcant. It's like All that Politics.
So All these rulings don't exist. We are here for all the same thing. is literacy, culture. And French. Our commentary is from former New York Times columnist Charles Blow on a disappearing staple of communities everywhere.
Local news is in crisis. By some estimates, more than 3,200 print newspapers have vanished since 2005. According to the nonprofit Rebuild Local News, the number of newsroom employees has declined sixty percent since 2000, a collapse comparable in scale to the coal industry. And on average, two newspapers close each week. Public radio and public television are also part of the ecosystem of local news, and they too are now under threat after the government clawed back.
$1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To better understand this problem, I partnered with the MacArthur Foundation and press forward. A national coalition investing hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen local newsrooms. For nearly two years, I traveled the country speaking with policymakers, news entrepreneurs, reporters, and residents, both to write about the crisis and to work on a documentary about it. What were you hearing from the community about this shrinkage of coverage, if anything?
People missed depth. What surprised me most was the broad recognition on the ground of how central these outlets are to community life. and a tremendous sense of loss when they disappear. The best work comes from reporting on the places you live, the people you see every single day. The focus of these outlets was not only on Big J journalism, the Fourth Estate's mission to hold power to account.
It was also on small J journalism, wedding announcements and obituaries, profiles of valedictorians, and roundups of high school games. This connective tissue of local news strengthens communities and makes them whole. This also explains why people, even as they distrust or dislike national media, often embrace their local outlets. The perception of local news is shifting. from a struggling industry to an essential public good.
These newspapers are neighbors. They strengthen neighborhoods. Without them, division grows. A 2019 study by Harvard University's Nieman Lab. Found that the decline of local newspapers and the nationalization of political news are polarizing vote choice.
Local news reminds us how much we have in common, that we are communities first, not partisan enemy combatants. Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. Tosa is my home now. Academy Award nominee Sylvester Stallone stars in the Paramount Plus original series, Tulsa King.
His distillery is a very interesting business. We got a no Vienna. From Taylor Sheridan, co-creator of Landman. What are you saying? If you think you're gonna take me out.
It's gonna be really Difficult Tulsa King. New season now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus.
Now streaming on Paramount Plus. Witness an intimate look at Ozzy Osborne's fight. Oh, she took Philly some fun. No, it's like just that long. To reclaim the magic.
I took dad to the studio every day. God, he's having a great time.
Well, of course he's making music. I think that that's fuel for my dad. One last time. What do you think about Big Farewell Show? I'm not good at being sick.
I belong up there, you know. Had a brilliant career and it ended in a brilliant way. Ozzy, no escape from now. New documentary now streaming on Paramount Plus.
