WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to appear in the landmark 500th episode of the Simpsons, after producers heard he was keen to appear on the show.
Simpsons executive producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly that series creator Matt Groening had wanted to find out if the rumour was true.
"So we asked our casting director Bonnie Pietila — who had been able to unearth Thomas Pynchon and got Tony Blair to do the show — to find Mr Assange. And she did," he said.
In the episode, due to be screened in May in the UK, Homer and Marge discover that the other residents of Springfield are conspiring to get them kicked out of the town for all the trouble they have caused over the years.
"The Simpsons go off the grid to this very rugged place where they meet [Assange]," Jean said.
Assange is currently under house arrest in the UK awaiting his final extradition trial on Wednesday. He is wanted for questioning in Sweden over accusations that he sexually assaulted two women there.
He is also set to appear on the TV screens soon in person, hosting ten weekly half-hour programmes featuring "in-depth conversations with key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries" from around the world.