[Al Roker, Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Hoda Kotb, and Kathie Lee Gifford make the scariest crew of the Millennium Falcon this side of the Kessel Run on the Halloween edition of the Today show. Image via INF]

• Matt Lauer has picked up some new real estate in the Hamptons. The Today show co-host paid $2.15 million for a 1,500-square-foot waterfront cottage in Southampton. The 0.7-acre estate features a boat dock and a wraparound deck overlooking a pond connected to Little Peconic Bay. [WSJ]
• Luigi Zunino didn't come through. Three months after it was reported that the Italian exec was having difficulty closing on the three-unit spread at the Plaza he put a $9 million deposit on last year, the 10,026-square-foot apartment is now back on the market. It's currently listed for $39 million. [NYO, Stribling]
• Retired Pfizer exec Gary Jortner and his wife Cindy, have picked up a new apartment at 15 CPW, just a few floors up from the smaller apartment they listed for $3.195 million earlier this month. The couple paid $5.9 million for developer Gerardo Capo's apartment on the building's 12th floor. [Cityfile]

On the morning he was arrested on corruption charges last December, Rod Blagojevich was the nation's biggest greaseball. So obviously, the national press was willing to say anything to land an interview. And we've got their emails to prove it.

The deluge of media e-mails to Rod Blagojevich's press secretary in the wake of his arrest, obtained from the state of Illinois through the Freedom of Information Act.

Chace Crawford eating on a bench in the West Village ... Anne Hathaway walking with boyfriend Adam Shulman downtown ... Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell sitting with Jack Nicholson and Lorne Michaels at a Yankees game ... Beyoncé leaving Bar Pitti with Jay-Z ... Matt Lauer walking solo ... Tina Fey shooting scenes for 30 Rock in Rockefeller Plaza ... Blake Lively walking around on the set of Gossip Girl ... Jerry Springer arriving at his hotel ... Rihanna visiting a doctor's office on Long Island ... Britney Spears carrying her son around in Midtown ... and Whitney Port leaving Sant Ambroeus in the West Village after having lunch.

On the morning the FBI arrested Rod Blagojevich, he was supposed to be doing a live exclusive interview with Matt Lauer. But Today canceled so Lauer could flack the "news" of Jay Leno's new 10 p.m. show on NBC.

On the Today show this morning, Meredith genially asked weatherman Al Roker, who is black, if he knew about the weather in Africa. Because her kid's going there! Al, though, took jokey offense, and the scene got pretty uncomfortable

NBC's Matt Lauer, CNN's Larry King and ABC's Cynthia McFadden have all been dispatched to the Neverland Ranch to anchor programs tomorrow from the Michael Jackson corpse-viewing that Jackson's family says was never scheduled in the first place. [TV Newser]

Matt Lauer is on fire when it comes to booking developmentally delayed Republican ladies. First it was Sarah Palin this morning, followed by Carrie Prejean, who says her "dethroning" as Miss California was a set-up just like Marion Barry.

Matt Lauer grinned at Sandra Bullock on the Today Show today and said "I have now seen you naked...", like a fourteen-year-old boy in shortpants talking to the village burlesque dancer. But how risque can Bullock's PG-13-rated The Proposal be?

Remember how Vanity Fair said Caroline Kennedy's kids made her stop running for Senate, and we were all "nuh uh"? She went on the TV to prove us right!

Elizabeth Edwards is, obviously, more or less the most sympathetic woman in the world, as a cancer survivor married to an asshole who cheated on her with some hippie freak. But no one likes her.

Happy news! The the Statue of Liberty's crown is reopening on July 4. Field trips! A nation of immigrants! And, for the Today Show crew, a chance to drone on endlessly about 9/11.

Are morning show hosts the worst people on television? Yes. Here's a selection of the creepy, prying, pretend-concerned questions Chris Cuomo and Matt Lauer had for Bristol Palin this morning.

Joe Biden went on the Today Show this morning and very calmly explained that you are going to die from swine flu if you don't lock yourself in a safe room now.

Ashley Olsen getting out of an SUV in Soho ... Orlando Bloom walking downtown ... Kim Kardashian leaving her hotel ... Michelle Trachtenberg drinking coffee on the set of Gossip Girl ... Uma Thurman covering her face with a magazine in the Village ... Michelle Williams and Spike Jonze walking together in Brooklyn ... Gerard Butler meeting up with friends in the meatpacking district ... Matthew Broderick taking son James to school in the West Village ... Matt Lauer walking down the street with a sling on his arm ... Whitney Port eating lunch at Philip Marie on Hudson Street ... Katy Perry shopping downtown ... Willem Dafoe dropping off mail in the West Village ... Paula Deen going into the Time Warner Center ... Kate Winslet walking by herself ... and Spike Lee and Bill Murray standing outside the Tribeca Grill.

Eliot Spitzer really wants to explain the whole financial crisis, and he is pretty sure he's obligated to advise us plebes on what to do, but everyone just wants him to talk about hookers.

• Madonna won't be leaving Malawi with a baby after all: A judge listed a residency requirement as the reason why he rejected her adoption petition, although there's still a possibility Madonna will appeal the ruling. [People, E!]
• These are tough times for Kelly Killoren Bensimon. The "Real Housewife," who was arrested a couple of weeks ago for allegedly beating up her boyfriend, now just lost her Saks modeling gig. [P6]
• Andre Balazs appears to have a new special someone in his life. He was spotted making out with beer heiress Daphne Guinness the other night. [P6]

Today show host Matt Lauer got in a fight with a deer while on his bike last weekend and kinda hurt himself. Now he's back on the show and his colleagues are teasing him mercilessly.

A Today anchorlady thinks her cohost is higher than a kite, a New Yorker aims to get drunk, Alex Balk perks up his ears, and everyone else pretends to work. The latest from Twitteronia: