By Kurt Schlosser
NBC News

Zach Galifianakis warned Brian Williams that viewers would turn off a long interview piece with the actor if it aired on "Rock Center." But after watching several candid minutes with the comedian and "Hangover" star on Friday night, it was hard not to be left wanting more.

Galifianakis, the bearded comic turned reluctant big-time star, opened up to Williams about more than just the buddy-movie trilogy that has made his extended Greek moniker a household name.

They talked about life on the North Carolina farm where Galifianakis, 43, and his wife Quinn Lundberg spend part of each year. "I have donkeys. I have blueberries," Galifianakis said. "But enough about your Brooklyn apartment," Williams countered. "I asked about North Carolina."

NBC News

Cue the whistling: Galifianakis says a 6th grade visit from the man behind the iconic theme song of "The Andy Griffith Show" convinced him he should go into show business. "I remember being affected by that whistler, thinking I could maybe try to do something like that with my life. Not whistling ... but telling diarrhea jokes."

But it's no joke that life at home on the farm has framed Galifianakis' view of Hollywood and all that comes with being a celebrity. "It's not for me. I'm not into that scene," he said. "It's so stupid. It's all so dumb. It's so weird to me."

And for a man with the last name Galifianakis, there's a punchline waiting in the wings. "If I've always wanted to have my name up in lights I would have changed it to Don't Walk." Nod. Wink. Cheers.

Starring roles on television aside, it's the "Hangover" movies which did put Galifianakis' name in lights. Alan -- the portly, man-purse carrying sidekick to Bradley Cooper's Phil and Ed Helms' Stu -- is back in theaters May 23 in the third and final movie.

And any interview with Galifianakis wouldn't be complete without actually being interviewed with ferns for a backdrop, something he's turned into comedic art with his fake Internet talk show "Between Two Ferns." Williams brought the two ferns to the interview and Galifianakis was game for a lengthy chat among the plants.

"This is the longest conversation I've had with anyone in, like, seven years," Galifianakis said, contradicting his earlier directive to Williams to "do a couple of jokes and then get out."

Rock Center
The murder of Karen Cox Smith by her husband allegedly sparked both her family and the mayor of Dallas, Texas to work to curb the rising number of domestic violence cases in Dallas. At the time of Karen's murder, police had a warrant for her husband's arrest, but the warrant was never served because of a case backlog. Kate Snow reports.

Related:

Click here to visit the National Domestic Violence Hotline or call 1−800−799−SAFE(7233)

Click here to visit Deanna's Voice, the non-profit organization started by Deanna Cook's family to raise awareness about domestic violence.

Click here to learn more about The Family Place, a Dallas based organization working to prevent family violence.

Click here to learn more about the Domestic Peace App created by Tonyita and Eric Hopkins.

NBC News

Marc Fucarile, injured in the Boston bombings, and his fiancee, Jen Regan, talk to Rock Center's Harry Smith. Smith's full interview with Fucarile airs at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Rock Center
A month after the bombings at the Boston Marathon, survivor Marc Fucarile is determined to leave the hospital, though he’ll leave with one leg gone and a body full of shrapnel.

“It’s right on the surface,” says Fucarile of the shrapnel still within his body. “There’s more BBs, like, in my, I got shrapnel in my heart.  It came up through a vein and came out in my heart.”

Fucarile’s family, including his fiancée and 5-year-old son, say that the 34-year-old’s heart, while littered with shrapnel, is still as big as it’s always been.

“He’s still that strong kid with the big heart that would do anything for anyone and what they did to him that day didn’t destroy who he is,” said Fucarile’s sister, Stephanie Baron, in an interview airing Friday at 10 p.m./9 CDT on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Baron has started a fund to help her brother pay his mounting medical bills.

CLICK HERE TO HELP MARC FUCARILE

Fucarile, 34, was at the April 15 marathon celebrating Patriot’s Day when the two bombs exploded. He still remembers everything about what happened that day -- the moment his right leg was blown off and a firefighter put a tourniquet on him.

