No decision was reached during a hearing on Wednesday regarding whether Catherine Greig, girlfriend of James “Whitey” Bulger, will be granted bail so she can go stay with her sister, rather than behind bars.

The trial took an interesting turn, however, when the judge allowed family members of Bulger’s victims to speak about the suffering that Greig helped cause them.

“Her 16 years with her lover on the run were 16 years we cried,” said Thomas Donahue, son of victim Michael Donahue, in court today, according to the Boston Globe.

Two other families agreed to testify, and agreed that Greig’s harboring Bulger contributed to their hurt.

Kevin Weeks, former right-hand-man to Bulger, testified that Greig knew little about Bulger’s life of crime, and that he was similar to a Robin Hood figure when Greig came into his life.

“I don’t know what she knew as far as his reputation,” Weeks said of Greig, according to the Boston Globe. “She saw one side of him and others saw another side of him.”

Greig will remain behind bars until the judge reaches a decision.

Catherine Greig and her attorney filed a legal motion asking that Greig be free while awaiting trial on the charges of harboring a fugitive because she is not a flight risk or danger to the public.

Greig’s attorney, Kevin J. Reddington, argued that Greig was just James “Whitey” Bulger’s “traveling companion” during his years on the run.

“There is no evidence of harboring or providing aid to Mr. Bulger,’’ Reddington wrote in papers filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston, according to the Boston Globe. “The conduct of this defendant falls far short of the activity … necessary to convict on the harboring charge.’’

Greig and her sister, Margaret, offered to post their homes in Quincy and South Boston as collateral for Greig’s release, which are estimated to have a combined value of over $850,000, according to Reddington.

Reddington wrote that Greig is not likely to flee because the case against her is not strong and holds a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Since her arrest last month in Santa Monica, Calif. with Bulger, Greig was ordered held pending a detention hearing set for Monday afternoon.

Reddington said Greig is willing to be placed infer house arrest and to wear electronic monitoring equipment if released.

Whitey Bulger pleaded not guilty to all charges in a 32-count indictment during his arraignment in South Boston on Wednesday.

Families of alleged victims looked on as Bulger denied guilt in the slayings of their loved ones as a part of the RICO enterprise.

“The ball is starting to roll,” said Thomas Donahue, son of Bulger victim Michael Donahue.

Donahue expressed optimism that the case is underway, but remained solemn overall. Family members of victims Debra Davis and Michael Milano joined the Donahues at the arraignment.

The Milano family were the subjects of a second hearing simultaneous to Bulger’s arraignment, but in a different courtroom. The family asked the court for a piece of the $800,000 in cash found in Bulger’s apartment.

The court ruled that the Milanos must wait until the criminal case is over to get money.

Former State Police Colonel Tom Foley also attended the trial. Foley investigated the Bulger case for years.

“All of us feel a lot of satisfaction that we can finally bring him to justice after all these years,” Foley said to the press outside the courthouse.

Foley also said that FBI informants should be chosen “from the bottom up.”

“It’s not the way to handle informants…with top echelon informants, you don’t have murderers out on the street giving out people down below,” he said. “That’s the way an investigation should be conducted, not authorizing people or giving people in that position at the top the green light to go out and do whatever they have to do, and that’s what happened in this case.”

Bulger’s lawyer, J.W. Carney Jr. said that he has no idea how long the trial will take, but indicated that it may move slowly due to the sheer volume of the case.

Carney also said that he will receive help from Janice Bassil and the 13 other lawyers in his firm.

“[Bassil] will be fully my co-counsel on the trial,” Carney said, despite a ruling that Bassil would not be officially appointed to the case.

Bulger’s next appearance in court is scheduled for September 14 for a status conference.

Although this is a slow start, it is a relief for many people.

“Seeing him walk in handcuffs, a broken man, was some sort of satisfaction for me,” Foley said.

Reporting from the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in South Boston.

Emotions ran high when the families of two of James J. “Whitey” Bulger’s victims appeared in court Thursday.

The family of Michael Donahue, allegedly killed by Bulger in 1982, sat with Steven Davis, brother of the deceased girlfriend of hit man Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, on the far right side of the courtroom throughout both of Bulger’s hearings.

