One of the biggest headlines today has involved the bomb scare in Boston that closed several bridges and highways. Now we know the whole thing was a hoax — but who would’ve guessed the Cartoon Network would take responsibility?

AquateenYep, that’s right: It turns out the suspicious electronic devices were part of a publicity campaign for Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force. If you look closely at the photos, fans will be able to tell the image on one of the devices is that of a “mooninite” from Aqua Teen.

“(The devices) have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia,” a Turner Broadcasting spokeswoman said in a statement. “Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger.”

As you may know, an Aqua Teen movie arrives in theaters March 23. I think it’s safe to say this flick has now received far more publicity than it originally intended — especially for something that cost only five figures to make.

Hmmmmm… Donate money to help veterans and be entered to win a role on “Veronica Mars” (and get to meet Kristin Bell!!!)

Veronica Mars has provided a walk-on role opportunity in support of U.S. VETS. This role will be on one of the final episodes of Season 3 of Veronica Mars, filmed in San Diego, CA. The role is guaranteed to have direct interaction with Veronica, and you will get to meet the cast and crew. This opportunity will be available for as many tickets ($25/each) as you want to purchase, until 2/16/07. All proceeds go to support the mission of U.S. VETS. The winner will be notified, as well as posted on this website.

An airline round-trip ticket will be provided from any city in the continental U.S. that is served by Southwest Airlines. The winner will be picked up at the airport in San Diego and taken directly to the set.

That’s right. I already mailed off a check.

Remember that time on “The Office” when Jim put Dwight’s stapler in jello? How about the time Jim put Dwight’s desk in the men’s room? Oh! Oh! Oh! Remember the time that… errr wait. I can’t remember. Well good thing I found this website which tracks every prank that ever appeared on “The Office.”

The Will Eisner website launched today. I noticed a few bugs, but I think that was because I use firefox. I just recently got “A Contract With God” and so far I’m really enjoying it.

In last week’s New Joe Fridays Joe Q. released a one page art preview of the “Marvels” sequel. In it there is a panel of the main character smoking. This sort of caught me off guard because Marvel (the company) under Joe Q’s watch has been so anti-smoking. “Marvels 2″ is set for a release in 2008.

Will “Watchmen” actually be turned into a movie? Haven’t bloggers been posting about this since before blogs were invented? Well now Variety reports that Zack Snyder, director of “300” just signed a deal with Warner Bros…

Snyder, who made his feature directorial debut with horror remake “Dawn of the Dead,” is in pre-production on “Watchmen,” based on Alan Moore’s DC Comics comicbook, for Warners.

I loved “Meet the Parents” but it didn’t do too well and there almost wasn’t a sequel. So when “Meet the Fockers,” which I hated, did well I should have realized it wasn’t going to be long before another sequel was put into place.

CNN has an article about “The Oscar Curse.” In it they talk about how people like

It’s awards season in Hollywood, with all red carpets leading to the Oscars. But winning that prestigious award can sometimes lead to nothing more than bad roles and even oblivion.

“It’s known as the curse of the Oscar, which is very real. The actor’s ultimate dream can turn out to be the ultimate nightmare,” said movie pundit Tom O’Neil, awards columnist for the Web site The Envelope.

Personally, I don’t believe in the curse. I think the Academy is stupid and awards stupid people. The reason winners get bad roles after winning is because society gets bitter that someone like Alec Baldwin wins over Steve Carnell or Zach Braff (ok ok… I know that was the Golden Globes, but it’s the same principal).

The main headline yesterday at CNN was “Village was found at Stonehenge.” Then once you start reading the article they let it be known that the village was really found several miles away at a place called Durrington Walls.

Eight of the houses, with central hearths, have been excavated, and there may be as many as 25 of them, Mike Parker Pearson said Tuesday at a briefing organized by the National Geographic Society.

The ancient houses are at a site known as Durrington Walls, about two miles from Stonehenge. It is also the location of a wooden version of the stone circle

The village was carbon dated to about 2600 B.C., about the same time Stonehenge was built. The Great Pyramid in Egypt was built at about the same time, said Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.

That’s so uncool! The headline should have said NEAR Stonehenge not at Stonehenge.

My first class yesterday, Radical Image, was put on hold so that Josh Rushing could speak to us. Rushing was in a documentary called “Control Room” which was about the war in Iraq. He was a marine and a spokesman for the military for 15 years and was one of the main people involved in starting AlJazeera English (the television station).

