Hilary Duff enjoys single life with some "Dignity"
And if you happen to be squeaky-clean pop singer Hilary Duff, the public anguish is compounded when your rock-star boyfriend rebounds with Nicole Richie.
One obvious remedy might be to trash the indecorous socialite on your new album, which debuted at No. 3 on the U.S. pop charts this week. Bonus factor: sales were more than double those of the new album by ex-boyfriend Joel Madden's band Good Charlotte the week before.
The lyrical content of the deeply confessional album, "Dignity," raised some eyebrows. In the title track, 19-year-old Duff savages a woman who would "show up to the opening of an envelope." The character wears Jimmy Choo shoes, a fashionable brand coincidentally endorsed by Richie. And the song "Gypsy Woman" targets someone who's "got no shame ... bringing down the family name."
The only problem is that the All-American girl swears she is not singing about the daughter of singer Lionel Richie.
"I don't have anything against her," Duff said in a recent interview with Reuters. "I broke up with my boyfriend, and I expect him to date other people, and I don't know her, and I don't have a problem with her, and I really don't want her to think that I don't like her because she's dating my ex-boyfriend. I'm going to date people too, y'know?"
Specifically, "Dignity" is about the crazy individuals she encounters in Los Angeles, not only the infamous tabloid mainstays, but regular people who seem to think that "having the hottest bag ... makes you the coolest person," she said.
Instead, "Gypsy Woman," which Duff co-wrote with older sister Haylie, targets the woman Duff says destroyed their family by having an affair with the girls' father (Bob Duff is pointedly not thanked in the album's gushing liner notes).
"It's much more meaningful than what Nicole Richie means to me," Duff said of the song.
DANCE RECORD
"Dignity," released through Walt Disney Co.'s Hollywood Records label, marks Duff's fourth album, and her first set of new material since a self-titled effort that peaked at No. 2 in 2004. While that disc had a pop-rock bent, the new album is an unabashed dance record. Duff co-wrote all but one of the tracks with songwriter Kara DioGuardi, who has worked with the likes of Gwen Stefani and Christina Aguilera.
Duff recorded the album last year amid the denouement of her relationship with Madden, who is almost eight years her senior, and the lyrics in such tunes as "Stranger" and "Burned" reflect her pain.
The confessional CD marks another step in her carefully planned evolution from the star of the Disney Channel cable series "Lizzie McGuire" to a serious singer-actress who has her own perfume and clothing lines. Her manager, Robert Thorne, previously turned the Olsen twins into multimedia moguls.
To be sure, there have been some bumps along the way. Album sales are off, in line with the industry trend, while recent fluffy teen comedies such as "Material Girls" and "A Cinderella Story" failed to generate much heat at the box office. But while making the album, she took some time to star in an edgy drama with John Cusack, "Brand Hauser," due out in the fall.
"I really got to challenge myself and have fun, and I can't wait for that to come out," she said.
In the meantime, she is enjoying the single life, with no desire or energy to get involved with anyone.
"I get to kinda be selfish right now, and go out and have fun with my friends, and not worry about someone being at home waiting on me, or not liking that I'm out."
Reuters/Nielsen
