Robert "Joe" Halderman thought he had a $2 million secret and a surefire plan to cash in on it: Pay him, or he'd ravage David Letterman's congenial, clean-cut image by revealing the late-night TV icon's office affairs.

Instead, Halderman ravaged his own life. The former producer for CBS’ 48 Hours Mystery is expected to start a six-month jail term Tuesday after admitting in March to the shakedown attempt.

Letterman blunted the blackmail threat by divulging his workplace dalliances himself. His viewership hasn’t suffered, and his status was barely scuffed.

But celebrity lawyers and image-makers say it’s unclear whether the case will function as a cautionary tale that deters similar episodes.

Many luminaries would rather beat back or settle such matters privately than press charges that would air their dirty laundry, the experts say. Even if a threatened celebrity is willing to go public, few have the persona and forum to do it the way Letterman did: in a forthright, sometimes funny monologue on his own show.

“There are lots of people running around the planet thinking that blackmailing celebrities or prominent, wealthy people is a great way to make a living,” said veteran celebrity publicist Michael Levine. “The lesson of Letterman is: Every so often, you’re going to run into someone who isn’t going to play.”

But, he added, “Not all people are David Letterman.”

Stars ranging from Cameron Diaz to Yoko Ono have been confronted in recent years with people demanding money to keep photos or information private. Those are episodes that became criminal cases and public knowledge. Many others are kept from ever becoming known, attorneys say.

Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos said he has discreetly dealt with such situations for notable clients he won’t name, including several he handled after the Letterman episode.

“Most entertainers are loath to go public with these things if they can at all help it,” Geragos said.

Halderman, 52, isn’t expected to speak at his sentencing and declined through his lawyer to be interviewed. Halderman’s expected jail term and 1,000 hours of community service were set when he pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny.

He admitted in court that he tried to squeeze $2 million from the Late Show host “by threatening to disclose personal and private information about him, whether true or false.”

He presented the threat as a faintly fictionalized screenplay about Letterman — and backed it up with information authorities have said Halderman gleaned from reading his former girlfriend’s diary. She worked for Letterman and described an affair with him in the diary, authorities have said.

Halderman’s plea deal requires him never to discuss the material.

Letterman revealed on-air Oct. 1 that he’d had sex with women who work for him and disclosed the blackmail attempt. It was the first the public had heard of the case — prosecutors announced the charges the next day — and made it a story told largely in Letterman’s voice. Critics and public-relations experts hailed his disclosure as a master stroke.

“Letterman gave everybody, within what’s reasonable, what they needed to know to make up their own minds and decide what’s right and wrong,” said Winston-Salem, N.C.-based crisis-management consultant Rick Amme.

The case appears to have made little difference with television viewers. Letterman is averaging 4 million viewers this season, up 3 percent over last season, according to the Nielsen Co.

He was helped by not having to compete against Jay Leno for several months.

Still, Letterman has said the scandal took a personal toll.

“You take a look at the explosion, and it knocks you down, and you wake up every morning, and you’re scared and you’re depressed and sad,” the comic said Friday on “Live! With Regis and Kelly.”

“And you kind of got to let that knock you down and knock you down, and then pretty soon you’ve got to start knocking IT down,” Letterman added.

Halderman no longer has his job with CBS’ 48 Hours Mystery. The network also hosts Letterman’s show.

After getting out of jail, he’s expected to do his community service at New York and Connecticut organizations that provide job training to formerly homeless people and convicts getting out of prison.

Hand-annotated scripts, costumes from the show and Roddenberry’s own studio pass are among the items available at the June 27 auction at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, administered by Julien’s Auctions.

Proceeds will benefit the Roddenberry Foundation, which makes grants to support children, education and the environment.

The original Capt. Kirk, William Shatner, is also getting in on the auction, selling his custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle, his Golden Globe nomination certificate and the plaque he was presented when he got a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 1983.

Shatner plans to donate a portion of the proceeds to the Hollywood Charity Horse Show, which helps handicapped children.

