Poor Katie — get her some Kleenex and a wrinkle-free pantsuit.
TV star Katie Couric took such a beating in the press after she jumped ship to CBS she started comparing herself to Hillary Clinton, a new book says.
The steep drop in popularity that followed Couric’s exit from NBC’s “Today” show in 2006 left her full of self-pity, according to author Sheila Weller.
“In private, Katie — who had recently turned 50 — was now beginning to actively and repeatedly compare herself to the embattled but energized Hillary Clinton,” Weller writes in her new book — “The News Sorority: Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Christiane Amanpour — and the (Ongoing, Imperfect, Complicated) Triumph of Women in TV.”
“Katie deeply related to Hillary; she felt she was being pummeled as the first female anchor just like Clinton was being pummeled as the first major female presidential candidate,” Weller wrote.
Couric became an object of derision the moment she arrived at CBS News with a $15 million salary and celebrity attitude, the book says.
“The resentment was virtually immediate,” a CBS correspondent told Weller, according to the book, which comes out in September.
“The burden was on her,” Weller wrote. “People were waiting to see her disprove the reputation she arrived with. You’ve gotta be conscious of the fact that you’re making at least ten or fifteen or twenty times more than anybody on the show.”
The Daily News obtained excerpts of the highly anticipated book as Couric finds herself facing another rough patch.
The 57-year-old host’s new gig as global news anchor at Yahoo is apparently under scrutiny because she has failed to land big-name interviews.
And just this past Thursday, Couric taped the last episode of her daytime talk show “Katie,” which is being yanked off the air after two seasons.
But it’s hard to imagine her recent troubles compare to the turmoil that followed her to CBS.
Not only were some of the network’s stars miffed over her eye-popping salary, some of them were asked to take salary cuts themselves, the book says.
Ed Bradley was supposed to take a cut in pay before his death — two months after Couric started, according to the book. Morley Safer was supposed to earn 30% less and Lesley Stahl was asked to take $500,000 less in salary.
Her personality didn’t win her any friends. Former CBS staffers told Weller that Couric was unfriendly and abrasive.
“Katie can put on a charm offensive if she wants to,” the book says. “But really, she doesn’t give a s— about you only as much as it affected her.”
Instead of taking on the “real work” associated with being a managing editor, the book says, “Katie was out doing other things.”
“She was being a star,” Weller wrote.
Couric is not the only one who takes a beating in Weller’s book.
Weller described how Sawyer made life miserable for overnight staffers at ABC News, frequently calling in at 1 a.m. and demanding that different stories be covered.
The staffers were reluctant to hire freelance producers across the globe, knowing the segments would likely never air.
But they did it anyway, the book says.
“If you didn’t do it, and she found out you didn’t do it, she would triple your agony for the next few weeks by calling in at one a.m. more often, wanting more stories, checking back to make sure you were working on them,” the book says.