CBS - LETTERMAN ADMITS HE WAS BLACKMAILED OVER SEX WITH STAFFERS

LETTERMAN ADMITS HE WAS BLACKMAILED OVER SEX WITH STAFFERS

With his studio audience unsure whether he was joking, David Letterman disclosed Thursday that earlier in the day he had testified before a grand jury about a plot to blackmail him. He said that during the inquiry he was asked whether he had had sexual relationships with members of his staff. "My response to that is, yes I have," Letterman said. "Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would -- especially for the women. But that's a decision for them to make if they want to talk about the relationship ... what you don't want is for a guy to say, 'Oh, I know he had sex with women so I'd like $2 million dollars or I'm going to make trouble for you.'" Upon hearing laughter at one point during his comments, he seemed ruffled and remarked, "Now why is that funny?" CBS said later that the man who had attempted the extortion was a producer for the crime magazine show 48 Hours and that he had been arrested earlier in the day. Letterman's revelation came during the same week that Nielsen reported that he had posted his biggest win over the Tonight show in more than 15 years (when his lead-in was the Winter Olympics).

02/10/2009