Had Robert Brustein been watching ''Live With Regis and Kelly" yesterday, the dean of American drama would have been humored. Or horrified. There was Jennifer Garner -- who's staying at Brustein's Cambridge crib while her hubby, Ben Affleck, directs ''Gone, Baby, Gone" -- admitting that the Fire Department paid a visit to the pad recently. The actress, on the talk show circuit selling the ''Alias" series finale, said one of her culinary quirks is that she cooks, er, hot. ''Does this ever happen to you?" she said. ''You'll put a little oil in the pan . . . and the next thing you know the room is kind of smoked up?" That's what happened to Ben, Jen, and baby Violet, who started screaming when the fire alarm sounded. ''So [Ben] rips this thing out of the wall," said a giggling Garner, who then turned to the camera and apologized to Brustein on national TV. ''Sorry, people-we're-renting-the-house-from," she said. ''We did rip it out, but we'll fix it." The silly story concluded with eight Cambridge firemen carrying hatchets standing at the door. Contacted yesterday, Brustein chuckled but declined to comment. About ''Gone, Baby, Gone," by the way, Garner revealed that Morgan Freeman has joined the cast.
As for the final episode of "Alias" next Monday, Garner says we'll learn why she's running and where she's going. She says "some of it may break your heart, but a lot of it will make you happy." She says "there's a little bit of a love story," and "people die, people come back to life."