“I’m like, ‘I don’t want to die. I got a little boy and I got, you know, my fiancée. I don’t want to die.’ He’s like, ‘Just think of them. Just think of them. Keep them on your mind. Just hang in there,’” said Fucarile of the firefighter who helped him.

When Jen Regan, Fucarile’s fiancée and the mother of his son, saw him, she said she didn’t recognize his burned face.

“He was like, looked like he was 400 pounds and his skin was not his skin,” Regan said.

HOW TO HELP BOSTON BOMBING SURVIVORS HEALING FROM SEVERE LEG TRAUMA

Since April 15, one of Fucarile’s family members has stayed at his side every minute of his recovery at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“We’ve seen the progressions, we’ve seen the setbacks, but in our world, it’s still April 15,” said Fucarile’s father, Eddie.

Rock Center

The family of Dallas woman Deanna Cook is outraged it took police almost one hour to respond to her call for help, while she was being allegedly attacked by her ex-husband while on the phone with 911.

Cook's family discovered her body two days later.  The family says her death exposes a larger problem – a broken emergency response system that fails to take domestic violence seriously, especially in minority neighborhoods.  

Related:

Click here to visit Deanna's Voice, the non-profit organization started by the Cook family to raise awareness about domestic violence.

Click here to visit the National Domestic Violence Hotline or call 1−800−799−SAFE(7233)

Click here to learn more about The Family Place, a Dallas based organization working to prevent family violence.

Click here to learn more about the Domestic Peace App created by Tonyita and Eric Hopkins.

Editor's Note: Kate Snow's full report airs Friday, May 17 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

By Kate Snow, Diane Beasley, Jay Kernis, Michelle Kessel and Erin McClam
Rock Center

Friends started calling Jennifer Summers on Monday night and telling her to turn on the news: Three kidnapped women had been freed, and there was a chance that one of them was Summers’ daughter, who disappeared in Cleveland six years ago.

Courtesy of Summers family

Ashley Summers

“Oh, my God,” Summers remembers thinking. “Let’s hope it’s Ashley.”

It was not. So while Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are all beginning to adjust to open society again, and while their families can finally start catching up on lost years, the family of Ashley Summers still waits.

“It’s been a restless week,” her mother told Kate Snow of NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams. “I’ve been feeling all kinds of emotions. Happy for the girls that were found, very sad that it wasn’t my daughter, wondering when it’s going to be her turn.”

Ashley was 14 when she disappeared one day in July 2007 and never came back. She went missing just blocks from where the other girls were last seen in Cleveland, and Ashley went to the same middle school as one of them.

Click here for more from the FBI on the disappearance of Ashley Summers

She even looked similar in some ways to the other girls — on the smaller side and close in age.

“We were very concerned that maybe this was all one thing,” said Vicki Anderson, a special agent in the FBI’s Cleveland office.

But the family has heard little, except for one day almost a year after Summers’ disappearance, when her mother got a phone call. She is certain that it was her daughter on the line.

“She took one deep breath, and she was like, ‘It’s me, mom. I’m OK. Don’t worry.’ It was really fast.”

Then the phone went dead.

Her mother said she misses everything about Ashley. She thinks of how they used to stay up late and watch scary movies together — the mother always scared, the daughter never scared.

Ashley Summers as a little girl.

When Ashley reached her teenage years, her mother said, things got harder. She gave her mother a hard time about going to school, and the two sometimes fought. In the summer of 2007, just before she went missing, Ashley went to live with her great uncle.

Anderson, the special agent, said that so far  authorities have not connected Summers’ disappearance to Ariel Castro, the man charged with kidnapping the other three women and holding them for a decade.

She stressed that agents are still investigating.

“All the investigators that were on the situation this week,” she said, “everybody is aware, if you hear Ashley Summers’ name, you know, let’s get on that immediately. Everybody has been looking.”

