Jokingly playing with a white plastic bottle cap in her mouthbefore spitting it out, Jessica Simpson is riding a personalhigh.
Simpson flashes her pearly whites as a last minute check beforeheading down the escalator in NorthPark Mall on Wednesday to greetfans during a promotional tour for her new album, In This Skin.
Once off the escalator and onstage, Simpson’s voice drownsout her perceived image of the dumb blonde as depicted on her andhusband Nick Lachey’s surprise MTV hit, “Newlyweds:Nick and Jessica.”
On the show, Simpson has come across as ditzy. Most notoriously,she confused Chicken of the Sea tuna with actual chicken andthought Buffalo wings were made from buffalo meat rather thanchicken. “Jessica has always spoken before she thinks,”said the entertainer’s mother Tina Simpson.
Simpson has said that she doesn’t mind when people thinkof her as a dumb blonde, and the incidents have sparked newvocabulary. Now, when someone has a blonde moment, it is referredto as “pulling a Jessica.”
Some fans even brought Chicken of the Sea tuna cans for Simpsonto sign.
The Texas native was only signing and singing rather thanspeaking at the event.
The signing included a performance of Simpson’s latestsingle, “With You,” and the event drew more than 1,000fans according to Foley’s special events coordinator LisaBenitez.
Since the unexpected success of “Newlyweds,” lifehas gotten much crazier for Simpson, according to her road manager,Cacee Cobb.
“It’s surprising — it used to be young kidsthat would approach Jessica, but now it’s adults,” Cobbsaid. “Sixty-year-olds have come up to her in the airportthinking they know her.”
Simpson’s mother agrees. “People feel like they knowJessica intimately, and they do,” she said.
Simpson is currently promoting her third studio album throughoutthe United States, including a performance at her former highschool Wednesday night.
“She’s ecstatic about this album,” her mothersaid. “She got to write most of the CD, and she has a lot tosay and really wanted to put out positive music.”
Simpson was born in Waco, raised in Dallas and graduated fromJ.J. Pearce High School in Richardson. She got her first recordingcontract at age 17 when music mogul Tommy Mottola signed her toColumbia Records. She released her first album Sweet Kisses in1999.
Although she’s found success at an early age, Simpson is”not different than a typical person her age,” Cobbsaid. “She’s most comfortable just lying on the couchwith Nick.”
“She likes to shop, and she took me to the L.A. hotspots,” said Jessica Melker, Simpson’s friend of 12years. “She makes sure her friends get to experience thethings she is experiencing.”
With “Newlyweds” picked up for another season,Simpson will embark on a tour of Ivy League schools where she willperform and compete with students in a question-and-answer session.She will love her dumb blonde status all the way to the banks ofthe Mississippi, Missouri and Hudson rivers. Wait, those are banksright?
