It's been over a week since David Letterman made the public admission of sexual indiscretions with female members of his staff.  The target of an extortion scheme for his affairs, Letterman first went to the authorities and then shared his salacious story to the rest of the world on his late night television show.

Since last Thursday (10/1/09), the scandal has become, well, less scandalous.  While the investigation into the alleged extortion has accelerated, the story, itself, has been delegated further and further to the back of media reports.  The size of Dave's audience hasn't been negatively affected by the size of his libido either.  To the contrary, as Letterman this week has increased his ratings lead over his direct competition at NBC, Conan O'Brien.

Based on their perceived popularity, many might believe that David Letterman has always owned that time slot when measured by viewership.  They'd be wrong.  Jay Leno had consistently led David Letterman in the late night ratings war ever since 1995. Ironically, it was the broadcast confession of another celebrity, Hugh Grant, which helped catapult Leno to a ratings lead over Letterman.

 And ever since then until he left the time slot, Leno led by a... ummm... chin?

So what have we learned by the way David Letterman handled his 'damage control'?  For folks like me, nothing (that is, until some sexy intern makes herself available).  But for the famous, here is "The Top 10 lessons to be taken from David's recent Stupid Human Trick"

1. Be proactive and be the first to break the news of your mistake.
2. Admit what you did
3. Apologize
4. Make eye contact
5. Don't read from a prepared release (or appear as such)
6. Be humble
7. Don't implicate others
8. Don't displace any blame
9. Be vulnerable and admit your fears for coming forward
10.Move on!

For those who ignored this list (Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rick Pitino) their scandals linger.  For those who borrowed from the cheaters chart (David Letterman, maybe Andy Pettitte, possibly Alex Rodriguez?) life can move on.

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