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So I'll say what other media haven't the guts to point out as they speculate on whether CBS will investigate David Letterman's single man sex with staffers at his independent production company Worldwide Pants (which neither CBS nor Viacom own): This fish stinks from the head. As I've reported previously, and more than once, CBS boss Les Moonves professionally and personally crossed the line of propriety when, of all the women in the world from which to choose, he began a series of adulterous affairs with network underlings, but it was his relationship with The Early Show’s co-anchor Julie Chen that broke up his 24-year marriage. Not only did Viacom bigwig Sumner Redstone overlook that, but the old coot himself over the years, whether he was married or not, openly shtupped one of his producer girlfriends while she had Paramount and/or CBS deals. Which are all violations of so many corporate codes of conduct that I don’t think I can count that high.
Why CBS Can't Investigate Letterman...
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Now we know how Letterman got away with it for so long.
Any other company and someone would have said: “For the love of Xenu! Keep it in you goddamn pants, or they’re going to get sued off of you!”
I think this blackmail story is going to be the tip of the iceberg, and I think we’ll be seeing a parade of women claiming sexual harassment from Letterman, and pressure to keep their mouths shut by CBS.
And as for Dave making his case, I’ve noticed that the only statements he seems to be making are on his own show, where everything is under his control. He’s going to have to come out from behind his desk, or people will get even more turned off. Expect a 60 Minutes interview during November sweeps to “put all this behind him” but it will have so many softballs it’ll make Barbra Walters look like Torquemada.
Nikki, I think you’re tone-deaf on this with the ’single man sex’ comment. He’s the boss and owns a huge production company, with limitless opportunities for ambitious staffers. Like the one who went from gopher to on-air personality, all while coincidentally having sex with the man in charge.
It’s not consensual with that imbalance of power, and to have to even say that after all these years is just depressing. As with the Polanski fiasco, just admit that anything is okay if the ‘right’ people do it.
Well said, Joe. However, Nikki’s “single man sex” reference seems to be the case as far as we know for now.
No need to tell you, despite it all, it boils down to the cash.
My question is why the women writers allow such an alarmingly low number of women to be part of these gang comedy writing teams. Seriously, there are perhaps 2 of 30 writers who are women on the late night shows, etc. Then Letterman decides to sleep with one of them? People that IS sexual harassment, whether it meets the legal definiation or not. Come on…use the head above your belt.
This goes way back if you remember. Merrill Markoe?
They aren’t really hypocrites if they don’t investigate Letterman because they, too, are guilty of the same sin. That’s actually the exact opposite of a hypocrite. They’d be hypocrites if they DID investigate him.
Interestingly, the executive vice president, operating, production and creative chief of Worldwide Pants for the past several years has been a woman, Valerie Schaer. Who obviously was aware of Letterman’s behavior and looked the other way. And even more interestingly, Schaer left WWP a couple of months ago for an EVP position at Harpo, Inc., where she heads Creative Development under Tim Bennett.
Letterman’s need not simply to have sex with young women, but to actually have long term relationships with them, is what makes this story so sick and sordid. The idea that spilling it out on one show is going to make it go away is implausible. It’s just going to get worse and worse. How sick is it to essentially be a bigamist with a common law wife and child at home, the common law wife being age appropriate, and need to have a second full time relationship with a college girl?
Decades ago there was a local TV morning show in New York hosted by a fellow named Stanley Siegel. One of his clever bits was to have his real life psychologist on the show and do a real, not-rehearsed, session with her. Perhaps Dave would like to do that for us on Late Night. Live psychoanalysis with a confrontational shrink who forces him to confront his behavior.
You want Letterman to see a shrink for being a man? Men like to have sex with a variety of women. Men like to have sex with younger women. This is natural evolutionary biology. If I meet a heterosexual man who claims that he does not have either of these desires and does not understand why other men do, I would refer HIM to a shrink.
Maybe your problem is not with Dave, but with human nature.
Wow Roman I did not know they let you have internet access in jail.
What — you’re shocked that older men are attracted to younger women? That men are attracted to many women? What planet are you living on? As Chris Rock said — “A man is only as faithful as his options.” Dave is a rich, famous, powerful and funny. He has many options, and acted in a way most men in his position would. Deal with it.
And your comparison of Letterman’s adult relationship with Polanski’s behavior with a 13-year-old reveals how stupid and full of shit you are. You can’t deny the truth of what I have said, so you have to throw out some ridiculous analogy as a non-sequitur.
Letterman and the lady were adults. Unless he threatened to fire her for turning down his advances, it was a consensual relationship. In that case, its none of your fucking business.
It is all of our business because, Letterman, being a far left dirbag, has made a living out of ridiculing others. Now it is our turn. And just because men like younger women does not mean they have to act on it.
Well that explains why there are so few female writers…girls, there’s only so much Dave to go around.
It’s only sexual harassment if he tried to use his power to coerce someone into doing something they didn’t want to do. Did he coerce anyone? Did he threaten to fire someone if she didn’t have sex with him? (If so, he deserves to be exposed.)If I decide to have sex with my boss (which I’ve done) does that mean that by the very nature of the relationship I’m incapable of giving consent? Does being “ambitious” excuse someone from being responsible for herself? After all these years, I find Mr Melnick’s characterization of women as helpless victims depressing.
Harassment laws allow anyone affected by unwelcome, discriminatory conduct to file a discrimination charge against a harasser directly with the EEOC (or state equivalent) or through an attorney, even if he or she was not the intended victim.
I’m sure that the lawyers are already working the hallways at CBS so they can file a case against them and Letterman.
I don’t think that has anything to do with it. They won’t investigate Letterman because they can’t touch Letterman. What are they going to do to him? Fire him when he is finally leading the ratings? Fine him? Whatever they did he would tell them to fuck themselves and they would.
This all aside from the fact the these were not even CBS employees, they were WWP… so WTF can CBS do anyway?
Nikki, I can’t believe you are negating a 21 years relationship by calling Dave’s behavior a single man having sex with staffers. He was was in a long term relationship that produced a six year old child, and he was banging his young assistant and put her on the air.
I am flabbergasted by your recent postings. I always thought that you will come down on the side of what is right and let the chips fall where they might, but your defense of Polanski and now Letterman makes me wonder.
Entertainment coverage is either too sycophant or too Gotcha and hardly anything in between, well most times you have been that in between but lately you are veering too close to being a mouth piece for some.
I think Nikki is referring to Letterman’s legal status rather than his real life status.
Enough of the faux outrage and shock over this non-story. Women are naturally attracted to powerful men. Denying that is like denying that men are attracted to big breasts. Since women choose who they sleep with, men behave in any way that women will respond to. David became a powerful and famous guy in order to attract women. It worked, and he cashed in. Good for him.
The only people upset about this are those who are jealous of someone else getting laid.
THANK YOU. The criminal is the douchebag who tried to blackmail him. Extortion is a serious crime and Dave et al are the victims. It never ceases to amaze me how people can use a puritanical rationale to indulge their prurient interests. This creep may not have gotten his 2 mil but now he’ll get what every cheeseball wannabe wants–a room of his own and time to write a best seller. Ain’t it the American dream?
Even Letterman is allowed to have sex.
Now it’s okay with you for Letterman to schutp his employees — and for 40 years we’ve been inundated with NOW and the like telling us NO male boss/female underling affair is without some form of coersion — like it’s an outrage for you that Polanski was “tricked” into getting arrested? If this was a conservative entertainment figure doing this with his employees, would your reaction be as dismissive? Doubt it.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who sees what a creepy hypocrite you are, Nikki.
The guy has an independent production company and can do whatever he wants. If women choose – THE WORD IS CHOOSE – to have sex with their boss or others in the workplace, that’s where the argument ends. Look, whether some of the puritans like it or not, it happened, it’s over and everyone has moved on with the exception of this black mailing larcenist. Give Dave some credit. He came forward, he told the story and fessed up. That’s a lot more than we can say about some of these other jackasses out there.
What “corporate code”?
Moonvees is a real prize but as long as Redstone is happy with the job he is doing for CBS (despite marrying that no talent hack Julie Chen, who now has a job for life as long as he’s steering the ship), then it’s all under the bridge, sort to speak but this Stephanie Birkitt, who isn’t even remotely attractive, is the center of all this sleeping with Letterman and this nitwit producer from 48 hours and if they’re blowing him out then she needs to join him too.
Uh, Nikki, you mention Les Moonves and Sumner Redstone — why overlook Brad Grey? As far as moral compasses go, Brad Grey is a gyroscopic mishap of human decency.
People meet at work and fuck. Get over it.
Having said that, if the entertainment industry is going to switch over to being merit-based please let me know so I can dig my masters degree in theater out of the garage.
Now that CBS has cancelled “Guiding Light” perhaps they can
fill the time slot with the new soap Opera “CBS” Powerfull men
jumping from bed to bed. The only reason it might not make the line up is all the men are over 60.
Letterman doesn’t work for CBS.
Well, if you only know one thing about Dave, it’s about how intensely private he is. So, this must be absolute torture for him.
Worse than torture. This has probably been the longest weekend of his life.
As for people saying that Dave should meet girls outside of work, they all work so much, there is no real outside of work.
All that being said, if even *one* female pursues a lawsuit, it will trigger an avalanche, and you can bet the ambulance chasers are workin’ on that right now.
Who says it will be a female who pursues a lawsuit? If any of her coworkers feel she had preferencial treatment because of sleeping with the boss they can sue for discrimination.
I’m wondering now if there are going to be suits alleging that Dave had long term affairs with stage manager Biff Henderson and neighbor/deli owner Rupert Jee. Seriously, folks, almost everyone who has ever worked on Letterman who is willing to appear on camera has at one time or another. If it works, they get asked to appear again and again.
I really don’t see any legal ramifications here. So he’s a man-whore — is this really such a huge deal? For the record I am a female and have dated men at the workplace who were in senior positions to mine – as two consenting adults choosing mutually to become romantic. The first one was when I was 17 and my boss was 25. I was smitten and have no regrets 20 years later. I’m not sure what the big whoop is here; according to reports, the one woman at the center of this has said very positive things about Letterman, and the one photo of them together looks like they are both happy. The worst thing you can say is that he cheated on his girlfriend – he was not married or a father yet. Am I crazy or is this mostly a non-story?
I honestly can’t believe how this got out in the first place unless if the goal is to create controversy in order to drive viewers to the Late Show and kill the Tonight Show in the process. He most likely had the affairs before he met his wife and even if he didn’t, the CBS Late Show began in 1993 and Harry Letterman was born 10 years later. In Dave’s case, he intended no harm just as Joie Chen intended no harm in having a sexual relationship with Les Moonves. The only problem with the latter was that a marriage was broken up.
I can’t believe the story got out either. Perhaps the network was getting ready to retire the late night host anyway? It would save face with the network honchos who are looking to replace Letterman down the road.
Of course, protecting marriages is what we want our employers to do.
What is the big f***ing deal. The guy had an office affair. Not the smartest move in the world, but it happens every day between myopic consenting adults.
Have there been any complaints on Letterman? Talk about justice and you all have already convicted Letterman guilty of something. Was Stephanie Berkitt under Letterman’s gun too. It didn’t stop her from telling her extortionist former boyfriend. Plus the police have seen the “creepy” material given to Letterman as proof of his crimes you all see. Apparently the police didn’t see anything criminal on Letterman’s part from the exortionist’s own material. And if corporate code of conduct in the workplace is the issue, why is that only a charge of men. I know plenty of men that are victims of stalker women in the work place. Nothing was ever done to them. Maybe because no sex was involved? Well then stop complaining when you get cat-calls in the work place from men then.
All of you have the big city perspective of affairs. Most of the audience doesn’t. Not the worst thing in the world but Dave will forever be seen different like that laughingstock Clinton.
1. Pardon me, but that “laughingstock” Clinton balanced the budget and left his successor a huge surplus.
2. Funny that the Drudgebots are still whining about Clinton a decade later while giving Vitter, Ensign, and Sanford a free ride for doing MUCH worse.
