Sep 10, 2007 4:13 pm US/Central
David Letterman Guests on Oprah's Season Opener
NEW YORK (AP) ―
Talk show host David Letterman told Oprah Winfrey Monday the birth of his son Harry has made a "huge difference" in his life, but the 3-year-old doesn't always get daddy's sense of humor.
"Mommy has to tell him a lot that I'm just teasing," Letterman said on the season premiere of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." In honor of the start of the 22nd season, Winfrey taped the show before thousands of cheering fans at Madison Square Garden instead of the customary Harpo Studios in Chicago.
It was a rare appearance on someone else's show for the private Letterman, 60. Winfrey asked if he was "interview-phobic."
"It's just that you know, when you have your own show, you have plenty of time to talk about whatever you want to talk about anyway," he said.
Winfrey got him to open up a bit, speaking about his love for a home he keeps in Montana and how honored he was to have a communications building dedicated in his name this month at his alma mater, Ball State University. He even showed family photos.
Letterman said he struggles between using "patience or discipline" raising his son, whose mother is Letterman's girlfriend Regina Laskey. Letterman said Harry had to be placed on the "naughty chair" over the weekend after misbehaving.
"He's still there," joked Letterman, who seemed intent on making it clear that he had no greater insight on parenting than anyone else.
Letterman referenced a rift between he and Winfrey that lasted nearly a decade by showing the "Oprah Log" he kept on his show, in which he would record whether Winfrey had called that day to invite him to be a guest on her program.
Winfrey said she assumed Letterman's people would contact her staff if he really wanted to be a guest.
"I wanted to be asked, Oprah. Don't you understand that?" he said, then opened the notebook to read: "'Day Number 20. 11/27/01. Oprah. Noprah.' It was humiliating."
Winfrey twice appeared on Letterman's NBC show before he jumped networks in 1993, but then rejected repeated offers from the show. In 2003, Winfrey told Time magazine she wouldn't appear with Letterman because she had been "completely uncomfortable" as the target of his jokes.
Their reconciliation began in 2005 when Winfrey appeared on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman." During the broadcast, he escorted her across the street to the opening night of the Broadway musical "The Color Purple," which she produced.
The two then appeared in a surprise promotion for his "Late Show" during January's Super Bowl in which Letterman was shown munching chips on the couch, then being reprimanded by Winfrey for talking with his mouth full.
Winfrey assured Letterman their frosty relations are over, showing footage of her office in which two photos of Winfrey and Letterman are mixed in among photos of Winfrey with John Travolta, Stevie Wonder, Nelson Mandela and her boyfriend Stedman Graham.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
