You know how dumb I am? I’m so dumb that it’s taken me this long, where I just realized a few minutes ago that Angelina Jolie chose the timing of her mastectomy announcement to just after Mother’s Day. I didn’t even put that together before now. That her choice was about her mother and how Angelina wants to be around for her children, and she chose to announce it 24 hours after Mother’s Day (in America). Anyway, I’m not sure what to make of this story – sources claim that Angelina wants to play her late mother in a bio-pic produced by Brad Pitt?

ANGELINA JOLIE is to play her own mother in a film to be made by loyal partner Brad Pitt. The star, who last week revealed she has undergone a double mastectomy and now plans to have her ovaries removed, will play Marcheline Bertrand, who died from ovarian cancer in 2007.

The biopic celebrating her life goes into production next year with Brad’s company Plan B.

Long before her daughter emulated her, Marcheline was deeply involved in humanitarian work, helping women Afghan refugees and launching the Give Love Give Life organisation to help fight gynaecological cancers.

Angelina, 37, is still haunted by her mother’s suffering and death aged just 56. She had the drastic surgery after discovering she carries the faulty BRCA1 gene, which gave her an 87 per cent chance of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent chance of developing the ovarian cancer her mother succumbed to. She is now planning to have a hysterectomy too.

Angelina describes her mother as “grace incarnate”. She said recently: “I feel blessed that she was around to see both my brother and I in a nice place. She waited till everyone was OK. Then she closed her eyes.”

[From Express UK]

Everyone is reporting this but I can’t find the original source. Who claimed this first? I don’t know. Sources say the bio-pic will go into production next year. While I am interested in Marcheline’s life – she always sounded like a lovely woman – I’m not sure what kind of interest there would be in a bio-pic? It’s a beautiful thought of course. But… how about a documentary? That would seem more logical, right?

Additionally, Radar has a funny/weird story about Ann Curry and Angelina. After dumping Ann and treating her poorly over and over again, NBC bosses are now begging Ann to score the first interview with Angelina post-mastectomy. Jolie and Curry are especially close – Angelina has gone to Ann with many exclusives over the years, so much so that I consider Ann to be the Head Brangeloonie Journalist in American media.

Ex-TODAY show cohost Ann Curry has been asked by NBC’s top brass to secure the first interview with Angelina Jolie after she stunned the world with the announcement that she’d secretly had a double mastectomy, RadarOnline.com has learned.

The award-winning journalist — dumped from TODAY last summer — has interviewed Jolie, 37, numerous times over her careers.

Now, news division chiefs at the Peacock want Curry, 56, to capitalize on that close relationship and “convince her to give her first television interview about the procedure,” said one source. The network is prepared to offer the Academy Award-winning actress a two-hour, primetime special for the interview, along with airtime on TODAY, the insider added.

“Ann would be prominently featured in all of the promotions and publicity if Angelina agreed to do it,” the source said. “Angelina made it known after Ann was demoted from TODAY that the only journalist to interview her from the Peacock network would be Curry.”

All of the major networks, including ratings-challenged CNN, are clamoring to get the first interview with the mother-of-six, another television executive revealed, noting 60 Minutes, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Cynthia McFadden have all expressed interest in securing the interview.

“Her first television interview will be a ratings bonanza,” the insider said.

Unfortunately for NBC, however, a source close to Curry told RadarOnline.com that she isn’t doing a full court press to secure the tell-all.

“Ann just doesn’t operate that way,” the source said. “Of course she’d love to do the interview with Angelina, but she isn’t going to exploit her friendship with her to get it. Ann has sent flowers to Angelina and reached out to Brad Pitt’s camp because Jolie doesn’t have a publicist. If and when Angelina is ready to discuss the possibility of doing the interview, she knows how to reach Ann.”

[From Radar]

I could see Angelina giving her first interview to Ann, but perhaps only as some kind of Dateline special, or some kind of special evening programming as opposed to something for the Today show. Of course, I could also see Angelina wanting to go with Anderson Cooper (who is also a friend and a Brangeloonie) on CNN or 60 Minutes. Or she could with someone with a medical background like Dr. Sanjay Gupta. I actually think Sanjay is probably in the mix – he’s interviewed her before, his medical background is impeccable and she would really be able to discuss her surgeries in depth.

Photos courtesy of Time, WENN.

