The Global Financial Hobo Apocalypse knocked on the door of Viacom today as the media giant laid-off 850 employees, which includes, according to an unconfirmed anonymous rumor made to Gawker, perpetually angry-face MTV correspondent John Norris.

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THE INTERNET KNOWS YOUR SECRETS "Dismissing privacy concerns, a federal judge overseeing a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube has ordered the popular online video-sharing service to disclose who watches which video clips and when. U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton authorized full access to the YouTube logs after Viacom Inc. and other copyright holders argued that they needed the data to show whether their copyright-protected videos are more heavily watched than amateur clips. The data would not be publicly released but disclosed only to the plaintiffs, and it would include less specific identifiers than a user's real name or e-mail address."

THE OPRAH EFFECT? "Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of cable network and movie studio owner Viacom Inc, will not oppose the casting of Tom Cruise in the next installment of the 'Mission: Impossible' movie franchise. 'That's really up to Brad Grey, who runs Paramount, he will make the decision,' Redstone said on the sidelines of Seoul Digital Forum on Tuesday. 'What I can say is, I consider Tom Cruise a great actor and a good friend, and if Paramount decides to go ahead with him, I will not object.' … Redstone in 2006 told the Wall Street Journal that the studio was not renewing a 14-year relationship with Cruise's production company, saying 'his recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.'"