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PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT

Piers Morgan Christmas Special

Aired December 24, 2011 - 21:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PIERS MORGAN, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, a "Piers Morgan Christmas," superstar interviews.

BEYONCE: My music is inspired by love and from my family, from my husband, from my sisters. It gives me this -- the security and the confidence that you see on this age.

MORGAN: Family values.

MARIE OSMOND: Donnie could have had anything. He really -- he's had everything in the world offered to him. You know, it's all about my brothers. And my brothers, you know, they give me --

MORGAN: Has it a little bit of sex drugs and rock and roll?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My life is -- is a bit crazy. You know, moving around different countries every day, long tours.

MORGAN: Plus, musical performances and a visit from an angel. This is a PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT Christmas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: Good evening and happy Christmas.

This has been an extraordinary year for all of us on PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT and this holiday season seems a perfect time to share some of my perfect moments of 2011. Tonight, I'll talk to Beyonce, Donny and Marie Osmond and Lenny Kravitz.

Also tonight, performances of holiday favorites and pop sensations Il Divo and America's got talent winner Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. Plus, Tony Bennett pays tribute to the one and only in one house. As you recall, singing with her on her last duet.

We'll begin with a very special Christmas for superstar singer Beyonce and her equally famous husband, Jay-Z as they prepare for the birth of their first child. Before they shared the baby news to the world, Beyonce told me about the values she's might instill in her own future star when she told about what her own childhood was like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: That is hilarious. I mean, even at six, you were showing off.

BEYONCE, SINGER: I was.

MORGAN: Seriously, very precocious performer.

BEYONCE: It's very embarrassing. That's not something you need everyone to see.

(LAUGHTER)

MORGAN: Even as a kid, can you remember the thought process when you were that young? Did you always know I am going to be star? I don't care what it takes?

BEYONCE: I didn't at all that I was going to be a star. But I did know that I felt very comfortable when I was on stage. I was really shy. And I did not speak much. I was more comfortable with adults because my mother owned a hair salon and I have faith on her salon. I was in grown people's business all day trying to listen to their conversations.

And when I got on the stage, you know, my mother put me in dance lessons and I really loved it and I think, you know, when they saw me perform they were like, wait a minute, she's like in heaven and they realized that it was where I could step out of my shell and I just felt the most like myself.

MORGAN: And I felt like that last night watching you. It seemed like utopia for you. Like it just couldn't get better and yet I keep hearing how shy you are. Where do you get it from? I mean, how do you create that kind of aura when by nature you're not really like that?

BEYONCE: I don't know. I think I -- for one, I'm not shy anymore. I am the person at the dinner party that is quiet and observing and having a one-on-one conversation. I get embarrassed when it's a lot of people and a lot of eyes and I'm still that way. I wouldn't say shy.

But now, you know, on the stage I've been doing it for a while and it's my place to be me and to be free and I don't feel like I'm being judged. I feel like it doesn't matter how irritated I am or angry I am or excited or in love or whatever emotion. When I get on the stage, I'm just purely free. And it's -- I feel so honored every time I get on the stage because I know I've been doing this for 15 years and it's what I love to do and so many other people that love to do the same thing and they don't get to perform in front of 175,000 people.

MORGAN: A lot of performers come from quite damaged backgrounds or dysfunctional in some way. What's quite refreshing about your story, it's not really like that. You came from a remarkably successful family. Not lots of money but your dad was a top Xerox guy when he was young. Your mom ran this incredibly successful salon. And they both taught you if you want to be successful you have to work really hard. And it seems to me they taught you of the importance of when you get there to be humble, to not to lose the sense of who you are.

BEYONCE: They absolutely did. I learned -- you know, my mother worked 13 hours a day and I never heard her complain. I mean, she worked until her feet were calloused. And my father was such an incredible entrepreneur. And any and everything he said he would have, he worked until he had it. And he taught me there's no such thing as no. And I had a lot of great support. And I think the support is really a huge, you know, factor in my success, knowing that if something didn't work out, I still was loved and, you know, having that security is really important.

MORGAN: Well, your mom is only ten feet away, as we speak.

BEYONCE: She's here.

MORGAN: So, she's here protecting you even now.

BEYONCE: Yes.

