Today has figured out how to forget about Matt Lauer, but the Hamptons just cannot. Along with fellow disgraced former news anchor Charlie Rose, Lauer was spotted at a birthday party for Mitchell Modell, the CEO of Modell’s Sporting Goods, at restaurant Blu Mar in Southampton, and Page Six is all over it. A source said that the party was appropriately lavish and weird. Belly dancers, samba dancers, and tarot-card readers were all there to entertain guests.
Lauer’s divorce from Annette Roque was finalized earlier this month, and he reportedly agreed to pay her up to $20 million in the settlement. He is selling the Hamptons mansion where he hid out after his initial dismissal from Today in November 2017, when he was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace. (In a 2017 statement, Lauer said, “Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed.”) Roque will stay in the Hamptons with the couple’s children and will reportedly keep the horse farm they shared.
This isn't the first time Lauer has been a guest at a high-profile Hamptons birthday, and Page Six was at the ready then too. In May he went to a magic-themed 54th birthday party for CNN’s Jeff Zucker, who was Lauer’s boss at NBC in the ’90s. After the sighting, rumors emerged that he was planning to be back on air at CNN, but the network boss spoke up quickly to deny it.
Rose, who was dismissed from CBS News amid harassment allegations in November 2017, has also spent his off-camera days in the Hamptons. (Rose apologized for some of his behavior in a statement at that time, adding, “I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate.”) According to Tina Brown in April 2018, he was playing tennis to keep fit. He, too, has been spotted previously at parties, most recently at a Christmas soiree also attended by Bill and Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin. (Page Six—you guessed it—was the one who told us about it.)
It’s just another data point in our endless quest to figure out who is allowed to partake in vacations in America’s toniest hamlets. Remember, noted Trump defender Alan Dershowitz isn’t allowed in Martha’s Vineyard anymore, but chances are Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer will continue to haunt Long Island indefinitely—and Page Six will let us know, every single time.
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