'The Simpsons': Denis Leary, Julia Louis-Dreyfus among next season's guest stars

[Brian Damage]

Does Denis Leary need to be rescued from Bart Simpson? The Rescue Me star will play himself in the Oct. 5 episode of The Simpsons, losing his cool at a celebrity golf event and throwing his cell phone in anger. When Bart finds the phone, he uses it to make prank calls — and even winds up accepting a role for Leary in Brian Grazer's big-screen adaptation of Everybody Poops (yes, Grazer also guests). Meanwhile, Julia Louis-Dreyfus reprises her role as Snake's girlfriend — and this time, she's pregnant! — in the Sept. 28 season opener. (Plot: Homer becomes a bounty hunter.)

In other Simpsons business news, two billionaires — Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos — will lend their pipes to a December installment in which Mr. Burns wins a pro basketball team during a poker game. Notes Simpsons executive producer Al Jean of that episode: "It certainly has the richest cast in the history of cartoons."

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