As reported last week, Jessica Simpson has taken legal action against Star magazine over their Tiger Woods cover story. The magazine chose to go with the pretty obviously fabricated story, that Simpson and Woods had flirted and swapped phone numbers after meeting at a golfing event. The rag chose a photo for the cover that made it appear as though Woods was getting a little too cosy and possibly even flirting with the curvy singer. What they lazily neglected to mention was that Simpson was at the event with then boyfriend Tony Romo.
To add insult to injury they even cropped Romo out of the pictures to make them look like something they were not. This is one of the most flagrant examples of a magazine going too far to generate some media interest. The story was picked up as fact by several other outlets, without a whole lot of fact-checking.
Gossip Cop has done a great job of getting hold of the specific legal letter that Simpson’s team sent to the lie-tellers at Star magazine. The rag must have opened it, all excited, thinking it was another piece of spicy hate mail and gotten a nasty surprise. The letter can be read here as page 1, page 2, and page 3 (thanks again to Gossip Cop, who were the ones who picked up the exclusive).
Simpson claims in the letter that the story is gossip and a fabrication. She is also asking for a cease and desist, as well as what she calls a prominent retraction.
If I were her, I’d be glad for the free publicity. Her career hasn’t necessarily been setting the world on fire lately.
She could use the column inches, sure, but this is kind of a nasty scandal – I don’t blame her for not wanting to be caught up in it.