Now what was Letterman ridiculing Sarah Palin for again…?
For being an idiot.
Letterman has a number of problems. First, the tabloids are NOT going to let go of this, and ugly, icky stuff will come out, including likely salacious details, various forms of coercion, and the sheer hypocrisy of David Letterman skewering others for fooling around while he himself was screwing staffers. Leno and Conan will not be kind, neither likely will Jimmy Kimmel. Letterman has few friends and even fewer reasons for people to go easy on him. SNL will have a field day. Not the least of which is that Letterman is about as sexy as the late Calvin de Forrest.
Next, there will be suits, not the least of which is men suing that they were fired/demoted whatever in preference to Letterman’s screw of the week. Sexual liasons with the boss and low level female staffers are always costly — the create huge resentment among the male staffers doing actual work (not screwing the boss) and good hunting for lawyers. It’s a down economy — expect lots of men to cash out.
Finally, Letterman’s conduct is “elite vs. commoner” stuff that will kill him long term. No, his ratings will not go down right away. But comedy requires identification with the everyman, quick name a comedian known for his elitist, upper-class ways. Letterman is basically a WWF villain, using his power, position, fame, and prestige to snag multiple women in a way that his average joe audience could not. No one knows Moonves or Redstone, Letterman depends on audience goodwill which will erode away, slowly but surely.
Also of note — the reason for the CBS producer’s action was apparently jealousy. Anyone screwing multiple women is going to create enemies, for life, and generate comeback. Letterman may have killed the blackmail attempt, but he’s going to be hurt by this long-term. Ratings going down, steadily, like a frog boiled in water, until CBS simply cans him for Kimmel or Ferguson or whoever. It would be different if Letterman was a movie star who was in “event” movies, infrequently, but Mon-Fri tune-ins require likeability and a guy pushing sixty screwing college kids while in a relationship by virtue of his power/position is plain not likeable.
[Already TMZ is reporting on his secret sex lair above the Ed Sullivan Theater.]
re “Anyone screwing multiple women is going to create enemies, for life, and generate comeback.”
You sound like a lunatic. And I don’t agree with any of these comments. You think anyone cares what jokes Jimmy Kimmel makes? Get a grip.
Les Moonves has had rumored multiple affairs with CBS staffers over the last ten years. Then he got deeply involved with morning host Julie Chen and finally left his poor wife. Sumner is a wild man. Old guys want to have sex as much as young ones do. Powerful men have powerful passions.
People having sex? This is shocking!
Left unasked is this:
What if Letterman never is the one to ask the women for anything & he lets them be the aggressor?
Who’s the harassing one then?
Dave may be a lot smarter than you think!
Please get over yourselves with the moral discussion. Its 2009 everybody and what Dave does in his private life is none of our business. The whole discussion is absurd!
yet he had a bedroom loft at the theatre for nookie. yeah, the women were the aggressors. sure.
Dave isnt a luv god & he sure aint smart.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1218280/David-Letterman-kept-secret-bedroom-television-studio-trysts-female-staff.html
read it and weep. this is sad in so many ways. the cross-exam of Letterman should prove to be very interesting. this isnt over by a long shot.
The daily mail is a tabloid. You can’t trust what they write.
…so what. Many “quality” UK papers are tabloids. Please dont lie about the source.
Tabloids contain the truth all the time, at least as much as other “newspapers” such as the NY Times or Post.
…so are you insinuating that a blog tells the truth more than a tabloid?
The Nat’l Enquirer is considered a tabloid and look at how they brought Edwards political career crashing down with the true dirt they had on him.
as i said, the tabloid newspaper format is particularly popular in the United Kingdom where its page dimensions are roughly 17 by 11 inches (430 mm × 280 mm). Larger newspapers, traditionally associated with “higher-quality” journalism, are called broadsheets though several British “quality” papers have recently adopted the tabloid format. Another UK newspaper format is the Berliner, which is sized between the tabloid and the broadsheet and has been adopted by The Guardian and its sister paper The Observer.
