Mission: Impossible III Promotion Confused With Bomb in L.A.

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) - A newspaper promotion for Tom Cruise's upcoming "Mission: Impossible III" got off to an explosive start when a county arson squad blew up a news rack, thinking it contained a bomb.

The confusion: the Los Angeles Times rack was fitted with a digital musical device designed to play the "Mission: Impossible" theme song when the door was opened. But in some cases, the red plastic boxes with protruding wires were jarred loose and dropped onto the stack of newspapers inside, alarming customers.

In an age where fears of Islamic terrorism are a common occurrence in our daily lives, who at either Paramount Pictures or the Los Angeles Times seriously thought this was a reasonable and sound idea? I’m still going to see the movie though. Not that I am a big Tom Cruise fan but it is J.J. Abrams’s (the creator of Alias and LOST) motion picture directorial debut.