On the supermarket stands, InTouch magazine touts the possibility of an “$8 Million Tell-All” book for former Today show co-host Ann Curry. “An insider tells In Touch that Ann Curry...is being courted by top publishers to pen a tell-all book.”
“The publishing industry is just dying to get their hands on Ann’s side of the story, and the figures being batted around are enormous,” claimed the source. But an NBC representative insisted Curry “is not writing any book.” New York Times TV writer Brian Stelter told the magazine this NBC Curry debacle is still hot a year later because “it was so mismanaged. There are so many unanswered questions.”
The magazine even claimed “Another insider says the Arab network al-Jazeera is eyeing Ann for its new U.S. network. ‘They’re trying to woo her with a lucrative package...It would be a major coup for the al-Jazeera brand.” (An al-Jazeera spokesman denies the network has spoken to Curry.)
Stelter's ultimate thesis of the Curry debacle is that NBC was right to remove her from the hosting chair – he describes in painful detail her awkwardness in the position – but that it completely bungled the transition. It looked sexist, from male executives “who like to think in terms of war, sabotage, and, well, embarrassing James Bond-y names for stuff they do in the office.”
He told U.S. News: "There's a gender gap throughout television and it's very pronounced in morning TV since these shows are mostly meant for women," he says. "I just wonder, if there was a more even split, men and women in the control, whether they would think differently about how they treat their anchors."
