Profile in Couric: Bashed but unbowed
Katie Couric wishes her detractors would put away their baseball bats.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/333247p-284759c.html"I feel like a human piñata," says the "Today" anchor. "The disappointing thing is, no candy is going to spill out."
Couric, whose $13 million salary could buy a lot of Wonka bars, knows that criticism "goes with the territory, unfortunately, of being successful and female." But she admits in this week's New Yorker magazine that it hasn't been "a lot of fun" being branded as a diva and blamed for her show's ratings slide.
Couric still has a better Q rating for viewer approval than "Good Morning America" anchor Diane Sawyer, who earns $12 million. But her "negative Q" - the audience of Katie-haters - has gone up 20% in the past four years, while Sawyer's rose half as quickly, according to the mag.
Couric denies that she's tried to tart up her image since her husband, Jay Monahan, died in 1998. "I've never tried to be uber-sexy," she tells writer Ken Auletta over lunch. (She volunteers that her beige suit is from Banana Republic.) "I want to age gracefully. At 48 now, I've finally lost my baby fat. I want to look nice and feel attractive. ... I grew my hair out and got it lightened for the simple reason that I'm pretty gray, and this means I don't have to go to the hairdresser as often."