David Letterman has been the victim of a nasty $2 million extortion plot.
Letterman revealed on his Thursday show that he was the victim of a plot, where $2 million was to be extorted over reports that he had slept with female members of his staff. Three weeks ago, in something that sounded like it was a plot off the Sopranos, a package was sent to the TV show host. The sender claimed to have information regarding the star and female staff of his CBS show. They threatened to go to the press unless money was handed over.
Threatening to go public with the news, the individual reportedly sought $2 million from Letterman, the current late-night ratings champ told his studio audience Thursday. “This morning, I did something I’ve never done in my life,” Letterman said as the cameras rolled. “I had to go downtown and testify before a grand jury.”
In his testimony, Letterman said, he admitted to engaging in sexual relationships with staff members. “My response to that is, yes I have. Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would.” He added, “I feel like I need to protect these people – I need to certainly protect my family.” Having initially contacted the Manhattan District Attorney’s special prosecution bureau, Letterman helped participate in a sting operation, eventually meeting and handing a counterfeit $2 million check to the alleged extortionist – who was arrested on Thursday. (via People)
Image credit to Buzznet. Story and quotes via People & Us.
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The Letterman Extortion case is interesting in how he handled it, but even more interesting in the issue of whether any of the women with whom he had sex experienced pressure to have sex with him given the news story of the Boston police officer accusations of recent days.
Sexual favors for workplace promotion is not a new phenomenon but has been around for some time; and although extortion of public personalities has been a problem of the past, one wonders if there is not more to this case of Letterman than meets the eye.
As he himself claimed, making public may embarrass the women, but on the other hand, if pressure to have sex was the problem in those cases, making public the case may help to prevent the underlying problem. It depends upon whether the sex was consensual casual sex or workplace sex for promotion.
The extortion is an inadvertent problem that has been overlaid upon the underlying accusation and the status of supervisors and sexual seduction in most gender harassment problems at work that form sexual harassment lawsuits.
While many applaude Letterman’s management of the extortion problem, the impulse to dismiss the facts may pose more of a problem for Letterman and for America than is currently visible, depending upon the circumstances of the sexual relationships with staff, as well as others with whom he didn’t have sex (in the event they had to forgo a promotion for one who did).
Doesn’t this just smack of the Clarence Thomas problem?
Pat, you are a real piece of work. No where has it been revealed that these women got promotions for laying in bed with Dave. Your lies are not welcomed.