Justin Timberlake's 'The Phone' rings the South End

Justin Timberlake, who back on Aug. 11 sent a crew of casting directors to the Boston Hard Rock Cafe, 22 Clinton Street, on the hunt for fresh meat with a wicked-thick accent, sent crews to film a crash scene on Harrison Avenue in the South End yesterday then followed contestants to the Boston Public Library for his new reality show "The Phone."

Producers of the new MTV reality series shot scenes in East Boston this week with John Fiore, a former mob boss from "The Sopranos." Several episodes of "The Phone" are slotted to be shot in Boston. At least one of the episodes features ... no surprise here ... a Boston mafioso.

As previously reported in Loaded Gun, Timberlake is making a return to MTV and this time it's not in a music video with Madonna.

Based on a Dutch idea that juxtaposes "The Bourne Identity" with "The Amazing Race," the show kicks off with two strategically hidden cell phones ringing in opposites sides of a city. MTV producers were looking for "outgoing and adventurous contestants" with a "dynamic personality and are ready to win."

Back in August, a source spilled to Loaded Gun that there was an e-mail going out from casting folks to local theatre groups asking for participants with a wicked thick Boston accent.

Click here for the latest on Timberlake's "The Phone."