Posted on 10/02/2009 5:40:15 AM PDT by tlb
A top CBS News producer was busted Thursday for trying to shake down David Letterman - threatening to expose the late-night funnyman's affairs with several female staffers in a movie and book.
The "Late Show" host revealed the stunning plot on last night's show in an extraordinary confession to viewers - and admitted he had indeed slept with several women who work at the show.
"I'm glad you folks are here tonight, and I'm glad you folks are in such a pleasant mood, because I have a story I'd like to tell you and the home viewers as well," he said, appearing to set up a comedy bit.
He went on to explain that a man identified by police as Robert Halderman, a 51-year-old Emmy Award-winning producer, found out that he was sleeping with several staff members.
Halderman allegedly threatened to expose the 62-year-old Letterman, who married his girlfriend, Regina Lasko, of 23 years in March, unless he forked over a staggering $2 million.
Halderman, who was being held on attempted grand larceny charges, has directed dozens of "48 Hours" documentaries, from the Winter Olympics to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Yah. It's really the best way to handle it. I suppose it might be tempting to just pay it, but I think it's probably true that it rarely ends there. The blackmailer will just keep coming back for more.
To tell you the truth, I’m much more interested in Halderman, and what some of his projects might have included. Everything he touched is tainted—did he ever work for the CBS (so-called) News, for instance?
The twit who might have been trying to extort money from him is an idiot. Instead of getting tried for extortion he should have just released the story to a number of outlets. Hell, he could have made more than $2 mil by hawking it to the scandal rags and he would have gotten away with it.
I was thinking that instead of trying to extort the money, he could have simply showed Letterman what he had and offer to sell his information to Letterman. A simple business transaction.
The extortioner’s fatal error:
Assuming that David Letterman had any shame.
Ah, now I see that you had already made the same point.
Robert Halderman too elite to sell the story to the National Enquirer?
“...threatening to expose the late-night funnyman’s affairs with several female staffers in a movie and book”
Since the entertainment industry holds that there’s nothing wrong with this, how is this much of a threat? It’s not like Letterman is a conservative or a candidate for Vice-President.
Popcorn PLEASE!!!!!!!
The twit was probalby too lazy.
And, thanks to that from the conservative world. Seems being a despicable person is a prerequisite for employment at CBS.
I'm interested in what he's done too... Was he coming at Letterman because it was a typical shakedown? Or were Letterman's "taste" a little to creepy? Or is he a liberal who's so corrupt it doesn't matter? Many puzzle pieces here... wonder when we'll see the larger picture?
I agree. Who knows, they say a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged. Maybe this mugging will "wake up" Letterman... or maybe he's already horrible compromised. We'll know soon...
It should be funny watching Katie Couric do this one...
Or is this the first time CBS News staffers have tried to pull shakedown schemes?
You'd think that with Richard Huff, George Rush and Samuel Goldsmith all working on the article, at least one of them could have corrected that sentence, which is gibberish.
Katie will be AWOL - or so vague no one quite knows what she’s talking about. The MSM will give this their “ACORN” coverage - not much at all.
So Polanski, Bill Clinton, and Hugh Grant on the next show?
Or will Dave star in a revival of Californication?
Dare we watch Ms. Couric tonight? LOL.
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