In the meantime, the family keeps hoping. On Wednesday, Vicki Summers, Ashley’s little sister, made a video featuring all her siblings.

WATCH: YouTube video made by Vicki Summers

One of them, a 5-year-old whom Ashley has never met, introduced herself: “Ashley, I’m Tina.”

Jennifer Summers, the mother, said she thinks of her daughter a million times a day.

“These six years have been the worst six years of my life,” she said. “If I could just see her one time, it would erase all the pain.”

Click here to visit the Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Rock Center

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says that his decision to have weight loss surgery was a personal one made for his wife and children.

“Last fall, I was turning 50 and it really was a moment of reflection for me,” Christie said in an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Brian Williams airing Friday, May 10 on Rock Center with Brian Williams.  “And so I really just felt like for Mary Pat and for the kids that I needed to take a more significant step to try to get my weight under control so that I could have a really active next half of my life.”

Before going through with the surgery this February, Christie says that he consulted with Dr. George Fielding at New York University, a pioneer in weight-loss surgery.

“I said, ‘Well, do I really think I need this?’ And he said to me, ‘If you came in here with cancer and I told you that I had a 40-minute surgery that'd give you a 90 percent chance of cure, would you sign up?’ And it just really crystallized it for me.  And I said, ‘Yeah, I would.’  And he said, ‘Well, then why wouldn't you do that to cure obesity?’ Christie recalled.

Christie, who is often toted as a Republican presidential contender, has often joked about his struggle with his weight – even appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman eating a donut earlier this year. By the time of that appearance, he’d already made the choice to have Lap-Band surgery.

“I did not want to take the risk of becoming unhealthy and the ramifications that would have for Mary Pat and for my four kids.  And as you know, I still have children that are in elementary school, so I got a long road here as a father and I don’t want to miss any of it,” he said.

Adam Rivera/NBC News

The governor said that he also consulted with New York Jets coach Rex Ryan who has had lap-band surgery himself. Christie says that he’s still adjusting to not being hungry.

“The biggest thing about it for me has been I’m just not very hungry anymore and that’s a huge change for me,” Christie said. 

While there has been a noticeable reduction in the governor’s weight, Christie says he’s taking his weight-loss one day at a time.

WATCH: Chris Christie sees hope for Jersey Shore

“I’m not taking any victory lap, I’m not talking about numbers, you know, pounds, all the rest of it.  People will notice how I’m doing.”

Editor's Note: Brian Williams' interview with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will air Friday, May 10 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC News' Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Slideshow: Chris Christie

Mel Evans / AP

The N.J. politician's straight-talk and tough policies put him in the national spotlight — but after considering a presidential bid, the governor decided he wasn't ready.

Launch slideshow

By Scott Stump
TODAY

Tennis legend Jimmy Connors is revealing intimate details of relationships including a broken engagement to Chris Evert and keeping his marriage together after a public affair with another woman.

In his new memoir, Connors, 60, writes about breaking his engagement to fellow tennis star Evert in 1975. He writes that Evert, who was 19 at the time, had an abortion shortly before they broke up.

“Well, that was a certainly a decision that needed to be made,’’ he told NBC's Harry Smith in a “Rock Center With Brian Williams” interview that will air in its entirety at 10 p.m. ET on Friday. “To face that together and to go through that together was a necessity.”

Connors, who will also appear live on TODAY Friday morning, told Smith he was willing to become a father.

“I was, but, you know, accepting responsibility was something that I've always done,’’ Connors said. “I have never ever apologized for anything. I have felt if I do it, it's done. That's the way I've always gone about it, and I was brought up that way.”

In his book, "The Outsider," Connors writes: "I was perfectly happy to let nature take its course and accept responsibility for what was to come. Chrissie, however, had already made up her mind that the timing was bad and too much was riding on her future. She asked me to handle the details.

'Well, thanks for letting me know. Since I don't have any say in the matter, then I guess I'm just here to help.' "

Evert has expressed her displeasure about Connors' choice to reveal the details of their relationship in the book.

