On Letterman, Nick Lachey Mum About Vanessa

Uh-oh. Could there be trouble in Nick Lachey land?

The studly singer appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman last night ... but wouldn't even utter the name "Vanessa Minnillo."

Are they finished as a couple? Is Nick, once again, going Soul-O? No, not at all. Lachey has just made a choice to keep his private life private. (It's a good thing for The Gossip staff that Dustin Diamond has decided to take the opposite approach.)

Anyway, here's a partial transcript of the interview:

David Letterman: You haven't been here in quite a long time.
Nick Lachey: It has been a long time.

DL: You were here with your then wife, the lovely Jessica Simpson.
NL: Yes indeed.

DL: You were doing a show that was on MTV about being a newlywed at the time and, I don't want to make you feel, maybe you don't feel bad, I can't tell. But I would think that doing a show like that would maybe actually make the marriage stronger.
NL: Yeah. About that. [Audience laughs] Not so much. I don't think so ... It was among the dumber ideas I think I've ever seen executed in history.

DL: But at the time, there was every reason to do that show. People liked it.
NL: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And for a while, I think we actually enjoyed doing the show as well. It was just so invasive that it became a problem.

DL: Do you think that was why the marriage broke up?
NL: You know that's one of those things where I think until you get enough hindsight and enough clarity and perspective, I don't think you can really know what happened. But, I certainly think it was probably a factor.

** THG Note: Jess banging Bam Margera may not have helped.

DL: Are you still friends? Friendly?
NL: We are. And I think both of us have handled it about as well as we possibly could, under the microscope that we're under and everything. But, I think, again, with time, it'll give us a better opportunity to redefine our relationship.

DL: Now, when I got divorced years and years and years ago, I spent a considerable amount of time thereafter drunk. I mean, really drunk.
[NL and audience laugh]
NL: It wasn't quite that bad but, I definitely think you go through different phases and there's certainly a phase of, "Oh, I don't care about anythingâ€"I'm going to throw myself into a little bit of booze and kind of numb the pain." And I went through a little bit of that and came out on the other side and still have some sobriety left.

Pssst, he may not say it, but he also has a really hot girlfriend. Check out this Vanessa Minnillo picture and see for yourself.