With one exception.

"You shouldn't mix business with your personal life. Maybe that," Springer said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

Letterman went public last week, acknowledging he had sex with several young staff members over the years.

"I watch him because he's a great entertainer," Springer said. "That's the only judgment I need to make on him."

Springer, who is in town to emcee the 10-week run of "America's Got Talent Live" show at Planet Hollywood Resort, knows something about being forgiven.

He was forced to resign as a Cincinnati city councilman in 1974 for patronizing a prostitute. He was married at the time, and his second sin was paying the hooker by check.

"I was 26. That was five years before I became mayor," Springer said. "My life all happened after that."

A decade later, he was a popular news anchor and radio personality in Cincinnati before establishing "The Jerry Springer Show."

Nineteen years later, he's still going strong and plans to continue the Chicago-based TV show "as long as I keep enjoying it."

He's convinced the Las Vegas version of "America's Got Talent," which opens with a preview tonight, can survive: "You know people like (the performers) because they voted for them. They became emotionally invested in these acts."

Country singer Kevin Skinner, who won the $1 million prize, and the runner-up, opera singer Barbara Padilla, are among the show's performers.

'BITTERSWEET NIGHT'

Kim Canteenwalla and Elizabeth Blau's special night in New York City on Monday included a somber toast.

During Esquire's Best New Restaurants awards dinner, the celebration was silenced momentarily when glasses were raised to pay tribute to a fallen friend: Earlier in the day, it was announced that Gourmet magazine, the grand dame of food magazines, was closing after its November issue.

Canteenwalla, executive chef at Steve Wynn's Society Cafe at Encore, and Blau, his wife, a prominent restaurant developer, were there to accept one of the 19 Best New Restaurant awards handed out by Esquire food critic John Mariani.

"It was a bittersweet night," said Blau, a partner in Society Cafe with her husband and Wynn nightclub operator Sean Christie.

It was the only Las Vegas eatery to make the cut.

The event was "great fun, very humbling," said Canteenwalla, adding that the accomplishment was made possible by "a total team effort."

Honorees at the awards dinner, held at Shaun Hergatt's SHO restaurant, included film star Richard Gere and his wife, Carey Lowell, who own the Bedford Post Inn near Westchester, N.Y.

THE SCENE AND HEARD

At Simon Cowell's 50th birthday soiree in London over the weekend: Planet Hollywood Resort honcho Robert Earl and Aussie actress Holly Valance, who is starring in the feature film "Red Herring," currently shooting in Las Vegas. ...

Good news, bad news about Lotus of Siam, the ultra-popular Thai restaurant in the Commercial Mall off East Sahara. First the bad: It's closing after Thanksgiving. The good news: The closure is only for three weeks, for an expansion.

THE PUNCH LINE

"North Korea's Kim Jong-Il is now saying that he'll consider talks with the United States if it can help improve our relationship. I'm starting to feel like we're the Jon & Kate of countries." -- Jimmy Fallon

Norm Clarke can be reached at (702) 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.