X

THE LauerMORNING-SHOW HOST OPENS UP ABOUT HIS PowerWESTCHESTER by Jenny Higgons CHILDHOOD AND HOW HE PLANS TOMORROW’S TODAY. photographs by Mark Vergari

hirty seconds,” announces the Rockefeller Center, crowds of fans gawk Roker gleefully proclaims, “Yet another stage manager. in the hopes of getting on TV and catch- unbelievable show!” is perched on a high ing a glimpse of the on-air personalities. “I have my dream job,” Lauer marvels studio chair, ready to begin his swivels around to wave at a few minutes in his dressing room, live studio interview with , the out-of-town crowds on the sidewalk. a fl oor up from the studio and clustered a soon-to-be-former Miss USA. Dressed “Ten seconds! Five, four….” with those of co-host Vieira, news anchor in an impeccable gray suit, waiting for Lauer’s three-minute talk with Conner, , and Roker. “It’s ridiculous how the commercial break to end, he’s the which marks the end of his role in that well they treat me here. The hardest thing defi nition of calm. Meanwhile, in front of day’s main broadcast, is fl awless—light- about giving up this job will be thinking, him, off camera, NBC staffers and equip- hearted, yet still serious enough for him all of a sudden, You mean I have to do all ment are scurrying around frantically to to lob in a few tough questions about her this stuff for myself now?” keep Today on track and on time. Behind substance-abuse controversy. It all ends, That’s not to say that Lauer will be Lauer, through the windows that look onto and weatherman and feature reporter Al giving up his primo gig anytime soon: LEFT: Correspondent Natalie Morales (left), Lauer, and contributor Giada De Laurentiis.

BELOW: Lauer right outside the studio.

