start of cannes film festival. look who made her first trip to the south of france to join them today, wednesday, may 11, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. welcome to a special split edition of "today" on a wednesday morning. i'm matt lauer in new york. meredith vieira is in cannes. have you seen the short straw i drew? have you seen that anywhere? >> i tossed it into the ocean, mr. lauer. the real question is how jealous -- we just arrived, to be honest, but i have never been to the south of france and certainly not to the biggest film festival of all, the cannes film festival. starting today for the next 12 days, this is where the hollywood elite will hang out. it will be their personal playground. coming up, how i fit in here. and we'll sit down with antonio banderas and salma hayek. they've been in five films together but not in an animated movie. they are about to star together in "puss in boots." back to you. or vous, monsieur lauer. meanwhile from here an emotional and extraordinary child custody case. elena jordano is going through a difficult split with her husband. she's also living with stage four breast cancer. a judge decided that she should not be awarded primary custody of her children due, in part, to her illness. she's here to speak about that controversial decision in a live interview. and a man who's lucky to be alive after a frightening car crash. you will understand why when you look at his x-ray. a pipe about two inches wide went through his mouth, out the back of his head. he'll share his story in a live interview. let's begin with flooding along the mississippi river taking aim now at the mississippi delta. al roker is in vicksburg with the latest on this. al, good morning. >> good morning, matt. we are in the mississippi river. you can see the building is built up on cinder blocks about seven feet above the ground. that's the mississippi river just beyond that building. there is no differentiation. in fact, the mississippi is usually a half mile wide. it's six times that in certain spots. it continues to roll southward and for folks in vicksburg and places south, the fears are the worst is yet to come. the mississippi river rages on. swallowing up homes as it barrels its way south. on tuesday the river crested in memphis, just below 48 feet. that's the second worst flooding in the city's history. >> no comparison to the other water. this is the granddaddy of all of them. >> reporter: the rush of water may be over, but it could take weeks for flood waters to recede. >> a lot of people invested a lot of money in these properties and everyone down here is sick. >> reporter: in some parts of memphis, cleanup is under way. this school received only minor damage inside, but outside, debris is piling up. >> i feel like we were spared. i feel like we were prepared. we made the right moves, and just a lot of prayers were answered. >> reporter: 40 miles south in tunica, mississippi, the river is near its peak. flooding has already forced more than a dozen casinos to shut down, and it could be a month before they are back in business. more than 10,000 people are out of work. further down river in vicksburg, the river is expected to crest this saturday. workers were out reinforcing the levees, getting ready to battle the water that's rushing south. experts say the river is moving at 1.8 million cubic feet per second. in other words, it could fill louisiana's super dome in 30 seconds. some levees are covered with black plastic sheeting, a reinforcement in case the flooding comes over the top. >> the water level is here. >> reporter: tuesday, engineers inspected levees looking for signs of damage and making sure flood walls can withstand the pressure of what's coming. >> the walls are staying stable. we're in good shape. >> reporter: 200 miles south of new orleans, the river is expected to crest may 24. already, though, engineers in louisiana have opened spill gates to take some pressure off the river before it gets to new orleans, as the mississippi river rages south towards an uncertain future. matt, unlike yesterday when we were in memphis, i can tell you there is a current here moving about 5 miles per hour. i have seen fish flopping around. if i had a pole i could do well. the weather has held out nicely, but starting tomorrow we've got strong storms developing that will be over the mid and upper mississippi river valleys. that will put more pressure as it dumps heavy rain and pushes more water down south as it makes its inexorable trip down towards new orleans. matt? >> we'll check in with you for the local forecast as well. let's turn to presidential race in 2012. the gop field is starting to take shape. with former house speaker newt gingrich throwing his hat into the ring today. chuck todd is nbc's chief white house correspondent and political director. chuck, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. over the last month the busiest presidential candidate was the incumbent, barack obama. the republican field has been a little bit unformed, but all of that begins changing today. president obama worked crowds in texas tuesday, raising money in his push for a second term. >> now is the time where you can help shape this campaign, just like you did the first time. make sure we get out of the gate strong. >> reporter: the president had an extra bounce in his step thanks to polls after the capturing and killing of osama bin laden. >> those three words that sum up our campaign, yes, we can. a new poll shows dissatisfaction over the president's handling of the economy lingering with 37% approving of the job he's doing, giving republicans a clear opening in 2012. few big name contenders have stepped up. former house speaker newt gingrich makes his candidacy official today with an announcement on twitter and facebook. he's trying to confront some of the marital problems by making his third wife calista, a centerpiece of his campaign. while donald trump captured most of the headlines, only minnesota governor tim pawlenty appeared among relative unknowns. former pennsylvania senator rick santorum, gary johnson, texas congressman ron paul among other, at a recent republican debate. >> how many people here would use heroine if it were legal? oh, yeah, i don't want to use it so i need laws. >> reporter: some analysts believe