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Is This Dave's Blackmailer?
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He was a hard-living CBS News producer, heralded as a lovable rogue. Until he allegedly tried to extort the King of Late Night. Lloyd Grove profiles the man behind the shocking story.
Stunned colleagues Friday described veteran CBS News producer Joe Halderman—who was arrested outside the network’s West 57th Street offices Thursday in the alleged scheme to blackmail David Letterman—as a rogue and a womanizer, a lover of literature, a “smart frat boy,” a swashbuckling journalist, and an occasional barroom brawler who distinguished himself in dangerous war zones and occasionally displayed a certain reckless streak.
The 51-year-old Halderman, a top producer for 48 Hours, might have been “cocky” and “arrogant” and lived his life on the edge, said co-workers who have known him for the past two decades, but he certainly didn’t seem capable of the sort of sensational crime that would have made a perfect episode for the CBS magazine show.
“I’m just in unbelievable shock,” said former CBS News executive Marcy McGinnis, who was Halderman’s boss in the London bureau for six years in the 1990s and last saw him a few months ago during one of their regular dinners. “He’s a good guy…It sounds to me like a nervous breakdown of some sort. I feel so badly about this. This is not a bad man. The behavior is so unbelievable, he just must have snapped.”
“Frankly, I couldn’t be more astonished that this guy was involved in something like this than if you came riding through my apartment on a hippopotamus,” said former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather.
Dan Rather, who as anchor of the CBS Evening News traveled to many hotspots with Halderman, told me he’d been impressed by the hard-charging producer’s knack for consistently getting the story. “This is obviously a tragedy,” Rather said. “Frankly, I couldn’t be more astonished that this guy was involved in something like this than if you came riding through my apartment on a hippopotamus.”
• Tracy Quan on how the rules of bedding the boss have changed.According to law-enforcement authorities and Letterman’s remarkable account on Thursday night’s Late Show, Halderman demanded $2 million from the television star or else he would go public with Letterman’s flings with female staffers. He was arrested after trying to deposit a bogus $2 million check from the talk-show host. News reports said Halderman was in financial straits, paying alimony to one of two ex-wives, and had been living in Norwalk, Connecticut, in a relationship with Letterman’s former personal assistant, Stephanie Birkitt, a onetime staffer of 48 Hours, who allegedly had been one of Letterman’s workplace lovers. Birkitt, 34 years old, is said to have broken up with Halderman several weeks ago, and is devastated by the scandal.
Today, Halderman pleaded not guilty to attempted first-degree grand larceny, a felony. Susan Zirinsky, executive producer of 48 Hours—who had been working with Halderman on an episode, colleagues say, until minutes before the cops put him in handcuffs and hauled him away—declined to comment. A CBS News spokesman told me: “This is a legal matter in the hands of the authorities. We have been cooperating and continue to cooperate with the authorities.” (A message left at Halderman’s home was not returned).
Halderman joined CBS News in the early 1980s, after attending college in Arizona, and worked for broadcasts ranging from the CBS Evening News to Early Show, quickly establishing himself as a star field producer who could be depended on to go anyplace and bring back the goods. He won prestigious awards and produced the network’s Olympics coverage and well-regarded reports on Somalia, AIDS, and Chechen rebels, among other subjects. He also was a prodigious reader—usually on planes flying to a far-flung assignment—and colleagues sought him out for book recommendations.
Ironically, given his blackmail threat to Letterman, Halderman carried on extramarital romances both in the office and on the road, colleagues say, and didn’t do much to hide them. He liked to drink, colleagues say, and would occasionally get obstreperous. Once, years ago, Halderman “came stumbling into work in bandages and stitches,” a colleague told me, explaining that a bouncer had shoved him through a plate-glass window at an Upper East Side singles bar.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The All-New Sarah Palin
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Boys Under the Bus
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Well, I just found my favorite quote of the week: "He was like a character out of Hemingway, or maybe like the Great Gatsby, without the nuance and mystery..."
Still, it could be worse. He was like a character out of Celebrity Rehab without the nuance...
Back in the day, I was the Halderman of my office!
