Friendly Fire: Jack Bauer Tortures, Torches Self

Until 4 hours ago, Jack Bauer was being held in a Chinese prison, where he held out for 2 years without ever breaking his silence, despite brutal physical torture.

In that respect, the new Jack Bauer action figure is a faithful recreation.

KIEFER SUTHERLAND only has himself to blame for the delay of his 24 action figure - he set fire to the prototype during a drunken night out. The action man's new figure has been developed by MCFarlane Toys and will hit stores later this year (07), but the mini-JACK BAUER should have hit shelves much earlier. Sutherland explains, "They tried to come out with one a couple of years ago and they had sent me the doll for my approval... We took the doll out for a night to have some fun and we'd had some drinks. We sat it on the corner of the table.

"We started torturing him around 11 o'clock at night, and, by two o'clock in the morning, we had set him on fire in the parking lot.

"We got up the next day and there was just this puddle of wax. His clothes didn't burn, which I thought was pretty cool... and then I got a call the next day saying, 'Did you like the doll?' I said, 'Yeah, it was great.' And they said, 'Well, OK, good, you gotta send it back to us because that was the prototype... It took that guy a year to make it.'

"I said, 'Well, let me look for it, I think I left it in the trailer.' This went on for about a week and then I had to just kinda come clean."

Mr. Sutherland, Senators McCain and Durbin would like a word with you.