TV Watch: Letterman’s Confession, Calculation vs. Compulsion

On ArtsBeat, Alessandra Stanley writes about David Letterman’s show Thursday night:

Life isn’t fair, but sometimes karma evens things out.

Just as CBS star David Letterman was routing “The Tonight Show” in the ratings, a blackmail scheme drove him to admit on the air to the kind of sordid affairs –with company employees – that he mocks so mercilessly in others.

Mr. Letterman’s on-air confession, delivered on the set of his late-night talk show on Thursday without advance warning or fanfare, would have been shocking, except that it was confusing: Mr. Letterman’s delivery about his “creepy” backstage behavior was so glib and deadpan that the audience couldn’t be blamed for assuming that the stand-up comedian was still joking at his desk. Mr. Letterman noted that it would indeed be embarrassing for his affairs to be publicly known, then paused a beat. “Especially for the women.”

Read more on ArtsBeat . . .