How did Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry's love story turn so ugly?
Related: Olivier Martinez Hit With Restraining Order From Gabriel Aubry
On Wednesday, ET investigates the pair's once-fairytale romance and breaks down the Thanksgiving dispute between Berry's model ex and Olivier Martinez.
Plus, what will happen to 4-year-old daughter Nahla?
Also tomorrow, we're with the Dancing with the Stars winners fresh off their mirror ball victory.
Former NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker is set to sign on as the new boss of CNN’s global news operations, The Post has learned.
Zucker, 47, has been the lead candidate for one of the most important roles inside Time Warner since boss Jeff Bewkes began looking for a new leader to reinvent the flagging flagship news network.
While some minor details still have to be worked out and may still scuttle the deal, sources warned, it appeared that an announcement concerning the hiring of Zucker could be forthcoming in a matter of days.
“It’s been Jeff all along,” one source said late yesterday. “It was not a good fit at NBCUniversal, and he made some enemies, but this is a chance for him to refresh. It’s really good for him.”
Zucker is currently executive producer of the daytime show, “Katie,” featuring Katie Couric, the telegenic former co-host of “Today,” which Zucker oversaw for nearly two decades.
Zucker’s “Katie” obligation runs only to the end of the year, sources said, though any new gig, such as the CNN job, could be complicated by his part ownership in the syndicated show, which is distributed by Disney.
Zucker would replace current CNN boss, Jim Walton, who is leaving at the end of the year.
Also considered for the role were former ABC News boss David Westin, and former NBC News chief Neal Shapiro. Current NBC News boss Steve Capus is said to have been a front-runner, as well.
Zucker began his career as one of the youngest news producers in the business. He ran “Today” back in 1992 and went on to have a wider role at NBC News before ultimately winning control of the entertainment division and later becoming CEO of NBCUniversal.
But after more than a decade of success, Zucker’s career at NBCUniversal ended harshly and his reputation as having a talent for picking hit shows, was sullied.
A return to TV as head of CNN would present Zucker with a chance to write a comeback story — and ding NBC at the same time.
The executive exited when Comcast acquired 49 percent of the company almost two years ago.
CNN is a huge profit center for Time Warner around the globe — and is poised to have its most profitable year ever — but its poor performance in prime time in the US market has made it a cause for frequent embarrassment.
Both Fox News and MSNBC have taken share over the years, though CNN has steadfastly stuck to its middle-of-the-road take on all things political.
The Post, like Fox, is owned by News Corp.
CNN’s ad-revenue growth over the last two years is roughly 12 percent — the smallest increase of any of its rivals, including younger sibling Headline News, which saw ad revenue grow 20 percent in the period.
CNN is part of Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting division, which is run by Phil Kent. Several sources suggest Kent has been under huge pressure to find the right candidate. Kent had been concerned that Zucker might ultimately have his eye on the much bigger role overseeing all of Time Warner’s ad-supported cable channels.
A spokesman for Time Warner couldn’t immediately be reached after hours. Zucker did not respond for comment.
The Post first reported Zucker as a contender for the position in June 2012.
The ratings for Q3 2012:
•Primetime (Mon-Sun): 616,000 Total Viewers / 188,000 A25-54
•Total Day (Mon-Sun): 388,000 Total Viewers / 118,000 A25-54
In Total Day, the network is down 18 percent in Total Viewers and down 25 percent in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic.
In primetime, CNN is down 9 percent in total viewers and down 14 percent in the same demographic.
catkinson@nypost.com
The Florida Public Service Commission Monday approved $151 million in advance nuclear costs for Florida Power & Light Co., the total amount the utility requested.
The unanimous vote means that a customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours a month will be charged $1.69 a month for the advance costs beginning in January, the PSC said. This year that customer is paying $2.20 a month.
The commission also approved $142 million in nuclear costs for St. Petersburg-based Progress Energy Florida.
FPL’s breakdown for the costs includes $20 million for two proposed new reactors, Turkey Point 6 and 7, in South Miami-Dade.
Roughly $131 million is for expansions of two existing reactors at Turkey Point and two at the St. Lucie nuclear plant on Hutchinson Island.
The costs were approved despite objections from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which has said that FPL has failed to demonstrate its intent to actually build the new Turkey Point reactors.