I feel kind of bad of the guy. What he did was wrong, no doubt, that is, if he's guilty and not the victim of prosecutorial zeal. It seems like his life became like a car out of control, and instead of avoiding a crash, he zoomed into a wall. He needs to get help, lots of therapy.
There is very little empirical data to support the efficacy of therapy for criminals and this sleezy blackmailer is a criminal who decided to exploit information obtained during an intimate relationship against a third party. Creeps are still creeps with or without therapy.
>>>There is very little empirical data to support the efficacy of therapy for criminals
FALSE
The body of the literature concludes poor efficacy of therapy for the criminal population. Eighty percent are reincarcerated within 12 to 14 months of release.
I don't know where you're getting your statistics from. Psychopaths are not rehabilitatable, but the same is not true for criminals, in general. You claim "eighty percent [of criminals] are reincarcerated within 12 to 14 months of release," but what prison population are you referring to? Statistics often refer to very specific groups and are then skewed towards a general population. Do you mean murderers, thieves, drug dealers (both inner-city and suburban), embezzlers, or drunk drivers, or just plain psychopaths? And Halderman is not your average-run-in-the-mill criminal; his action seems compelled by issues amenable to therapy. Anyone who's watched "Law and Order" knows any extortionist worth their salt would demand unmarked bills with mixed serial numbers, to be left in a specified location, or at least deposited in an off-shore account!!! Plus any time a deposit as large as two million is made, there are lots of questions from different agencies. Halderman had to be out of his mind to think he would get away with this, pure and simple.
>>>There is very little empirical data to support the efficacy of therapy for criminals
Totally incorrect.
Therapy has been shown to be not only effective, but essential, in treating mental illness.
There are more mentally ill people in our jails and prisons in this country than there are in psychiatric institutions.
Estimates range from 19% to 50% as to incidence of mental illness in prisoners.
stop talking out your ss
Prosecutorial zeal? The guy met three times with Letterman's lawyer and he was taped twice. He was given a $2 million rubber check and was arrested after he tried to deposit it in his account.
We don't know all the details yet; what we know, so far, is coming from the prosecutor's end, so of course Halderman will look guilty up front. How it all played out is still a mystery. He probably is guilty of something, but maybe his plan went further than he wanted, or was in some way manipulated by the police and lawyers. I don't know; we'll see. And to commenter xIntcat, I thought there was little data to support rehabilitation of psychopaths, but not criminals, in general. Plenty of people make mistakes, big ones -- I'm not talking murder -- then dig deep, find out what prompted their action, and change. Where's your compassion? Isn't it possible for someone to lose his way, once in life, especially when he's lost hope? Halderman has no priors, and what he did may have been a cry for help. And compared to what the "great artist" Polanski did, this is nothing.
A $2 mil blackmail scheme is a whopper of a first offense. Do I think the guy has psychological issues? Yes. Should he serve time? Yes. It is a major felony he commited. He took the check and cashed it.
I don't think he ever felt compassion for his wife and children.
I agree with you, in that he should be punished if found guilty -- just not sure what the sentence should be, perhaps only probabtion. What I find most fascinating about all these cases is how the public reacts. It says more about the person doing the judging than the person being judged. To my mind, Halderman had lost IT entirely; he couldn't see the forest from the trees, which is why he cashed the check and thought he could pull off this whole ridiculous mess to begin with. Really, how could anyone, especially a seasoned 48 Hours producer -- a show covering crime after crime -- think that he could get away with such a transparent attempt against a powerful public figure? Unreal. But maybe I'm wrong there, maybe it was his job at 48 Hours that revealed just how much people do get away with stuff.
Who among us hasn't had a bad day and plotted to extort large sums of money from a public figure? Why, in my day it was a rite of passage, along with duelling, whipping slaves, and setting fire to orphanages.
He needs to be punished for committing a crime. He also needs to dry out.
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You'd lose the bet. Letterman broke up with her years ago.
Financial "straights"??? My god, does no one ever proofread anymore? Can you imagine Mark Knopfler fronting Dire Straights?
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it's not write?
