Megan Fox plays a demonic cheerleader in “Jennifer’s Body,” written by Diablo “Juno” Cody.

Megan Fox: Crazy or Sly Like a Fox?

Could the “Sexiest Woman on the Planet” also be a public relations mastermind?

Mixing sexuality, humor, crazy comments and horror, Megan Fox has taken to promotion of “Jennifer’s Body,” which hits theatres today, like, well a sex-obsessed, demon-possessed killer to its vulnerable male prey.

In an interview with ABC News Now’s “Popcorn with Peter Travers,”  Fox said that movie studios “underestimate audiences in general and market to them as if they’re stupid.”

To wit, as if the legion of male fans weren’t paying enough attention to her, the buildup to the film’s opening has included releasing pictures of an on-screen girl-on-girl kiss with her co-star Amanda Seyfried; tales of fighting on the set of “Transformers;” and a tongue-in-cheek fake PSA where Fox appears as herself to speak out against bullying in high school.

You don’t need to be a teenage boy to realize how scary girls can be. Girls know it too.

Megan Fox plays a demonic cheerleader in “Jennifer’s Body,” written by Diablo “Juno” Cody.

Certainly Diablo Cody does.

The Academy Award-winning “Juno” scribe proves as much in her second screenplay, a horror comedy about BFFs Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Needy (Amanda Seyfried).

These bosom buddies have a relationship that stretches back to the sandbox. They’re inseparable opposites: Jennifer is a babe, head cheerleader and a bit of a snot. Needy is nerdy, conventional and a soft touch.

Except that when we first meet her, she’s locked up in the local mental hospital, kicking back at the guards and muttering darkly about the murders that put her here.

Looking back, she dates this disastrous turn of events to the day Jennifer talked her into seeing an up-and-coming indie band at the roadhouse. The gig ends in a deadly inferno that claims the lives of several schoolmates, then Jennifer drives off with the band for an al fresco after-party involving satanic rites and virgin sacrifice. She survives on a technicality, but shows up later that night at Needy’s place covered in blood, barfing blue goo and craving fresh flesh.

In the days after the tragedy the entire school seems to be suffering from post-traumatic stress. Only Jennifer seems unfazed by the community’s second sucker punch: the gruesome fate of the star quarterback in the woods.

What’s a girl to do if her best friend turns into a heartless boy-eating demon? Needy cleans up the mess and hopes it’s just a phase.

The last time a horror flick tried for a distinctly female point of view the result was “Twilight,” which was more of a wan gothic romance than a chiller. Directed by Karyn Kusama, who made “Girlfight” and “Aeon Flux,” “Jennifer’s Body” isn’t anything like that. It’s a much edgier, snappier, bloodier film, aimed primarily at young hipsters and horror fans — plus anyone else curious to see Megan Fox get nasty. (That’s got to include a sizable chunk of the audience, surely?)

So smoldering hot that at one point she coolly sets fire to her tongue, Fox makes a convincing vixen, callously picking up victims whenever her luster begins to fade. It’s not hard to imagine she can have anyone who takes her fancy — even Needy is not immune to her charms.

Ironically, though, Jennifer is really the needy one here, while her friend eventually finds the self-possession to stand up to her. Similarly, you might come for Fox, but it’s Amanda Seyfried’s expressive range and toughness that leaves a more lasting impression. The “Mamma Mia” starlet is destined for good things.

The bitingly smart, funny teen-speak is carried over from “Juno,” along with sharp pop culture references and a sassy feminist attitude, but the million-dollar question has to be: Is it scary?

Only occasionally, I’m afraid.

The gore scenes come with weird little flourishes: Jennifer’s mounting body count attracts a crowd of curious woodland creatures, sounding a sweetly sick echo of “Bambi,” and a climactic showdown is set in a spectacularly fetid abandoned swimming pool (don’t they drain those things?). But the jokiness does tend to undercut the terror.

I suspect the film will prove too freaky for “Juno” boosters, and could have used more straight-ahead scares and sustained suspense to appease the hardcore horror geeks.

That said, this entertainingly oddball offering does twist fresh kinks into a genre that’s always crying out for new blood.

Court papers released in Los Angeles have revealed Michael Jackson’s mother will receive more than $1m (£606,000) a year from the singer’s estate.

The money is to be used to support Katherine Jackson and Michael Jackson’s three children.

The amount was approved by a judge in Los Angeles in August, but details have remained confidential until now.

The payments are $26,804 a month for Mrs Jackson herself and a monthly allowance of $60,000 for the children.

Prince Michael, 11, Paris Michael Katherine, nine, and Prince Michael II (known as Blanket), seven, are the main beneficiaries of the singer’s multi-million dollar estate, along with his mother and various charities.

