Jessica Simpson hasn't been punted out of the picture, so she's looking to intercept any underhand passes.
The singer's legal camp sent a heated letter to OK! magazine Thursday, demanding the tabloid retract a new article that says Simpson's beau, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, dumped the In This Skin chanteuse after his team lost to the New York Giants in the NFL playoffs on Jan. 13.
"That rag completely fabricated and made up this story," Simpson's rep, Cindi Berger, said in a statement to E! News. "I've spoken to both Jess and Tony and they are completely secure in their relationship and won't let this garbage get under their skin!"
While Simpson couldn't possibly have been surprised by the paparazzi chaperone, Romo took a lot of heat in the sports pages both before and after the Cowboys' loss in light of his decision to spend part of the team's bye-week in Mexico with his girlfriend.
"The Giants sent Tony Romo back to the beach with Jessica Simpson," one New York Daily News' reporter wrote in his game summary.
The pair also made headlines and clouded up the blogosphere when Simpson happened to be in attendance when Dallas lost for only the second time this season on Dec. 16.
Even Romo's teammate, star wide receiver Terrell Owens, got in on the superstition, telling reporters, "Right now, Jessica Simpson is not a fan favorite—in this locker room or in Texas Stadium." (A statement made in jest that he apologized for soon after.)
But while apparently none of the negative publicity has affected their romantic status, the article in question under attack from OK!'s Feb. 4 issue is headlined "Jessica Dumped!"
The story also goes on to say that Ashlee Simpson has attempted to "distance herself" from her big sis, another "scurrilous" attack Simpson's reps are eager to refute.
Calling the article a "defamatory and grossly mean-spirited" example of a "personal attack masquerading as journalism," attorney John J. Rosenberg insists that the magazine publish a "prominent and unambiguous retraction…and that it cease and desist from publishing any further false and misleading attacks on Ms. Simpson or her family," according to the letter originally obtained by TMZ.
Warning that its "effort to damage Ms. Simpson's romantic and familial relationships and erode her public standing" could warrant a defamation lawsuit, Rosenberg accuses OK! of "couching its stories" in terms of speculative gossip, "spread by supposed, albeit unnamed, 'sources' who…obviously lack sufficient confidence in their accusations to risk public attribution."