Feelings erupted before the hearings even started, when court officers escorted William and John Bulger, Whitey’s brothers, into the courtroom before anyone else.

“Why is he aloud to go in there before anyone else?” yelled Davis.

An unidentified person standing next to Davis retorted, “Because he’s paying.”

Court officers told Davis to calm down, and that the Bulgers were allowed in first because they were the family of the defendant.

“I don’t give a shit if he’s the president of the United States,” Davis yelled back.

Davis remained quiet through the hearings, but started clapping at the conclusion of the second hearing as Bulger was escorted away in handcuffs.

Tommy Donahue, son Michael Donahue, voiced his disgust with Bulger and the government in a press conference after the hearings.

“I knew it was coming anyway,” Donahue said about the state paying for Bulger’s attorney. “The tax payers were going to get screwed anyway.”

Donahue also felt it unfair to the taxpayers that Bulger has arrived through expensive transportation for his hearings. He arrived today via Coast Guard helicopter.

The pain of losing his father to the mobster has not faded despite all the years.

“The feeling in my stomach hasn’t changed one bit,” Donahue said.

“I can’t believe it. I can’t wait to see everything come out,” said his wife, Michelle. “I think it’s on our side.”

Reporting from the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in South Boston.

James J. “Whitey” Bulger arrived at Federal Court Thursday via helicopter and motorcade to face two separate proceedings regarding case consolidation and defense appointment.

The court denied Bulger’s motion to consolidate the 1994 and RICO cases and affirmed US District Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s motion to dismiss the 1994 charges to focus on the RICO and murder charges.

Bulger was also deemed eligible for court-appointed legal counsel, and attorney J.W. Carney was assigned the case.

Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf heard Bulger’s first trial of the day regarding the motion to consolidate. Wolf described his decision not to consolidate in length, explaining that the cases could not have been consolidated in 2000 when Bulger was originally supposed to appear in court due to the other defendants involved.

“Mr. Bulger was given his promised head start,” Wolf said about his decision.

The Judge and the prosecution agreed that trying the cases together would give Bulger an unfair advantage that he would not have had if he showed up to court when he was originally called upon.

The issue of forum shopping, or judge shopping, was also heavily discussed throughout the hearing.

Krupp alleged that the prosecutors were taking advantage of the random judge assignment system and waiting for their ideal judge to be assigned

“Mr. Bulger did not appear to object based on alleged judge shopping in 2000,” Wolf said with a dramatic pause afterward.

During the hearing, Wolf also decided that he would unseal the affidavit the Bulger’s lawyer, Peter Krupp, filed to prevent evidence and quotes from Bulger leaking to the public.

The judge said he felt that the public had a right to know these details.

Bulger’s second court proceeding decided that J.W. Carney will represent.

Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler decided that Bulger is eligible for state appointed representation and scheduled Bulger’s arraignment for Wednesday, July 6 at 2 p.m.

Reporting from the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in South Boston.

Wasn’t his whole life a gamble?

Gangster James J. “Whitey” Bulger allegedly told federal authorities after his arrest that he regularly visited Las Vegas during his time on the lam.

And he “won more than he lost,” he said.

In court documents filed Monday, federal prosecutors said Bulger liked to play the slots during his visits.

Bulger also told officials that he crossed the Mexican border at San Diego and regularly purchased prescription drugs in Tijuana. Former Bulger right-hand man Kevin Weeks has said in the past that Bulger used to boast about how easy it was to get prescription medicine in Mexico.

The FBI also said Monday that Bulger admitted to returning to Boston multiple times in disguise while “armed tot he teeth” in order to “take care of some unfinished business.”

Bulger did not elaborate.

A tourist in a Red Sox jersey poses for a photo in front of Whitey Bulger's apartment. (Kristen Gard for Blast Magazine)

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — As you walk down 3rd Street, between California Avenue and Washington Avenue, it’s just like any other neighborhood. A man sporting Nike sneakers and headphones jogs down the street, while a couple bikes by. On the sidewalk, a grandfather pushes a stroller while his wife, daughter and daughter’s young child follow behind him, and a neighbor grabs a package from her front stoop. Across the street, a man is hosing down the sidewalk, a UPS truck is delivering packages, and an Arrowhead Springs truck is delivering water. For all intents and purposes, this appears to be a busy, normal neighborhood.

