Jessica Simpson Snubs Bush

Reuters ^

[doesnt suffer fools gladly]

Jessica Simpson snubs Bush Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:50 PM ET

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Concerned about politicizing her favorite charity, singer-actress Jessica Simpson on Wednesday turned down a invitation to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush, a snub that left Republicans dismayed.

The apparent final word that Simpson would be a no-show at a major Republican fund-raiser with Bush and congressional leaders on Thursday night came after a day of conflicting reports from her camp and organizers of the event.

The blond star of the film "The Dukes of Hazzard" still plans to visit Washington on Thursday to lobby members of Congress on behalf of Operation Smile, a non-profit venture offering free plastic surgery for disadvantaged children overseas with facial deformities.

People close to Simpson said she declined a request to appear that same evening at the gala fund-raiser of the National Republican Congressional Committee -- even after she was offered some private face time with Bush -- because Operation Smile is a non-partisan group.

"It just feels wrong," one Simpson insider told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that the actress keeps her political views private. "She would love to meet the president and talk about Operation Smile ... but she can't do it at a fund-raiser for the Republican Party."

NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said he was surprised at Simpson's position.

"It's never been a problem for Bono," he said, referring to the U2 rock star who has met regularly with political leaders of all stripes to promote various causes, including Third World debt relief. "I find it hard to believe she would pass up an opportunity to lobby the president on behalf of Operation Smile."

Although Simpson's publicists insisted she never had planned to attend the fund-raiser, Forti said the actress initially accepted the NRCC invitation when it was extended on Tuesday night, only to change her mind the next evening.

Forti said the Republican group had even arranged for Simpson to dine at one of the head tables with U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. The NRCC hopes the $2,500-per-plate dinner event will raise $7.5 million for Republican candidates in the congressional midterm elections in November.

Simpson, 25, a Texas native who started out singing in her church choir, became a star on the Christian music circuit as a teenager and crossed over to the pop mainstream with her major-label debut album "Sweet Kisses" in 1999.

She became an overnight MTV sensation in 2003 as co-star of a reality show chronicling her first year of wedlock with fellow pop vocalist Nick Lachey, but she filed for divorce in December after three stormy years of marriage. Simpson is currently featured wearing cowboy boots and hot pants in a TV pizza ad.

[xsmommy]

what a boob she is....

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Jessica Simpson.......is that Bart's sister?***

I thought she was just another character on the SIMPSONS, a show I never watch.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Jessica Simpson.......is that Bart's sister?***

I thought she was just another character on the SIMPSONS, a show I never watch.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Ok, so I will let her play with my guns! Can she make them shoot?

At that age Lauren Bacall was doing drama with Bogart!(and she was looking good at the same time! Who can forget her and Bogie talking about hores racing!)

[rintense]

Yes I did! Hehehe!

[Perdogg]

Bush cannot be found on The L-word. But Mia Kirchner can!!! :)

[Liberty Valance]

Good. The GOP doesn't need airhead entertainers to legitimize them. Democrats do.

[IndyTiger]

Here's another one, maybe taken the same day.

[pissant]

Oh well. Maybe They can get Rosie Odonnell instead.

[newbeenew]

--Well, wait a second, if you think it would be OK for her to go to a GOP Fundraiser and not influence how people perceive her charity, then for you to be honest you would have to give her the same same standard of treatment if she was a dim.--

I totally agree. For that reason, it would be nice if EVERY non-politico, eg celeb, stayed out of politics/fund-raisers, etc.

The main thing: having to wake up to the screeching online headline "BUSH SNUBBED"!!!!.

The story is that she don't wanna get involved into a political scene, which I applaud. Instead the MSM has to make it out to be anti-Bush. Ick.

[Proud 2BeTexan]

The pictures that Drudge has as his headline ANNOYS me!! It makes it look like President Bush is ogling her.

[Vision]

Well, wait a second, if you think it would be OK for her to go to a GOP Fundraiser and not influence how people perceive her charity, then for you to be honest you would have to give her the same same standard of treatment if she was a dim

That's right, that's what I've said, so what's your point?

[Vision]

Perhaps, but to be fair some people might see it that way. If celebrity X went to a fundraiser for Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, or John Kerry, we wouldn't interpret it so charitably. That's why, I can see giving her the benefit of the doubt, since so many of us say, "shut up and sing." The unfortunate part is that it might seem like a snub, since it seems like she is withfrawing her commitment to go.

Your paragraph goes against two points I've made before. I don't want to explain them again.

[trisham]

She turned down an invitation from the President, which makes me think she's a frickin' vapid loon.

*************

And we didn't know that before?

[Vision]

And we didn't know that before?

I didn't. I thought she was a hot conservative celeb

[kabar]

Jessica has changed her tune. From a January 23, 2001 article:

"Last Friday afternoon, the Republican Party celebrated “America’s Youth” at MCI Center. A friend scored some extra tickets and three of my roommates and I infiltrated the GOP pep rally. It should have been called, “America’s Youth — Indoctrinate Them While They’re Young and Malleable.” Evidently, the incoming administration thinks that America’s youth can be bought off with handfuls of glow sticks and live pop performances. They may be right. "

"Colin Powell, a few Olympians, even Dubya himself trotted out on stage to read quick, easily digestible sound bites from the TelePrompTers."

"My favorite part of the festivities, without a doubt, was when teen pop vixen Simpson appeared, bouncing around on stage in a shirt tied off to reveal a “compassionately conservative” appropriate strip of perfectly-tanned midriff, flanked by her wildly gyrating (was that, gasp, a pelvis thrust? John Ashcroft wouldn’t approve) vinyl-clad dancers."

In a moment which could only be described as scriptedly spontaneous, the exuberant Jessica urged her audience to sing along as she changed the words of her smash pop hit “Boy, I think that I’m in love with you” to “George, I think that I’m in love with you.” Seem weird, even a bit creepy? I thought it was a little sexually charged for a Republican celebration of America’s Youth — some blond vixen tossing her hair, pursing her lips, belting out a love song to a man old enough to be her father. But then I figured it out: Simpson, whose carefully guarded virginity is a one of our national treasures, is the safe Republican equivalent of Britney and Christina — imminently palatable, a little bland, kind of empty. Sex appeal minus the sex. Now that’s femininity that Dubya can celebrate.

[I'm ALL Right!]

Big deal. It's Jessaca Simpson.

[trisham]

I didn't. I thought she was a hot conservative celeb

***************

Ah. You must be male?

[Vision]

Yep

[trisham]

:)