Celebrity Mound

David Letterman

Ashley Judd

Josh Duhamel

Mario Lopez

David Letterman and his longtime girlfriend, Regina Lasko, have gotten hitched, Usmagazine.com reported just before Letterman announced it during the Monday taping of his CBS Late Show.

“On Thursday, at 3 p.m., March 19, 2009, at the Teton County Courthouse in Choteau, Montana, I was married to Regina Lasko,” Letterman said about 20 minutes into the show, before he read the “Top 10″ list.

“Regina and I began dating in February of 1986, and I said, ‘Well, things are going pretty good, let’s just see what happens in about ten years…’” he continued.

“…I had avoided getting married pretty good for, like, 23 years, and I — honestly, whether this happened or not — I secretly felt that men who were married admired me…like I was the last of the real gunslingers, you know what I’m saying?’” he joked.

The family’s truck got stuck in the mud en route to the courthouse, he explained. Letterman “walked two miles back to the house in 50 mph wind,” he said. “It’s not Beverly Hills — it’s Montana.

“And the whole way, I’m thinking, ‘See, smart ass, see you try to get married and this is what happens,’” he went on.

After getting his car from home, five-year-old son Harry says, “‘Are we still going into town?’…he got very upset because mom had told him if I wasn’t back in an hour, the deal was off.”

Letterman and Lasko — who began dating in 1986 when Lasko worked for him on his show — welcomed Harry in November 2003.

In 2007, Letterman told Oprah Winfrey that his son has made a “huge difference” in his life — but the boy doesn’t always get his daddy’s sense of humor.

Said Letterman, “Mommy has to tell him a lot that I’m just teasing.”

Letterman was previously married for seven years to his college sweetheart Michelle Cook.

(source)

A fully bearded David Letterman opened his first show in two months by walking out amid dancing girls holding picket signs for striking TV writers. “I know what you’re thinking,” Letterman said of his mostly white beard. “You think Dave looks like a cattle-drive cook.”

One of five talk-show hosts to return to work – and, with Craig Ferguson, one of only two with working writers – Letterman was joined by comic Robin Williams and a cameo by Hillary Clinton on tape from Iowa.

“Dave has been off the air for eight long weeks because of the writers strike,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a cold opening to Letterman’s “Late Show.” “Tonight, he’s back. Oh, well, all good things come to an end.”

During his monologue, stagehand Biff Henderson interrupted Letterman to say, “When are the writers coming back?”

“They’re back, Biff,” Letterman said.

Williams teased Letterman unmercifully about the beard, alternately comparing him to Gen. Robert E. Lee, a rabbi and a mullah in Iraq.

“My God, man, you’ve aged,” Williams said.

Letterman’s top 10 list was delivered by striking writers, offering their strike demands. They included “Complementary tote bag with next insulting contract offer” and “Hazard pay for breaking up fights on `The View.’”

The return of TV’s late-night funnymen after a two-month strike hiatus turned into a bizarre mix of picketing and presidential politics Wednesday as Mike Huckabee headed for Jay Leno’s show and Clinton turned to Letterman.

GOP hopeful Huckabee appeared confused over which of the two late-night hosts had reached a separate deal with the union representing striking TV and movie writers.

Huckabee said he supports the writers and did not think he would be crossing a picket line, because he believed the writers had made an agreement to allow late-night shows on the air. That’s not the case with Leno, and pickets outside Leno’s Burbank, Calif., studio targeted Huckabee.

“Huckabee is a scab,” read one picket sign.

Late Wednesday, the Writers Guild of America issued a statement saying that the guild “thanks the former governor for his strong statement of support for striking writers and hopes that he will not cross the picket lines at NBC.”

However, Huckabee appeared on the show despite the calls from the striking writers, according to NBC.

Letterman and fellow CBS host Craig Ferguson struck deals to allow writers to come back to work on Wednesday. NBC’s Leno and Conan O’Brien and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel were back at work Wednesday without writers.

Writers also picketed outside of the Rockefeller Center studio where O’Brien tapes his show each night. Comics Bob Saget and Dwayne Perkins and musicians Robert Gordon and Chris Spedding were O’Brien’s first-night guests.

The picketing writers said they were hoping to encourage people not to appear on the shows where writers weren’t working. Michael Winship, president of the WGA East, said he expected Letterman’s “Late Show” to be a “bully pulpit” for striking writers and their issues.

Leno’s staff writers, who regularly picket at one of the gates to NBC studios, did not show up on Wednesday. Writers insist they’re demonstrating against NBC, not against Leno, who was supportive of his writers in the early days of the strike.

“It must be difficult for them to picket their own boss,” said Allan Katz, a veteran sitcom writer. “Probably Jay Leno understands.”

Besides depriving the nation of punch lines, the two months of reruns have been devastating for the networks – particularly NBC.

Late-night leader Leno is averaging 4.4 million viewers this season, losing a quarter of his audience from last season. Before the strike, his audience was off 10 percent, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Letterman’s average of 3.6 million viewers is 15 percent off last season. Before the strike, his viewership was down 9 percent. Leno’s audience was obviously far less interested in reruns or – even worse for NBC – decided to sample Letterman instead.

Kimmel’s audience of 1.8 million viewers is slightly up from last season, because it follows “Nightline,” which has been making fresh shows.

O’Brien’s audience is down 29 percent from last season and he’s been running virtually neck and neck with Ferguson: O’Brien has 1.8 million viewers, Ferguson 1.7 million. Now Ferguson returns with writers and O’Brien without.

How big the advantage might be for CBS likely depends on how long the strike lasts. At least at the beginning, the writer-less shows may draw viewers curious to see how the hosts respond.

The CBS programs will also probably have bigger-name guests. The Screen Actors Guild has urged its members to appear with Letterman and Ferguson. It’s unclear whether Hollywood’s glitterati will be willing to cross picket lines for face time on national television.

Besides being without writers, Leno, O’Brien and Kimmel will be unable to perform many familiar comic bits, including traditional monologues, because of strike rules.

Comedy Central’s topical nightly comedies, “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” will return Monday without striking writers.

Unlike her post-jail interview with Larry King, the king of US chat show David Letterman did not bring out the kid gloves for his interview with heiress Paris Hilton.

Witty Letterman grilled Paris with questions about her stint in jail, and she was soon left uncharacteristically speechless during her guest appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Hilton, who served 23 days in prison for driving on a suspended license, was definitely not amused when she found herself the butt of Letterman’s jokes when she appeared on his show.

Letterman, bombarded her with questions about her time in jail instead of asking her about her new fragrance.

He began by welcoming Paris and asking her, “How did you find your time in jail?”.

He then went on to quiz the Simple Life star on prison food and whether she lost any weight behind bars.

“I’m not answering any more questions about it,” she snapped. “I’m here for my clothing line, my movie and my perfume. I’m not here to talk about that.”

After asking her whether she preferred Los Angeles or New York, the talk show host said: “How did you like jail?” “Not so much,” was the frosty response from the hotel heiress.

Watch the interview here

The chat show audience were in stitches as Letterman proceeded to ask Hilton question after question about what it was like being locked up.

Paris claimed she only ate one hard-boiled egg and an orange for breakfast, would skip the baloney sandwich lunch and then eat her dinner alone in her cell. “Dinner was jail-mystery meat. I have no idea what it was but it was pretty bad.”

“It was pretty bad,” she said. “It’s not supposed to be good – it’s jail.”

Letterman continued to mock Paris further by asking how she came to be in prison. He joked, “What is it you did? Do you know what you did?”

He also asked her why pal Nicole Richie had only spent 45 minutes in prison, after driving the wrong way on the freeway high on drugs.

When Paris didn’t reply, he laughed hysterically and shook his head.

The Simple Life star seemed to turn scarlet before exclaiming,

“I’ve moved on with my life so I don’t really want to talk about it anymore.”

Unfortunately for Paris, the quick-witted host had no intention of not talking about it and when a supportive member of the audience shouted ‘I love you, Paris!’, Letterman quipped: “Is that somebody you met in jail?”

Clearly mortified, Paris tried to make him stop by making puppy dog eyes and cried: “Now you’re making me sad I came because you’re hurting my feelings.”

“I’ve moved on with my life,” she said with a forced smile.

“So I don’t really want to talk about it any more.”

But Letterman was insistent, asking her whether she made friends in the clink, and asking if she had received letters about it since.

“I’m going on to the next question,” Hilton snapped back, holding her hand in the air. “I’m over it.

Letterman eventually apologised, but had to fight hard not to mock her further when she began to talk about her up-and-coming new film, Repro! The Genetic Opera, a musical horror movie in which Paris sings.

(source)

David Letterman will make his first appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” next month, another sign the talk-show titans have buried the hatchet after a rift that lasted more than a decade.

Letterman will tape the interview, a rare appearance on someone else’s show, on Sept. 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Winfrey’s production company announced Wednesday.

Their reconciliation began in 2005 when Winfrey appeared on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman.” It was Winfrey’s first guest appearance with Letterman, though she twice appeared on his NBC show before the comic jumped networks in 1993.

Letterman frequently joked about Winfrey, and she rejected repeated offers to appear on his program. In 2003, Winfrey told Time magazine she wouldn’t appear with Letterman because she had been “completely uncomfortable” as the target of his jokes.

When Winfrey appeared on Letterman’s show two years ago, she told him, “I want you to know, it’s really over, whatever you thought was happening.” Letterman responded: “Are you sure it’s over?”

The nationally syndicated show will appear live in some markets and will be rebroadcast in others, said a spokeswoman for Winfrey’s Chicago-based Harpo Productions Inc. studios.