That foolish eight-second pause in the doc led to a $12 million lawsuit filed against me personally, probably because it would garner more press. It was ultimately dismissed. Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia gun group, would later get duped by Sacha Baron Cohen posing as an Israeli security expert. Somehow Baron Cohen’s character, Colonel Erran Morad, convinced Van Cleave to film a bogus infomercial called “Kinder Guardians.” There’s Van Cleave promoting firearms for toddlers concealed in stuffed toys, like the “puppy pistol.” Yes, it’s as insane as it sounds. I felt vindicated.
Back at the Polo Bar, I watched Donald Trump head for the exit, on his way to becoming the leader of the free world.
87
Palooza on the Plaza
THE WEEK OF January 2nd, 2017, I filled in for Savannah Guthrie while she was on maternity leave. It was weird sitting in my former TODAY show dressing room, now full of photos of Savannah and her friends and family, her trinkets, her books （including an inscribed copy of Megyn Kelly’s Settle for More; yes, I peeked）， her clothes, her stuff. But I loved seeing the crew, so many of whom had been a part of my daily life for 15 years. It was crazy to hear that Rope, one of my favorite cameramen, was now a grandfather; that Mark Traub, the stage manager I adored, whom viewers could often hear laughing heartily in the background （even when we hadn’t said anything all that funny） was thinking about retiring. That Jennie, the teleprompter operator, whose banged bob had turned silver, was planning her daughter’s wedding and wanted me to do a video message for the reception. “Where’d the time go?” we asked, shaking our heads.
At the top of the show, we told viewers not to adjust their sets. I shook Matt’s hand, greeting him with a salutation worthy of the Kiwanis Club: Hi! Katie Couric! Damn glad to meet you! I said getting back in the anchor chair was like riding a bike.
But things were different. The set had been given a facelift—the brass-trimmed wooden desk that I’d sat behind was now modern and white with an orange TODAY show logo in front. In addition to the greenroom, they now had an “orange room,” where viewer feedback and Twitter posts were shared, a nod to new media. And rather than divvying up interviews, the co-anchors conducted them together, which I found odd. It was hard to get into a rhythm and ask follow-ups. But it was no longer my show, so I got with the program.
The main event came Friday—Matt’s 20th anniversary at TODAY, for which the team had planned a Lauer-palooza on the plaza.
When we headed out at 8:30, he trotted through a gauntlet of cheering staffers wearing navy T-shirts bearing a big white number 20, with their hands out for him to slap and grab—a manscaped Odysseus returning triumphant from the Trojan War （I half expected them to start chanting All hail Matt!）。 Just like my final TODAY show 11 years earlier, it seemed a bit much. But to be a constant presence in the world of morning TV for two decades is a major accomplishment, and I was happy for him.
A no-holds-barred lovefest ensued. I teed up a greatest-hits montage: Matt with some of the biggest names in news and pop culture, from Michelle Obama to Miss Piggy, against a backdrop of the biggest stories of the past 20 years. Matt’s unparalleled ease and range were on full display.
The next day happened to be my 60th birthday, and my friend Jerry, who managed the props, wheeled out a cake. I turned the thick wax candle shaped like a 6 upside down and said, “Better than 90!”
Everyone laughed. To think I’d wandered onto this set for the first time in my early thirties…
When Savannah showed up to surprise Matt and they hugged and mugged, I moved to the side, well aware that America’s First Family wasn’t polyamorous.
At some point that week, I remember sitting next to Matt on the sofa during a commercial when he took a call. He was brief, saying only, “That’s great news,” before returning to the business at hand. My intuition told me it was Andy Lack with news about Megyn Kelly. At the time, there was frenzied speculation that Kelly would be leaving Fox News, which sparked a bidding war, a mano a mano fight among the network heads.
Turned out I was right—Megyn was coming to NBC, fresh on the heels of working for one of the biggest sexist pigs in the business.
88
Fire! Fire!
FOX NEWS OVERLORD Roger Ailes was the very first high-profile casualty of the MeToo movement. A lawsuit filed by Gretchen Carlson sounded the death knell—she’d secretly taped Ailes making bizarrely smutty remarks like “I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago, and then you’d be good and better, and I’d be good and better.” Soon, Ailes, who’d created the network 20 years earlier, was the target of dozens of allegations of sexual harassment （in one instance, he offered a woman a higher salary in exchange for sex on demand）。 With that, even Ailes superfan Rupert Murdoch admitted he had to go.