David Letterman in Hot Water

By Acheron March 1, 2001 6:57 AM

(Fox) David Letterman has been cracking jokes at his boss, CBS cheif Les Moonves for quite a while.  Now Moonves is becoming more than a little irritated and wants it stopped.

Monday, Letterman had a skit where Moonves was fraternizing with Fidel Castro, played by cue card man Tony Mendez.  Recently, Moonves and other media big wigs went to Cuba to meet with Castro.

"Les, throughout the decades, to insure a strong dictatorship, I have starved my countrymen and tortured and murdered my political opponents," the Castro character said.

"The Bette Midler show was my idea," the faux Moonves' shot back.

Moonves commented that he's becoming tired of the fun being poked at him, but realizes that "Dave is Dave."

Letterman has been at odds with network brass more than usual in recent weeks. Earlier this month, audience members said Letterman seemed irked when the show cut out a Top 10 list about one of the original Survivor cast members suing CBS.

But Late Show officials said they cut the list because they thought "it wasn't funny enough," and denied that the edit had come at the suggestion of higher-ups.

Dave also has some of the new Survivor rejects on his show each week, and is unsuccessfully trying to hide his disgust for the show.  Now, instead of sitting with him, they just stand up against a brick wall while they talk to him.

"David is irreverent," Moonves said yesterday.

"You don't know when he's being serious or when he isn't. He pokes fun at Survivor, he pokes at me, he pokes fun at CBS, he pokes fun at President Clinton and President Bush and he pokes fun at himself," Moonves said.

It seems that Dave has nothing to worry about, but he might want to lay off the boss jokes, just until the "storm calms."

| comments: 10

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RE: David Letterman in Hot Water   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on March 1, 2001 7:30 AM

Let Les Moonie get mad...then let Letterman go to another network....

I don't watch Letterman because he is on CBS, I would watch him on UPN if it came down to it.

RE: RE: David Letterman in Hot Water   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on March 1, 2001 10:09 AM

Dave was not thrilled about a meeting he attended with top brass on Wednesday. He poked even more fun at ol' Les. Go Dave!

Last night   reply

Posted by wonko (ryan@wonko.com) on March 1, 2001 10:38 AM

I tuned in about a third of the way through last night's show, and Paul kept bugging Dave about the meeting. Every time Paul would bring it up, Dave would give him a dirty look and make a wisecrack about the network or Moonves.

For clarification, it should be mentioned that Les Moonves does generally have a good sense of humor, and he wasn't mad at Letterman for making fun of him. He was just worried that the jokes were getting old, and that they weren't funny anymore. Which I kinda' agree with -- it was hilarious to see Dave make fun of Les several months ago, but it's been going on every night since then, and it's just not as funny anymore.

In any case, I don't think Dave needs to worry. CBS would never fire him, because if they did, another network (can anyone say "ABC"?) would snap him up in a heartbeat.

Preferences   reply

Posted by wonko (ryan@wonko.com) on March 1, 2001 10:39 AM

You prefer UPN over CBS?

You are one sick, twisted weirdo.

RE: Preferences   reply

Posted by Jack (jack@dtheatre.com) on March 1, 2001 11:31 AM

yeah at least say NBC (the king of late night) or something but UPN.. *shudders* :)

RE: RE: Preferences   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on March 1, 2001 12:06 PM

What I was saying is that I would even watch Dave on UPN...and Dave is the king of Late night...not NBC...or any of their bits that they stole from Dave.

RE: Preferences   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on March 3, 2001 8:13 PM

must be a sci-fi junky!

RE: Last night   reply

Posted by PeppyPapaya (none) on March 5, 2001 1:24 PM

Letterman is a well-paid smartass who is actually funny about 10% of the time.  He acts like he doesn't even want to be doing the show anymore; his disdain for most guests is clear.  So many people struggle to make ends meet - perhaps he should be grateful he was given a forum to showcase his little bit of talent and parlay that into a very nice living.

RE: RE: Last night   reply

Posted by Truthteller (_truthteller@yahoo.com) on May 20, 2001 9:30 AM

Amen!

david from honeyti love to sean.   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on July 4, 2001 9:32 AM

David,

would like to express sincere gratitude for advising me to sue.

No disrespecting you.

Wish all the best with your show.

best joke of last year for me was.

Subliminal pronouced wrong.