In June 2005, Matt Lauer gave the interview heard round the world, when he sat down with Tom Cruise. Cruise went on a "crazy" Scientology rant against Brooke Shields and therapy. Cruise has finally apologized for attacking Lauer.
Matt Lauer appeared on The Howard Stern Show Wednesday, where he gave a very candid (albeit, brief) interview. He dished on everyone from Tom Cruise to The Jersey Shore.
"Yeah. It doesn't drive me crazy if we do them once or twice in a while. It's if we get into a habbit of covering these people every time they blow their nose...Look we did The Jersey Shore on the Jersey shore about a month ago. We were down there with Chris Christie for the ribbon cutting. That's kind of natural but I do feel like you can get into a rut kind of easy."
Lauer went on to talk about the pull he carries at The Today Show. He has the ability to refuse to cover stories and can even affect what stories other hosts can cover.
Stern spent the next while discussing "Where in the World is Matt Lauer." Stern does not understand it's success, adding that he "doesn't give a **** where Matt Lauer is."
Lauer laughed off Stern's antics and explained why that segment did so well. He felt it combined travel, a topic that generally tests well, and a game show. By engaging the audience, it helped boost their ratings.
Howard then asked Matt to tell him about the infamous Tom Cruise interview:
"There are times when you least expect them...times when someone sits on this couch...and you think its going to be this basic interview and then you say something, and you can see in the person's eyes a physical change. That was one of those times where... I think he was on to promote 'Mission Impossible'...and I knew it was going into this certain area... and I watched it change."
"And then it's almost your job to get the hell out of the way...Just let it go. That was a taped interview, it wasn't live, so I had plenty of time. I could just let it go...It's interesting. I think the part about him going on the soap box about antidepressants... from the response I received, mostly emails, it was a different dynamic people were mad at about... It was the fact that this guy was in my living room and he was being disrespectful to me."
On Cruise's apology:
"I want to put it in perspective because, although there was a Cold War period after that interview for a year, he since has come forward and said you know that was a strange time in his life and that he is sorry for how that came across and has gone out of his way to be nice to me. It was a weird time in his life and career."
