  Avril Lavigne turned the tables on the shutterbugs by pretending to shop for baby clothes. (AP file photo)
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This just in (again): Avril Lavigne is not pregnant.
But the 23-year-old Napanee, Ont., native said she and her husband Deryck Whibley of Sum 41 recently stoked the flames of those persistent pregnancy rumours by hooking up with Ashton Kutcher for his new show, Pop Fiction, which just debuted this past weekend in the U.S.
Lavigne put on a fat suit and went shopping with Whibley in Beverly Hills to trick the paparazzi into covering a staged celebrity story — the premise of Pop Fiction — in this case, that she was with child.
"It’s kind of like punking or spoofing the media," Lavigne said down the line from a tour stop in Edmonton.
"And it was their first episode and they asked us to do it and so we just kind of ran with the baby rumour. (Pop Fiction has) like their camera crews embedded in the paparazzi, so we went on Robertson Boulevard for literally like 45 minutes, went to two baby stores, Baby Kitson and Lisa Kline Kids, and then it was everywhere. It was confirmed that I was pregnant. It was crazy. And the show is great because it shows the viewer how out of control the rumours are, how quickly things get spread and it’s funny."
Lavigne insisted it’s not malicious.
"We’re just having good fun, we’re getting (the media) back and obviously not in a mean way, we’re just showing you guys what it’s like and how out of control the rumours can be. But I thought it was a lot of fun and funny."
Lavigne reiterated she’s not pregnant and has no immediate plans to start a family.
"No," she said. "I have so much I’m just about to start."
In addition to her current North American tour, which just launched on March 5 in Victoria, she’s really excited about a new clothing line called Abbey Dawn (a childhood nickname from her father) launching at Kohl’s in the U.S. in July and plans for fragrance — likely to be called Avril — in 2009.
After small roles in films such as Over The Hedge and Fast Food Nation, she’s also interested in pursuing a lead dramatic movie role once her music road trip ends.
For now, there’s the tour.
"I’m so comfortable on stage and I just go up with the mentality of just like ‘Have fun!’ " she said. "I love playing shows in Canada. The Canadian crowd is really warm towards me and they’re really awesome."
And while reviews of the opening night weren’t great, she said she doesn’t pay attention to the critics.
"I don’t read show reviews because the majority of the times they’re negative," she said. "And I think what I do and how the fans react is the most important thing. And the fans have been ecstatic, like screaming. I see their faces, I see them looking at me like, ‘Wow!’ and smiling and that’s what matters. I know I get bad reviews but everyone gets bad reviews. And I don’t care because they’re f---ing wrong!"
In any case, Lavigne has plenty of support on the road.
Her older brother works for tour security and her hubby Whibley, who grew up in Ajax, Ont., was with her for the launch. Whibley has since gone back out on tour with Sum 41 in Canada after suffering a nasty back injury during a 2007 show which sidelined his band’s road trip.
"He’s doing much better," said Lavigne, who said the L.A.-based couple talk every day when they’re not together. "He had to break for a few months. He was in a wheelchair for a week and he couldn’t move. He herniated his disc and so he just had to go through (physical) therapy for a while in L.A. He just has to do a lot of stretches and stuff. I think rocking out over time kind of a took a bit of a toll."
