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were. good morning. welcome to "today" on a wednesday morning. i'm matt lauer. >> i'm meredith vieira. this morning we are seeing what appears to be a larger mixture of oil and sand spewing from that underwater pipe following the start of the so-called cut and cap method. >> the video you're looking at right now was from 8:24 -- about that time last night -- as giant sheers sliced through the pipe clearing the way for another cap that would allow a cap to be placed on top and hopefully capture some of the oil. but it is a delicate task that has the potential to make this situation even worse. >> two other big developments this morning. both criminal and civil investigations have been launched into the spill. hollywood heavyweight james cameron joined a brainstorming session on how to stop the leak because of his expertise in underwater filming. we'll get the latest on all of this from nbc's brian williams who is live on the gulf coast just ahead. also ahead, for the first time, sarah ferguson has now watched herself try to sell access to her ex-husband to an undercover reporter as she opened up to oprah winfrey about that sting, why she asked for money in the first place, and how prince andrew is reacting to this situation. we'll hear from the duchess of york coming up. we'll begin with day 44 in the disaster in the gulf. brian williams is in grand isle, louisiana with the latest. >> reporter: good morning. think about this -- it's been 40 days now. with all these attempts to fix it, our hearts rise, and then sink, and they all have interesting, unusual names like top hat and top kill and junk shot, and now the latest -- and it has a new name all its own, and all the while the gulf behind us here fills with oil. a mile below the ocean's surface, bp's latest attempt to control the oil spill is now under way. robots cut the leaking pipe and that's the first step in the slice-and-cap effort. it is a temporary fix though. the long-term hope remains those relief wells which won't be ready until august. the environmental catastrophe in the gulf, the worst in u.s. history, is now the focus of the justice department. confirming on tuesday, both criminal and civil investigations into the oil rig explosion and the spill that now taints this entire coastline. >> we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who has violated the law. >> reporter: tough talk again from the president in washington, standing with the two men who will lead the presidential commission looking into this disaster. president obama urged them to follow the facts wherever they lead. >> we owe all those who have been harmed, as well as future generations, a full and vigorous accounting of the events that led to what has now become the worst oil spill in u.s. history. >> reporter: last night, traveling to grand isle with a local charter fishing boat captain, we came upon some of the shrimp boats that have been hired by bp to put out the oil boom. an eerie sight at nightfall -- not a single vessel is being used to harvest shrimp. in venice, the coast guard and bp continue to scramble to combat this growing crisis. from deploying those local fishermen, to drawing up strategies to defend the marshes in the gulf, it's taken a while but there is now a team effort to protect plaquemines parish from the oil. >> we're going to be proactive in cleaning up this oil and also protecting the marsh lands and sensitive areas. >> reporter: and workers will stay in floating hotels near the trouble spots in order to respond faster. >> we can rotate folks when they're resting, we can have additional resources then to get a full day's work, if you will. >> reporter: everyone's aware there isn't a moment to waste, as signs of just how long this disaster could last are now everywhere. and booms are everywhere in this region, too, trying to contain or soak up that oil. 44 days of waiting. this is just the latest fix, of course all of it may come down to these wells on either side to relieve the pressure. in the meantime, about a third of the gulf water is now closed off to fishing. matt and meredith? >> brian, you mentioned those wells. how confident are officials that those wells will do the trick? >> reporter: well, that's a real hole shot. it's got to be exact. they drill these two holes down. they've already made the turn now going back toward the stricken well. they've got to hit it exactly, but that is the way to relieve the pressure on this. we won't know -- it's done very exactly with gps and other technologies. we won't know until they bore through. >> meanwhile, among other things, you have been talking to some of the families who make their living out there on the gulf. there is a lot of frustration, a lot of anger. how badly are they hurting at this point? >> reporter: well, the way they put it around here is this -- after katrina, the ocean waters were roiled, the gulf waters were upset, but there were still shrimp out there in the bottom. if you had a boat and some skill you can go out there and get them and make a living. they've done nothing wrong in this instance, but their right to make a living has gone away. they can't work no matter how good their boat, no matter how skilled they are. this is frustrating and there's no money coming in to these households. >> that's terrible. meanwhile, james cameron, the movie director, has been called in to help. do you know what role he is expected to play? >> reporter: well, you know, we checked into this yesterday. 31,600 people have called bp's hotline with ideas of their own. m.i.t. scientists, princeton scientists. there is a former navy admiral down here who has an idea of his own. 8,000 people have filled out forms. a committee at bp goes through them. so cameron gets in line with everyone else who thinks, good naturedly, and hoping it will work, thinks they have a solution no one else has thought of here. >> you never know, maybe one of them will. brian williams, thank you so much. brian will have much more from the gulf tonight on "nightly news." 7:07. for more, here's matt. thank you. a physics professor at the city university of new york and host of sci-fi science on the science channel joins us. professor, nice to have you back. cut-and-cap. you've described it as a science experiment, taking place a mile below the surface. >> we are the guinea pigs. >> but is it feasible? we're looking at these giant sheers. we're looking at this diamond-cutter, all being operated remotely, robotically. is it feasible? >> it's feasible. at 200 feet, all these methods work. all