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The Tonight Showdown -- Prince Zings Letterman

After playing a three night gig for Jay Leno and performing on his penultimate show, it's pretty obvious where Prince's late night loyalty lies -- but in case you're still not sure, this hand-written sign should drive the point home.

"Jay is the best. Even Paul Shafer [sic] knows."

prime said:

Lordy do I ever need to get my glasses checked.

Well, what's Prince without a little controversy?

I like Jay but I prefer Letterman. Why does prince not like Letterman?

I can't stand Letterman. Pretentious, and insensitive to art in general.

despite this, Prince did perform on the Letterman show with Dolphin (1994), and Dinner With Delores (1996)....

I was wondering if anyone noticed that!
I just popped in here to see if it was being discussed.

I'm watching Letterman tonight to see if there's any mention.

I think Letterman was just rude to Prince and made fun of him. It's one thing to be joked about (like Ellen and Jay making clothing or shoe jokes), but Letterman was just on a line of being disrespectful, IMO. Maybe it didn't start that way, but it ended up that way. I can't blame Prince for going to Leno to do shows instead of using Letterman.

And Prince isn't the first artist who has thought Letterman was unrelateable and phony. Annie Lennox and Cher both have similar stories, to name a few.

I think Madonna once had an argument with Letterman too.... she didn't liked him either.

ernestsewell said:

It's not like Prince didn't set himself up though, I mean let's be real. You change your name to an unpronouncable symbol & not expect comedians to comment?

thedance said:

Madonna cursed how many times on his show? SHE burned that bridge for a while, but she did come back again and again after they made amends.

Cher was due to come out, standing right back stage, and Letterman made some really rude comment about her, and just as he announced her, she said "He's such an asshole," turned around and left the show, leaving him hanging in the middle of a taping. GOOD FOR HER. I don't hate Letterman, but you just don't shit on people that way.

He hardly ever talks to someone during a commercial break, like with Annie Lennox. They come back from the break and he acts like they've been chatting the whole time. He says something to her, and she just rolls her eyes at him, quietly calling him out as a douchebag in the last minutes of the show.

Honestly, I think Letterman's days have passed. They should take a HUGE leap and put Craig Ferguson on The Late Show. He's probably the funniest and smartest late night talk show host on TV right now. He could flourish beyond belief in an 11:30 time slot, with a bigger budget, and running against Conan. THAT would be great late night wars.

I'm lost
Is Paul Shafer Letterman?

JayJai said:

He's his band leader on the show.

Is this really news to anybody that has seen him on Jay's show like FOREVER ?!

ernestsewell said:

Exactly how I see it.

Maybe Letterman will challenge Prince to come on his show.

2elijah said:

Perfect... they can have a scribling on canvas contest!

2elijah said:

Prince has been on Letterman's show at least twice. "Dolphin" and "Dinner with Delores". Why would he go back, especially since he got in bed w/ Leno? Prince doesn't need either really, but he chose to go to someone who respected him. Letterman didn't.

ernestsewell said:

Dude, it's not that serious, it's a "comment" I already know about Prince's past performances on Letterman, not news to me. Like I said. and I'll repeat it again... maybe Letterman will challenge Prince to come on his show after what Prince wrote on that paper to Jay.
[Edited 5/29/09 12:24pm]

BanishedBrian said:

Eye also don't like Letterman, he's insensitive and obtuse.
Eye'm glad Prince is friends with Leno who always has flair, wit, and a colorful style of telling jokes.
[Edited 5/29/09 12:42pm]

ernestsewell said:

Yeah, he went with Leno who didn't comment on the absurdity of promoting an album with a release date of "never" (at that time, at least) or asking if he was alright after mock "committing suicide" after his performance of Dolphin.

Still, out of the two, Dave calls people out on their celebutardness (Joaquin Phoenix, anyone?). Leno rips 'em apart in his "monologue" and then kisses their ass to get 'em on the show and lob softball questions at 'em. Dave doesn't do do that - though he has softened slightly, as he demonstrated when he had Bill Hicks' mother on the show to apologize for a past incident.

Makes sense that Prince likes Leno.

ernestsewell said:

I hadn't heard these stories. What year approximately did these things happen?

i prefer letterman, at least back when he had some edge. he might have taken the piss out of his guests, but he was smart. he knew that to get the flyover states to accept personalities like grace jones, pee wee herman, sandra bernhard or john waters, he'd have to make fun of them the way the viewers would want to. he treated them like freaks, they laughed it off, and america saw that these weirdo freako people had a sense of humor and might be allright after all. so in that regard, i see letterman as a very important supporter of artists, at least back in the day.

leno is an asskisser. he's the comedic/broadcast equivalent of hospital cafeteria applesauce. of course prince would like that.

just saw someone else blogged about it

http://strizzzy.com/enter...-leno.html

Leno's jokes are all very obvious. I find him boring.

Cinnie said:

Cher in the early to mid 90's. Annie perhaps 1999 or later.

thedance said:

In 94, Prince did Letterman for the 1st time. Letterman made fun of him saying it makes perfectly good sense for him to promote a project that is never coming out.

In 96, I think he was "forced" to do Letterman. Because of WB. Not to mention he was forced to do a lot of press in NYC at the time.

daPrettyman said:

He seemed SO very detached on the 96 appearances. I think he was just antsy to get out from under WB. However, I'm not sure he was "forced".

Think about this: He did ONE video for Chaos, which even then was surprising given the liner note, and his appearance on The Today Show was not that great either. He wore glasses, hid his face, refused to talk to anyone, etc. IMO, he was just riding it out. It was that last stretch to the finish line. "Dinner with Delores" on Late Show was very low key to me, although the song isn't that strong to begin with. His live performances often breathe new life into an otherwise "normal" or "average" song. I was disappointed w/ the Dinner performance (yet I loved the Dolphin performance).

I remember Letterman making fun of The Gold Experience saying "Here's his CD, The Gold Experience, which he says may never be released. So it makes perfect sense he's here promoting it tonight."

Sometimes I think Prince does TV appearances just because he loves to play.

ernestsewell said:

He did 3 that I can recall. Two of them were released. Same December and Dinner With Delores. He later released I Like It There via NPGMC.