The 79-year-old actor said he doesn’t mind parting with his mementos and would do just about anything to benefit his chosen charities.

“I had the great fortune of doing the same thing with a kidney stone,” Shatner said. “I passed a kidney stone, and a company offered me … $75,000 for my kidney stone.”

Shatner donated the money to Habitat for Humanity.

“I handed the motorcycle over and it was a part of my heart, but that’s only figuratively speaking,” he said.

Highlights from the Star Trek auction will be exhibited beginning Friday at Ponte 16 in Macau, China, and Jun. 14-24 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. Bids will be accepted in person, online and by phone.

The collection will be “very meaningful” to “Trek” fans, said Shatner, who cites the show’s optimistic themes as the reason it has endured for decades.

“It suggests that 300 years from now, mankind is still around,” he said. “It’s on a note of hope that not only will we be around, but we will flourish and be out there among the stars, colonizing.”

GLEE: An uplifting series with biting humor that follows an optimistic high school teacher as he tries to refuel his own passion while reinventing the high school’s glee club and challenging a group of outcasts to realize their star potential. A special preview following AMERICAN IDOL will air Tuesday, May 19 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. The show will then premiere in the fall (date to be announced.) Pictured back row L-R: Jenna Ushkowitz, Dianna Agron, Jessalyn Gilsig, Jane Lynch, Mark Salling, Chris Colfer and Amber Riley. Front row L-R: Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison, Jayma Mays and Cory Monteith. ©2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Joe Viles/FOX

In its first 13 episodes, the show treated viewers to covers of songs by Neil Diamond, Rihanna, Kanye West, Barbra Streisand, Beyonce, Queen, Liza Minnelli and more. The music from Glee is a huge success in its own right, with more than 4 million digital downloads sold and two soundtracks already certified gold. A nationwide tour, Glee Live, featuring key members from the show’s cast, kicks off in May and has sold out, and the show is boosting sales for the original artists behind the songs.

Its stars are even featured on the current issue of Rolling Stone.

When the hourlong hit returns Tuesday for a nine-episode run, expect twice the tunes per show and even more mash-ups and musical diversity.

“Every single possible musical style and taste is going to be in there,” says Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk. “It doesn’t matter what you like — you’re going to find what you like and stuff you never heard of that you’ll love.”

But the commercial success of the Glee songs wasn’t a reason for the boost, he says. Instead, he said the decision was made because the music greatly enriches the show by giving viewers an emotional understanding of what the characters are going through. Falchuk says he and fellow show creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan intentionally upped the number of songs to a minimum of five per episode for the balance of the first season (three to five had been the norm).

Falchuk says Murphy, also creator of the cult TV hit Nip/Tuck, is the master behind the music: “He’s the iTunes library, the Rainman of music.”

This season, the characters will express their joy and frustrations through the songs of best-selling acts like AC/DC, the Beatles, Lionel Richie, Olivia Newton John and Madonna.

In fact, Madonna gets her own entire episode — a tribute to the Material Girl packed with 10 songs, seven of which appear on a separate soundtrack, Glee: The Power of Madonna, set for release Apr. 20.

Practically every member of the show’s cast can and does sing, recording their songs regularly at the storied Jim Henson Studios in Los Angeles. The dozen actors comprising McKinley High School’s New Directions glee club sing several songs each episode, while other stars — including caustic cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), cranky football coach Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher) and neat-freak guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) — chime in from time to time.

(Spoiler alert: Sylvester’s fans will love Lynch’s glamorous, unforgettable singing debut in the Madonna episode. She also duets with a legendary guest star later in the season.)

Producer Adam Anders arranges, records and mixes all the featured tracks — sometimes as many as 10 a week.

“I have eight studios going at all times on Glee,” says the 34-year-old, who counts Disney’s High School Musical and Camp Rock among his credits. “I have a partner in Sweden, and we basically get 27 hours out of a day because we have a nine-hour time change.”

The pair works around the clock to craft the songs, usually a couple weeks before each episode is shot. When the episode airs, they know immediately which songs are hits by simply clicking on iTunes.

