Celebrity News

Handler rubbing Lauer’s nose in it

Chelsea Handler got in deep doo-doo with Comcast brass over a joke about Al Roker’s unpredictable bowels that also smeared Roker’s “Today” colleague Matt Lauer, sources tell us.

Roker recently confessed to “Dateline” that he once “pooped” his pants at the White House, and news of the accident, ahem, exploded online.

Handler responded with a zinger on her E! show, “Chelsea Lately,” saying, “This isn’t the first time a ‘Today’ show cast member was in the news about this sensitive subject. For years it was common knowledge that Matt Lauer spent every morning [s – – ting] all over Ann Curry.”

But Handler’s bosses — Comcast owns NBC and E! — were apparently not as amused as her audience.

“Chelsea’s writers were warned to lay off Matt,” says a source close to the show. “They don’t want them making more fun of Matt and the Ann Curry situation right now.” Lauer’s been a public target since Curry was canned as co-host of “Today” and replaced by Savannah Guthrie.

This isn’t the first time Handler’s slung some comedic excrement Lauer’s way. When Lauer made what seemed like a dig at Meredith Vieira during a “Today” segment on “cankles” back in 2009, Handler fired back with a shot at him.

In November, the comedienne canceled an appearance on “Today” by calling in hours before she was supposed to be on the show, due to what her rep told us was “food poisoning.”

But Handler said on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” later the same day, “That was a lie. I wasn’t sick,” and she apologized while getting in a swipe at “Today” hosts Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford, by calling them “Hoda Kota-ba and Kathie Lee Jifford.”

An E! spokesman told us about Handler and her writers being warned about Lauer: “This is absolutely false, and no such request was made.” A rep for “Today” declined to comment.

And Mr. Soiled Slacks himself meanwhile said yesterday that he’s stunned that his messy White House secret has become such a Web sensation.