Ashlee Simpson's father Joe has exerted control over his daughter's careers and images for many years, but a new report claims he was also trying to do damage control to Ashlee's split news by releasing the story the same day Lindsay Lohan appeared in court to answer felony charges for her alleged jewelry theft!

A source told the NY Post:

"He decided Ashlee's divorce filing should happen on the same day as Lindsay going to court to bury the news. But it backfired because Lindsay going to court is, these days, as much a surprise as the sun rising in the morning."

Breaking scandalous news on days when the public would be otherwise occupied is not a novel idea. During the 2008 election, Sarah Palin announced that her eldest daughter Bristol was pregnant on Labor Day, when most of the country was out of work enjoying the last holiday of the summer.

I mean, he DID help create two successful daughters - Ashlee and Jessica Simpson! So that's something, right? And is it just us or does he kinda remind you of Lance Bass!

Who's the best celeb dad between Joe Simpson, Jamie Spears and Michael Lohan?

Dadager slash producer Joe Simpson has sold a comedy to Nickelodeon loosely based on his experience as a psychologist raising two girls in Texas.

THR reports that the as-yet untitled project will be based around one of the daughters who follows in her father's footsteps and begins dispensing advice to the kids at school. Hmmm, which daughter would THAT be based on?

Simpson is teaming up with veteran producer Tommy Lynch and writer Emily Cutler (ABC's Carpoolers) for the series.

X17 got these xclusive pix of new grandpa, Joe Simpson, visiting his daughter and first grandchild in Cedars just after the birth!

And look who else showed up:

Jessica was obviously there to meet her new nephew, but do you think she got any pointers on pregnancy from sister Ash?

We caught Ashlee's hubby Pete yesterday at Maxfield and asked him about the impending birth and then today is seems the big day arrived! We caught Grandpa Simpson's car heading into Cedars Sinai this afternoon, straight for the VIP parking area.

THEN, a bit later this evening, we saw the most ginormous bunch of blue balloons being delivered ... Is is a Petey, Jr. for Ash and Pete?

Jessica Simpson's on-again-off-again, now on-again boy toy Tony Romo has apparently agreed to go back to his country girl as long as her daddy stays outta their business!

The Chicago Sun-Times reports "Daddy Joe blocked from Romo huddle" and they cite one of Romo's college buddies as saying that Romo agreed to be Jess's date to sister Ashlee's wedding, "but he made it super-clear that if they were to give it another go, her dad had to seriously back off."

Down, daddy; down!

With his impending nuptials taking place this weekend, Pete seemingly had a pretty tame bachelor party last night at Mr. Chow.

Tame, because two of the participants were his father and his soon-to-be father-in-law, Joe Simpson!

Or maybe it was tame because Pete's expecting a little Fall Out Boy, and Joe wanted to keep an eye on his daughter's babydaddy to make sure he didn't do anything too crazy!

But everyone seemed to be in a great mood, with the groom and the father-of-the-bride joking with the paps.

Apparently, the boys met up with the Bachelorette party (which looked a bit wilder) later that night at Teddy's - stay tuned for that story coming soon!

Word on the street is that Joe Simpson is already trying to sell the first pix of daughter Ashlee's unborn child!

The New York Post reports Joe is shopping around the pix (of the baby they still won't admit is on the way) for a cool million to all the mags.

A magazine editor told the Post pix of Ashlee and Pete Wentz's bambino pix wouldn't fetch anywhere near $1 million, but probably closer to $60,000.

And the obligatory tagline to this story is that Ashlee's album Bittersweet World drops next week :) Is this the sharpest publicity stunt ever or is this all for real???