Letterman Opens Wallet for Staff

Non-writers get help from boss as strike continues
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 15, 2007 6:24 PM CST
Letterman Opens Wallet for Staff
Television writers, from left, Barry Julien and Mike Brumm, writers for "The Colbert Report," and Bill Scheff, right, a writer for "The Late Show with David Letterman," joins a Writers Guild of America picket line outside News Corporation headquarters as the union's strike continues in New York, Friday,...   (Associated Press)

David Letterman will open his own pocketbook to pay non-writer employees of two late-night shows his company produces, Deadline Hollywood Daily reports. With Letterman's own show and another hosted by Craig Ferguson idled by the writers' strike, Worldwide Pants confirmed today it will cover all or part of staff salaries through year's end.

While NBC owns Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show, CBS merely licenses its late-night slate, which is produced by Worldwide Pants. “Dave’s not doing this to get good press,” said one source. The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, says rumors that Daily Show host Jon Stewart would pay his writers for lost time have since been denied. (More Hollywood writers' strike stories.)

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