“The PSC accepted all of the PSC staff recommendations issued earlier this month — an unfortunate trend of rubber-stamping that we have seen year after year in spite of major obstacles and pitfalls that have made new reactor proposals in Florida less and less feasible,” SACE executive director Stephen Smith said in a statement Monday.
The group’s challenge of the constitutionality of a Florida law passed in 2006 that allows utilities to recover nuclear costs for expenses such as reactor design and licensing before construction is awaiting a decision by the Florida Supreme Court.
Not once has Katrina Deshazior doubted her decision to adopt five of her older sister’s children. Not after she had to quit her job as a certified nursing assistant. Not when she had to move from her home to a rented townhouse. Not even after her husband, overwhelmed by the responsibility, walked out last Thanksgiving.
“I wanted to give them shelter,” says Deshazior, 32, of Cutler Bay. “I wanted to give them love. All those things they didn’t have with their mother.”
A laudable intent, to be sure, but not an easy feat. Deshazior is now a single mother to six. The brood consists of her biological daughter, Deanna Cohoon, 17, Celeste and Kieyah Cohoon, both 15, and Leanne, 4, Christopher, 2, and Faith Cohoon, 1. (Deshazior, who goes by her married name, decided to give her children her maiden surname, which she shares with their mother.)
It would be an understatement to say she doesn’t get much sleep.
And a social life?
“I don’t go out and party or have a girl’s night out,” she says. “Now it’s all about the kids.”
Oren Wunderman, executive director of the Family Resource Center of South Florida, a child welfare and advocacy agency that helped arrange the Cohoon adoption, says case managers always try to do kinship placements first. “Kids tend to do better with family members they know than with a family they don’t know,” he says.
But multi-sibling adoptions, he adds, are “very unusual. You don’t see many.”
Michael Hill, the children’s case worker, has been working on finding permanent placement for the children for the past year, though keeping these five together was never part of the plan. When Celeste and Kieyah showed up at Deshazior’s doorstep, however, “she just didn’t hesitate. She immediately moved to a larger apartment in order to have enough room for everyone. She knew it was going to be a lot of work, but felt like keeping all five of the kids together would be the best thing for the family. She really is an amazing woman.”
How Deshazior ended up with a houseful is a long, complicated story that began years ago and is an all-too-familiar tale for child advocates. When Deshazior’s older sister, a drug addict, had the first of 10 children, a set of twins, Deshazior quickly stepped in to help her mother care for the boy and girl. This turned out to be just the beginning of a long-term commitment.
After that, her nieces and nephews came quickly, at a pace of almost one a year, all by different fathers. Eventually the mother’s parental rights were terminated by the state, and the siblings ended up living, at least temporarily, with assorted relatives.
In September 2011, Deshazior was awarded custody of Leanne, Christopher and Faith. The adjustment was difficult. “At first we didn’t sleep,” she recalls. “They’d cry at night, all night.”
The children had assorted health problems — not surprisingly since they had been born with drugs in their system. Deshazior persisted, however, dutifully going to doctors’ appointments and making sure the children had both a schedule and stability.
In the meantime, Celeste and Kieyah were living with their great grandmother. When representatives of the Department of Children and Family Services visited, they found the elderly woman senile and mostly bedridden. The house was a mess: human feces in a corner, nails jutting from the floor, electrical wiring exposed. The only food in the refrigerator were rotten eggs, bread and peanut butter.
As much as she's in the spotlight, fans may think they know everything about Oprah Winfrey, but last month the media magnate disclosed a secret she had kept from even best friend Gayle King.
During a conference in Los Angeles on October 20, Oprah, 58, revealed to the audience that she had a breast cancer scare the week before. The scare proved to be a false alarm, but the New York Times reports that just the thought made King "visibly upset."
RELATED: Oprah vs. Gwyneth's Favorite Things Lists
Seeing this, the Times reports that one audience member told Oprah to apologize to her dear friend for not telling her sooner.
While Oprah's health seems to be intact, the same cannot be said for O Magazine, which NYT reports suffered about a 22 percent decline after Oprah walked away from her talk show.
"Obviously, the show was helping in ways that you know I hadn't accounted for," Oprah told the news source. "I'm not interested, you know, in bleeding money."
