Does David Letterman’s Sex Life Matter? Not to Me.
On last night’s Late Show, David Letterman spoke of an extortion threat he had received and the sexual relations he had with female staffers.
This morning, the news and entertainment media were abuzz at the thought that Letterman had been promiscuous. Taylor, Victoria, and Kenny on Cosmo Radio’s morning show were particularly upset. Taylor, in fact, said she felt she could no longer trust her “Will he cheat?” meter if even Letterman was a cheater.
My first reaction was, “Isn’t that why men get into show business in the first place? So they can bang a lot of women?” Maybe I’m overly crass and cynical, but I don’t care if Letterman had sex with women, as long as the sex was consensual and the women were adults. It is not nice that he cheated on his long-time girlfriend (who is now his wife), but it doesn’t make him less funny as a comedian or talk show host. As long as he did nothing criminal in these liaisons, it’s a personal matter between him and his wife and the other women. It’s not my business or anyone else’s.
Separate the art and the artist, people.
After my diatribes about special treatment for celebrities, you might be asking if I’m showing a bit of hypocrisy here. I don’t think so. The people I railed against committed crimes—they were either convicted or pleaded guilty to those crimes, so it is a legal fact.
If we find out that Letterman’s sexual activities were less than legal, I will have to change my tune. I believe strongly that people who commit crimes need to serve their time. I believe that people who commit such crimes as rape, murder (or vehicular manslaughter, if you prefer), and torture of people or animals should not continue to serve as role models in the athletic or artistic arenas as if nothing ever happened. I don’t believe that their personal actions take away from their artistic or athletic ability—although I may be a little irrational in my desire that these people no longer continue to collect million-dollar paychecks and serve no jail time.
I liken David Letterman’s sexual misconduct to that of Bill Clinton. It was a stupid choice on his part. It wouldn’t make me want him as my life partner. But it doesn’t have any effect on his ability to do his job.
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Tags: david letterman, sex
Uncategorized | Jennifer Roland | 
October 2, 2009 9:00 am
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By James, October 5, 2009 @ 7:52 am
By chance, I caught a funny rerun of The Larry Sanders Show where Larry hooks up randomly with Hank’s assistant Debby before this Letterman thing blew up. Arthur makes a bet with Larry that it will cause nothing but drama within the office dynamics, and it does just that as jealousies pop up and secret relationships with others are revealed. Now rumors are coming out that Dave not only slept with this assistant, but a few others throughout the years.
I’m not one to judge if he officially “cheated” on his wife with these assistants. Dave has seemingly had an unconventional relationship with the mother of his son throughout their courtship (didn’t marry her until 5 years after their son was born, etc) and from the news/gossip about his hookups with assistants is that they happened years ago. The thing about all of this is that is just proves that you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure without it blowing up in your face later.
The only thing that stinks is how the girl in question seemed to maybe benefit from her relationship with her constant tv appearances and such. But it’s Dave show and he can do whatever he wants really unless the fans suddenly turn on him.
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Jennifer Roland Reply:
October 6th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
It makes me wonder if the Larry Sanders writers were prescient, if they were familiar with Dave’s charms, or if this sort of thing happens on pretty much every show. (Please don’t make me picture Jay Leno doing it with staffers, though!)
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