Last week, The NY Times did an extensive piece on Ann Curry’s treatment at NBC just prior to her unceremonious ouster last summer. It was an article by Times staff writer Brian Stetler, who also has a new book out on the Today Show’s PR crisis called Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV.

Of course Ann got the ultimate revenge when The Today Show tanked in the ratings afterwards and the public saw Matt Lauer as a philandering big bad wolf. There was some attempt at damage control on Matt’s part, particularly when everyone realized that the ratings dip wasn’t temporary, but it was too little too late. The Times article confirmed some statements that Ann made (before she was demoted/fired) about how bosses wanted her to dye her hair and wear sexier clothing. They also mocked her style, comparing her to Toucan Sam and Big Bird. In the Times’ version, Ann was bullied and demeaned at work, and was ultimately let go when she wouldn’t play ball for the old boys’ network. There’s more in that article about the politics and players involved, and its an interesting read.

So it’s telling to me that Ann was finally given some brief screentime on NBC last week. Of course Ann’s demotion was presented to her as a lateral move to more serious news, but she’s barely been seen on NBC since. After the Boston Marathon Bombing she was on NBC briefly, but a source tells Radar this was damage control for that Times piece and book:

Ann Curry reported live on NBC News Friday night, as part of the team covering the capture of Boston marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. it was the first time Curry has been on the Peacock net live in nine months!

“The decision was made to put Annie on air live at last minute with Brian Williams after suspect # 2 was taken into custody. The network wanted to send message in wake of bad p.r. for TODAY show this week, that Annie wasn’t being hidden in a broom closet,” a source close to the situation tells RadarOnline.com exclusively.

Curry was last seen live on air since the July, 2012 mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

As RadarOnline.com has been reporting, the explosive new book, Top of the Morning, has documented the terrible treatment Curry received from her co-workers leading up to and even after she was dumped from her TODAY co-anchor spot.

[From Radar Online]

Well I like that this is coming out now, that we’re hearing how horribly Ann was treated. I was hoping for a better career for her, for some kind of serious news position on another network. I believe that her contract change at NBC locked her into this vastly diminished role with them. We’ve heard that she’s trying to move to CNN but that NBC wants to bar her from working for another network for at least six months. So no matter how they try and spin it, they’re still trying to put the screws to Ann. I wasn’t a real fan of her on-air style, but NBC has treated her incredibly unfairly. That seems to be how they’re known for doing business.

These photos are from 2012. Credit: WENN.com

Earlier this week, The Daily Beast ran an interview with Matt Lauer on what happened at the Today Show nine months ago during Ann Curry’s perfunctory firing. It was way too little, too late and it was clear that higher-ups at NBC didn’t want Matt Lauer to take the fall for it. He took some modicum of responsibility, but the story went that Ann had to go and that it wasn’t Lauer’s doing. He said “I don’t think the show and the network handled the transition well. You don’t have to be Einstein to know that. It clearly did not help us. We were seen as a family, and we didn’t handle a family matter well.”

So Lauer wants us to know that he wasn’t responsible for the way Ann was ushered out, but that weak gesture isn’t going to do much for him. The Today Show has been way down in the ratings and now it’s clear that Matt is the problem. He’s about to get ousted too although he’ll probably have to wait until his fat contract expires next year. I guess Ann didn’t have that protection built into hers. The NY Times has a pretty juicy piece about the goings-on at NBC, and how everyone thinks Matt is the problem.

Staff members at NBC’s “Today” show huddled for a performance review last month, 10 months after the longtime morning show leader first fell behind ABC’s “Good Morning America” in the ratings. The mood was anxious, according to several attendees, as network executives discussed the findings from focus groups with hundreds of viewers.

The employees were reassured that “Today” viewers didn’t want their show to turn into “Good Morning America,” the ABC rival that has become Americans’ No. 1 choice in the mornings. But then they were told this: “What matters most is the anchor connection to the audience; what we need to work on is the connection.” As the word “connection” was repeated, some people in the room started to chuckle because of a name that went unspoken: Matt Lauer.

“What they meant was Matt. But no one would say it,” said a senior staff member who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Lauer was not there, but it is clear that the once-popular host’s relationship with his audience is in peril. Last April, Mr. Lauer signed a contract said to be worth $25 million a year, the most lucrative deal in the 60-year history of morning television. And then the bottom fell out.

The following week, “Today” fell to second place in the morning ratings for the first time in 16 years. When his co-host, Ann Curry, was forced out over the summer, it was Mr. Lauer and not network executives who shouldered most of the blame.

