Jessica Simpson is on magazine covers, on the radio, on the road, on the small screen, and soon to be on the big screen as The Dukes Of Hazzard character Daisy Duke. Some might see it as spreading yourself too thin, but the Texas native sees it otherwise.

"I'm young and I might not ever have these opportunities again," Simpson says on the phone this weekend. "So I'm going to take advantage of them now, just in case.

"I don't really live a normal life. I'm all over the place, but the weird thing is that I'm not in a bad mood about being stressed out and being spread out and doing so much. How can I complain about something that I've worked so hard for?"

The 23-year-old Simpson, known as much for her and hubby Nick Lachey's MTV reality show Newlyweds as she is for her singing career, was the top choice for the Hazzard role made famous by Catherine Bach.

"They approached me," she says. "No director is yet attached to the movie, so hopefully the director likes me.

"There will definitely be some acting," she adds. "I have the accent so I can pull that off. But as for me actually kicking some butt, in normal life I'd probably be too scared to break a nail. It will be great to be able to train and make my butt look really good in short shorts."

Last August, Simpson released her album In This Skin, which contained the hit single With You. With no followup single on the way to match its success, Simpson decided to re-release In This Skin in March with additional tracks, including a cover of Berlin's Take My Breath Away from the Top Gun soundtrack.

"Take My Breath Away has been one of my favourite songs ever since I was a little girl," she says. "I always kept it in my stereo and now I keep it in my car, the original version. It's something that I turn to when I'm in a romantic mood or when I want to hear a really good song."

Simpson begins her Reality tour in North America early next month. Toronto doesn't have a date yet, but Simpson says she will definitely hit the city. She also says that she's looking forward to her first headlining tour, which includes question and answer sessions with the audience.

"It's called the Reality tour because I'm really singing and you're really going to get to know me," she says. "There's no dancing. I'll shake my booty, but there's no choreographed stuff that could take away from how I actually sing the song -- which is why I was signed to a record label."

Simpson recently did a variety show for ABC, one of 12 she and Lachey have committed to over the next two years. She had had plans for an ABC mid-season sitcom, but Simpson wanted to go on tour and also be Daisy Duke, so the show wasn't picked up.

Some might argue that a sitcom couldn't possibly top Newlyweds or some of the things that come out of Simpson's mouth. The show has another 20 episodes to go and Simpson doesn't see the show continuing after that. She also knows the program doesn't exactly paint her as the next Albert Einstein.

"There are definitely situations that are exaggerated, but ultimately you do see my personality, just one side of it," she says. "They would never show me successfully making a dinner, which I do often. They would never show me saying something that actually meant something or that would seem like a normal conversation, because that's not what is successful for the show.

"I know I'm smart; I'm just ditzy too."

Ashlee path smoothed

Jessica Simpson's younger sister Ashlee has been filming episodes for her own MTV reality show for the last six months. Jessica says that the show will focus on Ashlee's music career, including making her debut album and her day-to-day life.

Jessica says that her sister's recording career should go a lot more smoothly than hers.

"She's watched me from the get-go," Jessica says. "She's lucky because she knows what to stay away from. My dad is my manager and we learned so much along the way.

"We knew nothing about the business when we were getting into it. Now, Ashlee is going to be so taken care of because we know it inside and out."