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"Matt Lauer is finally ready to apologize -- to a former intern. The much-maligned Today show host made a public apology toward Mark Zinni, who interned at the Today show back in 1997, via Twitter on Tuesday, March 26.\r\n&amp;quot;I was an intern there in &amp;apos;97, his first year on the job&amp;#x2026;how do I say this&amp;#x2026;? He was&amp;#x2026; not nice,&amp;quot; Zinni tweeted at a friend earlier that day.\r\nPHOTOS: Nasty celebrity feuds\r\nSeveral of the journalist&amp;apos;s online friends and followers jumped at the reference to Lauer, asking Zinni to clarify his statement. Several hours later, Zinni retweeted a pal&amp;apos;s comments.&amp;#xA0;\r\n&amp;quot;&amp;apos;I was just a young kid with a bright future ahead of me,&amp;apos; Mark Zinni talking about internship at Today and &amp;apos;not so nice&amp;apos; Matt Lauer,&amp;quot; the follower wrote.\r\nThat follow-up retweet must have caught Lauer&amp;apos;s eye, because the 55-year-old talk show cohost later took it upon himself to respond to the claims personally.\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;Huh? Always tried to be nice Mark. Sorry you didn&amp;apos;t think so,&amp;quot; Lauer wrote in a tweet directed at Zinni. &amp;quot;Hope you&amp;apos;re doing well. Matt.&amp;quot;\r\nZinni, who is currently a Cleveland-based anchor and reporter, addressed the resulting media attention in a post to the Fox 8 website on Thursday, March 28.\r\n&amp;quot;If you know me, you probably know that I don&amp;apos;t take myself too seriously,&amp;quot; he wrote, adding that he had &amp;quot;an amazing internship&amp;quot; at the Today show back in 1997. &amp;quot;So, my answer was more of a joke about being young and naive during my time at Today, but I added that he wasn&amp;apos;t nice to me.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;I didn&amp;apos;t slam the guy, I just made an honest comment,&amp;quot; he continued. &amp;quot;Bottom line, I was shocked Matt Lauer even bothered with me and, really, he remembers me? I&amp;apos;m flattered.&amp;quot;\r\nZinni&amp;apos;s comments about Lauer are just the latest in a series that have painted the veteran TV journalist in a less than flattering light. Earlier this week, Lauer made headlines after a New York magazine story revealed the true behind-the-scenes drama at the Today show surrounding Ann Curry&amp;apos;s departure -- with Lauer seemingly in the middle of it all.\r\n&amp;quot;Everybody at NBC, everybody at the Today show, everybody understood that Ann was kicked out of her position because Matt didn&amp;apos;t want her there,&amp;quot; a prominent NBC staffer told New York writer Joe Hagan. &amp;quot;That&amp;apos;s why it was so personal between Ann and Matt.&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/matt-lauer-apologizes-to-former-intern-who-called-him-not-so-nice-2013293>