If Michael Jackson couldn’t sing on “The Simpsons,” he apparently wanted to make sure someone passable took his place. Yeardley Smith — who voices Lisa Simpson — is revealing new details to TMZ.com about the King of Pop’s connection to the long-running animated Fox show. For the 1991 episode “Stark Raving Dad,” Smith says Jackson handpicked the impersonator who took on the singing duties for Leon Kompowsky, the mental patient who believed he was the pop superstar.
Michael still voiced the character’s speaking parts, but was reportedly blocked by his record label from singing the episode’s famous “Happy Birthday Lisa” song. Instead, he chose a man named Kipp Lennon to help Bart give his little sister a birthday present. Dang that sucks to find out it was all a lie.
Michael Jackson has been on the minds of many over the past few days. Saturday marked the second anniversary of the singer’s death. Their’s a picture of the real Bart and singing MJ “Kipp Lennon” below…
I love that episode, I thought that was TOO sweet!
This is discussed on the DVD commentary and is all over online (like Wikipedia, for example). The doofus at TMZ asked Yeardley Smith if it was really Michael Jackson– she didn’t break any news, they were just chatting about MJ because it was the anniversary of his death. Then TMZ called it “exclusive” and a “bombshell” because they didn’t bother to Google it.
Don’t get your news from TMZ, friends.