Letterman essentially cheated on his wife.  He should have separated from her if he didn't want to remain faithful.  He's a cheat.  It's immoral if you care about the woman who supposedly committed to him.

There was an extortion attempt, he reported it, testified to a grand jury - all of which he should have done - and then he blurted it all out on his show.  Was he taking control of the media before it was all over TMZ and every other gossipy media outlet?  Well, maybe so.

In the letter he left in Letterman's car, Halderman said he needed to "make a large chunk of money" and included a one-page screenplay treatment describing how the "Late Show" host would have a "ruined reputation" after he exposed details of the comic's private life. He demanded that Letterman call him by 8 a.m. to strike a deal.

Instead, the comic called his attorney, who met with Halderman on Sept. 15. At that time, the CBS producer demanded $2 million to keep quiet. In coordination with the Manhattan district attorney's office, the attorney held two more meetings with Halderman at the Jumeirah Essex House, a posh New York hotel, and secretly taped his demands.

A spokesman for Worldwide Pants, Letterman's production company, said the company's sexual harassment policy did not prohibit sexual relationships between managers and employees.

"We have a written policy in our employee manual that covers harassment," the spokesman said in a statement. "It is circulated to every employee every year. Dave is not in violation of our policy and no one has ever raised a complaint against him."

to my knowledge, mr. letterman has never held himself out to be a paragon of virtue, he's not a legislator, and this all appears to have occured when he was still single.

i'd say his public announcement, on his own show, is a testament to how smart he is. probably helps explain why he's been so successful over the years.

I am trying to think of a more useless thread in TL history and I cannot.

Grown ups have sex.  Sometimes with co-workers.  Sometimes with staff members.  Consensual sex is legal in most states, extortion is not.

Can we have a thread dedicated to our own misdeeds?  We can all air out all of the immoral crap we have done in our lives.  Being that we blog together it should be fair game as we are in the "public domain" so to speak.

It will not be long before people start researching each other on blogs and posting dirty laundry......

"Sometimes in life you want to just keep walking," Noonan said, adding, "Sometimes, I think, just keep walking.... Some of life just has to be mysterious."

Jeralyn: "Has our Nanny State mentality sunk to the level where it is believed that all romantic or sexual relationships in the workplace are a form of sexual harassment?"

... or at least, I sincerely hope it hasn't. How people live out their private lives is their own business, and as long as such conduct doesn't involve criminal activity or cause physical injury to another, you and I seem to be in agreement that we'd much rather not hear about any of it.

That said, I'd also like to think that before you first dip your pen in the company inkwell, common sense should give you great pause to consider seriously what you're contemplating doing. Have enough self-discipline that your thought process isn't immediately compromised by the amount of blood rushing from above the waist to the loins.

Lifetime Movie Network and romance novels aside, most office / workplace dalliances do not necessarily end well, and further, can needlessly complicate the surrounding environment for employers and co-workers alike should such relationships turn sour.  This is especially so when one of the parties involved is subordinate in rank to the other.

Now, I'm certainly not one to pry into another's private affairs. But by the same token, I really don't appreciate having such personal issues brought into the office or workplace by the immature and the insecure, where they hold enormous potential to become active personnel matters in relatively short order.

That doesn't mean I don't have empathy for personal problems that occur outside the workplace and overwhelm the individual, because life can throw any one of us a wicked curve ball at any given moment. I'm not cold and heartless.

But if the immediate problem at hand, i.e., a failed relationship or self-inflicted social complication, is really none of my concern as an otherwise disinterested third party, then please show a little courtesy by doing your best to not make it my business as your employer or supervisor.