“In his book, Jimmy Connors has written about a time in our relationship that was very personal and emotionally painful,” Evert said in a statement to Reuters. “I am extremely disappointed that he used the book to misrepresent a private matter that took place 40 years ago and made it public without my knowledge.”

Connors has been married to his wife, Patti, since 1979. In his book, "The Outsider," which comes out on May 14, he writes about an affair he had that was was so public he even brought the woman to meet his mother in Illinois. Patti took him back, despite his infidelity.

Rock Center

From severe weather, to a weatherman's hiccups, to mobile medical technology, to cliché vacation photos, to a behavioral study concerning airline passengers, to the latest in comfort dog news – Brian Williams catches up on the news you may have missed this week.

Oh, and for kicks - watch that video of a Golden Retriever puppy taking a bath after the jump.

Rock Center

The rehabilitation process to recover from severe lower limb trauma can be long, arduous, and expensive.  To help those injured in the Boston bombings, the MIT Media Lab’s Biomechatronics Group is collaborating with the Mass Technology Leadership Council and No Barriers Boston Fund on two initiatives.

The first initiative involves the  Mass Technology Leadership Council working to ensure that each person is provided with the assistive and rehabilitative solutions that best address their injury.  If you have a technology that you believe could help those who suffered traumatic injuries, please contact the Mass Technology Leadership Council by clicking here.

Secondly, the No Barriers Boston Fund has been established to provide the victims with devices to allow them to lead full and active lives.  The fund will provide these individuals with prosthetic limbs specifically designed for athletic activities such as running, cycling, swimming, skiing and even dancing.  To donate to this important cause, click here.

To contribute to One Fund Boston, the fund set up by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to help Boston bombing victims and their families, click here.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Federal law requires anyone served with an order of protection to give up their guns, but it's rarely enforced at the state level, leaving domestic violence victims in jeopardy.

One community in California, though, is using a federal grant to tackle the problem -- with promising results, as a report by NBC News' "Rock Center with Brian Williams" found.

San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff John Kovach and his partner head a team that tracks down and confiscates these weapons one by one. Last year, his department collected 324 firearms and for the third year didn't have a single gun-related domestic violence homicide.

"We have shotguns, rifles, pretty much any kinda gun you can imagine," Kovach said as he displayed the contents of his gun vault.

"Right here we have a submachine gun that was actually purchased illegally in Nevada and brought into the State of California. And this was recovered during one of our investigations of a restraining order."

When someone in his county takes out an order of protection, Kovach interviews them to find out what kind of guns the other party might have. Then he goes to the home to serve the order and take the weapons.

Sometimes the owner says they don't have the weapons any longer; sometimes they say they're at a relative's home, which means another stop for Kovach and his partner.

The sleuthing and legwork is worth it, he said.

"I've worked in a lot of different areas of law enforcement," Kovach said. "They are all satisfying, but nothing like this."

He noted that responding to a domestic violence incident is among the most perilous calls for a police officer. Getting guns out of the hands of those with restraining orders means other cops -- along with civilians -- are safe, he said.

In Spokane, Wash., mother of two Stephanie Holten learned how ineffective an order of protection can be if the other person is still armed.

After she told her ex-husband she was seeing someone else, he threatened her, she said.

"He said to my face that he would come over to my house and put a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger, that he would blow my head off," she said.

She filed a police report and obtained an order of protection. Police served her ex with the order, but no one took his gun. Nine hours later, he was at Holten's door with the weapon.

"He starts yelling at me, 'I was served a protection order today and I'm going to kill you. I'm going to shoot you,'" Holten recalled.

"I'm on my knees by the living room couch and he's standing over me. And I am looking at this gun barrel."

Secretly Holten used her cell phone to call 911, and police rescued her. Her ex-husband is in prison now.

Kelly Starr of the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence said the episode could easily have had a more tragic ending.

"When there is a gun around is when we see domestic violence turn to murder," she said. "What we know is that domestic violence victims are five times more likely to be killed if there's a gun around."