His contract runs until 2011. And if he afternoon paper route, from the 4th to 8th does end up leaving in four years, it will grades. “I was a young businessman!” he have been 14 years since he took over the says. “I loved it!” As a teen, his free time prestigious job from . was all about sports with neighborhood Lauer stands out in his ability to switch pals. “Somebody’s mother would have to topics in a flash, moving from hard news come and say, ‘It’s 6:15 and 28 degrees! and briefings by a team of staffers. Then in Iraq one minute to lighter fare (like Come in!”’ Lauer says. “The rest of the it’s down to hair and makeup—“Though Ms. Conner) the next. It’s a chameleon- year it was baseball and football.” At the there’s no hair to do anymore,” he quips— like charisma that was forged, in part, end his sophomore year at Woodlands in time to hit the airwaves. After the show by his childhood in Westchester. Like High his family moved to Greenwich. Lauer does what he calls “the domestics of an army brat, Lauer moved every few “It was one of the great patchwork the job”—returning phone calls, book- years—from Chappaqua to Ardsley to childhoods, because I had a little bit of ing interviews, working with producers Hartsdale to Greenwich—until his high- everything,” Lauer recalls. “I had the posh on upcoming scripts and taped pieces, and school graduation. He was forced to adapt suburb of Chappaqua; and then Ardsley, brainstorming on future stories. to new neighborhoods, to make which was a little bit in between; then Most days he tries to head straight quickly, and to always be prepared for the Hartsdale, which was more of an urban home to his apartment a few blocks away, next move. What better training for the environment; and then Greenwich, which where he lives with Annette, his wife since peripatetic life of a network newsman? was clearly a country-club fantasy. [All 1998, and their three kids: Jack (turning that diversity] helped me a lot.” 6 this month), Romy (4), and Thijs (7 ICE CREAM AND PAPER ROUTES months). “We’re fanatics about eating as Lauer lived in Chappaqua until the 1st OFF-AIR PERSONALITY a family,” he says. They eat dinner at 6:15 grade, when his family made its first Lauer’s dressing room is decorated with p.m., and then Lauer turns his attention move, to Ardsley. “We lived in the woods, an eclectic mix of odds and ends—kids’ back to preparing for tomorrow’s Today right next door to [ice-cream mogul] Tom kites, golf clubs, a surfboard, footballs, by reading background material and Carvel,” Lauer recalls while relaxing in his cigars, and a stack of newspapers—and it’s research. He tries to hit the sack by 9:30 and, plush dressing room. “Tom gave us frozen where he talks about how life at the top of unless it’s a Friday, the cycle resumes the flying saucers for Halloween, and he kept the TV-news food chain isn’t all glitz and next day. This routine forces the Lauers to all the old Carvel trucks in a big wooded glamour. A self-described creature of habit, do most of their socializing on weekends. area behind his house; my friends and I he leaves his Manhattan apartment and But there is an upside: “It’s a terrific excuse would play in them and pretend we were arrives at the studio precisely between 4:49 and gets us out of a lot of dinners we don’t ice-cream men. Life was an adventure.” and 5:52 a.m. Once in his dressing room want to go to,” he says with a sly smile. The divorce of Lauer’s parents three (his office is across the street at 30 Rocke- Lauer’s weeks tend to fly by, but the years later prompted a move to Harts- feller Plaza), he catches up on the previous work can take its toll. “As much as this is dale. Though less pastoral, he had what he night’s events by scanning the TV, wire- the greatest job in the world,” he says, “it is calls “one of the great joys of my life”—an service reports, the morning’s newspapers, a job, so there are times when I think, Get me to Friday. Especially in the summer. I such an age. When Thijs is 10, I’ll be 60, love the warm weather, to play golf and to although today’s 50 isn’t what it was in my for the record swim with my kids.” It’s those Saturdays dad’s era. On the other hand, I see it in and Sundays when Lauer insists on going terms of, if turning 50 happens because 1975–79: Lauer attends Ohio from being a national public figure to just I’ve been lucky enough to have had this University, in Athens, Ohio a dad and husband. “I reveal enough of job for 11 years, then it’s fine, it’s great!” 1979–80: Works as a news producer myself on this show every day, so it’s nice Lauer already has his post-Today life and reporter with WOWK-TV in to have things that remain just mine, that planned out: “I’ll probably spend a few Huntington, West Virginia you have to keep a firm grip on.” years only on family. Not that my wife 1980–89: Hosts weekly information It’s no surprise, then, that Lauer was won’t be there, but I’ll become Mr. Mom and talk programs in , Phila- angered when a paparazzo’s photo of him in while my kids are fairly young, when I delphia, Providence, and Richmond a swimsuit on a Long Island beach popped think it’ll make a huge impact on their lives. 1989–91: Hosts WOR-TV’s 9 Broad- up in People magazine. “I was weirded out And that’s only because I’ve been fortunate cast Plaza in City about it because it was a Wednesday after- enough to have had this job for so long.” 1992–94: Co-anchors WNBC-TV’s noon on my summer vacation, next to my That’s not to say he’ll retire from TV house,” he remembers. “That’s an intru- and ride off into the sunset with a golf 1993: Bumped up to Today’s sion. I didn’t see anyone on the beach with club in one hand and a fishing pole in substitute news anchor a camera, so he must have been shooting the other. “But I won’t—whether it’s for 1993–96: Co-anchors WNBC-TV’s through the window of a nearby house. I one, two, three, or five years—be working News Channel 4/Live at Five got that vacation home for some enjoy- a schedule anything close to the one that 1994: Joins Today as news anchor ment, and every time my kids and I go to this show always demands.” 1997: Promoted to Today co-anchor the beach, I don’t want to have to wonder if And he may even return to the sub- I’m being photographed.” urbs. “Maybe in five years,” he predicts, averages joes, going head-to-head with “to Westchester or Connecticut, mainly major movie stars (e.g., his famous June BACK TO THE ‘BURBS because I’m a big fan of public schools. I 2005 on-air row with over Not all appearances in People are bad, went to them my whole life, and in the city Scientology and psychiatry), and traveling though. In 1997, the magazine anointed you get into this cycle of private schools to the far reaches of the globe for his trade- him one of its 50 Most Beautiful People. versus public schools. I’d like at least a mark five-day adventure segments, “Where Lauer is about to join the rolls of another large chunk of my children’s educations in the World is Matt Lauer?” “50” list this December, when he turns a to be in public schools.” Until then, Lauer knows he’s got it half-century old. “On one hand, I embraced When the day comes that he does part good, and he’s already devised a plan in turning 30 and 40,” he recalls. “But this ways with Today, he’ll be leaving with the unlikely event that he forgets: “I always one is on my radar more because I have more unforgettable memories and unique say to people here, ‘The minute I start to young kids, and I start to think in terms of experiences than most people could ever complain about this job, kick me firmly in how old I will be when they’re at such and imagine: interviewing heads of state and the ass.’” Spoken like a true pro.

LEFT: (from left) Morales, Lauer, Vieira, actor Jon Heder, and skater Scott Hamilton at the Rockefeller Center rink. BELOW: Today’s fans.