| Ashlee Simpson Biography |
Ashlee Nicole Simpson (born October 3, 1984) is an American pop rock singer–songwriter and an occasional actress. Her older sister Jessica is also a famous pop singer.
Simpson rose to prominence in mid-2004 through the success of her number-one debut album Autobiography and the accompanying reality series The Ashlee Simpson Show. Simpson received widespread derision when she used a pre-recorded vocal track for a performance on Saturday Night Live in October 2004. Following a North American concert tour and an unsuccessful film appearance, Simpson released a second number-one album, I Am Me, in late 2005.
She is the daughter of Joe Truett Simpson (a former Baptist youth minister who is now her manager) and Tina Ann Drew (a former Sunday School teacher who homeschooled Ashlee). An accomplished dancer, Simpson began studying classical ballet at the age of three, and was admitted to the School of American Ballet in New York City at the age of eleven. Around that time, she suffered from an eating disorder; the condition lasted about six months, and she dropped to about 31 kg (70 pounds) at 159 cm (5ft 2in), but her parents then stepped in and got her to eat more. After her sister Jessica Simpson landed a record deal, the Simpson family decided to move to Los Angeles, California, where Ashlee began appearing in television commercials.
When Jessica became a star after releasing her first album, Ashlee became one of her backup dancers. Later, she began appearing in films and television series, including an episode of the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle in 2001, a minor role in the 2002 film The Hot Chick and a recurring role on the family drama series 7th Heaven. In the summer of 2003, Simpson briefly worked as an MTV VJ on TRL, and later recorded a song titled "Just Let Me Cry" for the soundtrack of the film Freaky Friday. Eventually, Simpson signed a record deal with Geffen Records
Simpson appeared as a musical guest on Episode 568 of Saturday Night Live (October 23, 2004), and as is customary for the show's format, she was scheduled to perform two songs. Her first song, "Pieces of Me", was performed without problems. However, when she began her second song, "Autobiography", the song "Pieces of Me" was heard again—including her vocals—before she had raised the microphone to her mouth. Simpson began to dance spasmodically and then left the stage, while the band (not a recording) continued playing. During the closing of the show Simpson appeared with the guest host Jude Law stating that her band performed the wrong song in the opening on the performance. Others, however, criticized her for what they saw as evidence that she was lip synching.
When she first broke onto the scene, Simpson had a decidedly different image from that of her sister. Previously blonde like Jessica, she dyed her hair dark during the recording of the MTV reality show after she finished filming for the 7th Heaven television series, although after a year with dark hair she returned to blonde in 2005. Simpson's songs also have rock elements absent from her sister's music, and Simpson would often wears shirts with "punk"-style designs, sometimes emblazoned with band names. She typically had her fingernails and toenails painted black, and has four tattoos: a star on one wrist, two cherries on her ankle, a fleur-de-lis on her right inner thigh, and the word "love" on her other wrist.
She has refused to discuss her sex life, in contrast with her sister, who openly stated her intention to practice sexual abstinence until marriage. "I decided that I didn't want to talk about that because it's super personal", Simpson said of the situation.[34] Simpson's relationship with actor Josh Henderson lasted for nearly two years and ended during the first episode of The Ashlee Simpson Show. Soon after, she began dating fellow musician Ryan Cabrera. That relationship was also featured on the show, and Simpson appeared as Cabrera's love interest in the music video for his song "On the Way Down". The two were reported to have split in August 2004 due to their hectic schedules, but they resumed their relationship for a while afterward, before ending it again in early 2005; Simpson says they are still friends, although rumors suggested that Ashlee did not like the fact that Ryan had moved on to The Veronicas' Lisa Origliasso.
In 2005, rumors began circulating that Simpson had stolen Wilmer Valderrama from Lindsay Lohan. Simpson's single "Boyfriend" was reported to be about the situation, but she said that the song "is about [how] every girl out there sometimes thinks you stole her boyfriend. It's just making fun of that". Valderrama has since said on Howard Stern's radio program that he did have sex with Ashlee Simpson, but claimed the incident was unrelated to his break-up with Lohan. Later that year, rumours arose that Simpson was secretly dating another Joe Simpson-managed actor, Viva La Bam's Chris Raab (Raab Himself). In February 2006, she told Seventeen magazine that she's dating bandmate Braxton Olita and went on a 10-day vacation with him to Hawaii.
There have been arguments that Simpson is a "manufactured" artist with little singing talent. Her critics cite incidents like the SNL episode and the Orange Bowl performance as evidence for their claims.
In early 2005, Simpson's marketing campaign was accused of astroturfing by users on several websites. A post on Metafilter claimed that the marketing company posted the same text, which contained the text, "I just read about Ashlee in us weekly. Those guys at the football game were total jerks." (the "football game" referring to the Orange Bowl incident) under the user name "mandyc19" on over three hundred different music-related forums in order to further promote Simpson and paint her in a positive light.
(Source: Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.com)
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