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Life & Times Transcript
11/17/05 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Sex on the internet. It's a multi-billion dollar business and it's creating a new kind of addict. Robert Weiss>> Now we have people who have absolutely no history of any kind of addictive or compulsive sexual problems getting on line for a period of time and getting themselves into real trouble and not being able to get out. Val Zavala>> And then, will Harry Potter cast his spell on the box office once more? Our wizard critics cast their gaze on this goblet of fire. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> They are calling it the crack cocaine of the internet. Men with no previous addictions are getting hooked on pornography and porn is more available than ever on the internet. Sam Louie met one man who went from porn to prostitutes, but finally got help from a church in Orange County. Sam Louie>> The numbers are numbing. Over four million pornographic websites, 2.5 billion daily pornographic emails, thirty-five percent of all downloaded material related to sex. The computer age has made sex the number one topic searched on the internet and it's ushered in a new kind of addict: porn addict. Robert Weiss>> People are also hooking up. They're chatting. They're engaging in interaction. They're buying prostitutes on line and instructing them what to do. You know, they're typing in the instructions while they view what the person is doing. There's all kinds of ways that the internet can be used and is used for sexual purposes. Sam Louie>> Robert Weiss is the Clinical Director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles. He specializes in treating sex addiction. Before, most of his clients had a history of sexual problems, but nowadays Weiss says he's seeing a different group coming in for help. Robert Weiss>> Now we have people who have absolutely no history of any kind of addictive or compulsive sexual problems getting on line for a period of time and getting themselves into real trouble and not being able to get out. Sam Louie>> Revenue from the porn industry is estimated at fifty-seven billion dollars annually worldwide. Here in the United States, it's at twelve billion dollars. That's more than the profits of the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball combined and, with such a growing influence, some churches now have programs in place to combat the addiction. [Film Clip] Sam Louie>> It's a Friday evening in Orange County. Wayne Davis and his wife, Robin, have come to Saddleback Church's Celebrate Recovery Program. The nondenominational Christian church offers a night of worship, teaching and encouragement for those working to conquer their various addictions. Wayne is a recovering sex addict. Wayne Davis>> I lived in these two worlds. They were two separate worlds, a double life. I mean, I kept them very separate. Sam Louie>> For thirty-six years of his marriage, Wayne lived that double life. It started with adult magazines and going to strip clubs, but with the internet, the intensity increased and so did his insatiable appetite for more. Eventually, he could not control his urges and started picking up prostitutes. Wayne Davis>> It's hard to put a number in any one set of times, but I would imagine over the years, hundreds. Sam Louie>> Hundreds of prostitutes? Wayne Davis>> I would just cruise streets looking and sometimes picking up and sometimes stopping at a strip club and cruising the streets some more and never finding satisfaction, that no one activity or escapade even in one evening would be satisfactory. It's like the drive would just get worse and I would move on to something more. Sam Louie>> Robert Weiss has investigated the impact of internet pornography and co-authored a book, "Cybersex Exposed". He found there are three reasons why internet porn is so popular. It's accessible, affordable and the consumer can remain anonymous. Robert Weiss>> Nobody really knows who I am. They don't know where I am. I can create all kinds of fantasies about myself on line for people to read about and respond to. I can change my sex, my height, my weight, my age. So anything that I might feel uncomfortable about in the real world doesn't exist when I'm having some interaction on line and that makes it very, very attractive for a lot of people. Sam Louie>> In its early years, pornography was relegated to adult bookstores and strip clubs in seedy neighborhoods, but over time, technology changed that. [Film Clip] Sam Louie>> The VCR was the first major breakthrough, making porn available in the privacy of your own living room. Satellite TV followed, but it was the furious growth of the web that made sex bites proliferate and it was the web that took Wayne deeper into the world of pornography. Then five years ago, a turning point came, the birth of his first grandson. Wayne Davis>> I was going to lose my entire family, my wife, my children and my grandchildren, and was all of this worth it? That was rock bottom for me and led me to Celebrate Recovery ministry in the Saddleback Church. Sam Louie>> Shortly afterwards, he admitted everything to his wife. Robin was floored. Robin Davis>> And at that point in time, my life (laughter) I thought it was going to end. Sam Louie>> When your husband admitted that he had been with hundreds of prostitutes, what was racing through your mind? Robin Davis>> Well, the words that came out of my mouth were, "How could you do this to me? Am I not good enough for you? What caused you to have to go to other women to have these relationships when, for years, I have wanted you?" Sam Louie>> Despite the difficulties, the two both wanted to work it out. They went to Celebrate Recovery and discovered Wayne's addiction to sex stemmed from his deep-seated anger towards his late father who Wayne described as unloving and distant. Wayne Davis>> Whatever it was that was troubling me was gone for a few minutes. Even though I felt terrible afterwards, the