MORGAN: And she does come almost everywhere that you go.

BEYONCE: She does.

MORGAN: What are the values do you think that she's instilled in you?

BEYONCE: Well, definitely that, you know, beauty fades and who you are from within is forever. And definitely be a woman of your word and hard work. She is always correcting me and, you know, I feel like it doesn't matter if you are the janitor or the president, everyone's the same, making sure that I keep my humility and my spirit. You know, she is always honest with me.

MORGAN: When does she -- since you became famous, successful, when has she been the most angry with you?

BEYONCE: I remember when we first had our single on the radio and I was starting to feel like I was hot. And I was in the record store and she was talking to me and I started singing because I didn't want to hear whatever she was saying. And I was about 15. And the song was playing on the radio and I'm like this and these guys are looking like, that's Beyonce and I thought that was hot and she smacked the crap out of me in that store.

(LAUGHTER)

BEYONCE: When I tell you whap! Whap!

MORGAN: Really?

BEYONCE: Yes. And sent me to the car and was like I don't care what song you have on the radio, you are my child, you do not disrespect me and I will never forget it. It was a great lesson.

MORGAN: you've never sung again like that in a store with your mom? BEYONCE: No, absolutely.

MORGAN: See, remember I could tell, I mean, a, she's got your beauty. I don't think this beauty thing face, but there was a steely look in your eyes as to say look, you mess with my girl, young man -- old man, and you're going to get it.

BEYONCE: She's strong.

MORGAN: So I'm just a smack, smack away if one question goes wrong here, she's there.

BEYONCE: She is. But she is my friend. And I mean, we don't agree on everything and I'm an adult and you know, we have our own -- our moments because we work together with our clothing line and she is --

MORGAN: What is she most proudest thought that you achieved do you think? What is the moment for your mom?

BEYONCE: I can say probably when I sang "the last" for the president. I think, you know, my father, all of his history, he grew up in Gaston, Alabama and he was escorted to school every day because of he was one of the first African-Americans in his school. And my mother, you know, in her day she couldn't ride the front of the bus. So for her to see her child --

MORGAN: Doesn't it sound amazing when you say things like that now?

BEYONCE: Yes.

MORGAN: In this day and age? That only in our generation even, that's what your parents had to go through. I find that a staggering thing, even now when I hear it.

BEYONCE: It's true. But it's a new day and my parents saw me being a part of that history. And now I see my nephew, and he's like I don't understand why everyone is saying that Obama is black because it's just normal to him. And that makes me -- that's my, you know, my joy. So, you know, it's great to see the growth and it's great that my parents could live to see that and it makes me very proud.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: A very Merry Christmas to Beyonce, Jay-Z and their baby. And a word of advice to the little one, don't try to put one over on your mom.

Much more "Piers Morgan Christmas" to come with a brother and sister who is lived their whole lives in the spotlight side by side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: It's almost unique, I would say in show business, your relationship. A brother and sister who have been doing what you've been doing for so long who still like each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, let's don't push it.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Two special musical performances. And, the biggest stars remembering an extraordinary talent gone too soon, Amy Winehouse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was a great singer. Better than any of the young people I've ever heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: But next, a rock star with a Russian-Jewish father, a bohemia Bohemian-Christian mother and giant cross that's in his back. What's a Lenny Kravitz Christmas like? That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: Lenny Kravitz may be one of the coolest rock stars around when I sat down with him recently. He opened up not only about sex, drugs and rock and roll. But also about his child and his family and his father's opinion last words. Here's that revealing interview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: This is one of the coolest things I've seen. That is a typical Lenny Kravitz. This is an album cover, anything vinyl but you need something cool these days, right? Secondly, amazing picture in front, then I turned it over and there is your life in these extraordinary pictures.

LENNY KRAVITZ, SINGER: Yes.

MORGAN: And, I haven't just haven't seen an album cover or inside cover anything quite like this. And yet, you know, for the theme that you have of it, black and white America, there it is. And there you are. Lenny Kravitz, the product of a black man and white woman in America, rise in the upper east of New York, your dad was Jewish, your mom was Christian, an almost unique perspective on growing up in life.

KRAVITZ: I had an amazing childhood. I talked to a lot of people who didn't like their childhood, they would not go back. They found it to be sad and painful. I had the absolute opposite. I had a very rich childhood in the sense of experience.

