Late night confessional
It wasn't my intention to blog from work today, but it annoys me that I got scooped on this David Letterman story. Not scooped, exactly, but the headlines everywhere else today are about Letterman's on-air confessional last night, and the top story on my blog this morning is still last week's late night Nielson ratings. I hereby announce that the popular Chrisbits feature is being discontinued indefinitely.From a television standpoint, the talk show host's admission that he has had sexual relations with female members of the Late Show staff had the curious effect of providing an extraordinary hour of television Thursday night. The Associated Press is calling his performance "brilliant" this morning, and said that Letterman took viewers "on an extraordinary journey that was part confessional, part entertainment, and wholly, if jarringly, hypnotic." It wasn't the first time.
Thursday's Late Show goes to show what an extraordinary broadcaster Letterman is. This is an opinion that's been expressed many times on this blog. Letterman is nothing if not brutally honest, and he has an extraordinary capacity to feel the mood of his audience. The honesty reveals the irony here, and Letterman's insistence on tackling this issue head-on, over-the-air, and in the immediate aftermath of yet another bizarre and frightening extortion plot against him. After being stalked by a mentally-deranged woman who broke into his home pretending to be his wife, and then a kidnapping attempt against his son in Montana a year or two ago, has any entertainment celebrity seemingly so detached from the actual glamour of Hollywood ever been so routinely harassed by the American populace. It's very strange, and might in some bizarre way be actually fueled by the unique way people connect with the star. None of his competitors come remotely close to combining humor with pathos, sometimes bordering on terror, in the compelling way that Dave does. One could never say that his network's most highly paid star has not given his life completely to his television show.
It reveals a lot about the nature of Letterman's job as well. Even a sitcom star could hide behind a comic persona in character, but Letterman has to face his audience, as himself, every night. There's no hiding when something like this erupts. Yet it's impossible to even think of Leno or Conan taking their viewers on a ride like Letterman did last night, and that's not because they're necessarily living their private lives more virtuously than he is. Dave seems to ground himself by his peculiar ability to unburden himself to his public. The late night veteran was also fortunate Thursday to have a good-natured talk-show champ like Woody Harrelson to bring out from behind the curtain in the aftermath of his narrative. "I'm happy to be here on such an auspicious evening," Harrelson quipped.
The television host's admission will put him back in the crosshairs of some of his detractors-- fans of Sarah Palin coming immediately to mind. Letterman seems to be viewed increasingly as a political commentator, a target of the right, which may say more about how the right has decided to cast itself against all of showbusiness than it does about anything else? But what has actually transpired here? The news reports are of a consenting, at-the-time-unmarried adult having sex with other consenting, presumably unmarried adults. TMZ is reporting that staffer Stephanie Birkitt, who Late Show fans will recall from her many appearances on the air (She always seemed to me a female version of Dave), was the other-- or at least one of the other-- consenting adults in question, and that the affair occurred not only before Letterman got married to his long-time girlfriend in March, but before Letterman's son Harry was born in 2003. It was revealed not because Birkitt took the affair public (I'm putting a lot of stock in TMZ's reporting at this point), but because some scumbag extortionist stole her diary.
There's not really much news or controversy here. It's just a bizarre reason to watch Letterman work his on-air magic once again.
posted by CM @ 9:27 AM
3 Comments:
I hope Dave has a good lawyer. I’ve been through enough workplace harassment awareness seminars to know that somewhere a scumbag lawyer has just gone to work. The lawyer will be looking for all of Dave’s past and present female employees asking them questions like, “Did Mr. Letterman ever offer you air time on his show in exchange for sexual favors?“ TA
Team Letterman!
If anything, I think the details may indicate that Dave has a healthy respect for the concept of a monogomous marriage. After all, he put off marriage for 23 years (until March) with his longtime girlfriend. There's nothing to indicate that he's been anything but faithful since, and the show staffer had obviously moved on to another boyfriend.
Above all, I'm glad Dave didn't apologize on Thursday. Because whom exactly deserves an apology? Certainly not the American people. Letterman and Birkitt are not public employees and our tax dollars weren't involved.
As Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote, "It may be tacky and a potential H.R. violation to mess around with co-workers, but good luck living in a world where people don't do it. Work and sex go together like beer and sex."
Post a Comment
<< Home