“As a songwriter or producer, you never get that kind of instant reaction,” Anders says. “It’s really cool.”

Some bands covered on Glee have seen a resurgence in their own popularity. The cast’s version of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” hit No. 1 on iTunes when the show premiered and helped return the original 1981 version to the charts (that song also jumped on iTunes charts after it was used in the Sopranos finale).

“It’s a testament to how much the music is really affecting people and that a whole new generation is being introduced to these songs,” Falchuk says.

Still, the success of the music depends on the success of the storytelling, so script always precedes song.

“We never have a song and then say we need to find a story for this song,” says Falchuk. “The thing about a musical is what emotional experience do you want the audience to have by hearing that song at that moment?”

It’s those experiences that inspire sales success.

“The songs that sell the best are the ones where the integration of the story and music really worked, where there’s an emotional connection to what’s going on in the scene,” he says.

“It’s independent of genre. It could be classic rock or a musical, it’s just a song that made people feel good.”

The Oscars this year brought big wins for The Hurt Locker, Bigelow, Bullock, and Bridges.

After her film triumphed at the Academy Awards with six prizes and made her the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar, she graduated to diplomat with her deft handling of some uncomfortable personal questions from reporters after the show.

Bigelow’s rivals included a man from her past — ex-husband James Cameron, whose science-fiction epic Avatar also was nominated for the best picture and director that she won.

Backstage, Bigelow judiciously handled reporters’ queries about Cameron, who was seated right behind her at the Oscars and joined the standing ovation she received, clapping heartily and saying, “Yes, yes” after she won best director.

“Jim is very inspiring. I think he inspires filmmakers around the world, and for that, I think I can speak for all of them. We’re quite grateful,” Bigelow said.

Asked what she might say to Cameron about winning over him, Bigelow gave a big laugh and shrugged off the question.

“You left me speechless,” Bigelow said. She and Cameron were married from 1989-91, and Cameron won best director and picture for his 1997 blockbuster Titanic.

First-time winners took all four acting prizes: Sandra Bullock as best actress for The Blind Side; Jeff Bridges as best actor for Crazy Heart; Mo’Nique as supporting actress for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire; and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for Inglourious Basterds.

Bigelow downplayed descriptions of herself as a female filmmaker throughout awards season. After the Oscars, she reiterated that sentiment but made it clear she was eager for other women to follow her lead in winning Hollywood’s top filmmaking honor.

“I hope I’m the first of many, and of course, I’d love to just think of myself as a filmmaker. And I long for the day when that modifier can be a moot point,” Bigelow said. “But I’m very grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious male or female filmmaker and have them feel that the impossible is possible, and never give up on your dream.”

Bullock’s win came a day after she won worst-actress for her romantic comedy flop All About Steve at the Razzies, a spoof of the Oscars that mocks Hollywood’s low-points of the year.

The Razzie win makes Bullock the only actress to receive that dubious prize and an Oscar on the same weekend. Bullock became one of the few Razzie winners ever to collect her trophy in person, showing up at the ceremony Saturday pulling a little red wagon filled with DVDs of All About Steve for the audience there.

Where will she keep her Oscar and Razzie?

“They’ll sit side by side on a nice little shelf somewhere. The Razzie maybe on a different shelf. Lower,” said Bullock, who was a great sport throughout awards season, joking about her worst-actress Razzie nomination. “You take the good with the not-so-good.”

The Oscar marks a career peak for Bridges, a beloved Hollywood veteran who had been nominated four times in the previous 38 years without winning. Describing his long career, he borrowed some lines from one of his most endearing and enduring characters, the laid-back bowler the Dude from The Big Lebowski.

“Ups and downs. What does the Dude say? Strikes and gutters, man,” Bridges said backstage. “I’m big on the Dude. I love him.”

Known mainly for brazen comedy routines and roles in lowbrow films, Mo’Nique startled audiences with a dark turn as a reprehensible welfare mother in Precious.

Asked backstage if things would change for her, Mo’Nique declared, “I am a standup comedian who won an Oscar.”

