Simpsonized

I meant to post on this yesterday, but it slipped my mind. What a great newspaper stunt:

January 13, 2008 -- IRVING, Texas, Jess win, baby!

Even a fake Jessica Simpson was good enough to throw off the Dallas Cowboys yesterday, as Big Blue took a Giant step toward the Super Bowl.

The Giants, who notched a stunning 21-17 victory over Dallas, had a good-luck charm in the stands - beautiful Simpson lookalike Lynsey Nordstrom.

The real Simpson was the subject of hand-wringing in Big D all week, because of quarterback beau Tony Romo's habit of losing when she's in attendance.

Simpson didn't show up yesterday, but The Post brought Nordstrom - a 21-year-old nanny from Bothell, Wash. - to Texas Stadium.

We sat her in the third row behind the Dallas bench, and she must have made the difference - Romo's final drive was stopped short of the end zone.

You're welcome, New York!

Newspapers have gotten a lot more ethical in recent years, which is all for the better. But they're a lot more boring. It wasn't all that long ago that newspapers would do whatever it took to generate excitement and increase circulation. When I started on my second newspaper job in Michigan City, there was a legendary ex-editor named Al Spiers -- he still came into the office occasionally to drop off a fishing or outdoors column -- who had kept a special eye on letters to the editor in his day. Whenever they slowed down, he would fake a letter -- I mean, write it himself and put a phony name on it -- about something outrageous, like how the "stray dog" problem should be solved by giving all residents a special 48-hour permit to just go out and shoot them. Dozens of angry responses would flood in, and Al would be a happy man.

That was small potatoes, of course. Al wasn't messing with "America's game" and what, not too many years ago, was known as "America's team." Expect a congressional inquiry any day, if they can work it in between the steroid hearings.

I wonder, by the way, who the San Diego newspaper put in the stands Sunday to neutralize the Colts' defense.