Since then, his popularity among viewers has plummeted and NBC has been forced to deny what was unthinkable a year ago: the rumor that Mr. Lauer, 55, who first took over the co-host chair in 1997, could soon be replaced by a younger host like Willie Geist, 37, or David Gregory, 42…

The employees spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution from Mr. Lauer and their bosses. They all agreed that his contract, thought to keep him at “Today” through at least 2014, would be his last.

[From The NY Times via Radar]

Willie Geist, 37, is the lead contender to replace Lauer, and The NY Times reports that before that happens they’ll probably bring in another anchor so that the audience isn’t so focused on that a-hole Matt and how much of a smug jerk he is. I’m adding a bunch of adjectives in there, but that’s the subtext. Maybe Lauer isn’t totally to blame for the way Ann got shafted, and maybe other people were behind it too, but he just highlights how unfair the whole situation was. Plus it’s not like he was advocating for her in any way, and you get the sense that if she would have dressed sexier and flirted with him, that would have happened. It’s about time he got knocked off his high horse.

The fallout continues from last year’s unceremonious ousting of Ann Curry from her co-host spot on NBC’s “Today” show, and this is truly a blood bath if there ever was one in a morning show context. Due to Matt Lauer’s inability to hide his own fakeness and insincere attitude towards Ann, Matt is largely seen as the reason Ann was removed from her position and demoted to a global correspondent where she is rarely seen on-air. As a result, Lauer’s brand has taken a huge hit, and ratings are down. We’ve already heard some attempts at damage control, but it’s too late because even the “Today” staff hates Matt now.

So Matt sat down with the Daily Beast to try and patch up some of the ongoing bleeding that has resulted in “GMA” taking over the #1 ratings spot over the past several months with Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos drawing 5.8 million viewers in comparison to 4.8 million for Today. Matt really doesn’t appear to understand why he’s catching a lot of the blame for Curry’s departure. While Matt freely acknowledges that he was against Ann’s promotion from the news desk in the first place, sources within the article make the half-hearted claim that he tried to convince NBC bosses to slow down the and give Ann more time before reducing her role, but they didn’t listen to him.

The article is rather comprehensive and includes details of how Matt had met with Katie Couric to basically beg her to come back to “Today.” What I don’t get is this — if Matt was so instrumental in reaching out to Katie on behalf of NBC execs, why does he think we’ll believe that he essentially had nothing to do with Ann’s ousting? Like, he’s saying that he had no authority to tell bosses to get rid of Ann, but we know better than that. Viewers even apparently yelled at him on the street about his role in the process, but Lauer still maintains that none of this mess was his doing and that, further, it was the NBC bosses’ idea to buffer Ann’s departure with the notion that it was her idea. That she wanted to “return to her first love, which is reporting.” What a mess, right? Here are some excerpts from the Beast’s talk with Matt:

On the onset of post-Curry backlash: “It was a hard time for everybody. We were getting kicked around a lot. Some of it was self-inflicted and perhaps deserved. I don’t think the show and the network handled the transition well. You do’’t have to be Einstein to know that. It clearly did not help us. We were seen as a family, and we didn’t handle a family matter well.”

He’s sad but wants to make a new “Today” show: “I’m not going to whine or get depressed. Who’s going to feel sorry for me? Nobody.” Besides, he says, “I am the luckiest guy I know. In some ways being No. 2 in the ratings is a real shot in the arm, a kick in the pants. It makes you hungrier … I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have a fire lit under your ass.”

Lauer says he tried to warn Ann: “Lauer and Curry had a candid talk over lunch at the Four Seasons. He acknowledged she hadn’t been his first choice for co-host, but said that was in the past. Curry said that both Lauer and the show would take a hit if she was thrown overboard, and he agreed. Lauer suggested that she try to get a meeting with Burke and resolve the situation. He also advised Curry, who didn’t employ an agent, to hire one quickly.”

Viewers expressed their displeasure directly to Matt: People would stop Lauer on the street and complain about Curry’s banishment. While Lauer was riding in a London elevator at the Olympics, an American woman got on, saw him and said: “I hate what you’ve done. I will never watch you again.” Such incidents left him shaken.

[From The Daily Beast]

Of course, everyone who watched Ann cry on her last day as co-host knows very well that her demotion was not her choice. The NBC execs just didn’t consider that morning show viewers grow very attached to the same faces — Ann was with “Today” for 15 years as a correspondent, then as news anchor, and finally as co-host. While Ann was good on the news desk, she didn’t have the right tone to be a co-host; yet to replace her with milquetoast Samantha Guthrie was a ridiculous move, and I honestly can’t believe they couldn’t find anyone better. Some of the local news anchors in my city have more personality than this chick. Anyway, the viewers were very partial to Ann even if her interviewing skills weren’t so great, and NBC (with key involvement from Lauer) really messed up in a possibly irrepairable way with her sudden departure. Suck it, Matt.

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News and WENN

Back in the mid 1990s, Matt Lauer was NBC’s golden boy when he took over “Today” anchor duties from Bryant Gumbel, but now, he’s pretty much dirt, and I think he’s finally beginning to realize this fact. Matt’s brand was damaged, perhaps irrepairably, when he basically got Ann Curry fired from her co-anchor position. Ironically, ratings have fallen since Ann’s departure, which has led to “Today” losing its leading spot to “GMA,” and Matt has faced a rumored paycut as a result because “Today” bosses suspect that he’s the reason for fallen ratings. What’s more, the “Today” staff is said to hate Matt for what he did to Ann, and even Al Roker jokes that Matt throws people under the bus for his own benefit.

Now Ann, who has been relegated to a much lesser position and very little NBC airtime, has received an offer to take over Anderson Cooper’s 8pm timeslot on CNN. In a strange move, Matt is said to be campaigning NBC bosses to let Ann out of her contract so she can make the move. Suspicious?

Matt Lauer is telling his bosses at NBC that his former TODAY co-anchor Ann Curry should be let out of her contract immediately so the respected journalist can take a job at CNN, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.

“Matt thinks that NBC should let Ann out of her contract so that she can take the CNN gig,” a source tells Radar. “He can’t imagine why the bosses are dragging their feet and are at a stalemate. It would allow Ann to get back on the air on a regular basis and everyone can move on from the debacle. Matt only wishes Ann the best and thinks it’s for the best if she were to take a job at another network.”

As previously reported, almost two weeks after Ann notified NBC executives that she wanted out of her contract, her bosses are still keeping her in the dark about whether they’ll release her so she can go to CNN.

Curry is hoping to make the move in February where she’d join her former TODAY boss Jeff Zucker, who is now running the cable news network.

Zucker has his eye on Curry to occupy Anderson Cooper‘s current 8 pm EST time slot.

Since Curry’s disastrous departure from TODAY this past summer, ratings on the once-dominant morning program have continually declined, allowing ABC’s rival Good Morning America to capture the #1 spot.

[From Radar Online]

I really think that Matt’s intervention in this matter on behalf of Ann is a clear attempt to repair his own reputation in the eyes of his co-workers and the public. If his strategy works and Ann goes on to flourish at CNN, then he can always step up later and say, “See? I helped her get there.” I can even envision a future Friar’s club roast in Ann’s honor where Matt makes “jokes” about their past rumored kertuffle. He’s such a self-serving douche.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN

As you’ve probably heard, The Today Show’s ratings have only fallen since Ann Curry was replaced as co-anchor by Savannah Guthrie. Curry was summarily dumped because Matt Lauer didn’t want her around and she was an easy scapegoat for the morning show’s falling viewership. Now that ratings continue to drop, someone needs to take the blame and it’s falling squarely on Matt Lauer’s overinflated head. An former insider at NBC tells The NY Daily News that Matt Lauer needs to step down in order to save the show. After how he treated Ann, his “brand is damaged” and there’s nothing they can do to fix it. How does the shoe feel on the other foot, Matt?

TV industry insiders say no amount of NBC executive reshuffling can save the embattled “Today” show — until its longtime co-host throws in the towel.

Lauer has been blamed for the show’s ratings woes, which intensified in June when co-host Ann Curry was suddenly ditched and replaced by Savannah Guthrie.

“This problem is not going to go away until Matt Lauer does,” a prominent former NBC News exec told the Daily News on Tuesday. “He’s great, but fairly or unfairly, his brand is damaged.”

The sentiment comes just as a new production team is poised to take over “Today,” which has fallen into second place this year behind archrival “Good Morning America” in the cutthroat ratings race.

Alexandra Wallace, 46, a TV news veteran with morning show experience and a senior vice president at NBC News, will take charge of the show in the near future. She will appoint a new executive producer to replace Jim Bell, who has been running “Today” since 2005.

Bell was behind the unceremonious ouster of Curry.