MORGAN: Tell me about your parents. Your mom was a famous actress. Your dad was a television executive. Tell me about them.

KRAVITZ: My mother was born in Miami, Florida. Her father came from Inagua, in the Bahamas. She later moved to New York when their family moved to New York. She wanted to be an actress. And her father, my grandfather, was going to do whatever he had to do to give her the tools she need.

So he worked four, five, six jobs, sent her to school, took her to the theater in New York, enrolled her in Howard University in Washington, D.C. She studied at the Shakespeare Institute Stratford in Avon.

My father was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father from Kiev in the Ukraine. My father went to the military at a very, very young age. My father was quite hard core. He was a green beret, he was a jungle expert. You know, he was -- he was pretty scary, you know when I was a child. And just to let you know, I mean, I loved my father dearly and at the end of his life we became closer than ever. But it wasn't always that way.

MORGAN: Well, your parents divorced.

KRAVITZ: Yes.

MORGAN: How old were you when that happened?

KRAVITZ: I was 21.

MORGAN: What effect did that have on you?

KRAVITZ: It had a very deep effect on me. I was a mama's boy and I love m mother. We were best friends. We were really, really close. And you know, my father had his infidelities and so forth and they came out. They were quite deep. But my mother always taught me that that's your father, regardless of what he did to me, he's your father and you have to honor him, you have to love him, you have to respect him. She'd always refer to the bible and say that it says, you know, honor thy mother, they father, it doesn't say but or unless or if. It says honor them. And so, that's what you have to do. Her thing always was you do what you're supposed to do, don't worry about everybody else. So I was taught to be that way.

MORGAN: So, when you had this time with him and he knew he was dying, do you think because he realized he wasn't going to be around this was the last chance to have that conversation with him?

KRAVITZ: I think he honestly had a spiritual awakening because he, you know -- and I don't want to paint him as this, you know, horrible man. If I ever bumped into anybody that knew him, your father, he's so lovely, he's so charming, he's wonderful. He was a wonderful man.

MORGAN: What did he say to you when he finally opened up?

KRAVITZ: I have two sisters from my father's first marriage, and he apologized to all of us, told us how much he loved us, which was a very emotional moment.

MORGAN: Amazing. KRAVITZ: And that he made mistakes, he wish it wasn't the way it was, he wish he could have changed it and he didn't know how. And he just admitted and it was beautiful. And from that moment on, I mean, he lived another maybe month. It was the best month of our lives. And it made up for everything. Because it's one thing to have your father in front of you and see him and say, you know, hello and hug him and kiss him. But whenever I would be close with him, it always felt a little strange. Like we'd hug and it would be like a little uncomfortable. And after that experience in the hospital when everything came out and he explained himself, I could actually lay in the bed with him, I could rub his head. You know, I could hold him and it was beautiful.

MORGAN: What an amazing thing.

KRAVITZ: Yes.

MORGAN: You're 47 now.

KRAVITZ: Yes.

MORGAN: I'm 46.

KRAVITZ: You have to call me sir.

MORGAN: Well, you look about ten years younger than me so there are a few other things I'd like to call you actually.

(LAUGHTER)

MORGAN: But do you dream, you know wishfully, of getting married, having more children --?

KRAVITZ: I do.

MORGAN: That more conventional thing that your mother certainly dreamed of?

KRAVITZ: I do. And I wanted it for some years but I wasn't ready. And now I'm ready. Now I'm ready.

MORGAN: I'm told if I ask you who the great love of your life has been, you would say Lisa Bono, the mother of your child.

KRAVITZ: Most definitely. That was a magical experience.

MORGAN: She's an incredibly beautiful woman, very smart. And I'm a big, big fan of hers. But, what went wrong then?

KRAVITZ: Young.

MORGAN: Too young?

KRAVITZ: Young, a lot going on. You know, Zoe was born. I got a record deal, I went on tour. It was all at the same time. We were young. But the beautiful thing is that now we're, you know, we're best friends. She's like my sister. And I love the man she's with, I love her new children, we're all together and it's great. But that was a very magical time.

MORGAN: If I was interviewing Zoe about you, how do you think she would describe you?

