‘Today Show’: Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie fake-fight over alleged middle finger

Did Savannah Guthrie flip Matt Lauer off while on “The Today Show” Friday morning? For some folks who were watching the show in real-time, they seemingly believed as though it happened, which would have been the hilarious latest miscue in a network that already has renewed drama with Lauer and Ann Curry, along with all of the pesky stuff pertaining to Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, and the future of “The Tonight Show.”

So what really happened here? It’s a little bit more innocent than it seems. During a segment on vacuum cleaners during this morning’s show, Lauer clipped the following: “By the way this is the first time Savannah has ever used a vacuum.” As you can see in the video below, it does seem almost as though like Guthrie shoots her co-anchor the bird when she believes that she is off-camera.

However, Guthrie was quick to deny the act in a variety of ways. First, she posted the tweet that you can see below:
 

Folks!! That was my INDEX finger! Photo evidence proving my innocence coming! #fingergate #TGIF

— Savannah Guthrie (@SavannahGuthrie) March 29, 2013

Then, the photo that you see above was made available, which clearly shows her using her index finger as she had seen. Controversy blown? It certainly seems like it. However, that didn’t stop Matt from hilariously posting the photo to the left which he joked was him “storming out of the office after after [her] middle finger salute.”

So overall, it looks like this was a major crisis averted … which is certainly a good thing given just how many crises this show has been forced to deal with already in the past year.

What do you think of this whole controversy, and the way in which the parties involved are laughing it off now? If you want to read some more of the latest rumors regarding a potential “Today Show” shake-up, you can see them over at the link here.

Photo: Twitter / Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie