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CBS Sunday Morning / Jane Pauley
The Truth Network Radio
December 19, 2021 12:00 pm

CBS Sunday Morning,

CBS Sunday Morning / Jane Pauley

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December 19, 2021 12:00 pm

On "CBS Sunday Morning" with host Jane Pauley; With the increase in coronavirus caseloads due to the spreading Delta and Omicron variants, CBS's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook discusses the precautions to be taken at end-of-year get-togethers, to better ensure a safe holiday season. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, tells Rita Braver he has done everything he could to stay out of partisan political debates over COVID. Inmates at Maine's state prisons, many of whom are facing decades behind bars without a chance of parole, are finding new purpose through creative expression, making artwork and crafts for sale outside of prison walls. Contributor Nancy Giles tells us more. Christian rock is as old as rock 'n' roll itself. It's revered by some and rejected by others. Contributor Kelefa Sanneh talks with Amy Grant. Finally, Actress Penélope Cruz talks with Holly Williams about a life beyond her wildest ambitions, balancing family and projects, and working with her husband, actor Javier Bardem

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Our CBS Sunday morning podcast is sponsored by Edward Jones. College tours with your oldest daughter. Updating the kitchen to the appropriate decade.

Retiring on the coast. Life is full of moments that matter, and Edward Jones helps you make the most of them. That's why every Edward Jones financial advisor works with you to build personalized strategies for now and down the road. So when your next moment arrives, big or small, you're ready for it. Life is for living.

Let's partner for all of it. Learn more at edwardjones.com. Good morning and an early Merry Christmas. I'm Jane Pauley and this is Sunday Morning. We begin this morning in an unlikely place, but for all the right reasons. We're taking you behind bars to a prison in Maine to see a kind of prison work which will both surprise and maybe inspire.

Nancy Giles explains. Along Maine's Route 1 is a store filled with all manner of crafts. From salad bowls to sailing ships.

All made in Maine state prisons. There's only so many opportunities you have in here to kind of like touch the world. Ahead on Sunday morning, making art while doing time. It's music with a ministry and California tells us it's especially important and particularly beloved during the holiday season. Little Drummer Boy was a hit for the Christian rock duo for King and Country. Little Drummer Boy has become such a thing for us that if we don't play it, right, people are upset. It doesn't matter January, July, whatever, doesn't matter.

Later on Sunday morning, a perfect time for contemporary Christian music. Penelope Cruz is one of Hollywood's biggest stars. So how is it that she now makes Madrid her home?

We asked Tali Williams to make inquiries. With her captivating screen presence, Penelope Cruz has been compared to Sofia Loren, but the Spanish actress says she doesn't see herself that way. I was going to ask you what it's like to be a beauty icon, but it feels like you don't acknowledge that you are. No, I don't. I haven't lost my mind. But I think what is good is to have a face that can change a lot.

And it has so much to do with the light. Penelope Cruz lights up the screen once again, coming up on Sunday morning. Rita Braver talks with the outgoing head of the government's never more important National Institutes of Health. Luke Burbank takes us to a place where the candy is dandy. Plus, David Pogue on a modern Christmas classic, Steve Hartman visits Secret Santa, a holiday sing-along with Josh Groban, Jim Gaffigan and more on this Sunday morning before Christmas, December 19th, 2021. And we'll be right back. Why on earth would we begin this holiday show behind bars?

With Nancy Giles, you're about to find out. Along Route 1 in Thomaston, Maine, is a store filled with crafts, birdhouses and dollhouses, salad bowls and sailing ships, all made in Maine state prisons. We found the quality to be excellent. Ted and Barbara Widmayer have been shopping here for decades.

It's very nice that somebody who is perhaps in a place that he or she wishes she weren't, still has the spirit to make something nice like that. Prison inmates have been making things in Maine since the 1800s, when selling sleighs and wagons helped defray costs. Today, a whole range of crafts support the workshops in Maine's maximum security prison in Warren. I mean, I can't control everything that happens in prison.

Nobody can. But when I'm sitting at that computer designing something that's going to be lasered, I'm not in prison. I'm not there.

I am focused on this that's going to bring somebody pleasure. Ron Bubar was 24 when he began serving his time. That was 33 years ago. When I come to prison, there wasn't computers. I had to teach myself.

Didn't even know how to turn them on. So I taught myself how to do this stuff. How did you learn that? It's a lot of trial and error.

Charlie Jones came here when he was 20, sentenced to 75 years in a state where there is no parole. In the workshops, he discovered he had a talent for carving. Every time that I carved something, I thought, man, how the hell am I going to do this? But as you take one piece off and you start to see more, then you just kind of go. One of Charlie's earlier projects was this golden eagle, which he learned to carve from a book. I just kind of went by that and tried to just duplicate it.

You just kind of went by that. I have an ability to endure monotony. Carving the feathers was kind of therapeutic. I could just do it.

And once you can get a rhythm going, it's all right. It's amazing the amount of talent that the residents have here. More than 100 residents working here daily. They do about $1.6 million worth of work out of this facility. That much?

They do. Randall Liberty is Commissioner of Maine's Department of Corrections. For people who might think, lock the door and throw away the key, why are they getting an opportunity to get training to be educated, what would you say to them?

Whatever side of the political spectrum you may be on, there's a win here for everyone. If you spend $46,000 a year to house someone in a correctional facility and they come back because they receive no programming to address the core reasons why they arrived here, it's stupid money. One of Maine's programs allows residents to earn a college degree. The money for it was donated by Doris Buffet, Warren's sister, who lived in Rockland, Maine.

She gave us an initial $2 million donation, and that's the best money I've ever seen invested in anyone. Ron Bubar is one of those graduates. Charlie Jones is, too. The college program is noticeably magnificent.

Noticeably magnificent? Yes. When we used to walk to chow, you could hear people talking in the back about some MS-13 story they heard, or the people in front of you talking about how they used to cook meth. But now when you go to chow, you might hear one of those conversations in front of you, but behind you, you hear somebody talking about their philosophy class or their history class. The individuals that graduate have about a 5% return rate, recidivism rate, as opposed to a 60 to 65% nationally. That means 95% of the people who go through this program don't go back.

That's correct. When Doris Buffet died in 2020, Charlie was asked if he could make something to honor her. This is what Charlie made, a table with legs made of books. On their spines, the names of courses open to prison residents, and the professors who teach them.

On the table, a book telling Doris Buffet's story, and a thank you note. There's only so many opportunities you have in here to kind of like touch the world. In Portland, Maine, this fall, an exhibition of art by those serving time in Maine prisons. And this is what he really sees. Part of a year-long project to shine a light on parts of prison life not often seen. It's all from the heart. That's what I like about this. Curator Jan Collins is assistant director of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition. Sometimes it's an expression of longing more than anything.

We have people who have used paper bags because that's the only thing they had to work with. Your eye sort of moves? Yes. Not just one.

Co-curator Olivia Hochstadt graduated from Colby College with a degree in art history last year. Had you ever been in a prison before? No, no. What was your perception before you went in? Just sort of images of like sweaty guys who work out, maybe not friendly.

That's just not been true. Maybe they work out, but what surprised me the most was how kind the people I met were. Respectful, courteous.

I really believe that some of those guys are nicer than men that I've met outside. We want people to know that every person in here has a family on the outside that cares about them. My brother's coming to see the show.

My daughter's going to be here. And we want them to see something they can be really proud of. What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about people that are in prison?

I think that they're throwaways. We have to ask ourselves, do we believe in redemption? And I think that we all believe in redemption when it applies to us.

When it applies to other people, we're reluctant to do that. For Charlie Jones, the existential questions are deep and persistent. I've been here for murder. I got 75 years.

I've been in prison longer than I was alive when I committed my crime. If I say to myself, I want to fulfill the purpose of what the people who put me here intended for this to be, what am I supposed to be doing? When, if anything, would that purpose be fulfilled?

And for the people that you hurt, what has to be done for them, for those people to say, OK, I now see that that wasn't a monster, that that was a stupid kid. Dr. Francis Collins has been at the helm of the National Institutes of Health since well before the start of the COVID crisis. And while he's stepping down, he has no intention of slowing down, as he tells our Rita Braver. So this building on the left is our clinical center. One way to see NIH like I've never seen it before. For Dr. Francis Collins, the adventure of owning a Harley is nothing compared with the challenge of running the sprawling National Institutes of Health. So we have 27 institutes and centers.

