When popular actress Jennifer Aniston announced last week that she would be appearing in a guest spot on NBC’s smash hit “30 Rock” as a "free-spirited, Fatal Attraction-like stalker" named Claire Harper, a former roommate of Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon who begins an obsession with the show’s Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) that quickly leads to a nude scene for the two, television critics rose in their seats as one to cheer the show’s writers for introducing a plot twist sure to drive increased viewership metrics.

Now the “30 Rock” worm turns once again as it was announced by the show’s producers that Aniston’s stalker character – a down-and-out Chicago-based talk show host that the show’s writers call “a female Jerry Springer” -- will have her own set of stalkers on the show who will pursue her through a number of prime-time NBC shows and in some innovative Internet-only episodes reminiscent of Federico Fellini, Tim Burton and “Hairspray’s” John Waters.

“It’s a bizarre-yet-commercial plot twist designed to take the show in an innovative-yet-lucrative multiplatform direction,” says Fey, the show’s executive producer. “Our intention is to make television industry history while at the same time avoiding potentially injurious FCC fines.”

According to Fey, the original “30 Rock” stalker plotline had been in the news so often in real life that it risked being labeled “derivative,” “generic” – “and even lazy.”

Instead, in an original plot twist that Fey likens to “peanut butter meets chocolate,” Anniston will not only “stalk” but be “stalked” by a team of down-and-out D-list comedians attempting to create their own reality TV show through product placement revenues from a brand-name suppository firm that has agreed to be their sponsor.

“Once her own habit of stalking celebrities is accidentally revealed, Jennifer’s character unwittingly becomes the star of a faux-reality show in which she in turn is stalked by this group of low-life comedians whose goal is to commit some kind of product placement upon her for this suppository firm that is paying their bills,” says Fey, who quickly adds that in real life the sponsor will “probably be Cheetos or someone like that.”

With the major networks plus Fox clamoring for shows that can cross onto the Internet and generate multiplatform revenues – “and the TV suits don’t really know what that actually means, which makes it great fun for us,” says Fey – the producers of “30 Rock” felt that chasing Jennifer Aniston through both NBC prime time and the thicket of the underground Internet was “a natural.”

“Jennifer has made sofa king much money for NBC in the past – and we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars here – that the network felt this was the latest they could do for her,” says Fey.

And while originally a “stumper,” the bizarre plotline was incredibly easy to set up, says Fey.

“What we did with that -– and warning, ‘SPOILER ALERT AHEAD,’ as the young people say nowadays -- is that we made Jennifer Anniston’s character that of an actual celebrity who secretly stalks other people for kicks, and then we also introduced a character to play Jennifer Aniston’s loose-lipped shrink.”

According to Fey, the show’s writers will use a dramatic device they call “pillow talk” to allow Aniston’s shrink to reveal the supposedly confidential information about Aniston’s stalking obsession to his wife -- who just happens to the senior vice-president of an advertising agency that is about to lose its biggest customer, the nation’s largest maker of suppositories – “probably some subsidiary of GE,” says Fey.

“The wife immediately sees the potential in launching a reality show in which a team of stalkers pursues a stalker – Aniston – and attempts to perform a successful product placement upon her,” says Fey. “And then we’re off to the races.”

Aniston is not the only big-name guest star scheduled for “30 Rock” this year, says Fey. Oprah Winfrey (“The Color Purple”) has also agreed to guest this season. “And we’ve promised to create a nude scene for her just like we did Jennifer,” says Fey.

Past guest stars have included Will Arnett, Jason Sudeikis, Chris Parnell and Rachel Dratch. The show’s regular cast includes Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan, Jack McBrayer, Scott Adsit, and Judah Friedlander.

As to Anniston, Fey and the other actors on the show say she is “heaven” to work with. “Jennifer is not only incredibly lovely to have around, she also has what the young people would call 'mad skills',” said Fey. “And plus – that hair!”

The announcement that Aniston would be returning to NBC after Friends was made last week, by NBC Entertainment's executive vice president Teri W einberg.

Weinber g said: “She is the perfect comedic talent to work with the Emmy-winning '30 Rock' cast. This promises to be a memorable, hilarious night of comedy.” Aniston's last primetime TV acting role was on her best friend Courteney Cox's series “Dirt.”

Chris Meloni has been lined up to play Aniston’s loose-lipped shrink in the episode, teamed with Molly Shannon to pay his crazed ad-exec wife. And Fey says talks are ongoing with the comedy team Whitest Kids You Know to act as Aniston’s stalkers in the online-only episodes. That comedy team is composed of Sam Brown, Trevor Moore, Zach Cregger, Darren Trumeter and Timmy Williams. “They’re talented but cheap,” says Fey.

Depending on the budget, Aniston could be stalked through as many as five primetime NBC episodes in the coming year.