Never underestimate the power of preteen girls.

They're the reason Ashlee Simpson still has a career, after her embarrassing lip-sync meltdown in October on "Saturday Night Live," and getting booed unmercifully at the Orange Bowl in Miami in January, when she actually did try to sing live during the half-time show, and blew it.

What do today's 12-year-olds care if a singing star can't actually sing? To today's kids, lip-syncing is an accepted part of show business. Everybody does it. So what? And, besides, who expects celebrities to actually have talent? Ever heard of Paris Hilton? I mean, like, whatever!

Preteen girls have enormous buying power, and when they latch onto something, they buy, buy, buy. Simpson has sold more than 3 million copies of her punk-lite debut album, "Autobiography," a wholly manufactured product, with songs that sound like they came from a computer programmed with bubblegum hits of the past, played by studio musicians, with Simpson's voice electronically enhanced. Like her, the CD is entirely fake.

Ashlee is, of course, the little sister of Jessica Simpson, the ditzy blond who actually can sing. Their parents/managers fashioned Ashlee after Avril Lavigne, dying her hair black, putting her in leather and having her snarl in a punk-like stance.

Ashlee differs from Lavigne in that Lavigne actually has talent. But little girls are not very astute judges of that, and are easily manipulated, so when Jessica introduced Ashlee to the waiting world, the kids bought it. MTV helped, playing Ashlee's videos and giving her a weekly program, now in its second season. It's so vapid it's not even funny, following Ashlee as she gets her hair done or showing her at work writing songs with her band. As if!

The fact that Ashlee has become a joke among anybody over the age of 15 only makes her kiddie audience defend her all the more. It has actually extended her career. But when today's young girls become old enough to drive, they'll abandon their preteen faves, as is almost always the case. That gives Ashlee Simpson maybe two more years.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312, pmacdonald@seattletimes.com