14 DAY TRIAL // Days after Jessica Simpson announced her engagement to Eric Johnson and amidst speculation that she paid for her own ring, her father and manager Joe Simpson is talking to OK! Magazine. Apparently, he’s modeling her career on Angelina Jolie’s.
Throughout the years, much has been said about Mr. Simpson, including that he was a control freak who would not let his two daughters, Jessica and Ashlee, have their own lives because he wanted them to be entertainers.
None of that was ever true, he says. He is more than happy that this daughters allowed him to manage them, and would never break their trust by trying to take over their lives, he explains.
Take Jessica, for instance. She’s come, from a pop star, an almost unattainable ideal of woman, to represent the average American woman, through her fashion, her music and her own person.
Joe believes Simpson is poised for greatness – kind of like Angelina Jolie but minus the Brad Pitt thing and the children, one might add.
“She is an example of a woman who had overcome obstacles and moved forward. If there is one woman that Jessica and I are looking at – and where I want Jessica to be — it is Angelina Jolie,” Mr. Simpson says.
Proof that Jessica is a more relatable ideal of a woman now is in the sales for her fashion line, the dad slash manager goes on to explain.
“We always knew Jessica is Midwest America. Some people, when they move to Hollywood, they change. They buy different clothes, have different budgets. We never forget where we are from, where Jessica is from. And that is the clothes and accessories we are producing,” he says.
As for the ever-present question of Jessica’s weight and what he makes of it, Joe believes people need to stop criticizing and focus instead on what is important: living life.
“I have nothing to do with Jessica’s weight. Jessica has been working since she was 12. She was told how to look perfect. How many people can look perfect all the time?” Joe says.
“I think she’s an all-American girl. She is sending a message to the world that it is okay to be normal; it is okay to indulge. Her message is: ‘Let me be normal!’ Everyone else gets to do it,” Mr. Simpson adds.