Katie Couric was invited to give the annual Class Day address at Princeton University for some reason this year. Even though I know Katie’s accomplishments make her a great candidate for that kind of honor, she’s not a Princeton alumni (she graduated from UVA), so I don’t really get it. Anyway, in her speech, Katie made a couple of interesting references. She quoted Martha Stewart (“It’s a good thing”) and name-dropped First Lady Michelle Obama, who actually is a Princeton alum. Katie also made some self-deprecating jokes about her cougar-hood, but I didn’t find that particularly interesting. The part that most people will notice is that Katie made a sideswipe at Gov. Sarah Palin, saying “Coming here was a real no brainer! After all, I can see New Jersey from my house!” Zing.

Katie Couric poked fun at her “cougar” label while giving the annual Class Day address at Princeton University on Monday.

“I’ve been called a cougar lately … but today … I’m very happy to be an honorary Tiger instead!” Couric, 52, said, referring to the school’s mascot. (Her boyfriend, entrepreneur Brooks Perlin, was 33 when they began dating in 2007.)

She then made a subtle dig at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whom she interviewed last year: “Coming here was a real no brainer! After all, I can see New Jersey from my house!”

Kidding aside, Couric told the crowd, “As you head out into this daunting job market, at least you have many illustrious alumni lighting the way.”

She cited Michele Obama as an example: “She was class of 1985, and now she’s wowing them in Washington.”

Couric continued, “There are a few noteworthy men who were proud to go to Princeton as well…a list that reads like a who’s who of American History. James Madison, John Foster Dulles, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Malcolm Forbes, James Baker….and Lyle Menendez, who’s currently serving a life sentence at the Mule Creek State Prison in California. Hey, you can’t win ‘em all!”

“Don’t be a hater,” Couric later added. “Princeton has taught you to think critically, to approach things with a healthy dose of skepticism … and that’s a good thing, as Martha Stewart would say. … Rise above the collegial nastiness and instead celebrate excellence.”

[From US Weekly]

I hope people don’t get too worked up over this. It was just a gentle joke that seemed like a Saturday Night Live castoff from eight months ago. And Sarah Palin already singled out Katie as one of the people she blames for her election loss and fraught media image, saying several months ago, “In those Katie Couric interviews, I did feel that there were a lot of things that she was missing, in terms of an opportunity to ask what a VP candidate stands for, what the values are represented in our ticket.” Let the catfight continue!

Katie Couric is shown in the header on 2/13/09 at The Heart Truth’s Red Dress Collection 2009 Fashion Show in NY. Credit: WENN.com

In the January issue of Vogue (the one with Anne Hathaway on the cover), CBS’s Katie Couric, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and CNN’s Campbell Brown are interviewed “exclusively” right after the election. All of the interviews are revelatory - from reading the Couric interview, I really get a sense that Couric was quietly rooting for Hillary Clinton in the primaries; in the Maddow article, I get a sense of how comfortable Maddow is with being an “out,” proud and non-chalant gay woman; from the Campbell Brown article, I was surprised to find out she grew up in a very Democratic Party-oriented family, yet somehow ended up converting to Judaism to marry a Republican Jew. And she’s pregnant, which I didn’t know. I watch Keith Olberman at 8 p.m., not Campbell.

Katie Couric talked extensively about how she felt like she came into her own throughout the 2008 election cycle, the finale of which was her up-until-three-a.m. election night live coverage. She also gets retrospective and introspective about Hillary Clinton, and how Sen. Clinton’s journey reflected her own.

Any discussion of Katie Couric raises the specter of sexism, not just for our apparent resistance to seeing a lone woman read the evening news and our fixation on female appearance but, more tellingly, because of the complicated relationship we have with high-profile women. Commenting on the Couric phenomenon, columnist Liz Smith cites “Elizabeth Taylor’s idea about the yo-yo theory of success. When you’re down, they pull you up; when you’re up, they pull you down.”

Indeed, Couric’s career trajectory as CBS anchor closely resembles Hillary Clinton’s as presidential candidate: A distinct Schadenfreude greeted Couric’s tumble from the ratings grace she enjoyed at NBC (”Alas, Poor Couric: But Pity Her Not” was the title of a New York magazine cover story), as if her hubris in aiming high (not to mention her dizzying salary) deserved to be punished. This was followed by a fierce protectiveness when she was attacked: We wanted to see Couric, like Hillary, chastened but not persecuted.

[From Vogue]

Couric also goes in-depth about her now-infamous Sarah Palin interviews. The interviews were the first serious “vetting” Gov. Palin had received from the mainstream media. Post-election, some of the gossip coming out of the McCain campaign suggested that Couric was selected for Gov. Palin’s first media roll-out because the McCain campaign viewed a female journalist as being more sympathetic (i.e. “softer”) to Gov. Palin.

