Starting this Thursday Burger King is extending hours at its U.S. locations into the wee hours, specifically 2 a.m. or later. Don't get too excited night owls; the late-night munchies friendly sked only runs from Thursday to Saturday. It makes me wonder whether BK's looking to compete with White Castle, long the late-night go-to meal for drunks and stoners alike. I can't remember the last time I ate at a Burger King. Sadly, I can remember the last time I ate at a White Castle.

Folks who are creeped out by the plastic-faced King will be glad to know that he's not the point man for this campaign. BK has appointed Sean "Diddy" Combs as its new late-night ambassador. I don't watch much television these days, but according to the press release the first TV spot, "Diddy's Way," has begun airing. I wonder if the commercial features an urban-contemporary take on the Burger King song. One thing's for sure. Since it's directed by Spike Lee, the content has got to better than the stuff on Diddy's BK-sponsored Youtube channel.

Lately, there have been some raised eyebrows in BK's direction, mainly because they won't agree to pay their tomato pickers an extra penny per pound of tomatoes.

The tomato pickers have to pick 125 buckets worth of the fruit in order to get $50-60 per day, and work 10-12 hours in the hot Florida sun. The new measure would only cost BK an additional $300,000 per year, out of their $11 billion yearly revenue.

Other fast food joints have already agreed to pay their workers more, but BK continues to stall. Some people are afraid that tomato growers would wind up with the money, instead of the pickers, and others are worried the new agreement will violate antitrust rules.

But the shadiness doesn't stop there. BK execs admitted that they have a relationship with Diplomatic Tactical Services, a security firm with a creepy, amorphous name, which helps BK spy on its clients.

Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, recently wrote an op-ed for the Times on the subject, shedding light on BK's Big Brother tactics.

I always knew there was something hiding behind that awful molded plastic King in the commercials...

 Cinematical has just reported that Burger King is planning to make a feature length feature film that will, of course, advertise the fast food restaurant.

Take a moment to let that sink in.

According to an article in Advertising Age Magazine, the company is in the process of developing a script for a situation comedy that takes place in an apartment above a Burger King. Working with the ad firm Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the movie "will be a cross between Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State, Raising Victor Vargas and What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, intentionally avoiding the kind of dumb comedy featured in another fast-food-advertisement of a movie, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. "

Huge mistake. Well, the movie at all is a huge mistake, but the reason that the White Castle flick was so surprisingly successful was because it was silly. It didn't take itself seriously. And, clearly, the Burger King people are dead serious about this.

Burger King isn't planning to have the King in the film, but with the crack team of ad wizards that work for BK, who knows what they'll end up churning out even without including him.

Burger King now has its own variation on the McDonald's McGriddle. Instead of swathing a sandwich in syrup-filled pancakes, the new French Toast Sandwich uses - you guessed it: french toast. Sandwiched between two round slices of maple-flavored, deep fried french toast is an egg, sausage and cheese filling.

The official nutritional information doesn't appear to be available yet, but it should probably receive honorable mention on the list of the worst foods you can eat. To estimate the fat and calories, I added up the nutritional information for the filling of the Egg, Sausage and Cheese Croissan'wich  (310 calories and 26 grams of fat) and the 5-pc. French Toast Sticks (390 calories and 20 grams of fat) and came up with 700 calories and 46 grams of fat. If it turns out to be anywhere near those numbers, that puts it at about the same fat and calorie content of the Enormous Omelet Sandwich. Yum.