Crazy-corrupt former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich can't go to Costa Rica to take part in an NBC reality show, a federal judge told the Chicago poet-crook today. But what about the children?

Blago attempted to portray the appearance on NBC's I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! as a job opportunity which paid $80,000 a show and will allow him to provide for his kids. He's been unemployed since being removed from office, and is facing multiple corruption charges. A Costa Rican official noted that he'd be a free man in that country, as he doesn't have any convictions — just that impeachment thing.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel cannily forbade the gig. "I don't think this defendant in all honesty ... fully understands the position he finds himself in," he said in court. Oh, we think Blago understands. And if anyone was going to go on the lam in the jungles of Central America, it's Blago.

(Photo by Brian Jackson/Sun-Times))