While Toyota's been following the US-market line of boring car buyers into a vegetative state, then taking their money, in Japan they're playing mix-and-match with stuff in their parts bin to quicken buyers' collective pulse. In Japan, Toyota's offering a hotted-up version of its Blade hatch — itself a sportier variant …

Toyota launched its new Blade hatch in Japan earlier today. Named not for the weapon of choice among Yakuza assassins of past decades, rather to "suggest an automobile with a 'sharpness' that fascinates people" (hmm), the Blade is a swank version of the Auris, which will is essentially a hatchback'd Corolla. It's got an …

Tho' we're neither mag nor lad mag, we do know a hot-as-hell spokeswoman when we see her — and no talking head's been hotter (in both Google-dom and on the boob-tube) than Mercury's Jill Wagner. She's hot — and so's her latest resume entry for the smaller-than-silver screen. She's got the role of sultry double-agent…