Inside MSNBC (Strictly Media Gossip) [Updated]

WED. UPDATE: The New York Times has released the full article early. The title (I wish I were kidding) is “The Aria of Chris Matthews.”
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Mediobistro.com has gotten a sneak peek at the New York Times’s magazine cover story on — why, god, why, of all the people in the world to write about, why him? — Chris Matthews. Here are some tidbits from “NYT Mag On Matthews: The Excerpts” that are uproarious (or, depending on your mood, utterly horrifying):

“Not only is it a great read (typical for Leibovich), but if you’re into media gossip…man. This has got good stuff on Matthews rivalries with David Gregory, Keith Olbermann, Tim Russert…and that’s just scratching the surface of the gems this piece unearths.”

Those rivalries?

… Matthews craves Russert’s approval like that of an older brother. He is often solicitous.

In an interview with Playboy a few years ago, he volunteered that he had made the list of the Top 50 journalists in D.C. in The Washingtonian magazine. “I’m like 36th, and Tim Russert is No. 1,” Matthews told Playboy. “I would argue for a higher position for myself.”

Friends say Matthews is wary of another up-and-comer, David Gregory, who last month was given a show at 6 o’clock, between airings of “Hardball.” It is a common view around NBC that Gregory is trying out as a possible replacement for Matthews.

According to people at NBC, Matthews has not been shy in voicing his resentment of Olbermann. Nor, according to network sources, has Olbermann bothered to hide his low regard for Matthews, although when I spoke to him, Olbermann denied any personal animosity toward Matthews and told me that he appreciates his “John Madden-like enthusiasm for politics.”

This excerpt left me speechless:

“Did you get a load of Lou Rawls’s wife?” Matthews said as he left the spin room. Apparently the Rev. Jesse Jackson was introducing the widow of the R&B singer at the media center. “She was an absolute knockout,” Matthews declared. It’s a common Matthews designation. The actress Kerry Washington was also a “total knockout,” according to Matthews, who by 1 a.m. had repaired to the bar of the Cleveland Ritz-Carlton. He was sipping a Diet Coke and holding court for a cluster of network and political types, as well as for a procession of random glad-handers that included, wouldn’t you know it, Kerry Washington herself. Washington played Ray Charles’s wife in the movie “Ray” and Kay Amin in the “Last King of Scotland.” She is a big Obama supporter and was in town for the debate; more to the point, she said she likes “Hard-ball.” Matthews grabbed her hand, and Phil Griffin, the head of MSNBC who was seated across the table, vowed to get her on the show.

“I know why he wants you on,” Matthews said to Washington while looking at Griffin. At which point Matthews did something he rarely does. He paused. He seemed actually to be considering what he was about to say. He might even have been editing himself, which is anything but a natural act for him. He was grimacing. I imagined a little superego hamster racing against a speeding treadmill inside Matthews’s skull, until the superego hamster was overrun and the pause ended.

“He wants you on because you’re beautiful,” Matthews said. “And because you’re black.” He handed Washington a business card and told her to call anytime “if you ever want to hang out with Chris Matthews.”

“if you ever want to hang out with Chris Matthews” … wow, I wish that’d been I. Don’t you?

Read all of “NYT Mag On Matthews: The Excerpts.”

There’s much more, including the fact that Matthews gets paid FIVE MILLION DOLLARS a year — for what exactly, for what? (for “suggesting that Hillary Clinton owed her election to the Senate to the fact that her husband ‘messed around’”?) — but that MSNBC wants to pay him less when his contract is renewed.

And I suppose it’s good to get this peek into Matthews’ world since I refuse — and I do mean refuse — to watch him, his show, or his tingling leg any longer.