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The Simpson family has reached a new low. Singer and genuine fame hopeful Ashlee Simpson was caught lip syncing during her latest performance on “Saturday Night Live,” which aired Oct. 23/24. Read about it in the first unofficial edition of 'Film Stripped: Cinema Exposed.'

--R. L. Shaffer

 

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Ashlee Simpson Caught Lip Syncing!

filmstrip2 So here we are, the first unofficial edition of 'Film Stripped: Cinema Exposed.' Today we certainly are exposing something, just not something involving cinema. Regardless:

The Simpson family has reached a new low. Singer and genuine fame hopeful Ashlee Simpson was caught lip syncing during her latest performance on “Saturday Night Live,” which aired Oct. 23/24.

The lights were dim. The cameras were rolling. Ashlee was dancing. Her band started to play. A few seconds later, missing her cue to sing, the sync started playing. The problem: the sync was playing her first song, “Pieces of Me” and not the planned song, “Autobiography,” the new release off her album of the same name. Embarrassed, Ashlee danced a jig for a few seconds and then walked off stage, leaving the band behind to fill in for her mess. After less than a minute, SNL producers cut cameras and went to commercial.

After a short and unfunny skit about Michael Caine and Peter O’Toole, we returned to a horribly embarrassed Simpson and a suave Jude Law who played the event off as “live TV.” Instead of apologizing properly, Simpson blamed the band for playing the wrong song, which was not the case as no one’s voice can fade out.

This isn’t the first time someone has lip synced, however, but it is quite possibly the first time that major news organizations (with the exception of CNN) have ignored it. In the first 12 hours only a half dozen sources had printed anything about the blunder. Not even MTV, known for their music news, said a word about Simpson’s amateur performance.

People like Ashlee Simpson are the reason why music is declining these days. She has no real talent. Rather, she’s just a shake-and-bake, punk girl trying to cash in her big sister’s “success” while mimicking talented punk girls such as Avril Lavigne. LaToya Jackson tried that once and look where it got her. Ashlee Simpson should just turn back and be thankful that her sister is so successful instead of trying to be successful herself.

This isn’t the first time Simpson has messed up. At the MTV VMA awards, her performance was criticized as being off-key and flat. Months later, during a radio show, Ashlee’s guitar broke, and she was forced to sing a cappella. The result was something I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.

Ashlee Simpson should quit while she’s ahead — well, at least she hasn’t hit rock bottom yet. I’m not sure whether it is standard operating procedure to sync on SNL, but I’d guess it’s up to the performer. It’s really less about the sync and more about how unprofessional she acted when she got caught. You just don’t leave the stage. Oddly enough, her band acted as though this wasn’t the first time she’d thrown them to the wolves.

On Ashlee’s official site, http://www.ashleesimpsonmusic.com/, there are claims that this has happened several times before (at least according to forum contributors). Her online community has lit up with outraged fans, some of which would like to see Ashlee stick things in places where things should not be stuck. Others are defending her, claiming that lip syncs happen and it was her band’s fault, but those are few and far between.

The former is a little too radical and the latter is too easy. Ashlee should release a formal apology and fade away from the media spotlight. She’s made some money and now it’s time to go. She is tainting punk music with her artificial appeal and now her amateur roots are showing through like a bad dye job.

Thankfully, CNN has covered the event. However, shame on MTV for not jumping on top of this. If a live performance is billed as live, it should not be synced. If you get caught, you apologize. This is inexcusable, even from the royal family Simpson.

See Ashlee’s jilted performance at http://www.cnn.com/.

rlshaffer@dvdfuture.com

----R. L. Shaffer