He basically spoke to us about his own experience in the war and about the freedom of press and all this journalism stuff. Then he talked about how AlJazeera the station is different from AlJazeera.com which puts articles that wouldn’t even make it into a tabloid.

Rushing was very well spoken and his arguments were reasonable. I’m not a news-person, but it was interesting and I didn’t fall asleep.

Things got exciting afterwards when a woman filming a documentary about Rushing for Japan asked to interview me. Below is a transcript of the conversation. (Read on …)

This is badass. My Masters Screenwriting class is being taught via satellite because our professor is in a working professional in LA. So we get to sit in an auditorium and watch him on the screen while a small camera is pointed at us. Its so freaking cool!

Last night gave us two new characters on Heroes, but nothing dramatic or things we didn’t already know. Thank goodness I’m here to give you a real fix!.

Greg Beenman, one of the show’s producers, has updated his blog.

Tonight’s episode pushes the HEROES story forward on several levels. Peter meets a mentor, invisible man Christopher Eccleston http://imdb.com/name/nm0001172/ Hiro meets “The Big Boss” who may be behind it all! (And fans of sci-fi synergy get a major treat!) One of the series regulars is revealed with a new power (one which may seem small now but will play out in a big way at the end of the season!!!) And Claire makes contact with her birth mother (Who is pretty hot!!! )

A new comic has been posted on the NBC website.

Don’t forget that episodes now come with cast-commentaries. This week’s features Greg Grunberg and Hayden Panettiere.
(Read on …)

What? You’re a geek and you’ve still been hating “Battlestar Galactica” this year? Well I have exactly what you need. This 13 minute gag reel is from the current third season of “Battlestar Galactica” and is fraking hilarious. I loath gag reels because they are rarely funny, but this gag reel practically made me pee myself.

TV Guide reports that Lauren Graham will now be billed as a producer on “Gilmore Girls.” This is a good sign for fans who want the show to come back for an eighth season.

How much clout does Lauren Graham have over at Gilmore Girls these days? You’ll find out in the opening minutes of tomorrow night’s episode, when the Emmy-shunned actress receives a perk that has long eluded her: a producing credit.

Warner Bros. and the CW declined comment, but one of my deeply imbedded Stars Hollow moles confirms that Graham will be listed as a producer beginning with Tuesday’s episode. My spy says the promotion was most likely a precursor to formal contract-extension talks with Graham. (Her deal with the show ends this season.) “It’s a step in the right direction,” says my source.

Rumors have been swirling that after the whole Dr. Burke (Isaiah Washington) faggot thing… that T.R. Knight would be leaving the show. Well E! says that those rumors are false and for know, George is staying:

As I posted in the boards on Friday, this rumor is not true. I have spoken with reliable sources connected to the show, as well as T.R.’s personal publicist and the show’s ABC rep, and can tell you that T.R. is staying on the show. In fact, the ABC rep “irrefutably denies” the rumor. (And trust me, this kind of strong language would not be used if there were even rumblings of T.R. leaving.)

Remember that K-Fed commercial I mentioned last week? It’s getting tons of mainstream press now and Nationwide finally decided to post the full commercial online.

Reminder: Tomorrow is my first day of class (well technically last Monday was, but I had massive car problems and missed it) so blog will be quiet.

As we know Katie Holmes, the weakest link in the otherwise steel strong “Batman Begins”, confirmed Friday that she won’t be returning for the sequel “The Dark Knight”. Her character of Rachel Dawes though is in the film and producers are now seeking other actresses to fill the part.

Naturally with a slot open on the cast list, it was only a day before the first rumoured replacement showed up - according to Batman-on-Film that person is “Red Eye” and “The Notebook” actress Rachel McAdams.

McAdams, an actress many thought (including myself) would’ve been the better choice for Lois Lane in “Superman Returns”, has been rumoured for the project for a while - though in a different capacity.

Kate Beckinsale is reportedly set to star as US Marshall Carrie Stetko, the heroine in Joel Silver’s planned adaptation of the 1998 graphic novel “Whiteout.”

The original mini-series followed Stetko, a U.S. Marshal working at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, and her investigation of a murder that takes place there. The work won the Eisner Award in 1999 for its quality.

