Race Begins For Jessica Simpson Baby Photos

Is there a more inevitable ridiculous rat race?

Every time someone well-known goes through the same birthing process many, many anonymous women endure around the world, one would think the mother's vagina's notoriety guaranteed the little spawn would be born with six eyes and webbed feet. I've seen eBay auctions for rare comic books that don't escalate so rapidly.

Still, here we are: the insanity has begun. Jessica Simpson and fiancé Eric Johnson welcomed daughter Maxwell Drew Johnson into this big, crazy world yesterday morning and the bidding wasted no time getting ridiculous with predicted amounts in six figures, The Huffington Post reports. Actually, the negotiations began before Maxwell Drew even started crowning.

"Photo agencies and magazines have been courting Jessica's manager and father, Joe Simpson, for months to lock down the exclusive rights to take the first images of the baby," a magazine source told HuffPo's Naughty But Nice Rob. "Ultimately, it will come down to who offers the most money, but it will also be taken into account that the Simpsons have had long relationships with all the weekly magazines, some great and some very bad."

Still, another source claims, money probably doesn't matter. Simpson happily told Elle she and Johnson were expecting a daughter months earlier when she posed nude for the cover. Before Simpson, as Rob points out, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes opted to give Vanity Fair the privilege of being Suri Cruise's first photo shoot completely free of charge.

"It's not like Jessica needs the money," still another source said. "Her clothing business has made her a fortune. The $100,000-$500,000 that she could make from selling pictures doesn't mean that much to her. Instead, she might be better off going with a high-end photographer that magazines like Vanity Fair and Elle use to create an image that, in the long run, would be worth whatever amount a weekly is offering."

Former NFL player Johnson, 32, and Simpson, 31, started dating in May 2011 were engaged by November. It will be Simpson's second marriage, following her 2002-2005 marriage to former 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey.