Even the news about the slaughter of pedestrians on Queens Blvd. got to shock jock Howard Stern. Last week on his morning talk show, Stern chatted about old ladies trying to get across Queens Blvd. despite speeding cars. His co-host Robin Quivers even recited the statistic that one person dies every six weeks on Queens Blvd. On a lighter note, Stern, from Long Island, recalled hanging out on Queens Blvd. when he was a senior in high school, because that was the cool thing to do back then.

The newshounds of CBS TV almost blew it. Reporters at the Channel 2 News Network raised a few eyebrows – and the ire of NYPD officials and plainclothes cops on Dec. 8 when they announced their plan to air a trial evidence tape on their 11 o’clock news.

Insiders told QConfidential that the tape, which CBS officials said they obtained through "alternate sources at Queens District Attorney Robert (sic) Brown’s office," showed Queens plainclothes cops in an undercover sting that led to the arrest of one Henry Vega on drug charges.

When Vega was arrested, he confessed to the July 1987 murder of Queens cop George Scheu in Flushing. That trial was slated to begin in Kew Gardens Criminal Court on Jan. 15, but CBS aired the tape as part of its coverage of Vega’s sentencing on the drug charges. He got 92 years to life.

The tape showed Vega and the undercover cops hanging out at a phony social club where Vega thought he was impressing mobsters with his bravado and tales of criminal activities. While at the club, Vega bragged about murdering Scheu. The tape clearly showed the detectives – who are currently involved in other undercover operations. Showing the tape in the manner CBS reporters planned to would jeopardize the cops and "blow their cover," sources said.

When NYPD officials asked CBS to cut out segments showing the cops, network officials balked.

"They weren’t happy about it," sources told QConfidential. "It took phone negotiations throughout the day to get them to agree not to reveal the identities of the cops."

NYPD officials are also questioning the actions of the Queens prosecutor who released the tape to CBS – under a promise of anonymity.

"What the hell is wrong with that person?" police officials said. "How could he or she jeopardize the welfare of the cops involved, and any cases these cops are currently investigating?," one police source said.

Natalie Portman, Long Island cutie and star of George Lucas’ blockbuster Star Wars prequel "The Phantom Menace," was recently spotted passing through LaGuardia Airport.

Syosset's Natalie Portman

According to a reliable QConfidential source, the petite 19-year-old Syosset resident boarded a Delta shuttle — coach — to Logan Airport, en route to Harvard University, where Portman is currently in her second semester.

Though nobody recognized the young starlet on board, that didn’t stop Portman from being pestered.

Apparently a rather talkative fellow classmate chewed the visibly uninterested Portman’s ear off for a good 20 minutes before the flight, until she buried her nose deep into an issue of US Magazine and promptly fell asleep.

Portman resumed her role as the love interest of the soon-to-turn-evil Anakin Skywalker, played by Hayden Christensen, during the filming of "Star Wars Episode II" this past summer.

Lucas is currently piecing the film together at his Skywalker Ranch. A release date has yet to be announced.