The biggest tabloid (and newspaper in general) in Europe, by circulation, is Germany’s Bild-Zeitung, with around 4 million copies (down from above 5 million in the 1980s). Although its paper size is bigger, its style was copied from the British tabloids.
In the UK, three previously broadsheet daily newspapers—The Independent, The Times, and The Scotsman—have switched to tabloid size in recent years, although they call it “compact” to avoid the down-market connotation of that word. Similarly, when referring to the down-market tabloid newspapers the alternative term “red-top” (referring to their traditionally red-coloured mastheads) is increasingly used, to distinguish them from the up-market compact newspapers.
cheers
OMG! People are acting as if this is the first time a boss has slept with an underling. if it was consentual, then what is the big deal. And from everything I have read, it was consentual.
If you want to crack sexual harassment in the workplace in Hollywood, then investigate talent agencies, studios, etc. It happens all the time, whether it’s consentual or not.
Everyone in NY (in the biz) knows that Dave gets oral sex at work. It’s very old news.
But it’s consentual, who cares?
Even Geraldo said on Howard a few weeks ago that he prefered good looking women to work on his shows.
I’ve seen this at every news and entertainment outlet I’ve worked at and it was all willing.
well things are heating up. Dave issues apologies galore on his show and the guy who is alleged to be the blackmailer has high powered lawyer who has advised him to fight back.
I call this “Palin’s Revenge.” what goes around comes around folks.
something stinks real bad about all this from the Letterman side:
http://wcbstv.com/entertainment/letterman.extortion.halderman.2.1229260.html
also the lawyer says this guy received a $2million check which is highly unusual if this guy was a blackmailer.
cheers folks. and as the song says, “…dont let the sun catch you crying.”
It’s a workplace where divergent members of the opposite sex are thrown together for long hours with dressing rooms, motor homes, wardrobe trailers etc., available for short term use. Couple that with women and men who will do anything to move up as in the Rolling Stones song “Star——” and Dave didn’t do anything that the men who started the industry have always done gotten away with.
No matter who is at the center of the ’sexual’ controversy both participants are fully aware that their experience is usually a ‘win, win’. The boss, usually a male gets to have sex with women half his age, who under normal circumstances would never give him the time of day, while he convinces himself that he is ‘loved’ for who he is, and not for his money and position of power. Ninety percent of the time the female participant gets a position/job she isn’t qualified for, some expensive gifts, gets to travel to places she can’t afford to go to, and if the timing is really right, she may even become the new Ms. Most of these guys were nerds in HS, and never got laid until they made it anyway. It’s a ME ME ME WORLD, so those living in it only know it’s all about them.
This is much more fun than Polanski.
Nikki, your comments are spot on ! Since WWP is his company, he can do what he wants and the liability will be incurred by WWP and it’s owners. CBS will do nothing, other than pay some lip service about this and unless sponsors leave or ratings fall…Dave will go on until the viewers get tired of him or he gets tired of doing the show. Everybody knows a double standard exists in Hollywood between the leadership and others.
However many other public companies are more disciplined about this kind of behavior and rules are more evenly applied, so Hollywood looks worse.
What letterman does in private should stay private, but he is a beneficiary/participant of our celebrity obsessed culture, so his behavior is a public event.
If you throw stones for a living one should not live in a glass house.
Letterman is a once funny, bitter elite who seems to be imitating Bill Mahr by injecting more and more politics into his show.
I’m sorry, did he rape someone? These women were just as willing to take advantage of him as I see it.
The whole affair is tacky. As news, it’s dog-bites-man. Just about the oldest story in the world.
I, for one, am amused to no end by the (conservative) “moralists” posting here. I imagine they come here via Sludge- er, Drudge – and have picked their knuckles off the floor long enough for some serious hand-wringing. All followed by finger-wagging how this negates all the bad (yet true) things Dave ever said about their wingnut icons. And by extension this proves every big city Hollywood “leftie” is also doing drugs, stealing candy, kicking their dogs…
Yeah, sure, right: whatever Rush tells you. Absent a never-ending stream of sorid details, we’ll keep laughing with Dave. And keep laughing at you.
The beginning of the end for Letterman. Within 2 to 4 years he’ll be “retiring”.