Seinfeld to Hollywood: "You can't buy me off"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Here's the beauty of being me," says comedian Jerry Seinfeld. "They can't buy me off." Seinfeld, whose "Bee Movie" debuts in theaters on Friday, grins when he tells his off-the-cuff joke, and although the reporters with him laugh, everyone knows he is not joking.

Last month, Forbes.com estimated the annual income of the stand-up comedian and creator of the 1990s smash hit television show "Seinfeld" at $60 million, among the highest on TV.

This was nine years after his show left the air and was based largely on payments for reruns and other products from the program.

The "they" that Seinfeld referred to are Hollywood executives who would salivate at any hint Seinfeld and co-stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards might reunite for a special about "Seinfeld" and cash in on the sure-fire TV event.

But Seinfeld said there is no need to rehash the TV show. He gets more excited about working in new arenas, which is why he ventured into computer animation and "Bee Movie."

The new style of animated movie was fresh, he said. The idea also was pushed along by Steven Spielberg.

As Seinfeld tells it, he was dining with the star movie director and mentioned he had a funny idea: a film about bees titled "Bee Movie" -- a pun on old, low-grade "B" movies.

Spielberg called his friend Jeffrey Katzenberg -- now the head of the DreamWorks Animation movie studio -- and faster than one can say "punch line," a movie deal was born.

Seinfeld said he wanted to remake his favorite film, 1967's coming-of-age tale "The Graduate," but he was stung by his newfound commitment to bees.

"I thought: It'd be funny to do a 'Graduate' with bees," he said, prompting more laughs. But he looks downward and his voice softens. "But you know, you can't do that."

A "SEINFELD" GRADUATE

What a writer, producer and comic genius (not to mention rich) could do, however, was to write jokes for "Bee Movie" that offer audiences a wink toward "The Graduate."

Adults will get the joke when lead bee, Barry B. Benson (voiced by Seinfeld), lounges in a pool instead of choosing his career path. Kids may not get it, but there is plenty other things to laugh about in the family movie from DreamWorks, which also released the smash hit "Shrek" animated comedies.

Barry has graduated from school and is set to enter the honey-making working class when he ventures out of the hive, falls for a girl (voiced by Renee Zellweger) and discovers people are stealing honey for their own consumption.

Barry sues the human race and wins a court order returning the sweet stuff to the bees. Life should be good, but without pollination, the world's flowers, fruits and vegetables begin dying, so Barry must figure out how to undo his legal damage.

Seinfeld has made his living telling funny stories about ironies and inconsistencies in people's everyday lives, and similarly "Bee Movie" pokes fun at human foibles.

The comedian said he is not certain what new comedy arena he will enter next. For now, he is content to let "Bee Movie" roll out and see how it plays in theaters. Early buzz around Hollywood is that it should be a smash box office hit.

Producer Christina Steinberg said in the four years she worked on "Bee Movie," she learned many things about Seinfeld, and one key lesson was not to question his instinct about a good joke.

"I did it a few times, and he'd say 'OK let's test it.' I was always wrong, and it'd get the biggest laugh," she said.

But about not rehashing his old TV show, Seinfeld is dead serious. And that you can take to the bank.