ANN CURRY HUMILIATION CONFIDENTIAL

NationalEnquirer.com

Bombshell report detailing in-house venom and OUTRAGEOUS abuse directed toward Today Show’s ANN CURRY.

The New York Times published an article by author Brian Stelter, detailing the  shots, snubs and slights NBC brass fired at the award winning Ann following her awkward exit from  Today co-anchor slot.

Hall of shame highlights include:

* When Curry — a Peacock Network employee of 22 years — forgot to bring her NBC badge to work at the network’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters this past March (after her demotion), the security guard on duty made like he didn’t recognize her, asking her for her name. She replied: “Ann Curry … A-N-N … C-U-R-R-Y.”

* Curry was often the butt of sophomoric jokes  at the hands of TODAY show executive producer Jim Bell, who Stelter reported was a central contributor to “a general meaness on set” toward the veteran journo.

‘ “A lot of time in the control room was spent making fun of Ann’s outfit choices or just generally messing with her,” a staffer told the paper, adding that when Curry wore a bright yellow outfit on the program one day, a prankster photoshopped her next to Big Bird with the caption, “Who wore it best?”

Bell also writes that NBC composed a blooper reel of Curry’s goofs on the air, and had a staff-wide meeting on a different occasion to mock a Curry flub. The producer denied any such occurrences. (Insiders told the paper Bell’s plan to out Curry was dubbed “Operation Bambi,” after a colleague suggested getting rid of Ann was akin to killing Bambi.) Toward the end, Bell wined and dined Curry at swanky  La Grenouille trying to spin her demotion from co-host to roving-correspondent as a promotion in a feeble effort to play off her preference of reporting hard news to tabloid fare.

*, Curry’s belongings were also unceremoniously tossed into boxes and confined to a coat closet; her office was moved to the 27th floor, far from the exec’s offices on the third floor; and in one instance, a red Post-it note was placed on her office door that read, “Do Not Enter.”

* In yet another indignity, NBC bosses, shortly after Curry’s demotion, tried to put her alongside replacement Savannah Guthrie during coverage of the Aurora theater shooting in July, trying to convey with message that the staff was one big happy family. Curry was not informed of the planned pairing and, naturally, rejected the idea. In turn, she broadcast a total of four minutes from the site of the incident, and a TODAY staffer was told to book the journalists on separate flights back to the Big Apple.

Stelter’s tome, Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV is slated to hit book shelves next week, RadarOnline noted..