Results tagged “mattlauer”

The two Westchester sisters who lost both a father and a brother in the deadly Taconic crash were interviewed for the first time this morning on . The daughters of Michael Bastardi, sisters of Guy, spoke about learning of the tragic accident and their feelings on the revelations that Diane Schuler was drunk and high. Rosemary Guzzo told Matt Lauer, "This didn't have to happen. She had a choice and she made a choice."

Matt Lauer gave it the old college try with Caroline Kennedy today, using her appearance on the Today Show (to plug the Kennedy Profiles in Courage awards) as a chance to solve the ongoing mystery over why she dropped her bid to occupy Hillary Clinton's vacated Senate seat. A Vanity Fair excerpt of the forthcoming book Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died cited an unnamed "family adviser's" assertion that Kennedy's children had intervened and begged her to drop her campaign, telling her "that if she was getting this worked up just getting the job, they didn't want to see what she would be like in the trenches of a political campaign or a fight in Washington."

Lately, former governor Eliot Spitzer has been edging back into the public eye, perhaps beckoned by the siren song of public unhappiness with financial firms. He was, after all, the "Sheriff of Wall Street" during his Attorney General days, so he's parlayed that into a column for Slate, a Washington Post editorial, an appearance on Fareed Zakaria's CNN show and now a one-on-one with Matt Lauer on the Today Show.

Investors who lost their money when they entrusted it to Bernie Madoff are likely to get "pennies on the dollar, if that," according to Stuart Gerson, a lawyer with the national firm Epstein Becker & Green. Experts say that most of this year will be spent tracing Madoff's funds and accounts and that it may up to three years before victim's of his Ponzi scheme begin to received anything. Investors and creditors of Enron, which fell in 2001, were still receiving payments last year. Those with money behind that fallen corporation, possibly Madoff's only rival in financial infamy this decade, received up to 50 cents on the dollar. But while Enron owned businesses with assets that could be liquidated, Madoff's money managing firm has very little in the way of tangible items attached to it. The only person whose furor at Madoff right now might be a notch below his investors is Matt Lauer, Maddoff's neighbor in his Park Avenue building who Radar reports is being driven "bonkers" with all of the attention, yelling at photographers and is "fearful for his kids."

The Today show aired another part of Matt Lauer's interview with Alaska Governor and Sarah Palin. This one includes Lauer asking about Palin's infamous interview with Katie Couric and whether she think President-elect Obama can handle the crisis in Iraq. Yesterday's interview (video after the jump) had Palin discussing the rumors about the $150,000 wardrobe and why the McCain-Palin ticket lost, "I think the economic collapse had a heckuva lot more to do with the campaign's collapse than me personally."

Matt Lauer proved himself once again to have one of the best senses of humor of any TV journalist during his friar's club roast yesterday to benefit arts education and a new journalism scholarship in memory of Tim Russert. But all of the headlines today were swept up by the visit Lauer got from the man on the other end of one of his tensest on-air moments, Tom Cruise.

First NBC announces it's starting a 24-hour local NYC news channel yesterday--a possible competitor to NY1-- and now Matt Lauer is invading the turf of NYC TV's Kelly Choi by heading to the "secret subway station" under the Waldorf-Astoria!

This morning, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appeared on the Today show, an early morning pre-primary day media blitz, as it were. While it's unclear which Democratic presidential candidate will be victorious this fall, one thing was clear: Obama kept calling Matt Lauer "Tim."

The NYC Medical Examiner's office says Heath Ledger's autopsy is inconclusive, citing the need to more tests. Spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said, "The autopsy is inconclusive and we have to do further testing which includes toxicology and tissue testing. We expect to have results in about 10 days to two weeks."

To plug the giant hole in the network’s schedule this Sunday, caused by the WGA not giving a waiver to Dick Clark Productions for the Golden Globe Awards, NBC has handed the whole thing over to its news division.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an injured firefighter at Ave Y and Knapp St. in Brooklyn, serious trauma at the Bryant Park ice rink in Manhattan, and a stabbing at 169th St. and Linden Blvd. in Queens.
• The New Yorker collects quotes from striking writers and their supporters regarding the strike beard phenomena. Conan O'Brien, on perhaps the only physical feature that will ever help him resemble a lumberjack: "I’m the only guy chopping wood outside his Manhattan co-op.”
• Former Yankee Jim Leyritz was arrested on suspicion of DUI and DUI manslaughter after a crash in Florida last night (Leyritz's 44th birthday), which killed the driver of the car he struck.

Isn't the Internet wonderful? It lets baseball fans vote in an All-Star game player and now it lets people around the world decide what to do with a historic ball. After purchasing the ball that Barry Bonds hit to break baseball's all-time home run record, fashion designer Marc Ecko has decided to give the public a vote on what to do with the ball. On the website Vote756.com, Ecko gives voters three choices, "Bestow it. Brand it. Banish it." That's bestow it to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame, brand it with an asterisk and then send it to Cooperstown, and banish it to space via rocket.

Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo made a repeat appearance on the Today Show this morning to share her "racy" photographs with Matt Lauer. This is how the Today Show website describes the photographs, which are apparently the ones someone took from Polumbo's Facebook profile and mailed to pageant officials:

The photos really aren’t that bad, by contemporary standards, but they aren’t necessarily good for the 22-year-old theater major’s public image, either.

