I can tolerate Ashlee Simpson as a singer. You only have to take her in 3 minute, radio-friendly doses. And I don’t think she’s had any songs out in a long, long time. She’s really just famous for being famous at this point. But unfortunately Ashlee’s decided to step it up a notch, and act. Back in the day she had a few guest episodes on “7th Heaven,” but now Ashlee’s going to be coming at us full-time, in 60 minute doses, as one of the stars of the “Melrose Place” remake.

The real-estate market may be sagging in real life, but it’s looking up on TV: The CW has reportedly signed a deal for Ashlee Simpson-Wentz to move into Melrose Place.

The singer-actress, 24, plans to return to TV as a small-town girl trying her luck in Los Angeles, according to Entertainment Weekly. The character she will play – seven years after her first big role on the WB’s 7th Heaven – will display a “disarming naiveté [that] masks the calculating, shrewd sex kitten within,” says EW.

Simpson-Wentz and her rocker husband, Pete Wentz, will also guest star on the March 18 episode of CBS’s CSI: NY as a Bonnie-and-Clyde-like couple who get caught up in a drug deal gone bad. “I wish I got the chance to be murdered or rob a bank but I heard the make-up is much longer for that,” Wentz, 29, recently told PEOPLE.

[From People]

Oooh, how unique, a character that’s a disarmingly naïve but also a calculating sex kitten. Let me call the Emmy committee and put them on early alert. Seriously, the only thing I like about Ashlee Simpson is that I only have to look at pictures of her. That’s all she’s been doing, walking around and being photographed by the paparazzi. And frankly, that was working for me. Actually sitting through an hour of her “acting?” Not so much.

Speaking of “Melrose Place,” Entertainment Weekly reports that Mischa Barton will probably be joining the cast – and both the roles she’s being considered for are hysterical. “Did Simpson score the part that Mischa Barton had been circling? My sources tell me no. That means the ex-O.C. siren is in talks to stretch her acting chops to within an inch of their life play straight-arrow med student Lauren or revoltingly sweet schoolteacher Riley.”

I’m encouraging everyone to stay away from this craptastic show. God forbid anyone actually come up with a new concept when they can rehash played out shit television.

Here’s Ashlee and Pete Wentz (looking like a total douche) leaving Chateau Marmont on February 27th. Images thanks to Fame.com and Pacific Coast News.