Tag Archives: Joe Simpson

Is it time for Jessica Simpson to Let Popager Joe Go?

Is it time for Jessica Simpson to Let Popager Joe Go?

Posted on 23. Oct, 2010 by .

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We felt this storm of  “popager backlash” brewing  months ago and now Popeaters’ Naughty but Nice is reporting that following Jessica Simpson‘s manager and dad, Joe Simpson, alledgedly kicking a group of singing U.S. combat veterans off his daughter’s PBS holiday special, Jessica has been under pressure from the masses to fire Joe and hire a “real” manager.

According to an Popeater’s unnamed insider: “Jess is really talented, it’s clear that what’s holding her career back is her father.  Joe is impossible to work with and makes terrible decisions that poor Jessica has to put up with. Now, both music and movie people are telling her she needs to let him go.”  HMB recently covered the not always successful trend of young performers keeping their parents on payroll even after they are no longer minors.

Joe allegedly didn’t approve of the troops’ wardrobe of commando pants and blazers, the same outfits they wore when they sang for General David Petraeus on the USS Intrepid.

Past incidents which have shown the popager in an unfavorable light include when Papa Joe scheduled and then canceled a meeting between Jessica and then President George W. Bush after deciding it wasn’t prudent for Jessica to attend a Republican fundraiser the night before she met with politicians of both parties to lobby on behalf of the saintly charitable organization Operation Smile. Another incident involved over his allegedly “over-negotiating” Jessica to point of her no longer being in the running as a new American Idol judge.

A friend reports to Popeater’s NBN that Jessica Simpson “just can’t find it in her heart to let him go. [She] knows how much Joe loves being a manager. His entire identity is about being her manager, plus he has made a lot of money from her at the same time.”

What do you think will happen? Is it time for Joe Simpson to resign from being Jessica’s Manager?

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Rumormill: Popager Joe Simpson Blows Idol Deal for daughter Jessica Simpson, Paves the Way for Judge J. Lo

Rumormill: Popager Joe Simpson Blows Idol Deal for daughter Jessica Simpson, Paves the Way for Judge J. Lo

Posted on 04. Aug, 2010 by .

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“Here comes the Judge! Here comes the Judge!”

Jennifer Lopez has yet to officially announce that she’s the newest judge on “American Idol,” but according to the rumor mill she was offered this position after several legendary singers essentially said, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

According to Idol insiders “J.Lo was definitely not the first choice. In fact, she wasn’t even the second or third choice.” Before they approached Lopez, producers first asked Elton John and Barry Manilow to join the show. Both are world renown singer-songwriters who’ve mentored Idol contestants in prior seasons. Elton and Barry both declined.

Producers then began to scout celebrities whose careers were in flux and  chose two musical artists who could benefit from the exposure of a national TV show as much as the Idol needed them: thus choices, Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez.

According to inside sources, the job could have been Jessica Simpson’s were it not for her father and career manager aka Pop-ager, Joe Simpson. “This was definitely Jessica’s to lose and that’s exactly what her dad-manager did. Once it became clear it was going to be impossible to negotiate a deal with Papa Joe, J.Lo was snapped up. Convinced being on the show would relaunch her performing career, she accepted the new job right away.”

Rumors are also swirling that Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler is set to join the show. Randy Jackson will return as a judge and Ryan Seacrest is confirmed as host.

Sources: MTV, Popeater, US Magazine

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When is a Mom Not A Mom? When She’s A Momager! Once A Star turns 18, Do They Still Need Parents on Payroll?

When is a Mom Not A Mom? When She’s A Momager! Once A Star turns 18, Do They Still Need Parents on Payroll?

Posted on 18. Jun, 2010 by .

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Ashanti, Lindsay Lohan and Usher all have them – Young Hollywood’s hottest accessory, the Momager.  Jessica Simpson and younger sister Ashlee have a Popager. And some stars like Beyonce have both parents on payroll.

R&B superstar Ashanti’s mother Tina Douglas recently told FOXNews.com that there is a reason for the momager and popager trend, “This is a tough business. It is dog-eat-dog and very competitive, but when you surround yourself with people who love you and support you, then you can’t lose.”

So whose parents are on payroll even after they’ve become legal adults?
Ashanti and her momager, Tina Douglas.

Jessica Simpson, 27, employs her father Joe as her manager, her best friend CaCee Cobb as her assistant and childhood pal Mike Alexander as her personal trainer.

Papa Joe Simpson also manages his daughter, pop-star and actress, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz.

Beyonce’s mom served as stylist for her daughter’s R&B group Destiny’s Child and her dad managed the trio.

Usher’s mother also serves as his manager.

While having family members on your team may be a great option for some young performers, it becomes a bumpy road for others.

  • For instance, what happens when the child becomes the primary or sole bread winner for the parents?

