The last hour of NBC’s “The Today Show” features fun-loving, wine-touting hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. It’s standard late morning TV, usually aimed at women, and features lifestyle tips, celebrity gossip, hot trends and often very good guests.

Guests can be some of the most important content for a TV show, especially when it’s live like “Today.” There’s no easier and cheaper way to fill air time than talking to a celebrity about “Air Bud 4: Drunken Pilot.”

Behind every great guest appearance/interview is a small team of researchers and producers who vet the guest, providing a packet of information that is boiled down for the host to deliver a tight, accurate and interesting interview.

It’s the little guy in this process we’re feeling for this morning. Mistakes happen, but when Martin Short stopped by “Today” the mistake sounds more like an occupational hazard:

Martin appeared on “The Today Show” this morning to promote his new movie, “Madagascar 3″ — when Kathie asked, “And you and Nancy have one of the greatest marriages of anybody in show business. How many years now for you guys?”

Short’s wife died in 2010 of ovarian cancer. Ouch.

Martin was an absolute champ and professed his continued love for his late wife. He informed Kathie after the segment, and she followed that with an apology and explanation on air.

Now, if this is indeed a research oversight, I’m sure Kathie wasn’t so sympathetic off air. You can bet there was a heated exchange and maybe even a pink slip.

But if you watch the clip below, we’re hopeful Kathie bucked the research packet, went rogue and just screwed up.

Either way, awkward as hell.

[Source: TMZ]