“An interview like that doesn’t come along very often,” Couric says now. “It was sort of a perfect storm in terms of timing, interest, my approach, all working together to make it impactful.”

While many liberals credit Couric, ably assisted by Tina Fey, with taking Palin down, Couric herself is adamant that the merit of the interview lay in her determination to “remain nonjudgmental. I was just a conduit to get her point of view out there.” Asked what went through her head as she asked the questions, she says, “I haven’t really talked about this.…It was fascinating for me to watch her formulate answers, and clearly she was struggling in some of the areas we discussed. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to say what she read.…But really I just wanted to listen to what she said.”

[From Vogue]

Other than the conversion to Judaism and the pregnancy, Campbell Brown’s interview is a little boring. But I am obsessed with all things Rachel Maddow, my imaginary “girlfriend.” The Rhodes scholar, Stanford graduate and “out” lesbian had a hit show the same week “The Rachel Maddow Show” premiered this September, in the nine p.m. timeslot after Olberman. Maddow talks a bit about wearing her liberalism on her sleeve, but still wanting to hold “bad ideas,” regardless of party affiliation, to account.

…What happens to a liberal commentator when a liberal ticket wins the White House and the Democrats control Congress? “I guess I’m interested in making fun of bad ideas, regardless of who has them,” she says. “Obviously you don’t want to randomly scour the world for bad ideas. You want to respond to influential bad ideas. So if you end up in a situation where there isn’t a loyal opposition, where the Republican Party is in disarray and isn’t really surfacing in the discussion, then they won’t be the people I’m making fun of. I will be making fun of the Democrats or the supposed experts.” In other words, an Obama presidency does not change what you might call her quest. “I’m interested in making fun of bad guys, wherever I find them,” she says…

At Stanford, she wanted to be an AIDS activist. At Oxford, in the late nineties, she helped start an AIDS-treatment activist group. She returned to America to write, and in the meantime fell into, first, local radio in Massachusetts, then Air America, which led to MSNBC. Now, on Friday afternoons, her partner, Susan Mikula, an artist, is waiting outside the NBC studios, ready to drive to the Berkshires; there, not too far from a river, they enjoy TV-free weekends—so TV-free, in fact, that Maddow had to ask a friend about The Colbert Report. She also consults with Mikula about what she should wear on cable.

[From Vogue]

Judging from the mainstream media’s reaction (or over-reaction) to the whole Blagojevich scandal, and whether it has anything to do with Barack Obama, I don’t think Maddow is alone is finding enough “bad ideas” in both parties.

Katie Couric is shown on 11/20/08. Credit: WENN

Katie Couric has a little bit of terse advice for Sarah Palin if she wants to be seriously considered as a candidate in the next election. Although Katie is pretty nice about it, it basically amounts to, “Acquire some knowledge and be less dumb. Then people will take you seriously.” But the sentiment is wrapped in much more polite language.

CBS anchor Katie Couric thinks Sarah Palin has a thing or two to learn about politics before she contemplates a White House run in 2012. “I think she should keep her head down, work really hard and learn about governing. But I’m not anyone to give advice to anyone about anything,” she told Page Six at Glamour Magazine’s 2008 Women of the Year Awards dinner at the Essex House. Although her interview with Palin made the Alaska governor look dumb (while rejuvenating Couric’s flagging career in the process), Couric won’t give herself too much credit. “I was really just a conduit that allowed her to air her views,” she said. “I don’t want to judge. I’ll let the voters do that.”

[From Page Six]

It didn’t seem that Palin was very well prepared for her interview with Couric. As Celebitchy pointed out, she was unable to name newspapers or magazines she read – and aside from Roe v. Wade, she couldn’t list any Supreme Court decisions she disagreed with. She also gave a long speech to Couric about how John McCain is a reformer and does what needs to be done regardless of popularity.

Palin talks almost entirely in generalizations, forcing Couric to keep pressing her, saying, “I’m just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point: specific examples in his [McCain’s] 26 years of pushing for more regulation.” To which Palin responds, “I’ll try to find you some and I’ll bring ‘em to ya.” She’s not a person who’s great with concrete examples and/or specifics. Couric was nice about her advice, and she’s got a good point.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Here’s Katie Couric at the Stand Up to Cancer Benefit in Hollywood on September 5th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

According to pretty much everyone you ask, Katie Couric is on her way out as host of the CBS Evening News. Well, everyone but CBS that is. The network – and Couric’s people – are all insisting that everything is well and good. However both traditional and internet media have been buzzing all week that Couric will be let go right after the inauguration in January – if not sooner. Everyone seems to have their own thoughts on why the Evening News has had such lackluster ratings under Couric – but no matter what your theory, one thing is undeniable – they’re not getting any better.

