Because I am a masochist, I used to watch the aimless, Starbucks-drenched trainwreck that is Morning Joe every morning. After waking up, I would let the resentful squawking between Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Giest (whom I otherwise love), and whatever poor soul they convinced to join them provide a disquieting soundtrack to my morning rituals. I brushed my teeth as Joe told Mika she was wrong. I showered as Mika told Joe he was wrong. I tied my shoes as Mika promoted a new book or ethically dubious seminar. It was my pre-caffeine jolt, but eventually I stopped watching.
Observing miserable people discuss current events before enough coffee had entered their bloodstream made the world feel like a much darker place—plus, you know, the show is the literal opposite of enlightening—so I decided it was time to quit. But you know what might bring me back? A little rumor that cohosts Mika and Joe...are hooking up.
Page Six writes that “Brzezinski and her husband of 23 years have quietly divorced,” and that now she’s ready to make her relationship with Scarborough public knowledge.
They add:
An NBC insider told us, “Everybody at 30 Rock knows they are a couple . . . They are constantly together, they arrive and leave events together, even on weekends. They are each other’s publicists and finish each other’s sentences. It’s the worst-kept secret in TV.”
In what appears to have been a direct response to Page Six’s story, the two shared this exchange on this morning’s episode:
MIKA: Can I get to the lead stories now?
JOE: By the way, there are a lot of lead stories today, but why don’t we start with—
MIKA: I will finish your sentence and start with politics.
Here’s a video of the exchange. (The version on MSNBC’s site begins after the flirtations, hmm.)
Am I that dense? Had I been reading their interactions all wrong? Maybe Brzezinski and Scarborough were only pretending to hate each other every single morning on nations television so as not to arouse suspicions of the show’s scores of viewers. Or maybe it was a love that was born from hate. Maybe their disgust for one another slowly morphed into a kind of fascination, and then—eventually—lust.
As is usually the case, my feelings can be best expressed through this scene from The Golden Girls. Below are two short scenes from season 2's excellent episode about jewel thieves (I know), “To Catch a Neighbor.”
Image via Getty.