Austrian-born Waltz, a veteran TV and stage actor in Europe but virtually unknown in Hollywood before Quentin Tarantino cast him in Inglourious Basterds, reflected on his sudden Oscar celebrity.

“It’s mind-boggling. It’s fantastic. It’s very intense,” Waltz said. “And tomorrow I’ll probably be sorry it’s over,” he said.

The Hurt Locker scored a victory for war-on-terror dramas, which until now had found little favor with audiences shell-shocked by nightly news coverage of the action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The film stars Jeremy Renner as the ace leader of a bomb-disposal unit in Iraq, a man whose addiction to the adrenaline rush of war endanger his colleagues (Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty).

War films normally are the arena of male directors, but Bigelow has made action and stories about tough men a specialty, her films including the Keanu Reeves-Patrick Swayze thriller Point Break and Harrison Ford’s submarine adventure K-19: The Widowmaker.

K-19 was a 2002 flop, and it took Bigelow years to get back in action with The Hurt Locker, which premiered at the Venice and Toronto film festivals in September 2008.

While it pulled in $12.6 million domestically, a respectable showing for an independent film without big stars, The Hurt Locker is the lowest-grossing best-picture winner in this modern era of detailed box-office bookkeeping.

It took in less than one-fourth the haul of 2005 best-picture winner Crash, itself one of the least commercially successful recipients of the top Oscar.

Along with Avatar, the biggest modern blockbuster with $720 million domestically, the best-picture competition included the $200 million smashes Up and The Blind Side and the $100 million hits District 9 and Inglourious Basterds.”

Like Crash, The Hurt Locker was a rare film that swooped in from outside the Hollywood studios to earn the industry’s highest tribute. The Hurt Locker was acquired by Summit Entertainment after the film played at the Toronto festival, where Crash also was bought by distributor Lionsgate.

Joining Bigelow to collect the best-picture Oscar were Hurt Locker producers Mark Boal, who also won the prize for original screenplay, and Greg Shapiro.

A fourth producer — financier Nicolas Chartier, a key money man behind the film — was barred from attending as punishment for violating awards rules by sending e-mails to Oscar voters urging them to back The Hurt Locker over Avatar.

Oscar overseers said Chartier still will receive his best-picture Oscar, but at a later time.

“We haven’t spoken to him yet,” Shapiro said. “He sent me a very beautiful e-mail. He had a party thrown for him, and I think he’s very pleased.”

The Nielsen Co.’s overnight measurement of the nation’s 56 biggest markets gave ABC’s telecast a 26.5 rating and 40 audience share. That’s a 14 percent increase over the same rating for last year’s telecast, when Slumdog Millionaire was named best picture.

Nielsen is expected to give an estimate of the audience size later Monday. Last year’s telecast was seen by 36.3 million people. Each rating point represents 1,149,000 households, and the share means that 40 percent of the televisions being used at the time were tuned into the Oscars. The Oscars had a 29.4 rating in the New York market, Nielsen said. That was 11 percent above the average for other big cities and No. 13 among those cities.

Shooting is expected to resume next week with Sutherland’s return. Twentieth Century Fox Television would not comment on the nature of Sutherland’s ailment, referring to it only as “a medical procedure.” The Los Angeles Times first reported the production halt and says Sutherland suffered from a ruptured cyst.

About six more weeks of production time remains for the season. Fox says no disruption is expected in airing the episodes.

Sutherland plays counter-terrorist hero Jack Bauer on the series. The show is now in its eighth season.

Fraiser, a 2-year-old dachshund is groomed backstage during the 134th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Monday, Feb. 15, 2010 in New York. There are 2,500 dogs competing at Madison Square Garden for the coveted title of best in show. The top prize will be presented Tuesday night. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

She’d already walked off with a repeat ribbon as the best bulldog at the Westminster Kennel Club show Monday, and now it was time for a catnap. So she put her big, wrinkled head down in her crate and tried to take a snooze.

No luck. Minutes later, the backstage crowd at America’s most prestigious dog show kept clamoring for a closer look. The 3-year-old bruiser woke, raised up and unleashed a full, throaty bark.