While her comments seem to imply that the publication's future could be in jeopardy, Oprah left open the possibility of simply changing platforms and transitioning into an all-digital format.
"I don't care what the form is," Oprah said. "I care about what the message is."
The trial of a prominent Brooklyn rabbi accused of sexually abusing a young girl began in Brooklyn Supreme Court today with a focus on the strict rules of ultra-Orthodox Judaism.
Williamsburg rabbi Nechemya Weberman is charged with molesting a 12-year-old girl over three years after her parents sent her to him for counseling.
“It doesn’t sound like modern Brooklyn, it sounds like the Salem witch trials,” said assistant district attorney Kevin O’Donnell, describing how the alleged victim’s parents sent her to Weberman after she was chastised and shunned from the Satmar Hasidic community because she questioned authority and acted immodestly.
O’Donnell alleged that Weberman fondled the young girl in his office and forced her to perform oral sex on him, “Over and over again.”
Defense attorney George Farkas called the jury’s attention to the seeming strangeness to outsiders of Hasidic Judaism, warning jurors not to judge Weberman on his adherence to religious dictum.
“He looks different. He dresses different. He acts different than the rest of the citizenry,” Farkas said.
Weberman’s defense team has argued that the victim’s accusation stems from a bizarre incident where Weberman and her father secretly filmed her having sex with her boyfriend, then turned the tape over to authorities in an attempt to file statutory rape charges against the boyfriend.
“There was only one answer. Vengeance and revenge against Nechemya Weberman, to bring down him and the entire community he was a part of,” Farkas said yesterday, arguing that the victim accused Weberman to retaliate for the filming.
The prosecution even called an expert, Professor Allan Nadler of Drew University, as a witness to educate the jury on Orthodox Judaism.
“The Satmar community maintains very high standards of sexual modesty and reticence,” said Nadler.
The Satmar community has also held large fundraisers for Weberman’s defense, and four ultra-Orthodox men were busted for intimidating witnesses earlier this year. One of the men was charged with offering Weberman’s alleged victim $500,000 to leave the country and drop her accusation.
The courtroom was packed with many supporters of the alleged victim and a few Weberman supporters. The victim and her mother are expected to take the stand tomorrow.
jsaul@nypost.com
Shoppers swooped into stores in droves on Thanksgiving weekend, topping last year’s sales, as more retailers opened their doors earlier than ever on Thursday, luring bargain hunters away from eating another plate of turkey.
And now Cyber Monday is expected to set a record for online shopping this year, for those who prefer the Internet to the mall.
Spending per shopper nationwide averaged $423 — $25 more than last year — from Thursday to Sunday, while total spending increased nearly 13 percent, to an estimated $59.1 billion, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.
“I think the only way to describe the Thanksgiving openings is to call it a huge win,” said Matthew Shay, the trade group’s president and chief executive. Shopping, he said, “has really become an extension of the day’s festivities.”
South Florida was no exception, as a flurry of stores, as well as several malls, opened on Thanksgiving. Thursday has seemingly become the new Black Thursday, taking a bite out of the old-fashioned kickoff day of the holiday, Black Friday.
“We had an excellent weekend,” said Humberto Maldonado, director of marketing for Dadeland Mall, which opened at midnight on Thursday. Sales figures are not yet in, but the overall trend was up from last year, he said Monday.
“It was really busy from midnight to 5 a.m., then it slowed, and picked up again at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., and stayed busy all day on Friday,” Maldonado said.
Nationwide, about 35 million people visited stores and shopping websites Thursday, up from 29 million last year. More than double that number — 89 million, up from 86 million — shopped on Black Friday.
“There were more people shopping every single day of the weekend,” Shay said.
Topping off the weekend, Cyber Monday’s early results, tabulated at 3 p.m. Monday, showed that online shopping was up a whopping 25.6 percent compared with the same time period a year ago, according to figures by IBM Benchmark.
Nationwide, most of the weekend’s shoppers — roughly 58 percent — bought clothing and accessories. Another 38 percent bought electronics and 35 percent shelled out for toys, National Retail Federation figures show.
Retailers made an effort to lure people in, with updated mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanded shipping and layaway options.
