A little old, a little new, a little borrowed, Ashlee too
Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey are putting a strain on the term “newlyweds.” The couple, who wed two years ago, will return next Wednesday for the third season of their MTV reality show, “Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica.”
Ten new episodes will show them celebrating their anniversary and housebreaking their new dog, Daisy, and Jessica’s preparations for her role as Daisy Duke in “The Dukes of Hazzard” movie.
MTV also announced that a show featuring Lachey’s efforts to launch a solo music career is tentatively set to premiere in April.
Meanwhile, Simpson’s younger sister, Ashlee, also will be back next week with the second season of “The Ashlee Simpson Show.”
Ashlee, 20, was caught using background vocals in October on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” and her halftime performance at the Orange Bowl was met with a discernible chorus of boos.
Speaking of loose lips …
Sharp-tongued “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell actually has some kind words for Ashlee Simpson.
“Why should you have to do something substandard just for the sake of being real?” he said of the “SNL” lip-synch flap. “If it sounds better with the vocal you recorded, why shouldn’t people listen to that? There’s almost a witch-hunt mentality about people miming.”
As young singers go, though, Cowell doesn’t think Beyonce is so bootylicious.
“I find the whole Beyonce thing really mystifying,” he says. “She’s not sexy, she hasn’t got a great body and she’s not a great singer.”
So, Hatch hid his assets?
Richard Hatch has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of tax evasion for failing to report income, including the $1.01 million he won on the first “Survivor.”
Hatch, best known for annoying fellow contestants by going nude, also failed to report $321,000 he was paid for appearances on a Boston radio station.
Extreme makeover: hospital edition
Ty Pennington, the hyperactive team leader of ABC’s home improvement series “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” is recovering from an appendectomy.
Pennington, who was in his hometown of Atlanta taping an upcoming episode, guided the design team from his hospital bed and the show went ahead as planned.
“I (didn’t) want to let the family down,” Pennington said in a statement.
Trump: You’re not invited
When Donald Trump ties the knot for the third time on Saturday, none of the past contestants from his reality show “The Apprentice” will be in the audience.
“I decided not to do that. I don’t think it would be appropriate,” Trump said. “I’m trying to keep (the guest list) down to a minimum.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Slim Whitman is 81. Actress Patricia Neal is 79. Comedian Arte Johnson is 76. Director David Lynch is 59. TV personality Bill Maher (“Politically Incorrect”) is 49. Actor Lorenzo Lamas is 47. Actor James Denton (“Desperate Housewives”) is 42. Country singer John Michael Montgomery is 40. Actress Stacey Dash (“Clueless”) is 38. Actor Skeet Ulrich (“Scream,” “As Good as It Gets”) is 35.
Correction
Actress Drea de Matteo turned 33 on Wednesday. Because of incorrect information from the Associated Press, her age was wrong in Wednesday’s People column.