Monday, March 11, 2002

The Private Jet, The Public Image

What do talented, highly-paid television performers think about as they survey their circumstances? According to Time Magazine, David Letterman thinks about the difficulty he has commandeering the CBS corporate jet, when he's not fretting about his public image. I'm not kidding. To the text:

"The entire history between Dave and CBS is negative. From Day One, they never treated him importantly," a former Letterman associate says. "He needs people to talk to him, and Les (Moonves, CBS President) went the other way and ignored him. I'll give you an example of stupid CBS tricks. Dave's people used to try to get a company plane to take him to St. Bart's. He's their No. 1 guy, but getting the plane was like pulling teeth. You'd think they'd take him down whenever he wanted to go." On the other hand, Letterman is said to worry about the appearance of job hopping. "By trying all three networks, won't he appear too mercenary, too insatiable or just too weird?" asks a Late Show staffer. "Believe me, David thinks about these things constantly."

You can read about the rest of Mr. Letterman's woes here.