seven methods that they've tried actually work at about 200 feet. but we are 5,000 feet below the surface. so think of a fire hydrant that is open blowing, blowing oil in one direction. that's what we're up against. >> bob dudley, who's one of the chief officials at bp, said to me he's optimistic, more optimistic about this than he was of the top kill. but this procedure they're performing right now is not to seal the well, it's to capture the oil that's coming out of the well. >> and it's deja vu all over again. last month we did a very similar procedure but then methane ice crystals got in the way and slogged the siphon pimump. this time they're pumping hot water and hot liquid to desolve this ice. >> now he told me that once they used this diamond-edged tool to cut what they hope will be a clean cut around this pipe, they have four different caps standing by and based on the cut, what they see, they'll determine which cap to put on. what if none of those caps works? >> well, none of these caps is going to give you a perfect seal but they want a seal good enough to siphon off most of the oil. that's the whole trick. that's why they're using diamond wire cutters, to try to get it as smooth as you can so they can cap it and minimize the overflow, minimize the amount that's going to be gushing out from the side. >> the fact is, once they've made this cut -- they already made one last night -- we now have more oil seeping out. if those caps don't work we magnify the problem. >> that's right. up to 20% more oil we think because we're slicing off -- slicing off the pipe. remember the broken pipe was bent and prevented some of the oil from escaping. now it is going to escape unimpeded. >> let's move forward to the worse case scenario. say the kucut-and-cup does not work, now we're in the waiting game. it has been described as trying to hit a dinner plate under the surface in the bedrock from about a mile away. what's your level of confidence in terms of that procedure? >> you would have to win the lottery to get on the first try an exact, an exact meeting at the bottom of the well in order to pump cement to shut it off. >> now so if you don't win the lottery, you have to keep trying and redirecting that drill? >> you have to make the drill go backwards, pump cement to seal what you just did, then redrill it and you have to do this over and over again until you get it just right. it takes many tries. so august is optimistic. >> so this could be spewing oil for months. could it last for a year? >> it could last for years, plural. okay? if everything fails and all these different kinds of relief wells don't work, it could be spewing stuff into the gulf until we have dead zone, entire dead zones in the gulf. for years. >> professor of, thank you. appreciate your time this morning. now to that surprising announcement from former vice president al gore and his wife, tipper. after four decades of marriage they have decided to separate. nbc's norah o'donnell is in washington with more on the story. norah, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, meredith. this was a huge surprise. everyone thought it was the perfect marriage. but the gores say they came to this through a mutual decision, and friends say that they grew apart and there was no affair, it's just that their lives have gotten more and more separated. who could ever forget that kiss? the gores locking lips in a long embrace on center stage at the 2000 democratic convention. >> it was a way in which people could relate to al gore, not as the robotic figure they were seeing on the campaign trail, but as a real human being with real passion. >> reporter: but after four decades of marriage, and four children, and three grandchildren, the gores announced they are calling it quits. a shock to friends. >> we never want to hear news like that for a friend and somebody you care about. but i think that they've made very clear that they're good friends, that this is a decision they've come to together. >> reporter: the gores just last october paid nearly $9 million for a mansion in montecito, california. down the street from oprah winfrey's estate. their 40th wedding anniversary was just two weeks ago, and their separation marks the saddened to a storybook love affair. >> we met at a party after the prom and, wow. it was just that sudden. >> reporter: friends called it the perfect union. she was just as fun as he was formal. >> he at one point told me that their marriage was the classic case of opposites attracting. >> reporter: but their marriage was tested. tipper admitted she suffered from depression after her son, albert iii, was almost killed by a car when he was just 6 years old. >> it did scare me, yes. you hate that you have to depend on medication. >> reporter: there were other trials, like go losing the bitterly disputed 2000 presidential election. but after that tough time, gore went on to win an oscar and a nobel prize. plus he banked millions as a businessman and as a board member for apple and as an advisor to google. >> i do think in recent years in particular she was very, very much in the background. >> reporter: i talked to some of their friends who say they were really stunned about this. if you were going to bet on a political marriage that would fail, the gores would be the last one you would pick. married 40 years. now they're asking for privacy and saying that they will have no further comment. >> norah o'donnell, thank you very much. "people" magazine's washington correspondent is with us, good morning. you've been around washington. were you as shocked as everyone else? >> i was. i covered the gores in 2000. tipper at one point was reading me suggestive e-mails that they exchanged, they seemed very much in love, very openly affectionate. >> everybody is wondering why now. they just celebrated their 340th anniversary. why split up at this point? >> about a dozen of the friends we talked to yesterday said they didn't see it coming but if they thought of it more, they probably should have. the two had been living increasingly separate lives and separate schedules. tipper would be at their home in arlington photographing great falls while al was down in nashville working on his book. there was never any acrimony that the friends could see so they just took it as scheduling conflicts but say they've just grown apart. their projects had taken them in different directions. tipper loves life, wanted to have fun, and al remained a very driven man with a lot of projects and irons in the fire. >> people speculated yesterday, could there be another man or