Some slang-talking marketing executives are cowering behind their aeron chairs after the entire city of Boston was shut down when little blinking electronic devices placed at key points throughout the city led to a bomb scare.

The circuit boards, featuring a rude gesturing character, were thought to be homemade detonating devices. It didn’t help that they were placed beneath the supporting beams of bridges and appeared decidedly unfriendly. Bomb squads were all over the things, and highways, bridges, and even part of the river was shut down.

It turns out it was all a bullshit guerilla marketing ploy for a show featured on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim called “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” The angry crude-looking character on the ads was a talking pixelated blob called Ignignokt that is featured on the show.

Two local guys who were hired to put the things around Boston, Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, were charged with two counts each of disorderly conduct and placing a “hoax device,” but it doesn’t seem like they should be held responsible, since they were just doing a job:

Berdovsky was arrested at 8:15 p.m. at his lawyer’s office. His lawyer’s name wasn’t available, and phone number believed to be Berdovsky’s did not accept messages.

Stevens was arrested at his home in Charlestown at about 11:30 p.m., Coakley said. It could not immediately be determined if Stevens had legal counsel.

Berdovsky and Stevens were to be arraigned Thursday in Charlestown District Court, Coakley said.

Berdovsky told The Boston Globe earlier Wednesday that he was an artist and installed the devices for an advertising company hired by Turner. He described himself as “a little kind of freaked out,” the Globe reported.

The law under which the two men were charged allows the state to pursue restitution. Mayor Thomas Menino said the security scare may have cost the city more than $500,000.

At least 14 of the devices were found, and at least 24 more are still around the city, officials said.

Turner Broadcasting issued an apology of course, and while Boston is pursuing the guys who were doing a job, it seems like the network should be liable to pay damages to the city.

Boston isn’t the only city infested with the suspicious blinking characters. Nine other cities throughout the U.S. including NY, LA, Chicago and Atlanta have had the devices up for at least two weeks without issue.

I’ve always had disdain for this type of marketing ploy. Surely some overpaid heads will roll at Turner after this incident.

Pictures from Yahoo!

Britney has trouble keeping her weight stable, and I can relate after the holidays. In Touch speculated in an earlier issue that Britney’s blossoming body means she’s pregnant again. They point out that she got pregnant with mystery baby Jayden James a mere three months after she had Sean Preston, and that it’s possible that her tummy is the beginning of a baby bump.

In Touch gives such compelling evidence as Britney fainting on New Year’s, not drinking at one point, wearing boots, and buying a new dog. This is older news and I’m skeptical, but it’s fun to repeat so you guys can humor me:

“Her dancers were indulging in Malibu rum and pineapple drinks and taking shots of vodka,” says a witness to the January 14 party. “But Britney drank bottled water…”

Britney’s sudden abstinence - plus her noticeable weight gain and a New Year’s Even incident, in which she passed out at Pure - has launched new rumors that the soon-to-be-divorced star is pregnant again.

[From In Touch print edition, January 29, 2007]

I’m not buying it until she has a real bump, so we’ll see. She’s smoking a lot so I doubt it’s true, but with Britney you never know.

The best part of the article is an inset with the question “Who could be the daddy?” Bodog.com had odds on who would father Britney’s next spawn, and her new guy Isaac Cohen was ahead.

Here is Britney shopping at Target on 1/29. She is back to long black extensions since these pictures were taken, and was spotted out wearing a star of David necklance. Her new beau, model Isaac Cohen, is a Jewish guy and people say the jewelry is in honor of him.

Pictures from BreatheHeavy.com. Magazine scans and story from Sammie’s Effluvia.

There’s plenty of news lately about celebrities causing fatal car accidents. Prison Break star Lane Garrison went with some teen fans to a party in December and attempted to drive them home. He then rammed his SUV into a tree, killing a 17 year-old boy he just met that night. He was driving drunk, and now there’s evidence that he was doing cocaine before the crash:

Blood tests have revealed that Lane Garrison had “more than twice the legal limit” of alcohol in his system and was under the influence of cocaine during the fatal crash that killed a 17-year-old boy in December, this according to police.

