Jessica Simpson’s The Price of Beauty premieres on Monday, March 15 at 10/9c on VH1 *** Three Stars

By Robin Rowe

Jessica Simpson in The Price of Beauty

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 3/15/2010 – “Beauty is an easy thing to become obsessed with,” says VH1 The Price of Beauty star Jessica Simpson. “People put so much pressure on women to be beautiful. There’s always a new diet to follow, a new beauty product to use, but is that really what defines beauty? I’m going to travel the world and see what makes a woman in different cultures feel beautiful.”

The Price of Beauty is part beauty guide, part travelogue, as Jessica Simpson and her peeps (stylist Ken Paves and friend CaCee Cobb) travel to sample beauty in a different culture each week. In each country a “beauty ambassador” shows Simpson the goals and consequences of the local quest for beauty. The first episode, premiering tonight, travels to Thailand. Upcoming episodes will go to France, Uganda, Japan, Brazil, Moroco, and India.

“The Price of Beauty is a show I’ve inherited, but I’m very happy to have inherited it,” says RDF USA CEO Grant Mansfield. “It’s great to have Jessica Simpson in a show like this on VH1.” (For more about RDF USA, see this story.)

“The Price of Beauty was an internally generated idea here at RDF and we immediately wanted to approach Jessica as we knew she’d be the perfect fit,” says RDF USA executive VP Claire O’Donohoe. “We were thrilled when she agreed. I think Jessica tackles issues that many young girls and women are dealing with everyday and sheds light on how the rest of the world sees beauty. What’s beautiful to a tribe in Thailand is the complete opposite to Moroccan women.  In Uganda, the fatter a woman, the more beautiful and proud.”

“Every episode has a poignant moment,” sasy O’Donohoe. “In Mumbai, Jessica teams with Operation Smile to help a young girl have her cleft palate fixed. In Thailand, Jessica bonds with a woman who she eventually brings to L.A. for a striking transformation in the finale episode. There are also many funny and shocking moments along the way. Jessica, Ken and Cacee have their feet nibbled by fish at a Japanese spa, dress up like Carnival Queens in Rio, Bollywood dance in Mumbai and hang out in a Fattening hut in Uganda.”

“The reason I’m traveling to all these countries is I want to find it for myself,” says Simpson. “It’s all about the journey. We came to Thailand to find out what Thai women do for beauty.” The Thailand beauty ambassador is Sonia Couling, the model who hosts Thailand’s version of Next Top Model.

Jessica Simpson is entertaining, in a ditzy blonde way, in The Price of Beauty. The show has serious moments, such as when Simpson is introduced to a beautiful singer who’s been disfigured by skin bleaching products she purchased in a Thai market. Her price of beauty was obviously too high.

What’s lacking in The Price of Beauty is a personality that Middle America can identify with. Jessica Simpson is Jessica Simpson, and her two sidekicks are comic relief, not someone Peoria wants to be.

When Simpson encounters the disfigured Thai singer, she doesn’t know what to do for her but console her. It isn’t made clear in the show what could be done to help the singer. The person missing from the show is a doctor, someone serious who can speak as an expert about the health price of beauty. Jessica Simpson is the ambassador to the charity Operation Smile, a group of doctors who restore the faces of those who can’t afford reconstructive surgery. It’s too bad one of those doctors isn’t a part of this show.

The Price of Beauty talks about the human cost of beauty, but doesn’t give the price in dollars. If you want to know what the upkeep costs to be a beautiful woman in Thailand, you won’t find the answer here. The Price of Beauty is great idea for a TV show. It just needs to show it’s more than skin deep.

Jessica Simpson’s The Price of Beauty premieres on Monday, March 15 at 10/9c on VH1.