Earlier today the always rabid folks at Latino Review went crazy with an inside source filled rant that said much, without actually saying much. Chief among their claims was that Tobey Maguire, star of Spider-Man and more recently Brothers, is looking to do a pic with Guillermo Del Toro. He even went as far as to say at the Brothers press day that he and the Pan’s Labrynth director might “have something together real soon.”

After some insider poking, the usually reliable and always humble El Mayimbe emerged with word that Maguire’s agency (CAA) is in talks with Del Toro’s people for the little guy to play a young Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, which is next on the slate for Del Toro and producer Peter Jackson.

Later in the day, Maguire’s publicist Kelly Bush phoned Movieline to say hello, and to say that “This is False!” We’re not sure if she mentioned specifically that there should be an exclamation at the end of that statement, but we’re sure that Movieline was able to derive her intent, based on voice inflection and volume.

So what does it all mean?

Well, either way it’s spin. There are several likely scenarios. One is that Maguire’s people are trying to get his name close to The Hobbit, and started the rumor via Latino Review in order to get it out there and get influential bloggers (me) talking about how he would be “a great fit” and that we’re “dying to see” Maguire in The Hobbit. Then his people deny the rumor, because it is in fact not true — he isn’t set for the part. They just hope that they’ve got someone’s attention now.

The second is that the rumor was complete malarkey from the start. Though this doesn’t seem as plausible, as it did come from somewhere — and it had to come from somewhere who could know the answer, otherwise I doubt El Mayimbe would’ve run the rumor in the first place.

My vote is on scenario one. We’ll see if this clever publicity ruse pays off in the end, when The Hobbit eventually gets to shooting sometime in 2010.