New video has emerged of the boozed-up wannabe Broadway actor kicking his way into the famed Ed Sullivan Theater and thrashing the studio lobby.
In the video, a man is seen kicking at the theater’s outside doors. Once inside, he enters a door in the lobby before grabbing a velvet-rope stanchion. He then knocks over several other velvet-rope stanchions before he is seen outside again with cops grabbing him.
The man, identified by cops as James Whittemore, 22, of Manhattan, appeared today in Manhattan Supreme Court. At the arraignment, Whittemore did not enter a plea to burglary and criminal mischief charges. Bail was set at $6,000 bond and $3,500 cash.
As of this afternoon, Whittemore had not yet posted bail.
Whittemore, 22, of Manhattan, started drinking around midnight Saturday before winding up at Hurley’s Saloon on West 48th Street — a few blocks from the theater where funnyman David Letterman tapes his show.
“He was highly intoxicated and does not recall how he got there,” said defense lawyer Eric Williams.
The court-appointed lawyer said Whittemore may have been released “if it was a different theater.”
Williams said his client feels horrible about the incident.
“He almost came to tears. He feels worse that he doesn’t remember,” he said.
Though not shown in the video obtained by WCBS-TV today, the surveillance tape also shows Whittemore urinating on one of the theater lobby’s glass doors and then kicking through it, prosecutors said.
Whittemore also can be seen using a stanchion inside the lobby to smash the theater’s other two glass doors. He eventually turned his wrath on an old box office, where he allegedly smashed a printer.
When cops ordered him to surrender, Whittemore crawled out of the theater and was taken into custody.
Williams called the destruction “random” and that the theater itself was not chosen as a target by his client.
CBS and Letterman’s production company Worldwide Pants said the “Late Show” set was not damaged.