KRAVITZ: I think she would say that I'm extremely funny and goofy and the opposite of everything you said today about being cool and all that.

MORGAN: Really?

KRAVITZ: Yes.

MORGAN: Couldn't imagine you being goofy.

KRAVITZ: I'm very. You have to come home with me. You have to come home and hang out.

MORGAN: I'd love to. I'll be around next week.

KRAVITZ: Then you'll see it.

MORGAN: Then you'd wish you never asked me. How are you spending the Christmas holidays?

KRAVITZ: I am going to go to the Bahamas.

MORGAN: You have a big connection with the Bahamas.

KRAVITZ: Yes, that's where my mother's side of the family is from. I'm going to go there, meet my daughter. And I'm going to chill out and do nothing.

MORGAN: Do you do the whole big turkey, the presents, the crackers? Do you do all that kind of thing?

KRAVITZ: No. We -- I mean, we're going to cook. You know, we'll probably do some fishing. I have an organic garden there. So --

MORGAN: Do you sing Christmas carols?

KRAVITZ: No, I know the tunes, but no. We just hang out and play music and just enjoy each other.

MORGAN: Goofy?

KRAVITZ: Yes.

MORGAN: Thank you, Lenny.

KRAVITZ: Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MORGAN: When we come back, one of the best loved brother and sister acts of all time, Donnie and Marie take me behind the scenes of old Hollywood.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: This the season for family but how many families would spend their entire careers working side by side in perfect harmony? That's exactly what Donny and Marie Osmond have done. When I sat down with them in Vegas, they shared stories of their life on the road and gave me a peek behind the curtain of old Hollywood.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: It is almost unique, I would say, in show business, your relationship, a brother and sister who have been doing what you've been doing for showing who still like each other.

DONNY OSMOND, SINGER: Well, let's don't push it.

(LAUGHTER)

MARIE OSMOND, SINGER: Well you know there is a different relationship as we have matured. You know, definitely it's not 14 and 16 years old anymore. But you know, there's a mutual respect and it's nice to be out there with somebody who they can tell if something's not working and they're there to cover each other or whatever it is.

DONNY OSMOND: It just happened the other night. Marie was feeling under the weather and I filled in for her. And just a couple weeks prior to that, just the reverse thing happened. I was really feeling bad, she filled in and did some more in the show and pulled it off.

MORGAN: If it's your sister, can you completely trust each other?

DONNY OSMOND: Yes. I can emphatically say, yes, I can trust her.

MORGAN: the way that may be whoever else you work with.

DONNY OSMOND: Well seem, that's the thing about us. Is that people say what keeps you going? I mean, why are you still in the business after these many years? Our father taught us such a work ethic that if there's something worth doing, it's worth doing well.

MORGAN: Do you think you're kind of -- not the last of because there are still some others around of that old school ethic of doing these kinds of shows. When you see the young performers today, it seems to me they don't have that same ethic.

MARIE OSMOND: You know, I will tell you what I feel. I feel very blessed that I go to grow up working with, you know, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, with Elvis Presley. I mean, we worked with Sinatra.

DONNY OSMOND: Absolutely.

MARIE OSMOND: Right. And to learn, to watch, to be literally not just watch them but to work with them. An --

MORGAN: What did you learn from the greats? What made them great? What's the thing that takes you to that level?

DONNY OSMOND: I don't know if I speak on behalf of Marie, but when we put the show together, you can throw as much money you want at a show. People don't walk out hamming the light and say, those are great face costumes in the world.

MARIE OSMOND: But it's important, people want those things.

DONNY OSMOND: You got to walk out with people saying I know a little bit more about Donny and Marie. Here's the mark that lot of people mis-notice. They leave out the heart and soul. And that's what I learned from Sammy Davis, Fr., from Frank Sinatra. It's when you went to go see those shows, you got to know them.

MORGAN: Who of all the greats that have played in Vegas would you like to seen in the face of others?

DONNY OSMOND: We did.

MARIE OSMOND: We did.

MORGAN: You saw them all?

MARIE OSMOND: We worked with them.

DONNY OSMOND: I'll give you a great example. I remember going to the Hilton.

MORGAN: This is amazing to me.

MARIE OSMOND: You name the name and we'll tell you if we worked with them.