But on Wednesday, former mob boss James J. “Whitey” Bulger was found here, along with his longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig. Inside the apartment authorities found $800,000 and later hauled bags labeled as containing weapons, and ammunition out of the apartment.

Bulger had been on the lam for 16 years and was arrested for his alleged role in 19 murders. He was an informant for the Boston FBI. Later, he made the FBI “Ten Most Wanted” list next to Osama Bin Laden.

As news crews swarmed the neighborhood, neighbors appeared intrigued but reserved regarding Bulger’s presence in the apartment complex. One man on his phone boasted to his friend that he had “ridden by him on my bike, I’m sure I have.”

When asked directly about the mob boss, however, numerous people claimed ignorance.

A woman and her daughter, visiting from San Francisco were vacationing across the street from the three-story apartment building. “I’ve been following it on the news, but I had no idea this was happening right across the street!” she exclaimed, before giving her young daughter a brief description of the mob boss.

None of the residents we spoke to would allow their names to be published out of fear for their safety.

While residents of the area went about their routine, tourists were taking advantage of the historic event. Starline Tours briefly stopped in front of the apartment complex. Some cars slowed as they passed, while others stopped altogether capturing pictures on their cell phones.

A group of people, two of whom donned Boston Red Sox clothing, stopped to take pictures in front of the apartment, proudly showcasing their Boston apparel. One of the men even loaned his jersey to a woman in the group so she too could take a picture in front of the apartment in Boston clothing.

“The truth? You can’t handle the truth!” When Jack Nicholson snarled those famous lines in a courtroom during the film “A Few Good Men,” he could just as easily have been reciting lines in Martin’s Scorsese’s “The Departed,” where he played the role of Frank Costello, a Boston mobster, the inspiration for whom is none other than James J. “Whitey” Bulger.

Bulger, 81, was captured by chest-thumping federal agents in Santa Monica last week, and whisked to a Boston courtroom. He faces 19 murder charges, as well a series of other counts painting a picture of him as the consummate mobster.  He’s been on the run for 16 years, and lived for 15 of those years in plain view in the California sunshine.

FBI press releases make it sound like the capture of this aged star of its Most Wanted list is a brilliant law enforcement coup. Few stop to question how it is that he managed to elude detection in an affluent community for so long. Both Bulger and bin Laden can teach fugitives everywhere a thing or two. It pays, we learn, to have friends in high places.

The prosecution of Whitey Bulger may turn out to be the most significant investigation of how law enforcement does its job since the Church Committee blew the lid off the CIA and FBI treatment of domestic dissent in the 1970s. If Bulger strikes boldly and without flinching, he should be able to force the Government to make choices about how much truth it is willing to tell the people of Boston, and the American public, about the manner and means by which the feds seek to bring people to justice.

The truth is that the Government lies routinely. It seeks to hold people accountable by denying accountability for its own actions. Despite bold promises of transparency, the Justice Department shares plenty with the former Kremlin: knowing where the bodies lie is as important as knowing the way to the men’s room for the good little boys and girls hoping to hopscotch their way to the top.

Bulger was a federal informant. He was a rat. A tool in the Government’s hands as it sought to chip away at other organized crime families in New England. Just who was his handler? How much information did he give the feds? How much did the feds give him? Asking these questions, and insisting on answers, may well be Bulger’s best defense.

The FBI has released few details about the soon-to-be rich tipster who keyed federal agents in on the location of James J. “Whitey” Bulger and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig.

Some reports Friday indicated the tip came from Iceland. The FBI said Saturday that the tipster was female.

Officials have insisted that the tip came in because of the uptick in PSA ads targeting Greig on daytime television, most watched by women. The commercials focused on Greig’s plastic surgeries and her frequenting of beauty salons.

Bulger, 81, faces 19 murder charges.

“I don’t want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me.”