Silver is producing the film which has been in the works for several years, with Reese Witherspoon being attached back in 2002. The news of Beckinsale’s involvement comes from filmIck.

The $10-40 million budget flick is scheduled to hit theatres sometime in 2008.

I like family dramas. I like love stories. I like comedies. However, I hated “Catch and Release,” Jennifer Garner’s newest film. I was really enjoying the movie until about the halfway point. From three things just didn’t make sense.

The problem wasn’t so much the plot or premise. It wasn’t even the quirky humor which was along the lines of “Garden State” or “Little Miss Sunshine” (both of which I loved). The problem was the characters. About half way through the movie, the characters started making choices that didn’t make sense. They would do or say things that were completely out of character.

The only constant actor/character in the whole movie was Kevin Smith who can’t act. But even with the bad acting, his character had a nice arch that made sense and by the time the film ended you felt like he had grown.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Kevin Smith fan. I’ve seen him live and have watched everyone of his DVDs with commentaries, but the man is not an actor. He basically played a “G” rated version of himself mixed with Jay. The one thing that really stood out is that throughout the WHOLE film he called everyone “Sir.” That’s something that is very Jason Mewes and they even talk about it on the “Clerks II” DVD. So having Kevin’s character do it all the time seemed forced.

The movie wasn’t a total busts. The overall storyline and humor were good, but the characters or lack of characters made it hard to watch. Definitely wait for this to hit DVD.

You always see amnesia used as a bad plot line in a film or movie. I mean who doesn’t hate the current storyline on “Desperate Housewives” where Mike doesn’t ever remember dating Susan? It’s just silly. So I was shocked to find out that Amnesia happens in real life. I mean I knew it was real, but I didn’t think it was as melodramatic as they make it.

You see, this guy for an unknown reason, developed Amnesia while walking his dogs and disappeared for 25 fays. He lived as a homeless man wondering the streets and was finally find when he bumped into someone he knew 20 miles away from home.

When the found the guy, he had a stale bagel and packets of jelly in his pocket. His memory was all F*ed and not only could he not remember who he was, but he couldn’t even remember the past 25 days.

An interview over at Sci-Fi has “How I Met Your Mother” star, Cobie Smulder, saying she’s interested in playing “Wonder Woman.”

“It’s funny,” Smulders said in an interview at CBS’ winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., last week, “when you do like an interview for two hours, and then they take the Wonder Woman quote. … My boyfriend … [is] really into comic books, and … he was the one who kind of said, ‘Hey, it would be cool if you could do that.’ And I don’t know. Who knows? I’ll go in for it if it comes up, but it’s definitely not, like, in the works or anything.”

Smulders said that the idea has come up before. “I think it’s just the curse of having brown hair in this industry and being an actress,” she said. “I think it’s just a general, like, question that everyone’s going to pose their clients.”

The most recent casting rumor is that that Jill Wagner of “Blade: The Series” has already met with Joss Whedon about the part.

Variety reports that scientologist Katie Holmes will not be in “The Dark Knight,” the next Batman movie. Instead, the new wife to Tom Cruise, will appear in “Mad Money” a heist movie from the writer of “Thelma & Louise.” Is there comic book fan that isn’t happy about this?

It’s also being reported in Variety that Holmes is officially out of the sequel to “Batman Begins.” The trade paper says that Holmes “dropped out,” while other Internet sources are suggesting that Holmes’ character, attorney and love interest Rachel Dawes, is in the “Dark Knight” script, but that the role is being recast.

Why didn’t I think of this marketing gimmick? A novel made of texts messages was published in Finland. I wonder if this could be done as a comic, but in a way that is visually interesting.

“The Last Messages” tells the story of a fictitious information-technology executive in Finland who resigns from his job and travels throughout Europe and India, keeping in touch with his friends and relatives only through text messages.

His messages, and the replies — roughly 1,000 altogether — are listed in chronological order in the 332-page novel written by Finnish author Hannu Luntiala.

It’s cool that technology is advancing, but it’s starting to get a little big-brother-ish-creepy. I can’t even imagine what evil-governments or Microsoft could do with computer chips so small.

Scientists have built a memory chip that is roughly the size of a white blood cell, about one-2,000th of an inch on a side.Detail of a new memory chip with 160,000 bits of information, about 100 billion per square centimeter, the densest ever made.

