Nicole Richie: "I'm Not in Rehab"  5/31/07

The Simple Life star Nicole Richie has blasted reports she's back in rehab, insisting stories about her troubles are greatly exaggerated.

The U.S. media went into a frenzy last week (ends25May07) when Star magazine reported the socialite had checked herself into the Beaumonde facility near Los Angeles - and had photos to prove it.

But Richie insists there's absolutely no truth to the reports and the revealing pictures are just photos of her walking into a building.

Richie, who once entered rehab for past drug problems, and who last year (06) attempted to tackle an eating disorder with counseling, is convinced the new report surfaced because she had been out of the limelight - on tour with rocker boyfriend Joel Madden - for so long.

She explains, "I hadn't been photographed in a few weeks... It's really pathetic. Because I wasn't photographed, people were wondering where I was and then there was a story that I was in rehab.

"The truth was I was on tour with Joel and I was in random city after random city."

Richie insists she has no plans to return to any form of rehab and found the whole story ridiculous: "I actually thought it was really funny how people were talking about it... Do I have a responsibility to get photographed every single day or else people wonder where I am? That's ridiculous."