X-Files Movie! X-Files Movie! X-Files Movie! Fanboys (and girls) are as excited as a tweenager with Miley Cyrus tickets for the July 25 release of the next X-Files movie(!)

Stars Align: Can celebrities bring about world change? (Well, they’re going to have to, seeing the state of journalism these days… but we digress). Tina Daunt’s always brilliant column points out some interesting happenings surrounding the Chinese Olympic Games: ‘After Spielberg announced that he was dropping all plans to assist the Chinese with their big show because of the killings in Darfur, the government began pushing the Sudanese government to accept a peacekeeping force into the troubled region.” Dang, Stevie! Look at you go!

Is It Just Us… or is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s blog getting weirder?

There is now a bit of ‘Monday morning quarterbacking’ after the Tupac/Puffy story the LAT ran was found to be based on bunk documents.

Slate’s Jack Shafer wrote, “Biggie Mistake: How Chuck Philips and the L.A. Times could have dodged the Tupac hoaxer.”

Like most disasters, the Times’ could have been avoided, which is easy for me to say in retrospect.

And E&P’s Joe Strupp writes:

The Los Angeles Times‘ apparent reliance on fabricated FBI records in a story wrongly linking rapper Sean “Puffy” Combs to the shooting of Tupac Shakur has raised new concerns over the use of documents obtained from anonymous sources.

And the blog, Reflections of a Newsosaur by aptly named vet journalist Alan Mutter equates the whole incident with that of a Chicago Tribune intern winning their rival newspapers’ contest about the re-naming of Wrigley Field.

The public trust, an increasingly scarce commodity these days for newspapers, was violated in the cases of both the Tupac story and the Tribune’s stealth video. The only difference between the two cases is that the Los Angeles Times was the victim and the Chicago Tribune was the perpetrator.

We compared it to Dan Rather…but ok…uhm…sure.

Ten years with the little blue pill. Ten years of celebrity endorsements. Ten years of dick jokes. Thank you Viagra.

And yes, we know the actual date was yesterday. We were going to post about it then, but something came up.

…You’d think a joke that cheap would embarrass us…but it doesn’t.

In today’s Morning Call Time podcast, Peter Morgan takes Dreamworks to the hereafter, CBS-Paramount invites Sunil Nayar to stay in Miami, and Elisha Cuthbert and Rachel Boston get romantic with CBS.

Click here to subscribe to mediabistro.com‘s Morning Call Time… or check us out on iTunes!

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A week after reports revealed US state department workers improperly snooped into the passport files of three presidential candidates, word is out that those rights-violating little buggers got their noses in Anna Nicole Smith’s files too.

According to the AP, Smith was not alone (she rarely ever was):

State department officials told AP the review involved several hundred US citizens whose passport files are flagged for extra protection because of their prominence. These people include politicians, entertainers and athletes. Accessing their files triggers an automatic record that it has been viewed.

Celebrities getting their privacy violated? Get out of town! (And don’t forget your passport!)

Eliot Spitzer was also a client at Wicked Models, a recently busted high-priced call girl ring in Manhattan.

NY Post has an exclusive:

At the center of the new ring is Kristin “Billie” Davis, a busty bottle blonde who hails from a ough-and-tumble (sic) California trailer park. She has a reputation for hard-partying, shameless self-promotion and a rumored 10,000-name-long client list.

She also suspiciously looks like our elusive local Angelyne.

Reality Check: The L.A. Times is reeling from the embarrassing revelation yesterday that a story linking Sean “Diddy” Combs to the murder of Tupac Shakur was, in a word, bullshit. In a story today by James Rainey (man, does that guy get the bum assignments), the paper does a mea culpa, apologizing for writing a story based on fabricated documents, and giving props to the Smoking Gun for figuring the whole thing out.

Get Out Your Checkbooks: Rap talent manager James Rosemond said the Times article created “a potentially violent climate in the hip-hop community.” His attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, added: “I would suggest to Mr. Philips and his editors that they immediately print an apology and take out their checkbooks — or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit.”

Questions Remain: We hope this isn’t the last we hear of this story because we still have a ton of questions. For one, Chuck Phillips says he believed the veracity of the forged FBI documents because they were filed in court. So, who filed them? Who masterminded this hoax? So help us, if Ashton Kutcher is involved, we’re gonna throw our computers out the window and move to a farm.

The LA Times has found itself in the cross hairs…has been shot down…their Tupac story is chock full of holes…

Too soon?

Anyway they did a Dan Rather and ran a story based on information gained from phony documents:

“We published this story with the sincere belief that the documents were genuine, but our good intentions are beside the point,” Stanton said in a statement.

There first clue should have been that the documents in question were written by Peggy Seltzer and signed by L Ron Hubbard.

Has the recession hit you? Unemployed? Under-employed? Do you harbor secret Octopussy drag queen fantasies? Then try spy school. Or better yet, Stiletto Spy School.

From their site:

In just four days, learn valuable skills that will serve you for the rest of your life. Modules include firearms training, disabling an attacker in hand-to-hand combat, make up lessons and much, much more. Includes posh hotel with double occupancy room, delicious meals and wine with dinner. Airfare to Las Vegas, cocktails and incidentals are not included.

We’re positive this is how Valerie Plame did it.

We are so proud that all our favorites made it into the top 10! There’s Perez Hilton, Eliot Spitzer, Spencer Pratt, Ryan Seacrest and Tom Cruise.

Where would we be without our punchlines?