Stern Sent Cease and Desist From NBC!
If you will recall, during Howard's recent birthday show, Tonight Show
host, Jay Leno, promised Howard that he could air the "unedited"
footage from a recent "Tonight Show" where two women kissed.
When Howard wanted to use the footage, his agent called NBC to formally
clear it. As a result, Howard was issued a "C&D" letter,
as we say in the biz, saying in no uncertain terms that he could not air
the segment and that Jay had no right to grant permission to use it because
NBC owns the rights and has final approval.
On Tuesday's (2/13) show, Howard went public with the three page "legal
letter" attacking both Leno and NBC. He played the segment from the
birthday show where Leno promised that he could air the "unedited"
tape. Leno claimed there was no "unedited" tape but that Howard
could use it if he had it. The letter also explained that being in possession
of the tape was illegal and that all copies needed to be surrendered to
NBC's legal department. At that point, Howard denied having a copy claiming
that since both NBC and Jay said that there was no such thing as the "unedited"
tape, how could HE have it.
As for Jay, Howard says he'll never do
the Tonight Show again, but we'll have to see about that. Jay did eventually
come into the studio later in the year and everything seemed forgotten.
Stern fans should remember that Howard once said the same of David Letterman
after Imus got his ass kissed by Letterman during his NBC days.
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