Co-owner Robert Speiser did his best to shield her from all the commotion, pressing his body against the front of her crate.

“Go back to bed, honey,” he whispered.

Madison Square Garden was steamy for the opening session of the two-day event. More than half of the 2,500 dogs were housed right off the main floor and thousands of fans jammed in on a holiday to see them.

“It’s a madhouse,” said Jane Bates, co-owner of a top golden retriever called Treasure.

Sadie the Scottish terrier loomed as the clear favorite to win best in show Tuesday night. Treasure, Razzle Dazzle, a crowd-pleasing puli and an alert Doberman pinscher were poised to contend for the silver bowl.

Judging began at 8 a.m. Monday, with 173 breeds and varieties competing. They included three newcomers: the Irish red and white setter, the Norwegian buhund and the Pyrenean shepherd.

The hound, toy, nonsporting and herding groups were to be judged Monday night. The sporting, working and terrier groups were set for Tuesday evening, with judge Elliott Weiss ready to make his best in show pick shortly before 11 p.m.

Clint Livingston hoped to be in that best of seven showdown.

He handles Treasure, along with 16 other champion dogs at Westminster. It’s a family affair — brother Brian brought 12 and sister Colette had four. Naturally, their mom and dad were in the business.

“She wouldn’t let me show unless I made straight A’s,” Clint said.

Lesson learned well. The valedictorian of his high school class in Texas, he began coming to Westminster in 1984 and has done his share of winning in best of breed and best of group judging.

With so many dogs, the family got its own corner grooming area, away from the pack of people and pooches. They also employed five assistants, and the constant whirl of brushes, clippers and blow dryers made it look like Livingston Spa.

This year, Clint is handling a petits bassets griffons vendeen, a long-haired dachshund, a German shepherd, a Chinese shar-pei and an Australian cattle dog, among others. Inevitably, the siblings wind up competing against each other.

At one point Monday, the boys found themselves in the same Australian shepherd ring. Brian took the top prize. Clint, meanwhile, dutifully dashed off to show his brother’s Finnish spitz.

Any gloating, bro?

“I might wink at him,” Brian said, smiling.

The season finale of M-A-S-H, airing in 1983, has held the record for largest television audience for 27 years.

To many this number is huge and shocking, but to those that follow the history of television, the number is epic. The season finale of M-A-S-H, airing in 1983, has held the record for largest television audience for 27 years. M-A-S-H, the beloved show about the comedic happenings in a military hospital based in Korea, was first released in 1972.

There are some suggesting that this record was “made to be broken,” given the astronomical increase in the amount of homes with television sets since 1983. However, Super Bowl fans argue that there was much less of a viewing option at that time. Regardless of circumstance, it is generally agreed that this new record is a great thing for both Super Bowl fans and the people of New Orleans.

Alan Alda (Hawkeye Pierce), the star of the now second-place television series M-A-S-H is not bitter about the defeat at all. In fact, while having your record broken may never be a happy occurrence, when it comes to how it was broken, he couldn’t be happier. “If the M-A-S-H audience was eclipsed, it was probably due in large part to the fact that the whole country is rooting for New Orleans to triumph in every way possible,” said Alda “I am too, and I couldn’t be happier for them. I love that city.”

Not everyone watched Super Bowl XLIV, but for the struggling city of New Orleans and their Saints, they probably didn’t mind the attention.

In an image from video provided by CBS, David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno, from right, record a promo for CBS' "Late Show" that aired during the broadcast of the NFL football Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010. The promo was recorded earlier in the week at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. The ad revisited Letterman and Winfrey's Super Bowl spot from 2007, but with another person watching the game with them - late night talk show host Jay Leno. (AP Photo/CBS) ** MANDATORY CREDIT NO SALES ARCHIVE OUT NORTH AMERICAN USE ONLY **

Appearing early in the CBS-aired game Sunday, the ad depicted Letterman and Leno glumly sharing a couch watching the Super Bowl, with Winfrey seated between them trying to make peace.

