I've got nothing against sex in the workplace, but when the boss is fooling around with employees, it's not consensual, it's a power/ego trip. What do you think would have happened to anyone who complained to the higher-ups at CBS that the price of working for Letterman required sex with him? I can tell you, they would have lost their job, and the "ethics" manager at CBS would have wink-winked it away.

My disappointment isn't just because he's been in a 20-year relationship and was therefore cheating on his partner, but it's a total abuse of his power. Yes, the blackmailer should be brought to justice, but Letterman ought to be booted off the air. (And I used to be a fan.)

"Worldwide Pants" can't keep it zipped. Boo on him.

[www.nypost.com]

Media experts yesterday said Letterman deftly handled the alleged extortion plot, and probably won't suffer negative fallout from viewers.

"He took control of the situation by getting out in front of it," said Brad Adgate, senior vice president at Horizon Media, a TV advertising consulting firm. "The timing was kind of designed to avoid the worst of the press scrum."

Outside Letterman's studio yesterday, crew members were supportive.

"His staff respects that he came out and was straight and honest," said one. "He's a family guy who had sex with some of his employees.

"No one thinks less of him."


Pot, meet kettle!

David Letterman has made late-night hay of high-profile sex scandals, but now that he’s joined their ranks, some of his old wisecracks may be hitting too close to home:

"I really have to hand it to the White House. Around here, we can’t even get the interns to work the copy machine."

"President Clinton has gotten himself a new dog . . . He’s teaching the dog to sit up, to beg, to roll over — you know, just like he did with the interns."

"You may think you have a stressful job, but since she’s been a senator, Hillary Clinton, they say, put on 30 pounds. In fact, she has gotten so heavy that today Bill hit on her."

"The big new scandal breaking here in New York, Eliot Spitzer apparently involved in some kind of prostitution activities — you know what that means: hookers. And right now, Spitzer is huddling with his advisers to develop a drinking problem."

"Gov. Mark Sanford disappeared . . . and it turned out he was in South America. And then it turned out he was down there because he was sleeping with a woman from Argentina. Once again, foreigners taking jobs that Americans won’t do."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2009 09:12AM by askanewyorker.

[www.youtube.com]


[www.observer.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2009 06:40AM by askanewyorker.

Andrea Peyser

CBS has got to dump David Letterman. Right now.

If the Tiffany Network continues to coddle the crotchety king of late night, it will rightly be known as the destination of choice for any girl who jiggles, giggles and puts out repeatedly for a man old enough to be her father.



[www.nypost.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2009 08:03AM by askanewyorker.

[www.nytix.com]

[www.nypost.com]

Dave, rival vow all-out war

By LAURA ITALIANO


They're two stubborn, furious men playing a high-stakes game of chicken.<p>

David Letterman has flung down the gauntlet, vowing yesterday to take down the CBS producer whose alleged $2 million extortion scheme exposed Letterman's philandering to his wife and fans.

And he'll press his case even if it means testifying at what's sure to be an embarrassing, high-publicity trial.

But the alleged extortionist, Emmy-winning "48 Hours" producer Robert "Joe" Halderman, isn't backing down, either. He, too, is threatening to fight his case all the way to a jury verdict, even though a conviction could get him up to 15 years in prison.

And he'll do his fighting with an intriguing argument first revealed yesterday -- that his demand for $2 million wasn't a shakedown, but a legitimate business proposal.

Halderman was merely offering Letterman first dibs on a screenplay and book based on the life of an intern-loving TV host whose world was about to collapse, said his lawyer, Gerald Shargel.

Shargel argues that his client never even met with or spoke to Letterman directly -- and that if Letterman had declined through his lawyer to buy the one-page "treatment," Halderman would have simply sold it elsewhere.

Shargel also hinted that the mud would continue to fly in a case that has already exposed Letterman as a serial seducer of interns over two decades.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2009 08:57AM by askanewyorker.

[www.nypost.com]

Staffers dish on sexual 'cult' of Letterman
'He's electric ...like Jesus'

To "Late Show" viewers, David Letterman comes off as a geeky talk-show host uncomfortable in his own skin.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2010 01:15PM by askanewyorker.