Still, it remains to be seen whether increased sales over the Thanksgiving weekend will translate to higher sales throughout the holiday shopping season. Analysts have been predicting mediocre sales this year, nationwide, as shoppers remain uncertain about the broader economy. Overall holiday sales are expected to increase 4.1 percent from 2011, compared with sales growth of 5.6 percent last year, the National Retail Federation said.
However, Florida is expected to beat those figures. Buoyed in large part by tourists and snowbirds, the Florida Retail Federation is forecasting a 5.3 percent gain this year over last, to $58 billion, marking the highest percentage growth predicted since the recession. Pre-recession, retail sales peaked at $54.3 billion in 2006.
Christian Cutillo, 26, of Weston, hit Walmart, then Sears, Target and Old Navy after eating Thanksgiving dinner.
She began at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and by 3 a.m. Friday she had finished shopping for all 15 people on her list, mostly buying clothing and toys.
Dallas Star Larry Hagman tragically lost his battle with cancer on Friday, November 23. ET was with the 81-year-old star just one month before his death as the legendary actor spoke optimistically of his future.
Related: Larry Hagman Dies
The very picture of good health post treatment, a feisty Hagman sat down with us on set of TNT's Dallas reboot as the actor was hard at work reprising his role as the series' menacing oil baron, J.R. Ewing.
When asked about the possibility of taking his leave from show business in the near future given his illustrious career, the TV Veteran blew off the notion as ridiculous.
"Retirement from something I make a lot of money at? And love to do and have fun doing it?", Hagman scoffed, "Uh-uh. Not me honey. Retire and die."
Video: Larry Hagman Reflects on Cancer Struggle
Excited for the future, the star spoke of who he would most like to work alongside if given the opportunity.
"I'd like to play Matt Damon's daddy," said Hagman with enthusiasm. "He's a wonderful actor. I really admire him and I'd like to play his daddy one day."
As for his career, which dates back to the 50s, Hagman shared his seemingly simple secret for continued success: Never turn down a part.
Video: J.R. Menaces in New 'Dallas'
"The more you work… the more people you reach, the more friendships you make and you continue that," he said, crediting actor Hank (Henry) Fonda whom he met on his very first film, Fail Safe. "[Fonda] he was a workaholic. He was a great guy. He was my mentor when I first went to Hollywood."
Watch the video for more.
AP
Bangladeshis and firefighters battle a fire at a garment factory in the Savar neighborhood in Dhaka, Bangladesh,where more than 100 workers were killed Saturday.
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Fire raced through a garment factory that supplies major retailers in the West, killing at least 112 people, many of whom were trapped by the flames because the eight-story building lacked emergency exits, an official said Sunday.
The blaze broke out late Saturday at a factory operated just outside Bangladesh's capital of Dhaka by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group, which makes products for Wal-Mart and other companies in the U.S. and Europe.
Firefighters recovered at least 100 bodies from the factory, Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director, told The Associated Press. He said 12 other people who were injured after they jumped from the building to escape died at hospitals.
Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear, and authorities ordered an investigation.
Army soldiers and border guards were sent to help police keep order as thousands of onlookers and anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered, Mahbub said.
Tazreen was given a "high risk" safety rating after a May 16, 2011, audit conducted by an "ethical sourcing" assessor for Wal-Mart, according to a document posted on the Tuba Group's website. It did not specify what led to the rating.
AP
Smoke billows out of the building as firefighters try and bring equipment to bear.
Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said online documents indicating an orange or "high risk" assessment after the May 2011 inspection and a yellow or "medium risk" report after an inspection in August 2011 appeared to pertain to the factory where the fire broke out. The August 2011 letter said Wal-Mart would conduct another inspection within one year.
Gardner said it was not clear if that inspection had been conducted or whether the factory was still making products for Wal-Mart.
If a factory is rated "orange" three times in a two-year period, Wal-Mart won't place any orders for one year. The May 2011 report was the first orange rating for the factory.
Neither Tazreen's owner nor Tuba Group officials could be reached for comment.
The Tuba Group is a major Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients also include Carrefour and IKEA, according to its website. Its factories export garments to the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, among other countries. The Tazreen factory, which opened in 2009 and employed about 1,700 people, made polo shirts, fleece jackets and T-shirts.
Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the U.S. and Europe.
