Brazilian city may sue The Simpsons

Rio de Janeiro is threatening to sue the makers of The Simpsons over an episode it says paints the city in a bad light.

Blame it on Lisa was broadcast in America last week.

It shows Lisa befriending a Brazilian street boy called Ronaldo, Bart being swallowed by a giant snake near the Sugar Loaf Mountain, and rats stopping people crossing the road.

Homer is kidnapped by a cab driver and when Marge goes to report the incident she is sexually harassed by a policeman.

The city's tourism director, Jose Eduardo Guinle, told Estado de SP newspaper that $6 billion had been spent in the last four years trying to change people's image of Brazil.

He said he has already contacted an international law firm about taking on the case.

He said: "This cartoon is aggressively bringing back something that was already forgotten. In the 1950s, people believed there were crocodiles in the streets of Rio."

He added that last year alone 220,000 Americans visited Rio.