It’s being rumored that NBC is paying for Today host Matt Lauer to take a helicopter to work from his home in the Hamptons into New York City on a daily basis.
In June, the network announced Lauer had signed a multi-year contract extension rumored to be worth $20 million a year.
Page Six reports NBC was so eager to keep him around that they agreed to provide a helicopter for him to get in and out of the city every day.
“NBC News chiefs want to do everything to keep Matt happy,” said a source. “They believe Today has turned a corner and he is the key to its continuing success. They agreed to pay for his helicopter flights to the Hamptons and back, so he can spend more time with his family.”
Lauer has a mansion in Water Mill, where he lives year round with his wife Annette Roque and their children. The family also has a home in the city, but they prefer to live a more “normal” life in the Hamptons.
“I think the image that people have is that it’s all polo fields and cocktail parties. And the fact of the matter — my experience and Annette’s experience . . . is about parent-teacher conferences and Little League and music lessons,” he has said about his life there.
“We have a painfully normal existence . . . We go to the local drugstore, and we walk the dog on the beach . . . and take pony-riding lessons . . . very much small-town America — it just happens to have a reputation and a name like the Hamptons.”
image via Roger Wong/INFphoto.com