Saturday Not Live

By Rebecca Winters

Audiences really were just getting pieces of ASHLEE SIMPSON as she performed on Saturday Night Live Oct. 23. When prerecorded vocals for the wrong song piped up during her set, the shamefaced singer was exposed as a lip syncher. Ashlee, sister of pop confection Jessica, shuffled as if at a hoedown and left the stage. She later blamed her failure to sing live on a sore throat caused by acid reflux. Within days Ashlee was obviously warbling for real at the Radio Music Awards and telling the Today show the SNL episode was "mortifying." But the 20-year-old kept perspective. "I'm not anorexic, my boob didn't pop out," she said. "I had a bad performance, and I got sick." And on the bright side, she's now a perfect candidate for that coveted Zantac endorsement.