'Simpsons' fever spreads to nation's Springfields.

Byline: Jack Moran The Register-Guard

Vote for Springfield.

That's the pitch in 14 Springfields around the country that are vying for a chance to land the world premiere of "The Simpsons Movie" on July 26.

Twentieth Century Fox officials announced this week that an online vote will determine the winner of the friendly competition, in which cities will film a short video that highlights their hometown and ties it to the fictional Springfield where the animated television Simpsons family lives.

Videos created by the real Springfields - which must be sent to Fox by June 28 - will be posted at www.usatoday.com. The online polls at the Web site will close July 9, with a winning city announced a day or two later.

Lane County's Springfield is running, as are others in Massachusetts, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Colorado, Louisiana and Vermont.

Fox originally asked 16 cities to compete for the movie premiere.

But officials in two Springfields rejected the studio's overtures, opting to keep things business as usual in their apparently media-shy communities.

"Here, there would be more trouble messing around with it, than there will be with not messing with it," said Springfield, Minn., City Manager Mac Tilberg, who personally declined Fox's invitation to participate in the contest.

Tilberg said most residents of his 2,215-person city have little interest in helping Hollywood promote a film based on a crude cartoon family.

"It's not that we're snobbish, or feel that we're above `The Simpsons,' '' Tilberg said. "We just really don't care if the movie is in (Minnesota's) Springfield. We don't need the hype here."

Officials in Springfield, Ga. (pop. 1,821) also decided against preparing a contest entry.

"We're short-handed and just don't have the time to do something like that, when we need to do our regular city stuff," said Amber Nettles, a deputy city clerk in Georgia's Springfield.

But not every small town spurned Fox's advance. In Springfield, Ky. (pop. 2,634), Simpsons fever has fired up the citizenry.

"We are very excited about this," City Administrator Laurie Smith said.

The city has appointed a nine-person committee and found a professional videographer to work on its contest submission.

"It's not every day that a Springfield the size of ours gets a call from Hollywood," Smith said. "It's a lot of fun for us, and I think that we have as good of a chance as anyone else."

In Oregon, Springfield city officials are serious about winning. Last week, they pieced together a life-size, plastic model of the Simpsons clan in the City Hall lobby. The display was part of a contest packet Fox sent to cities participating in the promotion.

Dozens of people - ranging from small children to City Manager Gino Grimaldi and Mayor Sid Leiken - have been photographed on the model's cardboard couch, seated next to the huge-headed Homer Simpson.

Another angle of local Simpsons mania unfolded last month, when more than 200 people packed the Richard E. Wildish Community Theater in downtown Springfield for a brainstorming session at which dozens of residents offered suggestions for the city's video.

"I've been somewhat surprised by how much people are into it," Leiken said. "Whether I'm at the grocery store or the mall, people stop me and the first question is about the Simpsons. It's generated a huge amount of excitement in the community."

Time will tell if Minnesota's Tilberg regrets the decision to keep his city Simpsons-free. He said feedback from locals has been mixed.

"I've had about half a dozen e-mails about it," Tilberg said. "A couple of guys have said to me, `Boy, my kids are really mad at you.'