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Matt Lauer’s worst week ever

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:54:00 +0000

Cheer up, Matt Lauer. The week's almost over. Of course, the past few months haven't exactly been a picnic for the handsomely paid host of the "Today" show. But did Al Roker tell him that his forecast for late March would be a severe crap storm?

Now in his 20th year as NBC's main man in the morning, Lauer was long considered near-invincible. He was good-looking enough to lure bleary-eyed morning viewers, possessed a gravitas that enabled him to cover serious political stories and interview heads of state, but was also playful enough to invite the audience to go on a worldwide treasure hunt searching for… him. In the halcyon Katie Couric era, "Today" seemed precisely what America wanted for breakfast.

But it's been a rocky public relations period since. Last year, there was the awkward, much-rumored courtship between Lauer and ABC, while his home network allegedly dangled his "Today" show seat before featherweight Ryan Seacrest. Lauer ended his dalliance with ABC and stayed on "Today" when NBC made him the highest, most grudgingly paid morning anchor in television history. Meanwhile, until she was clumsily shown the "Today" door, there was Lauer's on-air partnership with Ann Curry -- a textbook example of whatever the German word for "the opposite of chemistry" is.

What should Steve Kornacki wear?

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:50:00 +0000

Our magnificent Steve Kornacki was recently busted for wearing the same sweater on "The Cycle," the MSNBC show he co-hosts, by BuzzFeed's Dorsey Shaw . The Huffington Post then piled on. Steve protested -- they're actually two different sweaters, he claims -- but still. We thought he'd appreciate some outside advice here, and asked our favorite fashion experts to pluck from the recent fall 2013 fashion shows for looks that match Steve's stellar, sparkling intellect.

Here are their choices, below. Vote your favorite in the poll that follows:

1. Clinton Kelly, host of TLC's "What Not to Wear," recommends Dries van Noten:

"It's got a deep V to elongate his face a little. Good for layering other shirts underneath. He seems to like gray but at least this one has some texture. It's classic, comfortable and upscale."

Marissa Mayer can work if she wants

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:35:00 +0000

The concern trolling about Marissa Mayer started long before her son was born earlier this week. It began last summer, at precisely the moment the world learned she'd been named Yahoo's new CEO — and that she was pregnant. Her announcement then that "My maternity leave will be a few weeks long and I’ll work throughout it" made for all kinds of morning news show banter and tsk-tsk opinion pieces about how this accomplished, educated woman was clearly in waaaay over her knocked-up head. And now that she has brought forth her issue, and Yahoo has stated, "She will be working remotely and is planning to return to the office as soon as possible (likely in one to two weeks)," it's time for the pundits to stick their noses in her placenta yet again.

This week at New York, Ann Friedman takes Mayer's story — and the very real issues of insufficient paid maternity leave and the "professional repercussions" for those who do take time off — to leap off the rails with the radical case for "mandatory" parental leave to "normalize" family time for new parents. Making people stay home with babies — that's way more progressive than making them go to work, right?

What liberal Hollywood?

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 18:25:00 +0000

Jonathan Chait’s New York magazine piece, “The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Is on Your Screen,” props up the very tired, and very dangerous, notion that the product of Hollywood is liberal. Here’s how you refute it:

Think of almost every movie you’ve ever seen.

Seriously. Once you do that, the product of Hollywood, i.e., the movies, is revealed to be as white as the Republican Party, as violent as a neocon’s wet dream, and as monogamous as no one’s wet dream.

The GOP propagates an absolutist vision of good vs. evil? Hey, so do the movies! The GOP is dominated by white men? Most movies star white men! With guns! And when bad guys gather, there’s one thing Hollywood and the GOP agree on: Keep the diplomats out because they’ll just screw things up with their words. Stupid words. Who needs words when you can kick some ass!

Forest, trees

Chait’s thesis is a textbook example of not being able to see the forest for the trees. Here are some of his trees: