morning skinny. we start with a story definitely not in the holiday spirit. it s all about music being posted on youtube. pharrell s monster hit happy is 1 of 20,000 songs being protected by licensing management company, global music rights, which is headed by the music industry heavyweight irving azoff. and he s demanding those songs be pulled from youtube because it lacks the rights to the songs. the music of the eagles is also included in the battle. no welcome at the hotel california on this one. and smokey robinson s musical catalog is also involved, among other artists, including john lennon. that licensing company is threatening youtube with a billion-dollar lawsuit if all those songs are not removed. youtube is not budging. a big legal fight could be ahead.
who knew they made them that big. he wasn t that bad. sounded pretty good. long time fans knew the pro wrestler turned actor could sing. he did it many times on wwe shows. he looked good, sounded great. would you wear a onesie? i would. it would probably been way too tight and have me singing for all the wrong reasons. a couple of people better known than johnson for their singing are in the news, too. hugh jackman gave taylor swift the shirt off his back yesterday, literally. after a matinee performance of jackman s broadway play the river, swift was the winning bidder for the shirt he wore in the show. she bid $6,000. jackman threw in another $6,000 and so did another person in the audience. that woman got to meet swift and jackman backstage. the money benefitted a broadway charity that fights aids. time now for celebrity birthdays. that s right. in addition to jesus, christmas babies celebrating today, singer and leader of the parrot head faithful jimmy buffett tur
let s call it a holiday heartbreak for 84-year-old clint eastwood. he is single again, ladies. the actor/director and his wife of 18 years have finalized their divorce. the couple has been living apart for some time now. they have one daughter who just turned 18. court documents did not reveal how the marital money would be divided up, but they do have a prenup. christmas songs are big sellers which explains why all sorts of artists have christmas albums. but dwayne johnson? yeah. here comes santa claus here comes santa claus right down santa claus lane all his reindeer pulling on the reins there was the rock on live with kelly and michael yesterday singing here comes santa claus in a onesie with an elvis touch. who knew they made them that big. he wasn t that bad. sounded pretty good. long time fans knew the pro wrestler turned actor could sing.
to hide them from the view of its customers? he right? well, i think that s because the tobacco industry spends about a billion dollars in direct marketing toward they make payments to these convenience stores so they can position cigarettes and other tobacco products in a more preferable way. and so they re going to lose out in terms of monday ichlt . as far as mayor bloomberg i don t think anyone would say he hasn t been a very good mayor for the city of new york, he has done a lot on education and the economy. this is a public health issue. you re talking about 7,000 new yorkers who die a year because of tobacco products, 450,000 americans. so, look. i think this is certainly a good step but the mayor is going to have a huge fight on his hands because the tobacco industry has made it clear this is something they ll focus on and they don t back down from fights. it is not the only thing he is doing after. the other thing michael bloomberg wants to do is create
and the huge amount of effort that ll end up going into it when it can go into other things the city needs more. just one second, chris. if we were to take that approach on issues related to public health we might not do anything. and so, you know, yes there are other to your point, i was thinking about when i was in college. i m dating myself now. i was on the debate team and the topic was whether you should require people to wear seat belts. there was a huge hue and cry about that. mothers against drunk driving changed the way we thought about drinking and driving. while i m not saying these are exactly analogous, these were things that were pushed back against but in the long run had quantifiable benefits. look. we ve got some precedent there in terms of where this has been attempted and other place ness the state with the long, drawn out legal fight. it turned out in fact you couldn t do exactly what the mayor is trying to do legally. again, i just, of all the things to be