remorse and guilt of it, those few minutes of excitement somehow relieved it. It was medication. Sam Louie>> At Celebrate Recovery, Robin also found a safe place to share her pain with other women. Robin Davis>> Some of us do make it. It's a hurting time, but we have each other to communicate with, to call, to talk to, to cry with, to pray with. Sam Louie>> Helping addicts and their families has been Pastor John Baker's passion. He founded Celebrate Recovery as he was battling his own alcoholism and these days he's noticed another addiction rampant within the church. Pastor John Baker>> The fastest growing group today is our sexual addiction group, both men and women. I see sexual addiction as the addiction of the twenty-first century. Sam Louie>> Experts like Dr. Jeff Schwieger agree. He's a Clinical Psychologist who likens internet pornography to crack cocaine. Dr. Jeff Schwieger>> There's a neurochemistry part of it that goes along with it, with the sensation registering in the pleasure centers of the brain and that continued reinforcement of behavior, the increase of it can cause somebody to become addicted to it over time. Sam Louie>> But there's another equally distressing trend. The largest consumers of internet porn are teenagers. Dr. Jeff Schwieger>> That age group, especially young boys, drink in pornography in huge amounts and that group is something that we're looking at. Sam Louie>> Dr. Schwieger also wants to correct misconceptions about sexual addiction. Dr. Jeff Schwieger>> They're not monsters and they're not people that are necessarily turning into a rapist or a pedophile. For that to happen, there's a lot more deeper darker stuff that needs to happen in somebody's past for that to happen. Sam Louie>> Wayne is just one of nearly nine thousand people who have been through the various Celebrate Recovery programs since it started fourteen years ago. He and his wife, Robin, will tell you that, although porn addiction is powerful, it can be defeated through faith, discipline and honesty. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times". Toni Guinyard>> This list is a five-point guide aimed at helping people who are sixty-five years or older make a really tough decision. It has to do with the new Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. The problem is, in the state of California, there are more than forty plans to choose from. It's very confusing and people are looking for answers. So we went to the Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights and spoke with David Fink to get a little guidance on what to do first. David Fink>> For the first time, Medicare is offering prescription drug coverage which means that seniors sixty-five and over have an option to voluntarily join plans that would offer them drug coverage. Toni Guinyard>> You say voluntarily. This is not mandatory. David Fink>> That's correct. They have the option of buying into these plans. On average, states have forty or more plans that seniors can choose from. Each of them has a different list of drugs, a different monthly premium. Some have deductibles, some don't, and each of them has a different pharmacy network, so not all plans will be available at all pharmacies. Toni Guinyard>> The bottom line is, you need to check to see if your pharmacy actually will accept the plan that you choose? David Fink>> Right. So even if you can find a plan that has most or all of the drugs you need, you need to make sure that your local pharmacy is going to have that plan available. Toni Guinyard>> Now you've developed a list of five things that consumers need to pay attention to when they're making this decision. Let's start with number one. David Fink>> Number one is, make sure the plan you choose has most or all of the drugs you need, particularly the most expensive ones. All the plans have a different list of drugs that are available. Now the plan has the choice of taking those drugs off the list at any time, but they'll give you sixty days notice. That's something that seniors need to be aware of, that the plan they join now that has the drugs they need may not have it somewhere down the line. Medicare has given these plans the option of changing the drug lists, which are called formularies, at any time. Seniors have the choice of changing plans once a year, but they can only change it at the end of the year during the open enrollment period from November 15 to December 31. So if a plan pulls your most important drugs in March, you're stuck with that plan until the end of the year when you get to change plans. Toni Guinyard>> Okay, number two. David Fink>> Number two is, make sure that the plan you choose is available at a local pharmacy. They have different pharmacy networks for all the plans and, in metropolitan cities, it probably won't be too hard to find a pharmacy that carries a plan you need. But in more rural areas, you need to really be aware of that. You know, a lot of seniors aren't going to drive ten, fifteen or fifty miles to get to a pharmacy that has the drugs they need. Toni Guinyard>> Okay. Let's go to the next thing on your list. David Fink>> The next thing on our list is what's called the donut hole. That's where drug coverage stops. So after you pay your deductible -- and not all plans have a deductible -- coverage starts until you reach $2,250 in drug spending. Once you reach that point, drug coverage stops and you're on your own. You're paying a hundred percent out of pocket until you reach $3,600. Toni Guinyard>> And that's no matter what plan you choose? David Fink>> No matter what plan you choose. Now some plans that don't have a deductible increase the size of the donut hole. So instead of paying that $250 at the beginning, they're going to tack that on at the end and the donut hole, instead of starting at $2,250, starts now at $2000. So you have to be aware. Just because a plan doesn't have a deductible doesn't mean they're not going to charge it to you somewhere later on. Toni Guinyard>> How does this