A Star Is Born-Again
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"A Star Is Born - Again" is the 13th episode from The Simpsons' fourteenth season, which first aired on March 2, 2003. The episode owes much of its plot to Notting Hill; whereas the 1999 movie is about an actress (Julia Roberts) finding happiness with the owner of an independent bookstore, the Simpsons episode features Hollywood movie star Sara Sloane falling for Ned Flanders, the owner of the Leftorium, a left-handed specialist store. This is the only episode in which the same person has been accredited with two different names. Credited as "James L. Brooks" as the Executive Producer and Executive Creative Consultant, and credited as "Jim Brooks" as a Special Guest Voice.
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[edit] Plot
During the annual Jellyfish Festival, which welcomes back the Stinging Red Jellyfish to the shores of Springfield, Ned Flanders becomes depressed because he does not have anyone to be with. The other adults have partners with whom to spend a romantic evening at the Jellyfish Cotillion, this is Ned's first festival without his wife Maude (who died in episode "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily").
Ned returns to the Leftorium to work on his taxes and to take his mind off things. Here he meets a beautiful woman (voiced by Marisa Tomei), who is after a pair of left-handed eyelash curlers. After chatting to Ned, she eventually asks him out on a date. Later, after the mysterious shopper has gone, Ned spots a movie poster with the woman's face on it; she is a movie star, Sara Sloane.
Sara and Ned hit it off, with Sara loving Ned's simple, quaint lifestyle and honesty. They go on several dates and encounter some problems (Sara is more uninhibited than Ned), especially from tabloid reporters.
When her movie finishes filming, Sara asks Ned to come back to Hollywood with her. Ned has a horrible dream about the evils of Hollywood (in a sequence that includes a cameo by series producer James L. Brooks, and also the "Hollywood" sign reading "Hollyweird") and refuses. Because of this, Sara tries staying in Springfield, to be with Ned. She slowly starts settling in with the locals, joining Marge's book club and going shopping with Ned.
At a concert one night (to which Sara wears a dress that shows a lot of breast cleavage.), Sara tells Ned she wants to have sex with him. Ned eventually relents, but their relationship does not work out, due to his insistence on marriage. They break up and Sara returns to Hollywood. She gets a quickie marriage and divorce to Bob Balaban. Ned finds that he is now more attractive to women because of his famous relationship.
[edit] Cultural references
- The episode title is both a play on the 1937 film A Star Is Born and the term Born again Christian.
- The little song Ned sings when he first meets Miss Sloane at the Leftorium, '"I've got a date with a girl with no name"', goes along to the tune of A Horse With No Name by America.
- When Helen Fielding runs around being chased by bobbies and a man in a gorilla suit (following the book club meeting and the end of the episode), it is an homage to the UK sketch comedy "The Benny Hill Show." The music featured in the background of the sequences, Yakety Sax, is the same music used in that series.
- Debussy's "Arabesque No. 1" and "Clair de Lune" was used as the background music for several scenes.
- A Cher-Crow was used trying to shoo away the tabloids.
- This episode is a play on Notting Hill.
[edit] Reception
In a 2008 article, Entertainment Weekly named Marisa Tomei's role as Sara Sloane as one of the sixteen best guest appearances on The Simpsons.[1]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- "A Star Is Born Again" at The Simpsons.com
- "A Star Is Born Again" at the Internet Movie Database
- "A Star Is Born Again" at TV.com
