A CHAGRINED David Letterman apologised on air on Monday night to his talk show staff and noted that his wife had been "horribly hurt" by the news that he slept with women who worked for him on the CBS Late Showin the years leading up to their marriage.
“If you hurt a person and it’s your responsibility, you try to fix it,” he said on the programme. “Let me tell you, folks, I got my work cut out for me.”
Letterman struck a notably more contrite tone than on Thursday, when he revealed that a man had allegedly sought to extort $2 million from him to keep quiet about the comic’s affairs.
“I get in the car this morning and the navigation lady wasn’t speaking to me,” he said in his Monday monologue.
The comedian started the day facing a torrent of headlines. "Dave's Love Grudge," shouted the New York Post. "Show Will Go On," proclaimed the New York Daily News.
The Early Showon CBS jumped into the fray with a piece bearing the on-screen caption "Late Show Lovers". Correspondent Bianca Solorzano reported on two women romantically linked to the comic, while anchor Maggie Rodriguez interviewed the lawyer of the man accused of extortion.
The alleged attempt by 48 Hours Mysteryproducer Robert Joel Halderman to blackmail Letterman put CBS in the awkward position of reporting on a scandal involving two of its own.
"All of us here at CBS [are] just shocked to hear that our own David Letterman was reportedly being blackmailed by a CBS News employee," Rodriguez said on the air on Friday in one of two pieces The Early Showdid on the story that day. The programme followed up with a segment on Saturday exploring why powerful men risk it all for sex.
National correspondent Jeff Glor did a three-minute piece about the alleged extortion plot for CBS Evening Newson Friday, reporting that Halderman had a relationship with a woman who worked for Letterman.
“We’re following the story as aggressively as we cover any story of this kind, trying to learn what we can and get the critical interviews,” executive producer Rick Kaplan said. “It’s of no matter that CBS has so many connections to the main people in this story . . .”
In a round of interviews on Monday, Mr Halderman’s lawyer Gerald Shargel said the CBS producer did not have criminal intent when he took a $2 million cheque from Letterman’s lawyer.
Mr Shargel declined to provide details, but he accused Letterman of holding back facts.
“He’s a master at manipulating audiences, that’s what he does for a living,” Mr Shargel told NBC’s Ann Curry, “so to think that David Letterman gave the entire story, and there’s nothing more to be said, is simply wrong.”
In an interview on Sunday on Fox News, Mr Shargel indicated he planned to bring out details of Letterman’s relationships.
“Somebody did someone wrong . . . other than my client,” he said, adding: “It’s not only a question of having sexual affairs . . . I think the larger issue at the trial will be, who did he have the affair with?” – (Los Angeles Times-Washington Post service)