The Newlyweds star awes fans at an Ybor City club. An off-stage chat reveals she is not as giddy as the MTV reality show pretends.
By BRADY DENNIS
Published November 15, 2003
TAMPA - Jessica Simpson, clad in green plaid pants and a black tank top, must have known what awaited her Friday night when she slipped from behind a curtain in Ybor City's Twilight club.
The 23-year-old pop singer - whiskey-colored eyes shining, blond hair flowing, smile as easy on the eyes as a sunset - gazed over the 300 or so people who had managed to get into the private concert.
It must be a crowd she sees often.
Pre-teen girls with their mothers in tow, shouting the words to each song. Twenty-something women dressed like Simpson, with hair like hers, makeup like hers, toting Louis Vuitton purses like hers. Grown men slugging back beers and gawking.
She sang for them all.
Eight sugary pop songs and several impressive octaves later, she sat down on a stool and answered questions. After all, she has made a bigger name for herself by talking than singing during the past year.
Simpson and her husband, pop singer Nick Lachey, have been the focus of an MTV reality series called Newlyweds, about their first year of marriage.
Newlyweds has become one of cable television's top-rated shows, mostly because of Simpson's increasingly famous ditzy moments. Among them:
She once refused to try a buffalo wing, saying, "I don't eat buffalo." She pouted about doing her own laundry: "It's fun putting it in, but then you have to fold it." She lamented about her age: "Twenty-three is old. It's almost 25, which is almost mid-twenties."
And, most famously, she wondered aloud if the Chicken of the Sea brand was chicken or tuna. To her credit, she later dropped in on a Chicken of the Sea company staff meeting in San Diego.
During Friday's visit, part of an eight-city promotional tour (she comes to Brandon TownCenter at noon today), the Southern girl said "y'all" often and admitted that she is gullible. But not as ditzy as MTV would have you believe.
"It exaggerates me a little bit," she said. "I know when the cameras are on, so I know when to play it up."
She answered each question with a smile.
On whether she will have kids: "I don't know if I'm ready yet. I think I need a couple years, to where I'm not one anymore."
On her new ABC sitcom: "It's about my life but it's not reality. They basically are throwing me into situations where I can make a fool of myself."
On her mother's influence: "My mom helps me very much in my life. I don't go shopping without her."
On why she hasn't changed her last name: "I'm a procrastinator."
Simpson was raised in Dallas, the daughter of a youth minister. She started singing on the gospel circuit at age 11 and released her first album, Sweet Kisses, in 1999. It sold close to 2-million copies.
Unlike peers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilara, Simpson is an openly-devout Christian who vowed to abstain from sex until marriage.
Her subsequent albums haven't met with much success, but she keeps pushing. Newlyweds has put her back in the spotlight. And this month she appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, clad only in red high heels, panties and a tank top, and clutching a mop. The headline reads, "Housewife of the year."
Still, even fame can be humbling.
As her fans swooned over Simpson in the dim club, restroom attendant Aaron Jones handed out mints and sprayed cologne. He is 23, same as Simpson.
He has never heard of her, never heard of her TV show, never heard her music, never seen her famous beauty. He likes hip hop, rhythm and blues.
