Letterman's Mea Culpa, Take Two [Updated]
After having said he wouldn't have much more to say about his sextortion case and his relationships with women on his staff, at tonight's taping, David Letterman did say more, including offering an apology to his wife and his staff members. Here's a preview excerpt (from CBS, which took down YouTube video of Dave's original revelation):
See also the report from the New York Times, which includes this tidbit:
Last week, some of his staff members suggested that Regina Lasko, Mr. Letterman's wife, might make a statement of support. But that did not take place.
Ahem. We can only imagine what did take place.
Update: A few thoughts on Dave's full monologue after the jump:
* Could Dave be his own Hugh Grant? I don't make predictions, and no one really knows how this will ultimately play out. But Letterman is dealing with this as befits someone of his talents: he literally owns the biggest hot-button topic in late-night comedy, and he's going to use it. And while his apology to his wife and to his female staffers may have been meant to smooth things over at home and at work (and especially with female viewers), I wonder if his jokes are not his best damage control. As guests Martin Short and Steve Martin did a ventriloquist-dummy gag on stage, Dave ad-libbed: "One more minute on his lap and you're gonna get blackmailed."
* Which reminds me: one of the first things I heard after this scandal broke was that Letterman couldn't deal with it like Carson, who joked about his divorces on air. Why, exactly? People loved Johnny, but it's not like they were unaware of the subtext of his divorce jokes. As I noted in a column about him after his death, as beloved as he was, "In private Carson was standoffish and in his marriages admittedly no saint. His jokes about his serial monogamy endeared him to viewers, but you don't rack up three divorces by being a harmless sweetie."
* Another of the most common pieces of conventional wisdom in this scandal is that it will make it hard for Dave to joke about politicians' sex scandals. He played off this idea last night, starting abortive jokes about Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford, and Eliot Spitzer. But in the process, Dave may be showing that he can joke about sex scandals.
* Speaking of which, I've never really got the argument anyway that Dave is a "hypocrite," because he's made endless fun of politicians' sex lives in the past. I think this argument essentially misunderstands late-night sex jokes. They're not made out of moral indignation; they're made because sex is a ridiculous, hilarious thing that everybody cares about and gets big laughs. Comedians don't make jokes about sex scandals because they themselves are morally beyond reproach. They make jokes about sex scandals because sex scandals are funny.
* In any case, Dave's becoming quite used to the public multi-apology, as he referenced in another joke: "And now also--because what can it hurt?--I'd once again like to apologize to the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. I'm terribly, terribly sorry."
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1
Mr. Letterman, stop kissing Republican butt. Palin deserved what she got, and continues to do so. You don't apologize to Democrats (or anyone else for that matter) when you treat them that way, so why are you apologizing to the Republicans?
Stop being two faced.
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1.1
I don't know if the context I gave made it clear enough, but the Palin apology was pretty clearly meant (and received) as a joke.
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2
Maybe Letterman can give us a Top Ten list like The Top Ten Reasons an 85 Year-Old Leftist Loser like Letterman Knocked Up all of the Unattractive 20 year-olds on his Staff or maybe a Top Ten list like The Top Ten Reasons an 85 Year-Old Leftist Loser like Letterman Married an Ugly Whore named Regina?
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2.1
I don't recall Letterman "knocking up" any of the women he had affairs with, the woman he had his son with is his wife. As for the ad hominem attacks against his wife and the women on his show, that's just uncalled for. Perhaps he thinks she's attractive, or maybe he's not as shallow as you are and sees her inner beauty. Either way, why do you care so much what his wife looks like?
I do have to say however, I'm surprised that Sarah Palin has an account on Time.com.
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3
I didn't realize there was such angst among folks, concerning this whole Letterman thing. Further, why are people so surprised that people in Hollywood (or New York, in this case) make mistakes?
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3.1
How about people in general? and why pin it on Letterman? How about the females who are accepting the opportunity of the extra perks? If we were the society we preach we should be, then the first sexual advancement would have been called out and stopped him in his tracks. Double edged sword if you ask me...
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4
It seems to me that Worldwide Pants may have a sexual harrassment suit on its hands. Letterman paid the law school tuition for his girlfriend and staffer, Stephanie Birkitt. If you had to sleep with Dave to get these extra perks, that would have made it a hostile work environment, even though it seems as if the sex was consensual. It wasn't fair to the women staffers who turned down Dave or who were never asked.
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5
Has Dave ever dated anyone who wasn't a staffer? As I recall, one of his relationships was with Merrill Markoe, the inventor of Stupid Pet Tricks, and Regina Lasko also worked for Late Night. Did the extortion attempt concern affairs that took place before or after he married?
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6
If I were his wife, I'd probably murderize him. And it's not about the affair at this point, or at least only tangentially about the affair.
So, you find out that your husband has been banging the help. That's tough. Worse, someone knows and is going to try to blackmail him. Worst, he goes on national television and gives a televangelist-style apology. That really is as bad as it can get, right? No. Then he decides to use his indiscretion, your humiliation, and the violation of what have to be fifty kinds of HR policies to boost his ratings? That's what I find unforgivable. (Of course, if it was my husband, then forgiveness ended and the divorce proceedings started at 'banging the help' but I can intellectually work through how you could get past that, I guess.)
That said, I am totally on board with walkingdeep - who cares? Do we hold our talk show hosts to some deep morality clause? No, of course not. Dave is just another philandering douchebag. Still, taking advantage of your position as an employer to treat your help as your harem is not a laughing matter and his network needs to dish out whatever retribution is in their HR handbook - or get massively sued. This is just textbook sexual harassment, really.
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7
Count me among the crowd that is puzzled about the priorities the media have shown in this tale. The various news outlets are trying to out do each other on the yet to be claimed sexual harassment angle; something that shoud be a private matter between Letterman's company and its employees.
I really do not care about Letterman's private behavior with adult assistants. I find it much more troubling that someone who was responsible for framing the way issues are presented to the broadcast public was moonlighting as a blackmailer. Was this the first time he attempted to extort money or favors from a public figure? Why is the media treating the fact that this guy was a news producer for CBS as an insignificant detail?
- poniewozik @carr2n Not so fast, Carr. That means you owe us a substitute windy blog post. Chop chop! - 1 hour ago
- poniewozik V returns to political allusions, reveals Anna as most evil yoga instructor ever: http://bit.ly/8gF6dA - 1 hour ago
- poniewozik Anybody else wish, for once, the Prez would NOT pardon the turkey, but order its summary execution on the spot for crimes against humanity? - 3 hours ago
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