Letterman grumbles, “This is the worst Super Bowl party ever.”

“Now, Dave, be nice,” Winfrey urges.

A disgruntled Leno replies that Letterman is only complaining “because I’m here.”

In a whiny high voice, Dave mocks what Jay has just said.

Oprah shakes her head and sighs.

That’s it. The spot only lasts 15 seconds.

It revisited a promo from the 2007 Super Bowl with Letterman and Winfrey watching the big game. But with the surprise addition of Leno, the 2010 version addresses in compact form the talk-show turmoil at NBC, and the soon-to-be-rekindled competition between Letterman and Leno when he reclaims NBC’s The Tonight Show on March 1.

In the age of Avatar, some viewers might have thought that getting Jay and Dave, plus the super-busy Oprah, together in the same frame was probably accomplished through sophisticated computer-graphic imagery.

But no, the spot was produced the old-fashioned way, according to Rob Burnett, executive producer of Late Show with David Letterman.

And it was put together quickly. And very hush-hush.

According to Burnett, CBS offered Late Show a slot for a promo to air during the Super Bowl.

“Dave had this idea, ‘What about getting Jay and Oprah together with me?’ and he wrote it,” Burnett explained by phone shortly after the spot had its single airing Sunday. (It is posted on the CBS Web site.)

“We said, ‘This is too funny to pass up.’ First we called Oprah.” Then Leno was approached, and he, too, signed on. That was two weeks ago.

“It was quick, it was easy,” he said. “The attitude was professional and cordial. Dave and Jay were fine with each other.”

Maybe so. But that very funny, very startling promo has neatly paved the way for a late-night battle between rivals that will resume in just weeks.

The Grammys have made sweet music in the ratings, with the show's biggest TV audience in six years.

The show opened with “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga in her usual, or maybe unusual, style. She then returned to the stage with Elton John in a musical duet that rivaled John’s last Grammy performance with Eminem in 2001. The night was off to a fantastic start musically. The first couple of awards, Song of the Year for Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”, Record of the Year for “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon, and Country Album of the Year (awarded to Taylor Swift) showcased the high diversity of this year’s nominees. Most of the industry’s most popular names, including Swift, Beyonce, Kings of Leon, and the Black Eyed Peas, were up for numerous awards and considerations.

The night continued with fantastic performances by Beyonce and P!NK. The Black Eyed Peas took the stage with a fantastic rendition of “I’ve Got a Feeling” and Taylor Swift graced the stage with her idol, Stevie Nicks. Country group Lady Antebellum performed one of their more popular songs and Green Day joined the cast of their newly inspired Broadway show to perform “21 Guns.”  More awards were also distributed: New Artist went to the Zac Brown Band and Rock Album went to Green Day.

While some performances definitely stood out, a few seemed slightly lackluster for the Grammy stage. Maxwell sung a slow graceful ballad while a powerful group featuring Lil Wayne, Eminem, and Drake seemed more focused on effects than the musical abilities of the artists.  However, audience members seemed pleased overall with the performances, as many stood up and danced along with the music.

Allowing for audience participation at home, Bon Jovi performed three songs live, accompanied with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles. Viewers at home could vote for the last song of the set during the awards ceremony and the actual performance. The winner? One of Jovi’s most popular songs, “Livin on a Prayer.”

The most inspirational moments of the Grammys this year did not come from acceptance speeches, but from memorable performances. Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Smoky Robinson, and Carrie Underwood took to the stage in memory of Michael Jackson, practically singing one of his songs with him. Two of his children, Paris and Prince, accepted his lifetime achievement award with tears and thanks. Then, Mary J. Blige and Andre Bocelli joined forces to sing “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in memory of those lost in Haiti in a moment that was both brilliant and moving.

Overall, the Grammy Awards this year were momentous, exciting, and filled with the usual intrigue of the music industry. The final award of the night, Album of the Year, went to the young and thoroughly surprised Taylor Swift, who accepted graciously. Hopefully, next year’s Grammy Awards can compete with the show Sunday night.