‘Simpsons’ Producer Al Jean Says Show Still Trying to Net Clint Eastwood, George Clooney

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: The Simpsons easily has the largest and most impressive guest star list in the history of television – at least as far as scripted TV goes. Still, some famous names have managed to elude the show in its 25 years this far, and showrunner Al Jean makes no secret of his wish list.

“There’s a group we never got and maybe never will. Clint Eastwood we’ve tried several times. George Clooney we’ve tried several times,” he said.

It’s not necessarily that the duo aren’t willing, but instead the right parts just haven’t been nailed down quite yet.

“We’ve been really lucky with our success rate. Nearly 95 percent of the people we approach say yes,” he explained. “We just want to get really funny people so the kind of people I love, we’ve had on like Ricky Gervais and Jonah Hill.” Makes you wonder who the unwilling losers are, right?

Season 26 will feature even more names, including Jane Fonda, Pharrell Williams, and Sir Richard Branson.

“Richard lives next to Mr. Burns and Burns says, ‘Can you speak for five minutes without saying the word ‘Virgin’?’ He was very nice. I didn’t meet him but I spoke to him on the phone,” Al revealed.

However, there was one catch for nabbing the big-shot CEO: “The only thing Mr. Branson asked for, was to mention his intergalactic challenge to encourage space travel,” Jean said. “Which was fine, because it was for charity.”

Jean also reflected on some of his favorites guests to have lent their voices in the past, including Kelsey Grammer (of course), Anne Hathaway, Tom Brady, and Sir Mick Jagger. “Kelsey and Anne were stellar; unbelievably funny and great singers,” he said. “I’ve been surprised by how funny some athletes are, like US footballer Tom Brady. People who weren’t voiceover artists but were really good at it.” Obviously that quote was given to a non-US outlet, because here in the states we know that there’s only one kind of football. You know, the game with the helmets where you rarely use your feet.

“I shouldn’t have been too surprised at it, but Mick Jagger was great and really funny,” Jean added. No surprise to viewers who saw the product, Season 14’s “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation,” where the Rolling Stones frontman rattled off all sorts of wacky lines.

So maybe someday you’ll get your wish, Al. I could see Clint Eastwood being a tricky one to land, but now that George Clooney’s wedding is behind him, he might have some availability. And if he needs any convincing, we already have a good representation of what the handsome actor would look like if he were Simpsonized.

[via Yahoo! News UK]