Ashlee Simpson takes
‘SNL’ lip sync blame

NEW YORK - Ashlee Simpson is reportedly taking the heat for deciding to lip-sync during a performance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend, a plan that backfired when the vocals to the wrong song were audible during her second appearance.

Simpson had already performed her single “Pieces of Me” and had returned to the “SNL” stage to run through the title track of her Geffen debut album, “Autobiography.” As the band kicked into the song, her vocals to the first song were heard while Simpson held her microphone at her side.

Flustered, she improvised a few dance steps before bolting from the stage. NBC quickly cut to a commercial.

At the close of the show, Simpson deflected the blame, telling the viewing audience “I feel so bad. My band started playing the wrong song.” Geffen issued a statement blaming a computer glitch that should have played pre-recorded percussion rather than the “Pieces of Me” vocals.

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Simpson was reportedly singing a different tune Monday. MTV, home to her reality series “The Ashlee Simpson Show,” reported on its Web site that Simpson admitted to lip syncing on the show because her voice has suffering from the stresses of a heavy promotional schedule.

“I can’t cancel something like ‘SNL,”’ Simpson is said to have written in a post on her official Web site, ashleesimpsonmusic.com. “You and I know that even if I synched on it or not, I’d still get seen by millions, maybe even make a few more fans.

“I’ll hold my head high and say I think it was silly of me to do it, silly of me to blame the band, I was just so f---ing embarrassed,” she added. “But I don’t think it did me much harm, and people will see that soon.”

An attempt to find Simpson’s original post is daunting, as her site’s message board has become a battleground where her staunch fans are fighting to defend her from an onslaught of thousands of negative, even vicious posts.

Amidst the often-vulgar posts in the site’s “open forum” is a quote lifted from a Lucky magazine interview where she was asked about lip-synching. “I’m totally against it and offended by it,” she said. “I’m going out to let my real talent show, not to just stand there and dance around. Personally, I’d never lip-synch. It’s just not me.”

The younger sister of singer-turned-reality television star Jessica Simpson scored her family’s first chart-topping album when “Autobiography” was released in August. The set spent three non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 2 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.