Really? More profiles of NBC stars? Portfolio is the latest at the gate with this 4,100-word doozy on Jeff Zucker. We have not read the article, which some might argue makes us unqualified to comment on it. But here's what we're going to guess is in the piece: A history of Zucker's rise to the top of the peacock, how he's handling the Olympics, how GE really really isn't planning on selling off its television unit, and some things about what the future holds ("But Zucker does not dwell on the past"). Throw in an anecdote about him running 'for North Miami High School ­student-body president with the campaign slogan, “The little man with big ideas,”' and you can shrink wrap this one and put it on store shelves. [Portfolio]

This morning, the Today show kicked off its Beijing Olympics coverage, though it's unclear whether this counts toward NBC Universal's 3,600 hours of Games coverage (we're guessing no). Matt Lauer is over there talking about the Great Wall while other NBC types are giving us a tour of the city's $43 billion facelift. Perfect timing, then, for a LAT profile of Jim Bell, Today's executive producer who has to find the right mix of creampuff stories about Olympics competitors and China's ignoring the promises it made to get the 2008 Games there. (So far, Today has done an adamant job of not reporting on China's pollution problem.)

But we're not just seeing an explanation of how 30 Rock is going to handle reporting from Beijing (while parent company GE does billions in business with China) — we're seeing a very carefully orchestrated plan to mold Bell into the inevitable leader of NBC Sports.

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Every time Tim Gunn uttered the words "make it work" during the first season of Project Runway, he was paid precisely this amount: $0. And during the second season? Just $2,500 per episode. That's according to his testimony in New York State Supreme Court, where proceedings are underway between NBC Universal and The Weinstein Company, which ripped Runway away from NBC's Bravo for Lifetime. Other tidbits from the ongoing trial? NBC chief Jeff Zucker has instructed Bravo to air marathon repeats of Runway during the same timeslot Lifetime will air new episodes of the show's sixth season. Did we mention Zucker is BFF's with Harvey Weinstein?

Though it's pretty clear that Project Runway is headed to Lifetime for the show's sixth season, NBC Universal isn't taking Harvey Weinstein's bull sitting down, which explains why Jeff Zucker was in a New York court yesterday trying to convince a judge that they lost the show on Bravo because of the Hollywood mogul's shadowy ways. The Weinstein Company wants NBC's breach of contract suit — which claims Weinstein didn't give NBC right of the first refusal option that was promised — dismissed, while 30 Rock wants an injunction to keep the series from going to Lifetime until the trial is over with. Us? We just want this trial to continue forever and ever! Also, photographers in the courtroom.

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Jeff Zucker has used Allen & Co.'s Sun Valley media confab to once again deny that NBC is looking to be sold or spun-off, attracting a round of giggles from on-lookers. [Reuters]

Though Brian Williams filled in the moderator's chair on Meet The Press today, Mr. Tom Brokaw will take over through the election as we suspected. It might've been easy to think Williams was actually quite apt for the gig: He followed Russert's traditional line of questioning that brought up past statements and offered politicos the chance to contradict themselves or reaffirm their past; Joe Biden was today's example, asked about the vice presidency. (He had said before that under no circumstances would he want to be VP. He said that again today. Then he qualified that statement by saying he doesn't want to be VP because Barack Obama just wouldn't ask him — if if Obama did ask, he'd have no choice but to say yes.)

But that's not what Jeff Zucker and Steve Capus had in mind. The official announcement came this morning, and Williams telling viewers at the end of today's broadcast, with 30 Rock revealing Brokaw will take over MTP beginning next Sunday and last through the November election.

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On a NBC News conference call this morning, NBC head Jeff Zucker, NBC News chief Steve Capus, and anchor Brian Williams joined in with a number of others to discuss the future of Meet The Press and the D.C. bureau. A source who was not on the call, but overheard a colleague's speakerphone listening session, says Tom Brokaw's name was bandied about. (It's unclear whether Brokaw was on the call.)

More on the post-Tim Russert future is here.

Maybe Don Imus' "nappy headed hos" incident was the best thing to happen to MSNBC? It gave Phil Griffin a chance to audition Joe Scarborough, then the host of primetime's Scarborough Country, for the morning show slot. And it clicked. Now, with sidekicks Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, Morning Joe is attracting some 360,000 viewers on average, or about what Imus was picking up. It's also scored its host a contract through March 2011.

So 30 Rock must be quite confident with who they've chosen to moderate a show that's part news broadcast, part entertainment fodder, and an excuse for Mika to remind everyone that her brothers and father are all heavily vested in politics, right? Well. Take away what you will from this Jeff Zucker quote: "It’s probably a little unfair to call Joe a ‘space filler.' But we certainly had a need to fill in the morning." Vote of confidence, indeed. [NYT]

Jeff Zucker has long been rumored to be one of the New York Post's biggest anonymous sources on all things GE/NBC. Surely not every story with a Peter Lauria byline carries Zucker's fingerprints.

But many do.

So we sort of read the paper's Business section with that always in mind.

So today's article, about how corporate overlord GE is so afraid of tarnishing its triple-A credit rating that it refuses to give Zucker's entertainment division the cash it needs to do anything but mosey along to the beat of a tired drummer, and how Zucker is "doing everything he can to grow the media giant" despite that fact, screams of a Zucker plant.

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At its upfront presentation yesterday, NBC Universal had advertisers and media buyers experience a high-wattage walk through, with a HD theatre, photo stations with NBC reality stars, Saturday Night Football announcers offering autographs, food from Bravo's Top Chef, and the talking car from Knight Rider on display, all culminating in a huge cocktail party with Jeff Zucker offering a brief welcome and Conan O'Brien delivering a brief standup comedy routine.

"In general, the goal was to impress on media buyers just how many ways there are to advertise with NBC and NBCU, with television just being one way. For example, an actual gas pump with TV screen that NBC is using for both messaging and programming shorts at selected gas stations around the country was on display as well as sections hightlighting train car and arena advertising." [MW]

So did it motivate clients, who feed NBC's bottom line, to spend "with NBC and its wide ranging media platforms?"

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In not exactly news, NBC confirms they've inked Jimmy Fallon to take over for Conan O'Brien when the late night red head does some taking over himself, for Jay Leno, sometime around June 2009. [NYT] There's been mucho speculation about what Jeff Zucker & Co. were going to decide about NBC's late night slate, after rampant rumors about Jay Leno not being ready to give up his post, and NBC's fears that Leno would quickly jump to a waiting competitor like ABC or Fox, allowed for rumormongering about how Leno might not leave, which would mean the network would have to pay O'Brien a rumored $40-45 million penalty fee for not hiring him. That's a lot of cash, yes, but Leno's show is, like the Today show, a cash-frickin'-cow.

The possibility that Leno would stick around carried some weight because, well, he's Leno. And: His ratings consistently beat David Letterman at CBS, and haven't gone down the path like the sinking ship that is NBC's primetime. He remains a huge commodity, and it's certain NBC remained (remains?) nervous about his exit.

But as far back as September 2004, NBC guaranteed O'Brien the 11:30pm slot that Leno holds. They promised it to him, in ink, to keep him from defecting to another network, the very scenario they're wary of with Leno right now.

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Though a Page Six spy spotted NBC chief Jeff Zucker "climbing out of his black SUV" in front of Katie Couric's East Side apartment, a Couric "friend" is preemptively shooting down any rumors that Zucker wants his prized lady back, saying "Jeff and Katie have been friends for 20 years. He asked her to get a Mother's Day gift for his wife, Caryn, and picked it up on the way to his daughter's play." [NYP]

Uh huh.

More curious, beside the terrible and transparent excuse given, though, is who "spots" Zucker exiting his car and walking into Katie's building, except, perhaps, Zucker or Katie themselves.

Zucker has always been rumored to be a serial New York Post leaker, especially when he's got a takedown agenda, like he did with Beth Comstock in September, floating a rumor that Comstock was leaving NBC U and heading back upstairs to GE. (The news panned out.)

So what would either have to gain?

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Earlier this week, New York's attorney general Andrew Cuomo held a press conference where he dragged out 30 Rock star Tina Fey to announce the new Piracy Protection Act, which would turn movie piracy into a misdemeanor crime, which means possible jail time, instead of the lame "offense," equal to a parking ticket, that it is now. As can only be assumed, he had a leisurely lunch with some Motion Picture Association of America reps, who aren't happy with the possibly-inflated figure of $2.6 billion that's supposedly lost to piracy in this state alone. (Actually, he certainly met with the MPAA; flanked by NBC head Jeff Zucker, Cuomo was also joined by MPAA chief Dan Glickman. And a 2005 study by the MPAA says piracy cost the industry, overall, $18.2 billion.)

Your tax dollars are about to be put toward creating a special deputy attorney general post and new efforts to involve the Organized Crime Task Force in intellectual property theft, because as we all know, New York's organized crime families are involved here.

According to Glickman, 90 percent of street and Internet piracy begins with a camcorder. You know, those shady dudes who "cam" movies and then send them off to BitTorrent. But who are we kidding? It's doubtful that New York's law enforcement is going to tread on federal territory and go after Internet file-sharing. Which means most of their efforts will be focused on the streets.

The same streets, in fact, that have all but seen those folding tables and garbage bag sacks of copied DVDs disappear. So, uh, continued success with that.

[Photo: Flickr]

The reason Bravo lost Project Runway to Lifetime is because the show's producers, The Weinstein Company, wanted to force NBC Universal to buy up some of its "second-tier" film projects as part of a contract renewal. NBC balked, but Lifetime was up for the offer, so they took the bait, agreeing to buy "stolen goods." Or at least that's the series of events according to NBC and the lawsuit they filed yesterday against Weinstein. And they're also claiming any cash a court ruling might send its way as punishment to Weinstein for breaking their contract – which promised NBC right of first refusal – wouldn't be good enough. They want to be back in negotiations.

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It's not so much that NBC chief Jeff Zucker has a comedic factor of zero, or that his attempts at synergy are flat, or that his Borat impression hovers around unwatchable. It's that this promo is actually supposed to air on TV next week.

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