Late Show UK

David Letterman will return to his old university on the 17th September.

He’ll appear at Ball State University as part of “the David Letterman Distinguished Professional Lecture and Workshop Series” with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

Letterman previously gave a speech at the university in 2007 when they opened a new Communications building named after him.

The Ball State Daily News – “Letterman Speaking Here Next Month”

David Letterman will be a guest on ABC’s The View on the 7th September. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles the hosts as he’s always made comments on his own programme that he’s not much of a fan of The View.

Contact Music – “David Letterman – David Letterman To Make Debut On ‘The View’”

David Letterman was a guest on Live With Regis And Kelly on Friday. He spoke about the recent late night battle between Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno for The Tonight Show.

He also talked about the Superbowl 2010 commercial (the one featuring Oprah, Leno and Letterman on a sofa in the Ed Sullivan Theatre) and the extortion attempt that was made public on the Late Show for his alleged affairs with a Late Show employee.

Click here to watch

David Letterman will be a guest on Live With Regis And Kelly at the end of April, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reports. The host of the Late Show will appear on the programme airing the 30th April. The last time Dave was on Live With Regis And Kelly was when Regis had just returned from having heart surgery in 2007.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat – “Letterman to appear on ‘Regis and Kelly’”

Television producer Robert Halderman has admitted to trying to extort money from David Letterman.

Halderman stood in front of New York State Supreme Court and agreed to a plea bargain – he will serve six months in jail and have to carry out 1000 hours of community service.

CNN report “the 27-year CBS veteran had initially been charged with first-degree attempted grand larceny, to which he pleaded not guilty in October. He could have faced 15 years in prison if convicted on the charge”. Halderman will be formally sentenced in May.

Robert Halderman is the former producer for CBS series 48 Hours Mystery and Letterman revealed in October last year – during a taping of the Late Show – how he had tried to blackmail Dave into paying him $2 million in return for keeping his sex flings with Late Show staff secret.

BBC News say “in a statement to the court, the former producer apologised to both Mr Letterman and his family and acknowledged that he had delivered a threat, in the form of a script idea, to the chat show host’s driver” – Halderman went on to say “this so-called treatment was just a thinly veiled threat to ruin Mr Letterman if he did not pay me a lot of money”.

BBC News – “TV producer pleads guilty to Letterman blackmail”
CNN – “Man pleads guilty in Letterman blackmail case”

David Letterman and Jay Leno have appeared together in a Super Bowl commercial with Oprah Winfrey. Reportedly they wanted Conan to appear as well, but he didn’t.

I think this is the first time Letterman and Leno have been on TV together in many years since the high-profile Tonight Show debacle of the 1990s. Jay and Dave used to be quite good friends and Leno would make appearances on Dave’s talk show from time to time.

The commercial which aired during last night’s Super Bowl on CBS showed David Letterman, Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey sitting on a couch watching the Super Bowl (in a similar scene to Dave & Oprah’s previous Super Bowl commercial a while back) with Dave saying “this is the worst Super Bowl party ever” and Leno replying “you’re only saying that because I’m here”.

Very unexpected to see them sitting on the same couch after all this time. Also even more unexpected to see Leno in the commercial which has a promotion strap for the Late Show With David Letterman at the end considering he’s back on The Tonight Show next month.

The commercial was filmed in the balcony of the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York and it’s reported Leno arrived in a disguise to avoid being noticed by people outside.

Click here to watch the Super Bowl commercial

David Letterman celebrates his 28th year on television this week. Letterman’s original NBC talk show Late Night With David Letterman started on the 1st February 1982 and he moved to CBS in 1993 to host the Late Show.

CBS are close to reaching a deal to keep David Letterman and Craig Ferguson with the network until at least 2012. The Live Feed reports Letterman and Craig “will have agreements that keep them on the air into 2012, CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler told reporters at press tour”.

The Live Feed – “Letterman, Ferguson close to contract renewals”
Digital Spy – “Letterman ‘to extend CBS contract to 2012′”

The Late Show With David Letterman was briefly featured on Charlie Brooker’s Review Of The Year programme on BBC Four this week. A clip was shown to talk about the blackmail case that was revealed by Letterman on the show earlier this year. Click here to watch Charlie Brooker’s Review Of The Year programme starting at the beginning, or click here to start from the David Letterman clip.

David Letterman has spoken more about the extortion plot against him.

On last night’s Late Show he said he “wasn’t going to talk about it anymore but it seems people want to talk about it” and “when you are blackmailed it is a crime and you’re a victim… felony extortion is what it is… it’s a nasty thing to do to people”.

He went on to apologise to any Late Show staffers who might have been subjected to questions from reporters and press. He said “no I’m not having sex with these women – those episodes are in the past”. He also apologised to his new wife Regina Lasko saying how she’s been “horribly hurt” and told the audience “let me tell you folks, I got my work cut out for me”. There was a comical moment when Letterman mentions how Alan’s not sure if he had sex with Dave.

BBC News – “Letterman in TV apology to wife”
TV Guide – “David Letterman Apologizes to Wife on Late Show”

Click here to watch the video clip from last night’s show

During Thursday’s episode of the Late Show, David Letterman revealed he’s been a victim of attempted “sex blackmail”.

During the show Letterman announced he’s had relationships with women working on the Late Show – he said “I have had sex with women who work for me on this show” and for that reason a guy was trying to extort money from him to keep it a secret.