another woman involved if all of this. but friends have basically said, absolutely not. >> reporte >> with the epidemic of infidelity lately, that was the very first question. friends closest to them at first really wanted to respect their privacy and not go any further than the statement the couple put out. once they realized it was the gaping question everybody was asking, they did go back and say, there's never been a whiff of that. they firmly believe there is no thard party involved here. these are just two people who very amicably drifted apart. >> they said it was a mutual decision that they made together following a process of long and careful consideration. it's surprising then, at least at first glance, they would have purchased a home just a few months ago in california. >> again, they have the home in virginia, the home in nashville and tipper has been spending time in california. she has i think 3 of the 4 children live in california. so it can be a sort of home base for one of them, both of them when they're traveling there. they were just on spring break with all of the kids and grandkids. >> talk about the kids. four kids, three daughters and a son, then the three grandchildren. what impact do you think it will have on their kids? >> you know, family has already been living very private lives. one of the daughters already has gone through a painful divorce. we don't know much about the gore children because they have kept a very low profile. i'd be surprised if that doesn't continue. >> and you mentioned al gore obviously very busy with his business ventures and environmental work and she's been serving a lot of time with her family. where do they go from here? >> you know, he has a -- very literally, he goes to china. he's got another climate change training session in nashville at the end of the month. his calendar is already packed. she's been very active in her photography. i'm told that they'll expect their lives will still be very intertwined around their family but they're just going to make it official now that their projects have taken them in separate directions. >> that's still sad news. sondra, thank you so much. now let's get a check of the rest of the morning's top stories from ann curry at the news desk. good morning, everybody. also in the news this morning, today israel began deporting pro palestinian activists they took into custody monday in the mediterranean but the firestorm over the raid has not ended. tom aspell is in ashdod, israel with more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, ann. pressure is mounting on israel to end its three-year blockade of the gaza strip after a military operation to stop ships delivering palestini ining pale palestinians went terribly wrong. dozens of pro-palestinian activists detained in israel's raid on a flotilla bound for gaza were deported to neighboring jordan this morning. activists were captured by israeli commandos who stormed six ships in international waters off the gaza coast on monday. nine activists were killed and dozens wounded in the operation which prompted anti-israeli protested in the middle east, in australia, in europe, and in the united states which backed a u.n. call for a full inquiry. >> we support, in the strongest terms, the security council's call for a prompt, impartial, credible, and transparent investigation. >> reporter: one of the main casualties of the operation has been israel's relationship with turkey, its most important ally in the muslim world. turkey has recalled its ambassador from tel aviv and this morning, the depends of israeli diplomats in arrange corp ankara were ordered home. more ships are heading this way. israel has said they will not be allowed to proceed to gaza. a conference about peace in afghanistan today was disrupted by gunfire and at least one suicide bombing. the attack began minutes after president karzai started speaking. he was not wounded but two attackers were killed and the taliban has claimed responsibility. former president bill clinton returned to haiti on tuesday to get a progress report on its recovery from january's devastating earthquake. overseas markets are mostly down again this morning. cnbc's erin burnett is at the new york stock exchange. erin, what's the focus there today? >> two things, ann. first, warren buffett, america's richest man, is going to be testifying in front of the commission in charge of finding out what went wrong during the financial crisis. everybody is going to be listening to every word he says later this morning. second, the ceo of nissan tells the "financial times" we'll have a record year for call sales around the world. most of that coming from emerging marketplaces china and braz brazil, not the u.s. u.s. car companies have big operations there so it is good news for them. finally now, police in france are looking for suspects in a fiery heist in marseilles. they used explosives to blow off the doors of an armored cars in broad daylight and made off with more than $1 million. the good news is that no one was hurt. 7:19. back to matt, meredith and al. i couldn't help but notice that mr. buffett is in our studio this morning. >> before he goes down to washington. >> not that he had anything to do with that heist. >> no, not at all! >> because you good morning. lower humidity in place on this wednesday morning and temperatures in the 60s in the suburbs and rural areas. low 70 no, sir washington and near the bay. highs in the upper 80s with sunshine, but with stagnant air, we have code orange for poor kwarity. reduce your activity this afternoon. tomorrow partly sunny and hot and humid around 90. i small chance of afternoon storms friday and saturday. >> that's your latest weather. still ahead, more from sarah ferguson's emotional first interview since being caught trying to sell access to her ex-husband. was she really doing it all to help a friend? how did prince andrew react? but first, this is "today" on nbc. just ahead, what is it like to be the son of one of the world's richest men? we'll have peter buffett and warren buffett. free access to a certified diabetes educator... so i can ask about diet and the insulin i use. i got a free meter. and test strip discounts. so i can spend more on what i really want. i count on the freestyle promise® program. make it count for you! only the freestyle program gives you discounts, support, and more. enroll today. time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a new liquid gel. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. comes in a new liquid gel. sticking to a plan matters. especia