"I witnessed it. The plane flew over my head. I saw it fly into the World Trade Center," says Carter, who was in a limousine with his tour manager, heading to Newark airport the morning of Sept. 11. His parents were leaving on a flight ahead of his. The limo had engine trouble, and the driver had pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike. As the young man saw the conflagration in the distance, he feared it was his parents' plane.

"It was so terrifying. I'm trying to call them, and the phone's shut off. There's no clue what's going on. And we're freaking out, you know?" he recalls. "We sat in the limo and watched the buildings collapse." About an hour and a half later, he finally learned his mother and father were OK.

Since then, Carter's made a point of not letting post-9-11 fears inhibit him, and he was part of the "A Capitol Fourth" Independence Day show on the lawn of the Capitol last July before an audience of hundreds of thousands.

"Yeah, I was a little nervous. Knowing that this could possibly be one of the biggest terrorist targets in the world? It couldn't not frighten me," admits Aaron. "But when I got down to it, I felt everything was going to be fine, and I went out and had a good time."

DR. SEUSS UNBOUND: Mike Myers' "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat" won't be your grandma's "Cat in the Hat." They've expanded the "Cat" territory considerably in the Universal/Imagine film that rolls in October, with action taking place outside the house familiar to readers of the beloved children's tale. For instance, we'll see Myers' Cat hanging out at a place called Safari Sam's Big Screen Jungle - where Alec Baldwin's character will buy a TV - and where the Cat will suffer the indignity of a cigarette being stamped out on his tail.

NOT A MATTER OF MONEY: Meredith Vieira, who debuts Monday as host of the daily syndicated version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," won't say how much money she's making to step into the "Millionaire" footsteps of Regis Philbin but notes it's not as much as the $5 million per year that has been reported.

She has no problem revealing, "I would have made $5 million at CBS," had she accepted the offer to take over for Bryant Gumbel on "The Early Show." She turned that offer down, she says, "because it wasn't the life I wanted. I've done the morning news gig, and I'm not comfortable with it. I don't function well at an early hour."

On the other hand, she considers "Millionaire" "an incredible gig." She tapes three or four segments of the show in an afternoon, working three weeks out of four - which gives her plenty of time for her husband and three children and her daily morning tapings of "The View."

With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Erick Johnson. The Celebrities column appears Monday through Thursday.

-Dailypost.com