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Former Letterman Intern-Lover: "I Was Madly In Love With Him"
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 4, 2009
Modified Oct 4, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 4, 2009
Modified Oct 4, 2009
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Now that David Letterman has told American about having sexual relationships with female staffers—because a 48 Hours news producer was allegedly trying to extort him for $2 million—details about those staffers and trysts continue to come out of the woodwork. In fact, one former intern told TMZ, "I was madly in love with him at the time. I would have married him. He was hilarious."
According to TMZ, Holly Hester was a student at NYU when she worked for the Late Show in the 1990s: "Hester says during a hiatus, Dave called her up and asked her to the movies. It began a series of secret dates, with no one on the staff having any idea." Alas, Letterman broke things off, citing their age difference. The Post also reports about other alleged paramours of Letterman and has a quote from a "high-ranking" staffer, "Dave has a great track record of promoting women on the show -- three of the five executive producers are women, and all of them have been with him for more than 20 years," while another source say the Late Show is "a very female-friendly place. He's got all these strong women working for him. Strong women survive there."
The suspected extortionist, Robert "Joe" Halderman, had recently broken up with Stephanie Birkitt, who apparently had a relationship with Letterman, and allegedly used her diaries and emails (which detailed the Letterman relationship) to blackmail the talk show host. Believed to "desperate" due to financial debt, Halderman pleaded not guilty is out on $200,000 bail. Halderman's lawyer, Gerald Shargel, whose past clients include John Gotti, said, "I'm looking forward to the opportunity to cross-examine David Letterman. That's the day that the whole story will be told."
Tagged
blackmail
david letterman
extortion
late show with david letterman
Robert Halderman
Stephanie Birkitt
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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