Back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. I`m A.J. Hammer in New York. This is TV`s only live entertainment news show.
Tonight we have a "SHOWBIZ Sitdown" with Erica Jong. She is best known for her explosive, ground breaking 1973 novel "Fear of Flying". Her graphic, no-holds-barred account of a woman`s sexual fantasies turned her into a feminist icon. Jong has a new book out. It`s called "Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life". There it is right there. Erica Jong joining me live in New York.
Thanks for being here.
ERICA JONG, AUTHOR, "SEDUCING THE DEMON": Great to be here.
HAMMER: A fired up show tonight.
JONG: It really is exciting.
HAMMER: We were speaking a few moments ago about Charlie Sheen coming forward this week with his notion that the government may actually have been behind September 11 and the September 11 attacks and the conspiracy theories in general surrounding 9/11.
What do you make of an actor of his stature coming out publicly like that?
JONG: I think he`s a brave man to even question this aloud in an environment where anyone has been saying that anyone questions the government is a traitor.
So Charlie Sheen has done his homework, and he`s asking questions. He`s speaking truth to power, which is a brave thing to do.
Look, the young people in my family, my nephews, for example, have been saying for the past three, four years that we are not learning everything about 9/11 that we`re meant to learn. And specifically, they`ve been saying that if you read all the different web sites, if you`re really careful, what you discover is that a lot of facts don`t add up.
HAMMER: And even if a modicum of what is being put out there, all these conspiracy theories, even if a piece of that is true, we have a responsibility, don`t you think...
JONG: To investigate it.
HAMMER: ... to be asking the questions and to be doing the investigation?
JONG: I think it`s very patriotic to investigate it. Throughout all of history the basic premise of tyrants has been -- dictators, shall we say. And I think it`s fair to say that George W. Bush is a dictator. Has been if you tell the people they have an external enemy, they`ll follow you anywhere. That was what Goebbels told Hitler to do. Back in ancient history, that`s what Roman emperors did.
HAMMER: That`s a pretty strong statement for you to say, though. Are you at all afraid of a backlash? I mean, seriously, a lot of people are afraid to come out on television. You just called Mr. Bush a dictator.
JONG: I think that he is a dictator. Most of the people do not believe that this country should be a theocracy. Most of the people in this country do not want to be in Iraq. Most of the people in this country are pro choice. And yet, he blithely goes on ignoring the will of the people. I call that a dictator.
But as far as 9/11 is concerned, it`s a great gambit to tell the people, you have an external enemy. The external enemy is terrorism. We have a war that will go on for centuries. It will go on till the end of time. Well, that`s a great way to scare people.
HAMMER: Sure.
JONG: And to make them believe whatever you say. And Bush is not the first to do it.
HAMMER: No.
JONG: Throughout history, people have been doing that in order to fool all of the people all of the time. So I think that Charlie Sheen is really patriotic and brave to ask these questions. I don`t know what the answer to these questions is.
I read the article in "New York" magazine. And I think just asking questions is brave and patriotic.
HAMMER: And as I mentioned, we`ll be speaking with that author from "New York Magazine" coming up later in the show.
JONG: Well, I think it`s great that you`re investigating. I don`t know what the answer is. I don`t know if we`ll ever know. I don`t know the answer to the Kennedy assassination. But I think that it`s a job of writers and of talented people to investigate this stuff.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/24/sbt.01.html