Statistics like that are why Kovach believes he is making a difference.

"I know I am saving lives," he said.

Related links:

Son of a transgender author: 'I live in a normal family'

More from Rock Center with Brian Williams

Slideshow: Ecuador's Yasuni National Park

©Pete Oxford

Launch slideshow

Rock Center

Yasuni National Park in Ecuador is reputed to be the biologically richest place on earth. Its 3791 square miles are believed to contain more species of plants and animals than any other comparable area. 

WATCH: Oil boom threatens Amazon tribesmen

These photos were taken by award-winning nature photographer Peter Oxford and first appeared in "Yasuni, Tiputini & the Web of Life," a book he co-authored with Dr. Kelly Swing. Pete is a biologist who was named one of the 40 most influential nature photographers by Outdoor Photography magazine. His photo credits include National Geographic, Smithsonian, and International Wildlife. A founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ICLP), Pete works as a team with his long-time partner and wife Renee Bish, with whom he has published eight books, two of which focus entirely on the Galapagos Islands.

WATCH: Living in the Amazon: 'There's a harmony'

 Find out more about efforts to preserve part of the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador:

Yasuni-ITT

YasuniSupport.org

Amazon Watch – Ecuador

Learn more about the groups in Ecuador's Amazon Rainforest.

Editor's Note: Click here to watch Ann Curry's full report from Ecuador that aired Friday, May 3, 2013 at 10pm/9c on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

By Scott Stump
Today

When noted transgender author Jennifer Finney Boylan began the transition from male to female, she believed her marriage to wife Deedie Boylan was most likely over.

Instead, it is still going strong 25 years since the two tied the knot, and her relationship to their two sons is equally solid.

In an interview with Harry Smith that will air on "Rock Center with Brian Williams" Friday at 10 p.m. ET, Jennifer and Deedie and their son Zach talk about the changes their marriage has undergone in 25 years, the changing face of the American family, and the fear of how Jennifer's transition would affect Zach and his brother, Sean. Jennifer, an English professor at Colby College and best-selling author, also talks about her new book, “Stuck in the Middle With You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders.” Jennifer, Deedie and Zach will also appear on TODAY Friday.

“I think it's very typical for us to think that love will make us into better people, will make us into the people that we hope to be,’’ Jennifer told Smith about making the male-to-female transition during her marriage. “I really felt that that part of my life was over. But it only took a few years before the feelings returned, and returned more powerfully.”

Deedie, who married the then-James Richard Boylan in 1988, then dealt with the experience of watching her husband transition into a woman with sexual reassignment surgery in 2002.

“One of the ways that I dealt with it was to sort of say, ‘Look, I'm not your consultant on how to be a girl,’’’ Deedie said. “I didn't want her to touch my stuff. I didn't want her to wear my earrings. She got the journey of discovering who she really was, and I had to sort of watch the man I had married disappear.”

The result is an unconventional family, but one filled with love.

“If normal is a family that has a mom and a dad and two kids and a white picket fence, then no, I don't live in a normal family,’’ Zach Boylan told Smith. “But if a normal family is one where everyone treats each other as equals and with love, then yeah, I live in a normal family.”

Jennifer has written extensively about her personal experience. Her 2003 memoir, “She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders,” was the first best-seller by a transgender American.

Editor's Note: Click here to watch Harry Smith's full report that aired Friday, May 3 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Rock Center

NBC News’ Ann Curry journeyed deep into the Amazon Rainforest to a village called Bomeno in Ecuador. Bomeno is home to the rarely seen people of the Waorani Tribe. The tribe and the rainforest they call home is increasingly being threatened by environmental damage caused by oil drilling.  One of the tribesman showed Curry how to use a blow gun, a survival tool used by the tribe. 

