Letterman Extortionist up for Emmy Award

The former CBS television producer who tried to shake down David Letterman over the talk show host's romantic affairs was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award for the work he did producing "American Girl, Italian Nightmare," on "48 Hours Mystery."

The story focused on an American exchange student, Amanda Knox, charged with murder in Italy. Halderman was one of four producers named on the story.

Halderman admitted in March that he demanded $2 million in hush money last fall to keep from revealing personal information about Letterman. Halderman buttressed the threat with information he'd culled from peeking at a former girlfriend's diary, which described a relationship with Letterman, her boss, officials have said. He began a six-month jail sentence in May.

Photos: David Letterman
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Halderman no longer has his job at CBS. The network, which also hosts Letterman's show, has declined to say whether he quit or was fired.

The "48 Hours" story is nominated in the category of best continuing coverage of a news story by a newsmagazine. The awards will be presented Sept. 27 in New York.

PBS led the way with 37 news Emmy nominations. CBS had 31 - more than rivals ABC and NBC combined.

[shivagreg]

CBS doesn't quite get it right . . .
Ol' folksy Dave, in a relationship with his current wife for over 15 years before marrying her, had also been serially nailing the interns and assistants on his show. The last one was the live-in girl-friend of said jailed producer. They'd been together for 5 years, and apparently, Dave was doing her all that time. When the cuckolded Halderman found out, he foolishly tried to blackmail the host to get back at him. . . .
Part of the deal to get only six months is that he never write or talk about what really happened, or he goes back to jail. Way to go, Dave, you're a real great guy!

[pragmatist1]

Good. Hope he gets the award. If Conan can be nominated for doing nothing and not being funny, this guy at least had a well produced program on this tragedy.