
Jermaine Jackson
In a tearful interview on NBC's Today show, Jermaine Jackson said he should have died instead of his brother, Michael, whose death last week remains under investigation.
"I wish it was me," he told Today's Matt Lauer, who sat down with Jackson on the grounds of his late brother's Neverland Ranch. "I always felt that I was his backbone, someone to be there for him."
See our complete Michael Jackson coverage
While the Jackson family confirmed no public memorial service would take place at Neverland this weekend, Jackson said he hoped the 2,500-acre ranch would be his brother's final resting place. "This is his home, he created this, why wouldn't he be here?" he told Lauer. Jackson's interment at Neverland would require an exception by local officials because burials are restricted to cemeteries. (Should Michael be buried at Neverland? Vote in our poll below.)
read more

Matt Lauer
Where in the world was Matt Lauer Monday morning? At home nursing a shoulder injury — thanks to a deer.
The Today show host flipped over his bicycle's handlebars after a deer jumped into his path over the weekend, co-host Meredith Vieira announced on air.
"Matt's banged up with a ...
read more

Michael Phelps, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Thought you had heard the last of the Olympics until 2010? Think again.
On Saturday, Dec. 27, NBC will broadcast Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony: TV Event of the Year, a two-hour special hosted by Bob Costas and Matt Lauer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In addition to reliving the breathtaking production that kicked off the games, the special will ...
read more

Tom Cruise
Three and a half years after calling Matt Lauer "glib" on live television, Tom Cruise returned to Today Monday morning to offer his apologies and clear the air.
"It's not what I had intended," Cruise told Lauer. "In looking at myself, I thought ...
read more

Matt Lauer and Tom Cruise
Reunited, and it feels so good?
Three and a half years after calling Matt Lauer "glib" on Today, Tom Cruise will stop by the morning talk show on ...
read more

Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise was a surprise guest at Matt Lauer's Friar Club Roast at the New York Hilton Hotel, and made light of his infamous 2005 Today show interview.
After Cruise joked that Matt and he talk several times a day and vacation together, the mega-movie star started in on the zingers, reports US Magazine.
Cruise jokingly slammed Lauer for continually giving him bad advice, saying...
read more

Fireworks go off during the Opening Ceremony. Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
One World. One Dream. One astonishing opening-night show. Fridays spectacular curtain-raising opening ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics more than lived up to the hype, and NBC gave us a stunning birds-eye view of all of the razzle-dazzle inside the so-called birds nest of the gargantuan Olympic soccer stadium.Feeling at times as if it were the greatest Vegas or half-time show in history, everything was scaled to overwhelm, from the fireworks that lit up the sky like a months worth of 4ths of July, to the scrim that ringed the top of the stadium with evocative cinematic montages, to the thousands of drummers and dancers and performers wowing the crowd, many of them lit up in garish colors like fanciful beacons of joy.To emphasize the fact that this display of cultural pride was being beamed to a global audience, a highlight of the extravaganza involved a giant globe rising from the floor, with dancers skimming around the surface suspended by wire...
read more

Matt Lauer courtesy NBC
Today cohost Matt Lauer will pack his bags for another series of "Where in the World Is Matt Lauer?" segments during the week of April 28.This will be Lauer's ninth expedition, in which he turns up in remote corners of the planet and asks the show's cohosts and audience to guess his location. To date, he has logged more than 210,000 miles for this series of segments. J.R. Whalen
read more

Matt Lauer by Heidi Gutman/NBC Photo
A conference call arranged by NBC so that reporters could talk with Today anchors Matt Lauer, Ann Curry and Al Roker about their new "Ends of the Earth" feature was a lot more interesting than the norm. According to the New York Post, a potty-mouthed prankster infiltrated the ranks of press peeps on the line not once but twice and asked the hosts some seriously off-color questions. Afterward, Mitovich was given a bar of soap and told that he knew what to do with it. Ben Katner
read more
Sen. Larry Craig and his wife, Suzanne, are giving their first network interview to NBC's Matt Lauer. The interview will air Tuesday, Oct. 16 (8 pm/ET) on a special edition of Matt Lauer Reports. Portions of the interview will also air on Today the following morning.The embattled Idaho senator pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August for lewd sexual activity in a bathroom stall at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. After saying he would likely resign from the Senate, Craig later decided to serve the remainder of his term, which is up in January 2009. Reporting by Robert Moynihan
read more