In its 2012 Global Responsibility report, Wal-Mart said that "fire safety continues to be a key focus for brands and retailers sourcing from Bangladesh." Wal-Mart said it ceased working with 49 factories in Bangladesh in 2011 because of fire safety issues, and was working with its supplier factories to phase out production from buildings deemed high risk.
At the factory, relatives of the workers frantically looked for their loved ones. Sabina Yasmine said she saw the body of her daughter-in-law, but had seen no trace of her son, who also worked there.
"Oh, Allah, where's my soul? Where's my son?" wailed Yasmine, who works at another factory in the area. "I want the factory owner to be hanged. For him, many have died, many have gone."
AP
A Bangladeshi woman cries as she claims the body of her relative killed in the fire.
Mahbub said the fire broke out on the ground floor, which was used as a warehouse, and spread quickly to the upper floors. Many workers who retreated to the roof were rescued, he said. But he said that with no emergency exits leading outside the building, many victims were trapped, and firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor alone.
"The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor," Mahbub said. "So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building."
"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," he said.
Many victims were burned beyond recognition. The bodies were laid out in rows at a school nearby. Many of them were handed over to families; unclaimed victims were taken to Dhaka Medical College for identification.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed shock at the loss of so many lives.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families.
REUTERS
A firefighter walks amid the wreckage of the burned-out building where more than 100 factory workers lost their lives. The company, which supplies American retail powerhouses like Wal-Mart, had been cited for safety risks.
A second administration of President Barack Obama will be forced to revisit the issue of subsidies for renewable energy and, with it, those for electric vehicles. Despite the millions of dollars spent on government incentives, marketing and promotion, sales of fully electric cars are well below projected targets. Investment in vehicle charging infrastructure also has fallen victim to budget cutbacks, limited usage and concern over the return on money spent.
Indeed, only last month, a leading automotive battery manufacturer, A123 Systems, was forced to declare bankruptcy. And the founder and CEO of Better Place, Shai Agassi, whose company (in which I was employed) promotes all-electric vehicles with batteries that can be both charged and replaced, was himself replaced due to low sales figures and high capital expenses arising from the deployment of battery-switching stations.
As a result, the question is now being raised: Are we again bearing witness to the death of the electric car?
Any such conclusion over the longer term may be premature. With declining costs and gradually improving technologies that can extend battery range beyond its current limitations, the electric car continues to hold promise. Rising gasoline prices and potential disruptions in oil supply favor alternative sources of energy.
To achieve mass market adoption, however, cars running on electricity — or any other alternative energy source — must satisfy the three “C’s”: cost, convenience and connectivity.
Few buyers are able or willing to pay more for a car running on clean energy unless the upfront cost of the car roughly equals or is below its carbon-powered alternative. Advertised savings over time in powering a car using alternative “fuels” so far have failed to persuade the average driver to buy. And while government subsidies play a role in reducing initial costs to consumers, such incentives so far have not been sufficient to attract large numbers of drivers to switch to electric vehicles.
Cars driven solely or partially by electricity or other alternative energies also must be at least as convenient as those powered exclusively by internal combustion engines. Drivers appear unwilling to sacrifice the expected hundreds of miles in driving range between refuelings. Likewise, drivers demand refueling times equal to what they are accustomed — about five minutes at the gasoline station.
Further, there must be adequate infrastructure in place to enable large numbers of drivers to connect to an alternative energy source before that source can be widely adopted. While a scattering of drivers simultaneously connecting to a power grid may not have much impact, large numbers of drivers doing so can cause major power outages that escalate absent the real-time balancing of energy loads across the network. Moreover, the environmental impact of the connected cycle between car and infrastructure, often referred to as the “well-to-wheel” balance, has to result in less pollution overall for alternative energy vehicles to achieve significant market traction.
Until the fully electric car can satisfy all three C’s, any assessment of projected vehicle sales must reflect a variety of energy sourcing options, both traditional and alternative, all competing for market share.
Gasoline and diesel likely will remain the predominant source of energy in the foreseeable future for new car buyers, with hybrid vehicles that run on both petroleum and alternative energy sources taking an increasingly larger share of the market. Although more costly than pure gasoline-driven cars, hybrids do offer a more environmentally friendly solution and provide the driving range demanded by car buyers.
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