Since 1952, the Today show has come into our homes every morning with its weird mix of
heavy news and airy banter, but it's also served up some seriously cringe-worthy coverage
over the years.
Let's crack open the vault and take a fresh look at some of Today's most uncomfortable
interviews ever.
Kate Gosselin
Kate Gosselin stopped by Today in 2014 with her two oldest daughters, then 13-year-old
twins Cara and Mady, to clear the air about how their family reality show, Jon and Kate
Plus 8, had affected them.
Billed as "Growing Up Gosselin," the interview was meant to explore how the girls viewed
their own childhood, aside from the media portrayal.
Anchor Savannah Guthrie first asked Mady how she and her family were doing.
"Mady, your words."
"It's hard!
It's a hard question."
"It's your chance.
Spit it out."
Mady continued to blank, so Guthrie tossed a question to Mady's sister.
"What about you, Cara?"
A flustered Kate took over, adding that she didn't want to speak for the girls.
Then Guthrie gave Cara another chance to answer a question.
"Do you think people had the wrong impression of you guys, Cara?"
"Cara!"
"My gosh."
Kate did most of the talking for the rest of the segment, yet insisted that her daughters
had agreed to do the interview.
This was, in her words, "the most wordless she'd heard them all morning."
When Kate urged her daughter to repeat what she had previously said in a magazine interview,
Mady refused.
Oddly enough, they claimed to love being on TV.
"Would you guys want to do another tv show if you could?"
"Yeah."
Tom Cruise
Things got testy in a 2005 interview with Tom Cruise when Matt Lauer mentioned actress
Brooke Shields.
There's a bit of a backstory: Cruise already had a public spat with Shields, who praised
antidepressants for helping her recover from postpartum depression.
According to Hollywood.com, Cruise went on record saying that women should use vitamins
for postpartum depression instead of prescription drugs, prompting Shields to retort,
"[Cruise should] stick to saving the world from aliens [and] let women decide what treatment
is best."
So when Cruise came on Today to promote War of the Worlds, Lauer asked him about the whole
Brooke Shields thing and Cruise's mood totally changed.
Insisting that psychiatry is a "pseudo-science," Cruise went on a rant about antidepressants.
"There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance."
"So postpartum depression to you is, kinda, psychological gobbledygook?"
"No."
He went on to say that, quote, "drugs aren't the answer."
"Aren't there examples where it works?"
"Matt, Matt, Matt, you're glib.
You don't even know what Ritalin is."
This war of words lasted a full five minutes.
"You should be a little bit more responsible in knowing."
"I'm not prescribing Ritalin, Tom, and I'm not asking anyone else to do it…"
"Well, you are, you're saying…"
"I know some people who seemed to have been helped by it."
Oh, and one more nugget of awkward, Cruise's then-girlfriend Katie Holmes was seated just
off stage.
Sandra Bullock
After Matt Lauer was fired from Today in 2017 due to allegations of sexual harassment, an
interview with Sandra Bullock made the rounds online due to its severe ick factor.
When Bullock visited Today to promote her film The Proposal, Lauer seemingly couldn't
wait to bring up her nude scene.
He opened the interview by mentioning that she hadn't been on the show in two years,
and then added:
"Major thing that's changed since I've seen you last?"
"Yes."
"I have now seen you naked."
Bullock kept her game face on as an amused Lauer continued on about the nudity.
"You're naked for most of this movie."
"I so am not."
"This I love!
Stretched!"
"No, I am not naked for most of this movie.
Emotionally naked."
Bullock even called him out for having wandering eyes during the interview.
"Why are you looking down?"
"It's now my screensaver."
"Why did you look down when you said that?"
"I was looking at my notes."
"Your notes are not over here.
That would be this, you went like that."
The two continued to banter about the nude scene, and about a minute and a half into
the interview, Lauer finally started to ask regular questions.
Still, he ended their conversation like this:
"Did I mention you have a nude scene in this movie?"
"Pretty much from the time you opened your mouth."
"From the time?
Sandra Bullock.
Come back more often."
"No.
Not after this interview."
Bill Clinton
When Craig Melvin sat down to interview former U.S. President Bill Clinton, he brought tough
questions.
First, Melvin reminded Clinton that in the Me Too era, some say he should have resigned
after the scandal involving his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Then Melvin asked if the former president looks at his past actions differently through
the "lens of [Me Too]."
Clinton immediately went on the offensive and painted himself as a victim, saying that
he left the White House "16 million in debt."
"You typically have ignored gaping facts in describing this, and I bet you don't even
know them."
Clinton went on to describe all the positive things he's done for women, claiming that,
quote, "two thirds of the American people sided with [him]" during the Lewinsky scandal.
When Melvin asked if he had apologized to Lewinsky, Clinton emphasized that while he
never talked to Lewinsky directly, he did apologize publicly.
Melvin then asked if he thought he owed Lewinsky a private apology.
At this point, Clinton was clearly getting hot under the collar.
"You think President Kennedy should have resigned?
Do you believe President Johnson should have resigned?"
"Mr. President…"
"Someone should ask you these questions because of the way you formulate the questions."
Clinton later told The Late Show host Stephen Colbert that the Today interview wasn't his
"finest hour."
"It looked like I was saying I didn't apologized and had no intention to, and I was mad at
me."