I thought the first sentence said it all - "hard driving CBS news producer" said it all. Wonder if he's wishing he would have kept his "hard" in his pants instead of trying to out-hard the other hard one............. Hardly a good resume when he goes for a new job
I could have told this dude not to mess with Letterman. He doesn't seem to be the type to let go of a dome of his money--for any reason.
Letterman is now the patron saint of all extortionees.
Loved the part when he broke into Letterman's car and left the blackmail letter along with his stupidity in taking a $2 Million CHECK. This guy watched WAAY too many movies.
dime of his own money.
Ruined by today's ridiculous anti-father divorces he should have learned from divorce #1 if it flies, floats or fucks, rent!
Are you blaming his EX-WIVES for this? If he didn't have the money all he had to do was go to court and tell the judge. What's up with this trend of making lame excuses for criminals?
drmarkklein,
I couldn't agree with you more. As to this man's guilt: it was a bad idea to do it at all, though no one can doubt that documentary proof of Letterman's affairs would be a very valuable product that could be sold to various tabloids. By offering it to Letterman first, it could be argued that he was doing Dave a favor. Add his lifestyle, recent setbacks, plus his stellar career and large number of highly esteemed character witnesses, this man stands an excellent chance of being found innocent of any crime. He and his family certainly have my best wishes. Letterman too, I don't begrudge any man his harem. I mean, why get rich?
Wow. The article mentions that he cheated on his wives but it's the wife's fault? He was ruined by the fact that's he's a jerk.
He could have just written a Book, and made millions. it would have been a Number 1 seller,it would have topped SP.Juicy.!!!Well he is facing the law, and he is a criminal. it does not make sense if he would only have written a book.!!!!
Big news: Women like to have sex with big stars. What a shock. What a page turner. Who cares?
Lots of people can't get enough of sex scandals, and there are also many people who can't get enough of Letterman. I bet he could have made at least $200,000 from a tell-all biography with real unpublished dirt. We can psychoanalyze all we want but this one's simple: greed. It's in all of us, he just let his get the better of him. This is yet another cautionary tale of a fall from grace.
I can't for the life of me have any sympathy for David Letterman. For all his shrill in daily insults to Sarah Palin and calling her a slutty flight attendant and saying that her 19 or 14 year old daughter go nocked up just makes one want to puke. He, for one is the pot calling the kettle black. He was the one with the sexual excapades.
Letterman either should go or be fired. He has caused CBS a huge headache.
Your concern for CBS is touching.
He was over 21. His partners were over 21. And he was single. So what is your problem with a straight single guy over 21 having sex with consenting straight females? Can't get laid? Tap your foot in a bathroom stall. That should work.
HA!
Brilliant. Nail on the head. 'Tap your foot' . . . I'll have to remember that one.
1. He didn't call $arah a slutty flight attendant;
2. He didn't say her 14 year old daughter got knocked up;
3. Her 19 year old daughter did get knocked up.
4. What's an "excapade"?
5. Why would CBS fire him?
He is a blackmailing oppurtunist PIG!
Letterman didn't say (2).
This is a man who is very, very private-unlike Sarah Palin who didn't mind parading her daughter on stage at the convention and who then plays out family drama in the press by fighting with a 19 year old boy (Levi). Read as much as I could-had the extortionist not stolen his then girlfriend's diary and letters (she is 34 and was living with the guy), this probably never would have come out. You are naive if you think that grownups, unmarried, working long, stressful hours together under deadline, don't become very close and occasionally, chemistry happens and they make choices to take it further. All the reports are that it was over before his son was born, long before he got married, that it created no tension in the workplace, neither she nor the other staffer felt coerced, or harassed-just adults living their private lives in private-and it would have stayed that way had someone who got himself in financial trouble not abused the trust of his girlfriend and tried to commit a crime to extricate himself from his difficulty. Silly thing is, Letterman may have steered him to someone who could have helped him legitimately with some outside work, or a loan if he had just asked-because while Letterman on air can be edgy-off the air he is supposed to be a good friend and a kind person.
OOOH...OOOH...OOOH...Lemmie say it...Lemmie say it...Lemmie say it.