A spokesman for the Beverly Hills Police Department announced today that his department has recommend that the L.A. County District Attorney file a felony charge of gross vehicular manslaughter against the “Prison Break” star….

TMZ spoke exclusively with several witnesses who claim they watched Lane Garrison snort lines of cocaine just before the fatal crash.

According to our sources, Garrison looked “very high” and his “eyes were glazed” at the the party, which was attended mostly by teenagers.

According to our sources, Garrison obtained the coke from another attendee in an upstairs bedroom of the Beverly Hills home where seven or eight people were partying. They report that Garrison also had six or seven shots of Grey Goose vodka at the same time.

This is Garrison’s second known accident. He rear-ended a car at a light after leaving LA celebrity club Hyde in October of last year.

Garrison could get up to ten years in jail if he’s convicted on the charge of gross vehicular manslaughter. It’s doubtful his role as the now-deceased Tweener on Prison Break has prepared him for the real experience.

Please do not read this article if you haven’t seen the Oscar-nominated film The Departed. This movie is so good that I screamed while watching it on a plane over the holidays, waking up the guy in the seat in front of me. Even if you don’t intend on seeing it, believe me you will find it worth your while.

Martin Scorsese has semi-confirmed the news that there’s going to be a sequel to the film The Departed, making filmgoers scratch their head and wonder how he’s going to pull it off. Just about all of the lead characters meet violent ends in the film, which help it pack such a cinematic punch.

Screenwriter William Monahan, who wrote the first Departed screenplay, is said to be working on the follow up, which will include Mark Wahlberg’s Oscar nominated potty-mouthed character, Sergeant Dignam, as well as bring in a new character played by Robert DeNiro.

At least one article I read said they haven’t ruled out a prequel, which means more tortured Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio eye candy. Indeed, the film it was based on, 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, had its own prequel successor.

I would like to see a bonafide sequel, though, because the end left me wondering who fathered Madolyn’s baby and if she had anything to do with clueing Wahlberg into Damon’s role as the mole. (I said there were spoilers, sorry about that. Let me know if I missed something in the plot that would explain how Wahlberg found out. I was really tired when I watched it.)

The Departed is a critical and commercial success, having pulled in $125 million in the US, and received five Oscar nominations. It is considered the front runner for best picture at the Oscars.

Here are some pictures from the film, courtesy of All Movie Photo.

And this time its not bitter resentful sex with Jude Law, but hot on-screen sex with Baby Darth Vader

Tongues are wagging, knickers are twisting and rumors are flying that Sienna Miller’s sex scenes with Hayden Christensen in her new movie … are … drum roll …the real thing.

The hot and steamy sex scenes between actress Sienna Miller and actor Hayden Christensen in their new film Factory Girl are getting all kinds of press and not just because they’re so intense, but because an alleged insider says that the intensity comes from the fact that the sex wasn’t simulated. A source told The New York Daily News, “It’s not simulated. They’re really doing it.”

[via Actress Archives]

Sienna is playing Andy Warhol’s tragic muse, Edie Sedgewick and HayC plays a thinly veiled Bob Dylan. The film Director’s quite evilly dropped a non-comment guaranteed to boost box office:

On Monday, at the premiere, director George Hickenlooper was asked about the controversy about if the sex was real and he said “I can’t comment. You’ll have to ask Sienna about it.”

Unless she’s in on the joke/PR strategy - I suspect Sienna is gonna cut Hicken a brand new looper …

A burnt Sienna hasn’t turned out to be exactly an angel of vengeance in the past – she certainly let Jude Law hang around long past his sell by date. It’s still what she’s most famous for … no great achievement … it’s a rather sad, footnote flavored way to live.

Hanging with Puff Diddly over the weekend might have been an attempt to amp up her weak Street cred – sadly no shots were fired although apparently many were drunk.

Still Factory Girl is the first film Sienna’s carrying as a lead - definitely a make or break moment in a film career and coulda, woulda, shoulda questions will only drum up extra excited coverage. Of course a tad more coverage of the extra excited during the actual shoot — and it alll could have been avoided.

Showing she equates sex with fast food but gives it less value, Lindsay Lohan is said to have texted Nicole Richie’s ex and Laguna Beach Reality star Brody Jenner over the weekend that she was looking for “McDonald’s and sex.”

