David Letterman reportedly apologises to former Late Night comedy writer for his 'sexual favouritism' 10 years ago

David Letterman, the former late-night host of NBC’s Late Night With David Letterman, has reportedly issued an apology to a former female writer on the show, 10 years after she accused of “sexual favouritism” in a Vanity Fair article titled ‘ Letterman and Me.’ [caption id=“attachment_7584211” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Nell Scovell (left) and David Letterman. Image from Twitter[/caption] In this article published in 2009, comedy writer Nell Scovell had written how she was the second-ever female writer to have been hired by Letterman on his late-night show. She also detailed how she used to work in a “hostile work environment." Stating that Letterman used to have relationships with female staffers on the show, she added that the TV host meted out preferential treatment to those female staffers who accepted his sexual advances. “Did Dave hit on me? No. Did he pay me enough extra attention that it was noted by another writer? Yes. Was I aware of rumors that Dave was having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Was I aware that other high-level male employees were having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Did these female staffers have access to information and wield power disproportionate to their job titles? Yes. Did that create a hostile work environment? Yes. Did I believe these female staffers were benefiting professionally from their personal relationships? Yes. Did that make me feel demeaned? Completely. Did I say anything at the time? Sadly, no,” she wrote in the 2009 piece. In a followup article to the 2009 story, Scovell has recounted the events of a recent meeting with Letterman, where the latter apologised to her and other women employees on his team for his behaviour a decade back on Late Night With David Letterman. Speaking about the lack of initiative on the team’s part to hire female employees, he told Scovell, “It was sloppiness. Inertia. I see it differently now, and if I were to start a show today, holy God, I’m certain there’d be mistakes, but not the mistakes that were just so gosh-dang obvious.” He also admitted to Scovell that he did not read Letterman and Me at the time it was published. During his conversation with Scovell, he said that when he recently read the article, he admitted that the account was “disturbing” and offered him a fresh perspective beyond his own. “I’m sorry I was that way and I was happy to have read the piece because it wasn’t angering. I felt horrible because who wants to be the guy that makes people unhappy to work where they’re working? I don’t want to be that guy. I’m not that guy now. I was that guy then,”  Scovell quoted Letterman as saying in her latest Vanity Fair piece, ‘Ten Years Ago, I Called Out David Letterman. This Month, We Sat Down to Talk.’ Read the entire article here