It’s St. Pat’s Day, Meredith Vieira. Give us a break!

by Laura Baudo Sillerman

Meredith Vieira—give us a break!

Okay, it may come down to there are two kinds of women in the world:  those who are into St. Patrick’s Day and those who aren’t.  But some of us are pretty firmly on the fence—not exactly outfitted in emerald today, but not loathe to wear a touch of lime either.

Frankly, I don’t think it’s about puce or pints of Guinness.  It’s about those Red Hat ladies.

When Meredith Vieira hosted the Today Show from Dublin this morning, she appeared in progressively more ridiculous get-ups in each segment.  She wore, among other things, a shamrock emblem on her cheek, an Irish flag as a cape, green antennae, a big fuzzy green top hat and enough goo-gahs around her neck to sink the Blarney Stone into the Irish Sea.  There may have been more.  I couldn’t go on watching.

It made me think of the women who believe in wearing red hats and making certain everyone within six miles knows you are still interested in martinis, or newly converted to margaritas or dedicated to sporting stilettos and a boa to the supermarket or whatever their code of  conspicuousness dictates.

What ever happened to dignity?  Whatever happened to having fun without being foolish?

When did maturity come to mean mugging?  Clownishness?  Buffoonista?

Sorry.  Maybe the wind has been more to my dorsal side than my back lately. Perhaps I’m having a little trouble getting into the playful Erin Go Bragh (oh, please spare me from the go bra-less comment) spirit, but you notice Matt  Lauer was nowhere near the festivities.  Because it’s unseemly for a news host to be outfitted like the I Love Lucy costumer returned for the occasion.

Like it or not, Meredith Vieira represents the most powerful economic segment of American society—the mature woman.  The sparkle-in-the-eye,  spark-with-subtlety, sense-of-proportion-person-who-is-confident-enough-in-her-sense-of humor-not-to-need an-arrow-through-her-head mature woman.  Like it or not, Meredith, you are one of our faces to the world.  Wild Irish holiday or not, the role calls for a little maturity.