impact seniors who are still working and covered under their employer's plan? David Fink>> Well, seniors who are still working or have retirement coverage from their former employer need to be aware that, if they sign up for one of these new prescription drug plans, they may be dropped from their health insurance coverage that they're getting through their employer. Now this won't happen in every case, but oftentimes health insurers won't allow you to get any kind of insurance from another company and these prescription drug plans are covered by private companies. They'll conflict and they'll drop you from the coverage you have, so seniors need to be very aware that, if they sign up for one of these new prescription drug plans, they might be dropped from their employer coverage. Toni Guinyard>> How can they find out if that's going to happen or not? David Fink>> The best thing to do is go to your employer and your employer should have that information. If your employer doesn't, then obviously the next step would be to go to whoever your insurer is and find out from them. Toni Guinyard>> And when you have low-income seniors, seniors who might be able to be subsidized, what is their situation? David Fink>> Well, for seniors who make below fifteen thousand dollars a year or nineteen thousand for a couple, this is going to be a great benefit to them. They'll see huge savings, generally eighty to ninety percent off what they formerly saw. Now the folks who are low-income who come in right above those levels, those are going to be the people who are hardest impacted. Basically those low-income seniors aren't going to be able to afford the higher premium plans which generally have larger drug lists. So they're going to be very limited on the plans that they can choose from and they may not be able to get a plan that has most, any or all of their drugs, so they're going to be really limited. Toni Guinyard>> May 15, 2006 essentially is the deadline of sorts. Explain why that date is so important. David Fink>> Enrollment begins on November 15. That's the first day seniors can sign up. But that enrollment ends, or what's called open enrollment, ends on May 15, 2006. If seniors don't sign up by May 15, they're going to be penalized one percent of their premium every month thereafter, which means if you wait until May of 2007 to sign up, you're going to be charged an extra twelve percent on your plan. Now essentially what Medicare is asking seniors to do is gamble on whether or not you're going to stay healthy. Unfortunately, even if you don't have any prescription drugs now, seniors should think about signing up for one of the low premium plans just so they won't be penalized later. Toni Guinyard>> This plan was supposed to help people in the sense that there would be a lot more competition and lower-cost drugs, but what's really happening here? David Fink>> Advocates of this will tell you, well, this is great. There are so many options. You know, seniors have all these options. But options are a problem in this sense. There are so many plans and they're so hard to figure out which plan is best for each senior that options have become a problem. Part of that is that, you know, this all goes back to the fact that we shouldn't even have this system. This is what we have and this can help some seniors save greatly, but Medicare banned itself from negotiating false discounts. Had it done that, all seniors could have gotten, on average, sixty percent savings off what they see now. Instead, they have to choose from one of these plans which may or may not help them. In fact, a recent survey said that twenty-five percent of seniors who do sign up for one of these plans are actually going to end up paying considerably more than what they had in the past. It's going to be really tough for seniors and those who are helping seniors, those who are helping their parents. This is an extremely complex system. There are over forty plans in most states and people really need to get educated. They need to go to Medicare's website which is medicare.gov. They need to check with state insurance assistance programs here in California. There is HICAP. Ask for their assistance. Get counseling. Go onto the internet. If you're internet savvy, go to different websites and see what kind of information you can get. Toni Guinyard>> Confusing situation, a lot of information. Hopefully, you're helping some of our viewers. Thanks so much for spending a little time with Life and Times. David Fink>> Thank you. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", is the fourth in the series of Potter films, returning the cast of the previous movies, and this one is directed by Mike Newell. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor, and Lael Loewenstein of Variety. Well, Lael, what did you think of the latest Harry Potter film? Lael Loewenstein>> I think this is one of the best ones so far, Larry. It's darker and scarier than the other films, both visually and thematically. This is a film really in which Harry kind of comes into his own, has to deal with a lot of the kind of conventional issues of adolescence, but at the same time has to undergo a major talent. There's something called the Tri-Wizard tournament, which is essentially kind of a teenage wizard triathlon, and he has to fight a fierce dragon, he has to go underwater and fight some evil creatures and he has to go through a maze and find a special object. So there's a lot of suspense, a lot of action. At the same time, issues of Harry potentially falling in love with a girl. There's a falling-out with one of his best friends. There's a lot of issues that come up in the film and a particularly great finale involving a scene where Harry goes mano a mano with the evil Lord Voldemort played very well by Ray Fiennes. I thought it was a very exciting and well-done film overall. Larry Mantle>> All right. Peter, what did you think? Peter Rainer>> I think this is the second best of the Harry Potter movies by a mile. The first two I thought were pretty dull and the "Prisoner of Azkaban" which was directed by Alfonso Cuaron I think was the most exciting and visionary and magical of them, but this is quite good. This is the first of the Harry Potter movies to be directed by a British director and I think it shows. You get a lot of the feeling of the kind of classic Hogwarts microcosm in general that the other films, I think, missed out on to some extent. It is much darker than a lot of the others. It's a seven hundred page book that he adapted, so it seems like he did a real pruning job, but it moved very swiftly. It's a thriller essentially and it also gets into the darkness of adolescence too. The scariest thing in the movie really for Harry is that he has to attend the Hogwarts Ball and take a date. So I think all of that works. Larry Mantle>> Next up is the bio pick, "Walk the Line", which tells the life story of singer Johnny Cash. Joaquin Phoenix portrays Cash, Reese Witherspoon plays his wife, June Carter. The film is directed and co-written by James Mangold. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> Peter, what did you think of "Walk the Line"? Peter Rainer>> Well, "Walk the Line" is being touted as this year's "Ray" for obvious reasons, but it's not as strong a movie as the Ray Charles picture, but it's a consistently enjoyable movie. It has great music in it and strong performances by Joaquin Phoenix. He's a very credible Johnny Cash. He did his own singing in the movie as well as learning how to play the guitar. Reese Witherspoon as June Carter is really quite good as well. The problem for me with the movie is that it suffers a little bit from bio pickitis, which is that it sort of tends to go all right, then this happens and then this happens and then this happens. Even though it's only a relatively small portion of Cash's life which takes you essentially from his early days, the black days, up through 1968, it still feels as if we're watching a pageant of events rather than a microcosm of some crucial part of someone's life. But I think it's certainly worth seeing and, you know, it demonstrates that the man in black did not always wear black. Larry Mantle>> (Laughter) And it is hard with bio picks to get out of that kind of then this happened and that happened. What did you think, Lael, of "Walk the Line"? Lael Loewenstein>> I pretty much agree with Peter. That was my main objection to the film. The kind of elliptical pattern that's set up where you can gloss over all these different events prevents you from getting into a lot of detail in any real portion of Johnny Cash's life, so you have a few minutes here and a few minutes there and then flash forward to something else. At the same time, I thought the performances both of Phoenix and Witherspoon were some of the best they've ever done. I mean, I've never seen Phoenix in that mode. He's got brown contacts on. He seems to have turned his voice into a baritone. And Witherspoon is giving her most serious adult role yet. I thought they were both better than the sum of the whole movie in a way. I also noticed a little bit the fact that the movie makes a kind of facile connection between his self-destruction and her rejection of him and I thought that was a little bit of an over-simplification. Larry Mantle>> And our final film this week is the documentary, "One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern". It's from documentary filmmaker, Steven Vittoria, and it profiles the 1972 Democratic National Convention. George McGovern>> "Well, that's the highlight of my life, I guess, winning a Democratic nomination of the oldest political party in American history. There was a lot of emotion and passion in that campaign and I'll take those memories with me the rest of my life." Larry Mantle>> Peter, what did you think of "One Bright Shining Moment"? Peter Rainer>> Well, I liked the movie because it has a lot of clips in it that rung a lot of bells for me from that era. The whole McGovern-Nixon confront and the campaign itself, all of the dirty tricks that went on, Vietnam and how that ended. All of that worked into the movie, I think, in a very charged up way. But I don't think that the film is especially good as any kind of deep-dish analysis of the politics of that era. It's essentially a big mash-note to George McGovern. You get the feeling that this is a movie that almost feels creepily like some sort of promotion to get McGovern to run for president again (laughter). It really does seem like a campaign literature. So given that, I think it's historically interesting in clips. Larry Mantle>> Sort of interesting McGovern tribute film. What did you think, Lael? Lael Loewenstein>> I agree with that. It really felt like an attempt to kind of renovate his image. You know, they mentioned at one point the fact that McGovern, who really would have been thought of as triumphant in some ways for a lot of the things that he did, the consciousness that he raised and particularly the shining moment that's referred to is the 1972 Democratic Convention. Yet he's remembered as a failure because he lost so badly to Nixon and was defeated so terribly. You know, I think it's good to bring up a lot of the stuff in that time, to see the archival footage. Some of the talking heads stuff I enjoyed, but I felt that this was a movie whose substance was better than its form. It was a succession of talking heads, white male talking heads except for Gloria Steinem, and I could have used a little variation. Larry Mantle>> Thanks for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC joined by critics Lael Loewenstein of Variety and Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor. Please join us again in a couple of weeks for the next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> And remember you can hear a full hour of FilmWeek on Friday mornings at eleven a.m. on KPCC public radio. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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