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Main >> Previous Updates >> May 2004 >> May 21, 2004 >> Article ID 4956
 The Ditsy Diva | Type: Internet Article |
| | The Ditsy Diva | Apr 20, 2004 |
Summary:
An article about Jessica Simpson. Christina mentioned.
"At that point, she was geared a little toward a teen audience," Rick Krim, a VH1 executive vice president, says delicately. More bluntly, Simpson was widely regarded as a C-list Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera with diminishing record sales and questionable star power.
Read on for the whole article. |
"I've always watched 'Divas,' and I knew I could hang with them," Jessica Simpson says.
Even the folks at VH1 admit they didn't really consider Jessica Simpson diva material when they put together their annual Divas extravaganza last year.
"At that point, she was geared a little toward a teen audience," Rick Krim, a VH1 executive vice president, says delicately. More bluntly, Simpson was widely regarded as a C-list Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera with diminishing record sales and questionable star power.
A year later, Simpson's star has not only brightened, it has exploded, ever since she and hubby Nick Lachey turned their marriage over to MTV for the hugely successful series The Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica.
Simpson's latest album, In This Skin, a dud when released last summer, is now platinum and still climbing. The couple's April TV special, The Nick & Jessica Variety Hour, was so successful that ABC ordered another for Christmas. Simpson's shooting her own ABC sitcom pilot about a not-so-bright blond celebrity named Jessica Sampson. Then there's her new line of lickable perfumes.
And tonight, Simpson is hosting and performing in Summer Music Mania 2004 at Glendale Arena for broadcast June 1 on Fox Television.
"The best part about life right now is watching prayers being answered. That's so amazing," she says.
At age 23, she now ranks as a diva - in VH1's eyes, anyway. She was one of the headliners at the recent live broadcast from Las Vegas.
"I've always watched Divas, and I knew I could hang with them," Simpson says. "I knew I could do it. And I think, more than anything, it's an honor to be finally respected for my voice."
Her considerable vocal talent is what first made her a teen pop starlet. Her 1999 major-label debut, Sweet Kisses, sold almost 2 million copies (2001's follow-up, Irresistible, wasn't a big seller).
But it's Simpson's personality - a delightful mix of ditsiness, petulance, wholesome Southern charm and sex appeal - that's now getting her on magazine covers.
"She had a moderately successful recording career, but as a personality, I don't think people got to see that other side of her, that captivated people," VH1's Krim says.
That "other side" happened to be her ditsy side. She's been widely lampooned for her bubblehead antics on Newlyweds (such as eschewing Buffalo wings because "I don't eat buffalo").
But she has not only accepted her doofus status, she's reveled in it.
"I think that's what makes it funny, and that's what makes it endearing, is that I'm accepting of the fact that I know I don't think before I talk, and I have my ditsy moments," Simpson says. "It's just who I am."
For those who ask, "How can she be that dumb?" the answer is, she's not. She's just acting her hair color.
"Ever since I was in junior high, I've played it up," the Texas native says. "I don't know whether it's being from the South and having blond hair and having this image growing up as a blonde, but it was just something that I always adapted to, and made part of my life, and made part of my personality."
Now it's part of her shtick, too. In her new pilot, she plays an airhead celebrity who's tapped by a newsmagazine to join its show in part to boost ratings: "It's kind of like playing myself exaggerated, so it's really not that much acting," she says.
Lachey, the former lead singer for the teen pop group 98°, is developing his own sitcom as well. But his solo debut, also released last year, has not fared as well as his wife's, nor does he garner as much attention. That has led to tabloid speculation that her bright spotlight is causing marital tensions.
Simpson, who is quick to rave about her husband during a conversation, is also quick to shoot down rumors of jealousy.
"I think, in general, the focus is always more on women because there's always a story in an outfit or in a purse. From Newlyweds, people have seen what an amazing man of character Nick is, and I think most of the viewers would want to be married to him if I wasn't."
A few years ago, Simpson was writing in her journal, wondering why she hadn't achieved the multiplatinum successes that peers such as Spears and Aguilera had.
But now, "I can just be myself, and maybe somewhere down the line, a new up-and-coming girl will be compared to me." |
 Source: AZ Central | |
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