Issue date: April 30, 2000

In this article:
What is the appeal of Matt Lauer?
Lauer interviews Monica Lewinsky
Lauer's roots
Interview clips

The Lauer Within

We put master interviewer Matt Lauer in the other chair -- as interviewee. And the usually reserved Today show anchor reveals the pointedly opinionated personality he rarely displays on the air.

BY JEFFREY ZASLOW

Where in the world is Matt headed? Starting Monday on the Today show, Lauer kicks off his annual "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" segments. He'll hit five far-flung sites in five days. Until he starts his reports each morning, neither viewers nor his on-air colleagues will have any idea where he is. This year, there's a twist: Viewers went online to vote on Lauer's final stop. They selected from 10 locations, including Hong Kong, Stonehenge in England, Rio de Janeiro and the not-so-far-flung Niagara Falls. Live on the air Thursday, he'll be handed an envelope with their pick, but he won't reveal it to viewers. "Then I'll say, 'Folks, I've got to catch a plane. See you Friday.'" Lauer isn't worried that fans or the media will figure out where he's headed. "We have a private plane. What are they going to do -- chase us down the runway?" You'll just have to tune in to see where he lands.

Can you guess where this photo of Matt Lauer was taken? Look for the answer hidden elsewhere in this week's issue

uns in America. Our celebrity culture. His mother. Matt Lauer has feelings about these three topics that he doesn't share with viewers of NBC's Today show. He knows better. But for insights into this amiable co-host of TV's most popular morning show, it's worth noting his closely held thoughts.

Start with guns. When Lauer has to report stories such as the recent first-grade shooting in Michigan, he says, a part of him wishes he weren't a journalist. Then he wouldn't have to appear objective. "I'd love to be more opinionated about guns." He fears historians will describe turn-of-the-21st-century America "in just two words: gun violence." He tells of attending a party where friends discussed their office layouts -- which closets they'd hide in to save their lives. "People at cocktail parties now talk about their personal safety. There's something really wrong here."

As for our celebrity culture, Lauer, 42, helps create it via chummy interviews with stars on Today and his MSNBC show, Headliners & Legends. But celebrities frustrate him. "They're trying to schmooze you. For the most part, they're selling something. Politicians and movie stars practice [their responses], and it's very hard to know if you're getting a real window into anything that resembles their personality." Just last month, Madonna lied to him on the air. "I asked her point-blank if she was pregnant. She said, point-blank, 'No.' She was very convincing. But now, when I look at the tape and see that certain smile on her face, I realize I was probably just naive."

Meanwhile, here's the lowdown on Lauer's mother. He travels the globe in great secrecy for his popular "Where in the World Is Matt Lauer?" segments. No one -- including co-host Katie Couric -- is supposed to know in advance where he'll be. One viewer, however, has his itinerary. "I have to be honest," Lauer says. "My mom knows." Of course she does. Otherwise, she'd be worried sick.

So what are we to make of his revelations about guns, celebrities and his mother? Perhaps this: He's more agitated and impassioned than he lets on, he's biting his tongue more than we think, but he's still his mother's good boy. It's a combination of qualities that has made him the reigning prince of morning television.

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The networks are fighting the greatest battle for a.m. viewers in TV history. CBS hired former Today host Bryant Gumbel. ABC's Good Morning America installed heavyweights Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson. Still, Today remains way on top, in great measure because of Lauer's charisma. "He's not a mama's boy, but he's a boy that all mamas love," sums up Couric. Gail Shister, TV columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, has known Lauer since he hosted a failed Philly talk show in the mid-1980s. "It's easy to label Matt a softie because he's so cute," she says. "Everyone either wants to adopt him or make him the father of their child. But he has a lot of inner fortitude."

He found his fortitude -- and edge -- via a fitful climb up the TV ladder. After his start as a noon news producer in Huntington, W.Va., he struggled through gigs in Boston, Providence and Richmond. Out of work for 16 months in the early '90s, he even considered leaving TV. But then he was hired at WNBC in New York, and Today execs noticed his on-air charms. In '93, he began subbing for Gumbel.

While Gumbel could be a prickly interrogator, Lauer gives guests the benefit of the doubt. The first time he interviewed Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? bride Darva Conger, he thought "she'd just made a mistake. It's like the dog that chases the truck and suddenly catches it. I honestly felt she was remorseful and wanted her privacy back." But on her second trip to Today, when she wouldn't rule out doing a nude magazine pictorial, Lauer questioned her sincerity. "I went 180 degrees on it -- and back 180 degrees. I'm not sure she even knows what she is about."

