My mom loves David Muir, anchor of ABC’s Nightly News. I suspect many moms love him. He’s got that sort of clean-cut Boy Scout vibe that makes for a good nightly news anchor. The only problem? I think David Muir has pissed off someone important, because there have been two hilariously mean gossip items in the past week. The first piece came from Page Six and it was all about how Muir has been nicknamed “Anchor Monster,” because people who work in TV journalism are great at nicknames. Basically, the gist of the Page Six piece was that Muir hates that Lester Holt is winning the ratings game, even when Muir gets an exclusive (like Hillary Clinton’s apology last week). There was also a problem with Muir’s sit-down with Pope Francis:

Muir’s “big get” with Pope Francis also disappointed last week. Friday’s heavily promoted “20/20” special featuring Muir and the pope was only neck-and-neck with a repeat of NBC’s “Dateline.” On Monday, “World News Tonight” aired segments from Muir’s papal session, but the ABC broadcast again trailed NBC by nearly a million viewers — with a little more than 8.01 million compared to NBC’s average of 9 million. NBC says “Nightly News” has been No. 1 in total viewers all 11 weeks since Holt was officially named anchor.

An ABC source tells us, “Despite the biggest ‘get’ in the world — the pope — David is still losing to Lester. David feels under pressure and returned to New York from Rome cranky and has been lashing out at the staff. He screams at the crew unless [ABC News President] James Goldston is around. On an open mike he was heard complaining he wanted less of the reporters’ voices and more of his own during the pope town hall. He’s becoming known as ‘Anchor Monster.’”

[From Page Six]

I watched the 20/20 special with the Pope and it was garbage. I mean, it was poorly produced TV garbage – the Pope was fine, he was doing his thing, but the concept of the special was just terrible and stilted. I’m glad it bombed in the ratings. Anyway, the Anchor Monster hasn’t finished pissing off everyone he knows, because he apparently wears too much makeup and he cakes on the orange stuff like a Kardashian.

Insiders at ABC are partly blaming the ratings decline for “World News Tonight With David Muir” on the anchor’s makeup, with one insider telling Confidenti@l he “looks like an Oompa Loompa” on air. “David insisted on doing his own makeup for years before he got the big job at ‘World News,’ and old habits die hard,” said our source. “David likes to do [his foundation] himself and needs to be told that you can be too orange. His color is off.”

Muir has gone through two makeup artists at the network since he got the top job, but still insists on doing his own final touches after the professional is finished. “He’s been told that he cannot touch his face anymore, but he can’t help himself,” says our source. “He’s been told that he has to let the makeup people do their job. He isn’t allowed to do his own anymore,” adds the source.

Muir’s newscast has been clobbered in the ratings by Lester Holt, who took over NBC’s “Nightly News” after the Brian Williams debacle, but ABC bosses have focused on Muir’s appearance instead. “They don’t know how to fix the problem, so they’ve become obsessed with (Muir’s) makeup,” says our source.

[From NYDN]

See what I mean? Who did Muir piss off? Someone has an ax to grind. This is pretty funny though – I remember reading something with Katie Couric about how, in her early years on Today, she liked to do her own hair and makeup and she eventually had to learn to just leave it to the professionals. I guess some dudes do the same thing. Muir is all, “GIRL, you’re using the wrong base, I want a healthy orange glow!”

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.