Sarah Palin is a slutty flight attendant.
Nobody's asking for your "sympathy" because Republicans have none. All Republicans have is self-pity.
Republicans have made a career out of being the disenfrancised victims of the Man, even when they ARE the Man.
No wonder the dems can't get any traction.
The joke was NOT ABOUT Palin's 14-year-old daughter. Am I the only one who remembers this?
Mocking the famous is Dave's job. You conservatives are gunning for the blood of a fundamentally decent midwesterner. Have fun at your "Fire Dave" rally.
Funny, most people I know feel the urge to puke when they think of Sarah Palin. BTW - you are not a true conservative. True conservatism died a while ago in this country. You are a neo-con charlatan that likes to say you are conservative, which now days is just code for narrow-minded, self-righteous asshole. DIpshit.
We're not all dead. We just fled the GOP when they trucked out the blithering idiot, Palin.
Letterman doesn't work for CBS, he owns his own production company. Halderman has caused a huge headache for CBS. Palin exploited her own sexuality to advance her career. She was way, way too old not to have know that there are always costs and benefits to making that choice. Palin explioted her children to advance her career. She took the uncomfortable bright life off of old Sarah and beamed it directly at her 14 year old who no one had mentioned except Sarah. Letterman, a single male celebrity had an affair with an adult female years ago. The rumors about Sister Sarah's sexcapades are prolific. It is unlikely that Letterman will fire himself and CBS contends that he has violated no policy nor have they ever had any complaints regarding Letterman. So far, no one has asked about the complaints against Halderman.
Who did Letterman think he was, criticizing someone in the government? How un-American. Anyone who makes fun of a politician should be put in the stocks, it says so right in trueconserv's copy of the constitution.
To Halderman's supervisor who thinks he was such a good guy: very few people in jail don't have someone who thinks they're a "good guy." Only when the white, well groomed folks with good grammar get caught do we stop to remember this. I trust he'll make the most of his time in jail.
Well groomed? Did you see the dude's picture?
Any relative of the other infamous Halderman?
njs
are you referring to H.R. Haldeman??
"Dan Rather, who as anchor of the CBS Evening News traveled to many hotspots with Halderman, told me he'd been impressed by the hard-charging producer's knack for consistently getting the story. "This is obviously a tragedy," Rather said. "Frankly, I couldn't be more astonished that this guy was involved in something like this than if you came riding through my apartment on a hippopotamus."
What a ringing endorsement from the guy who tried to destroy a presidential campaign with manufactured 'evidence' and lies!
The hippopotamus has left the building!
Right, because Bush has made his record of service in the National Guard public, and it vindicates him.
More than his National Guard service was public - CBS news manufacturers Rather and Mapes just 'forgot' to report it.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2009/08/25/fncs-goldberg-bush -volunteered-vietnam-cbss-mapes-deliberately-omitte
The hippopotamus has left the building!
Priceless.
"Dan Rather, who as anchor of the CBS Evening News traveled to many
hotspots with Halderman, told me he'd been impressed by the
hard-charging producer's knack for consistently getting the story.
"This is obviously a tragedy," Rather said. "Frankly, I couldn't be
more astonished that this guy was involved in something like this than
if you came riding through my apartment on a hippopotamus."
What a ringing endorsement from the guy who tried to destroy a presidential campaign with manufactured 'evidence' and lies!
There is no conclusive evidence that supports your conclusion that any evidence was manufactured. The case is still in litigation. The court refused to dismiss Rather's suit against CBS for wrongful termination 9-21-09. We all deeply regret that Bush's presidential campaign was not destroyed.
So CBS fires employees for manufacturing evidence but there's no proof?
Can you say cognitive dissonance?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/appeals-court-dismisses-rather-lawsuit- against-cbs-2009-09-30
Oops..
A good guy? a first class douchbag, but not a "good guy", a blackmailing, extortionist a-hole!
Everyone at the office thought he was a charming rogue. That's the office--at home in his personal life being drunk and disorderly has zero charm.
Why do you think his ex moved far away and his girlfriend dumped him? Because he's insufferable to live with!