Now names of potential replacements are being bandied about – and the name at the top of the list is CNN’s silver fox, Anderson Cooper. In fact it seems CNN and CBS might be considering a trade of sorts. Apparently that happens in both sports and evening news. Who knew?

Katie Couric for Anderson Cooper? A blockbuster trade of TV superstars was floated Friday by TV insiders as a solution to CBS’ Couric problem. Cooper, CNN’s prematurely gray prince of cable TV, would replace Couric as the anchor of CBS’ “Evening News.” He already is a contributor to CBS’ “60 Minutes,” they said.

And CNN will eventually need to replace the iconic Larry King, who is 74. Why not Couric, who remains a marquee talent despite being a $75 million flop for CBS, the insiders said. “Take Katie off the ‘Evening News,’ let her do Larry King, and then let Cooper anchor,” one network source said.

Couric, 51, has said only that she was “working hard and having fun” since word broke this week that she was heading for a humiliating exit after just 18 months as anchor. During her tenure, CBS has been mired in third place in the ratings and, as a result, cost the network millions in lost revenue.

[From the New York Daily News]

NBC’s David Gregory is also being considered as a possible replacement anchor, and both Harry Smith and Bob Schieffer are potential interim candidates if Couric bolts before the inauguration. And considering just how much gossip is being e-whispered, I couldn’t blame anyone for wanting to sit through another nine months of speculation.

Somehow Katie’s style does seem to make more sense in an in-depth interview show. And it sure as hell is time for Larry King to retire. Maybe she could bring a little respectability back to that show. And Anderson Cooper shines wherever he is. Maybe it’s the gray hair… maybe the blue eyes… or the blue shirts that accent the blue eyes just so… but I digress. This is about important newsy things. Anderson could bring much-needed viewers back to the CBS Evening News. And my cable service is kind of spotty, so I’d really prefer he move to network television. And that’s a damn good reason right there.

Remember when that story came out that there were nude pictures of Demi Moore being held for ransom by a Parisian cab driver after Ashton Kutcher supposedly left his cell phone in a cab? We never saw those photos, so maybe that story was bullshit, or perhaps Ashton payed dearly to protect his wife’s image. (snicker)

The latest issue of our favorite tabloid, The National Enquirer, has a story claiming that there are even more cringe-worthy photos possibly coming. 50 year-old gummy-grinning newscaster Katie Couric is being blackmailed for $1 million over photos that her 33 year-old boytoy, Brooks Perlin, left at a party. Katie’s camp claims they’re just friendly vacation snaps, but why would someone try to extort a million bucks out of Katie for some tame personal pictures?

“Intimate” snapshots of Katie Couric romping with her hot young sweetie Brooks Perlin have been discovered in a camera that Katie left behind at a party, insiders say.

Now sources say the pictures are in the hands of a person who’s demanding a whopping $1 million to return them… !

“The personal photos have been described as ‘intimate’ - and Katie obviously never wants them to be made public,” a source told The Enqurier.

“While there are no nude photos of Katie, she looks anything but the anchor of a network newscast in them. They’re candid pictures taken on trips and dates with Brooks.

“If these photos make their way to web sites and blogs, it could be very embarrassing.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, December 3, 2007]

So is Katie wasted in these pictures? Is she wearing lingerie or posing seductively or something? I want to know!

The Enquirer broke the story of the Vanessa Hudgens nude pictures before they got out, so they could be on the money with this one.

Katie has been dating triathlete Brooks Perlin for a little over a year. He has his own business selling green materials to construction companies and lives in Connecticut. The NY Post called him a “serial dater of older women” and claim he’s a creep who checks out every woman who walks by.

Katie has said to have had rage problems in her post at CBS, and she’s said to go off on her co-workers and staff. An article this spring suggested she was boozing to cope with stress.

I hope this story is true and that these photos come out soon. It’s about time Katie Couric had a scandal.

Katie is shown on 10/16/07 at a Project ALS event, thanks to PRPhotos.

New York magazine has a great interview with Katie Couric this week. In it, she talks about her decision to leave the “Today” show for CBS news. Everyone in the media had her under a microscope; Vanity Fair even did a photo montage of the different outfits she wore, critiquing each one. Couric acknowledged, “’I’ve gone through a bit of a feeding frenzy and there’s blood in the water and I’ve got some vulnerabilities.’” It seems other people really didn’t think she’d make it.