Usmagazine.com has learned that Lohan, 20, who entered L.A.’s Wonderland rehab center on Jan. 18 to treat her addiction issues, has been sending bachelor-about-town Brody Jenner, 23, sexy text messages for the last couple weeks.

We’ve eye-balled one particularly flirtatious sext-message that Lohan sent Jenner - former flame of Kristin Cavallari, Nicole Richie and Lauren Conrad - last Saturday night in which the 12-stepper, among other requests, texted that all she wanted was “McDonald’s and sex.”

When asked by Usmagazine.com to comment on Lohan’s textual pursuit, Jenner, who just signed a deal to be a spokesman for Scope mouthwash, said, “Sorry, dude. I don’t text and tell.”

Those are probably the only two things she can’t obtain in the revolving door rehab where she’s staying. Lohan has been seen out eating and shopping, and service people such as masseurs, hairdressers, and makeup artists have been called in to meet her daily needs. Now that future male prostitute Mike Tyson has arrived to keep her company, at least one of her texted needs can be met in house.

Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe put aside their differences to attend their daughter Ava’s school play, in which she played a cute kangaroo. People at the show said they didn’t really talk to each other, and came and left separately. At least they’re trying to do things as a family for their children’s sake.

We reported yesterday that Ryan was seen out in the company of a new brunette. Not many commentors like him, and he doesn’t seem to be of much interest without his Oscar-winning wife.

There was a rumor at the beginning of the month that Ryan wanted Reese back, but that either wasn’t true or he has been unsuccessful so far.

Pictures from FlynetOnline.

In yet another edition from the Moss and Doherty Handbasket to Hell Review: new footage of Pete Doherty shooting up hit the newsstands and web today. Stills and video allegedly show this latest sobriety stumble two days after their much denied and confirmed “commitment ceremony” in Thailand. Grim, grainy and gruesome indeed - is this the world’s shortest or just messiest honeymoon period?

According to reports, Doherty, 27, had left the exclusive resort where they were staying to seek out drugs.

He was recognised by an Australian fan who invited him back to her room with her and two female friends.

Once there, Doherty was filmed injecting himself on a bed strewn with drugs paraphernalia and cash.

He can also be seen talking to someone - possibly Moss - on a mobile phone while he gets high.

With fans like that who needs enemies, pushers or pincushions? Not that poor Pete seems to need much help in lurching from ill considered lapse to ill considered lapse. He’s a pasty faced, sad baby with tragic-end writ large across his shaggy bangs. When it comes to addiction he seems to give as good as he gets: Kate certainly cannot get enough or tear herself away from his dying spaniel charms.

Last night a source close to the model said: “Kate is understandably livid about these pictures. That they were taken just two days after their special commitment ceremony simply adds insult to injury.

“Of course Kate still loves Pete and vice-versa but she’s a clever woman and knows that she has got to put her career first. Kate needs to start looking after herself - or at least be seen to be doing so - and has been strongly advised to take some time off from Pete.

“This means not getting herself photographed with him and certainly no raucous nights out - at least until the fuss has all died down a bit.”

[Via The Daily Telegraph]

With sources close to you like that who needs a poke in the eye?

Surely one of the key things about merely ‘pretending to tidy up your act’ temporarily so you don’t get a nasty smack from the world is that you gotta keep it to yourself. If everyone knows its a lie … you are very likely to be confronted on the ol’ blatant falsehood. Unless you are Dick Cheney.

The kind of rebel chic that was the subtext of Moss’ short fall and celebrated return to advertisers’ graces last year was all about “edge.” She was still edgy … she was newly edgy … she was so Edgy if anyone still cared about U2 she could whack on a little wool cap and play arena rock with them.

This very fashiony reading of scandal is unlikely to survive ongoing tales of Kate Moss a Mess - Pete Doherty Pincushion — no end in sight to continuing downward spiral. The edge and glamour seem to be fading from the coverage and both are showing up looking rather bruised, scabby and dehydrated. Sid and Nancy is a fine film … but as a lifestyle it’s not very Burberry or Vogue.

