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Ann Curry Says She’s 'Not Surprised' About Matt Lauer Allegations


During a highly anticipated interview with CBS This Morning, veteran journalist Ann Curry said she wasn’t surprised by allegations of sexual misconduct that brought down her former Today co-host Matt Lauer. In fact, Curry added that she felt most of her female colleagues understood that a “climate of verbal harassment” existed at NBC, where she worked until 2015

On Wednesday, Curry sat down with CBS This Morning to promote her PBS docuseries, We’ll Meet Again. The conversation inevitably turned to her disgraced former co-host, and Curry was asked if she believed Lauer abused his power at NBC.

“I’m trying to do no harm in this conversations,” Curry said. “I can tell you that I’m not surprised by the allegations.”

When CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King pushed her about what her comments meant, Curry was evasive, but she explained, “I’m walking down that road I’m trying not to hurt people. I know what it’s like to be publicly humiliated, I never did anything wrong to be publicly humiliated, and I don’t want to cause that pain to someone else.”

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Still, Curry was willing to speak out against a pervasive culture of harassment that she says she observed at NBC, saying, “I would be surprised if many women did not understand that there was a climate of verbal harassment that existed. I think it would be surprising if someone said they didn’t see that. It was verbal sexual harassment.”

Curry added that the effect #MeToo has had exposing sexual misconduct is long overdue, and said she hopes people focus on supporting women who have bravely come forward with so many disturbing allegations.

“We’re talking about the scandal, the scandal, scandal. What about the victims? What are we going to do to remove the stigma and the shame? What are we going to do to make sure these women work and are not sidelined and prevented from contributing to the greater good that we all are trying to do?” she said.

Curry left the Today show in 2012, following rumors that she’d a contentious relationship with Lauer and that he had been behind her ouster. Speculation intensified when NBC aired Curry’s tearful goodbye to Today viewers; in the clip, Curry visibly flinches after Lauer kisses her cheek.

Curry continued working at NBC until starting her own production company in 2015. Lauer, meanwhile, was fired from NBC last November after colleagues accused him of sexual harassment. He’d been the Today show’s anchor for more than 20 years.



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Katie Couric Just Opened Up About Working With Matt Lauer on the 'Today Show'


In November, Matt Lauer was fired from the Today show on NBC after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. Multiple women have spoken out about their inappropriate experiences with the news anchor, though one voice in particular remained silent in the media. Katie Couric, who co-hosted the Today show with Lauer for 15 years, did not immediately make a statement after her former coworker was fired—she said in December that she would wait to comment until she felt ready to. Now, she’s opened up about her thoughts on the matter.

“The whole thing has been very painful for me,” the news anchor told People on Saturday. “The accounts I’ve read and heard have been disturbing, distressing and disorienting, and it’s completely unacceptable that any woman at the Today Show experienced this kind of treatment.”

She went on to explain that she never experienced any inappropriate behavior.

“I had no idea this was going on during my tenure or after I left,” Couric said. “I think I speak for many of my former colleagues when I say this was not the Matt we knew. Matt was a kind and generous colleague who treated me with respect. In fact, a joke I once made on late-night television was just that, because it was completely contrary to our brother-sister relationship. It’s still very upsetting. I really admire the way Savannah [Guthrie] and Hoda [Kotb] and the entire Today Show staff have handled a very difficult situation.”

The joke she referred to is one she made on Watch What Happens Live. She told Andy Cohen that Lauer’s most annoying habit was that “he pinches me on the ass a lot.”

Couric is currently working on a National Geographic documentary series called Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric. “One of my Nat Geo episodes explores the various obstacles that are holding women back in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond,” she said. “I just interviewed Elisabeth Moss about this. Harassment is just one part of the equation.”

“I think it was really moving to see so many women support each other and demand change, not only for themselves, but for mistreated and marginalized women in all kinds of industries,” she said about the Time’s Up movement, “Clearly we are witnessing a sea change and a long overdue course correction.”

Related Stories:
–Matt Lauer Reacts to Hoda Kotb Replacing Him as ‘Today’ Coanchor
–Matt Lauer’s Problematic Past With Women On NBC
–300 Powerful Hollywood Women Just Launched Time’s Up, a Massive Antiharassment Action Plan



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Katie Couric Just Broke Her Silence About Matt Lauer


Last week, former Today show host Matt Lauer was fired from NBC due to allegations of sexual misconduct. The reports added him to a long list of powerful men who have recently been accused of sexual harassment. And although some women who have previously worked with the anchor have spoken out against him, Katie Couric—who co-hosted the Today show with Lauer for 15 years—has remained noticeably silent. Until now, that is.

