But we have to admit we were shocked when we found out he'd been on a string of dates with Pamela Anderson.

The odd couple seem to have bonded over their love of plastic surgery and have been hooking up in Malibu.

We hear the big-boobed babe is a massive fan of Michael... and it seems the feeling is mutual.

A source said: "It was all arranged by their people in total secrecy, very cloak and dagger.

Michael is such a private person. He gets nervous when he thinks people are following him around, so he chose somewhere neutral for their first date.

"They arrived separately at the Shutters Hotel on Malibu Beach so no one would suspect anything and then had a few drinks in the bar."

The pair requested a hidden area in the corner - for two reasons.

Firstly, it shielded them from any prying eyes. And second, it would have protected them from the dangerous melting effects of the Californian sunshine.

After all, there's a fine line between looking hot and having a runny, bubbling face. Our source went on: "They were very chatty. Pamela was being her usual flirty self and Michael seemed to be responding. They are such a strange couple but they seemed to really hit it off."

So much so Michael plucked up the courage to ask Pammy out on a second date. And she was more than happy to accept.

We're told: "They went for a coffee at Country Mart in Malibu and looked very comfortable with each other.

"They chatted about Michael turning 50, his new album, their kids. And he seemed genuinely interested in Pamela."

Let's hope they move on to a third date - and, who knows, maybe Pammy will get to have a "sleepover". Go for it Mikey!

“Unless I’m misunderstanding something, I don’t know why, after the job Jay has done for them, why they would relinquish that,” Mr. Letterman said in the interview. “I guess they thought it was a less messy way to handle what happened to me at NBC. I don’t know.”

Mr. Letterman famously moved from NBC to CBS in 1993 after Mr. Leno replaced Johnny Carson on NBC’s “Tonight” show, establishing one of the foremost rivalries on television. Asked by the interviewer Jason Gay whether he empathizes with Mr. Leno’s situation, Mr. Letterman said: “I guess empathy is the right word. It’s hard to know what he felt about it. I have to believe he was not happy about it.”

In what the magazine called Mr. Letterman’s first in-depth print interview since 1996, he even offers Mr. Leno a spot on his couch, saying: “I think he’d be a great guest on the show. The first night that he is out of a job, I think that would be a great situation.”

Mr. Letterman, 61, who has been a late-night host for 26 years, said he would love to continue at CBS when his contract expires in two years.

“The way I feel now, I would like to go beyond 2010, not much beyond, but you know, enough to go beyond,” Mr. Letterman said, pointedly noting that “you always like to be able to excuse yourself on your own terms.” He added that if CBS wanted to “make a change in 2010, you know, I’m fine with that, too.”

In the interview Mr. Letterman spends more time talking about the succession plan at NBC than he does his own future. Mr. Leno’s last edition of “Tonight” is scheduled for May 29, 2009. Mr. O’Brien is expected to take over on June 1. Mr. Letterman apparently harbored doubts about whether his former network would go forward with the plan. “I’m not quite sure why they would do that, so much so that one wonders if that’s actually what’s going to happen,” he said, later adding that it “just seemed so preposterous to me.”

But NBC reaffirmed the plans in May with the hiring of Jimmy Fallon as the future host of Mr. O’Brien’s “Late Night.”

“It’s only until recently that I felt this thing had traction,” Mr. Letterman said.

Mr. Letterman has ranked No. 2 behind Mr. Leno, who is 58, for more than a decade. Mr. Letterman acknowledges in the article, “I wish that we — and when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘me’ — I wish I could have prevailed.” But he concludes by saying that the reason for the ratings lies not in the local-news lead-ins of the two networks or the promotions of their shows, but in the difference between the two men. “I think he has greater appeal for more people than I do,” he said simply.

So far this season Mr. Leno’s “Tonight” show has averaged an audience of 4.8 million, while Mr. Letterman’s “Late Show” has averaged 3.5 million.

“It seems unlikely that now, after years and years of trying under a wide variety of circumstances and advantages and disadvantages, that suddenly I’m going to prevail,” Mr. Letterman said. “You can’t go through life fooling yourself. You have to be honest with the situation. That’s fine.”

That said, next year’s transition on NBC may present a new opportunity for Mr. Letterman. He told Rolling Stone that he had not given much thought to the forthcoming competition with Mr. O’Brien because “I still find it hard to believe that Jay won’t be there.”

Hinting at the late-night turmoil at NBC, Mr. Letterman said he would be surprised if a similar situation played out at CBS. When asked who might replace him at CBS, Mr. Letterman said, “I don’t know this for a fact, but I have a feeling that all of that has been taken care of or discussed.”