Thomas Roberts is known to CNN viewers as the most handsome and charismatic correspondent they have ever had.   Movie Idol looks similar to Cary Grant and Ronald Coleman and great delivery as an anchor and correspondent similar to that of the golden years of Peter Jennings' career.   But on top of it all, he's just very smart and very good on the screen.   So when I heard he'd be telling his story as an abuse survivor in the series, "Sins of the Father," I had to watch.   I was stunned by Roberts' candor and open discussion of what was obviously a very emotionally painful part of his life.   Anderson Cooper who is one of the brightest in television was very professional, but also very determined as he knew what the audience wanted to hear and needed to know about this story.   He guided Roberts through a maze that ended with hope.  Roberts was leading a very different life in his youth.  Amazingly like many if not most victims of sexual abuse, he returned to the home of his tormenter many times.   It's a very confusing subject, but Roberts calmly and firmly explained his actions.   He also spoke eloquently of how he was able to hide what was happening to him from those who loved him the most.  His mother and sister.   It wasn't until his sister, who still remains close to him found him after he ingested an overdose of his mother's sleeping pills that Roberts started to deal with his real problems.  

It was also not until after he saw another victim come out and then be crucified by the Diocese and many church supporters bashed the young man that Roberts became brave enough to speak up for the other victim and ultimately himself.  Roberts also has fought to make laws to protect children and to help adults who may not have told what happened to them back then able to speak out later in life and still be heard.  Of course the Catholic Church fought this and so far in the State of Maryland, where Roberts was violated and some other states, the Catholic lobby's winning.    

CNN produced many series in 2006 and some of which I was not sure needed to be done, but they did an excellent job with this story and shows why they are still number one in Cable news.   Roberts should have his own show and be featured more on the network.   He's very engaging and extremely competent as a correspondent.

The Spelling feud is over! Tori and Candy made up just in time for the birth of Tori's adorable son, Liam.   Tori and her husband Dean McDermott's new reality show on the Oxygen Network that has the couple running a Southern California Inn is really a hoot.  I'm not one for reality tv - except this show and HGTV's "Living with Ed."  But seeing the mother and daughter work through their problems is a wonderful thing.   When Aaron Spelling died last year the already fractured relationship became even more strained.  Tori was basically written out of her dad's will, receiving less than a million dollars of the estimated one billion dollar fortune.   Spelling became a household name writing about the dysfunction of the Carrington and Colby clan in "Dynasty," and probably never thought his own family would become carbon copies of his characters.   But Tori being her father's daughter worked hard to take care of herself and it's great to see that Candy realizes her daughter's value and I hear they are both coddling Liama and spoiling him rotten.   Good for them!

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