Ashlee Simpson
Gossip

Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz are tying the knot, apparently. A rep for Simpson told Us Weekly, "Yes, they are happily engaged."

Earlier yesterday, the alleged singer said, "I'm really happy!"

One possible cause for the quickie engagement - Ashlee Simpson is pregnant, or at least that's what the celebrity gossip on the street is today.

Her rep did not comment on the pregnancy rumor but referred to the website friendsorenemies.com, where the singer posted the following Wednesday:

"We know there has been a lot of speculation recently about Pete and I," Ashlee Simpson wrote, "We wanted our fans to be the first to know, because you guys are the best. Yes, we are thrilled to share that we are happily engaged."

Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz began dating in late 2006.

He denied it for awhile, in part because she is likely the worst singer ever and he plays in a, Fall Out Boy, that at least plays actual music. Not good for his cred.

That said, one wonders if this is even a stunt to promote her latest, terrible CD, which just dropped recently. Still, they appear happy together.

"They are ecstatic and can't wait to be man and wife," a source said. "They will be getting married before the end of the year."

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Maybe they can get a two-for-one discount on a venue with another knocked-up, wedding-planning couple, Jamie Lynn Spears and Casey Aldridge!

Ashlee Simpson says a makeover changed her life. Somehow we imagine her pimp and all that plastic surgery contributed something as well.

Whatever the reason, the girl has come a long way since being a "style wallflower" in the shadow of older sister Jessica Simpson.

So Ash says as this week's Us Weekly top story - which breaks a seemingly years-long run by Britney Spears and The Hills cast on the cover.

Not to worry, though - both are still in the sidebar.

"I used to look at a beautiful girl on the cover of a magazine and think I could never be that," the 23-year-old Ashlee Simpson told Us.

But Simpson - who has churned through countless haircuts and colors over her six years of stardom - has graced many a celebrity news rag.

Now the lip-synching Pete Wentz plaything is the cover girl on Us' 2008 Beauty Makeover Special issue, whatever the heck that is.

"I definitely embrace my sexy side, but at the end of the day, I still feel like the girl next door," the always-insightful Ashlee Simpson tells Us.

The girl next door with a new nose, lips and rack, apparently.

Simpson also opened up about her April 2006 rhinoplasty: "I think as long as people have two eyes, then you probably know the answer."

"[Plastic surgery] is something that everybody should think about for a really long time," the hack singer stated. "Once you know that it is something you really feel comfortable with, then to each their own."

Still, the star downplays her own transformation (follow this link for another kind of Ashlee Simpson - the Oklahoma version).

"I was never really unhappy with how I looked, [and] I don't think I am more beautiful than I was [before]," Ashlee Simpson said.

"I just see the same old goofy girl I see every day."

We love the state of Oklahoma.

Our favorite celebrity, Carrie Underwood is from there, as are more than three million wonderful, honest-to-goodness, hard-working Americans.

We'll give them a mulligan on Sally Kern.

Our point is that we love Oklahoma and mean no offense by the photos below ... we just had to pass along this funny creation of Planet Hiltron.

Follow the link to that site for many more doctored photos like these, which morph some of our favorite celebrities into honorary "Oklahomans" ...

ABOVE: A frighteningly realistic, Oklahoma-style Britney Spears - ding, dang, y'all! - and a permed-up Ashlee Simpson. BELOW: Oklahoma Tom Cruise (nice pants, guy) and his close friends and neighbors, David and Victoria Beckham.

Okay, those two points aren't really related, but they are still facts. Have you heard any of Ashlee's supposed music? Just asking.

In any event, Tony Romo has gotten a lot of flak for his romance with the almost equally talentless Jessica Simpson, but at least her pimp (father Joe) approves. How, he's gotten the coveted endorsement of Ashlee, too.

"I love him!" the quote-unquote singer, 23, told Us Weekly at the Pure TV Grammy party at Goa nightclub in Hollywood last night.

When asked if she is happy for Jessica Simpson, her less attractive little sister replied, "Absolutely happy. [Tony Romo] is really cool."

Added Ashlee's beau, Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz: "He is a cool dude."

Tony Romo can't win a playoff game, but he's won the heart of Jessica Simpson, and the approval of her younger, talentless, plastic surgery-loving sister, Ashlee.

This vote of confidence comes on the heels of Holly Wellin throwing her support behind Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential race.

Meanwhile, Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz wouldn't budge when asked about their own Valentine's Day plans for next week.

"We can't tell each other, so we can't tell you," Ashlee, who just released her new single "Outta My Head," said.

When asked if the two, who've been dating since late 2006, were ready to tie the knot, the younger Simpson just chuckled.

Pete Wentz said, however, "Maybe we will do it right here. Right here tonight. It is a big wedding night."

A couple that flat irons its hair together stays together, right Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz?

The latest, plastic version of Jessica's sister and her weird-looking boyfriend hit up the premiere of Cloverfield last night. Aren't they completely fake adorable?

Or something like that.

Some success in her various professional roles, and her romance with her "best friend" and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz, has Ashlee Simpson sounding downright giddy about life these days. And she's a lot more resilient than she used to be.

Chief among Ashlee's confidence-boosting achievements of late, she tells CosmoGirl - her 2006 stint as Roxie Hart in the London production of the musical Chicago.

"There was a time when what people said about me could really get to me. But working on Chicago helped me come into my own," says Ashlee Simpson.

"[Theater acting] had been a dream of mine since I was little. It taught me to be more comfortable with myself."

