Simpson and Pete Wentz discuss impending nuptials online

By Matthew B. Zeidman

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 4/10/08 – Ashlee Simpson has followed her older sister, Jessica, in many things: a music career, an MTV reality show and now marriage. The pop starlet and her boyfriend, Fall Out Boy frontman Pete Wentz, have announced their engagement on FriendsOrEnemies.com, a blogging and video site closely associated with the band.

In a “Breaking News” post placed on the site Wednesday night, Simpson, 23, said that she was “thrilled to share that we are happily engaged” and wanted the pair’s fans to be the first to know. The message was prefaced with “This Just In From Ashlee Simpson” and referred to Wentz, 28, in the third person, but was signed “Ashlee and Pete.”

According to an anonymous Simpson family friend quoted on “In Touch” magazine’s Web site, Wentz proposed within the past few days at his brother’s art exhibit in Colorado. The source claimed that Simpson immediately accepted, as her beau bent down on one knee, and that her parents were ecstatic over the planned union.

The engagement follows a two-year courtship between Simpson and Wentz, who will both be marrying for the first time. Simpson recently began wearing a promise ring given to her by Wentz, which she admitted signified the couple’s intention to marry. “It just means that he hasn’t asked my dad yet,” she stated of the ring on a February episode of Fuse TV talk show “The Sauce.”

Simpson first stepped into to the public eye in 2002, playing a supporting role on the network drama “7th Heaven.” She later starred in her own reality program on MTV, “The Ashlee Simpson Show,” which began in 2004 by chronicling the development of her first album, “Autobiography.” She has recorded two full-length works since, “I Am Me” (2005) and “Bittersweet World,” which is scheduled for release later this month.