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2009-10-06 07:03:01
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer Frazier Moore, Ap Television Writer
NEW YORK David Letterman's on-air apologies to his wife and staff on the
"Late Show" for having been sexually involved with women from his program in
the past is the beginning of what could prove to be a defining chapter in his
long TV career.
As Letterman mixed wisecracks with contrition, he said his wife, Regina Lasko,
had been "horribly hurt by my behavior" and stated flat-out that those affairs
"are in the past."
The CBS late-night host vowed during Monday's show to repair his relationship
with his wife, whom he married in March after a years-long courtship.
"Let me tell you folks, I got my work cut out for me," he said ruefully.
As Letterman faces future shows, how he deals with his messy situation could
prove significant and, ironically, it could clinch his recent ratings victory
in late-night TV.
Monday's show was the first Letterman had taped since Thursday, when he
disclosed that he had had sexual relationships with women who worked for him
and said that he had been the victim of a $2 million blackmail threat.
While Lettermen laced his show with references to the scandal, only one other
late- night host, Craig Ferguson, made any reference to it in his show. Jay
Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and NBC's "Saturday Night Live" had all made jokes in
earlier shows, but everyone but Ferguson avoided the topic on their Monday
night and Tuesday morning shows.
As host of the "Late Late Show," Ferguson follows Letterman's "Late Show."
Letterman also is his boss, since Letterman's production company, Worldwide
Pants Inc., produces the "Late Late Show."
"The person you work for, the person you admire and respect, is caught in an
embarrassing situation," said Ferguson. "And your job is to be funny about
that, whilst trying to keep your own job."
"So this is my last show," he joked.
Ferguson did make light of the situation, joking that it had now been revealed
how he got the job in the first place.
But Ferguson defended Letterman, calling him "the king of late-night
television."
"If we are now holding late-night talk-show hosts to the same moral
accountability as we hold politicians or clergymen, I'm out," said Ferguson.
"I'm gone."
On the "Late Show," Letterman noted the cool fall weather, reporting, "It's
chilly outside my house; chilly INSIDE my house."
Then he cautioned the audience, "This is only phase one of the scandal. Phase
two: Next week I go on 'Oprah' and sob."
A bit later, guest Steve Martin gave Letterman his kidding consolation: "It
proves that you're a human being. And we weren't really that sure before."
Martin Short, making an unannounced appearance, playfully plopped himself in
Martin's lap.
"You spend one more minute on his lap, you're gonna get blackmailed," Letterman
quipped.
During the hour, Letterman apologized to his staff, which, he said, had been
subjected to "being browbeaten and humiliated" by reporters since his
revelations.
"My thanks to the staff for, once again, putting up with something stupid I've
gotten myself involved in," he said.
Letterman, 62, began dating Lasko in 1986, and they have a son, Harry, who was
born in November 2003. All the affairs took place before Letterman's marriage,
said Tom Keaney, spokesman for Letterman's production company.
Letterman arrived on stage Monday to applause and cheers from his studio
audience. After drinking it in, he grinned sheepishly and inquired, with a mock
stammer, "Did your, did your weekend just fly by?"
After pausing for the audience's sympathetic laughter, he went on: "I mean,
I'll be honest with you folks right now, I would give anything to be hiking
on the Appalachian Trail."
"I got into the car this morning," he added, "and the navigation lady wasn't
speaking to me. Ouch."
In a more somber display, Letterman voiced his mea culpas. Regarding his wife,
he said that, "If you hurt a person and it's your responsibility, you try to
fix it."
Letterman has offered no specifics about how many women he had sex with.
But the CBS producer accused of blackmailing Letterman used pages from a former
assistant's diary that described an affair with the "Late Show" host, a law
enforcement official said Monday. The ex-assistant, Stephanie Birkitt, went to
live with CBS News producer Robert Halderman, who found her diary describing
her relationship with Letterman and used it to help blackmail him, the law
enforcement official said Monday on the condition of anonymity because the
investigation was ongoing.
Halderman, a producer for the true-crime show "48 Hours Mystery," pleaded not
guilty last week to extortion charges.
The flood of attention on Letterman was inevitable, and the way he initially
dealt with this maelstrom recalled an embarrassing dilemma for another star in
1995.
For a celebrity the caliber of Hugh Grant, publicity including speculation of
career suicide was unavoidable when he was arrested with a prostitute on
Hollywood's Sunset Strip. But then he retreated to NBC's "The Tonight Show" to
try to explain.
Host Jay Leno wasted no time before asking an instant classic of a question:
"What the hell were you thinking?!"
Grant's appearance provided him with some needed image rehab. It also vaulted
ratings runner-up "Tonight" past Letterman's "Late Show," a leadership position
Leno held through his retirement from late night earlier this year.
Since then, Letterman has reclaimed a ratings edge over new "Tonight" host
Conan O'Brien.
And now he may have truly sealed the deal. Beloved by viewers and critics for
decades, he has abruptly freshened the enduring Letterman brand and
demonstrated he still can surprise even fans who thought they knew him well.
But it isn't the first time Letterman has shown finesse in managing a
firestorm.
In June, he had a run-in with then Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin over jokes made at
the expense of her teenage daughter. He emerged from a tumultuous few days of
protests and demands for his dismissal with a ratings jolt. And thanks to the
dumb-luck timing of the flap, he also handily upstaged his much-hyped NBC rival
just as O'Brien was taking over as "Tonight" host.
Letterman apologized to Palin and her family in what became another one of his
memorable performances. But he has never stopped making jokes at Palin's
expense including yet another apology to her on Monday's show, just for good
measure.