David Letterman Transcript: July 22, 2004

MATT DAMON: Matt is currently working on 'Oceans 12", a sequel to the remake "Oceans 11." Lots of the big stars are in it such as George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, and a host of others. Hearing the cast made it sound as big as the cast in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World." Is Matt having fun making the movie? He says they are shooting all over Europe with the biggest stars in the business, so sure, it's been a lot of fun, but a lot of work, too. Yeah yeah yeah. A lot of work.

I'll tell you what hard work is: Trying to write the Wahoo Gazette and prepare for a show with a broken computer. All week I've been going home to punch out the Wahoo, HOME! Where one should rest from work. But no, I've been taking my work home to a computer that works. My internet connections and access is all kaput at work.

Out of the blue, Dave says to the New England Damon, "Hey, nice job the making that Alex Rodriguez deal with the Red Sox." Matt mixes a smile with a cringe. I believe, from memory, this is the 3rd time Dave mentioned this to a Bostonian, once during an audience piece and once with Ben Affleck. Dave says the deal was so close but then it fell through. Matt says about the expensive A-Rod, "In Boston, we know the value of the dollar." Dave responds, "Do you know the value of 8 games out?" Matt says it doesn't matter that Boston did not get A-Rod, one of the Yankee utility players will end up beating them anyway, be it Bucky Dent or Aaron Boone or someone else. He has a point. In the great Boston/Yankee game a few weeks ago, the stars of the game for the Yankees were Miguel Cairo and John Flaherty. Dave doesn't understand how the deal fell through, claiming "I heard you were only $400 apart!" It's true. From what I hear, the amount of money that prevented the Red Sox from getting A-Rod was peanuts when you look at the overall picture. But when you are already playing in front of sold-out crowds, why the need to pay more for a better team?

How's your buddy Ben Affleck? Matt says Ben recently won some poker championship and is now the California State Champion! Ben won over $360,000 playing in a recent tournament. Poker is red hot these days. Matt's "The Bourne Supremacy" opens Friday. It was shot in Moscow, Berlin, and India, among other places. (sounds like outsourcing). In the clip, Matt says we will see him doing karate. Some other stuff happens, but it ends up with Matt doing karate.