The Ashlee Simpson CD Swap Tue Nov 16, 7:35 PM ET Entertainment - E! Online By Charlie Amter Apparently Ashlee Simpson (news) can't hoe-down her way out of lip-synching hell. • News: Ashlee's drummer takes blame • News: Ashlee Simpson sings! (Really) • News: Ashlee falls to pieces E! Online Photo The singer, despite numerous attempts to spin her Saturday Night Live debacle in her favor, continues to suffer backlash. First, there were the late-night talk-show punchlines and the inevitable Milli Vanilli comparisons. Then came the Web parodies, most notably liquidgeneration.com's Ashlee Simpson Lip-Synching Hoe-Down. Now, a New York-based group dedicated to calling out bad music and film is offering a Simpson CD exchange. Horrified Observers of Pedestrian Entertainment (H.O.P.E), in conjunction with Rhino Records and New York City's Knitting Factory nightclub, is offering a deal to those former Simpson fans who bought the 19-year-old's debut album, Autobiography, and now want to purge the CD from their collection. Simpson lovers turned haters can swap Autobiography for a different disc, one that H.O.P.E. calls "of higher entertainment quality." Among the choices for embarrassed former Simpson fans in the exchange: the Ramones, Ray Charles, X, the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell or Brian Wilson. While good taste may be subjective, H.O.P.E. believes it's a good arbiter of what stinks. The group has staged protests at a Paris Hilton book signing in Los Angeles and waged an all-out war on the Jimmy Fallon (news) bomb Taxi. Per its mission statement, H.O.P.E. says it aims to "bring quality to the world of entertainment while working outside of the traditional network, record label, and studio structure. It is our 'hope' that by voicing our feelings and concerns to the powers that be a better tomorrow, and not The Day After Tomorrow, is only around the corner for the good people of the United States of America, the world, and beyond." The Simpson CD exchange marks the first time the Internet collective has put its money where its mouth is. The group also says the Simpson swap goes beyond her SNL meltdown. "Please be advised we are accepting exchanges based on the low entertainment quality of her music as well as her live lip-synching," notes H.O.P.E.'s Website. New York-area consumers suffering from buyer's remorse after purchasing Simpson's CD may exchange the disc at the Knitting Factory in TriBeCa, while others may take part in the great Simpson CD swap via the group's Website, hopeinamerica.com. The offer is good, as the site says, "while supplies last." ------------ Interesting to say the least Rocket River