Competitors like ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “CBS This Morning” are celebrating the move, claiming that Wallace is no turnaround expert.

“Nothing’s changed here,” an industry competitor said of Wallace, a mother of two young children.

“She was put in charge of (Brian Williams’ prime-time magazine) ‘Rock Center’ just earlier this year, and they’re still rock bottom in prime time.” As a top executive at NBC News, she has also had a hand in the slow-motion “Today” ratings collapse.

“They just keep throwing layers of management on this problem,” another competitor said.

[From The NY Daily News]

It’s worth noting that the source here is a “former” NBC executive, and that Matt might still have the current execs under his creepy spell. Someone must like him over there to have put up with his ego and (alleged!) infidelities with female co-workers.

Radar has a related story today that suggests that may no longer be the case. They say that Matt is butting heads with his new boss, Andrea Wallace (mentioned in the article above), and that she isn’t firmly in his corner. Apparently Wallace is mixing things up in an attempt to boost ratings and she’s “a big advocate of Ann Curry’s.” She’s replacing the guy who pushed Curry out (allegedly!) at Matt’s urging. This guy has needed an ego check for years and it looks like it’s finally coming.

Matt Lauer is shown out on 7-17-12 (credit: Hector Vallenilla, PacificCoastNews.com) and grabbing up on Pink on 9-18-12. Photo with Savannah Guthrie is from 8-23 (credit: Dan Jackman./WENN.com)

Does anyone else remember when Matt Lauer was promoted to co-host (replacing Bryant Gumbel) from the morning news position? It happened during the mid-to-late 1990s, and I remember enjoying the “Today” show to such a bizarre degree that I actually scheduled my college classes so that I could watch the program before leaving for the day. If it tells you anything at all about my change of heart, I haven’t sat down to watch the show for over a decade (although I do sometimes catch Kathie Lee & Hoda’s drunken antics later in the day at the gym). Back in the day, Matt seemed rather humble, and I recall that (after a few weeks in his new position) he spoke quite candidly of his fear that ratings would plummet immediately after he started co-hosting. Obviously, that didn’t happen because (I think) at that point, Matt was seen as an earnest, good guy who only reported straight news, and Bryant was quite the large-headed diva who was leaving for greener pastures (his own show).

Fast forward about fifteen years, and now Matt (according to Page Six) has “turned into an anchor animal.” Further, he’s said to be “making all editorial decisions, he’s running the show and he’s not listening to anyone … it’s a huge problem.” Matt is said to be losing his mind over “GMA” winning in the ratings against “Today” for the past several weeks, and one has to wonder whether Matt’s own attitude has anything to do with the fact that viewers are tuning out. Further, the show’s staff hates him and want him replaced with Lester Holt (which won’t happen), and even Al Roker doesn’t like him anymore either because he threw Ann Curry under the bus. Regardless of whether or not Ann was right for the co-host position, she was obviously treated poorly by Matt, who supposedly made it part of his contract renewal that she’d be fired. Then viewers watched Matt feign sympathy while Ann shed real tears over losing her job. As it turns out, viewers don’t soon forget who the real douche is, and falling ratings mean that Matt will soon be asked to take a “significant” pay cut. He deserves it.

Matt Lauer will be asked to take a significant pay cut if TODAY ratings continue to decline, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.

“Matt Lauer will be asked to take a significant cut in his $25 million salary if TODAY doesn’t win the key November sweeps,” a source close to the situation tells Radar. “The May and November sweeps dictate how much the networks can charge for advertising and they are extremely important to the bottom line. The TODAY show had always been a cash cow for NBC, generating hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.

“Comcast, which now owns NBC Universal, is going through the budgets of each show and right now, they are focusing on the news division. Matt’s salary is the biggest part of the TODAY show’s budget and with Good Morning America now routinely beating them, it’s just hard to justify that salary.

“Matt is under contract so it will have to be a voluntary decision, but the argument will be made that if he doesn’t agree to lose some of his salary then people’s jobs will have to be cut. Bottom line is money will have to be saved somewhere and he will be asked to do the ‘right thing’ by his staff.”

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Lauer’s popularity with viewers is in a free fall. According to the influential Q Scores, his “likability” has plummeted 25 percent in just 12 months.

Q Scores are one of the most important factors companies use in deciding where to advertise, and the organization’s analysis of Lauer mirrors an internal study done at NBC, according to The New York Daily News.

