ShareThisBy SAMANTHA ETTUS
With the summer drawing to a close and the Emmys passing uneventfully last week, extraordinary attention is still being showered on one story that has held us captive throughout the year _ the trials and tribulations of MTV's Newlyweds: Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson.
It was impossible to predict that less than one year after their split, Lachey's career would be on fire and Simpson's in a free fall. But with her new album released to disappointing reactions this week, there has never been a better time to look back and identify what went wrong for the pop star.
When her minister-turned-manager father Joe Simpson signed Jessica and Nick to the "Newlyweds" show, Nick was still hot from his success with boy band 98 Degrees, with Jessica far less known than rivals Britney (Spears) and Christina (Aguilera). Signing his daughter to MTV was a coup, and Joe conveniently leveraged Nick's fame.
Millions of fans returned each week to watch Nick and Jessica joke about his love of sports, her love of shopping, his high sex drive and her questionable one. They also watched as Jessica ascended to pop superstardom while Nick launched his solo career with a resounding thud. Throughout, Nick remained the devoted husband, supporting Jessica's career without a trace of envy.
Fans cringed during the final season as Jessica rolled her eyes at Nick, faked a smile for the camera, and clearly lost interest in her marriage, their relationship collapsing before the cameras.
Joe was certain that marriage was holding his daughter back and that fans wanted to see a sexier and single Jessica, so he hatched a plan to end her relationship. So when Jessica summoned Nick to her parents' house before Thanksgiving to tell him of her "final decision" to separate, Nick was blindsided. But though Joe made his decision presumably for the good of Jessica's career, he couldn't have been more wrong about its effect.
What differentiated Jessica from the pack was that she was not an oversexed, over-bleached, airbrushed female singer. She was an entertainer who was married to a good guy. Jessica was the girl next door who sported no tattoos and liked to laugh at herself. Her picture-perfect marriage was what made her unusual and worthy of envy.
Joe's ignorance of this has led Jessica to the brink of disaster.
When the break-up was announced, there was no press strategy that could have saved Jessica. America predictably turned on its pop princess, and her transformation into an oversexed and overstyled image made her unrecognizable to her MTV fans, and exacerbated the publicity. She became indistinguishable from her pop star brethren.
To add insult to injury, the tabloids have become preoccupied with Jessica's younger sister Ashlee, who recently underwent cosmetic surgery and a makeover to look just like her big sis. Now Jessica is being bombarded by "Who's prettier?" headlines instead of publicity focused on this week's album release.
Jessica is still only 26, and mistakes at that age can be forgiven. But she needs to go back to what worked, and quickly _ refocus on her career, give up the high-profile partying, stay away from plastic surgery, and occasionally get photographed leaving the house in sweatpants _ in general, returning to being herself, the Jessica that Nick fell in love with. Only then, perhaps, might we renew our love affair, too.
Remember: the most dependable road to the top is to treat your brand as your greatest asset.
(Samantha Ettus is the author of "The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How To Do" (Random House). Contact her at Samantha(at)celebrityassets.com
