Just dumb luck?

By ASHLEY POWERS
KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE
IE-HARD "OH MY GOD I'D KILL TO meet Jessica Simpson!" fans have had a bit of a rough year. Just ask devotees (and aspiring pop stars) Stephanie Brown and Maddie Arellano, both ninth-graders at North Junior High.
Sure, the face of their blond idol -- a Richardson native and Barbie incarnate -- has been plastered everywhere. But it's more for her verbal oopsies on her MTV show, "Newlyweds," than for her soaring vocals.
Last month, Jessica came home -- first for a meet-and-greet at NorthPark Center shopping mall, then for a concert at her old high school, J.J. Pearce, as part of an eight-city tour. "Everyone's like, 'Are you gonna go?'" says Maddie. Like, of course she was. "And they said, 'Oh, Jessica's so stupid.'"
"Yeah," Stephanie says. "If we pull a ditzy thing, they're like, 'You're pulling a Jessica.'"
Adoring fans
No matter. When Simpson graced the red-curtained stage of the Pearce auditorium for nine songs and a question-and-answer session, the girls joined the T-shirt-and-jeans-clad audience of 1,000-plus people in the high-pitched shrieking you can get only from adoring teen fans. Handmade signs and shirts, captured by MTV cameras, proclaimed: "We Love You, Jessica!" and "Will You Marry Me?"
Others read: "Jessica, We Don't Eat Buffalo Either" and "Tuna or Chicken: Who Cares?"
Although Simpson recently released "In This Skin," her third batch of sugary pop songs, the students could recite more easily her TV foibles than the lyrics of the album, the sales of which have been lackluster.
Cameras trailed Simpson and her husband, former boy-bander Nick Lachey, to produce a recently ended season of made-for-groaning-at-your-TV moments. She builds a laundry mountain on the floor of their Southern California mansion. She declines Buffalo wings -- because, she says, she doesn't eat buffalo. Most notoriously, she wonders if the Chicken of the Sea brand is chicken or tuna.
Her cluelessness has branded her America's Blond Bimbette of the moment. Hence, several rows down from Simpson's adoring fans, sophomore Laura Raden says: "It's kind of embarrassing that she graduated from here. She's perceived as an idiot."
That set off the Great Jessica Debate: Is she an idiot?
"She's kind of dumb," says junior Chelsea David.
"Do you know her personally?" asks Lizabeth Orton, a hairstylist from Garland, Texas.
"OK, I seriously believe she's not that stupid," says Chelsea, "because no one could be."
Orton leans back in her chair: "I figure if you go from 15 to a grown-up within a year, it's hard. Everybody's different when they're on TV. If she's got enough heart to come back to her hometown and do a concert for free, that says something."
Raucus receptions
A minor deity in the world of blond pop goddesses, Simpson did receive a raucous reception at both stops. At Pearce, she did a little bump-and-grind with a boy plucked from the student audience while belting "I Wanna Love You Forever." At Foley's department store, she cascaded down an escalator to the flash of cameras.
After the hourlong mall appearance, Simpson strode toward the blue Jaguar waiting to whisk her away. How does she feel about the stupid-gal rep?
She smiled: "I love it. I have more fans than ever. Being a dumb blonde is a good thing."