On Friday she posted a photo on Instagram of herself and her daughter Carrie. An angry commenter attacked Couric for not speaking up about Lauer, saying,“I want time back I spent watching!!!!! and you have nothing to say. Crickets. People hear you loud and clear though.”

Shortly after, Couric replied to the comment: “It’s incredibly upsetting and I will say something when I’m ready to. Thanks for your interest.”

Couric should, of course, speak up if and when she feels ready to—that’s her own, personal choice to make, not a commenter’s.

Accusations against Lauer include claims that he used a button under his desk to lock his office door to avoid being caught harassing women and an accusation that he gave a sex toy to a coworker with a description of how he would use it with her. These reports add to a list of problematic behavior with women both on and off the air. Lauer has apologized for his actions, admitting that there is some truth to the allegations.

Couric referenced Lauer’s inappropriate sexual conduct on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live back in 2012.

“You cohosted the Today show with Matt Lauer for 15 years,” Cohen began. “What is Matt’s most annoying habit?”

“Hmmm…” Couric said. “He pinches me on the ass a lot.”

Related Stories:
–Watch Matt Lauer Participate in an Awkward Sexual Harassment Parody From 2012
–Meredith Vieira Once Found a ‘Huge Bag of Sex Toys’ in Matt Lauer’s Dressing Room
–This 2009 Matt Lauer Interview With Sandra Bullock Is Seriously Creepy





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The Jokes Made at a 2008 'Secret' Matt Lauer Roast Will Turn Your Stomach


As former Today show cohost Matt Lauer reportedly hides out in the Hamptons, the media is having quite the time digging up public and private moments from his past that illustrate that his improper behavior has been going on for long time. Of course there’s the creepy archival Today footage of interviews with actresses like Anne Hathaway and Sandra Bullock. And now there’s news of a “secret” roast of Lauer at New York City’s Friars Club back in 2008 that is downright disgusting, especially in light of his firing for “sexual misconduct in the workplace.”

So roasts are, by nature, fairly raunchy affairs, often filled with off-color jokes. But the reports from the Lauer roast, originally published in the Village Voice and recently resurfaced by the New York Post, are next-level wrong.

Let’s set the scene: First of all, you could probably write a term paper that simply analyzes the guest list. The Today team at the time was all there including Al Roker, Meredith Vieira, and Ann Curry. Lauer’s former cohost Katie Couric, Today alum Bryant Gumbel, future president Donald Trump, Tom Cruise (who once had a famously tense on-air moment with Lauer), Bob Saget, Martha Stewart, and then chairman of NBC Universal Jeff Zucker were all in the room. Oh, and Nancy O’Dell. Yes, the Nancy O’Dell who Trump is talking about when he says he “moved on her like a bitch” in the infamous Access Hollywood tape. Now, that’s a room filled with many headline-making names in the latest wave of harassment scandals.

And then there are the “jokes.” Some of these are hard to read, so beware. Cameras and recorders were banned from the event, but a Village Voice reporter was said to have taken copious notes under a table. Ann Curry, with whom Lauer reportedly had a contentious relationship, was the butt of many jokes, including one reportedly from the man of “honor” himself: “What’s with all the small-d— jokes? It was fun to look over and see Ann Curry laughing…like she doesn’t know how big my d— really is.”

I barely have words—but it just gets worse. Martha Stewart is reported to have said, “I hear NBC executives call Matt the ‘Cock of the Rock.’” Does that sound like somebody who executives should have been “shocked” to find out was inappropriate at the office? Zucker, Lauer’s boss at one time, has said he knew nothing of Lauer’s behavior but allegedly said this at the 2008 roast: “It’s just good to see Matt up here and not under my desk. I don’t want to say Matt’s a germophobe, but he’s the only guy I know who uses Purell both before and after he masturbates.” You know what else was under his desk? A button that allowed him to lock the door without getting up.

It’s all nefarious AF and makes it very hard to fathom that nobody knew what was going on at 30 Rock. One media executive who had attended told the Post, “This was a comedic roast, but there was clearly a vein of truth running through all those jokes. You had Katie Couric, Meredith Vieira, and Jeff Zucker all standing up there joking about his sex in the office, his kinkiness. They all knew.”