The less you know someone the charming they seem.
Right. Everybody thought he was "a charming rogue."
Except the ones he hit on, the ones that had to listen to stories of his exploits, the ones who worked for him but couldn't always count on him being sober at work, and the ones who had been burned by him...
Lovable rogue my dying ass. He's a drunk who has destroyed lives. He's trash.
If this is the guy who always came back with the story, I think it is safe to assume that this is not the first illegal escapade this man has had. This "charming rogue" is probably one of those white guys with a good vocabulary who have been ripping off the world forever. He should have been a banker! He could have ripped off the whole country for multi-millions and then had us taxpayers give him some more money to provide him a bonus and rescue him from the consequences of his charming, roguish, felonies.
Dave Letterman is in fact.................A CREEP !!!!!
I do feel sorry for the blackmailer. It seems his girlfriend left him for Letterman, he was in deep financial debt, and he has two kids to raise.
I guess he did lose it and while the crime calls for 1 to 4 years of jail-time, I'd sentence him and put him on probation.CBS will fire him.
Dave is going to have to promise to keep his hands off the hired help, if he is to keep his job.
He was obviously a train wreck waiting to happen and Birkett used him, as she used Dave, to help further her career and financially. Ah, the lure of a younger woman ...
The girlfriend and Dave stopped seeing each other back before 2003: before she ever met the producer. Dave stopped the relationship before his son was born.
Get your facts right.
You have your facts wrong. Letterman and the woman were involved six or seven years ago. I don't know when she took up with Halderman but she happened to tell him that a long time ago she had an affair with Letterman and he supposedly without her knowledge went through her things and discovered her diary and photos, etc.
And what about Stephanie Birkett???
She's 34 years old, educated, great career. What's she doing bumping around from one workplace romance to another?
Dave was probably the (high-profile) love of her life -- read some of her quotes about Dave to publications in the past -- and she never got over it. And how did Halderman come upon the tangible evidence of the affair? From her no doubt. These two men were manipulated by a younger somewhat attractive woman.! Message to men: avoid workplace romances and power-hungry women!
A younger not very attractive woman.
How lame to put the fault on the women who was in the more vunerable position is this situation. And let's forget that Letterman was a married man commiting adultery. No. It's all her fault. You're pathetic and probably knee-deep in alimony. How about this for a lesson to men: Don't cheat on your wives you slimebags! If you can't keep it in your pants then don't get married Einstien!!
Halderman may or may not be a criminal. But, the real $cumb$gs in this fiasco/scandal are Letterman and the CBS brass trying to protect their revenue stream. If Letterman were any employee in a large publically traded company he would be fired immediately with cause for sexual harrassment and relations with an employee. He tries to pretend he is a likeable everyday guy, but in actuality he is a sexual predator using is position and power to lure wide eyed new girls into his strange and demented world. Why else in the world would any sane female go this this unaatractive gapped toothed balding pervert?
The execs at CBS are trying to protect their own money and could care less about decency and morals. These are the same people who promote violence, sex and drugs on TV. These are same people trying to protect a pedophile like Roman Polanski. Now you wonder why many Americans are extremely skeptical about the media and press. They set a double standard and live by their own rules. My hope is that people boycott this POS and the show ros away with the death it deserves. At least Conan O'Brien will have an unliited source of crude fodder for his evening show.
So being as moralistic as you are, I presume you condemn Shill O'Reilly for sexually harassing that staffer and are appalled that Murdoch and Fake News paid her "hush money" to cover up O'Reilly's lewd and unwanted advances?
Or is it just that you're envious that a gapped-toothed Letterman, can get women into consensual sexual relations?
And as for Haldeman, he'd best plead guilty and throw himself at the mercy of the court. When you've cashed a $2 million check and they have evidence of blackmail, it's what they call an "open and shut" case.
If you are into porn, read the transcript from the complaintant regarding the perversions of Mr. O'Reilly. It is the page turner. After reading the complaint, I would have paid her off too.
