Ashlee Simpson angers magazine editor, readers

Two months ago,

Ashlee Simpson appeared in the women's magazine Marie Claire, championing natural beauty and self-acceptance in her interview. "She's had it with Hollywood's twisted view of feminine beauty. Her goal: to get women to appreciate their diverse shapes and sizes," Marie Claire writer Dennis Hensley declared in his article (entitled "Ashlee Simpson's Body Language"), which followed the pop star as she spent a day painting a pro-female mural with a group of underprivileged girls from Los Angeles's Green Dot Public School.

"Simpson is well aware of the barrage of negative body images that all girls see, and she's eager to counteract that negativity," Hensley wrote, furthermore quoting Simpson as saying, "Everyone is made differently, and that's what makes us beautiful and unique. I want girls to look in the mirror and feel confident."

However, by the time Simpson's interview hit newsstands, she was looking very different, with long blonde hair extensions and--allegedly--a new nose job. As result, Marie Claire's readers--and the magazine's new editor, Joanna Coles--are fuming over what they perceive to be blatant hypocrisy.

Coles received more than 1,000 angry letters regarding Simpson, and was so moved by what she read that she has expanded the letters column in Marie Claire's September issue so that peeved readers can vent. Coles even adds her own comment: "We’re dazed and confused--and disappointed--by [Simpson's] choice, too!"

The September issue of Marie Claire--featuring the supersized, anti-Ashlee letters column--comes out August 15.