Ann Curry Was "Tortured" And "Professionally Harassed" On NBC's Today Show Set. Jim Bell, Matt Laauer, Katie Couric Named "Bullies"

Brian Stelter's new book "Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV," comes out April 23 and it is filled with juicy secrets about the Today Show.  The book divluges how Ann Curry was repeatedly being bullied and "professionally harassed" on the set of the NBC morning Show.

Executive producer Jim Bell even named the plot to oust Curry, 56, from her hosting spot of less than a year "Operation Bambi" after a friend told him firing the journalist would be like "killing Bambi."

Curry was bullied in the office and felt that the "boys' club atmosphere behind the scenes at Today undermined her from the start." Stelter describes Today show executive producer Jim Bell commissioning a blooper reel of Curry's "worst on-air mistakes," though Bell now denies this. After being discouraged from taking the co-anchor office next to Matt Lauer, Curry moved in anyway but boxes of Curry's things ended up in a coat closet even before she was ever ousted.

The mostly male control room staff spent "a lot of time" making fun of Curry's often colorful and strange outfit choices, once even going so far as to print a side-by-side photo of Big Bird and Curry in a yellow dress. "Who wore it best?" the paper asked.

According to "well-placed sources," Couric did not appreciate her "go getter attitude." Producers said Couric thought Curry was "melodramatic" and "fake."

Co-host Matt Lauer wasn't a fan of Curry's either. According to the excerpt, Lauer allegedly told a production assistant about Curry, "I can't believe I am sitting next to this woman."

Since her departure, Stelter reports that Curry has been keeping to herself at her Connecticut Home.

"She still often woke before dawn as if she were about to go on the air," he wrote. "Some mornings, she cried as she read e-mail and Twitter messages from fans."