Jane Fonda
Everything started off nicely when Oscar winners Jane Fonda and Robert Redford appeared on
Today with Megyn Kelly in 2017.
First, Kelly praised Fonda for aging, quote, "beautifully [and with] strength," but when
Kelly asked Fonda about getting plastic surgery, the vibe took a nasty turn.
"You're not proud to admit you've had work done.
Why not?"
"We really want to talk about that now?"
Fonda quickly took control of the interview, diving straight into a discussion about the
film she was promoting.
Later, in an interview with Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie, Fonda mocked the whole situation.
Sitting with Lily Tomlin to promote their Netflix series Grace & Frankie, Fonda said
that she'd known Tomlin for 50 years, and Tomlin joked that they met before Fonda's
"first facelift."
"Who are you, Megyn Kelly?"
"Oh that's right, I forgot she was the one."
"Right!"
After Kelly got fired from Today, Fonda said she wished her the best.
"I wanted her to make it, I did.
That's always how everyone learns, is through making mistakes."
Kelly, however, told Us Weekly that the Fonda interview was one of her biggest regrets of
her first year on Today, saying,
"I certainly wish I hadn't put on Jane Fonda.
That didn't go well!"
Sarah Palin
While Donald Trump was running for president, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin went on
Today to talk to Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie about the Iowa caucus.
Seemingly out of the blue, Guthrie brought up Palin's recent comments about her son,
Track, who had been arrested for assault.
On the campaign trail for Trump, Palin said that Track suffers from PTSD.
She then appeared to place blame on the Obama administration.
"They have to look at him and wonder, do you know what we go through, do you know what
we're trying to do to secure America?"
In the Today interview, Guthrie referenced that speech, and Palin emphatically denied
blaming Obama, then scolded the show for asking about her son.
"You guys brought me here to talk about Iowa politics and the caucus tonight, not to talk
about my kids.
And that was a promise."
She didn't stop there.
"But as things go in the world of media, you guys don't always keep your promises evidently."
Before the interview ended, Lauer called her out for incorrectly stating the hosts had
broken promises.
"There were no specific promises made about content of the interview, only that this would
be your first interview since you endorsed Donald Trump."
Kanye West
After Kanye West made his infamous comment during a televised Hurricane Katrina benefit…
"George Bush doesn't care about black people."
The rapper appeared on Today with Matt Lauer to discuss it.
During the segment, Lauer played a clip of President Bush reacting to West's words.
"I resent it.
It's not true, and it is one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency."
The show then cut to a clip of Lauer asking West to respond to Bush's comments, and West
conceded.
"In a moment of emotion to peg someone, or to call a name, or peg someone as a racist,
is not, it's just not right."
Oddly, Lauer played the clip of Bush again, but this time without sound, instructing West
to watch his face.
"Just look at him, I mean this is the most emotional he got during my entire three and
a half hour interview with him."
Lauer then asked West what he would say to Bush if they were face to face, but West didn't
take kindly to the stunt.
"I dunno why y'all have to do the TV stuff with me, this is reality, this is the real
thing going on, this is...you know what I'm saying?"
West then asked everyone on the set to be quiet before he discussed past mistakes.
Omarosa
Self-proclaimed White House whistleblower Omarosa Manigault Newman and Today show anchor
Savannah Guthrie both brought their A game to a 2018 interview.
As Guthrie quickly spit out questions about the Trump administration, the media-savvy
Omarosa wasn't about to let herself be cut off.
The results were tense, to say the least.
"Do you think the president lies often?"
"Wait, Savannah.
Who is the 'they' in the tape?
You can't ask a question and then ask another question without my answer."
Guthrie repeatedly asked Omarosa if she thought Trump "lies often," to which the author eventually
replied, "absolutely."
As her guest elaborated, Guthrie interrupted to ask pointedly why she would choose to work
for a liar, and Omarosa didn't seem to like it.
"Savannah, slow down.
I'm gonna answer your question, don't worry I'm here, I've got all the time you need,
so you don't have to ask ten questions in one second.
It's okay."
The choppy cadence of the interview continued.
Guthrie kept interrupting with critical questions about her guest's actions; Omarosa kept patronizing
the veteran anchor, controlling the pace of the interview.
It was uncomfortable to watch.
"They said I can't go, it became false imprisonment, calm down, and the other part of this is…"
For what it's worth: ex-Today host Megyn Kelly later defended Guthrie.
"Poor Savannah, she handled it beautifully, but Omarosa, you know, she approaches a lot
of these interviews like she's being attacked with every question, and she's not being attacked."
Khloe Kardashian
Savannah Guthrie admitted to Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that if she could
redo one interview on Today, it would be a 2012 conversation with Khloe Kardashian.
Still new to the job, she said she felt obligated to ask Kardashian the big "paternity" question.
"Um, I didn't really want to ask it because it was kind of, like, probing and personal
and intrusive."
Guthrie said she kept delaying, to the point where she could hear the crew counting down
to the commercial break.
Then, finally, she squeezed in the question.
"I think we're out of time, I was going to ask you, nothing more to say about what people
said about your father, your biological father."
"I don't know who my daddy is, I guess!"
"Yes you do!
We'll be right back."
Guthrie told Cohen that while it was embarrassing, Kardashian was "lovely" to her after the fact.
"Other people ran down the stairs going, 'What just happened?
How did you ask her with three seconds, "Who's your father?"'"
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