They range everything from institutes that are focused on a disease, the National Cancer Institute, to some that are focused on organ systems, the National Eye Institute, infectious disease, heart, lung, and blood. And I've had a pretty good time getting the best people in the world to come and lead those institutes. But after 12 years on the job, one of the longest runs in history, Dr. Collins will step down today. I have loved this role, but 12 plus years is a long time to have a single leader of this largest supporter of biomedical research in the world. It's good to have new vision. It was Collins' own vision as one of the foremost genetic researchers in the country that inspired then President Barack Obama to appoint him to lead NIH in 2009.

Collins helped push through major increases in the NIH budget, now expected to hit $50.4 billion a year. I have done everything I can to stay out of any kind of political partisan debates, because it really is not a place where medical research belongs. That may be why both President Trump and Biden ask him to stay on. But Collins revealed that once the COVID pandemic began, he found himself facing off with Mr. Trump over Collins' refusal to endorse scientifically disproven remedies like hydroxychloroquine and blood plasma from recovered COVID patients.

And I got into a difficult place and got a bit of a talking tube by the president of the United States about this, but I stuck my ground. Would you have resigned if it had come to the White House trying to get you to do something you didn't want to do? Yeah, I was not going to compromise scientific principles to just hold on to the job.

And Collins has resisted demands from the right for him to fire one of his key team members, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Can you imagine a circumstance where the director of the NIH, somebody who believes in science, would submit to political pressures and fire the greatest expert in infectious disease that the world has known, just to satisfy political concerns? Collins is proud of work by NIH scientists that helped lead to the development of COVID vaccines. But still, are there any things that you wish that you and NIH had done differently vis-a-vis COVID? I wish we had studied more carefully the problem of hesitancy.

I did not imagine that there would be 60 million people who faced with compelling evidence of the life-saving nature of COVID vaccines would still say no, not for me. Francis Sellers Collins, one of four boys, grew up in Stanton, Virginia, homeschooled until sixth grade. My mother and my father had this ability to inspire you about the joy of learning new things. He got a PhD from Yale and an MD from the University of North Carolina. In 1989, he helped discover a gene that causes cystic fibrosis. Then in 93, Collins was recruited to join NIH, where he would head up the government's effort in the race with a private company led by Craig Venter to map the human genome, all the genetic information in our DNA. All of this got into the People magazine version of science that I'm not sure was all that helpful, but ultimately it had a good ending.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton declared it a tie. Today we celebrate the revelation of the first draft of the human book of life. In 2007, President George W. Bush presented Collins with the Medal of Freedom, in large part because of strides that mapping the human genome made in treating diseases like cancer.

What particular genes are mutated that is causing this problem to happen, and how could we look at the menu of all the kinds of interventions we have, drugs, immunotherapy, and pick the right match for your cancer. The Genome Project made that possible. And even after he became director of NIH, Collins continued to do research.

Yeah, this is the special part of it for me. This is here in the lab where he plans to return when he steps down as director, focusing on diabetes and a new gene editing technique to help kids with a rare disease called progeria that causes premature aging. We're now trying to figure out how in the next months or maybe a year to do all the necessary work to start a clinical trial on kids with that condition to see what we can do. I think that Collins' partner in all of this is his wife, Diane Baker, a pioneering genetic counselor. So do you just like sit around the dinner table and discuss the latest genetic developments? Actually, we do.

We kind of do. In fact, Baker has become deeply involved in charities that support patient care at NIH. We both care so much about health care and access to health care and biomedical research and we know it's all intertwined and necessary. What do you think are the qualities that define your husband?

That's an important question. The qualities that come to mind are he is totally himself. He is totally who he is and he brings everything he has to his work. His humor, his intellect, his music, his concern for people. He brings it all.

