Last night David Letterman had Sean Young on his show. Some of you may ask, why? In fact, indirectly Letterman tries to justify why he had her on, listing some of the films she had worked on “from Blade Runner to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective“. Then once she came onstage, Letterman pointed out the last time she had been on Letterman’s show was 1993.

The booking was clearly an ac of kindness on Letterman’s part. She had no movie to promote and no project on the horizon. She made it clear, she was on the show to let Hollywood know: “I am available to work.” In the discussion, Young did not acknowledge that she had recently gone through treatment for alcohol addiction as part of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (earlier this year).

I always appreciate when Letterman books guests like this, who have publicly struggled but are striving to get their career back on track. I have no proof, but I wonder if he decided to start booking guests like this after the 1987 Crispin Glover appearance, where the actor apparently was trying to pull some sort of Andy Kaufman-esque prank (Wikipedia has a nice summation of the appearance contextually), that ended with Letterman fearing for his safety, walking off the set and cutting to commercial. When the show returned Glover was gone. A few weeks or so later, Letterman again booked Glover, in hopes that Glover could explain his actions to mixed success.

Watch this interview with Young, as it is clear that Letterman is rooting for Young’s recovery (on a personal and professional level). She discussed the Catwoman incident (when Young tried to get cast for the 1980s Batman sequel by confronting the folks making the movie, in her own homemade Catwoman costume), and then much to my surprise-oh I will not spoil it. There seems to be some continuing denial on Young’s part about how she got where she is today. But she still tries to convey an attitude of “I’ve learned my lesson, I am ready to work.” Just watch the entire interview, and if you are like me, you will find yourself rooting for Young (and enjoying the comedy bit she does poking at herself ).

Here’s hoping that Sean Young gets some calls from interested Hollywood types soon.

(Side note to Talking with Tim consumers reading this piece via Facebook, sorry for the embed code that gets tossed into the FB version of the post. Click on the FB link and it will take you back here to the site where you can view the video and dodge all that embed code.)