The likability collapse covered the year when Meredith Vieira left Lauer’s side on the morning show’s anchor desk, to be replaced by Ann Curry and then by Savannah Guthrie.

“It raises a flag,” Henry Schafer, Executive Vice President of Q Scores, told The News. “These morning shows are driven by personalities — so there’s a real challenge out there for NBC News.”

Recently, “The Tonight Show” cut 20 to 25 staffers and host Jay Leno took what is being called a “tremendous” pay cut to prevent even more lost jobs. The development is believed to be a result of NBC being acquired by Comcast and execs there demanding that everything at the network be streamlined.

Meanwhile, staffers of TODAY “are extremely nervous that there are going to be lay-offs, and no one believes for one second that Matt will go along with a pay cut. Matt’s contract is iron-clad and he can’t be forced to take a pay cut,” the insider told Radar.

[From Radar Online]

Do you think that Matt will accept a pay cut? Probably not. In his eyes, he’s the entire “Today” show, but he doesn’t realize that he’s the main problem these days. All he wanted was to get rid of Ann, who he saw as dead weight, and the irony is that Ann may not have been perfect for her job, but her departure has resulted in steadily falling ratings. Odd how that works, right?

In the meantime, the Media Decoder blog (of the NYT) has gotten an inside scoop that MSNBC’s Willie Geist will be hosting the 9 a.m. hour of “Today” and filling in for Matt whenever he’s away. Looks like he may be lined up as a future replacement, but I doubt Matt would ever leave. His ego would never let him do so.

Photos courtesy of WENN

We know that Al Roker can’t stand Matt Lauer, because he pretty much said – on air – that Matt threw Ann Curry under the bus by having her fired. Well it turns out that a lot of other people who work at The Today Show also hate Matt Lauer and think he’s dragging the show down. Radar has run several insider stories recently about The Today Show, which has flailed in the ratings and is now being bested by Good Morning America. They claim that some of the producers and most of the staff want “Diva” Matt Lauer gone, because he’s difficult to work with and will stab you in the back. Here’s more:

“Staffers and producers at the TODAY show hold Matt Lauer responsible for the continued decline in the ratings because they hold him responsible for Ann Curry being fired,” a source close to the situation tells Radar. “The staff wants Ann to be brought back and want Matt replaced with Lester Holt, but they know the odds of this happening are slim to none, because executives at the network have no interaction whatsoever with the TODAY show staff.

“Lester, like Ann, is very respected by the staff and is always a true class act. If Lester had been in Matt’s shoes he never would have told the executive producer and honchos at NBC to fire Ann. Lester and Ann report the news, period, and don’t engage in backstabbing antics…

“Matt is absolutely standing by Savannah despite the fact that Good Morning America has routinely been beating the TODAY show in the ratings,” a source previously told Radar. “Matt believes that the audience just needs to get comfortable and familiar with Savannah and viewers will return to the show that had been counted on by the execs at NBC as ratings gold. Matt, Savannah and fellow cast member Natalie Morales are all extremely close and have been referred to as the Three Musketeers. They often go to press movie screenings and can often be found in Matt’s office discussing stories and just goofing off. Matt has a very adoring female fan club in Natalie and Savannah.”

Meanwhile, Good Morning America has beaten TODAY in the first full week after the Olympics, rocking numbers of 4.654 million over TODAY’s 4.399 million, according to ratings released on Thursday.

[From Radar]

So Matt, Savannah and Natalie Morales are thick as thieves and the staff is calling them “the Three Musketeers”? That makes Savannah’s promotion suspect, especially when you consider the rumors that Natalie was/is sleeping with Matt, but that she got passed up for co-anchor because Matt’s wife put her foot down about it.

About two weeks ago, Radar had a similar story about strife on set, with the news that there are longterm producers of the show who want Lauer fired. These are probably some of the same staffers mentioned in the newer article above, and Radar is likely getting this from the same source.

“There are several producers that have been with the TODAY Show for a very long time, over ten years, and Matt Lauer is now hated by them because they feel that he is responsible for Ann Curry’s being fired. Ann was tremendously popular with the producers, cameramen, and other staffers of the show because she truly is a team player. Ann was all about the news, and breaking stories, just a true pro,” a source close to the situation tells us.

“Matt on the other hand has been known to act like a real diva. The staffers are disgruntled because they were looking forward to working with Ann during the Olympics and she ended up relegated to very limited camera time and didn’t even appear until several days before the games ended,” the source says.

[From Radar]

As the article mentions, I doubt that Lauer will get canned anytime soon – he’s been with The Today Show too long. Plus they need continuity after ditching Ann and replacing her with Savannah. I don’t think the problem is Savannah by any means, it just sounds like no one at The Today Show is getting along, and that they’re not producing segments that are entertaining enough to draw ratings. People behind the scenes aren’t motivated to be at the top of their game when upper level management plays favorites and treats people poorly. At least there are still people there who are respected by staff, like Holt and probably Roker.

Meanwhile, remember that poorly-timed interview that Ann Curry gave just prior to the announcement that she was being “reassigned” at NBC or basically phased out, as we’ve come to find out? Ann told Ladies Home Journal that she was criticized by Today producers for not dyeing her hair and for wearing clothes that were too bright and not feminine enough. Well she got a severe talking-to by “several high ranking NBC executives.” Radar’s source claims that “They didn’t rake her over the coals for her comments, but the message was definitely clear… no more negative comments about the network.” Because the network can say whatever it wants about Curry, but she better not defend herself.

Photo credit: WENN.com

Throughout the years, it became clear that Ann Curry was a full-fledged Brangeloonie. A Brangeloonie recognizes the lunacy in others, and I have to admit, Ann never really hid her Brangeloonie-status. To give Ann some credit, I think Angelina Jolie chose to give Ann many exclusives because Ann was known to be a sympathetic (and easy) interview. Angelina must have talked Ann up to Brad Pitt, because Brad began giving exclusives to Ann Curry for a while too – until Ann began fondling him during an interview at the Cannes Film Festival a few years ago, after which, I don’t think Brad ever sat down with Ann again. Still, Angelina and Ann were still friendly, and now Radar claims that Angelina has (privately) declared her allegiance to Ann Curry, and Jolie says she’ll never give an interview to NBC again if it’s not with Ann.

In the days after Ann Curry was sacked from her co-host gig on the TODAY show, Angelina Jolie reached out to the veteran journalist and told her if NBC wanted an interview with her, or fiance Brad Pitt, it would be conducted by Curry, and definitely not any of the current cast of the embattled morning news program, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.

“Angelina reached out to Ann Curry after she was fired from her gig on the TODAY show and was very clear, if ANY news program from NBC wants an interview with her, or Brad, Ann will be the only one to do it,” a source close to the situation tells us.

“Angelina has tremendous respect for Ann because of the work she has done on bringing awareness to Darfur. Ann has developed a professional relationship with Angelina and Brad, and they trust her implicitly because of her integrity. Their working relationship has developed into a friendship, and it meant the world to Ann that Angelina had reached out to her. Angelina made it clear to Ann that no one from the current TODAY show cast would get an interview with Angelina or Brad, and with rumors of an upcoming wedding for the couple, NBC will lose any interviews with the actors in the future if Ann isn’t allowed to do it,” the insider added.

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Nielsen ratings released Monday indicate ABC’s Good Morning America beat TODAY last week, despite huge momentum for the NBC morning program, which was coming off two dominant ratings weeks with their exclusive coverage from the London Olympics.

GMA beat TODAY by an average of 162,000 viewers, according to the Nielsens, as TODAY only won Monday out of the five-day week. TODAY had squashed GMA during the two weeks of the Olympics by an average of more than 1.5 million viewers a week, but lost all five weeks in the ratings battle prior to the games in London.

Furthermore, Matt Lauer is “hated” by several long-time producers of TODAY and the crew is in turmoil, all as a result of the morning show host having pushed NBC executives to dump Curry as his co-anchor.

“There are several producers that have been with the TODAY show for a very long time, over ten years, and Matt Lauer is now hated by them because they feel that he is responsible for Ann Curry’s being fired. Ann was tremendously popular with the producers, cameramen, and other staffers of the show because she truly is a team player. Ann was all about the news, and breaking stories, just a true pro,” a source previously told us.

“Angelina doesn’t have a publicist, she never has, and she hand picks who she does press with. Angie doesn’t like how Ann has been treated by NBC. Yes, she is a very busy mom of six, and her work as an actress and activist, but she has been very aware of what is going on with her friend. Angelina told Brad he should let Ann interview him for all of his work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and Brad feels the same way about Ann that Angie does,” the insider says.

