Marge Simpson, nude in Playboy?

"Even if you've only read Playboy for the articles in the past," said Tracy Pepey in iVillage, you'll want to check out the nudity in the November issue—"cartoon mama Marge Simpson will appear naked(!) on the mag's cover." To celebrate The Simpsons' 20th anniversary, "Homer's honey" will do an interview and a three-page pictorial. No centerfold, though—Marge is "too classy" for that.

She'll still be flashing a lot of yellow, said Hanh Nguyen in Zap2it. Maybe too much. "We love Marge, but sexualizing her? That just seems wrong somehow."

You're not the only one who'll be "cringing," said Sky News. Bart and Lisa are bound to be mortified. And "Homer is sure to get a ribbing when he next goes down to Moe's Tavern for a glass of Duff with his mates."

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Marge Simpson will generate a lot of publicity for her show, and for Playboy, said Mike Bruno in Entertainment Weekly. But a cartoon gimmick won't save Playboy. One stunt won't change the fact that the old-school nudie magazine's "airbrushed centerfold spreads have been supplanted by the Internet’s ability to offer every flavor of naked lady known to man (as well as fetish flavors unknown to most men)."