Perhaps the funniest commentary moment demonstrates how un-PC comedy writers' rooms can be. When discussing the appearance of the spider-pig, one says, "I think what Matt [Groening] said was, 'Give him a Jew nose.'" When the laughter subsides, we hear someone say, "One of the many similarities Matt has with Walt Disney."

Labels: GROEN DRAIN

People have been saying that I have "set my cap" on becoming "Mrs. Matt Groening." And they say that for the entire summer, I have been drunkenly throwing myself at Matt, in a way that appears almost desperate, making plans to cross his path during movie industry events and parties and receptions, always popping up at his side. And that one incident where I got kind of drunk at the Viper Room with Matt that caused my banning. Anyway: Matt Groening and I are "just friends," as they say. We do like to go to the beach together, we've been to a few local spas, we enjoy board games like Twatch and Scrabble. But we are just friends. Period. Oh, well, I have my hopes ... like any girl does. But for now those hopes are private and I know that TMZ won't betray my confidences.

Labels: GROEN DRAIN

Rupert Murdoch can take a joke - at least if he's making money off it - but his Fox News minions don't like being teased by their corporate siblings at "The Simpsons."

Matt Groening, creator of the modern cartoon classic, notes that the Fox overlord was willing to do a cameo on the show - introducing himself as "the evil billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch."

"He said he liked the show," Groening says in June's Playboy, which features his drawing of himself as Hugh Hefner, flanked by foxy-looking Marge Simpson and her sisters, Patty and Selma. "He seemed sincere … [though] there were little dollar signs in his eyes."

But "Fox News gives me a headache," says Groening, especially "the spinning logos and American flags and music designed to scare you s-less." He fondly remembers the "Simpsons" episode where "we had a news crawl like [Fox News] across the bottom of the screen. It said things like … 'Brad Pitt plus Albert Einstein equals Dick Cheney,' 'Study: 92 percent of Democrats are gay' … We were forbidden ever to do it again. Fox said it would confuse viewers."

With the 400th "Simpsons" episode and "The Simpsons Movie" approaching, Groening recalls how Elizabeth Taylor once agreed to play little Maggie saying her first word, "Daddy."

"We did 24 takes, but they were always too sexual. Finally Liz said, 'F— you,' and walked out."

Another time, his staff heard that "Prince wanted to do the show, so we wrote him a script. It didn't work out, because his chauffeur had written a script too, and Prince wanted to use that one."

As a parent, Groening says, "I'm the dad I wished I had. I try to let my kids have a good time." His reward? "[My kids] tell me I'm not funny anymore. … My son said he wishes ['Family Guy' creator] Seth MacFarlane were his father."

Labels: GROEN DRAIN

Labels: GROEN DRAIN, HOMERCIDE

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Mr. Mann, whose subjects have included underground cartoonists ("Comic Book Confidential") and avant-garde jazz musicians ("Imagine the Sound"), takes a light, zippy approach to his material. His main conceit is to have much of the story told by the hot rods themselves, voiced by sympathetic celebs like Jay Leno (a car and motorcycle hobbyist), the Smothers Brothers, and "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, with John Goodman as the disembodied voice of Big Daddy himself, speaking to us from the great body shop beyond.

Labels: GROEN DRAIN

"Matt Groening (creator of "The Simpsons") was adamant that the show should be about humor, the characters, and that the animation should not look good. That was really difficult for me and I would get frustrated when he would tell me something was too good. So one day I picked up a scene I had thrown in the trash and he loved it."

Labels: GROEN DRAIN