This opens the Academy Award-winning Irish mob movie, “The Departed,” and sums up the life of Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.

The 2006 Martin Scorsese film loosely based the character of Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) on Whitey Bulger, and the parallels are obvious, from the scores of women that surrounded the mobsters to the glasses they wore.

The way the mobsters controlled South Boston was the main similarity in the movie. Bulger was behind almost every business in Southie; he had many patrons who both loved and feared him.

Costello also had his nose in business, often walking into stores in the movie and demanding money from the owner, just as Bulger used to do. Costello also hinted at his owning a movie theater in one scene.

Costello and Bulger were also not afraid to get their hands dirty. Both are portrayed as first-hand killers, and both reputedly killed women.

Bulger and Costello also had cozy relationships with law enforcement. Both were FBI informants, and had friends on the inside that kept them safe. For Bulger, it was Agent John Connolly. He even warned Whitey of his impending indictment.

Colin Sullivan was Costello’s informant in the movie. He kept Costello out of trouble as he climbed the ranks in the State Police. However, Sullivan is ultimately responsible for Costello’s demise. Connolly fell before Bulger did.

The final glaring similarity between the mobsters was their right hand men. In The Departed, Costello had French and his gang of ethnic Irish. He carried out all of Costello’s operations. Bulger had Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi and of course Kevin Weeks, whom he entrusted with every secret, except his status as an FBI informant.

Scorsese claims that Costello was not solely based on Bulger, but the similarities are astounding. Both mobsters carried out a reign of terror over Boston, but Costello’s was neatly wrapped up within a two-hour span. Bulger’s reign lasted a little longer and had real effects.

The Santa Monica apartment building Whitey Bulger and Catherine Greig shared (Kathryn Ernst for Blast Magazine)

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Former Boston crime boss and the FBI’s new and former Number 1 Most Wanted man was arrested outside his Santa Monica apartment complex late Wednesday night after 16 years on the run.

James J. “Whitey” Bulger had been living in a rent controlled apartment three blocks from the beach in Santa Monica with his long time girlfriend Catherine Greig.

Bulger and Greig resided in Unit 303 within the 28 unit building under the names Charles and Carol Gasko since the mid 90′s the building manager told reporters at the scene on Thursday.

According to the Santa Monica Rent Control Board Records, Unit 303 of the Princess Eugenia apartment complex has been tenanted by the same people since the beginning of 1999.

“They lived in that apartment for a long time I heard, I also heard they were seen on the promenade walking around like everyday folk,” said an elderly man who lived in the apartment complex next to Bulger’s, who declined to give his name out of fear for his safety. “I think he even wore a Red Sox hat around!”

After the FBI lured Bulger out of his apartment complex, they found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and more than 20 guns, including rifles and handguns.

“I can’t believe such a dangerous criminal was living in my neighborhood for this long!” a middle-aged woman said, speaking to reporters from her apartment window across the street.

According to the property manager, Bulger and Greig had lived in Unit 303 for at least 14 years and paid in cash around $1100/monthly. Under rent control rules, the maximum monthly for rent this year for the unit is $1,145 a month.

They were a couple that kept to themselves and didn’t say much to other residents.

Residents said the couple frequented the Third Street Promenade Coffee Bean shop.

“I never saw him come in here,” a Coffee Bean worker who declined to give his name. “Even if he did all the time, it would be difficult to remember, it’s very easy to blend in out here.”

LOS ANGELES — Former Winter Hill Gang boss James J “Whitey” Bulger was remanded back to Massachusetts to face a litany of charges against him.

Appearing in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday, Bulger had a full white beard, wire-rimmed glasses, and was visibly banding. He waved his right to a rendition hearing.

Bulger, accused of 19 murders, smiled as federal law enforcement agents led him away. He was also seen smiling next to longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig in an arrest photo.

Just the mere mention of the name “Whitey Bulger” sends chills down any South Boston resident’s spine. The infamous Irish gangster left a torrent of bloodshed and crime in his path as he strolled down the alphabetized streets, out of the grasp of crime enforcement agencies. But after a 16-year hunt, the law has finally clenched its fist and arrested Whitey.

James J. “Whitey” Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig were arrested on Wednesday at their apartment in Santa Monica, Calif., just days after the FBI launched a female-oriented publicity campaign on daytime television to capture the couple. Ads were run on television and billboards featuring pictures of Greig.

“It’s very big deal, its a significant deal,” said Brad Bailey, a noted Boston defense attorney. “Obviously at 81 years old, regardless of whatever sentence could be imposed, it’s clear that he could be spending the rest of his natural life in prison.”

Bulger led a long life of crime not only in Boston, but also throughout the country. He was first arrested at age 14 for theft, and so began his tumble into delinquency. From there he committed various crimes, which landed him in a juvenile detention center for five years. He then joined the Air Force, where he served time in military jail for assault. Bulger returned to Boston and waged a string of bank robberies from Rhode Island to Indiana, which earned him 25 years in federal prison. He only served nine of those years.

After his release in 1965, Bulger joined Boston’s Winter Hill Gang and quickly rose through the ranks. By 1979, Bulger assumed leadership of the gang and became in control of much of Boston’s drug trade and gambling operations. He has been charged with 19 murders.

Bulger instilled fear throughout the whole neighborhood, but also provided a level of security. He would help kids or local businesses as long as they helped him, however if one of the people he helped made one wrong move, he would get revenge, often much worse than the original infraction.

It was this volatility that sparked the fear.

But Bulger threw a wrench into the gang’s operation, as he often liked to do: he was an FBI informant. He told no one of his position, even his right hand men. With this power, he helped take out the Italian Patriarca crime family, decimating the Italian mafia in Boston, and consolidating his empire in their wake.

This relationship with the FBI proved to be very helpful to Whitey. He avoided various murder charges, including one in 1982 when Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, gunned down a former Winter Hill member in broad daylight. Whitey’s FBI handler, John Connolly, filed an FBI report saying that a rival gang member was responsible for the killing.

In 1995, as law enforcement finally closed in, Connolly warned Bulger about his pending arrest. Bulger was able to flee and avoid arrest for the following 16 years. He landed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, second to Osama Bin Laden.

Although Whitey was on the run, he wasn’t all that hidden. The FBI received a slew of tips as to where he was, had multiple sightings, they took recent pictures of him, and knew his favorite hangouts. Nobody is quite sure why it took so long to apprehend the mobster.

“I think that’s anybody’s guess,” Bailey said. “It would appear that for him to be living in Santa Monica he was hiding in plain view. There are all sorts of levels of speculation of why it took so long, but the fact is that now he has been apprehended.”

The FBI has been battling accusations that they were not trying very hard to find Bulger for the past few years. This is partly because of Bulger’s informant status; people suspected that the FBI might have been protecting him.

“Although there are those who have doubted our resolve at times over the years, it has never wavered,” said Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, during a news conference.

The arrest has sparked mixed emotions in those who grew up during Whitey’s reign. Some are ecstatic at his arrest, including many of the victims’ families, others are angry.

“Well, I don’t know what the exact emotions are, but I think there are a number of people out there with whom it spark a lot of anger,” Bailey said, referring to the people that Bulger ratted out during his time as an informant.

John Ahearn, 66, a former resident, said he was never too afraid of Whitey.

“Sometimes, back then, I had a lot to go with the gang members when I hung out at the bowling alleys. They were nice guys, but they were wise guys. They were very discreet guys. I think some of them were Winter Hill,” Ahearn said.

“The Winter Hill gang, they were particularly a rough gang. They were a lot of trouble. The other guys were just booking guys,” Ahearn remembered. “In the winter hill area, if you wanted to do business…[Bulger] used to go in and say I will protect you if you pay me. Every week they used to go around and collect the money. If you didn’t pay, they would send their goons to rob the store.”

Although he never felt particularly affected by Bulger, he new many people who were.

“I knew a guy that used to rob one of [Winter Hill's] stores. His friends took him out for a ride and they shot him. He was told not to do anything, but he did it any way,” Ahearn said.

Bulger is expected to appear in court in Los Angeles Thursday, and he will likely be returned to Massachusetts for legal proceedings, according to Bailey. Bulger is up against a laundry list of charges of murder, extortion and money laundering.

“I think under the sentencing guidelines he certainly facing a sentence of up to life,” Bailey said.

Although the case seems fairly clear-cut against Bulger, Bailey thinks that his defense might try to use his status as an informant to his benefit.

“I suppose that one of the defenses their going to look at is whether an alleged top echelon informant, whether he was authorized to do the things he was accused of doing,” Bailey said. “The answer is that no informant would be allowed to engage in crimes such as murder, but that would be one of the things they’re going to try to look at. ”

Bailey didn’t have much faith in this defense however. He said that he”express[es] extreme skepticism,” in the defense.

“I guess the rest of it is going after the various cooperators that have connected him to the crimes. That they made things up to protect themselves and their own interest,” Bailey continued.

He also added that Bulger faces murder charges in Oklahoma and Florida, where they may try to pursue the death penalty against him.

The FBI confirmed Thursday that its recent spike in publicity, including commercials during daytime television shows, helped lead to the successful capture of James J. “Whitey” Bulger.

The arrest caps a 16-year global manhunt after federal authorities began targeting Bulger’s longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig, taking to the airwaves during women’s daytime television shows, including “Ellen,” “The View,” and “Live with Regis & Kelly.”

“Although there are those who doubted our resolve, it never wavered,” said Boston Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers. “We followed every lead, we explored every possibility, and when those leads ran out we did not sit back and wait for the phone to ring. The result is we have captured one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, a man notorious in Boston and around the world for the very serious crimes he is alleged to have committed.”

“The FBI has always relied on cooperation from the public to help capture fugitives and solve crimes. The new media campaign regarding Bulger was designed to draw attention to Greig, who fled with Bulger in 1995. A 30-second public service announcement (PSA) produced by the Bureau began airing Tuesday in 10 states where it was believed Bulger had resided or still had contacts. California was one of those states,” the FBI said in a statement.

The two are due in federal court for the Southern District of California Thursday.

Bulger, who once ran South Boston’s violent Winter Hill Gang, is charged with 19 murders and racketeering (RICO) as well as conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit extortion, narcotics distribution, conspiracy to commit money laundering, extortion and money laundering. Greig is accused of harboring him during the couple’s decade and a half long fugitive run.

And it was that focus on Greig that the FBI says led to Bulger’s downfall.

“We were trying to reach a different audience to produce new leads in the case,” said Richard Teahan, a special agent in the Boston office who leads a task force that has searched for Bulger around the world. “We believed that locating Greig would lead us to Bulger. And that’s exactly what happened.”

James J. “Whitey” Bulger, the South Boston gangster charged with 19 murders, who was one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitives, was arrested in Southern California Wednesday night.

The 81-year-old was captured in Santa Monica, near Los Angeles, along with his longtime companion Catherine Greig, 60. They did not resist arrest.

No vehicles were towed from the property, hinting that the couple did not have a car.

According to the FBI, agents acted on a tip from a CNN viewer and moved in.

The arrest caps a 16-year global manhunt. The FBI recently stepped up its efforts in tracking Bulger by targeting Greig, taking to the airwaves during women’s daytime television shows, including “Ellen,” “The View,” and “Live with Regis & Kelly.”

Bulger does not appear to be in good health, officials said.

The arrest begins to mend a black mark for the FBI involving Bulger’s reputed years as an informant and a corrupt agent who allowed him to get away with murder as Bulger’g gang consolidated power away from the Italian mafia in Boston.

Both fugitives are due in a California court on Thursday.

A life in the mob is something I could never do. But then again, I’m not Vito Scaletta.

The trailer has all the right ingredients. Lots of high-res cutscenes to keep you interested, but also a fair amount of gameplay (in the form of shooting, driving and blowing stuff up). What more could we ask for?

Country music’s favorite teenaged sweetheart has recently changed her tune, according to JustJared.com.

Taylor Swift’s fans would be surprised to find that Swift was rehearsing Tuesday night for the CMT Music Awards with none other than rapper T-Pain. ‚ In fact, 19-year old Swift tweeted to her fans, “If I said I was in the studio with T-Pain, would you believe me?”

Well, believe it, country fans. ‚ It’s‚ still a mystery as to what the two stars are going to sing together, but according to the MTVNewsroom, the duet is set to take place during the show’s opening segment. ‚ For now, fans will just have to be satisfied with the photos taken during the rehearsal, showing the cheery blonde Swift weighed down with chains and bling, giving us her best Zoolander face and throwing up gangster signs next to T-Pain.

Swift recently said that she would like to do a duet with rapper Lil’ Wayne, comparing it to the duet between Nelly and presumably her favorite artist, Tim McGraw.

“That would be awesome,” she said. ‚ ”I’d love to sing one of his hooks.”

The CMT Music Awards air this Tuesday at 8PM on CMT.

Photo: RyanSeacrest.com

The Godfather II game doesn’t follow the storyline of the original movie — moving scenes around, completely altering characters, and leaving out the Robert De Niro half of the movie.

Oh shit. Was that a spoiler? Oh well. Anyway…

There are two immediate schools of reaction that are possible here. First, the die hard Godfather fan in you can say “oh, COOL, something different.” Second, the die hard Godfather fan in you can say “oh, shit, it’s different. This sucks!”

I felt like the first half of the altered story, which begins in a Cuba scene that’s halfway through the Academy Award-winning film, was interesting. But I was left scratching my head. Godfather II is almost universally regarded as one of the best movies ever made. Why didn’t Electronic Arts take advantage of that?

You are Dominic, and you’re about to become the Don of the Corleone Family in New York. What follows is an endlessly repetitious repeat of the first Godfather game with about a third of the story elements that made the first game a hit.

This is a GTA-style sandbox game, meaning you get to steal cars and shoot things anywhere you want. But even though the game lets you explore three cities, there isn’t nearly enough room to maneuver in Godfather II.

Your mission is to take over and retain control a number of businesses and crime rackets, and that’s what you’ll spend nearly all of the day-or-so of gameplay doing. You attack a business. A rival family attacks you. You defend. You attack more businesses.

The early story elements show potential. We see Fredo’s character really develop in this game. We see Roth, the Floridian mastermind, in all his glory. You even get to take a shot at Fidel Castro. But the game just isn’t finished. The story elements just stop suddenly. You spend the first part of the game doing all these missions, viewing a ton of family dialogue, and then suddenly Michael Corleone orders you to basically hurry up and finish the game by giving you a mission to eliminate all your rivals. The dialog stops. The storyline stops. Suddenly you’ve degraded to a teenager who first discovered the Grand Theft Auto III PC cheat codes and starts blowing shit up with machine guns.

But that’s not the only problem. The gameplay is seriously flawed. You have to hold or tap X to run, but you also have to use the right thumbstick to control your direction. You only have one right thumb, though. Forget about driving. You’re going to crash and get stuck. Speaking of getting stuck, at least twice during my run-through, I became trapped between a wall and some sort of game element and had to blow myself up and die to get unstuck.

Shooting is also kind of worthless. You hold one button to automatically target an enemy — not the nearest enemy, just one enemy — and another button to shoot them. Repeat as necessary.

This game clearly didn’t have the budget it needed to live up to the movie. The game should have gone back and forth, just like the movie, between Michael’s and Vito’s storylines. I’d have also been really happy to see the game set only in Vito’s world as you grow and develop his crime empire.

The best part about the game is probably developing your own family and equipping, clothing, upgrading, and going to war with them. Each character of the dozens available has its own personality and skill set, and it provides some entertainment. But even this presents its own set of problems. You basically have to bring a bunch of guys with different skills on every mission. Some doors have to be blown up, some can be knocked down, and some can be lock-picked. That’s pretty stupid — I’m sorry. Now we’re just grasping at straws, trying to find some use for these guys specific skills.

The game just isn’t cerebral enough. It’s got guns, tits, swearing and explosions, but nothing about this game leaves me feeling as if I’ve accomplished something afterward.

This is a fuck up, EA. You turned Godfather II into Godfather III.

And you broke my heart. Now Al Neri is going to kill you on a rowboat.