Ann Curry Gears Up to Take Another Dive on 'Today'

Get out your checkbooks, kiddies -- Ann Curry says for 10 grand, she will jump off a bridge.

Sadly, she will be attached to a bungee cord, but you can't have everything.

Curry, the reigning Queen of News Performers, already has jumped out of an airplane -- twice -- free of charge. But we still think NBC is selling her life cheaply at $10,000, the threshold at which it will order her to jump head first off the Transporter Bridge in Manchester, England England, live, on the Dec. 17 broadcast of "Today," to promote the show's new series "Today Gets eXtreme." On the bright side, the money raised to get Ann to jump will go to charity -- two charities in fact: Save the Children and United Way.

Why the Transporter Bridge in Manchester, England, rather than one of our all-American bridges?

Glad you asked. Curry will be in Europe for an interview at that time, according to a "Today" show spokeswoman, and the North American Bungee Association told "Today" this bridge was the best place in the area from which to take the plunge. It's a working bridge, but it shuts down a couple of times a month so people can bungee-jump from it, the spokeswoman told The TV Column.

"Ann wanted to jump off an established location so if viewers wanted to do it as well, they could."

Katie Couric had her "Today" show celebrity colonoscopy -- Ann Curry has her bungee jump.

If viewers respond to Curry's jump the way they did to Couric's colonoscopy, expect to see bungee jumping, um, jump 20 percent.

But first, you the TV viewer have to ante up. And you have only until Dec. 17 to make your contribution via the "Today" show's Web site.

Here's some good news: Curry's colleagues Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Al Roker have already said publicly they will pony up $1,000 each toward the $10,000 bungee jump goal, so we're already well on our way.

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