Jessica Simpson says she was stung when ex-husband Nick Lachey jumped back into dating after their high-profile breakup. "Oh, it hurt me," the 26-year-old singer-actress says in an interview in the March issue of Elle magazine, on newsstands Feb. 13. "Two or three weeks later? Yeah, I'd say it kind of hurt me."

Simpson and Lachey, 33, starred in the MTV reality show, "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica." She filed for divorce in December 2005, after three years of marriage. She made that decision, she says, after watching the 2004 romance "The Notebook" on a plane ride home to Texas. "I just figured out the statement," she says of the movie, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as star-crossed lovers. "It was about that moment of desperation. I needed to breathe."

Does she still keep in touch with the singer, who is dating MTV's Vanessa Minnillo? "Mm-hmmm," she tells the magazine. "He's so much a part of my life, how could I not be? Any guy that's going to be with me from this day forward has to understand that. You want to help me find a guy?"

(It appears that's not necessary. Simpson has been photographed recently with singer-songwriter John Mayer, and in her profile in Elle, the writer noted that he spotted e-mails from Mayer on her computer.) She says she "is so happy right now," but declined to discuss her love life. "I want to tell you everything, but I have to sew my lips together," she says. Asked whether she's in love, a grinning Simpson plays coy: "I didn't say yes."

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Nick Lachey Talks About The Divorce

Nick Lachey is finally talking about why his marriage ended. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to know why. He only found out it was over when Jessica told him it was.

Five months after Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson announced their separation, Lachey dishes about the end of his marriage in the current issue of Rolling Stone, on stands in New York and Los Angeles Wednesday and nationwide Friday. Here is what he had to say:

"I'll tell you how I knew my marriage was over: I was told."

"Jessica and I began playing these parts (on their MTV reality show Newlyweds) even when we were by ourselves. It became a really blurred line. There was a question about what truly was our reality."

"I don't pretend to understand (former father-in-law) Joe (Simpson). ... I don't know if he ever liked me. To this day I couldn't say. It was painful. Do I think Joe drove a rift between us? No. Was he an influence in our marriage? Absolutely."

"I don't know if there were other men. But if she did cheat, it was the result of something bigger, not the reason we didn't work. ... Sometimes I think it would be easier if I had just walked in the house and found her in bed with a guy. That would be clear-cut. End of story. I wouldn't have to deal with the uncertainty of adultery."

Yikes! Poor Nick!

Posted on April 20, 2006
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Jessica Does Washington

Jessica Simpson headed for Washington, D.C. to lobby for donations to her favorite charity, Operation Smile, which offers free plastic surgery for disadvantaged children overseas with facial deformities.

Jessica -- like actress Angelina Jolie -- knows how to dress for Washington. She looked great in a tailored black pansuit, with her hair in a loose bun and conservative makeup. She looked interested in what the speakers at the event were saying and generally made a good impression.

She was invited to come to a Republican National Committee fundraising dinner and meet President Bush, but she declined. That led to headlines that Jessica snubbed the president, but the Associated Press reports that once it became clear that the invitation was not to a state dinner but to a political fundraising event she had to decline because her charity is not political.

But when reporters started shouting questions about reports that she wouldn't go to the White House, Simpson's handlers whisked her away. Her father and manager, Joe Simpson, tried to offer some sort of explanation for what was going on. He said that when it "became obvious that it was not just a state dinner" and "more of a fundraising event," it went against the purpose of why they were there.

Joe Simpson also insisted that he and his family are "huge fans" of Bush and that "Jessica loves the heck out of him." He added that they were still trying to squeeze in a meeting with Bush.

If Jessica is really such a fan of Dubya, why didn't she just say so instead of ducking out of the press conference? We're just asking...

Posted on March 17, 2006
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Jessica Simpson and the Therapist

All those rumors and reports that Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey are getting a divorce have apparently really gotten to Jessica. She tells Teen People that she's been seeing a therapist to deal with the stress.

"Yes I have," the singer-actress tells Teen People in its December-January issue, on newsstands Friday. "I respect knowledge of the psyche. I would be a therapist if I weren't an entertainer." Jessica, 25, posed for the cover of the magazine with her sister, Ashlee. Both talk about the difficult challenges of the past year.

Jessica, who had a starring role in The Dukes of Hazzard movie this summer, has been the queen of the tabloids this year — much of the coverage dissecting the marriage of the Newlyweds couple. The pair have denied persistent rumors of a split. "Hopefully mine and Nick's story will continue for the rest of our lives, like what we vowed, through sickness and in health."

Ashlee, 21, recently released her second album, I Am Me, and it debuted at the top of the charts. But she has still had to live down her embarrassing lip-synch disaster on Saturday Night Live last year. "Yeah I messed up in front of everybody," she says. (Last month, Ashlee revisited the scene of her musical flub, performing on SNL— really live, this time.) However, she adds: "I love to sing. It's a joy to me. I don't do it for anyone else — I do it for me."

Ashlee sounded fine on SNL -- guess those proton pump inhibitors are really working for her.

Posted on November 2, 2005
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Jessica Turns to Self-Help Book

According to Gawker, Jessica Simpson got spotted by Us Weekly reading Dealing With People You Can't Stand. And according to Page Six, she's going to need all the self-help books she can get.