Okay, I'm going to cry too. The music his wife mentioned is indeed a key to understanding Dr. Francis Collins, whether it's playing a concert with a young sickle cell anemia patient or performing with other NIH experts. So why do a bunch of very hardworking doctors and scientists want to have a rock and roll band? Because it's good for your soul.

But Dr. Francis Collins will never stop searching for the next medical breakthrough. Millions sing its praises. Caliph Asane tells us all about Christian rock. In 1966, the Beach Boys released God Only Knows. The song became a hit and a classic.

It's always negative. Like God only knows how this sort of stuff happens. More than 50 years later, the duo for King and Country used that old title for a new song.

With some help from Dolly Parton. If you look at God Only Knows, I think we said God, you know, 24 times or something. Australian-born brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone are two of the biggest stars in the world of contemporary Christian music. Let's just say that there is a God and let's just say that he knows all about us, maybe even better than we know ourselves.

The fact that God only knows all that stuff, that's a fascinating concept. Christian rock is as old as rock and roll itself. A gospel singer named Sister Rosetta Tharpe helped create rock and roll. But a new documentary highlights how, in the late 1960s, a religious movement grew into a genre of its own and an industry.

I saw contemporary Christian music born right before my very eyes. First, there was a clash of cultures. Did this all start with the Did this all start with a bunch of Christian hippies? It actually did. It actually did. You can trace it back to around 1969, 1970 in Southern California.

David Stowe teaches religious studies at Michigan State University. From there, it slowly gathered and now we have a huge genre of popular music. The Jesus movement, as it was known, took hold in the national imagination with scenes of beach baptisms in the Pacific Ocean. Was music always an important part of it? Right from the beginning, I think music was sort of the entering wedge for popular culture to come into the churches. The gateway drug.

The gateway drug, exactly. I felt so energized and alive because of this group I had found at this hippie church. And Amy Grant is Christian music royalty.

This time of year, she tours performing Christmas music with fellow trailblazer Michael W. Smith. Grant started making records in high school inspired by Carole King and by her Christian faith. I always saw myself as somebody that used music to try to create an environment that made people feel welcomed and seen. I never thought that was like my career.

I really didn't. My senior year, I thought, I got to get a real job. How many records had you made by then?

Six. By the 1980s, she was redefining Christian rock, winning Grammys and selling millions of records. I had conversations early on with a record company just saying, how flexible are we with this? He said, Jesus told a lot of stories.

And he said, just tell good stories. In 1991, her song Baby Baby reached number one on the pop chart. She'd gone mainstream.

That song threw me onto a world stage that I had never been on before. Not everyone was applauding. What was the reaction when all of a sudden Amy Grant is making big secular hits? People are raising their eyebrows. They're beginning to wonder about her spiritual bona fides, that maybe she's been corrupted by secular success.

The Christian rock industry sometimes encourages bands like For King and Country to be explicit about their faith. I think it's called JPMs. Have you heard this phrase? Yes. Jesus Per Minute. Jesus Per Minute.

Yes. We hadn't heard it, and we didn't really care to know anything about it. We just wanted to write the songs that felt real. In concert, the brothers combine a slick high-energy spectacle with earnest appeals. Luke asked the fans to help feed starving children. If you're interested in sponsoring a chart, just raise your hand up really, really high. Joel implored them to stand up against human trafficking.

And this is coming from a son of an immigrant mom who moved halfway around the world without that. But in mainstream entertainment... Can't you see you're not making Christianity better? You're just making rock and roll worse. Christian rock is sometimes treated as a joke. There is this rock and roll mythology of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And the question is, well, how can you just have the third and leave out the first two?

Sex is certainly acceptable within certain bounds of marriage. A lot of coffee gets drunk. Marriage, coffee, and rock and roll doesn't have quite the same feel. The Christian music industry remains a world of its own, but Amy Grant says she's grateful to be part of it. There are times, you know, even surrounded by my own people that I'll go, man, we got some weirdness happening here. But I love the family of faith, you know? Do I agree with everybody?

No. You know, we're all on a faith journey, whether we're singing about it or not even admitting it to ourselves. Both brothers, Luke and Joel, want to be seen as family men and men of faith. Little Drummer Boy has become such a thing for us that if we don't play it, people are upset.

