D'Oh! Fox Tries to Sink "O.J. Simpson's"

Somebody get Lionel Hutz on the horn, stat!

The powers-that-be at 20th Century Fox are threatening to bring the legal heat down on a video-sharing Website over a series of parody clips that mash up Homer and O.J. Simpson.

Fox has ordered broadcaster.com to remove the trio of "O.J. Simpson's" shorts, claiming the clips infringe on the studio's copyrights.

The 'toons employ The Simpsons' animation style, with O.J. as the Homer-esque pater familias and his two kids, Sydney and Justin, bearing a striking resemblance to Bart and Lisa. Each short begins with the TV show's theme and has the requisite "couch gag," but the "O.J. Simpson's" intro includes O.J.-specific allusions—for instance, the Simpson family jalopy is replaced with a white Bronco chased by cop cars.

The first clip, "If I Did It," riffs on Simpson's hypothetical tell-all about the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Fox scuttled an interview with Simpson about the book, and corporate parent News Corporation quashed the publication of the tome by its ReganBooks imprint.

The other two clips involve an O.J.-Michael Richards meeting of the minds ("Black and White Christmas") and a family vacation to Iraq ("Warzone").

Each clip ends with the following disclaimer: "The previous video is not affiliated or endorsed by either Fox, Matt Groening or anyone related to Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa or Maggie. In other words—IT'S NOT THE SIMPSONS—it's the O.J. Simpson's. D'uh!"

But Fox, whose hugely anticipated Simpsons movie is due out July 27, doesn't see it that way and has sent a take-down notice to the video site.

Martin Wade, the CEO of broadcaster.com, says his firm isn't budging right now, citing the First Amendment's protection of parody speech and fair use.

"We respect the rights of content owners," Wade says in a statement. "We are examining all the issues raised by the Fox request. Our goal is to be a respecter of content rights and at the same time find legal ways to bring our community members the content they enjoy."

The clips are still up on the site and have proliferated via YouTube and other viral sites.

Meanwhile, in other Simpson (O.J., not Homer)-related happenings...

A week after Simpson's lawyer threatened to file a discrimination complaint against a steakhouse for failing to serve the former football star and his entourage, the attorney has stuck a fork in the lawsuit talk.

So where's the beef?

"We are not pushing it," Simpson's Florida-based attorney, Yale Galanter, told the Associated Press, explaining that Simpson didn't want to give any more attention to restaurateur Jeff Ruby.

Ruby booted Simpson and his 12-person party after they entered Jeff Ruby's Louisville restaurant on the eve of the Kentucky Derby—a move Galanter now calls a "publicity stunt."

"If we had our druthers, this would have died that night and been over," Galanter told the wire service.

Ruby said he was a former fan of Simpson's, and even hung a picture of the Naked Gun star on the wall of one of his eateries. But Ruby says he became disgusted with Simpson in the wake of the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Although Simpson was acquitted of their murders, he has yet to pay the $33.5 million judgment to the Goldman and Brown families after he was found liable by a jury in a 1996 wrongful-death suit.

"He continues to torture the lives of the families whose lives he ruined. This was the only thing I could do for the victims' families," Ruby told the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Following the incident, Galanter lashed out at Ruby, claiming the owner ejected Simpson out of racism, not morals. Galanter floated the idea of filing a lawsuit and suggested he might even contact authorities to try and get the steakhouse's liquor license revoked.

"He screwed with the wrong guy, he really did," Galanter was quoted as saying. Galanter has since stated that his comment was taken out of context. Neither he nor Simpson returned calls seeking comment.

Ruby, who says he has several African-American patrons and served a Michael Jordan party moments after kicking Simpson out, also declined to comment on Monday.

The steakhouse proprietor isn't out of the woods yet. The Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission reportedly is considering filing a complaint against Ruby, who also owns upscale eateries in several midwestern cities.