thelateshowwithdavidletterman

Being Alec Baldwin's butt double has its perks, including access to the best tables in the finest restaurants across New York.

Baldwin appeared on 'The Late Show with David Letterman' to promote his upcoming rom-com 'It's Complicated,' and told David Letterman he had a stand-in backside for the movie's more revealing scenes. And, according to Baldwin, the actor whose posterior subbed for his more famous rear end is now enjoying a degree of new-found celebrity.

Watch the video after the jump.

According to Susan Sarandon, kids keep her grounded and help expand her horizons to include new things, like modern music and ... pole dancing and tattoos.

Sarandon told David Letterman last night that, while daughter Eva Amurri was prepping for a role as a stripper on 'Californication,' both she and Amurri learned how to work the pole. And, Sarandon said, mother and daughter also got ink together; Sarandon has tattoos on her back and wrist, which she proudly showed off to Letterman.

Watch the video after the jump.

I don't care how bad your Christmas is going. It doesn't matter if the family tree caught fire and burned every present under the tree, including that fireproof safe your aunt sent you at the last minute. Jay Thomas will save it for you.

Every year at Christmas time except in 2007 because of the Writer's Guild Strike, the actor and comedian goes to David Letterman's Late Show to help Dave knock the meatball off the Christmas tree and tell the greatest showbiz story I've ever heard in my life. If you don't want to spoil the story for you and your family when he returns to the Late Show on Wednesday, go ahead and watch it anyway. It will STILL be just as funny. I've heard it a thousand times and Thomas' style and delivery just makes it funnier.

On an annual segment with toy expert Shannon Eis featuring best new toys for the holidays, David Letterman manhandled a realistic toy cat and Zhu Zhu Hamsters, then got behind the wheel of a $25,000 motorized toy in the shape of a gigantic cupcake.

Letterman careened around the stage in a Cupcake Car and left a path of destruction in his wake, crashing into set pieces and laying waste to the 'Late Show' Christmas tree.

Watch the video after the jump.

Robert Downey Jr. explained to David Letterman why he was detained in Japan for six hours while promoting 'Iron Man,' and, he took an opportunity to poke fun at Letterman for his own recent headline-making scandal on last night's 'Late Show with David Letterman.'

"I ran into a bit of trouble in Japan. I was detained. I think it had something to do with my fairly distant past," Downey Jr. said, referring to his brushes with the law and well-documented battle with substance abuse. "Not recent stuff like you or Tiger."

Watch the video after the jump.

Dave, it's the hair.

After nearly thirty years in broadcasting, David Letterman must know this of his guests: unexpected hair = unusual interview. Joaquin Phoenix's February 'Late Show' appearance was yet another installment in Dave's Follicle Follies.

It goes all the way back to the NBC days, when Crispin Glover showed up in a shoulder-length brunette wig, sputtering through an appearance which ended in an off-camera heave-ho from Dave.

Today I made an executive decision and gave the podcast an oh-so-creative name: "The TV Squad Podcast." This was after we recorded it on Tuesday, so I still refer to it by its old APB name. If you have any suggestions, let me know at tvsquad [at] gmail [dot] com.

In this episode, Late Show writer Bill Scheft joins me, Danny Gallagher and Kona Gallagher to talk about his new book Everything Hurts. Of course, there's lots of good behind-the-scenes info about what it was like to work at The Late Show, especially on how the events of the past month affected the staff and the show's writing, including the monologue.

He also tells some funny stories about being canned from Sports Illustrated (and spawns a new catchphrase), feeding lines to the guy who played Mike Singletary and more. It's 45 minutes of fun.

After the interview, Kona, Danny and I give our picks of the week. Run time is 1:03:02.

You can listen to the podcast below; or download from here or by subscribing to our RSS podcast feed. It is also available via iTunes. Feel free to leave us feedback in the comments.

By the way, the music at the beginning and end of the podcast is "Life" by Justin Trawick.

A former female writer at Late Night with David Letterman has dropped a bombshell in a Vanity Fair article in which she complained of a "hostile work environment for women". While he didn't hit on the writer, she claims that she noticed Letterman paid "extra attention" to her and had a reputation of sleeping with female workers.

While this could be a legitimate complaint, I find it somewhat suspicious that she waited until now to write about this. It could be a case of jumping on a bandwagon or she may have been afraid to say anything for fear of repercussions (as in "you'll never work in this industry again").

There is also that fine line between taking advantage of a subordinate and flirting. Not having been there, it's difficult to access what the case actually was. Mind you, flirting with subordinates at the workplace is probably not a good idea in this litigious society, but he was likely so busy with the show, how else was he going to meet single women? Match.com?

In the wayback days of my entertainment journalism career (2004, to be precise), I had written a few poorly-executed but fun articles for a wonderful little site called Knot Magazine (not to be confused with The Knot, a website which I'm unfortunately all too familiar with these days). After publishing a couple of my missives, the editor had an idea for me: why not interview that spunky assistant Dave Letterman has on his show?

