UDTs in templates during page edits

[spcherub]

Is there a non-hack way to get a UDT to fire when editing a page? I am using AdvancedContent (what an excellent module btw) and would like to show the user a drop down select when editing a page. The issue is that I want to be able to show a list of items that I pull from the database instead of a static list of items that I can embed into the module call.

The specific use case is that the template I am working with allows a user to see two news items. I would like them to be able to select which two news items they'd like to show and be able to do this without having to figure out the IDs or having to mess with the smarty tag that calls the news module. The AdvancedContent allows me to model a drop down into the template but I need a way to fill the select options dynamically.

Any advice from the CMSMS literati?

TIA,
Sanjay