What about Dave. . . Will scandal sink late-night maestro?
Photo credit: AP | This video image shows David Letterman telling the audience, during a taping of his late-night show Oct. 1, 2009, that he had sexual relationships with female employees and that someone tried to extort $2 million from him over the affairs. A CBS employee has been charged with attempted grand larceny in the case.
Photos: David Letterman extorted
David Letterman's notable guests
Joe Halderman's small blue cape in Norwalk, Conn., lies down a private road blocked by gates adorned with signs warning trespassers away. The busy Boston Post Road is close by, and a number of banks are in walking distance. Could one of these be where the most famous phony $2-million check in history was passed?
A movie theater is nearby, too - and a McDonald's is just around the corner. Inside on a TV, a Fox News screen crawl reports that a judge has ordered the man charged with extortion to stay away from "Late Show" host David Letterman.
Yes, that man lives just about 50 yards away.
Everywhere you look around here, the ironies and oddities abound. These are the haunts of Robert "Joe" Halderman - the CBS News producer and until yesterday as obscure as you or me - who attempted to bring down one of the most renowned entertainers in television history, and may yet succeed.
But for the grandest irony, the strangest oddity of all, you must step back, and look to tomorrow. Even if none of this had happened - the alleged extortion, Letterman's cloak-and-dagger ensnarement of the suspect, and his Fellini-esque on-air mea culpa - the Oct. 5 edition of "Late Show with David Letterman" would have still been the most-watched late night show.
After 16 years of triumph, struggle, and then a seemingly endless streak in second place, "Late Show" is the undisputed king. In the first week of the season, 5 million people tuned in, or double that of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien."
Until last Thursday, CBS and Letterman were settling in for a long victory lap. They are now settling in for a long siege.
The perils for Letterman seem obvious, but far less so the final outcome. The public seems divided, or at worst, nonplussed by the whole affair. A young woman interviewed by WNBC/4 even congratulated Letterman - someone she deemed "unattractive" - "for getting all those women."
One veteran TV observer - who asked not to be identified because of his ties to a rival network - said bluntly that Letterman's behavior is endemic in the entertainment industry and for that reason, "he'll skate. It's not like someone at CBS is going to say, 'My God, THAT was going on there?!'
"Does it play in Omaha? No, it probably doesn't, but are the people in Omaha going to say, 'I'm not going to watch'? Hell no. They'll watch."
Kathy Sharpe, president of an eponymous New York digital advertising firm, said "Advertisers who choose his show are used to controversy [and] he probably had more issues when he attacked [Sarah] Palin's daughter than over this. His female audience is pretty cynical and while they may be disappointed, he hasn't lied about this, nor has he ever set himself up as virtue personified."
But what if Letterman doesn't skate? One of the most combustible issue in lives of American public figures can be reduced to three letters - s, e, and x. And fires sparked by this tinder have a way of getting out of control.
A trial now looms, and prosecutors as well as the defense have been known to leak to the press. This fire could smolder for weeks, or months, to come.
So, what about Dave? Besides the anguish caused to himself and his family, he will be tormented by this question - is his job safe? Right now, no one can say for certain.
