(Photo: REUTERS / Jason Reed)U.S. President Barack Obama gestures during taping of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Burbank, California, October 25, 2011.
Jay Leno has been called the "most insecure" person by television rival David Letterman. The comment came during an interview Letterman had with Oprah Winfrey on her series, "Oprah's Next Chapter."
"We were always friends before all of this happened," Letterman told Winfrey. "He has a way … he's an unusual fellow. I've never met anyone quite like Jay. And I will say, and I'm happy to say, that I think he is the funniest guy I've ever known. Just flat out, if you go to see him do his nightclub act, just the funniest, the smartest, a wonderful observationist and very appealing as a comic."
"The fact that he is also maybe the most insecure person I have ever known … I could never reconcile that," Letterman added in the preview released today.
The two have been rivals for years, ever since Leno won the seat behind the "Tonight Show" desk instead of Letterman, who ended up on CBS with his own show. The Leno-Letterman feud caused for great TV ratings between the shows and led to people choosing sides in the battle for ratings.
In 2003, Leno attempted to make amends with Letterman, telling ContactMusic.com, "I owe my career to Dave. It has been 11 years and everybody's rich, everybody's successful. Come on."
According to Leno, the feud has mainly been one-sided, with Letterman refusing to concede anything or even make an attempt to end the feud. In 2009, Leno gave an interview to GQ Magazine, in which he admitted to writing Letterman a letter to try and make peace.
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When asked what was in the letter, he said it was about "just how funny I thought he was and how I owed him a lot … how important he was to me and all that."
Leno claimed that Letterman never responded but may not have gotten the letter.
"A middling might've said, 'I don't want to show this to Dave. It'll upset him,' and thrown it away, so I don't know. Dave's a great guy," Leno added.
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