TVSquad

One notably close figurehead in David Letterman-gate seems to have gone overlooked, a shiny bald one.

Letterman's longtime sidekick and band leader Paul Shaffer has just released a new memoir called We'll Be Here the Rest of Our Lives about his rise to late night music infamy. He talked more than a few ears off about his own life in music, but he's kept very hush-hush on the whole Letterman brewhaha.

"You know, I just can't talk about it," Shaffer told a Time reporter in a recent interview. "There is a legal proceeding going on. I've been advised that I can't comment on that stuff."

He couldn't even tell Harry Smith on CBS' Early Show on his own network just what the mood is like around Late Show central. However, the rest of both interviews offer a very interesting peak into a life in music that has spanned just about every end of the TV dial and a very funny diversion from Smith's persistent reporter powers to get something out of him about the whole scandal. Something tells me Shaffer would have made one hell of a good press secretary.

Can you picture Late Show with David Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer as George Costanza on Seinfeld? He was actually offered the role but turned it down, according to Shaffer's new book, We'll Be Here For The Rest Of Our Lives.

Now, this isn't one of those situations where a group of people were brought in to audition for the role, Jerry Seinfeld actually told him he didn't have to audition for the role, the role was his, he just had to accept it. But Shaffer didn't call back because he was too busy with other jobs. It wouldn't have been the first sitcom role for Shaffer. He co-starred in the 1977 show A Year at the Top, with Mickey Rooney and Greg Evigan.