Last week, everyone finally realized that there were new LeAnn Rimes photos, ripe for mockery. It seemed that LeAnn had done a very budget “photo shoot” with her favorite swimwear brand, Mikoh, and some of us billed the shoot as LeAnn’s formal entrance into the professional bikini model world. Except that we were joking, because obviously, that shoot was a hot mess and LeAnn’s bolt-on situation negates any possibility of her becoming a professional ANYTHING in a ‘kini. Anyway, as it turns out, Mikoh Swimwear really wants us to know that they haven’t hired LeAnn as a model or anything. She just posed her bones off for free (or for free swag).

Much like all things LeAnn Rimes-related, her ever-shrinking bikini bod is not without its controversy. Which is why it was so surprising this week to see a swimwear company happily align themselves with the heavily scrutinized singer, and release an interview and new series of photos of Rimes frolicking around Cabo in their skimpy wares.

The media quickly put two and two together and surmised that LeAnn, who posed and preened for the shots in a variety of Mikoh Swimwear clothing, was the new face and bod of the line and that these shots were her campaign debut.

But is she really? Did they really choose LeAnn’s hot (albeit massively controversial) body to sell their products? Is she really fronting their new ad campaign? Someone grab a life raft, because this rumor is…

So false!

Mikoh itself deflated this rumor earlier today after more and more outlets ran with the news.

Per the line’s rep, it was actually LeAnn’s hubby, Eddie Cibrian, who snapped the pics during a recent vacation, and the swimwear brand simply chose to partner those photos with an interview they conducted with the star.

“Some other sites are mentioning this is an ad campaign, but it’s not,” the rep told E! News. “She was not hired as a model or spokesperson for the Mikoh brand, so there is no modeling job to mention.”

Well, official gig or not, it’s obvious that someone’s been practicing their Blue Steel.

[From E! News]

Amy Grindhouse theorizes that LeAnn and Mikoh probably worked out some kind of swag-for-famewhore-publicity deal, and after all, by publicly denying the laughable “modeling contract” Mikoh has earned itself even more attention. Slow clap for the convergence of a famewhore and a swimwear company that doesn’t mind being associated with her – but not too closely. Of course, the whole thing kind of makes LeAnn look A) pathetic and B) cheap. Pathetic because she really went overboard “promoting” this swimwear company and all she basically got out of it was a thousand dollars’ worth of bikinis. Cheap because she certainly has $1000 laying around, right? Or not? Did Eddie have that money earmarked for some “project”? Re: whore?

Here’s a twit-pic of LeAnn as an emaciated, braless, famewhore Tinkerbell with lop-sided bolt-ons. Plus, some other twit-pics.

Photos courtesy of Mikoh Online, and LeAnn’s Twitter.