Learn more about the groups in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest

Editor's Note: Click here to watch Ann Curry's full report from Ecuador that aired Friday, May 3, 2013 at 10pm/9c on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

A mother who lost her legs and a daughter who was critically injured in the April 15 Boston marathon attack had only been at the race’s finish line for 10 minutes -- 20 minutes, tops -- when the bombs went off.  

For Celeste Corcoran, 47, and her daughter, Sydney, 18, those brief moments devastated their lives, changing them forever. But the women tell Natalie Morales of TODAY and NBC’s Rock Center that they are determined to rebound with the help of family, friends and community.

“I will have a different life, a different reality,” said Celeste Corcoran, who lost her lower legs below the knee. “But, I really believe that if you just kinda persevere and believe in yourself, you really have to dig down deep inside and just be like, ‘I can do this.’ It’s going to be hard, but I can do this.”

The mother-daughter duo stopped by the marathon finish line that Monday after lunch to see Carmen Acabbo, Celeste Corcoran’s sister, finish the race. They were moving closer to get a better view with the explosions ripped through the crowd.

“The moment the bomb hit, I was in shock,” Sydney Corcoran told Morales. “I wasn’t exactly sure what happened. It wasn’t until, like, I was on the ground and everyone was grabbing at me that I realized something serious had happened.”

John Tlumacki/Boston Globe via Getty Images

Bystanders help Sydney Corcoran, a 17-year-old senior at Lowell High School, at the scene of the first explosion on Boylston Street near the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon.

Nearby, her mother was badly injured and her father, Kevin Corcoran, used the belt from his pants to staunch one of her wounds. He asked a stranger for a second belt to help, too.

“I just wanted to die,” Celeste Corcoran told Morales. “The thought was there  ‘cause I was in so much pain. And then I just remember thinkin’, like, I can’t. I can’t. I don’t wanna leave my family, you know. There’s still too much to do.”

Both women were taken to Boston Medical Center, where doctors raced to save their lives. They’re healing together in a shared room, but are scheduled to move soon to a new center operated by the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, said Greg John, a friend who is helping the family with publicity.

A spokesman for the center, Tim Sullivan, said between 10 and 20 victims of the Boston blasts are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

There, they’ll all begin the long road to recovery. Celeste Corcoran will work to prepare her limbs for prosthetics that will help the hairdresser return to the work she loves.

“It’s been a lifelong passion,” she said. “I can’t see myself not doing that.”

NBC News

Celeste Corcoran, 47, and Sydney Corcoran, 18, were badly injured in the the Boston marathon bombings.

Sydney Corcoran, who celebrated her birthday in the hospital Tuesday, suffered a severed artery in one leg and life-threatening shrapnel wounds. Doctors have told her that she would have died except for the help of strangers whose quick work applying a tourniquet was captured in a wrenching image after the attack.

Now, Sydney Corcoran hopes to recover enough to return to high school, go to college and pursue her dreams of a career in criminal justice. But she knows there’s a lot of work ahead.

“They think that with effort, I might be back to where I was before,” she said.

The family, which includes Tyler Corcoran, 20, is still sorting out what comes next. They have health insurance, but it’s not yet clear whether it will cover all of the medical expenses that loom ahead. An online fundraiser organized by family friend Alyssa Carter has received more than $655,000 in pledges. 

Link: Celeste & Sydney Recovery Fund by Alyssa Carter

The women have been deluged with flowers, balloons, cupcakes – and visitors, including actor Bradley Cooper, who stopped by last week, Johns said. Marines from the Semper Fi Fund visited, including an amputee with injuries similar to those Celeste Corcoran suffered.

“He came in here with his legs and I was just amazed,” Celeste Corcoran said. “He goes rock climbing. (It) sounds like there’s nothing he can’t do. Granted, he’s a few years younger than I am. But, you know, if you have the spirit and you know that you wanna do it, I can absolutely achieve it.”

Related stories:  

• Mother and daughter injured at Boston marathon bombing reunited at hospital
• 'Rapid strides': Limb advances offer hope for Boston amputees
•  Crowdfunding raises $2 million for Boston victims; critics urge caution