Continue reading "Miss NJ Shows "Racy" Pictures On Today Show"

If you're still reading the paper version of The New York Times, get ready to spend a little more. Cover prices will go up to $1.25 from $1 starting July 16th. Sunday prices will increase on July 15th, going from $3.50 to $4.00. The last increase for The Times in the New York area was in 1999. The increased prices are projected to add $7-8 million in revenue this year and $14-16 million in 2008. Home delivery prices will increase 3-4%. Time will tell whether the price increase will cause subscribers to cancel their subscriptions and read the paper online.

Sure, the Yankees have lost their fifth game in a row and are 14.5 games behind the Red Sox, but know what's more interesting: Alex Rodriguez's off-the-field activities in Toronto! The Post puts A-Rod on cover, calling him "Stray-Rod," and wondering why he was hanging out with a "mysterious, busty blonde" at a strip club AND his hotel. Apparently he went to the strip club with two other guys, but he was seen going into the Four Seasons elevator with only the woman.

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

Radio shock jock Don Imus was suspended for two weeks by CBS, which owns WFAN and Westwood One (the radio outlets his show is broadcast and syndicated on) and MSNBC, which broadcasts a televised simulcast of the radio show, over remarks he made towards the Rutgers women's basketball team. MSNBC announced that Imus would be suspended first, then CBS announced a similar suspension.

This year, the Today Show's tradition of testing its hosts' fortitude by giving them nutty Halloween costumes did not disappoint. Matt Lauer and Al Roker were Jack Sparrow and Captain Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, that is Al as Captain Davy Jones - he is squidalicious! In years past, Matt and Al have dressed as famous pairs, like Siegfried and Roy, Batman and Robin, and J.Lo and Puffy. We're surprised that NBC was cool with Matt and Al dressing as a famous Disney movie, but the Good Morning America folks didn't dress up at all. All they had were their faces carved into pumpkins and a scary interview with Courtney Love.

- Wait, that's how you spell "villain"? That's news to us!

Now that the snow is a slushy, disgusting mess, Gothamist has distance from this morning's troublesome commute (note to self: Wear wading boots and carry snow boots). But Toby at Random Observations has amazing analysis of the local news' weather coverage. Crazy graphics? Check. Maps of snowfall? Check. School closing alerts? Check. Not only did CBS take honors for being in "Weather Orgasm mode," "Dave Price made an appearance making a fool out of himself and a CBS producer in Central Park" (which is a little redundant anyway!).

Gothamist was very excited to see that Matt Lauer was in Shanghai, for his November sweeps month get-me-away-from-Katie working vacation/ biological clock experiment, Where in the World is Matt Lauer? To make scary, Communist China accessible to the West, Matt explained that Shanghai is growing so fast, and referred to a graphic showing that there are twice as many skyscrapers in Shanghai than New York, 4000 to NYC's 2000, even though Shanghai is a relatively young city (around the same "age" as Los Angeles). Yay, morning world urban history! Then we turned to Fox 5 to see where Mike Woods might be, given his Where in the World is... Mike Woods? spoof on Good Day New York. But, alas, Mike was not in Chinatown or Flushing, but in Chelsea, making chocolate with Francois Payard. And, augh! The Today show has set Maria Meneunos on the people of Shanghai, doing a lifestyle piece - we're sorry, Shanghai.

God, we love Fox 5! After 20 years, they are still the place to turn for hilariously low-budget local news. Example: yesterday, while Matt Lauer was galavanting around on Easter Island (today, he was in Panama), they sent weatherman Mike Woods to the glamorous and mysterious destination of Fort Totten, Queens (via Random Observations). Where should they send Mike next?

As the Michael Jackson not guilty verdict was announced yesterday, crowds gathered in Times Square and gasped, cheered, or just were dumbstruck. Many New Yorkers seem to believe he was guilty of something, and were surprised that he was found not guilty on all counts, but not that surprised that a celebrity was found not guilty. Some thought that the trial was a witch hunt, and one Bronx woman told the Daily News, "Michael, if you ever want to have any more babies, contact me." All in all, there was every opinion under the sun. Jackson friend Reverend Jesse Jackson did tell Matt Lauer on the Today Show that MJ should never share his bed with a young boy again; let's hope the Reverend's words ring true.

The official National Parks Department Statue of Liberty site where visitor information is available; you can make reservations for visits by calling 1-866-STATUE-4.

With 250 guests, the Lakshmi-Rushdie nuptials included Lou Reed, Steve Martin, Tina Brown, Ismail Merchant, Julie Taymor, Jay McInerney, and Diane von Furstenburg. The Wetlaufer-Welch affair had 75 guests - Vernon Jordan and Matt Lauer among them. Advantage: Lakshmi-Rushdie, especially because their wedding was in New York City, but the Wetlaufer-Welch wedding probably had a better goodie bag.

Paris Hilton is speaking publicly about the sex tape for the first time since returning from Australia (and hanging out with sea life which can't hold video cameras). The Daily News reports Paris as saying "I feel embarrassed [and] humiliated," and that she regrets the tape "especially because my parents and the other people who love me have been hurt." The DN also details her family's reaction to the situation (support, via crisis management from Dan Klores Communications) stints at various rehab clinics.

I did see J. Lo perform on the Today Show, I missed Mariah's interview with Matt Lauer. . I didn't watch the Diane Sawyer interview with Whitney Houston, but I did glean from Saturday Night Live (Robert DeNiro sucked, by the way, or at least the skits did) Weekend Update when Maya Rudolph and Tracey Morgan spoofed Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, that Whitney: 1) called Diane Sawyer, "Diane Swyer"; 2)Bobby Brown was profusely sweating; and 3) Whtiney doesn't smoke crack because it's cheap.