Steve Phillips ‘off,’ Letterman still working

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Apparently ESPN is much tougher on its male employees who mess around with (much younger) female employees than is CBS.

For example David Letterman is still on the air and making Sarah Palin jokes even as news continues to trickle out about his affairs with several female employees of either CBS, which is home to his late-night talk show, or Worldwide Pants, which is Letterman’s production company.

Today ESPN baseball analyst and former New York Mets general manager Steve Phillips took a leave of absence from ESPN after the New York Post broke news of Phillips’ affair with a young ESPN production assistant who reportedly was repeatedly harassing Phillips’ wife and trying to make contact with Phillips’ son via Facebook.

According to an ESPN statement, Phillips said, ‘I am deeply sorry that I have put my family and colleagues through this. It is a personal matter that I will not comment on further. I have, however, asked for a leave of absence to address this with my family and to avoid any unnecessary distractions through the balance of the baseball playoffs.’

ESPN’s reaction: ‘We were aware of this and took appropriate disciplinary action at the time. We have granted Steve’s request for an extended leave of absence to allow him to address it. We have no further comment.’

Now if Letterman could get Phillips to appear on ‘The Late Show,’ well, think of the ratings.

-- Diane Pucin