Neil Simon loves '40-Year-Old Virgin'

LOS ANGELES, July 31 (UPI) -- Playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon told TV critics in Los Angeles his favorite comedy movie this year was "The 40-Year-Old Virgin."

Simon, who will receive Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in October, told the Television Critics Association he liked everything in the 2005 Steve Carell movie about an accidental virgin who works in an electronics store.

I thought it was the first and only comedy film I've seen of this era, of this time, that anybody will be reached by," he said. "I thought it was terrific."

Simon, 79, will receive his award at the Kennedy Center in Washington Oct. 15. The ceremony will be taped for airing on Public Broadcasting Service stations Nov. 20.

Among the confirmed attendees are Robert Redford, Jason Alexander and Nathan Lane, who recently starred on Broadway with Matthew Broderick in a sold-out revival of Simon's "The Odd Couple," the New York Daily News reports.

Simon began his career as a TV comedy writer in the 1950s, most notably for Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows." He won Tony Awards for "Biloxi Blues," "Lost in Yonkers" and the original version of "The Odd Couple." His latest screenplay is a remake of the 1972 movie "The Heartbreak Kid."