Letterman said the guy had left a package in his car outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre which contained evidence of the “terrible things” Dave had done and threatened Dave to reveal everything in a new book he was writing, which he said would then become a screenplay, unless he was given money.

Dave said that on the advice of his attorney he contacted Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and as part of the investigation he handed over a $2million “phoney” cheque to the guy trying to blackmail him.

Letterman said “this morning I did something I’ve never done in my life… I had to go downtown and testify before a grand jury”. Because of the court case, David had to come clean over his sexual encounters with Late Show staff. He said “I had to tell them all of the creepy things that I had done… the creepy stuff was that I have had sex with women who work for me on this show”.

Dave described the whole experience as “bizarre” and went on to say he wants to protect his family, himself and his job.

Belinda Luscombe from Time Magazine said “while Letterman seems to be in no immediate risk of losing either his family or his job (ratings from last night’s telecast will likely be stratospheric), his troubles may not be over. Having sex with people who were his employees or whom he managed could leave him, or CBS, open to a sexual-harassment lawsuit”.

BBC News reports “CBS employee Robert “Joe” Halderman, who was arrested on Thursday, appeared in court in New York… Mr Halderman, a producer for the real-life crime show 48 Hours, entered his plea as he appeared in court in Manhattan on a charge of attempted grand larceny” – he’s pleaded not guilty.

The story was covered on this evening’s News At Ten on BBC1 and has been covered by many UK newspapers today with tabloid coverage expected tomorrow. Click here to watch the story reported on the BBC’s News At Ten.

Time.com is reporting that Dave’s assistant Stephanie Birkett was one of the staffers Dave allegedly had an affair with – they report “widespread reports say Birkitt had a romantic relationship with Letterman before his marriage, while she was working as his personal assistant and appearing regularly on his program”.

David Letterman married his long-term partner Regina Lasko earlier this year.

BBC News – “Letterman reveals ‘sex blackmail’”
BBC News – “Man denies Letterman ‘blackmail’”
Time.com – “Stephanie Birkitt: Letterman’s Lover?”
The Associated Press – “The joke’s on Letterman after on-air confession”
BBC News – “Letterman’s life in TV spotlight”

Click here to watch Dave’s announcement from Thursday night’s Late Show

David Letterman celebrated his 5000th late night broadcast on Friday – combining Late Night and Late Show broadcasts.

Dave had 1810 episodes of Late Night With David Letterman on NBC and has 3186 episodes & four primetime specials of the Late Show With David Letterman on CBS so far.

Bruce Willis and LL Cool J were on the landmark 5000th programme on Friday night.

To mark the anniversary, Dave was given a special billboard on Broadway. Congratulations Dave, and here’s to the next 5000 shows!

Hollywood Outbreak – “David Letterman Marks 5,000 Late Night Broadcasts”

Click here to watch the unveiling of Dave’s billboard

David Letterman has given a speech at the New York hospital that saved his life when he had to have quintuple bypass surgery.

Letterman attended the ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new Ron O. Perelman Heart Institute at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital (Weill Cornell Medical Center).

He said “when I’m here, I see a lot of people I know, a lot of people that, because of their efforts, I’m still living – if you can call a steady diet of oat bran and egg whites living… it’s fun to be back here and this is a tremendous facility… I have a six-year-old son that I wouldn’t have had if these people hadn’t saved my life”.

ETonline.com – “David Letterman Helps To Open New Heart Center”

Click here to watch David Letterman’s speech

David Letterman is to support to a New York heart hospital – the hospital he had his quintuple bypass surgery in back in 2000. Digital Spy is reporting “the talk show host will make a rare public appearance at the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center when it opens its new Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute on Monday”.

Digital Spy – “David Letterman supports heart hospital”

A children’s book about David Letterman’s son Harry has been released today – it’s written by Harry Letterman’s former nanny Katie Van Camp and gets the approving nod from David Letterman himself.

USA Today says the book – called Harry And Horsie – is “a gentle fantasy about a boy, armed with a Super Duper Bubble Blooper, who goes into space to rescue his stuffed horse”. Dave’s mentioned briefly in the book saying “Hello, kids, and get ready for an amazing bedtime adventure”. It’s available to order on Amazon.co.uk (available in September) and Amazon.com (available now).

USA Today – “Letterman calls ‘Harry and Horsie’ an ‘amazing’ read”

David Letterman’s been the subject of some controversy this week regarding some jokes he made about Governor Sarah Palin and her 18 year old daughter. He’s since apologised for the jokes on-air on the Late Show. Has this thing been blown completely out of proportion? Yes, in my opinion. What do you think? Leave us a comment.

Yahoo! News – “Sarah Palin: Letterman owes women an apology”
Digital Spy – “David Letterman ‘regrets’ Sarah Palin joke”

Click here to watch Letterman talking about the Sarah Palin controversy on the Late Show, and to watch a video of Sarah Palin on The Today Show talking about Letterman

David Letterman had a terrible sore throat on last night’s edition of the Late Show but managed to carry on throughout the whole show, whereas some people may have cancelled it altogether and gone home sick.

Letterman had such a sore throat, he was losing his voice. He got part-way through the monologue and Tony Mendez finished it. Also, Paul Shaffer helped out with the reading of the Top Ten list when Dave’s voice got particularly bad.

Click here to watch last night’s monologue and Dave helping Jennifer Garner with her hurt knee