Late Night’s Late Bloomer Jimmy Kimmel

A nice profile of Jimmy Kimmel, the rising star of late night, from The Hollywood Reporter.

Some children obsess over cars, others over dolls. As a kid growing up in Las Vegas, and before that in Brooklyn, Kimmel did so over Letterman, the man for which he now competes for viewers for a half-hour Monday to Friday. (At the time, Letterman was hosting Late Night on NBC.) Kimmel would wear a Late Night With David Letterman jacket and celebrate his birthday with a Late Night cake. By the time he reached driving age, Kimmel’s first car, an Isuzu I-Mark, had a L8Nite vanity plate and his friends would come to his house for Late Night viewing parties. “I mean, I’d draw Dave’s face on every book cover. I was like a teenage girl in love with him,” Kimmel laughs, likely only half-kidding.

Letterman declined Kimmel’s invitation to be his first guest — a letter that is now framed in Kimmel’s office. Asked for his thoughts on Kimmel, Letterman, who has yet to appear on the ABC show, responded to The Hollywood Reporter with a few humorous words in an e-mail: “Jimmy Kimmel, a lovely man, really. Always kind to me, which means more than you could know to a man of my age. Did I mention likable? Well, Jimmy wrote the book (on likability). Did I mention funny? Well Jimmy wrote the book (on likability). I can’t tell you what a shock his passing has been to me and my family. We won’t see the likes of him again anytime soon.”

(via delivereads)