Are things about to get wild and woolly in the PR war between splitsville
newlyweds Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson?

Frustrated with Jessica's sagging public approval ratings - as of yesterday,
71% of People's readers and 76% of Star magazine's blamed her and not Nick for
ruining the three-year marriage - her handlers are taking the offensive in
bashing Nick in an attempt to resurrect her image. Lowdown hears that
Simpson's PR man, Rob Shuter at Dan Klores Communications (which also reps the
Daily News), has been calling nearly every gossip reporter in town with tips
about Nick - alleging everything from greediness to lechery. Shuter most
recently peddled the tall tale that Lachey hired A.J. DiScala, the estranged
manager-hubby of "Sopranos" star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, to help win some of
Jessica's assets in the divorce. She officially filed for divorce on
Friday. Reports a Lowdown spy: "Rob's been shopping around stories that
Nick was messing around, and has been trying to take any woman that was in the
same room with Nick and passing that off as a torrid affair. Now he's pushing
that A.J. manager story. It's all bull." Yesterday, a certain somebody
apparently planted an item in a lesser gossip column about Nick shamelessly
selling his side of the story to OK! magazine for $300,000 - an item that
coincidentally just so happened to tout another Klores client, the New York club
Pacha. "We have not done a deal for Nick Lachey's story," OK! editor Sarah
Ivens told Lowdown. "We have no deal nor are we looking to do a deal for Nick's
story."
Yesterday Shuter denied going on the offensive for Jessica. "Not true," he
wrote in response to Lowdown's detailed E-mail, refusing to elaborate. A rep for
Lachey declined comment.


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