CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

The singer-songwriter is starring in a television ad for an environmental group urging North Carolinians to challenge efforts to allow natural gas exploration through hydraulic fracturing in the state where he grew up. The Natural Resources Defense Council said the ad began running Thursday. A group spokesman would not give a price on the ad buy but said it would run for at least two weeks. The General Assembly told a state regulatory panel to create rules the industry must follow to participate in the exploration, better known as fracking. Lawmakers still must take further action to allow drilling permits.

Taylor grew up in Chapel Hill and now lives in Massachusetts. He wrote the 1970s hit “Carolina In My Mind” about his state.

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A Boston University student organization is calling on the school to cancel an upcoming concert by Robin Thicke over what it calls the singer's sexist lyrics, but school officials say that is unlikely.

By Thursday, about 1,400 people had signed an online petition started by the Humanists of Boston University.

The petition says, “It is a dishonor to our feminist history to symbolically idolize Robin Thicke by allowing him to perform his misogynist music at our university,” and that Thicke’s hit song, “Blurred Lines,” “celebrates having sex with women against their will.”

A university spokesman says the March 4 show at Agganis Arena is unlikely to be canceled and the school’s administration played no role in booking it.

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Announcer Don Pardo is 96. Actor Paul Dooley is 86. Director Jonathan Demme is 70. Actress Julie Walters ("Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Billy Elliot") is 64. Actress Ellen Greene ("Pushing Daisies") is 63. Actor Kyle MacLachlan is 55. Comedian Rachel Dratch ("30 Rock," "Saturday Night Live") is 48. Actor Paul Lieberstein ("The Office") is 47. Actress Jeri Ryan ("Boston Public," "Star Trek: Voyager") is 46. TV co-host Clinton Kelly ("The Chew" "What Not to Wear") is 45. Actor Thomas Jane ("The Sweetest Thing") is 45. Actress-singer Lea Solanga is 43. Actor Jose Solano ("Baywatch") is 43. Drummer Scott Phillips of Creed and of Alter Bridge is 41. Actress Drew Barrymore is 39. Singer James Blunt is 37. Singer Tom Higgenson of Plain White T's is 35. Actor Zach Roerig ("The Vampire Diaries") is 29. Actor Daniel E. Smith ("John Q.") is 24.

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