U.S. women's soccer team members MIA HAMM and BRANDI
CHASTAIN appeared on the "Late Show" with DAVID LETTERMAN
last night wearing Nike WWC Champs T-shirts and soccer
shorts. Letterman, during his monologue: "The U.S. Women's
World Cup soccer team was down at the White House yesterday,
as a matter of fact. They gave him [President Clinton] a
game jersey, and Clinton got all excited because it's the
first time in a long time a woman has given him a piece of
clothing that wasn't considered evidence." Letterman, on
the team: "They're nice, they're smart, they're intelligent
and also they're just hot." Hamm and Chastain came out to
the chant of "U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!" from the studio audience.
Letterman first asked Hamm and Chastain about the concept of
added time after the 90 minutes of regulation time had
expired. Letterman: "So is this the kind of thing you
should take up with FIFA?" Hamm: "There are a lot of things
we'd love to take up with FIFA." Letterman: "Whatever you
want to take up with them, I'm there. I'll represent you in
court. Whatever it takes." Letterman: "I don't know if
you can say this, but you just have terrific legs. My God,
great legs." Paul Schaffer: "You can say that." Hamm,
after Letterman asked if the team was going to appear on the
Wheaties box: "We're working on it." Letterman: "Now see,
that's my point. There should be no work. It's a done
deal. It's a slam dunk. ... It makes me wonder, are the
Wheaties people a little soft on communism?" More
Letterman, on the team's appearance in the U.S. Cup this
fall: "Are you guys making any dough out of this now?"
Hamm: "You know like that Wheaties box -- we're working on
it." The rest of the team came on stage at the end carrying
the WWC trophy ("Late Show," CBS, 7/20). Asked afterward if
she was concerned that the team was portrayed in a "sexual
manner," Hamm said Letterman's comments were made "in a way
that's positive for us." Hamm: "He was talking tongue in
cheek. He's a comedian" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/21).
