This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

She is a devoted wife and mother-of-three. Now the yellow-faced Marge Simpson is about to go blue as the first animated character to grace the cover of Playboy magazine.

Pictures of the November issue were released yesterday showing the television matriarch posing behind a tactfully placed "bunny" chair, wearing only her signature blue barnet.

The glamour magazine cover shoot comes as part of celebrations that mark the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons.

Playboy's founder, Hugh Hefner, hinted recently of a possible Simpsons-Playboy collaboration, tweeting: "Marge Simpson has a surprise for her fans in the November issue of Playboy."

Hefner has also promised an alternative cover featuring Victoria's Secret model, Alina Puscau, photographed by film director Brett Ratner.

Hefner added yesterday: "True fans will want both."

"The Marge Simpson pics were shot by Homer."

Pictures and an interview with Marge will also feature in a three-page centrefold. She follows in the footsteps of Marilyn Monroe and Farrah Fawcett.

Playboy's new CEO, Scott Flanders, says the aim is to attract readers in their 20s to a magazine whose readership currently averages at 35.

He told the Chicago Sun-Times that the shoot is "obviously somewhat tongue-in-cheek. It had never been done, and we thought it would be kind of hip, cool and unusual."