This year, following their most recent album, A Drummer Boy Christmas, they were named Artist of the Year at the Dove Awards, the Christian version of the Grammys. There is this hunger for the kind of music and also the kind of message, right? A message of faith and hope. There's two ways to get to a place of hopefulness, right? One way is to sort of slap on a smile and think positive thoughts.

The other way is to actually recognize the struggle, probably share it with someone that you care about, and have them help you out of the ditch. And to me, that's what music does. For now, at least, Joel and Luke Smallbone say they're staying the course and spreading the word. At the end of the day, there's two genres of music. There's good music and there's bad music. And we try to be on the side of good music. That said, we certainly want to stay a thousand miles away from biting the hand that feeds us.

If I could speak to a hope, I hope the walls will start to crumble a little bit so that we can all recognize that we're not that different. There actually is a place where life is like a box of chocolates and just in time for Christmas, Luke Burbank takes us there. Christmas is almost here, but forget about Santa's Workshop. The place where they're really busy cranking out the holiday cheer is the C's Candies Factory in Culver City, California. For the last 100 years, C's has been a holiday tradition for many. Do you have a favorite? I love all of them.

I mean, I really do. But my very favorite is dark chocolate peanut butter. Pat Egan is C's president and CEO. He's a former energy company executive who's turned into a sort of buttoned up Willy Wonka. What was the appeal to you to move from that kind of work to selling candy? It's C's. I mean, it's candy.

You get to make people happy. Founded here in Los Angeles by Charles C, the company used home recipes developed by his mother, Mary, whose picture still hangs in every C's candy shop. We still use a lot of the formula spectrum.

Peanut brittle over here is an example. We still have the same recipe that Mary had. It's a recipe that's worked well for the company, which has grown from just one shop to over 200 locations, mostly west of the Rocky Mountains. But one Midwest fan is Warren Buffett.

Yes, the Oracle of Omaha. In fact, he liked it so much, he actually bought the company back in 1972 and owns it to this day. He also orders special personal shipments of candy every Christmas.

He's our number one fan and he gives it away as gifts. Is that the the order that, you know, you don't want to screw that one up? We're aware when that order is going out. Filling one billionaire's order is actually pretty simple compared to trying to make candy when both sugar and chocolate are rationed, which is exactly what happened during World War II. The call was, well, do we substitute that so that we can maintain production and satisfy the number of customers that are banging down the door? Or do we say we're only going to make so much and once it's sold, that's it?

And that was the choice that they made, which I think is a really good story about if it doesn't meet our standards, we're just not going to do it. And that wasn't the only time SEAS literally ran out of candy. It also happened just last year during the pandemic. The factory shut down and since SEAS doesn't use preservatives, their candy literally has a shelf life. The assembly line actually stopped. Yeah, from early March until late April, early May, we donated all of our candy, food banks, frontline workers.

So you also gave away your whole inventory? Yes, yeah, yeah, entirely. To Egan's great relief, SEAS production lines are up and running again. And if this all looks sort of familiar, well, there's a reason. Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance actually trained for that beloved candy scene right here in this SEAS factory. Iris Eshoo, vice president of food safety, let me try my hand on the assembly line.

Anything that is extra, you want to remove from the board. And it was Lucy-esque. You're a little slow there, Luke.

Is this normally this fast? Yeah. So are you starting to feel like Lucy? I mean, more than I want to. I need to go take a break, okay? That's a lot. Oh, sorry, was that?

Unfortunately, I was kind of a flop in Candyland, so I decided to leave it to the experts. After all, they've been doing it for 100 years. They must know something. This is Intelligence Matters with former acting director of the CIA, Michael Morell. Bridge Colby is co-founder and principal of the Marathon Initiative, a project focused on developing strategies to prepare the United States for an era of sustained great power competition. The United States put our mind to something we can usually figure it out.

What people are saying and what we kind of know analytically and empirically is our strategic situation, our military situation, is not being matched up with what we're doing. Follow Intelligence Matters wherever you get your podcasts. It's a Christmas tradition. Steve Hartman is on the road with Secret Santa.

