When we heard OK! magazine paid Jessica Simpson $200,000 for the cover story of the celeb rag's debut issue, we scoffed. After all, she revealed nothing more intimate than she does "for free" with the other glossies.

The deal, however, now sounds a bit more lucrative for Richard Desmond's OK!.

Orchestrated by daddy Joe Simpson, the arrangement calls for a total of six Jessica covers, her hosting of the magazine's September 20 launch party (which may or may not include a $100,000 bonus) and keeps her from offering In Touch, Us Weekly or any of the rest any feature-type access until all her OK! covers run.

Though certainly Star can add another zero to its regular Simpson check for a few soundbites.

We're well aware of Richard Desmond's six-year $100 million plan for his American version of OK! has hit plenty of speed bumps. The good news is that his Aug. 3 debut will have 20 paid ads, not six (hah!).

The bad news is Desmond's laundry list of enemies are keeping his push for readers in the shadows. He's already claimed OK! to be "the #1 celebrity magazine in the world" in ad copy before running a second round of trade mag ads telling media buyers to "Avoid dull People."

Naturally People-owner Time Inc. wasn't too pleased and used its power to bounce OK!'s ads from Adweek and Mediaweek. Desmond isn't fretting too much, however, and will accompany the launch with a $10 million TV campaign.

And now, for the obvious joke, coming from People's public retaliation. The mag's deputy managing editor Larry Hackett turns up his nose at OK!'s admission to paying celebs for stories: "Journalists don't pay for stories. If you pay, it raises questions about the truth and the editorial integrity of the stories."

Make up your own punchline here, folks. It's too easy .. and repetitive.

Dear Reuters

In case you're wondering why most folks in media kinda, uh, laugh at ya'll, it's because of stories like this.

Richard Desmond, the wealthy one-time adult magazine publisher known in the tabloids as Dirty Des, said on Monday he would launch an American version of his weekly star cavalcade OK! in early August and write a $100 million (57.3 million pounds) check to get it started.

Monday, he announced this? Now we thought the porn mogul had made his plans well aware for months.

xoxo
Jossip