Ailing Ashlee hospitalised
From Marcus Errico

NEW YORK—Ashlee Simpson’s big comeback tour has been temporarily derailed in Tokyo, after she collapsed and was hospitalised following a performance on MTV Japan Thursday. The “Catch Me When I Fall” singer, on the road to support her chart-topping album I Am Me—and to prove to the world that she really can sing—remains in an undisclosed hospital, publicist Rob Shuter said Friday.
Her father, Joe Simpson, tells MTV that Ashlee is hooked up to an I.V. The younger Simpson had just finished a rendition of the hit single “Boyfriend” before telling the audience that she felt sick. “I love you guys,” she said before exiting, only to collapse moments later in an elevator. She was immediately taken by ambulance to the hospital, per Us Weekly, which first reported the hospitalisation.
There’s been no official word on the cause of the fainting spell, but Us Weekly quotes an unnamed source close to the family citing exhaustion as the reason for her collapse. “She’s wanted to prove over and over to her fans that she can perform live after what happened on SNL last year,” the magazine quotes.
Simpson, 21, has been promoting I Am Me for the better part of two months, including a return to the scene of the mime on Saturday Night Live, a string of concert dates and several TV and magazine interviews. Meantime, Ashlee’s appearance on Monday’s Radio Music Awards in Las Vegas has been cancelled. She will be replaced on the NBC-broadcast special by Bo Bice.