Dave Davies: CBS staffer: Not guilty in Letterman case
NEW YORK - A day after David Letterman revealed to his audience that he had sexual relationships with female employees of the "Late Show," a CBS News employee was released from jail on bond after pleading not guilty to trying to blackmail the late-night host.
Many were debating yesterday whether Letterman's revelation would bring him closer to viewers or cloud him in cliche showbiz debauchery. The extortion plot spurred the TV host to acknowledge on the air that he had sex with some of his female staffers.
Robert J. Halderman entered his plea as he was arraigned yesterday on an attempted-grand-larceny charge in a Manhattan court. He posted the $200,000 bail and was released from custody.
Prosecutors said that Halderman, a producer for the true-crime show "48 Hours," demanded $2 million last month in exchange for not releasing information that would ruin Letterman's reputation. Letterman said during the taping of his show Thursday that the threat concerned sexual liaisons with female staffers.
Letterman unraveled the sordid story with humor, honesty and self-effacement. He may have endeared himself to some fans, but his likability has been thrown into jeopardy. Reactions poured in yesterday, including ones from other late-night hosts.
During a taping of NBC's "Late Night," Jimmy Fallon worked it into his monologue: "A new book called 'Why Women Have Sex' says there are 237 reasons why women have sex and Letterman knows the top 10."
On the Web, videos of Letterman's confession were hard to find. CBS, which has an agreement with YouTube, hadn't posted any clips of the segment as of late yesterday. It also didn't have the episode available on www. cbs.com.
The demand was clearly there. Throughout yesterday, videos of his revelation were posted on YouTube without CBS' permission. Whenever they gained thousands of views, CBS had them removed.
In the comments sections of YouTube videos, the dialogue was two-sided as some came to Letterman's defense, while others were critical. Similar lines were drawn on Twitter, where Letterman was one of the most tweeted-about subjects. He evoked both sympathy and disgust, as he did in comments posted in blogs and on social networks.
Referring to Thursday's studio audience, which laughed through parts of Letterman's somewhat- comical telling of the story, New York Times columnist David Carr tweeted: "Aw, now Letterman is his own punchline. Yuck."
A running Internet joke seen on sites such as YouTube and Facebook involved a play on the name of Letterman's production company, World Wide Pants Inc.
On YouTube, videos of different woman who have worked on-air at the "Late Show" were circulating. Most were of Stephanie Birkitt, the occasional on-air assistant who lived in Norwalk, Conn.
