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Page 1
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A tattooed, blinged-out Ashlee worries about offending PETA ...
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Page 2
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The singer talks about the 'SNL' snafu and the Orange Bowl boos ...
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Page 3
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Three guys from Jersey wear their hormones on their T-shirts ...
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Photo Gallery
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Ashlee Simpson: From lip-synch to live
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Opening night of Ashlee's Autobiography Tour
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Browse Bands by Name
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Or enter a band name below to search:
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 Bands Main
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— by Jennifer Schonborn
Thank goodness for Ashlee Simpson's friend and personal assistant, Stephanie.
In the caterer's office backstage at the Ritacco Center in Toms River, New Jersey, a beige couch is pushed up against the cinderblock wall, which is papered over in black and illuminated with a line of green light. Fifteen minutes before Ashlee is due to arrive, her makeup artist marches in, a white puff of a puppy in her arms. She asks if there's a monitor she can check, then gives a quick once-over of the lighting setup as the pup — Ashlee's dog Blondie — jumps down and sniffs around the baseboards. Ashlee's bodyguard pokes his head in.
The route and destination point checked over, the procession begins. The bodyguard lumbers in the lead, followed by the makeup artist, the personal assistant, the record-label rep, one or two others, and Ashlee herself. They make their way through the backstage area, past the trays of cheese cubes, sweating ham, Wonder Bread, chocolate pudding, strawberries, overcooked broccoli (which provides the dominant scent backstage) and watery chicken marsala. All food that Ashlee will not be eating.
Stephanie, dressed in a men's white T-shirt and baggy jeans, cases the caterer's office and plops down just off camera next to the sofa. Someone wraps a maroon scarf around Ashlee's neck and the singer arranges herself on the couch.
"I went to Jacob the Jeweler when I was in New York last week," Ashlee announces with a toothy white smile while her people fuss over her hair. "I got totally blinged out." She holds out her arm and shows off several thin gold bangles. Later, she would pull up her pant leg to reveal two delicate little cherries newly tattooed on her right ankle.
I ask Ashlee a question. There is a pause, then Ashlee turns to Stephanie.
"What am I afraid of?" Ashlee repeats to her assistant. The camera has been rolling for a few minutes by now.
"Heights?" Stephanie offers.
"No ..." Ashlee says.
"Well, you're not loving rodents, that's for damn sure."
"I know, but I can't say that because PETA will come after me," Ashlee says half-jokingly. She thinks for a good 10 or 15 seconds, her nostrils flare, then she finally puts the mic back up to her mouth and states with authority, "I'm scared of swimming in the ocean, because I'm always afraid that a shark is going to bite my leg." She laughs.
Another question: Knowing what she knows now, what advice would she give to her younger self?
Ashlee thinks for a while, the mic in her lap. "Ummm ... I don't ... what am I going to answer ..."
"Well, you've answered that question before in other interviews when we were overseas," Stephanie says, "and you always say that you would never change anything and that you would always tell yourself to be tough-skinned."
"OK," Ashlee says, "if I were to go back to the beginning of my career, I wouldn't change a thing, because everything that I have learned has made me so much stronger."
So yes, thank goodness for Stephanie.
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Photo: Jason Campbell/ Getty Images/ MTV News
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