In the little more than 24 hours since the news broke of Matt Lauer‘s firing from NBC, there have been multiple reports alleging what his behavior was like during his time at the major news network. But some of the most disturbing alleged details about Lauer’s life in the NBC workplace and his interactions with his female coworkers come down to two seemingly inconsequential reports.
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The first report is from Entertainment Weekly, which dutifully found a clip from Lauer’s interview with former Today cohost Meredith Vieira when Lauer was a guest on her talk show. In the clip, Vieira ribs Lauer about a time while they were working together and she allegedly found a “bag of sex toys” in Lauer’s office.
“I went into your office once — do you remember this? — snooping, and you had a huge bag of sex toys in your office closet,” Vieira says at one point in an attempt to jog his memory. Lauer initially demurs before attempting an embarrassed explanation.
“We had a guest on the show. She was a sex therapist. And when she left, and you did the segment actually […] she gave each of us a shopping bag of stuff,” he tried to explain before Vieira exclaims, “I didn’t get a bag of stuff!”
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It’s unclear what the true reasons were for Lauer to have a bagful of sex toys in his office closet, and EW failed to confirm whether or not the segment Lauer was referring to resulted in each of the Today show cohosts being given toys afterward. However, it’s the very casual way in which Vieira remarked about something that is an incredibly abnormal workplace detail that should be a red flag in Lauer’s history.
Another red flag comes from a report from Variety, which details the fact that Lauer had a “secret button” under his desk in his office. “His office was in a secluded space, and he had a button under his desk that allowed him to lock his door from the inside without getting up,” Variety reports. “This afforded him the assurance of privacy. It allowed him to welcome female employees and initiate inappropriate contact while knowing nobody could walk in on him, according to two women who were sexually harassed by Lauer.”
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A People report on this secret button business includes a quote from an unnamed source claiming that “Many exec offices in 30 Rock have the button. It’s an idiosyncratic thing.” However, it should be noted that Lauer was never officially considered an executive during his time at NBC.
It’s unclear whether either of these things are true, but if so, they are incredibly disturbing details in this increasingly disturbing story.
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