That level of self-possession, the 23-year-old lip-synching queen and daughter of Joe Simpson admits, helped her deal with fame significantly better, too.

"I've gotten to a point where being credible with myself is more important to me than what anyone else says," she explains. "People make up stories about you, but they don't really know you. ... I'm not fazed by that."

Simpson also credits Pete Wentz, 28, with providing encouragement in her private life that has boosted her professional work - in particular, her third album, which is due out next year and which should be awesome.

"He's a great sounding board and very supportive," Simpson says. "Pete and I compliment each other. We are best friends, and we encourage each other. I think that is so important. It builds a solid foundation."

She did not talk about the Pete Wentz sex tape rumors at all.

With no talent (lip-synching), original body parts (plastic surgery) or Pete Wentz (broken foot) in sight, the very lovely Ashlee Simpson attended CosmoGirl's Born to Lead Awards at the Hearst Tower in New York Tuesday.

Ashlee Simpson: Unrecognizable from a few years back, but who cares?

What exactly is she Born to Lead? Who the heck knows. But Joe Simpson surely does, and it probably involves leading his bank account into the nine-figures.

Here's an interesting note. The Hearst Tower, of course, was founded in 1928 by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. One of his heirs is none other than model Lydia Hearst, who we know as Cisco Adler's new girlfriend.

Ah, Ashlee Simpson. She's been sliced, diced and butchered so many times, we hardly even recognize the talentless hack. But hey, that's Hollywood.

Her father, Crazy Joe Simpson, recently confirmed that his daughter's nose was in fact perfected by plastic surgery. But the 23-year-old "singer" is denying reports that her silky smooth skin and wide-eyed gaze are the result of Botox injections.

"Ashlee Simpson has never had Botox in her life," her spokesperson said. "She credits her eyebrows to her makeup artist, a whiz with the tweezer."

Well, there you have it, celebrity news readers. No botox for this gal! Earlier this week, Ashlee Simpson shared some of her lip-synching beauty secrets with Us.

"I cheap out and use face wipes to take my makeup off and put lotion on," she revealed at the Hollywood Style Awards on October 7.

And while her big sister, Jessica Simpson, is the one with the $3 million contract, Ashlee Simpson is also a big fan of the skin-clearing product Proactiv.

"I know it's very cheesy to say, but the stuff is incredible," Ashlee Simpson reports. "If I have a zit I put that mask on and it's gone."

We're sure Pete Wentz appreciates it.

What's also incredible is Ashlee Simpson's music. Girl's songs really tug at our heartstrings. Props to whoever's actually writing and singing them.

After more than a year of coy answers from Ashlee Simpson regarding her May 2006 plastic surgery, in which she got a new face nose, her pimp father, Crazy Joe Simpson has finally confirmed that his daughter went under the knife.

In an interview with Fox News, Joe says he had no control over Ashlee Simpson's decision to undergo rhinoplasty.

"Girls have their own ideas," he shrugged. "Anyway, there was a real problem with her breathing and that was cured."

Joe, who also serves as manager to Ashlee, 22, and older sister Jessica Simpson, 27, credits good parenting as the reason his daughters haven't gone absolutely bonkers the way of Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears.

Joe Simpson and his cash cows daughters.

"We have a real family," he said. "You can't just put these kids out in the world on their own. I can remember a time when Jessica was singing at Madison Square Garden and her outfit ripped before she went on. We were there for her."

In other words, don't expect to see Jessica Simpson nude anytime soon. And then there was the matter of Ashlee's Saturday Night Live debacle.

"She'd lost her voice, and Jordan Schur [the head of her record label] insisted she lip-synch," he said. "She'd never done it before. She didn't want to do it. Anyway, she'll never do it again. We just did a huge tour, and there was no lip-synching."

The former Baptist minister also denies claims that he's a controlling father. "I don't tell my girls who to date or marry or what to do."

He also has no hard feelings against former son-in-law Nick Lachey, even in spite of the sexual photo scandal involving Nick and Vanessa Minnillo.

"I have nothing at all against Nick," Joe Simpson said. "But they got married very young. I told Jessica, 'You're going to hit an age when it's all going to be clear to you â€" life that is â€" and you'll know what you want to do.'"

Joe Simpson added: "I do blame 50 percent of their break-up on the media."

Contrary to online reports swirling on the Internets, sources close to Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz say they are not engaged. Phew.

That saves us the trouble of having to create a celebrity couple name in the vein of Kurban or Spederline or TomKat or Gyllenhaarsgaard.

A representative for Ashlee Simpson tells Us Weekly that the engagement rumors are "absolutely not true."

A celebrity news site called Popcrunch claimed that Wentz, 28, proposed to Simpson, 22, on July 7 before Fall Out Boy's performance at Live Earth.

Further, they speculate that the engagement stems from news that Ashlee Simpson is totally pulling a Nicole Richie: she's a worthless waif pregnant.

The site's sources say that the rumored engagement has been kept secret because Simpson fears overexposure - which plagued Nick Lachey and older sister Jessica Simpson.

If that were true, who could blame Ashlee? Older sis' career has gone nowhere but down since the divorce, while a resurgent Nick Lachey is actually making hit songs (and sex tapes) while seeing that fox Vanessa Minnillo nude every night.

Yes, while we commend the plastic surgery victim's alleged thinking should Wentz ever pop the question, the reason for the "secrecy" looks like simple nonexistence.

So, that's that. You may now return to debating whether or not the Paris Hilton nipple slip we saw Monday is worse than Britney Spears' recent efforts.