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Kathie Lee Gifford Says 'No Person Is Perfect' and Calls for Forgiveness for Matt Lauer


Yesterday, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb opened the Today show on a somber (and shocked) note as they announced the firing of their co-host Matt Lauer over sexual misconduct accusations. Guthrie was obviously distressed by the news but also expressed her heartbreak for the woman who had come forward. “This is a sad morning at Today and NBC News,” Guthrie said. “As I’m sure you can understand, we are devastated. I’m heartbroken for Matt. He is my dear, dear colleague. And I’m heartbroken for the brave colleague who came forward to tell her story and any other women who have their own stories to tell.”

She added: “This reckoning that so many organizations have been going through is important, it’s long overdue, and it must result in workplaces where all women—all people—feel safe and respected.” Hotb concurred.

As the day, and the show, went on, her other co-hosts weighed in with Al Roker saying he was “still processing” while the newest addition to Today, Megyn Kelly, said that this one hit close to home but, “”But when this happens what we don’t see is the pain on the faces of those who found the courage to come forward, and it’s a terrifying thing to do. We are in the middle of a sea change in this country. An empowerment revolution,” Kelly added. “As painful as this moment is for so many here at NBC today, at CBS earlier this month, at Fox News over the last year, in Hollywood this fall, it is a sign of progress. Of women finding their voices, their courage and of the erosion of a shameful power imbalance that has been in place for far too long.”

But it’s Kathie Lee Gifford’s comments that are drawing fire from both men and women on Twitter. Gifford, who is always quite open about her Christian faith, commented that she had been praying for Lauer. But it was what came next that has everyone in an uproar:

“I’m grappling with, should I even share something? But I guess I
really should. I don’t feel that Matt has betrayed us in any way at
all but when I found out that my husband had betrayed me, you question
your own judgment. You say, ‘Was everything a lie?’ And I think we
have to very much fight against that, that the man we know and adored
was the man we loved and adored and continue to. I texted him this
morning and said ‘I adore you and no person is perfect in this world.’
Nobody is. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, is
what scripture says. And what we need now is forgiveness and mercy for
one another. And We don’t need taunts and we don’t need ugliness. We
have enough of that in the world.” She continued by sending her love
and God’s blessing to the person who came forward, to Matt, his
children, his wife saying the one thing she’s sure of in her life is
the only God can heal it.”

The betrayal she’s referring to is the infidelity of her late husband, Frank Gifford. And while it’s all well and good that she chose to forgive him, the situation between Lauer and his accusers is not the same thing. Not to mention that sweeping the multiple accusations quickly aside with a nobody’s perfect, let’s all just get along mentality is a disservice to the women who suffered at his hand.

Twitter, as you might imagine, was not having it.

Here’s hoping Gifford can read the room a little better when she hits the air at 10 a.m. Thursday.





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Matt Lauer Has Broken His Silence on Sexual Harassment Allegations


Following his swift termination from NBC’s Today, Matt Lauer has broken his silence about sexual harassment allegations that have been brought forward against him.

Taking the form of a statement read by Savannah Guthrie at the start of Thursday morning’s broadcast, Lauer’s remarks acknowledged and apologized for some, but not all, of his reported behavior:

“There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I
have caused others by words and actions. To the people I have hurt, I
am truly sorry. As I am writing this I realize the depth of the damage
and disappointment I have left behind at home and at NBC. Some of what
is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is
enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed.
I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly.
Repairing the damage will take a lot of time and soul searching and
I’m committed to beginning that effort. It is now my full time job.
The last two days have forced me to take a very hard look at my own
troubling flaws. It’s been humbling. I am blessed to be surrounded by
the people I love. I thank them for their patience and grace.”

On Wednesday, Guthrie and fellow co-host Hoda Kotb began Today with an announcement that Lauer had been fired following “a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.” Though NBC News Chairman Andy Lack told employees that it was the first complaint of this nature to be filed against the former anchor, “we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”

Not long after news broke, Variety published a shocking report detailing Lauer’s alleged sexual harassment—which included gifting a sex toy to one female coworker (alongside a note detailing how he planned to use it on her) and installing a button under his desk that could lock his door remotely (one that he reportedly used to keep women in his office without fear of interruption).

The New York Times further reported that at least two additional women filed complaints with NBC following Lauer’s termination—including one woman who said that he sexually assaulted her in his office in 2001.





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