NEW YORK (CNN) -- David Letterman told his audience Thursday that he is the victim of an alleged extortion attempt and admitted to having sexual relations with several members of his staff, according to a press release from his production company.


Letterman made the announcement during taping of the "Late Show."

"This morning, I did something I've never done in my life," Letterman told his audience, according to a release from Worldwide Pants Inc. "I had to go downtown and testify before a grand jury."

The 62-year-old funnyman said he received a package three weeks ago from a person who claimed to have information about Letterman's sexual dalliances, ultimately demanding $2 million to prevent public revelation.

Letterman said he went to the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which conducted an investigation, and an arrest was made earlier Thursday.

In his grand jury testimony, Letterman said, he revealed the relations with members of his staff.

"My response to that is, yes I have," he said. "Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would. I feel like I need to protect these people -- I need to certainly protect my family."

Letterman married long-time partner Regina Lasko in March. The couple, who have been together since 1986, have a son, Harry, 6.

Letterman has been host of "Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS since 1993 after leaving NBC, where he was host of "Late Night with David Letterman" for 11 years. "Late Show" airs at 11:30 p.m. "Late Night" aired an hour later.





David Letterman admitted to having sexual relationships with female staff members, his company says.

Once again DAVID is a class act, he's human bad things happend, he did his part came clean, thats what life is about, we all fucked up, glad they jailed that fucking asshole, hope he gets life, just for the fun of it.

they;re after him because of the Palin incident.

From another (now-locked) thread on this topic:

SCNDLS said:

Y'all scoff, but there've been... uh... "stories" about Dave for some time now.

Rumors aside, though, I think Dave handled this very well, and I hope things can be put right for all parties involved.

..he must a part of that "brotherhood" they've been talking about.

Stern'll have a field day with this! He loves Dave, but you just know they'll be digging up Evil Dave.

For those who don't know, "Evil Dave" is a semi-regular on the show who does an uncanny Letterman impression. He impersonates Dave in prank calls, etc., where he says horrendous things.

Lammastide said:

...and what exactly are you implying?

Why would anyone fall 4 this type of extortion?

uPtoWnNY said:

Ace said:

Evil Dave is HILARIOUS!

joseph8 said:

Dave is really wise to just come out & admit this stuff. I think these public figures all learned from Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations..."

It's not a good thing when your most famous quote is a lie

I know there are issues since he's the boss, but really, who hasn't had a relationship with someone they worked with? I hope this will blow over, because I don't see it as truly scandalous (as far as we know yet). Not any more scandalous than any of our lives at least.

joseph8 said:

One of the best impersonations I've ever heard

I feel bad for David Letterman's wife Regina Lasko and his son Harry. Unless he's discussed it all with Regina and it's all water under the bridge, we don't know, but she's got to be feeling bad right now. And Harry is going to be teased by kids at school, eventually.

I have to say there's something just a bit creepy about seeing dave address such a serious subject with the same jokey delivery that he uses for his normal material.

The audience obviously thought it was a joke at first because of his tone, which says "this is a joke." I suppose that's just the tone he has on his show, but it was a little weird to watch.

NDRU said:

Because at the end of the day it isnt a serious topic. If Dave physically hurt someone, abused etc...they would have come out A LONG TIME ago and said it. This is obviously someone on his staff that got canned and knew things from when they worked for him, this stuff is watercooler high school bullshit at the end of the day, and it got the cover of every paper, that shows the world we live in. THIS IS MEANINGLESS its NOT serious, who cares who dave was banging, guess what folks, every one of your favorite stars does things like this, its sex everyone is having it, and most of the times its with people they work with. Im a filmmaker/actor/writer and on every project i have done i have had some sort of thing with one of the actresses, BFD.

On the other hand what is SERIOUS is that someone got into this mans car, is everyone missing that point, that shit was in his car already, that is scary, especially since Dave has already had someone break into his home, he does have a wife and child, thats what is serious, not who he bangs.

The fact that someone would let him enter inside them is more disturbing ... well fineness is in the eye of the paynul-receiver



ugh

joseph8 said:

Oh, hell yes. Evil Dave will be revealing all KINDS of nasty details. Mark my words, Evil Dave has not only fucked employees, but almost certainly their children and pets as well. Possibly grandmas.

not sure how to respond to the prior post but Dave is cool and if anything, the response to this story kinda shows you how stupid a lot of people are

so many people jumping to conclusions about him, without knowing the real story

go figure

Ace said:

WOW STERN STILL ON AIR?

Letterman took the right avenue in how he handled this. Plenty of people have cheated on their spouses, and oftentimes with coworkers/employees. Just saying it publicly himself on his own show saved him a ton of bad press later if the tabloids had scooped the story, or if he'd tried to deny it.

Scary shit that someone was able to get into his car though. What if it'd been a bomb or some shit and not just an envelope of incriminating evidence?

lastdecember said:

Yes. CLASSY

nobody ever said he cheated on anyone

funny how people just jump to that conclusion

but i guess the media will eat this story up

Workplace affairs have been going on since the dawn of who knows when. We just didn't have the internet before to be on people's cases 24/7 to dissect every move they make. I say let whomever his mate was affected by these actions...let them render judgment...and then act accordingly as they see fit. Otherwise, this really doesn't need to be in the public discourse...although I understand why he's choosing to handle it this way-
[Edited 10/3/09 3:47am]

japanrocks said:

Exactly! hes been married for what 2 years at the most, and the relationship he has has always been open even before that. The women on his staff that he slept with could have been from decades ago, it said nothing about currently, i mean hes been in the spotlight for almost 30 years now, this could be about sex he had back in the 80's and 90's with staff members

Two of the female employees David Letterman apparently dated are Holly Hester and Stephanie Birkitt. Holly Hester was much younger than Dave and that was the reason he broke off the relationship with her. Stephanie Birkitt, 34, was Dave's assistant and also appeared on the show for some comedy bits. Both relationships ended before Letterman married Regina Lasko (herself a former employee of Dave's) and they had their son Harry Letterman.

It's interesting that Stephanie Birkitt also dated and lived with Robert Joel "Joe" Halderman, the CBS "48 Hours" reporter, who tried to extort the $2M out of Letterman.

Obviously, more news will come out of this in the coming days.

In the meantime, The Late Show is enjoying a spike in the ratings, and advertisers are saying they'll stick with Dave.

markpeg said:

Why shouldnt they stick with him? What did he do wrong, i mean even if we find out that he had an affair a week ago, though im sure we wont, but someone will claim they did, whats the big deal? He's a talk show host and comedian, what he does isnt relevant in the world, people, hes an entertainer, thats it, affairs are going on all the time, sleeping with people you work with has been and will go on forever, shit, its the best place to meet someone, because you get to know them for real and dont have to deal with the fake ass ones in clubs. So this crap is nothing more than crap blown way out, its meaningless, he slept with women on his staff prior to his marriage, OK, big deal, lets worry about the state of this country thats falling apart even quicker, rather than dave's bedroom. CAUSE we all the last time we got fixated on someone screwing other women (clinton and monica) we got attacked a few years later. Priorities people.

lastdecember said:

that's what I'm saying, he WAS addressing a serious topic

well....looks like he was having an affair after all

oh well