After his death in June, Michael Jackson’s children went to live with their grandmother at the family home in north Los Angeles. They are still living there and Katherine Jackson has been granted permanent guardianship.

String of cases

The court documents show Mrs Jackson’s share pays for an assistant, housekeeper, driver, utilities, clothing, grooming and other expenses. It is not known if any of her funds are being used to help other members of her family.

The documents do not provide details of how the childrens’ allowance is being spent, but state that $315,000 a year pays for employees caring for them and another $160,000 is set aside for entertainment and other expenses.

Lawyers for Katherine Jackson wanted details of the payments kept private but Judge Mitchell Beckloff said in court he did not think the total amount could remain sealed.

Judge Beckloff has been presiding over a string of court cases regarding the unravelling of Michael Jackson’s estate, his business dealings and the wrangling over future earnings.

There are plans to produce a wide range of Michael Jackson memorabilia and a movie including footage from rehearsals for his planned comeback tour will be released in late October.

The judge also scheduled another court hearing in October for a progress report on how the children are faring since their father’s death. At his memorial service in early July, his daughter Paris paid an emotional tribute to her father.

Michael Jackson died in June from high levels of drugs in his body including the powerful anaesthetic propofol, more commonly used on hospital patients before surgery.

A police investigation into how he procured the drug has focussed on his personal physician Dr Conrad Murray. No charges have yet been brought in relation to the singer’s death.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has welcomed as “positive” the US decision to shelve controversial missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Mr Medvedev said there were now “good conditions” for US-Russia talks on tackling missile proliferation.

US President Barack Obama had earlier announced there would be a shift in US missile defence strategy, following a review of the threat posed by Iran.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said it was a “correct and brave” move.

However, US Republicans have called the decision “short-sighted” and “harmful”.

Some said it was a concession to Moscow with nothing in return.

Russia had long objected to plans pursued by the administration of former-President George W Bush to base a missile interceptor system close to its borders, calling it a threat to its security.

Mr Bush had argued the system was to defend against missiles from “rogue states” like Iran.

Mr Obama ordered a review on taking office earlier this year.

On Thursday he said that new intelligence had shown Iran was pursuing short-range and medium-range missile development, rather than long-range.

He said the US therefore needed a “proven, cost-effective” system that would use land- and sea-based interceptors against the evolving threat.

The US “no longer planned to move forward” with the old shield scheme, the White House said.

In an address on Russian television, Mr Medvedev said Mr Obama was “correcting” the US approach to missile defence.

Mr Medvedev said that he and Mr Obama had in earlier meetings expressed the need to work together to assess the risks of missile proliferation.

“The statement made in Washington today shows that quite good conditions are evolving for such work,” Mr Medvedev said.

Burmese shout slogans during a demonstration in Tokyo on August 23.

Lawyers for Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi appealed her 18-month house arrest to the high court Friday, while the nation’s ruling junta granted amnesty to thousands of other prisoners.

Burmese shout slogans during a demonstration in Tokyo on August 23.

The Yangon Divisional Court said it would announce its decision on October 2. Suu Kyi, 64, remains under home confinement and was not in court.

Meanwhile, the government said it was releasing 7,114 prisoners Friday from prisons across the country for “good conduct and discipline.”

In an unusual move, it invited journalists to witness and film the prisoner release at Yangon’s Insein Prison, a maximum-security facility.

Among the released prisoners were opposition party prisoners, some ex-military officers and two journalists who were arrested after assisting victims of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.

Human Rights Watch estimates there are 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is the best known, after having spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest.

Exiled journalist Aung Zaw told CNN that the amnesty was the ruling junta’s tactic for diverting attention from the high-profile Suu Kyi. The U.N. Security Council has expressed “serious concern” over her conviction and the European Union adopted additional sanctions against Myanmar. World leaders including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have criticized her treatment.

Aung Zaw, who founded the independent magazine Irrawaddy, said chances were slim that the court would release Suu Kyi or reduce her sentence.

“The regime wants to prevent her from participating in the 2010 elections,” he said from Chiang Mai, Thailand. “This government is very manipulative.”

Suu Kyi is the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party and has become the iconic face of democracy in her homeland.

Her latest sentence stems from an incident last May, in which an uninvited American man swam to her home. The man, John William Yettaw, was sentenced to hard labor but was later released after U.S. Sen. Jim Webb traveled to Myanmar and intervened in his case.

Suu Kyi was found guilty of breaching the terms of her existing house arrest. She was initially sentenced to three years in prison, but the head of the military junta later commuted it to 18 months of home confinement.

Her two sole companions in her heavily guarded residence also were sentenced to 18 months of house arrest, to be served alongside Suu Kyi.

The opposition leader told the court she didn’t know Yettaw, was unaware of his plans to visit, and didn’t report his intrusion because she didn’t want him to get in trouble