MORGAN: Did you perform with Sinatra?

MARIE OSMOND: Yes.

DONNY OSMOND: Yes.

MORGAN: Sammy Davis?

DONNY OSMOND: Yes.

MARIE OSMOND: Yes.

MORGAN: Dean Martin?

DONNY OSMOND: Yes.

MARIE OSMOND: Yes. MORGAN: Elvis?

MARIE OSMOND: Yes.

DONNY OSMOND: I'll tell you --

(CROSSTALK)

MARIE OSMOND: You name it, it's crazy. It really is nuts.

(CROSSTALK)

DONNY OSMOND: I went to go see Elvis Presley, his last show, closing night show at the Hilton. And we were opening up the next night. And I remember watching the king on stage. He could do no wrong. Audience was in the palm of his hand.

The next night, I'm in his dressing room with my brothers getting ready and the door opens up, hi, old buddy, I'm Elvis Presley. I wanted to come and say hi and good luck and I thought how cool is that, the king of rock 'n' roll just walked through the door and he's a real person. It taught me a lot about leaving the star on stage. When you go off stage, you're just another person. And it really put the whole show business thing into perspective for me.

MARIE OSMOND: It was their job.

MORGAN: What else made those guys?

DONNY OSMOND: They worked.

MARIE OSMOND: I think they didn't look at it as being a celebrity. They looked at it as being an entertainer. It was their job. And it was every day how do I be better? How do I get -- I mean, they loved that audience. We love our audiences. We want them to leave feeling that, you know what, it's an expensive ticket -- it's not as expensive as some of them here but when they leave they got their money's worth. They had an experience. They had something that brought them back to some kind of memory. Whether it was way back at the Donny and Marie original shows or a current something they saw like "dancing with the stars" or whatever, they walk away feel they go got to know us better.

DONNY OSMOND: Here's another thing, Piers. Sometimes I feel like entertainers, young entertainers that jump into the business, get a lot of fame and fortunes --

MARIE OSMOND: Wait a minute, we're young --

MORGAN: You actually look ridiculously young. I don't know how you have done this.

DONNY OSMOND: So many of them feel entitled. You know, I'm on stage, you need to like me. But yes, there's that attitude, that confidence on stage. But, they forget about getting out there and working and doing all those little gigs, 366 days a year and going through the work, going through the motions.

MORGAN: So being a proper star really from what you're saying is looking out to an audience and making them felt as important as they're making you feel.

MARIE OSMOND: Absolutely. And you know --

MORGAN: I don't see that in a lot of the new acts.

MARIE OSMOND: But what he said, no, that's really crucial is. I mean, I remember Milton Berle, the first time I worked with him. And he came on and took a script and he just started slashing, no, this won't work on this, and he worked to make that silly little three- minute sketch brilliant. And it wasn't just that's OK with the writers. He worked with the writers. He worked -- it was a constant effort by the people we got to work with to make everything the best it could be, even if it was a stupid sketch, which usually it was on our show.

(LAUGHTER)

DONNY OSMOND: Do you remember what Groucho Marx did now?

MARIE OSMOND: Yes.

DONNY OSMOND: OK. This dirty old man.

MORGAN: Groucho Marx.

MARIE OSMOND: Pinched my butt.

DONNY OSMOND: He was punching Marie's butt the whole time.

MORGAN: Seriously?

DONNY OSMOND: He was the (inaudible). Yes.

MARIE OSMOND: I mean how many people that just say they worked with Groucho?

MORGAN: Wasn't it Groucho that said you're only as old at woman you feel?

(LAUGHTER)

MARIE OSMOND: That's Groucho.

DONNY OSMOND: I love that. I never heard that one but that was perfect.

MARIE OSMOND: And I would have been 14 1/2, no, 15.

MORGAN: So, this was completely inappropriate?

MARIE OSMOND: -- which would have been illegal nowadays.

MORGAN: What was John Wayne like?

DONNY OSMOND: John Wayne was a very stoic man.

MARIE OSMOND: Tall. So sweet.

DONNY OSMOND: He'd talk like this -- I'm doing a lot of impression.

MORGAN: You're very good.

DONNY OSMOND: Why thank you, kid.

