To rub the salt in Jessica Simpson’s wound, these vacation pictures of the newly engaged Vanessa Minnillo and Nick Lachey popped up today. And Van is smoking hot in a bikini these days.

That has to hurt.

Jessica Simpson has got to wonder, like the rest of us, why it took her ex Nick Lachey so freaking long to ask Vanessa Minnillo to marry him. He started dating Van just a few months after his ugly divorce from Jess in 2006..and he’s just now getting around to it four years later.

“Even though Jessica wants to be happy for Nick, this is a very difficult time for her,” says a friend of Jessica’s. “Nick was the love of her life then, man, and he was her first, so she will always have a very special place in her heart for him. She’s deeply saddened.”

Earlier this year there were some rumors that Nick Lachey and his girlfriend Vanessa Minnillo were trying to get pregnant and land their own ‘newlywed type’ reality show. I didn’t believe the rumor because Nick seemed so truly crushed back when his marriage to Jessica Simpson ended as a result of their MTV reality show.

In an interview to Rolling Stone Nick explained how the show effected his marriage.. He didn’t blame the show for the disintegration of his marriage, but he did say a bunch of things about how it was a bad experience for them. He said “Jessica and I began playing these parts even when we were by ourselves. It became a really blurred line. There was a question about what truly was our reality. When you are on a reality show, your life ceases to be reality. It becomes TV.”

I watched Nick and Jessica’s show a few times and actually liked him. He was watchable. Down to earth, not an obnoxious celebrity..just a regular guy that married to a high-maintenance D-Lister, whom although he found ridiculous..he actually loved.

He seemed genuinely crushed when their marriage ended so I was surprised to read OK! Magazine report that he and Vanessa are seriously planning on getting married and are pitching Newlyweds 2.0. The show will feature them as well as other newlyweds to keep it interesting.

Nick Lachey and girlfriend Vanessa Minnillo were recently spotted talking with NBC execs. An insider tells OK! “They are exploring an idea to get married and do a show about newlyweds. It would help Nick relaunch his career and Vanessa take her career to the next level.”

The idea worked well in the past – Newlyweds, starring Nick and then-wife Jessica Simpson, was a ratings hit for MTV and the talk of the nation from 2003 to 2005.

Vanessa Minnillo and Nick Lachey usually keep their business on the DL..but Van must have let her guard down over the weekend.

Vanessa as spotted at the SLS hotel in LA, “hanging out in a private cabana all night” with “90210″ actor Matt Lanter. Our spy said, “Vanessa definitely wasn’t with Nick. She sat on Matt’s lap and really close to him for two hours at the party. He looks like a younger version of Nick.” A rep for Minnillo said her client knows her “Disaster Movie” co-star because “they made a film together.”

Has Nick waited to long to make it legal with Van? Some girls just don’t like being keep on a string indefinitely while you try to get your sad career back on track.

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