Ugh. I don't normally follow entertainment either websites or magazines. That said, there are things on TV and in movies about which I care; but I don't watch such as TMZ, or Entertainment Tonight, or any of that crap. I just can't get through even five minutes of it.
But there are at least a few shows, and those on them, about which I care; and so when an article about any of them is thrust before me, I'll take a moment and read about it.
Today, my Opposing Views website email newsletter included a piece of about Angus T. Jones (who plays "Jake" on CBS's "Two and a Half Men"), about whom -- more specifically, about the nutjob preacher who helped him get himself into trouble this week -- I had written on Newsvine a few days ago. Click here to read that... and be sure to scroll down to my today's update about it, which I wouldn't have done were it not for the Opposing Views piece.
To make sure my facts were right in that update, I necessarily had to visit the awful entertainment websites...
...one of which contained a piece about Ann Curry, former co-host of NBC's Today Show; and now assigned to NBC News as an "international correspondent."
I confess to having always liked Curry... and, no, not because she's a beautiful Asian-American woman... which, of course, she is; but I've always just considered that gravy to the main course of her being good at what she does. That she's easy on the eyes while so doing... well, that'a bonus.
Regarding the easy-on-the-eyes thing, by the way, part of it, for me, has always been that Curry and I are almost exactly the same age; yet she looks the way she looks, and I look like the sole of an old shoe. The pure injustice of that, alone, has always been a factor for me.
I barely watched her on TV, though... either while she co-hosted the Today Show, or before, when she anchored the news breaks. CBS has always gotten my loyalty in the mornings... more so now that CBS This Morning, with Charlie Rose, competes with NBC's Today Show. Fan though I am of George Stephanopoulos, I'm sorry: I just cannot make myself watch ABC's now-godawful Good Morning America. Whoever thought I'd miss David Hartman. (See? I told you I was old.)
Curry became the co-host of the Today Show, alongside long-time host Matt Lauer, in mid-2011; and she was summarily fired about a year later... with Lauer rumored to be complicit in said firing. NBC executives later explained that Curry was given a year to "prove herself," but didn't end-up being up to snuff. The network felt she just wasn't a good fit; that she was a better international journalist; and so they let her go...
...again, at Lauer's rumored urging. Even Today Show weatherman Al Roker let slip, on the air, once, after Curry's firing, that Lauer had thrown Curry "under the bus."
There was a whole, big, on-air tearful farewell for Curry when she finally left, and she has since moved-into her new role at NBC News with grace and dignity. She helped to host that summer's Olympics in London, and has posted several well-done stories on the Today Show, as well as other NBC news programs.
In fact, her appearances, doing news stories on the Today Show, have begun to increase, of late, because her departure, and the rumors that Lauer was complicit in it, have caused the show's ratings to nosedive. The network is hoping that having Curry appear more will help to remedy the slide.
At the time, entertainment reporters, columnists and similar other wonks remarked that the ratings dive was Curry's revenge...
...and so, it seems, is the brand new news that if the ratings don't increase by February, Lauer, too, will be gone.
As someone who believed the stories about Laurer's being hugely instrumental in NBC's decision to boot Curry from the Today Show, my reaction to that news is that it couldn't have happened (or, more accurately, coudn't be happening) to a nicer guy.
Good riddance to the putz, I say.
Bring back Curry, I say...
...and, if so, may she have the chutzpah to tell NBC to pound sand up its youknowwhat if it's unwilling to pay her her salary, and Lauer's too, before agreeing to do it.
Actually, I think she should just keep doing what she's doing: real news. I feel the same way about George Stephanopoulos, whom I believe should stick with ABC's This Week program, and not lower himself to morning TV babble on Good Morning America.
Anyway, I'd write, here, that it's a joy to read that, in Matt Lauer's case, what goes around, comes around; however, I don't want to appear to be engaging in schadenfreude.
Still, though...
And, of course, as is always the case with such things, one man's misfortune is another man's opportunity. Everyone seems to love Willie Geist (son of CBS Sunday Morning's beloved folksy correspondent, Bill Geist, who recently admitted his long-suspected Parkinson's diagnosis), who hosts the third (9:00 AM) hour of Today. He's being touted as Lauer's most likely replacement. Since I like the kid's ol' man, I guess I'm happy that he'll likely take the all-three-hour helm at Today.
I wonder what would become of Today's ratings if Geist and Curry co-hosted it.
Hmm.