BOSTON – Mark Wahlberg says he’s considering a jailhouse meeting with James “Whitey” Bulger, but victims’ relatives are criticizing the actor’s interest in the reputed former mob boss.

Bulger has reached out to Wahlberg, the actor told Boston’s WAAF-FM radio Friday, and he speculated Bulger wants to give him rights to his story. “He wants me to come down and visit him. Maybe he’ll give me the exclusive rights to tell his story, ’cause he knows, you know, we can do it better than anybody else,” Wahlberg said.

Wahlberg grew up in South Boston, also Bulger’s home when he ran a local gang in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s while working as an FBI informant. Bulger, 82, is accused of participating in 19 murders before fleeing in 1995, allegedly after his FBI handler tipped him that an indictment was coming. He was caught in California last year after 16 years on the run.

Wahlberg said his “heart goes out” to loved ones of Bulger’s victims, but the story has tremendous potential.

“If there’s a story to be told there, and, you know, we can do it in the way we want in the way that we best see fit, then, you know, then it’s certainly something that we would explore,” he said.

Patricia Donahue, whose husband, Michael Donahue, was allegedly killed by Bulger during a hit on another man, said Saturday that’s there nothing she can do to stop someone from making a movie. But, she said, she prays the filmmakers don’t make Bulger a hero and “will portray him as he really is, the murderer that he is.”

Donahue said she doubted Bulger would be honest with Wahlberg.

“The government can’t get the truth out of him, nobody seems to be able to get the truth out of him, so why is he gonna pour his heart out to Markie Wahlberg?” Donahue said.

But Wahlberg’s local roots could help him sort through the lies, she said.

“He has a pretty good idea of who’s who in this whole episode,” she said.

Steven Davis, whose sister, Deborah Davis, was allegedly strangled by Bulger, told the Boston Herald that Bulger ruined “my whole family” and shouldn’t be glamorized.

Miss America gets ready to transfer crown

LAS VEGAS – Miss America was getting ready to transfer her crown Saturday night to one of 53 pageant queens looking to prove they have a winning combination of looks, talent and smarts to justify a yearlong run with the title.

A panel of seven judges was ready to pick the next Miss America during a live telecast on ABC, the culmination of a week of preliminary competitions and months of preparations for the titleholders from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Teresa Scanlan, a Nebraskan who won Miss America last year at age 17 to become the pageant’s youngest winner ever, said contestants’ nerves would be at their highest point just before the pageant.

But the young women had already given judges a first impression, she said, and largely shaped their fate through three nights of preliminary competitions at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Scanlan said the ultimate winner will have thought not only about receiving the crown and $50,000 scholarship, but also about her plans for spending the year as Miss America, touring the country to speak to different groups and raising money for the Children’s Miracle Network, the Miss America Organization’s official charity.

Gore: Current TV to keep Olbermann

PASADENA, Calif. – Former Vice President Al Gore on Friday described Current TV as the “consistent” liberal TV network compared with MSNBC, and said it will keep Keith Olbermann in the fold.

Olbermann, Current’s most popular personality, didn’t participate in Iowa and New Hampshire political coverage, reportedly because he was upset over production problems at the network.

“He’s fine,” said Gore, chairman of the network in 63 million U.S. homes, dismissing rumors that Olbermann was seeking to leave. “He has been the key to our ability to pivot and develop our whole network as a progressive news and commentary network.”

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