Was Matt Lauer’s creepy behavior hiding in plain sight?
On the surface, the 20-year veteran of NBC’s Today show was a perfectly wholesome morning anchor, able to smoothly switch back and forth between hard news and silly fluff, especially when paired with the perpetually cheerful Katie Couric. Now, he has been abruptly fired by the network for unspecified claims of sexual harassment.
In the decade since Couric left, Lauer has slowly revealed a darker side, especially when it comes to his interactions with women. The most notable instance was his public falling out with short-lived co-anchor Ann Curry, who tearfully said goodbye to viewers in 2012 as Lauer sat awkwardly and silently beside her.
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But that was hardly the only Today show moment that looks very different in light of today’s news. Just a few months after Curry’s departure, Lauer conducted a one-on-one interview with Les Miserables star Anne Hathaway that began with the comment, “Seen a lot of you lately.” He was referring to a so-called “wardrobe malfunction” that had been captured by paparazzi at the premiere of that film.
“Sorry about that,” Hathaway replied tersely. “I’d be happy to stay home, but the film.”
But Lauer pressed on, asking, “What’s the lesson learned from something like that, other than that you keep smiling, which you’ll always do?”
“I was very sad that we live in an age when someone takes a picture of another person in a vulnerable moment, and rather than delete it and do the decent thing, sells it,” Hathaway told Lauer. “And I’m sorry that we live in a culture that commodifies sexuality of unwilling participants,” she added, before deftly steering the conversation back to the project she was promoting (and for which she would go on to win an Oscar).
