Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman will make guest appearances in a forthcoming 'The Simpsons' episode

Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman will make guest appearances in a forthcoming 'The Simpsons' episode

The 'New Girl' actress will reprise her role as Mary Spuckler - the daughter of Cleetus who Bart Simpson came close to marrying in season 19 - and she will be joined in the same episode by characters voiced by Natalie, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sarah Silverman.

The quartet will lend their vocal talents to the roles of four of Bart's former girlfriends when the 10-year-old boy goes on a romantic pilgrimage to visit his former love interests.

'The Simpsons' consulting producer Tim Long, who wrote the episode, is quoted by Entertainment Weekly as saying: "It was a way to acknowledge that for a 10-year-old boy, Bart has gotten a lot of action.

"We thought it might be fun to borrow/pay homage to/steal an idea from 'High Fidelity' and have him go on a romantic pilgrimage and visit the girls that he dated and try to figure out how the hell he screwed things up with each of them ... I don't want to give away too much, but he realises that maybe there's something wrong with him after all."

The 'Moonshine River' episode will see Bart briefly meet former flames Gina (Sarah), Darcy (Natalie), Jenny (Anne) and Nikki (Sarah) before learning that Mary (Zooey) has relocated to New York, so he tries to track her down in an attempt to reconcile his relationship with her.

Tim joked: "Any resemblance between this episode and 'Breakfast at Tiffany's is completely coincidental."

The episode will air in the US this autumn as part of the animated programme's 24th series, which will also feature vocal cameos by Steve Carell, Fred Armisen and Jennifer Tilly.

Zooey Deschanel gets "depressed" when she is sent scripts where she is a supporting character

Zooey Deschanel

The 'New Girl' actress admits she rarely gets sent any projects or characters she can get excited about as a "comedienne" because she is often only sent parts as the lead actor's girlfriend.

She said: "I really do feel that for a long time women didn't have the place in comedy that they should.

"I mean, when you get sent scripts and you see you're always playing someone's girlfriend when you want to be the central role, it's so depressing.

"As a comedienne, it felt so frustrating to always be setting up someone else's comedic moment."
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However, the 32-year-old beauty thinks things began to change with the success of female-driven comedy 'Bridesmaids' – starring Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph – because studio bosses understood there was an audience who weren't being catered to.

She added: "'Bridesmaids' success meant that a lot of networks realized people were interested in that kind of comedy.

"We already had our show in production, but it made the networks pay more attention."