Today’s question is framed on an idea sent by the Big Fat Panda , whose lesser known name happens to be Hrishikesh Varma 
.
What’s the connect ?
Clue – Carly Simon and Shapiro gone MAD would surely like the connection
A
B
C
D
E
A – Henry Morton Stanley
B – Homer Simpson
C – David Hicks
D – Michael Johnson
E – Franz Liszt
The connect is that these are the cryptonyms of THE CAMBRIDGE FIVE , a ring of soviet spies in the UK who passed information to the Soviet Union during the WW II period – Kim Philby ( Stanley ) , Don Duart Maclean ( Homer ) , Guy Burgess ( Hicks ) , Anthony Blunt ( Johnson ) and John Cairncross ( Liszt ) .
Goes uncracked !! But exceptional effort by Navpreet Singh !!
( Carly Simon had an album titled Spy and Shapiro is an anagram of ( Antonio ) Prohias , creator of the legendary Spy vs Spy comic strip and featured in the MAD magazine )
A – H M Stanley
B – Homer Simpson
THATZ ALL I KNOW………..
Connnct-They are described as a bastard as the sons of unmarried couples…..
B. Homer Simpson by Matt Groening
E. JMW. Turner
All are turner prize winners
All have made cameo appearances in the Simpsons(excluding homer of course)?
A – Sir Henry Morton Stanley
B – Homer Jay Simpson
A – Sir Henry Morton Stanley
B – Homer Jay Simpson
C – David Hicks
D – Wesley Snipes
E – Franz Liszt
Well, I can’t come up with any connection between them.
But let’s give it a try .
1)
Maybe the connect is ‘Academy Awards’, with these people depicting the different movie genres at the Oscars.
A – Adventure/Drama
B – Animation/Comedy
C – Documentary
D – Action/Thriller
E – Musicals
+ Carly Simon has won an Oscar.
I know its far fetched, but thats the best I have been able to come up with.
2)
All of these names have an ’s’ as the only common letter.
Also, it is present in Carly Simon and Shapiro