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Because Lauer seems so easygoing, some guests are shocked when he asks tough questions. Critics said he was mean when he talked to Monica Lewinsky about her book last spring. Lauer disagrees. "I read a paragraph she wrote about the president -- 'I dream of his hands on me, I dream of his kisses' -- and I said, 'You know, Mrs. Clinton hasn't moved off the planet. How do you think she feels about this?' Monica got furious. I thought, 'My God. You wrote the book. I didn't write it!' "

Afterward, Lewinsky took off "in a trail of dust. She went into a dressing room, and I knocked on the door to talk to her. One of her people said, 'It's not a good time,' shut the door and that was the last I saw her."

Lauer puts his own problems aside to deliver his upbeat persona. When he became Today co-host in January 1997, his father was dying of cancer. "It was awful," he says, "because at the same time, I had the best and worst things that ever happened in my life. I was so excited about this job, yet I'd get off the air and immediately call him [in Florida] to see what kind of night he had." Lauer flew to Florida most weekends, but he'd return to the show smiling on Monday mornings, keeping his sadness over his father's illness to himself. His dad died that April.

Lauer's on-air relationship with Couric is "very siblinglike," says Shister. "Sometimes she's the big sister; sometimes he's the big brother." But off the air, the kinship is more reserved. Couric says Lauer rarely talked to her about his dad's illness: "We're extremely fond of each other, but we keep our private lives private." She describes her partner as "very contained, on and off camera."

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Lauer, who grew up in Greenwich, Conn., the son of divorced parents, is still trying to determine how much of his life to share with viewers. Last year, he and Couric initially resisted Today's series on their family roots. The series turned out to be a hit, and Lauer was moved, too, by what he learned about his immigrant ancestors. "My dad was Jewish. My mom is not. So I was not raised anything. I do feel a desire now to find something spiritual. Getting married and wanting to have kids has something to do with that."

In 1998, he married Annette Roque, a Dutch model. It was his second marriage. "We got married in a church, and when I go to churches and temples, I do feel something. I'm happy to be there. The minister who married us said he considers churches high places, elevated. I agree."

Today news anchor Ann Curry was at Lauer's wedding to Roque and recalls "the thrilled look on his face when the door opened and she appeared. He even kind of chuckled, he was so thrilled."

"It was a bit breathtaking," Lauer says. "I have such a great wife. We have a juicer, and she makes this incredible concoction of fresh nectarines, pears, oranges, bananas. She puts it in a bottle, and I take it to work. It's like a kick in the butt. It's fantastic." Unlike others on Today's dawn patrol, he no longer has to drink coffee.

Lauer, who last fall surprised his wife by taking Dutch lessons, is sensitive to the mysteries of marriage. His most famous interview was an 18-minute live conversation with Hillary Clinton, just days after the Lewinsky scandal broke. Mrs. Clinton told Lauer the president was the victim of "a vast right-wing conspiracy." Lauer doesn't believe she was covering up for her husband's affair. He's sure of what he saw in her face: "She was in denial, hoping against hope. Absolutely."

He's proud of how he handled that encounter. "I heard through the grapevine she felt it was a good interview for both of us. That's the best kind of interview. You don't want to feel like you crushed someone, or they crushed you. That interview gave us both something to walk away with."

Lauer is still his mother's good boy, but don't discount his edginess. In the morning TV derby, it has helped make him the front-runner.

Jeffrey Zaslow is a Chicago Sun-Times columnist.

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Interview clips

ON Regis Philbin's "Millionaire" success: "He's worked so hard, and he's getting such a kick out of it all. He's a true example of a good guy finishing first."

On Katie Couric's on-air colonoscopy: "Every day, someone comes up to me and says, 'Because of Katie I got a colonoscopy.' Kevin Kline just told me, 'Tell Katie I got it done.' "

On competing against his pal Bryant Gumbel: "We've made a deal. All we'll each say is: 'I want him to do great, and I know he wants the same for me.' We won't critique each other's show, because then [people] will say, 'Do you know what Bryant said about your show?' And I'll say, 'What? Tell me!' The only thing that can do is hurt our friendship."

Empathy from JFK Jr.: "He and I talked at a cocktail party for Tom Brokaw's book. He congratulated me on my marriage and said, 'The first year's the hardest, and more so for someone in your position. It's gonna be hard.' "

Will he ever wear a toupee? "Never, ever. And you're not going to see hair plugs. I have nothing against anyone who wears a toupee, but is it me? No. As my hair gets thinner and thinner, I'll cut it shorter and shorter."

If he could ask President Clinton just two questions: "It wouldn't be about [Monica Lewinsky]. I'd ask, 'What are you going to do about guns? Why not make this issue one of your legacies?' "

Favorite interview subjects: "Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Give me the story of the guy on that crane in Atlanta with the fire raging under it. I want to know what the guy felt like at the end of the rope hanging from that helicopter, being lowered in for the rescue. Those are the interviews people talk about by the water cooler -- not George W. Bush."