MARIE OSMOND: Please don't encourage him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN: Coming up, a singer with a story that will warm your heart, a special Christmas performance from the winner of "America's got talent."

(MUSIC CLIP PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: My next guest warmed even my heart when he appeared on "America's Got Talent" and bested all of the competition to win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. From a car washer to a million dollar crooner --

LANDAU EUGENE MURPHY JR., WINNER, AMERICA'S GOT TALENT: That's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Now back on the national stage tonight, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. With Laura Johnson singing "baby, it's cold outside."

(LANDAU EUGENE MURPHY JR. WITH LAURA JOHNSON PERFORMING)

MORGAN: Coming up, the star of "Touched by An Angel" and the real message of the season and a music icon reflect, on the extraordinary talent of Amy Winehouse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: My next guest has not only played an angel on TV, she's also devoting her off-screen time to her real life mission. She's an actress, singer and she's here with me now. It's Roma Downey, the star of "Touched by AN Angel."

I've been a guest in your wonderful house in Los Angeles. It seemed only fair to return the favor on this festive occasion.

ROMAN DOWNEY, ACTRESS: Well, merry Christmas and happy holidays.

(LAUGHTER)

MORGAN: Now listen, you are best known I guess in America for the angel moniker of course from "touched by an angel." Let's have a little play with this for the few of you who must be out there who don't remember this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People have been out there painting pictures and writing song about heaven and all ever since they could breathe and they never come close.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Poor love. Heap gets so dusty up here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: I mean, you couldn't get a kind of more peaceful vignette and yet the irony is that you come from Northern Ireland, you know, a very war-torn place when you grew up. I mean, I think you went back recently and were stunned on how it transformed itself. Tell me about that.

DOWNEY: Yes. I grew up in the city of Derry, also known as Londonderry. And I went back there this summer and it's just a place transformed and restored. You know, that we finally have peace there, which is just fantastic what can happen when both sides agree to get together to sit down and talk and listen.

But, I grew up through the 70s and 80s and we really had a terrible bombing campaign through Derry at that time. There were so many shops and schools and, you know, there was all kinds of awful activity, probably not your typical American childhood certainly.

MORGAN: No.

DOWNEY: And I know when I first left Ireland and I went to college in England, first of all, before moving to the states and my acting career, I was walking down the street and a car back fired and I instinctively hit the ground nose to the concrete. And there was that moment, I think the beginning of healing perhaps, the realization that you don't have to live that way.

MORGAN: You're married to an Englishman, Mark Burnett, one of the top producers in Hollywood.

DOWNEY: Yes. Well, we won't hold that against him.

(LAUGHTER)

MORGAN: But, you've lived here together for a long time now.

DOWNEY: Yes.

MORGAN: How do you find America? DOWNEY: I love America. America's been so good to me and I'm just enormously grateful for all the opportunities that I've had here. You know, my very first job in New York City was as a coat check girl. I worked in a fancy restaurant on the upper west side. And one of the first coats I ever checked was of Regis Philbin.

MORGAN: Seriously? That's fantastic.

DOWNEY: I remember sitting there and he came in and I thought wouldn't it be lovely to be able to afford to eat in a restaurant like this. And I went upstairs and hung his coat up. And then when he left, he left me a very impressive tip. And some years later, I was invited back to New York where I was the guest on the Regis Philbin show --

MORGAN: Fantastic!

DOWNEY: And there's just something so beautiful in the opportunity that America would allow.

MORGAN: Good thing he tipped you there. That would be really awkward.

DOWNEY: Yes, I wouldn't want to go on his show and tell him he stiffed me. But, I'm so grateful. My husband is, too, I think that, you know, there really is opportunity here if you're willing to work hard.

MORGAN: Let's turn to this, your DVD. You are executive producers and you have a new animated series called "little angels." Tell me about this.

DOWNEY: Yes. It's a wonderful series for preschool children. It features eight little angel characters who live on the ceiling of the children's nursery. And when the mom and dad aren't around, the angels come down and they teach the children, they teach them their a, b, c's and their 1, 2, 3's. And they also teach them wonderful family values, the importance of honesty and being truthful and kindness and giving and sharing.

MORGAN: Have we lost our way a bit, you think, globally?

DOWNEY: I think that we have lost our way a little bit. And I think that the children, particularly the preschoolers are exposed to all sorts of things they shouldn't be, there's such a media blitz. And so, I really wanted to come up with a product in "little angels" that, you know, I know moms and dads are busy and we often sit our child down in front of the TV to buy ourselves some precious time we need, whether it's a crisis moment or the dog is eating the Gardner or whatever.

(LAUGHTER)

DOWNEY: You'll find now as your little daughter is growing up. And if you're going to be sitting your child down in front of a DVD anyway, wouldn't you rather it was something that was feeding not just their minds but their hearts and uplifting, you know, with "little angels" also explores beloved biblical stories and through that, they learn just all kinds of wonderful and important lessons.

MORGAN: And you're also working with your husband on a project.

DOWNEY: I am working on --

MORGAN: This seemed a very bold move to me.

DOWNEY: Not at all.

MORGAN: Who is the boss there?

DOWNEY: Who do you think is the boss?

MORGAN: I know who the boss is. It isn't him.

DOWNEY: Listen, you know, behind every great man, there's a greater woman, right?

MORGAN: Tell me about the project.

DOWNEY: The problem is still in a very early stage. So I'll tell you about it if you promise to invite us back so we can really talk about it --

MORGAN: I want to get you both on together. It would be great.

DOWNEY: Wouldn't that be lovely? We'll really look forward to that. It's a docudrama series for the history channel. And it's ten hours on the bible from Genesis through revelation. And we're very, very excited to be working together, thrilled to be working on something as epic as this, humble to be working on it.

MORGAN: How are you spending Christmas?

DOWNEY: Well, we're spending Christmas with our kids. We have three teens. And we'll go to church and we'll have a great old family dinner. And you know, we're a very traditional --

MORGAN: Christmas turkey and all the trimmings?

DOWNEY: Christmas turkey, yes.

MORGAN: Brussels sprouts?

DOWNEY: I love Brussels sprouts. But my kids, I can't get them to eat them. But we are a big Brussels sprouts family.

MORGAN: You've got to get into Brussels sprouts.

DOWNEY: Yes.

MORGAN: Finest vegetable in the world.

DOWNEY: I think so and very good for you, too. And we traveled this year with our children. We've gone -- we work on operation smile, which is an absolutely fantastic.

MORGAN: That's great gesture.

DOWNEY: who repair volunteer group that repair children with facial deformities. So we've taken the kids off on several missions and you know, as we approach Christmas here and the holiday season, the importance of being open and generous of heart and giving back. So that's to those who much is given, much is expected, Piers.

MORGAN: Roma Downey well said. It's been an absolute pleasure. Merry Christmas!

DOWNEY: Merry Christmas to you.

The world lost a one-of-a-kind talent when Amy Winehouse died this year at the age of 27. Troubles with tons of stuff, shot to fame with her album "back to black" in 2007, then found herself in the tabloid spotlight for her drug and alcohol abuse and destructive relationships.

But none of it ever shadowed that extra ordinary voice. And tonight, remember Amy's Father, and from the icon who was her last musical partner.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY BENNETT, SINGER: Of all of the singers that I've ever heard, Amy was the best one.

She had the ears to know just what to leave out and what to put in and more than anything else, one of the secrets of a good performing singer is this, the heart as good as Billie Holliday, as good as Ella Fitzgerald even, she was as good at that level. She was a great singer.

MITCH WINEHOUSE, AMY WINEHOUSE'S FATHER: My memories of her obviously were never -- she's my daughter, but the love that she had for her family and her friends and her generosity, that's what I'll remember most.

BENNETT: I was very impressed with her mom because she said, you know, it's funny everybody really feels regretful about my daughter but I knew what she really wanted to do and what her dream was. And even though she said she had a short life, she really accomplished what her dream was. I thought it was very touching.

WINEHOUSE: It's just incredible that a force, her force, her nature has gone but it hasn't really gone because all my family, we're firm believers in life after death and she's right here with us all the time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MORGAN: Thanks for joining us tonight. And before we go, a holiday treat from Il Divo, the worldwide sensation with 25 million albums sold, 150 gold and platinum records and over two million people at their concerts.

Now, with a Christmas classic performing white Christmas, it's Il Divo.

(IL DIVO PERFORMING)