Jessica Simpson

American entertainer Jessica Simpson has arrived in Australia as a last minute guest for this week’s MTV Australian Video Music Awards. The singer/actress, whose sister Ashlee Simpson is hosting the event in Sydney on Wednesday night, arrived on an early morning Qantas flight from Los Angeles. She was ushered through a VIP customs exit, greeted by around a dozen photographers and television camera crews.
“I’m so excited. It’s been so long since I’ve been here,” the 25-year-old said.
Organisers would not say what role Simpson would have in the MTV event, which will be held at Sydney’s Olympic Park on Wednesday. But the starlet, who was wearing a white jacket, ripped jeans and brown cowboy boots, said she was looking forward to seeing her sister.
“I can’t wait to see her.”
Simpson is best known for her starring turn in the movie The Dukes of Hazzard, as well as reality TV show Newlyweds, in which she and her now estranged husband, Nick Lachey, were followed around by a television crew.

Jessica Simpson’s back in the studio this week — but she’s not leaving the drama of her divorce behind.

The singer’s long-delayed album, And The Band Played On, was originally due in November but was pushed back shortly before the news of her split from husband Nick Lachey was announced. Up to that point, Simpson planned on making the album a country-club combo. But now that she’s gone through so much, she’s reconsidered what kind of statement she wants to make.

“I think that with my music, you can’t help but tell people a story about your life,” Simpson said. “I believe that every artist, that’s their artistry — it comes out of them naturally, through lyrics, through music, through instrumentation. So with this next record, you will see and hear a lot of things I’ve been going through. And if that can offer any inspiration to anybody else going through the same situations, so be it. That’s why I’m here.”

So far, Simpson — who’s executive producing the project -— has recorded with a host of producers known for their hits in R&B: Corey Rooney, Scott Storch, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

The latter pair are collaborating with Simpson on about seven songs, she said. “They are angels, they are amazing, they’re so talented,” she gushed. “You are in awe just sitting next to them and being able to write with them. And Janet Jackson, who I absolutely adore, is down the hall. She’s such a sweetheart, and they’ve got such a great vibe. We’ve had a great time working together.”

Having Janet down the hall helped inspire the sound of one track, called “Back To You.” “It’s a ballad that reminds me of Janet,” Simpson said. “It’s a really raw, stripped, kind of naked song that’s just honest.” Despite all the current things Simpson could be writing about, the song is a flashback about her first boyfriend in high school, inspired by rereading old journal entries.

“When you persevere through so much, when you go through so much, you want to show that in your music,” Simpson said. “Music is my soul, and when I ever want to express myself, I’m either writing or singing. I can’t imagine not having music be a part of my life.”

And The Band Played On is due by the end of this year, Simpson’s rep said.

As far as some of her business associates are concerned, Jessica Simpson is not exactly the employee of the month.

The “In This Skin” singer has been sued for $100 million by an apparel company that claims she failed to promote their product as promised, the Smoking Gun Website reports.

According to the complaint, filed in New York State Supreme Court by the Tarrant Apparel Group, Simpson inked a multimillion dollar three-year licensing deal in December 2004 to launch a line of low-priced jeans and clothing.

Under the terms of the agreement, Simpson was supposed to be “actively involved” in promoting the garb, including wearing items from the line at “public events, shows, and appearances” whenever “reasonably practicable.”

However, it seems Simpson attended precious few events she deemed suitable for trotting out the affordable duds, leading the company to gripe that she “simply failed to provide the promised support.”

The company contends that Dukes of Hazzard star even refused to be photographed wearing items from the JS by Jessica Simpson and Princy collections, and that when asked by the press to name her favorite brand of jeans at an event last year, she replied “True Religion,” rather than “Princy.”

Princy jeans, which are named after the nickname given to Simpson by her father, retail for around $60, while True Religion jeans can set the denim connoisseur back upwards of $350.

Tarrant claims that Simpson’s unwillingness to back the line crippled its marketing plan and caused it to lose valuable contracts with retailers.

According to its court documents, the company has already shelled out $2.2 million in licensing fees to the singer-actress and has agreed to another $6 million in guaranteed payments.

The ex-Newlyweds star, who’s already balancing a jam-packed schedule, had not yet responded to the suit as of Friday.

In addition to her ongoing divorce proceedings from Nick Lachey, Simpson is currently in production on the comedy Employee of the Month opposite Dane Cook and Dax Shepard, and recently signed on to star in Major Movie Star, about an actress who hits rock bottom and enlists in the Marines. She is also rumored to have landed a role in the big-screen adaptation of Baywatch.

Meanwhile, she has also been in the studio working on her upcoming album, And The Band Played On, which is expected to released via her new label, Epic Records, sometime this year.

As if that weren’t enough to keep a soon-to-be single girl occupied, Simpson has reportedly been channeling her inner Angelina Jolie by looking into adopting a baby sometime in the future, as well as possibly funding her own orphanage, her rep confirmed last month.

Jessica is back in LA and with a brand new shorter hairstyle. She looks so cute.
Enjoy the pictures <3

// Jessica Simpson back in LA with new shorter hairstyle
// Jessica Simpson leaving the Ivy and heading to club

Busty US singer-turned-actress Jessica Simpson could be poised to follow in the footsteps of similarly endowed stars Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra by landing a role in Baywatch.

According to reports, the 25-year-old blonde has been singled out by producers making a big-screen version of the cult California lifeguard series, who believe she would be perfect for the role of leading lifeguard.

Apparently, Simpson caught the producers’ eye with her ‘performance’ in the 2005 Hollywood remake of another classic TV series, The Dukes of Hazzard, despite the film being universally panned by critics.

“Jessica really caught the eye in The Dukes of Hazzard film last summer,” a source told the Sun.

“She was the unanimous choice for the Baywatch role. Jessica has all the assets to make Pammy’s part her own.”

No doubt her assets were thought ideal for Baywatch’s legendary title sequence, which features slow-motion shots of the lifeguard team jogging along the beach.

As well as harnessing the Texan blonde’s considerable assets, the producers are also reportedly hopeful that Baywatch original and cult legend David Hasselhoff will also appear in the film, reprising the role of Mitch Buchannon that helped catapult him to international stardom.

Jessica Simpson has shifted from Columbia, for which she’s recorded since 1999, to Epic Records. As previously reported, the artist is working on the follow-up to 2003’s “In This Skin,” which has sold 2.9 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The as-yet-untitled set is expected before the year’s end, but in the meantime, a source says an R&B-oriented first single is “not far away at all.” Among the producers contributing to the project are Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Cory Rooney and Scott Storch.

Simpson’s move from Columbia to Epic, both of which fall under the Sony Music umbrella, mirrors that of new Epic president Charlie Walk, who formerly was executive VP of creative marketing and promotion for Columbia Records Group.

“I love all my friends and supporters at Columbia. I will miss them as I start this new relationship,” Simpson tells Billboard. “Charlie Walk was my first hero at Columbia. He believed in me before I really even got to meet the rest of the company. I couldn’t think of anyone I would trust more than Charlie to present my new music to the world. Epic is in a new place with a new leader. It just seems the right place for me as I begin my new journey.”