How toothsome is Matt Lauer? Ask his Today show cohort Ann Curry. "I'm in the dentist's chair," she says, "and I've got cotton balls and instruments crammed in my mouth, and the dental hygienist says, 'So, tell me about Matt's love life.' I get asked this all the time. He makes women nuts. It's unbelievable." Nobody is more surprised than the brown-eyed object of all those cardboard come-ons that are waved outside the Today studios. "I'm astonished by any attention like this," says the divorced Lauer, 39, who values the same things in a date that he does in an interview subject. "For me, the best dates are the ones where there is never a lag in the conversation, and great repartee. There is kind of an edge to it, almost like a fencing match." Alas, since getting the country's No.1 morning gig, which requires that he rise at 4:30 a.m., the Hartsdale, N.Y., native has to be en garde against staying up past 9:30. "I made a decision that this year would be solely dedicated to the job," he says. "I don't do anything during the week." Except rack up marriage proposals from the pavement. "The women carry them because they want to be on TV" insists Lauer. "If they write, 'Matt looks like an aardvark,' we don't shoot them. They're smarter than we give them credit for."
Your Reaction