[From Radar]

I keep hearing that NBC higher-ups and Today Show staffers are having “buyer’s remorse” with Ann’s replacement, Savannah Guthrie. I don’t think Savannah is actively bad or anything – she’s bubbly and cute, and she and Matt Lauer flirt with each other on air often. But there is something lacking. Of course, there was something lacking between Lauer and Ann too. Despite all of the stories about how everyone “misses” Ann now, I really don’t think NBC would ever admit their mistake and ask her to come back. Not even if Angelina Jolie threatens to withhold exclusive interviews. More likely, Angelina will just go somewhere else with little effort – like, she’ll start to give her exclusives to Anderson Cooper, or Katie Couric at 60 Minutes, or Good Morning America or whatever.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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I’ve never been a fan of Ann Curry. She comes across as humorless and dull, and I don’t think she was suited as a co-anchor for a morning talk show. That said, NBC did her wrong, and they did it very publicly by canning her unceremoniously, not even airing a nice clip reel featuring her best moments on The Today Show, and then making the announcement that she wasn’t suited for the job, basically. Matt Lauer is said to have been behind it, and to have made it a part of his contract negotiations that Ann would be let go. The very obvious body language between Ann and Matt on her sad last day seemed to confirm this.

Well NBC claimed that they weren’t really firing Ann and that they were giving her a hard news role that was more suited to her talents. She did contribute to the coverage of the Aurora tragedy, but it’s clear from how little we’ve seen her that her on-air duties have been massively scaled back. She was supposed to be covering the Olympics, and so far we’ve only seen her once. (I think she should have interviewed Lolo Jones, who clearly needed a shoulder to cry on, but of course Ann’s replacement Savannah Guthrie was given that gig.)

Ann was on The Today Show yesterday in a special segment in which she interviewed the chief photographer for Getty images, a 35 year-old Australian guy aptly named Adam Pretty. (That video is above.) This is the only Olympic assignment Ann has been given so far, and there are rumors that she’s been kept off the air. Ann’s one segment was actually really fascinating, in that the photographer for Getty shared his techniques and mindset in capturing some truly amazing moments at The Games. (Some of his photos are at this link.) People were more interested in what happened outside the interview, when Ann got introduced by Matt Lauer, seemed to take pains not to look at him, and kept her legs crossed the other way. Sources tell Radar that Ann wouldn’t look at Matt off stage either, which I believe.

Meanwhile we’re hearing more about what happened behind the scenes at Today. The print version of Ann’s interview with Ladies Home Journal, given before she was ousted at The Today Show, has come out. (We covered earlier excerpts, but these are new.) Ann told the magazine that she was basically instructed by Today producers to sex up her image (she didn’t use those words, but it’s implied) and she refused. She stuck to her guns when it came to her fashion and not dyeing her gray hair, and her bosses were not pleased. Here’s more:

Curry said Peacock Network officials didn’t like that she had grey hair, thought her wardrobe was frumpy and wanted her to wear “ridiculously high heels” during her time as an anchor with the TODAY show.

Curry said when she wore clogs and flats into the studio, it didn’t “go over very well with my bosses,” and in one instance, she was compared to breakfast cereal mascot Toucan Sam when wearing a colorful dress on the air.

As for the greying, Curry, 55, said, “I’ve got gray hair because I won’t dye it: I want to be about to honor my family by looking exactly as they did as they got older … I think showing some grey is authentic … true beauty is a face you have lived in.

“Of course I want to look my best: I eat right, exercise and use skin cream. I try to wear nice clothes. But I don’t want to change the fundamental parts of me, because it means changing who I am.”

[From Radar Online]

I still can’t believe she’s 55! Ann just wasn’t a good fit with The Today Show, but she got made into a scapegoat and fired when NBC should have worked on fixing the show instead of thinking replacing Ann would solve all their problems. Since Ann left, the ratings for The Today Show have remained low, something a source tells Radar makes Ann feel “completely vindicated.” They add that “She feels she was fired completely unfairly and wasn’t given a fair shot at the gig.” Ann wasn’t all of the problem by any means, but she wasn’t right for the job either.

Also, if NBC wasn’t going to give Ann enough work to do, why didn’t they just sever ties with her instead of making a bunch of promises about how her job would change and then giving her basically nothing to do? It’s probably because they didn’t want to give her a huge severance package, but it just makes them look shadier than they already do. NBC is definitely on my sh*t list, which sucks because I still love some of their shows. (Namely “Community” and “Parenthood,” which will both probably get thrown under the bus in the upcoming season.)