Letterman Blackmailer Pleads Guilty to Grand Larceny

Robert “Joe” Halderman, a former television producer, pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the case where he tried to blackmail Dacid Letterman. He acknowledged he tried to take $2 million from the TV show host.

Letterman made the whole thing into a joke at the time, and it actually helped him get over any criticism that followed. Unlike most celebs that try and just apologize and praise god, Letterman took it in stride and just blew off the digging into his private life, and sexual affairs. From the sound of it he must not have much in the way of
joint pains if he was really getting down to business that often.

Under the plea agreement, Halderman must give prosecutors all copies of any diary entries, photos, screenplay notes or other materials he has concerning Letterman and must agree never to reveal the contents.


Halderman apologized to the host of the “Late Show,” also on CBS, as he spelled out the details of his crime in a Manhattan court, reading a prepared statement at first so quickly that the judge asked him to slow down.

“I attempted to extort $2 million from David Letterman by threatening to disclose personal and private information about him, whether true or false,” he said.

David Letterman: Is Making it a Joke Better Than Apology in America?

I know we all know that America is VERY forgiving of celebrities. They will let any one off no matter how ridiculous and unconvincing their apology is. It is to the point that people are expected to apologize for the most ridiculous things. While watching these apologies you KNOW they don't mean it, but it is part of the game. You make the apology, you are forgiven for the most part. Even if people doubt your sincerity, they will still let you off the hook eventually just because you apologized like someone just needs to run a barcode scanner over your arm and say "Yup...he made an apology, back to normal.". It's a fascinating cultural thing that I always find completely ludicrous.

Has David Letterman upped the bar on getting caught doing something that most would expect him to apologize for? While the women he has sex with is none of my business, and more power to the guy, I find his way of joking about it to be far superior to the canned apologies we hear daily from celebs that could care less about what they di, or why people think it is wrong.

Letterman was apparently being blackmailed for $2 Million by a colleague for having sex with some women that he works with. The blackmailer sent him a letter saying that he "knows he did very bad things." and that he was going t tell the world if he didn't get paid off. Instead of cowering to the public and bending over to give them an apology, what did Letterman do? He read the letter on air and then JOKED about the situation. Making light of it by saying:

"I have had sex with women who worked on this show," Letterman told the audience matter-of-factly. "And would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would. Especially for the women."

Winner. Better than an apology, or anything else people want from these people. You don't know them. They don't have any responsibility to you in accordance to their sex lives. It's complete lunacy to expect someone to be sorry for enjoying a bit of sex. That is if you aren't religious...