“CBS chief Leslie Moonves promised Couric that together they would shake up the show’s formulaic format. But, so far, putting Couric’s morning “Today” show touch on the nightly newscast has been a bust. Couric came under intense scrutiny from the moment her deal was announced: Some CBS staffers didn’t think she was serious enough for the job. Even former anchor Dan Rather piled on, saying CBS was “dumbing down” and “tarting up” the broadcast.”

[From the Daily News]

Ultimately, it’s clear that Couric is tough enough to withstand the initial pressure. With any job, there is a learning curve. Now imagine how stressful that would be when you have millions of people watching you… assuming you’ll fail? Katie spent 17 years on the Today show. That’s got to be hard to adjust to such a dramatically different environment. I don’t see how CBS could expect great ratings at first; not only did Couric have to adjust to being more serious, but they were also trying to revamp their news format and make it a bit less stodgy. Thus there was change all around, and that can be hard for people to adapt to right away.

Katie points out that it was clear to here that people were (and maybe still are) rooting for her to fail.

“’I think that bugs people even more that I’m not a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown,’ she told the mag. ‘It’s probably disappointing to some people. Because in the arc of the story, that’s what they want to see.’”

[From the Daily News]

Personally I appreciate her honesty. I don’t think there’s much value to pretending everything is fine when it’s not; and there were so many incredibly vocal critics talking about how poorly the show was doing that she really didn’t have anything to lose by acknowledging that it’s all a work in process. I hope the show ultimately gets better. I don’t think there’s wrong with making the news easier to understand if that’s what some people need to stay informed.

Katie Couric is shown in the header image at a Museum of Television and Radio event honoring Leslie Moonves and Jerry Bruckheimer on 10/30/06.

People is covering Katie Couric’s six month romance with a 33 year-old triathlete who is 17 years her junior. They have a typical feel-good story about how they met at a cancer benefit last September and have a “drama free relationship.” Brooks Perlin he had a privileged upbringing in Connecticut and is now an entrepreneur with his own business selling green materials to construction companies.

I wasn’t going to cover this, but The Enquirer has a three page story about Katie’s ongoing problems as the ratings for The CBS Evening News tank under her anchorship. They say her new hot relationship is a bright spot in her otherwise troubled life and that she went into a jealous rage after boozing heavily.

The perky news anchor has a tendency to go off on minions and co-workers, according to The Enquirer, which says that people who work with her fear her temper.

Katie is bragging to pals about the hot sex she’s having with the athletic Perlin, but she’s jealous when other women talk to her man, is really messed up over her career and just can’t keep it together:

“Katie loves to describe all the sex they are having, but she’s clearly conscious of the age difference between them. She keeps asking people if they think Brooks looks older than he really is.” [revealed a source close to her]

“There was an incident after Brooks accompanied Katie to one of the Super Bowl parties thrown by CBS.”

Katie had been boozing, and she took a limo back to the… hotel where she was staying.

“But when she got up to her floor, she was a mess. She was crying so hard that her mascara was streaming down her face.

“She began banging on the room of another staffer, asking to be let in so she could talk.

“It turned out Kate was upset that Brooks hadn’t come back to the hotel with her. They had separate rooms, but Katie had no intention of sleeping by herself.

“She claimed Brooks had spent too much time talk to her female colleagues at the party.

“Katie raged: ‘I left him talking to all those women, and he didn’t come back with me. I’m going to cancel his room! He can forget about seeing me!’”…

The next day Katie calmed down and she and Brooks were seen walking around the hotel today. And now Katie is even more determined to make the relationship work. She even dumped her previous steady beau, billionaire beer baron Jimmy Reyes, for Brooks.

[From The National Enquirer print edition, April 23, 2007]

The article goes on to say that Katie was heartbroken to learn that her sister in law Marilyn had died from blood poisoning. Katie was on vacation in Mexico with Perlin and his family when she learned the sad news. Her husband Jay Monahan passed away from colon cancer in 1998.

The Enquirer claims that Katie is all over the place since she learned that her sister in law died. She also can’t cope with the stress from her job. According to the rag, she suffers severe mood swings, and can “fly into a rage… over the smallest of things.” Her co-workers are said to have a bet about who she’ll go off on next.

The ratings are tanking for CBS News since she became anchor, but they’re also down at The Today Show since she left. If her latest job doesn’t work out, Katie has her sights on an interview talk show like Oprah’s.

Whatever is going with Katie, who can blame her for having trouble coping after her sister-in-law died? I kind of like to imagine her being this tyrannical diva at work and I hope that part is true. Good for her for bagging a hot young guy. It might not last though, The Post reports that Perlin is a serial dater of older women, and that he’s worked for “three Connecticut-based hedge funds in the past five years and has been out of work since September.” They also say he is one of those creeps who checks out every woman that walks by, according to two different sources.