Don't Look Back
Putting his breakup with Jessica behind him, Nick Lachey bounces
back with a revealing new album and a brand-new bachelor's lifestyle
Friday Mar 24, 2006 1:00pm EST
 "Women throw themselves at him," says a source who has
worked with Lachey (in New York in March). "It's unbelievable to watch."
CREDIT: THORNTON / STEINBERG / INF
Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in his hometown of Cincinnati,
Nick Lachey was feeling lucky. "It's always great to come home!" he told a group
of screaming female fans at the New Dubliner pub, where he promoted his upcoming
album and enjoyed a hero's welcome. "We call him Mr. Cincinnati," says his
friend and former 98 Degrees bandmate Justin Jeffre. "He is loved by all in
Cincy."
Then it was off to the University of Cincinnati basketball game
to cheer on his beloved Bearcats. Relaxed, upbeat and on-his-feet enthusiastic
when the Bearcats beat Charlotte, Lachey "is in a really good place," says a
source close to the singer. "Of course there were a lot of bumps, but [his new]
album really goes through some of that and puts him where he is today."
Four months after the end of his marriage to Jessica Simpson,
Lachey has clearly moved on: He's got a new house in Bel Air, a new yellow Lab
puppy (Harlan, named after the town where he was born in Kentucky), a string of
new romantic possibilities and the still untitled album, due May 23. The highly
personal effort "is kind of a journal of the last year of my life," he told New
York's Z100 radio station – starting with the confessional first single, "What's
Left of Me." The tune was recorded "the day before Thanksgiving, which was
basically the day that Jessica told me she wanted to get a divorce," said
Lachey, 32, who shot the video (with MTV's Vanessa Minnillo) for the single in
L.A. on March 21.
Acting with Molly Stanton on the WB's Twins
CREDIT: JOHN SCIULLI / WIREIMAGE Post-Jessica, Lachey is also branching out beyond music with
new projects: She Said/He Said, a sitcom pilot he's shooting for the
new CW network; YFly.com, a teens-only social network Web site Lachey cofounded
that aims to keep out adult predators; and ads for the Core Secrets
exercise DVDs with fitness trainer Gunnar Peterson, in which the singer flaunts
his sculpted physique.
Working it in an ad for a new exercise DVD
CREDIT: SPLASH NEWS Which isn't to say that it's all work and no play for Lachey,
who has been spotted with enjoy himself," says the source close to Lachey. "He's
not looking for a serious relationship. His girlfriend right now is his album."
He has also been spending time with his family and getting ready for the arrival
of his brother Drew's baby girl. "He'll be a great uncle," says Drew's
Dancing with the Stars partner Cheryl Burke, 21, who's hit the club
scene in L.A. with Nick, sparking talk that the two were an item (nope). "He's
been there 100 percent, and I know he will be the one to spoil the baby."
But if starting his own family is a ways off – "It's something that is
important to him, but when the time is right," says the source – Lachey has
begun the next chapter. Calling "Resolution" one of his favorite tracks on the
new album, he said, "It's kind of my way of saying, 'Okay, I'm letting go of
this. I'm never looking back.'"
 Kristin Cavallari CREDIT:
WESTLEY HARGRAVE / SPLASH NEWSWhat's Up with
Kristin?
Exactly what constitutes a hookup is a matter of great
national debate, but this much is certain: Lachey is back on the market.
Recently he's been spotted out in L.A. on a few occasions with Kristin
Cavallari, 19, best known as the boy-killing mean girl on the MTV reality show
Laguna Beach.
But the hookup – however it's defined – is "not anything
serious," says a friend of Lachey's. And then there's Cavallari's recent hookup
with her ex-boyfriend Brody Jenner, 22 (son of Olympian Bruce), at a March 17
fashion show in L.A. "She isn't with Nick," a friend says of Cavallari, who also
briefly dated Lachey's pal, USC quarterback Matt Leinart. "She was with Brody at
the 2BFree show and then at the [nightclub] Lobby. They made out and left
together."
• By Michelle Tauber. K.C. Baker and Tiffany McGee in New
York City, Marisa Laudadio, Kimberly Lansing, Shannon Bradley and Vanessa Diaz
in Los Angeles and Lesley Messer and Angela T. Koenig in Cincinnati
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