Leader of the Hack

Image credit: Alias: Byron J. Cohen

TECHIE SUPPORT Garner gets help from a real-life hacker on ''Alias''

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Don't take this the wrong way, but one of the upcoming guest stars on ABC's spy drama ''Alias'' is a big-time hack. Kevin Mitnick -- formerly the country's most wanted computer hacker, who spent nearly five years behind bars -- will appear in the Oct. 28 episode as Agent Burnett, a CIA computer whiz who joins forces with Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner). ''Kevin is someone who has been, in many ways, a hero/antihero of mine,'' says series executive producer J.J. Abrams. ''The idea that this guy would be on 'Alias' playing a federal employee just made me laugh.'' Sealing the deal was no joke: Abrams had to write a letter to Mitnick's probation officer, explaining that Mitnick (whose ''supervised release'' bars him from using computers without government permission) would only be working with prop computers on ''Alias.'' And though not required by law, Abrams asked Mitnick to cut his lengthy mane. ''I look better in long hair, but I wanted to do the part,'' Mitnick says. ''Now I look like a respectable CIA agent rather than Steven Tyler.'' Still, Mitnick received rock-star treatment on set. ''I had him sign my iMac with a Sharpie,'' boasts Abrams. ''But I was a little nervous that federal agents were going to burst through the door and see that he was almost touching a computer.''