Jessica Simpson's Daddy Issues
Apr. 9 2008, Published 6:44 a.m. ET
Jessica Simpson's father/manager was so angry after his daughter was dissed by Lindsay Lohan recently, he carpet-bombed the tabloids with negative stories about the rival pap princess. After Lohan banned Jessica and her simpleton sister, Ashlee, from her post-MTV Awards fete at L.A.'s Standard Hotel last Saturday, Joe Simpson planted multiple items about the snub in celeb rags across the country, including In Touch, Us Weekly, Life & Style, Star, and severalnewspapers, sources say.
“Joe called our headoffices himself and ranted and raved about it,” says a top editor at oneof the weeklies. “It was obvious he wanted to paint Lindsay as abitch. He couldn’t believe anyone would dare ban Jessicafrom any party because, as he said, ‘She’s a huge superstar.'....Joe will do anything to make sure she's in the papers every week and he knows Lindsay's an easy target."
Simpson, a former Baptist minister, requested that the pubs under nocircumstances reveal him as a source and, in at least one case, insisted that they write that the scoop came from an associate of Lohan’s. By Wednesday, extensive coverage of the incident, fueled by her father's smear campaign, sent Jessica into damage control mode, rushing to People magazine to deny any rift with Lohan. (Based on her naïve take on the incident--—“I guess everyone got tired of making up storiesabout me and Nick and decided to create some other kind ofdrama”—Joe’s veil of secrecy seems to extend to his daughter.)A rep for the Simpson clan denied Joe planted any stories, saying, “Thewhole incident was blown out of proportion by the tabloids, as usual.”Luckily for Joe, Lohan’s similarly devoted dad, Michael, is too busy pumping iron in the clink to extract the truth fromhim in person.