NICK Lachey and Jessica Simpson may have just had a "romantic" Italian vacation on OK! magazine owner Richard Desmond's dime, but they continue to lead separate lives. Upon their return last Friday, Lachey ditched Simpson to party in Las Vegas, and "Jackass" star Bam Margera — who had a fling with Simpson earlier this year — confirmed to Us Weekly that she had left Lachey. More evidence the two have split? Simpson, who now lives with her assistant Cacee Cobb, is spending her third wedding anniversary alone, in Africa. Sources tell PAGE SIX that Simpson, her dad, Joe, and Cobb will travel to Nairobi for Operation Smile — her pet charity that fixes cleft lips — for 10 days. The trio will have a safari elsewhere in Kenya — all without Lachey. A rep for Simpson says: "Operation Smile is an organization that is very special to Jessica, and she is looking forward to participating in more missions. Nick will be unable to join Jessica on the next trip because of work commitments in Los Angeles."

Jessica and Nick's reps continue to deny that the couple is headed for divorce. Sure, we believe that.

Posted on October 19, 2005
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Nick and Jessica Call it Quits

Gawker reports that Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson are really and truly getting a divorce this time, and that US Magazine will tell all -- later today.

We don’t see why you should wait for the news: Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, America’s Newlyweds, have called it quits. For those of you so self-loathing as to closely follow these things, you’ll recall that in May, E! online reported that the couple had filed for divorce, only to mysteriously retract the story an hour later. But you knew, right then, that this was coming, didn’t you?

The couple is waiting to make an official announcement later in the month (at the appropriate career opportunity, we’re sure), but according to Us Weekly’s scoop — kept so under wraps that employees were not allowed to receive their advance issues yesterday, presumably for fear that People might rape and pillage the story — the marriage has been dead for some time. Well, duh.

The article has a laundry list of contributions to the break-up (mostly blamed on Jessica), including creepy-dad Joe Simpson, Jessica’s "diva" behavior, and her fondness for whiskey on the rocks. One of those ubiquitous sources close to the couple says, "Jessica’s the problem. She’s not the girl America fell in love with anymore."

Will this story be retracted later, like the last one was? Who knows? In the meantime, let's pretend it's "Divorce On." And really, really hope that Johnny Knoxville wasn't the reason for it.

Posted on October 5, 2005
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The Real Story of the Dukes of Hazzard

E! reporters have outdone themselves for their incisive interview with the cast of the upcoming film, The Dukes of Hazzard. The brilliant questions. The searing follow-ups. The insightful commentary. This is what investigative journalism is all about.

E!: [The] Daisy Dukes--how do they fit?

Jessica Simpson: I just didn't want butt cheeks hanging out. That was very important to me, so they had to be a little bit lower-waisted. You know, you gotta meet in the middle. It's like marriage. You've got to compromise with the director.

E!: Ever try moonshine?

Johnny Knoxville: Actually, I had some moonshine shipped down [to the Louisiana set] from Tennessee while we were filming for the cast and crew. And it was delicious.

Seann William Scott: Of course, Knoxville thinks of giving people moonshine as a wrap gift. And like a moron, I take a huge gulp of it. I think I was drunk for a week.

E!: What does it taste like?

Seann William Scott: Like ass. It tastes awful.

E!: What's in moonshine?

Johnny Knoxville: It's made of corn. It's corn squeezings, and it's about 190 proof. Highly flammable. And you gotta drink it out of a glass jar, preferably a Mason jar. Because you put it in a paper cup, it'll eat the bottom right up, which basically is what it does to you.

E!: Ever injure yourself jumping into the car?

Seann William Scott: How'd you hear about that? Did you know it's a small window? Did John Schneider get hurt? I mean, it was really hard. I only jumped in the car once, because I banged my knee up. Johnny was good.

Johnny Knoxville: [I got a] couple of shinners. I remember showing up on set and seeing that for the first time, and the windows are really narrow. But the stunt guys worked with me and showed me how to do it.

We smell Pulitzer....

Posted on August 4, 2005
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Jessica Simpson Livens Up the 4th of July

ABC decided to go with a sure thing last night and aired for the second time Nick and Jessica's Tour of Duty, which we somehow missed the first time around. Nick and Jess went to Germany to cheer up the troops, Jessica learned to shoot a rifle (nearly killing everyone present, then amazingly hitting the bulls-eye), Nick got to wear a giant padded suit and be attacked by a German Shepard, then Jimmy Kimmel asked why we still had troops in Germany: hadn't we already beaten them? But the highlight of the evening had to be an inebriated-looking Willie Nelson accompanying Jess in a fringed mini-dress and cowboots as she shimmied her way through a steamin' hot rendition of These Boots Are Made For Walkin'". It was the sexiest number Willie Nelson has ever been involved with in his entire career.

And in other breaking Jessica Simpson news, she poses on the cover of GQ magazine, which posits the theory that behind the blond facade there is a girl with an IQ of 160.

Simpson—who says if she weren't a star she'd be a therapist, like her minister/therapist-turned-Svengali father—does show distinct signs of an actual interior life. In her bags today, she carries In the Company of Soldiers by Rick Atkinson; The Painted Kiss by Elizabeth Hickey; The Book of Positive Quotations; a rhyming dictionary; The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style; a paraphrased New Testament; "and then of course Nicholas Sparks," she says, holding up True Believer. These—along with a forty-gig iPod and Atkins-approved chocolate-mint cookies—are some of the tools Simpson is using to craft the next stage of her career.

It's a theory, anyway.

Posted on July 5, 2005
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