About as far from the North Pole as you can get, at the edge of the Sonoran Desert, Secret Santa is about to do some of his best work ever. This is something I've had in my heart for years. Here on the San Carlos Apache Tribal Lands.

I've always felt inside my soul a spiritual connection with the Native American. And so, after a blessing from the medicine man and a briefing for his elf recruits. Today you're on the front lines of kindness. This anonymous wealthy businessman set out to give away $30,000 in $100 bills to random strangers. Merry Christmas to you.

And boy was it welcome. That's 400 Secret Santa dollars. Nearly half the people who live on this Arizona tribal land live below the poverty line. It's going to put more food on the table. More for my family to eat.

I had no food really. Elijah Cook says he knows hunger, but still plans to give away his money. I think it goes to my father. He needs it more. This is for you. After getting her gift, Velma Wilson said she could finally get her grandchildren what they've been begging for.

Cat litter. And yet, even here, where the need is so great, Secret Santa says it's not about the money. It's never about the money. Oh my goodness. Whether you're Native American, African American, Christian American, Left American, Right American, kindness is that common language between us all.

And maybe that's why. Most people didn't cry when they got their bills. But when he made them feel like a million bucks, you know how special you are, that's when the joy came. You are a beautiful spirit.

That's when the tears rolled. You're an example to every mom. You're amazing.

Nelvina Cobb got $400, but valued those comments much more. Just to hear that, it feels good. It helped me a lot. This holiday season, few of us will have the resources to give like this, but Santa says we can all make an equal impact using our wealth of words. You're an incredible, incredible grandma. Thank you. I love you. I love you.

You do an amazing job. It hasn't been around as long as some, but Christmas time is here is unquestionably a holiday classic and one of David Pogue's all time favorites. How did this song ever become a classic? It's kind of a melancholy waltz.

The chords are really complicated. It's not jingle bells, it's jazz. Its story begins in 1965, when CBS asked producer Lee Mendelson if he could put together a Christmas special in six months. And my father called Charles Schulz and he said, hey, I just sold a Charlie Brown Christmas to CBS. And Charles Schulz said, what's that? Jason Mendelson is Lee Mendelson's son. And my father said, it's something you and I have to write over the weekend.

Schulz agreed to write the script, but the special would need just the right music. And that's when Mendelson heard a Vince Guaraldi song on the radio. Cast your faith to the wind. Take one. Cast your what?

Cast your faith to the wind. Guaraldi was a rising San Francisco jazz pianist, and Mendelson thought he had the perfect sound for Charlie Brown. He was right. Guaraldi's music became forever associated with Charlie Brown. But the opening song of the TV special became forever associated with Christmas.

Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer. The song was just piano, bass, and drums, but Mendelson thought that it should be sung. With time running out, he wrote the words himself. Lee just dashed off some lyrics, like basically on the back of a paper bag or something. The children's singing voices belonged to Kerry Cedarblade, Dan Bernhardt, Dave Willett, and a few other members of the St. Paul's Episcopal Church Youth Choir in San Rafael, California. It's fun to work with the kids. And this group here is fabulous. The recordings you made have probably been listened to more than many of the biggest pop singers.

Yeah, this starts to get a little discouraging when you put it that way, because, you know, that $15 ain't getting any bigger. The kids got $5 for each recording session. No royalties, not even their names in the credits. I mean, it's true that things were a little catch-as-catch-can and haphazard, but you got to hang out with people, and it was late at night. And to then just be a part of this iconic show that really touches people for years and years and years, it's humbling in that way.

Once the special was ready, Mendelson showed it to the network executives. They hated everything about it. The music, what's this jazz? The animation, this is not what we expect.

There's religion in it, and there's feelings. But the special was a monster hit. It won an Emmy, it's been on TV every Christmas since 1965, and Giraldi's score became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time. Half a million sold the gold record.

And this is for four million sold. Dia Giraldi is Vince's daughter. This is an original that Charles Schulz drew from my father. Your dad's at the piano where Schroeder usually sits, and Schroeder is like, do you mind?

Giraldi wrote the music for every Charlie Brown special thereafter, until February 1976. He was playing the small little club, and he had gone off for a break, and he hit the ground, and he was dead. On the break from the show. He died of a heart attack at age 47. I'm proud of who my dad is. I'm so blessed by this life because of him, for sure. Dan, when's the last time you sang this entire thing?