J.Lo shocked employees at a recording studio by sending over a list of remarkable demands a mere two hours before she was due to record. She wanted a specific type of fresh hot Cuban bread, all kinds of Skittles, and most incredibly, all low-watt bulbs set at specific angles to replace the lighting throughout the studio. I really hope she was being video recorded, because that sounds ridiculous if she was just showing up to sing:

Top of the crackpot catalogue given to staff at Santa Monica’s famous Westlake Studios in LA was: change all the lights for dimmer ones and place them at angles to make the singer look “desirable”.

One record executive told us: “J.Lo was such a diva when she was here last week. Her people sent us a three-page rider request for her dressing room which was absurd. It was so last-minute.

“All the lights had to be at a certain wattage and an angle to make her look good. We’ve never seen anything like it since Michael Jackson asked for a room to be made above the studio so his monkey Bubbles could watch him record.”

Her food needs also went into agonising detail. Our insider continues: “She wanted fresh, piping-hot Cuban bread which we had to trawl 10 bakeries to find and dozens of packets of Skittles - including the new sour flavour. She also wanted a gourmet meat selection, a separate cheese platter and crates of water and fruit and scented candles.

“We needed to get six extra members of staff to fetch all she needed and lug all the food and crates over.”

But then the star - who is making her new album - hardly touched her grub.

Our exec added: “There was enough to eat for about 20 people in the end, but she barely so much as looked at it.

“No one here could believe it - we knew she was a little demanding sometimes but this was absurd.”

It’s not like she was performing for thousands of people - she was making an album. Maybe there was a film crew with her for her dance contest reality show and that’s her excuse.

J.Lo’s first ex, waiter Ojani Noa, has been ordered to go into private arbitration in her lawsuit seeking to block his tell-all book. That’s a victory for Lopez, because it means that details of the book will not be made public.

Noa tried to blackmail Lopez, claiming he’d publish the book unless she paid him $5 million. She sued him, citing a confidentiality agreement he signed in late 2005 as part of his payout for leaving his job as a manager at her restaurant.

Among the rumored details in the book is Noa’s claim that J.Lo cheated on Diddy with Marc Anthony back when Anthony was married, and that she had “multiple duplicitous sexual affairs” on the set of Anaconda in 1997. Noa also is said to claim that J.Lo is into the voodo religion Santeria and that she performed spells on her enemies and lovers. Scientology might not be so much of a stretch for her then.

Here are pictures of J.Lo and her corpse bride promoting her Spanish language CD, Como Ama Una Mujer, in Miami on January 23. Pictures from Go-JLo.com

Star is reporting that Angelina’s mom Marcheline Bertrand’s dying wish was for Angelina to marry Brad. How they would know what went on in the private conversations between Angelina and her mom in the hospital is up to question:

Star can reveal exclusively that before succumbing to her illness, Marcheline, who was 56, shared tender last moments with each of them. “Marcheline was heavily medicated, but she was conscious for a lot of the time,” says the source. “Marcheline asked Brad to take care of Angelina and the kids [their adopted children Maddox, 5, and Zahara, 2, and their biological daughter Shiloh, 8 months],” says the source. And she made a similar, equally impassioned plea to her headstrong daughter.

“She spent the most time with Angelina — she told Angelina that her dying wish was for her to marry Brad,” says the source. “Even during her darkest days over the past months, Marcheline [had urged] Angelina to marry him. Marcheline adored Brad and believed he was an angel sent into their lives to take care of Angie.” So now, adds the source, despite Angelina publicly vowing in the past that she and Brad would not marry, “there is no way Angelina’s going to let her mom down.”

I guess the source could have been a nurse or something, but it sounds more likely that Star made it up. US Weekly ran a quote from Angelina’s mom before Shiloh was born saying , “I love Brad. He is wonderful. I am very, very happy and very excited for them,” so it doesn’t sound like that much of a stretch to say she told them she loved them on her deathbed and asked them to get married.

Brad Pitt was seen pleading with the paparazzi outside his Hollywood mansion to leave his family alone in their time of grief. It predictably was ineffective. He must have tried to switch strategies after being understandably a little grumpy with photographers a couple of days ago.