THE COMIC and talk show host David Letterman became the butt of his own jokes on Thursday night, when he made an on-air confession to being blackmailed by a fellow CBS employee for having had sexual relations with staffers on the Late Show.
The audience at the theatre in Manhattan where the show is pre-recorded seemed stunned by Letterman’s revelations, but nonetheless tittered, giggled, laughed and applauded.
Once the programme was recorded, the spokesman for Letterman’s aptly named Worldwide Pants production company, sent an e-mail to media correspondents saying: “CBS was made aware of an ongoing police investigation involving David Letterman and an employee at 48 Hours, who was subsequently arrested . . . on charges of attempted grand larceny in the first degree . . . The employee has been suspended.”
Letterman’s programme was broadcast as usual, at 10.30pm. After his opening monologue and the first advertising break, Letterman (62) told how three weeks ago he found a package on the back seat of his car.
He studied the contents and learned that: “This is a guy that’s going to write a screenplay about me . . . He’s going to take all the terrible stuff he knows about my life – and there seems to be quite a lot of terrible stuff he knows about – and he’s going to put it in a movie.” A celebrity in the US for more than 30 years, Letterman has hosted CBS’s Late Show since 1993. President Barack Obama appeared on his show on September 21st.
During his televised confession, Letterman was self-deprecating, funny and sometimes nervous. “I want to reiterate how terrifying this is,” he said. “I am a towering mass of Lutheran midwestern guilt.” Letterman is from Indianapolis. He married Regina Lasko, his companion since 1986, seven months ago.
The couple have a five-year-old son named Harry Joseph. In 2005, a house painter was convicted of plotting to kidnap the infant and his nanny. Lasko reportedly briefed Letterman’s mother about his philandering and the extortion attempt on Thursday.
After an initial meeting with the would-be-blackmailer, Letterman and his lawyer reported the incident to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. “They say, ‘Hello! This is blackmail!’” Letterman recounted. At the second meeting, the accused blackmailer said he was writing a book as well as a screenplay. On the instructions of the authorities, at their third meeting Letterman handed over a phony cheque for $2 million (€1.4 million), and the man was arrested.
Letterman was asked to testify before a grand jury. “I had to tell them all of the creepy things I had done . . . And the creepy stuff was I have had sex with women who work for me on this show.”
It was not the first time that a television presenter has used staff as a personal harem. But Letterman’s confession – and the way he played it for laughs – has created unease in the television industry. “I have had sex with women who work on this show,” he repeated.
“And would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would. Especially for the women.”
There has been no indication how many women at CBS Letterman slept with. Commentators have questioned whether his having sex with subordinates constitutes an abuse of power.
But Letterman was also praised for honesty. "There is a lesson here for all the politicians who indulge in affairs and then get enmeshed in crooked schemes trying to cover them up," the Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Cynthia Tucker wrote in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, comparing Letterman to Senator John Ensign and former senator John Edwards.
Letterman said he wants to protect his family, himself and his job. His contract runs until next year. Timemagazine suggested he and CBS may now face lawsuits for sexual harassment.