End of September 1965. This is it, the reunion tour. And for these three guys, Christmas time is here will always be much more than a classic. I'm extremely proud to have been associated with it.

I think it's gotten better with age. Thank goodness Linus reminds us every year what Christmas is all about. Oh, that we could always see such spirit through the years. Too good angry. Okay, what did they say in art school? They said I was a genius, right? I always encourage your talent. No talent, I'm not talking about talent.

I said genius, genius. When you think of Penelope Cruz, it's tempting to think of the bright lights of how she was tempting to think of the bright lights of Hollywood. But if you want to talk with the Oscar-winning star, you need to travel to Madrid, the city in her native Spain, where she now resides. Holly Williams has a Sunday profile. I have always said to myself, I will never stop being the observer. I don't want to be the one observed.

How am I perceived? That doesn't matter. Penelope Cruz is a movie star who spent three decades in the spotlight. But Penelope Cruz says she's not interested in her own image. Has that helped you hang on to your sanity as a celebrity? Yes. And in terms of not believing either the great things that are said about you, not believing the bad things, just going in your path little by little as a student of life.

And that's what I consider myself. Since making her film debut as a teenager, Cruz, now 47, has been dubbed a screen goddess by critics. With three Academy Award nominations, including one win, she's the only actress from Spain to take home an Oscar.

Over the last few years, you've made fewer Hollywood films and more films here in Spain. Is that a creative, artistic preference? It's also because this is where I'm raising my kids. Of course, it makes me pass on a lot of things.

And these years that are so important, I don't want to miss anything with them growing up. Her new film, Parallel Mothers, is all about motherhood with some jarring twists. And it's already won Cruz the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival. It's Cruz's seventh collaboration with Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, who wrote the role for her.

Even if one of them was a cameo, but I count all of them, and I hope many more. He calls Cruz his muse. She told us it's the most important creative relationship of her career. Both of them, she says, are obsessive about their work. Is that part of what binds you together? You're obsessive about the work, both of you?

I think so. You have to go all the way. And of course, you have the safety net of knowing that it's a fiction, but you have to really, really go there with no fear. But he's always there to pick me up. Literally pick me up from the floor one time in one of these scenes. And I just could not come out of the scene. And when that happens, it is scary, but it's also a great feeling of, OK, we really went to a place where we were supposed to go to tell this story. Hello?

Hello? Early on, Cruz's magnetic screen presence was also noticed in Hollywood. And she was lured across the Atlantic to star in big budget features.

You are coming inside. But if this turns out to be a big mistake, I do have the ability to fall out of love with you like that. She's one of a handful of non-native English speakers who've hit the big time and frequently compared to Sophia Loren. Do you feel that in Hollywood, because of your beauty, at times you've been typecast? I feel like I've had great opportunities and that, of course, I've said no to things, especially at the beginning, that maybe were, I don't know, maybe not interesting. And not interesting because you were just the love interest?

It would be unfair for me to talk like that because I've been able to move back and forth finding interesting things. But the most difficult lesson at the beginning for me was to learn that I had to say no to a lot of projects. And have you said no to some big parts? And some big money in Hollywood?

Yes. But I would never say which movies or with whom. I think that would be so rude of me to say, oh, I said no to that or no, no, no. Cruz is diplomatic about the industry, even when it comes to her name, which it turns out we've been mispronouncing. Cruz told us she doesn't mind.

For the record, what is the correct pronunciation of your name? Cruz. Cruz. Cruz, or Cruth, won some of the best reviews of her career for her role in this film. Our love will last forever, it's forever, but it just doesn't work. That's why it will always be romantic because it cannot be complete. Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen's sun-dappled love letter to Spain. Cruz played a troubled artist, co-starring with Javier Bardem, whom she later married. Has anybody ever fainted here? Because I might be the first one.

It was also the electrifying performance that earned Cruz an Oscar. How could I be sure you were not going to hurt me? After all, I have thoughts of killing you. Thank you, Woody, for trusting me with this beautiful character.

Thank you for having written over all these years, some of the greatest characters for women. But in 2014, controversy surrounding an old allegation of child sexual abuse against Woody Allen was reignited. He vehemently denies the accusation. Some actors who have worked with Woody Allen have said, I regret working with him and I would never work with him again. I don't want to talk about this because I'm not the one to talk about it. Speaking generally about the media, though, Cruz told us she has concerns about people being tried in the court of public opinion.

The speed of things nowadays is crazy and it would take minutes to really alter the life of someone for the better or for the worse. In a way that maybe could be no way back. Cruz is now living nearly 6,000 miles from Hollywood in her native Madrid.

This is truly what feels like home. She has two children with Bardem, who's also an Oscar winner. What is that working relationship like? Naturally, like we don't look for projects to do constantly and in a way it would be more comfortable, easier for schedules.

But no, I think it's a way to also protect, you know, the relationship, not to be working all the time together. Will you make more films together? Once in a while, and he feels the same way.

Once every four or five years is okay for us. Is Madrid an inspiration to you as an artist? I think it is an inspiration because it is so full of life. There is something in the atmosphere that is very... People are really warm, really affectionate.

Cruz is back home, right where she started. But her rare talent has won her global acclaim and a life, she told us, beyond her wildest ambitions. It was like dreaming about going to the moon.

So if somebody would have told me at that age, all those things are going to happen to you, you know, it was like science fiction. I could not even imagine. We have a holiday for our family. We have a holiday tradition of our own here at Sunday morning, thanks to the Young People's Chorus of New York City.

This morning, they perform from the American Museum of Natural History with some company, including Josh Groban. So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun. And so this is Christmas.

I hope you have fun. The near and the dear ones, the old and the young. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear. And so this is Christmas, for weak and for strong, for the rich and the poor ones. The world is so raw, and so Happy Christmas. I hope you have fun, the near and the dear ones, the old and the young. A very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear. A very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear. War is over, if you want it.

War is over now. Thoughts now from Jim Gaffigan, in the spirit of the season. I hope you're having a happy holiday.

It can be a lot. It's crazy to think that it all started as one guy's birthday. One guy's birthday, and it's turned into a whole season.

It makes you wonder if when Jesus was alive, he was one of those friends that was like, hey, just wanted to give you a heads up that my birthday's coming up. I mean, you don't have to do anything, but if you want to chop down a tree and put it in your living room, that'll be cool. You could recreate my birth scene with dolls if you wanted.

Maybe get some friends and sing songs about me door to door. I don't want you to overdo it. Definitely celebrate the night before my birthday, though. It's the night before his birthday. What if we went like 12 days, just 12 days, and then like end the year? I just want people in January to be like, I'm still recovering from Jesus's birthday.

That's probably what Jesus would say. Happy holidays, everyone. Once again, the Young People's Chorus of New York City with Josh Groban. Dreams are calling, like bells in the distance, we were dreamers not so long ago.

But one by one, all had to grow up when it seems the magic slipped away. We find it all again on Christmas day. Believe in what your heart is saying, hear the melody that's playing.

There's no time to waste, there's so much to celebrate. Believe in what you feel inside and give your dreams the wings to fly. You have everything you need if you just believe. Trusting starlight to get where they need to be, when it seems that we have lost our way. We find it all again on Christmas day. Believe in what your heart is saying, hear the melody that's playing.

There's no time to waste, there's so much to celebrate. Believe in what you feel inside and give your dreams the wings to fly. You have everything you need if you just believe.

If you just believe. Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. Hi, podcast peeps. It's me, Drew Barrymore.

Oh my goodness. I want to tell you about our new show. It's the Drew's News Podcast. And in each episode, me and a weekly guest are going to cover all the quirky, fun, inspiring, and informative stories that exist out in the world because, well, I need it. And maybe you do too, from the newest interior design trend, Barbie Corps, to the right and wrong way to wash your armpits. Also, we're going to get into things that you just kind of won't believe and were not able to do in daytime television, so watch out. Listen to Drew's News wherever you get your podcasts. It's your good news on the go.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-01-29 11:40:23 / 2023-01-29 11:59:15 / 19

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