Bart Not a ‘Nazi-Dude,’ Fox Tells Metzger

LOS ANGELES —  Twentieth Century Fox is seeking to prohibit white supremacist Tom Metzger from portraying the Bart Simpson character as a “Pure Nazi-Dude,” an anti-discrimination group said Wednesday.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, Fox’s Licensing and Merchandising Corp. filed the suit in U.S. District Court against Metzger, who lives in Fallbrook and is the leader of the White Aryan Resistance.

The league said Metzger’s group illegally infringed on the Bart character by advertising “Nazi Bart T-shirts” in its newsletter. The league also said the group advertised the T-shirts over its “Aryan Update” hot line.

Fox’s suit is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop Metzger from continuing to use the character, said the league’s national director, Abraham H. Foxman.

“We are appalled but not surprised that Metzger has used Bart Simpson to promote his malicious bigotry, clearly aimed to influence millions of impressionable children who look on the cartoon character as a ‘hero,’ ” Foxman said in a statement.

But Metzger, who said he has not seen the lawsuit, said he’s already stopped using the Bart character.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Metzger admitted that he advertised the T-shirts in one issue of the group’s newsletter, but stopped as soon as Fox told him.

“They (Fox) sent me a letter a couple of weeks ago, sort of cease and desist, and I said OK,” he said. “I guess Bart was under 18 and he couldn’t join the Nazi party. That’s sort of a problem.”

Metzger added, “If they want to go to court OK. It’ll probably cost more money than it’s worth.”

The league alerted Fox in January that Metzger’s group was advertising the T-shirts depicting Bart wearing a swastika arm band, giving the Nazi salute, with the message: “Pure Nazi-Dude.”

Foxman said that telling the studio about the ads is part of an ongoing campaign to warn cartoonists and their syndicates nationwide about the exploitation of characters by those promoting bigotry.

The Fox suit appears to be the latest legal entanglement for Metzger. Last week, San Diego County marshals seized racist video and audio tapes, recording equipment and other assets belonging to Metzger and his group.

The items may eventually be auctioned to help meet a $12.5-million judgment handed down in October by a Portland, Ore., jury. The jury found that two skinheads who pleaded guilty in the slaying of an Ethiopian immigrant had been incited by the campaign of racial hatred waged by Metzger; his son, John, and his group.

San Diego judges have also ruled that Metzger’s home should be sold and that donations mailed to his group’s post office boxes can be seized to help satisfy the Portland judgment.

Metzger founded White Aryan Resistance in the early ‘80s after leaving the Ku Klux Klan. Metzger calls himself a white separatist and advocates the “voluntary separation of the races.”