Thanks to MTV's Newlyweds: Nick and
Jessica, Jessica Simpson, 23, has been transformed from the country's
number-three pop princess to its most-talked-about reality star. Letting the
cameras capture her ditzy side may be Jessica's savviest career move yet.
Were you nervous about following up the first season of Newlyweds?
It is scarier second season, because people already have expectations of what
they want the show to be about. So Nick and I just had to throw off everything
and just be who we are, 'cause that's what makes the show so successful. We're
not going to give you Joe Millionaire or The Bachelor, in which
everything is set up. We're going to give you our lives.
The whole camping thing....
Camping was my idea, if you can believe it! I was miserable. What they didn't
show was that the trip was five days long. They compiled ALL of my complaints
from five days and just ran them back to back.
Didn't that bother you?
I think it's hysterical! I laugh at it 'cause I know the story.
Do you and Nick sit at home and watch the
show?
Yeah, but it's not like I was in the edit studio or saw the episodes before.
We've never taken one thing out. That's why people are so shocked--people always
ask me, "Why would you ever let them keep the Chicken of the Sea
comment in?" I thought it was funny! I'm a total ditz and a klutz, but I
know I'm not dumb.
So many people are so embarrassed by
everything.
I was like that, too, but when I got married, I just gained so much more
confidence. I'm much more relaxed.
You seem completely different than the
person on the show.
Well, that person is a side of me they like to show. I know that person, so it
doesn't really bother me. If you're going to compare me to Anna Nicole Smith,
that's gonna bother me. The New York Daily News compared me to her, and I
started freaking out! Then The New York Post compared me to Goldie Hawn,
Lucille Ball, and Suzanne Somers--that was okay. To me, it's important to be a
likeable person--it's hard to pull off.
Suddenly, everybody's calling you
"America's Sweetheart." We've only heard that about Julia Roberts, Meg
Ryan, and Reese Witherspoon.
Well, it matters to all of them to be sweet. It matters to me to make everyone
feel important. America's Sweetheart is a dream title for me.
Nick seems like a great guy.
He has great character. He's a man's man! A total guy! He likes to do everything
for himself.
He's such a grownup about tidiness and
money. How did he become so responsible at such a young age?
I don't know. Maybe because he went to college--and because he had a great
family--values and morals were instilled in him. I had a great family, too, but
I grew up in entertainment. Nick and I come from different worlds, but we just
have a connection that's undeniable.
Having gone through the rare experience of
being a virgin when you got married, do you recommend that to other girls?
Absolutely. At times, it was annoying. At times I felt like, "Who cares?
Whatever!" But Nick kept saying that I would regret [not keeping my
virginity vow]. He never tried to talk me out of it. He had other girls throwing
themselves at him, and I was the person who, on the fifth date, hadn't even
kissed him yet. He respected that, and he wanted someone who wanted that for
him.
Who do you talk to about your sex life?
My mom. I want to be the kind of mother my mom is. She was always comfortable
about everything. Our family's just like that--so open. I think it's because my
dad was a minister and an adolescent therapist. That's why I'm so grounded.
What's the most important thing you and Nick
have learned from each other in your relationship?
I think that just being you is okay. Like, I don't have to be the
sports-watching, neat freak who he probably would have envisioned himself with.
And he's not the guy who wants to go shopping and pick out my outfits with me.
You can just be who you are, and it'll work.
You are a woman who was ready to get
married young.
I'm one of those old souls who was blessed young--but I'm still naive and
completely ditzy.
Why do you keep labeling yourself ditzy?
I think there's a difference between ditzy and dumb. Dumb is just not knowing.
Ditzy is having the courage to ask! [laughs]
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