What planet do you live on. By the way, Time Warner parent company of CBS is a large publicly traded company. However, Letterman owns his own production company and isn't employed by CBS. If a sexual predator exists in the situation, and it is by no means clear that one does, all indicators point to the female. She is the one who used ner own sexuality and two upper level males to advance her career. If you need further information on how to do this, contact Grandma Palin.
xIntcat, I don't disagree with everything you write, for example, we're both anti-Bush, but this last comment is really offensive: why do indicators point to Stephanie Birkitt as a sexual predator, or as using her sexuality for career advancement? How do you know she wasn't objectified by these men as a sexual plaything, which comes with all sorts of implicit promises? And who says her career was advanced anyway, because she ended up going to law school, not staying in television. When a boss dates underling after underling, which all indicators in this case point to -- Dave almost admitted so on TV -- something smells bad. Even if not outrightly stated, it's understood that said boss can pull strings or not, plus other underlings in similar positions are discriminated against by default, because they don't receive the same favoritism. A civil case can be made for sexual harassment not only from Dave's paramours, but from his everyday subordinates. As far as Halderman, he was in such dire straits, emotional and financial when they met, he may have thought she would advance HIS career through a Letterman connection. And finally, though they're both adults, she was in her twenties when the affair transpired; Dave's thirty years older, and he knew the score a lot better, especially since he played that same score -- Bolero -- over and over again.
Viacom is the parent company of CBS, not Time Warner.
One more time. It is NOT sexual harassment unless the attention was unwanted. WWP has stated they have no policy against coworkers having relationships and that Dave broke no rules. It was two adults working together who engaged in a sexual relationship. It is possible that others in the company could sue claiming that they were denied promotions given unfairly to Birkett due to the relationship, but that's about it.
At the time of the affair, Ms. Brikett was in her mid to late 20's. Not exactly a 'wide eyed new girl.' As to the source of attraction, women have the ability to look at the entire person.
You feel sorry for the blackmailer? His girlfriend stopped seeing Dave years ago, and it was because the alleged blackmailer read her diaries that he discovered she had had a relationship with Letterman in the past. The relationships did not overlap. The girlfriend left this guy only weeks ago -- possibly just before he left his package in Letterman's backseat.
No doubt Halderman has ruined the woman's career, too.
I've read that Letterman has been dating his now-wife since the 1980's -- and she used to work on the show, too. Their son was born in 2003, and they married only in 2009. I don't know if they lived together, or if they only dated intermittently. If so, was he two-timing her (though not married)? No wonder he wasn't ready to commit -- or maybe she wasn't interested in marrying a guy whom she knew was fooling around on her -- maybe off and on for years. None of my business, of course... I just wonder what the real story is.
Oh, and Trueconserv? It's "Knocked up," not "nocked up." Which is the colloquial term for what Bristol was. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Or anything surprising. When you're told never to have sex, and that birth control is sinful, it's natural that you have sex without birth control. And get knocked up!
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The woman Letterman & the extortionist were both involved with was 21 yrs. old in 1996 when she went to work as an intern for Letterman. Letterman was 49 years old in 1996. Old enough to know better than to "play around" where he worked, old enough to be her father & old enough to be classifed a dirty old man.
It is rare for the celebrity to pursue the subordinate. They know that they have the most to lose and that they are vulnerable to extortion. The woman's relationship with Letterman and perhaps Halderman advanced her career. There have been no reports that her relationship with Letterman dates back to 1996. That is 13 years ago and the relationship reportedly ended approximately 6 years ago which would have given it a long life expectancy for an affair. The point actually is that they were two single adults and it is none of our business.
Playing around at work is frowned on by employers, and with good reason. They're afraid of sexual harassment lawsuits. But "playing around" goes on all the time everywhere.
As far a 49 year old man flirting with a 21 year old woman, I'd say they're both adults and so long as it's mutually consensual, I don't have a problem with it.
Right-wingers are always telling people "how" they should live their personal lives, and even want the government to regulate people's sexuality and women's reproductive rights. But they don't want government regulating business practices that bring the U.S. to ruin. What's up with that?
Strange, huh!
It has been said that Conservatives want to shrink the Government until it is small enough to fit in your bedroom.
Nice! I like that one!
Thank you.
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