Is this the house that Britney built?

No doubt that Jessica Simpson convinced us all that she was a grown up pop diva with the release of her latest CD, IRRESISTIBLE. That CD and her sexier image were designed to take her into superstar status, a place currently occupied by the likes of Britney and Christina. No such luck for Jessica. Despite having a voice superior to some of her counterparts, it was obvious that great pipes and hard abs were not enough to ensure record-breaking CD sales. While her video and single, Irresistible, re-introduced her to the world as a sexy singing siren, the follow-up, A Little Bit, failed to ignite much heat.

So what’s a popstar to do if she wants to gain maximum exposure? Pose for MAXIM magazine in a sexy pictorial. Not only is Jessica pushing the envelope, she is also setting off the same type of debate that Britney did when she took (almost) all of it off for her first Rolling Stone shoot: how can she proclaim her virginity while selling sex to the masses?

Is Jessica compromising her integrity? Is she a puppet for her handlers? And probably most importantly…will her photos make her the talk of the town or hardly cause a stir? Jessica appeared rather conservatively-dressed on Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve this past December. Wearing a simple buttoned-up pantsuit, a brunette-tressed Simpson was a sharp contrast to the cheesecake image that she projects in the current MAXIM magazine. Was her New Year’s Eve look a calculated way of reminding people that there is more to her than we have been seeing lately?

She recently claimed that she no longer wants to do choreographed dance moves, because it distracts from her singing. Can she go back to being the girl next door now that she has made inroads as a 20-something temptress? Her third CD may be the determining factor that takes her career to new heights or back to the same place where she once promised us Sweet Kisses.






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