Sounded like a cool idea. It's not like Stephane Birkitt hadn't been interviewed before; she had spoken to a couple of papers from her alma mater and her hometown, and seemed approachable. And it would have been a fun story to try to figure out how she went from anonymous assistant to the girl who talked about her weekend on the phone to the on-stage presence Dave often called "Vicki." How hard could it be to get an interview?

Almost impossible, I found out.

David Letterman may be caught in another scandal (last night, he admitted to having affairs with his staffers after a man tried to extort him for $2 million), but it's clear the 'Late Show' host is doing something right.

In the past few months, Letterman has dominated the late-nite ratings war, pulling well ahead of his competitor, 'The Tonight Show''s Conan O'Brien. Last week alone, Letterman averaged a whopping 5.04 million viewers, with guests that included President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, and ranked first every night in the crucial 18-49 and 25-54 demos. That marks the 'Late Show''s biggest victory over 'The Tonight Show' since 1994, according to the NY Times (by comparison: O'Brien averaged just 2.4 million viewers, and earned 1.0 and 1.1 rating in the 18-49 and 25-49 demos).

Writing about this is just asking for trouble from the more politically extreme, but it's television news so I'm writing about it. President Barack Obama will be appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman this coming Monday, Sept. 21. He is the sole guest and will take up the full hour of the program.

It is the first time a sitting U.S. President will be appearing on Letterman's CBS show. Obama is likely trying to promote his new health care reform. Usually a television appearance like this one is reserved for those on the campaign trail for the office. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Why stop with Letterman? He could stay another hour on CBS and appear on Craig Ferguson. And why not appear on Leno's new show? Or Conan? Or Jimmy Fallon? Or even Jimmy Kimmel? However, the President is likely a busy man and doesn't want to spread himself too thin. Letterman will do for now.

Paul McCartney will be the special guest on The Late Show with David Letterman this coming Wednesday night. Supposedly he's going to perform as well as be interviewed.

This is significant for two reasons. First, despite the fact that Dave's been on CBS since 1993, McCartney has never appeared on the show. Second, Letterman broadcasts out of the Ed Sullivan Theater, which is the same theater the Beatles played in during their famous appearance 45 years ago on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Given the significance of the event, I'm surprised McCartney hasn't appeared on the show before. I guess he had nothing to promote (this time around he's promoting some American shows he'll be performing at). Ringo Starr appeared on the show in 1995, making McCartney the last of the two surviving Beatles to put in an appearance. It would be kind of trippy and nostalgic if both of them could put in an appearance together. One can hope.

The shame (one of many) about David Letterman's tired, ham-fisted grasp at humor this past week regarding the daughters of Sarah Palin is that it's become such a political hot potato. It's gotten to the point where, despite the fact that Dave apologized and Palin accepted, Palin's supporters still want to see the late-night host fired.

Danny Gallagher says a joke is a joke, but it's taken on more significance than that -- for better or worse.

Liberals point and say, "See! Conservatives can't take a joke. They're too bitter and uptight after losing the presidential election." Meanwhile, conservatives shout back that liberals are "out of touch with decency and only get offended when liberal women are attacked."

What both sides miss is that Letterman's clunky "knocked up" gag is a problem because it attacks a kid (be she 14 or 18, if you want to split hairs). While Sarah Palin is fair game and any comic or pundit can verbally knock around her "slutty flight attendant look" without fear of reprisal, it's an unwritten law that you don't go after the kids when doing political material.

It looks like Sarah Palin got her chance to respond to Dave's inappropriate joke about her daughter. You know, the one he already apologized for. Palin chided that Dave should apologize to all young women around the country rather than just she and her family.

Was it a legitimate mistake on Dave's part and the part of his writers? I believe it was. Is Sarah Palin using this as a political opportunity to get her name even more out there than it is? Yeah, I believe that's the case too.

A more appropriate response from the Alaskan governor would have been to accept the apology and, if she wants to hold a grudge, simply never appear on Dave's show or give it him any further publicity. She's a public figure, and sadly so are her children even if they didn't choose to be. No doubt they will be the targets of inappropriate jokes time to time.

Video of her response is after the jump.

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien reversed its ratings decline and managed to squeak by with a win over The Late Show with David Letterman this past Wednesday night. Apparently, he even blew Letterman away in the coveted 18-49 demo.

I've never understood the appeal of The Tonight Show, but NBC has pretty much built the ultimate juggernaut of late night talk shows with it that nobody can seem to topple. On the other hand, when Letterman first moved to CBS he dominated the late night ratings for the first few years. With that in mind, I still think Letterman can turn this into a win before his current contract expires in 2012. And even if he doesn't, he deserves to.

Of course, the big elephant in the room is Jay Leno's upcoming 10 PM talk show. With such a lead-in, Dave's show could take an additional hammering in the ratings. Only time will tell.