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Letterman: Is Dave being vindictive too?
Photo credit: AP
I - like you perhaps - have been enjoying the NY Post's daily parade of stories detailing Lettergate in all its seamy steamy glory - the cuckolded producer and the canoodling superstar.
Really, it's much more entertaining than "Grey's Anatomy." But a thought has slowly dawned on me as it may have dawned on you - Letterman is being equally vindictive here. For some reason, he wants the CBS producer dead. He wants to bury this guy. Imagine! He engineers a sting with the Manhattan DA, gets a tape of him, and then gets an indictment. There's something else going on here, and presumably in time, we'll find out. But for now, let's count the ways Letterman could have avoided this fiasco without dragging in the cops... 1.) Once he found out Halderman was a CBS News producer - and one he knew, moreover - he could have told Halderman point blank that the next call he was gonna make was to Leslie Moonves, who would fire him instantly; Joe's next job woulda been at that McDonald's across the street from his house. 2.) Dave could have said - "do whatever you want with your stupid screenplay, you moron. Right - take your one page treatment to Brian Glazer. I'm sure he's looking for this exact thing. Oh, and the diary! Please, please, please sell it to the National Enquirer. Go with God, pal. It'll be a one or two week story there – that the main stream media won't touch." 3.) Letterman should have realized that sometimes a simple and direct threat could sometimes work wonders. "I have just taped you Joe, and unless you hand over everything you have, I will take this to the police and your career will be over, and I'll make certain you get a cell with a view at Five Points Correctional – but I wouldn't take any showers during your ten-year stay there." 4.) Letterman's veteran lawyer, Jim Jackoway, coulda told Dave this sort of crapola happens all the time - greaseball disgruntled ex-employees trying to extort money from their wealthy celebrity bosses. There are ways of handling this to keep it out of the press... OK, those are my four reasons. I of course must add here - extortion is a serious crime and Letterman had ever right to pursue a legal option, and to come down on the guy as hard as he could. But I also believe there were other sub-nuclear options. Letterman chose to avoid those. Why? He wants this guy in jail.Tags: joe halderman , dave letterman , cbs