Or perhaps the bread winner for an entire family as was the case with Macaulay Culkin? Christopher “Kit” Culkin, father and ex-manager of former child super star Macaulay Culkin, notoriously lived off the “Home Alone” actor’s assets and that was the least of his reported offenses. Kit Culkin also had a reputation for signing Macaulay up for movies without his son’s permission, being notoriously difficult to work with and allegedly verbally and physically intimidating his then young son.

In 2000, country singer LeAnn Rimes sued her own father, Wilbur Rimes, and his co-manager, Lyle Walker, for embezzling at least $7 million from her empire. Though Rimes and her father are no longer estranged and the case was settled out of court, one might wonder if a child could ever recover from such betrayal.

Dr. Pamela Hain-Koenigsburg, a psychologist in Baltimore, MD also told Fox News, “A parent, you would hope, would be protective of their child and her assets and say, ‘This money should last you a lifetime. I just want you to be successful and have a good life with it,’” said Dr. Pamela Hain-Koenigsburg, a psychologist from Baltimore.

Another danger in playing manager is that parents end up hyper-sexualizing their own children, which is the most obvious conflict of parental interest.

Joe Simpson, a former church minister, has come under fire for vamping up his daughters Jessica and Ashlee.



Teri Shields, the former momager of Brooke Shields, famously marketed her gorgeous daughter as Brooke Shields and Co. and was criticized for encouraging her then-underage daughter to play a child prostitute and appear in sexually implicit ads for Calvin Klein Jeans as a teen and for nude photos at 10 years old that were commissioned by Teri herself as “promotional tools.”  Thankfully there is no way those images would ever be produced in today’s protective social climate.

“I used to look at Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson and wonder ‘How do you let your child dress like that?’” Hain-Koenigsburg told Fox News. “As the parent of a girl, I wonder how you could sex a child up like that and throw her out to the world.”  Fox News reports that Hain-Koenigsburg has been particularly troubled by the recent case of Lindsay Lohan, whose oft-imprisoned father demanded that ex-wife Dina split the earnings she’s made by managing their various children.  “Her [Lindsay's] situation is so terrible,” she said, adding that she thinks Lohan would have been better off if her parents just remained parents. “When that kind of situation happens, who do you go to and who do you trust?”

That being said, the majority of parents do not equate the duties of being a child performers manager with financial or sexual exploitation, and make concerted efforts that this is not the case. “Celebrities are vulnerable, so it makes sense that they would yearn to have someone close to them there at all times,” said Bonnie Low-Kramen who acts as personal assistant to actress Olympia Dukakis. “It has to be a very special relationship for it to work.  I know Olympia, and my business relationship is first and foremost, and we have that boundary. [A parent and child] would have to [set] some ground rules, because it’s likened to going into business with someone. It changes the whole relationship.”

And then there’s the sticky issue of payroll…

“The child has to pay the parent a salary — there is something tricky about that,” Low-Kramen tells Fox News. “I think celebrities welcome the ability to separate the business from the personal.”

But Hain-Koenigsburg said that if a parent’s motivation is genuine, employing him or her might be the best thing for a star.  “Nobody will look out for your interests the way a parent would.”  Ashanti’s momager Tina Douglas shares with FOX that other managers ”have approached me in a negative way, saying that I can’t manage Ashanti because I’m her mom and I’m ‘emotional.’ But that emotion is what helped get her to where she is today.”

Source: Fox News, FOXNews.com, Google.com

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New NICK Show based on Papa Joe Simpson, Jessica & Ashlee Simpson-Wentz

New NICK Show based on Papa Joe Simpson, Jessica & Ashlee Simpson-Wentz

Posted on 06. Feb, 2010 by .

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Joe Simpson, father and manager of performers Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, is developing a Nickelodeon comedy series loosely based on his real-life experience as a minister and psychologist raising two daughters in Texas. No mention of wife and mom Tina’s role, if any.

The as of yet untitled project revolves around one of the daughters who begins imitating her father and giving life advice to other kids in her school.

Emily Cutler (ABC’s “Carpoolers”) is writing the script with Simpson.  Veteran tween and teen series producer Tommy Lynch is executive producing.  Lynch has a long-standing relationship with Nickelodeon, having produced Nick series “South of Nowhere,” “Romeo!” and most recently “The Troop.”

Following his daughters’ success and his career turn as their manager, Joe Simpson has segued into producing Jessica and Ashlee’s TV projects and recently, the ABC drama series “Women’s Murder Club.” In defense of his managing the girls (reportedly for up to 20% of their earnings), US Magazine quoted Joe as saying: “It’s unfair to criticize me for what every manager does for his or her clients. And in this business, where people can quickly turn on you, who better than a parent to be working for his children?”

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