Anyone who has even casually observed Matt Lauer's behavior over the past twenty years should in no way be surprised by some of his female colleague's allegations of "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace".
Examine carefully each of these five photographs.
Anne Hathaway was on the Today Show in 2012 promoting her then recent film, Les Miserables (for which she would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress). Lauer initiated the interview bringing up the subject of an extremely embarrassing wardrobe malfunction. Moreover, he did so in a sexual manner, saying, "seen a lot of you lately".
But he didn't stop there, Lauer went on to say, "Let’s just get it out of the way. You had a little wardrobe malfunction the other night. What’s the lesson learned from something like that?" One has difficulty imagining how he could he possibly get any more patronizing.
Note the manner in which Lauer is sitting - with his legs crossed (European style). Sitting this close to any guest - regardless of their gender is out of context behavior for an interview. If space was limited - and he had to be this close - he should not have crossed his legs. And if he still felt the need to cross them in such close quarters, he should have pointed his leg/foot away from Anne Hathaway - yet he invades her space.
He does the same with most all of his guests - particularly the women. Included here are other examples of this same behavior with Jennifer Lopez and Katie Holmes.
Lauer goes out of his way to encroach on each woman's personal space - more specifically, their intimate space. With the ample area available in a major television studio - and when this behavior is of a chronic nature - it strongly signals the presence of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (however this is only one of many narcissist behaviors).
Narcissists routinely enter into other's personal/intimate space in order to intimidate and exert dominance.
But note how Lauer sits when interviewing Donald Trump. He points his torso, legs, and feet away from the President (at an angle of about 80˚ - 90)˚- and in so doing affords his guest much more space.
The fact that Trump is an even greater narcissist than Lauer is not lost on us, however. The President routinely sits (regardless of the gender of his interviewer) in an extreme example of a "Seated crotch display" (colloquially known as "Manspreading"). He also, with high frequency, sits forward in his chair (with his butt away from the back of the chair) - in addition to leaning forward with his torso. This is an example of another hyper-alpha sitting posture. The President's status and his body language intimidates Lauer - making the hunter momentarily the hunted.
In this last image of Lauer interviewing Pete Carroll, the Seattle Seahawk's coach is sitting with his legs essentially parallel. Lauer again returns to his narcissist default position. While Carroll is not, in an absolute sense, in any way beta in this moment - he becomes a relative beta because of Lauer's hyper-alpha, invasion of Carroll's personal space.
Summary: Chronic invasion of another person's personal/intimate space signals their poor emotional intelligence and is a routine behavior of narcissists. Depending on the other accompanying nonverbal, verbal, and paralanguage behavior - it can also be a type of a sexual overture/display and a form of sexual intimidation and harassment.
These individuals will say, "I'm just comfortable this way" (or similar) - keep in mind this is only partially true. Translated, this really means that they're more emotionally comfortable only when they're asserting dominance, behaving aggressively, sometimes sexually (out of context) - and intimidating others.
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See also:
Body Language Analysis No. 4137: Matt Lauer's Duplicity - "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace"
Body Language Analysis No. 4135: What Makes Markle's Eyes Sparkle?
Body Language Analysis No. 4133: Vladimir Putin's Default Face
Body Language Analysis No. 4131: Michael Flynn's Clandestine Plans
Body Language Analysis No. 4103: Las Vegas Shooter, Stephen Paddock's and His Brother's Common (Behavioral) Denominator
Body Language Analysis No. 4063: The Murder of Laci and Connor Peterson - Scott Peterson
Body Language Analysis No. 4026: Aubrey Plaza, Ingrid Goes West, and Emotional Intelligence
Body Language Analysis No. 3979: Ivanka Trump, "I Try to Stay Out of Politics"
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3905: Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid, and Deep Joy
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