On Today, Kathie Lee Gifford is funnier—and more risqué—than any reality star.

-By Karl Taro Greenfeld
-Photograph courtesy of the Associated Press

In her dressing room beneath the Today show studios, Kathie Lee Gifford has slipped out of her black cocktail dress and pearl necklace and into jeans, a white T-shirt with a glitter cross on it, and tan pumps. Her face, which is suspiciously adolescent on-camera, looks more like a mature woman's in person, although, in places, it's too plump, too lippy, too bronze. It looks like it would be hard to the touch.