staying off the trail early on is a lesson learned from 2008. >> they're not going to fall for the trap of last year where they got in early, spent $8 million or $9 million on wasted overhead while the voters weren't paying attention. >> reporter: candidates are starting to make decisions. mitt romney, who says he is still, quote, exploring a bit, is giving a major speech this week aimed at convincing conservatives that his health care plan in massachusetts was different from the one president obama signed into law. romney's problems with the conservatives and the weakness of the field have republicans like house speaker john boehner pining for more charismatic choices. hoe told matt lauer this about new jersey's governor nicholas kristof ti. he said this about chris christie. >> he does a good job and speaks english, plain talk. >> reporter: and this about mitch daniels. >> another person with a track record of reform in this state, the kind of reforms we need in washington, d.c. >> reporter: matt, we still have a lot of decisions we are awaiting on the republican side from sarah palin to mike huckabee, who's still dominating polls to people like john huntsman, president obama's former ambassador to china. >> chuck todd, thank you very much. karl rove serveeds as a strategist and senior adviser to president george w. bush. he's currently a fox news contributor. good to see you. >> good morning, matt. sorry upper management doesn't think that you're, you know, supposed to go to france. sorry about that. >> i'll get over it. i'll get over it. thanks. you expressed concern about the slow start to the gop side of the presidential season a while ago. you said, quote, there gets to be a point at which you don't have enough time to raise the money you need, you don't have enough time to get as organized as deeply as you need to be for these contests. does newt gingrich jumping in force others off the sidelines? >> not necessarily. i made those points but then pointed out that in 1999-2000, george w. bush made his first campaign appearance june 16th. i do think there's still time for people to get in. we are not yet to the point where they have run out of time. by june, july, late june, early july, we will be at that point in my opinion. >> newt gingrich has a big resume, big-name recognition. he also has some baggage on the family side. now that he's in does he jump to the head of the pack or does he face an uphill battle? >> i don't think he jumps to the top of the pack by the simple fact that he's so well known. i think his numbers reflect the knowledge people have of him. he could make it to the top tier. that's what will be interesting about the contest. if you look at the polls, there is essentially no front-runner, and these numbers are -- they give us little clue of how the race will play out. what people do in the months left between now and the first of february when the iowa caucuses are, are going to be important for earning their way into the first tier of candidates and earning the vote in february in new hampshire and iowa and south carolina. >> a couple weeks ago, karl, there was a surprising front runter in the polls. donald trump. now if you look at the recent polls he's gone from first to fifth. what's your opinion as to why he's had such a precipitous drop? >> first he made the campaign about the allegation that barack obama was somehow not born in the united states. that got blown up. i also think observers made the point, and i agree with it, that his swafring, epithet-laden speech in las vegas turned off a lot of voters. >> do you think it's something else? this week where we saw the mission to kill osama bin laden reminded people that the presidency is often deadly serious business and perhaps they don't view donald trump in that light? >> that's a good point. but i don't think it took this week to do it. but i think mr. trump by coming out, making the center piece of the campaign the president's birth certificate, it take as while for things to roll in, but people will say, wait, i'm concerned about jobs, deficit, spending and health care reform and he's talking about president obama not being born in the united states? after five, six weeks it seeped into the public consciousness that maybe this was not the businessman serious about getting our fiscal house in order. >> one final opinion on ron paul. he's a libertarian, believes in fiscal conservativism. limited government. your colleague at fox news, juan williams, recently wrote, "it is time to look around and realize we are living in the political age of representative ron paul." how seriously do you take his candidacy? is he electable? >> look, he's in his 70s. he was in the single digits last time except at the tail end of the contest literally when it was he versus john mccain. he is a libertarian. he strikes a strong libertarian note. but i don't think at the end of the day he's likely for the presidential nomination. >> karl rove, nice to see you. >> thanks for having me, matt. i hope you get to france sometime. >> i'm going to get my ticket soon. i'm trying. thanks. thanks for joining us this morning. let's check the top stories from ann curry at the news desk. also got left behind. ann, good morning. >> thanks, matt. good morning. in the news, for the fourth time this week an airline passenger had to be subdued mid-flight. aviation officials say a delta passenger set off an alarm overnight when he tried to open an emergency door of a flight from orlando to boston. witnesses report he was highly intoxicated. delta said an off-duty police officer helped subdue the passenger. senator john kerry will try to help bolster relations with the united states in the wake of the daring raid that took down osama bin laden. and the leader of al qaeda in yemen is warning the u.s. that osama bin laden's death doesn't mean the end of terror attacks. last night, arnold schwarzenegger spoke out for the first time about his separation from his wife, maria shriver, at an event in los angeles. >> i talked with maria an hour ago before i came here. we love each other very much. we are fortunate to have four extraordinary children. we are taking one day at a time. >> they have been married 25 years and released a statement that they will continue raising their children together. thousands of victims of natural disasters are being asked to return more than $22 million in government aid. according to the associated press. federal emergency management agency, or fema, says it wants the money back because it says it was distributed to people who were not eligible. aid packages range in size from several hedge funds to several thousand dollars. many reportedly due back within weeks. now to wall street and mandy drury at the new york stock exchange. there is big news about general motors today. >> that's right. gm is back on track and creating jobs. the automaker is investing about $2 billion in 17 u.s. plants and says that will either preserve or create over 4,000 jobs. also, millions of facebook users' personal information may have been leaked to third-party companies such as advertisers. facebook says it has now fixed the software flaw. back to you. >> thanks so much. finally now, he's a rocket man. who says he can't fly? yves rossi launched himself over the grand canyon speeding along at 190 miles per hour on his jet-propelled wings. this isn't his first adventure. already flown over the english channel and the alps into his native switzerland. matt, you may not be able to get to cannes but now that one of our senior producers has seen that, that's where you're going. >> they're saying, you jump out of a plane, this is your next assignment. >> i'm running away! >> vote for ann. thank you very much. back to serious news, actually let's go to the mississippi for the rest of al's forecast. al? >> now, matt, you know we have to get a jet pack. >> i still want the man from glad jet pack. >> that's right. okay. we are here in mississippi. the river is moving swiftly. we've got tug boats going by. it's surreal. as we look and show you what's going on now. we've also got to talk about the heat. there is a big ridge of upper level high pressure. that's on track to continue the record-breaking heat. temperatures will be anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees above normal. we have the ring of fire around this. storms firing up around it. we have a risk of strong storms working their way up and around that high pressure. so isolated tornadoes, hail, tajjing winds, rainfall amounts anywhere from one to two inches of rain. storms already firing up. some areas picking up locally three inches of rain. as we move into tomorrow and thursday, friday i should say, we're going to see storms over the mississippi river valley. well, we've got overcast skies out there right now, but we're going to see a mostly sunny sky later on today. temperatures will be able to climb into the 70s. just subtract a couple of degrees from yesterday's high. 69 in oakland and 74 in santa rosa. as we head throughout the next few days, our temperatures are going to drop. we'll be back in the 60s by this weekend and there's rain on the way as well. scheduled for saturday and a stronger round on sunday. hope you have a fantastic day. and that's your latest weather. matt? >> al, thank you very much. sarah ferguson, the duchess of york, is speaking out now about not being invited to the royal wedding. michelle kosinski is in london with details on that. good morning. >> reporter: hi, matt. it seems like for the last decade sarah ferguson, once seen as a refreshing addition to the royal family when she married prince andrew has been something of a scandal. where does one turn to clear the air, get sympathy, especially from the compassionate, understanding americans? oprah. the world was watching, but sarah ferguson, ex-wife of prince andrew, mother of their interestingly decked out daughters, was not allowed to tag along. >> i was not invited. i chose to go and be in thailand. i embraced the jungle. it embraced me. >> reporter: now bearing the scars of the wedding rejection -- >> how hurtful was it not to be invited? >> it was so difficult because i wanted to be there with my girls and to be getting them dressed and go as a family. also, it was so hard because the last bride up that aisle was me. >> reporter: sarah ferguson knows that tone well by now. >> i went through a phase of feeling totally worthless and that quite right they didn't invite me. why would they? >> did you feel ostracized? >> i felt i ostracized myself by my behavior, by the past, by living with all the regrets of my mistakes that i wore a hair shirt and beat myself up most of the day, thinking and regretting, why did i make so many mistakes? >> reporter: after her fairy tale wedding in 1986 she was the peppy, fun fergie. that started to change when she was spotted on vacation with another man. she lost her princess status but fergie pulled herself up. >> it's hard being called the duchess of pork. >> reporter: her self-made fortune didn't last. she sunk into debt buffet mousily kept spending. >> 500,000 pounds -- >> reporter: last year was devastating. caught on tape trying to sell business access to her ex. >> with prince andrew. >> yeah. >> reporter: with whom she's still so friendly they share a home. next word that a convicted sex offender had paid her bills for which she apologized. for now, the british public at least may have had enough. >> the welcome mat has worn out. so you do look and think, well, how much more do we need to know and is there any sympathy left? >> reporter: so while sarah bears her soul to oprah, airing this afternoon, if you believe the papers, prince william and princess catherine are on their honeymoon on the seychelles, eating fish, getting around by bicycle or if you believe a cartoon in the papers today, maybe only pakistan knows where they are. matt? >> ouch. coming up, we talk about a gut wrenching case, the mother denied primary custody of her children in part because she has breast cancer. she'll share her story, but first this is "today" on nbc. just ahead from cannes, my crash course on living the good life on the rivera. matt? >> and the man who survived an accident that sent a metal pipe through his mouth and the back of his neck the. after your local news. getting handling and steering lessons on those sporty european roads. it went back to school, got an advanced degree in technology. it's been working out -- more muscle and less fat. it's only been two years, but it's done more in two years than most cars do in a lifetime. 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