Both E! and TV Guide talked about “Gilmore Girls” getting renewed for next year, in what would be the eighth season of the show. It seems that The CW is very interested in having the show back, but both Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel’s contracts run out this year.

Word has it that Graham is interested in returning but that Bledel isn’t. Both sources say that the network talked about continuing the show without Bledel, but that the idea was quickly scrapped.

(a big spoiler after the break) (Read on …)

Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley decided to share a single page from “Scott Pilgrim” vol 4. This reminded me that I did a Q&A with him a while back (last spring) and never shared it. I mostly kept it to myself because I stopped writing my column, “Trade Waiting” and because O’Malley seemed annoyed with my questions.

So here, for the first time, is my (uncut) Q&A with Bryan Lee O’Malley

Scott: What genre would you say “Scott Pilgrim” falls under?
Bryan: I don’t write for genre. That’s for you to decide. (Read on …)

Have you ever had a craving to watch Nickelodeon’s 1994 Kids Choice Awards? It was hosted by Joey Lawrence and Candace Cameron… if you were a child of the 80’s or 90’s you KNOW you’ve wanted to watch this again for years. Luckily for you I found it online. (I really can’t take credit for finding this since I got it from USA Today)

The Free Comic Book Day website has finally been updated with the books releasing this year. This year’s event will be on Saturday May 5th, the day after “Spider-Man 3″ hits theaters.

Most stores have a rule that you can only get three titles and if I had to pick which books I’d want, I think I’d go with “Wolfman” from Image, “Amelia Rules!” from Renaissance Press, and “Owly & Korgi” from Top Shelf.

An upcoming Superbowl Commercial from Nationwide features Kevin Federline dreaming about being super-rich and a mega pop-star. He then snaps out of it and we realize he’s a fry cook day dreaming about a life he’ll never have.

Although the commercial is very realistic and humorous, it has angered restaurants across the nations saying it implies working at a fast food place is bad. …umm did I miss something? When was working at a fast food place good?

But the National Restaurant Association’s Chief Executive Steven Anderson has written to Nationwide saying the ad leaves the impression that working in a restaurant is demeaning and unpleasant and asking the commercial to be dumped.

“An ad such as this would be a strong and a direct insult to the 12.8 million Americans who work in the restaurant industry,” wrote Anderson, head of the association that represents 935,000 U.S. restaurants. “Developing creative concepts that accomplish the marketing strategies for a product should not require denigrating another industry.”

But Nationwide spokesman Eric Hardgrove defended the ad, called “Life Comes At You Fast,” saying it was designed to be entertaining with Federline poking fun at himself while reinforcing the company’s role of meeting the financial needs of consumers.

DC Comics sent out the above photo with the message “Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction.” It’s a quote from the Book of Jeremiah. Now I think readers/fans/people are supposed to be confused or intrigued by the photo, but really I don’t think anyone cares. DC already leaked that the multiverse exists and honestly, after the whole “Infinite Crisis” mess I stopped reading every title except “Teen Titans.”

Its looking worse and worse for “Battlestar Galactica” to get picked up for another season. Last Sunday’s episode only managed a 1.39 household ratting. That’s down from the 1.46 rating it had in the fall and really down from “Stargate SG1’s” 1.87 ratting.

Things were worse for “Dresden Files” which pulled a 1.37. That’s well below “Eureka” and “Doctor Who’s” premier episodes (the network’s most recent newcomers) which pulled in 2.05 and 1.87.

Meanwhile on Sci-Fi’s sister network, USA, “Monk” was up 1.96 from its summer average and “Pysch” was down 3.7 percent. Even so, both shows pulled ratings equivalent to “The CW,” which is great for basic cable.

It’s all about weird animals today. A new fossil shows that there used to be a bird-type animal that had two layers of wings like old-school airplanes.

A new study of one of the earliest feathered dinosaurs suggests it may have had upper and lower sets of wings, much like the biplanes of early aviation.

Today, the biplane is widely considered an old-fashioned rarity.

And the design is no longer seen in birds, though it’s not clear if it was a step on the way to modern birds or a dead end, tested by nature and discarded.

This rare “frilled” shark was caught on video near Japan. They normally live 2,000 feet deep so it’s super strange that it entered the shallow water near a Japanese marine park. It reminds me of the giant squid that was found in December off Japan. If anyone finds the actual video of the frilled shark, please let me know. I really want to see it.

The Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, was alerted by a fisherman at a nearby port on Sunday that he had spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.Marine park staff caught the 5 foot (1.6 meter) long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a “living fossil” because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times.

If there was any doubt about the chaos theory from “Jurassic Park” then its gone now. It seems a Komodo dragon in Britain has become a virgin mother. Without being impregnated by a male or through science-stuff, the komodo dragon gave birth to five eggs.

British zoo on Wednesday announced the virgin birth of five Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of the endangered species.

In an evolutionary twist, the newborns’ 8-year-old mother, Flora, shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to the opposite sex.

This is great. Microsoft has been playing bloggers to make “corrections” to Wikipedia entries about the company.

Microsoft Corp. has landed in the Wikipedia doghouse after it offered to pay a blogger to change technical articles on the community-produced Web encyclopedia site.

While Wikipedia is known as the encyclopedia that anyone can tweak, founder Jimmy Wales and his cadre of volunteer editors, writers and moderators have blocked public-relations firms, campaign workers and anyone else perceived as having a conflict of interest from posting fluff or slanting entries. So paying for Wikipedia copy is considered a definite no-no.

“We were very disappointed to hear that Microsoft was taking that approach,” Wales said Tuesday.

Microsoft should have never done this! Instead of hiring bloggers who can’t keep quiet, they should have been paying me mad bucks and I would have never told the press.

I met with one of my professors today about my next project and I thought I’d share it with you all. In the next month or so I’ll be making a short film called “An American King” and everything below is the pitch for the project:

Synopsis
“An American King” is a failed pilot for a reality TV show that follows the exploits of Scott King. After the network that green-lit the show fired the shows producer, he re-edited it and packaged it as a “short film.” It was entered into festivals all across the nation and to date it has only been screened once in his grandma’s basement.
approx running time: 22minutes

Overall Storyline:
The film/show will follow Scott on the day he decides to ask out the “hot girl” from one of his classes.

Editing/Filming:
Stylistically the show will be along the lines of HBO’s “Comeback” or NBC’s “The Office. It will be shot like a reality TV show, when in actuality it will be scripted.

Inserts:
Since Scott is seeking an MFA in film he has a large back-log of projects. Edited into the show will be excerpts of these projects. For example, the producers filming “An American King” first learned about Scott through an audition tape he sent out to “Survivor” “”Big Brother” “Fear Factor” “Amazing Race” “Real World” “The Bachelor” and “Beauty and the Geek.”…yes he sent the SAME tape to each of the shows and this tape will be edited into “An American King” as will numerous other inserts.

Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes released a statement to the press about the Isaiah Washington scandal…

“I speak for all the executive producers here at Grey’s Anatomy when I say that Isaiah Washington’s use of such a disturbing word was a shocking and dismaying event that insulted not only gays and lesbians everywhere but anyone who has ever struggled for respect in a world that is not always accepting of difference.

We’ve been working within the Grey’s family as well as with ABC and Touchstone Television to address the issue in a way that underscores the gravity of the situation while giving us all a foundation for healing. We applaud and encourage Isaiah’s realization that he needs help and his subsequent choice to seek immediate treatment for his behavioral issues.

We appreciate the support the fans have always given our show, particularly during this stressful time. Creatively, we continue to strive to make the best television we can with the hope that our show reflects the talent, hard work and professionalism of our cast and crew.”

Also, a press release put out today suggests that Washington is now seeing a psychologist.

“With the support of my family and friends, I have begun counseling. I regard this as a necessary step toward understanding why I did what I did and making sure it never happens again. I appreciate the fact that I have been given this opportunity and I remain committed to transforming my negative actions into positive results, personally and professionally.”

Life & Style, claims Washington is also undergoing a psychological assessment at the urging of ABC. While rumor has it that Washington entered into a treatment facility.

Although its nice to hear Washington is seeing a shrink, it suggests he’s keeping his job, at least for now. According to E! there is a huge storyline about to fall into place with his character, Dr. Burke, for February sweeps and he may be keeping his job because those episodes have already been filmed and there isn’t time for the writers/producers to change them.

It’s my favorite time of year! For a limited amount of time, Samantha, Sarah, and I are all the same age: 24! Samantha’s bday was this past weekend and I have a butt load of pictures. I’m mostly posting these for her and some of her friends who bugged me for copies so if you don’t enjoy looking at really dumb drunk photos of Samantha don’t (Read on …)