Reader’s Digest just published a piece titled the “100 Most Trusted People in America” and Tom Hanks took the top spot. This is not surprising. Hanks is perhaps the most boring dude alive. You know those dreams you have where nothing significant happens and you wake up knowing you had a dream so you feel like you should tell someone about it but it’s so vague you end up not saying anything? That’s what hanging out with Hanks is like.

Anyway, Sandra Bullock was number two in the poll. Which uh, see above.

Other highlights:

• Jay Leno was more trusted than David Letterman (were people drunk when they voted?)
• Robin Roberts was the most trusted woman on TV
• Other highly trusted media people include Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, Anderson Cooper, Oprah Winfrey, George Stephanopoulos, Scott Pelley, Kelly Ripa, Steve Harvey and Savannah Guthrie.
• Judge Judy is more trusted than Matt Lauer.

Three obstacles stand in the way of former Mitt Romney campaign intern Adam Savader‘s political career.

1. Being arrested for allegedly cyberstalking young women and blackmailing 15 of them into sending him nudes
2. A creepy smile — a smile some may say should have indicated his potential for sexploitation and the fact that we missed it a sign of the Obama administration’s degradation of national security (we’re lookin’ at you, Lindsey Graham)
3. A breaking news problem

Last week, BuzzFeed’s Dorsey Shaw diagnosed Anderson Cooper with a “breaking news problem,” abusing the terms to describe news events that were neither new nor breaking.

The boy-who-cried-wolf use of the term has, as Shaw put it, rendered it all but meaningless.

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Matt Lauer is having a rough week. First, New York published that lengthy account about how he forced Ann Curry out at Today and oh by the way, no one really likes him anyway. Now, Deadline reports that someone at the morning show is trying to replace him with Anderson Cooper.

According to the report, someone at Today called Cooper about taking over for Lauer before the end of the year. Obviously Lauer wasn’t pleased about this and told that someone to effectively f*ck off (we’re paraphrasing/making this more exciting here) when they tried to get his blessing on the change. Lauer then called Cooper to tell him to effectively f*ck off, which caught Cooper by surprise, because he assumed Lauer was in on the idea.

The only thing that wasn’t revealed by Deadline’s account was what Cooper said when he was asked if he wanted Lauer’s job. If it was “Yes,” we assume Lauer said many more swear words than we’ve detailed here.

Update (11:30 am):
NBC is of course denying Deadline’s report. NBC News’ senior vice president, Alexandra Wallace, told THR, “As we’ve said before, Matt Lauer is the best in the business. We want him in the Today show anchor chair for many years to come.”

SocialTimes: HP became the first company to reach one million followers on LinkedIn. That’s… Something!

FishbowlDC: One of the meanest things we’ve ever heard? Someone referred to Anderson Cooper as Nancy Grace.

Lost Remote: Nikelodeon’s iPad app is soaring in popularity. That might say something about the state of parenting in our country, but we’re not going to go there.

It’s awards season! Get excited. Unless you don’t ever win awards, then just listen to your favorite Jewel record and curl into a ball until you feel better. Anyway, here’s one award among many: Jonah Peretti, co-founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, has been named I Want Media’s 2012 Person of The Year.

Peretti was the clear favorite among I Want Media’s readers, grabbing 39 percent of the vote. He beat out Nate Silver, Tina Brown and Anderson Cooper. According to I Want Media, Peretti deserved to win:

Peretti and his BuzzFeed team attracted much press coverage in 2012, as they aspired to create a new model for Internet journalism. Peretti, a co-founder of the Huffington Post, described his site’s model as social publishing — one that mined the growing number of people sharing news and other content on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Best known for viral fluff like ’50 photos of cat heaven,’ BuzzFeed this year made moves into serious reporting and took an ambitious plunge into longform journalism.

Like a sale at your favorite department store, One Day Only! That could be the banner headline as Rosanna Scotto does a TV doubleheader today. Following her Good Day New York work at WNYW with Dave Price, Channel 5 viewers will see Scotto guest host on Anderson Cooper‘s syndicated daytime show. This season Anderson took it up a notch as Anderson Live. But to accommodate Scotto, our sister site TVSpy reports the show was recorded earlier this week.

Anderson Live is seen at noon on WNYW.

TVSpy has a video clip of Scotto showing off her rarely seen dancing talents.

The Daily Beast has published a list of the highest paid TV anchors, and it’s massively depressing. It’s sad because some of the people featured in the list don’t do much at all. Like Kelly Ripa.

According to a “highest paid TV star” list from TV Guide, Ripa makes $20 million a year just for acting ditzy on a morning show. Of course Bill O’Reilly gets paid $20 million a year to spread hatred and ignorance, so maybe we shouldn’t be so upset about Ripa’s salary.

Below are a few of the other top earners. The Daily Beast’s full list is here; TV Guide’s here.

• Matt Lauer – $25 million
• Anderson Cooper – $11 million
• Sean Hannity – $15 million

After a long holiday weekend left the usual Wednesday lunch crowd without their weekly power lunch fix, the town car set who could tear themselves away from their Hampton cottages returned to Michael’s today. I say we outlaw any more midweek July 4th holidays. Too confusing!

I was joined today by Bob Guccione, Jr. who I met last year when we weighed in on the ever expanding culture of celebrity for a journalism panel for Names Not Numbers. After crossing paths in this dining room several times over the past year, we decided it was time for a proper Michael’s lunch once and for all.

I wasn’t disappointed. Bob ventured in for our lunch and some other important business in town from his home in rural Pennsylvania (“I’m one postage stamp away from being the unabomber!’). A few years ago, having grown “sick of New York” he decamped to Mississippi to teach journalism and has decided country life beats living in Manhattan hands down. ”It’s so peaceful,” he says.

Bob tells a terrific tale of his fascinating career in media that started at the age of 18 in the UK when he became Britain’s youngest ever publisher. A year later, he launched Rock Superstars making him the youngest publisher in America. As the son of one of publishing’s most colorful figures, it seems his career path was predetermined but, says Bob, “I knew I loved it. I wanted to be a writer but I had no life experience.”

That changed pretty quickly. In 1985, he launched SPIN, sold it in 1997 t0 Vibe Ventures, and launched Gear in 1998. Then, in 2005 he bought Discover from Disney. He remembers the moment well. “The staff regarded  me with some trepidation. When I told them  ‘We’re in the entertainment business,’ there was an audible gasp in the room.” By the time he stepped down as chairman two years later, the magazine had returned to profitability.

Our conversation revolved around passion for the business and the elusive quest for profitability and Bob had plenty to say on both fronts. Besides being incredibly funny (sorry, but his best remarks are off the record), the tireless entrepreneur proved to be a fascinating lunch date as he shared his extremely well-reasoned take on why he believes writers will one day be able to make a living online and why magazines are far from over. ”Everything about digital media happened too fast, and people back the wrong model too quickly,” he told me. Exhibit A: The Huffington Post, which Bob says is “doomed to fail” and called it “a white elephant — it’s the default model.”

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Anderson Cooper has come out. In an email to his friend Andrew Sullivan, Cooper said “The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.”

Cooper explained that he had not said anything on the subject before because he felt it would negatively impact his ability to cover some stories. His feelings, however, recently began to change:

It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something — something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true.

“In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted,” added Cooper.

Somewhere, Rachel Maddow is probably smiling.

Caroline Bermudez, John Elliott, and Lisa Kerney have been named hosts of Live from the Couch. The WLNY 10/55 morning program airs from 7 to 9 beginning in early July.

The WCBS-produced show features a mix of news, talk, entertainment, and lifestyle segments.

Bermudez joins WLNY following her successful seven-year stint as co-host of Elvis Duran and The Morning Show, which originates at Z100/WHTZ and is heard on 55 stations nationwide.

“We are very excited to be bringing a distinctive new morning show to the tri-state area featuring Carolina, John and Lisa – three extremely bright and entertaining broadcasters,” said Betty Ellen Berlamino, vice president and station manager, WLNY. “With the launch of Live From the Couch in the morning and our new one-hour primetime newscast, WLNY News At 9 p.m., next month we look forward to significantly raising the profile of WLNY.”

In addition to their new responsibilities on Live from the Couch, Elliott and Kerney will continue to appear on CBS 2 News This Morning, weekdays from 4:30–7:00 on WCBS/Channel 2. Elliott has served as weekday morning weathercaster since January 2007. He will remain on the WCBS noon newscast, and still provide daytime reports for sister station WCBS 880.

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