Shaffer Leaving Letterman?

DAVE-PAUL SPLIT? Late Show with David Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer appears ready to split his role when his current contract expires in 2014. “We’ve been on 30 years so now we’ve got another two years,” he told TV GuideCanada. “I’m going to be certainly ready to lie down after that, take a nap.” The 62-year-old leaves open the possibility of returning, admitting it won’t be easy to give up the job that pays him a reported $5 million a year. “Paul is essential,” Letterman told CBS News in 2009. “It’s a long trip. And Paul is the funny flight attendant.” And while Dave insists he and Paul are “best friends,” Shaffer has told others that Letterman has, in all their years together, never visited him before or after the show, and that the only time they see each other is on-stage, while the cameras are rolling. Shaffer—who has been married to former Good Morning America talent booker Cathy Vasapoli for 22 years—began his career as musical director for the Toronto production of Godspell in 1972, then became a member of the Saturday Night Live house band three years later. According to a TV Guide network special, Shaffer was originally offered the role of George Costanza on Seinfeld ultimately nabbed by Jason Alexander—but he never returned the call. (10/15a)