TVSquad

She's been the voice of precocious child Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons since she was 23 years old, but her problems are more grown up. Yeardley Smith has filed for divorce from her husband of six years.

The reason cited for her split from Daniel Erickson was "irreconcilible differences." This is the second divorce for Smith, having divorced actor Christopher Grove in 1992. Smith is planning to change her last name back to Smith from Erickson. The couple have no children.

Say it ain't so, Ho. Homey, that's is. According to Variety, even though Fox has given The Simpsons a renewal for season number 20, the voice talent that make the show have not been re-signed. Julie Kavner, Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria, Yeardley Smith, Nancy Cartwright and Harry Shearer -- the actors who are as integral to the success of The Simpsons as the writers and animators -- are looking for a new deal. The group make approximately $360,000 per episode. They want a raise to $500,000 per. While that sounds like a lot of money -- and it is! -- when you consider how much Fox and company are making off The Simpsons franchise, like the new ride at Universal Orlando, the talent have every right to expect their piece of the pie.

It's Sunday. The winter press tour is over. I'm currently coming down from being over-fed, over-sugared, and moderately-boozed. I'm also thinking back to the fact that during the last four days, I rarely left my hotel, because the networks were plying their wares for us from morning until night.

I'm going to post my overall thoughts on this TV smorgasboard later this week. But before I hop a plane back to Jersey, I wanted to talk about the session that was a TV nerd's dream, at least to this TV nerd: FOX's panel to celebrate the 400th episode of The Simpsons, which will air this May. On the panel was none other than creator Matt Groening, executive producer and TV legend James L. Brooks, current show-runner Al Jean, and voice actors Yeardley Smith (Lisa) and Dan Castellaneta (Homer and a bunch of other voices).

The Simpsons will occasionally reference some obscure television show like The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo and Herman's Head. The latter is special to The Simpsons, however, because it featured two of the voice actors from the series, Yeardley Smith (Lisa Simpson) and Hank Azaria (Moe, Chief Wiggum, Apu, and countless others).

The show, which ran for three seasons on FOX in the early nineties, centered on Herman Brooks, played by William Ragsdale, fresh from his role in Mannequin 2: On the Move. Oh yes, everyone said no one could top the first Mannequin, that no one could embodied the lead like Andrew McCarthy, but he proved them wrong. Who's laughing now, huh? Actually, I never saw that movie. Anyway, Herman was an aspiring writer who worked as a fact checker for a magazine. Inside his head lived four beings who each represented a different part of his psyche: lust, fear; sensitivity (played by a woman, natch), and intellect. Smith played a secretary at Herman's office, while Azaria played his womanizing best friend. It was a rather cheesy premise, and the show, save for the odd premise, didn't venture too far from normal sitcom stuff. Still, it had a fun, kooky feel to it. And really, if it weren't for occasional reruns of The Simpsons tossing the show back into the public consciousness now and again, it would probably have been long forgotten.