There's peace between David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey. What's next? Lasting peace between Arabs and Israelis?
The talk-show cold war between the two is apparently over. Staffers at "The Oprah Winfrey Show" have confirmed that Oprah has invited Dave to be a guest on her show.
Whether it will be the Super Bowl of Love that Letterman has been promoting on CBS's "Late Show" remains to be seen — there's no word as to whether Dr. Phil will be there as the ringmaster of what's sure to be a television event. And we don't know when the rapprochement will be complete.
But all indications are that it's going to happen.
Not exactly the way Letterman suggested during his show, no doubt.
"Dr. Phil (McGraw) will come out first and straighten me out, because the problem is me," Letterman said "And then, when he feels it's safe, Oprah will come out. . . . And then the love will explode. And at the end of the show, Oprah and I will go downstage, the audience will have flowers for us. Oprah and I will embrace. Oprah and I will kiss."
Letterman, of course, has gotten plenty of comedy mileage out of this faux controversy for the past couple of years. He's been begging (playfully, of course) on the air for Winfrey to come and be a guest on his show.
The daily "Oprah Watch" that went on for several weeks was wildly funny.
As for Winfrey, she remained above the fray, refusing to even discuss it and ignoring Letterman's televised entreaties. Her first comment on the matter came in a recent interview in Time magazine, where she explained why she hasn't been on the "Late Show" in years after making two earlier appearances.
"Both times I was sort of like the butt of his jokes," she said in the interview. "I felt completely uncomfortable sitting in that chair, and I vowed I would not ever put myself in that position again."
Which clearly demonstrates one not-so-surprising fact — Winfrey doesn't have much of a sense of humor about herself. Despite his reputation, Letterman isn't mean to his guests. He tends to set himself up so that they can take him down. What he's really worried about are the laughs, and he doesn't care who gets them (him or his guest) as long as they come.
Maybe Winfrey will feel more comfortable on her home turf. And maybe she can get the notoriously reticent Letterman to open up a bit about himself.
The late-night host promised he would "break down and sob like a little girl" while Oprah interviews him.
Oprah actually started this thaw by sending a gift — a tub full of children's books — to Letterman after the recent birth of his son. Seeing that as an opening, Letterman issued another on-air invitation to Winfrey last week and said he wanted to get Dr. Phil involved.
"It will be a celebration," he said. "It will be like the first of the year, and it will be enormous. It would be like the Super Bowl."
Shortly thereafter, Letterman broke the big news.
"What we're hearing now is that Oprah no longer hates me," Letterman said his show. "And what we're hearing now — and while I'm gratified on the one hand, I'm a little concerned about this — we're hearing that Oprah is actually inviting me to appear on her show."
What makes all this even more amusing is that Letterman and Winfrey are essentially co-workers. Viacom owns both CBS, which telecasts the "Late Show," and King World, which produces and syndicates "Oprah."
For the most part, I have little patience with talk-show hosts interviewing other talk-show hosts on their talk shows. But Dave on "Oprah"? That's an event worth tuning in to see.
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com