This rumor’s been going around for awhile, so I’ll pass it on to you guys.

Word on the street is that Casey Aldridge is taking the fall for the Jamie-Lynn Spears pregnancy since he did date her, and, being less than two years older than she is, can’t be held on statutory rape charges. They say he hasn’t even really been dating Jamie-Lynn recently, and that the father is actually a much older exec on her TV show.

Star magazine insists that the teenager may not be the dad - and that Spears’ friends and family think it is an older man who would face statutory rape charges.

Friends have said that Jamie Lynn was no longer even seeing Casey - and family members told Star that they believe the real father is a much older executive at her children’s TV show ‘Zoey 101′.

“Casey is being paid off to be the family’s fall guy while the real father remains unidentified,” Star magazine insists.

They say the real reason is that an older man could be charged with statutory rape if revealed to be the father of an under-aged girl’s baby.

But in Jamie Lynn’s home state of Louisiana, Casey would escape charges because a 16-year-old can legally have sex with someone less than two years older than her. “Conveniently, Casey falls under the bar by just 26 days.

“The man many suspect is the father, however, would face charges and probably prison time if he were to come forward and admit he had sex with her,” Star magazine states.

The magazine quotes “two separate Spears family insiders” who believe the father is someone who works on Jamie Lynn’s kids’ show. “Jamie Lynn has been working on Zoey since she was 13,” one of the sources said. “In Hollywood, little girls grow up fast, and she is no exception.

“With everything that has gone on in her family, she needed someone to look up to.

“But the man she found seems to have completely taken advantage of her.”

Oh, I do hope this is true!!! But there’ll be no way to tell without a DNA test, which I’m sure Jamie won’t get if she’s trying to protect this dude.

The issue of OK! with the JLS interview is finally on stands. Here are some of the highlights.

1) First, she denies she is living with Casey Aldridge:

Are you guys living together?
No, I live with my mom. He lives with his parents. For now, that’s the best thing to do. We need to focus on the baby right now.

2) Casey is 18 years old, not 19. DMV records indicate he was born April 29, 1989. This means he is less than two years older than JLS, and as such will be clear of any statutory rape claims.

3) The two of them met — where else? — in church. The very best place to start on the path to teenage pregnancy.

How long have you and Casey been together?
This Christmas, it’ll be about two and a half years, I think. At first, I was just friends with him; I’ve been friends with him since I was about 14. Then we started dating. I met him at church. He came there with a friend; I came there with a friend. We started talking and then started hanging out.

4) Jamie-Lynn talks more about the pregnancy, claiming Casey was the first person she told:

Who did you call first when your pregnancy was confirmed?
It was probably Casey. It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected. I was in a complete and total shock and so was he.

When did you see him after finding out?
The next day, he wanted to meet me in person to talk about what we had to do. It was something we couldn’t really talk about over the phone. We met and talked about everything and decided what we wanted to do. He was 100 percent supportive, and we figured it out.

Was this planned?
Oh, it was a big shock.

Why did you decide to keep the baby?
I think my whole life I would have to live with knowing what I did or what I didn’t do. I’m trying to do the right thing. I think that this is what is going to make me happy in the end.

Other people your age might not be brave enough to take on this kind of commitment…
Well, I was scared at first. I took the time to think about it for myself, and I though: “What would be right for me?” I’m the one who has to live with it for the rest of my life. I put myself in this position, an adult position, so I have to act like an adult and take responsibility for what I did. I have really become at peace with the whole situation, and I think it’s the right thing for me to do. It’s a personal decision that everyone would have to make for themselves. This one is just right for me….

What was [your mom’s] reaction when you told her you were pregnant?
She didn’t really say anything at first. She just kind of looked at me. It was me and Casey that told her. She didn’t believe us. But then she looked at Casey and he’s always been very straightforward, and then she knew it was real. She was very upset because it wasn’t what she expected at all. A week after, she had time to cope with it and became very supportive.

It doesn’t appear the Casey Aldridge is quite prepared yet to become the next Kevin Federline.

I mean, what the hell would we call him? C-Ald? Case-dridge? No, no, no. None of it works.

The media have descended on his tiny hometown of Gloster, Mississippi, but Casey has been nowhere to be found.

“I don’t think they are ready yet to sit down and talk to the media,” his uncle, a pastor in Gloster, Miss., told The Associated Press by telephone Thursday. “They haven’t gotten their heads together yet … He doesn’t want to say the wrong thing to the media. At the right time he will speak … He is a quiet guy. That is why it is going to be very difficult to corner him until everybody is ready to talk together on the same page. He doesn’t like the limelight. He is going to hide as much as he can.”

The uncle said Casey has gone into hiding for now, and denied reports that his nephew and JLS, who was a guest at Jackson’s home this past Thanksgiving, were no longer together.

“I think they are going to try to stay together,” he said. “They certainly don’t want to part.”

As for marriage?

Jackson said Casey has told family members that “he wants to go ahead and get married as soon as possible.”

He told reporters his nephew briefly attended a junior college in Mississippi but now works for a pipe-laying company in Baton Rouge, La. He attended school at Amite School Center in nearby Liberty, Miss., where he played football and baseball, principal Dan Brewer said.

Awwww.

Hiding from the media? How quaint.

I love this guy already.

It’s hard to compete with the Spears sisters. You can work as hard as you want; nothing’s more interesting than famous trailer trash.

Ashlee Simpson is said to be devastated that the big debut of her new video, “Outta My Head,” was eclipsed by the Jamie-Lynn Spears pregnancy scandal.

“Ashlee can’t believe this happened. She’s so disappointed,” said a source. “Her sister, Jessica, grew up in the shadow of Britney; it took years for Jess separate herself from her. How ironic that Ashlee’s big day ends up spent in the shadow of Britney’s little sister.”

Hollywood is so unpredictable!

Daily Mail has an article today about the charges 19-year-old Casey Aldridge could face for impregnating 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears (if he was, in fact, the one who did it).

Louisiana law defines this unlawful carnal knowledge as “sexual intercourse with consent between someone age 19 or older and someone between age 12 and 17.”

In Louisiana a person can only legally consent to sex at age 17. If aged 15 or 16, the other person involved must be no more than two years older for the act to be considered legal.

But Aldridge wouldn’t fare much better if the “carnal” act happened in California, where Spears lives while on the set of her Nickelodeon TV show Zoey 101.

The Californian Penal Code states that any person who engages in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under 18 who is not more than three years younger than the perpetrator, is guilty of a misdemeanour and faces up to one year in a county jail.

But Californian criminal defence attorney Jim Hammer says: “If Aldridge is actually more than three years older he could be up for a felony, which carries a maximum three years in prison.”

If the sex took place in Louisiana, he could be in for 10 years.

Now, help me out here, legal eagles: do the parents have to press charges for any of this to happen? Or can the state press charges? And is it likely that they will?

Weigh in, smart people!!!

Mr. Jamie Spears is said to be “furious” about Jamie-Lynn and Lynne Spears’ decision to sell the story of Jamie-Lynn’s pregnancy to the tabs.

“He put his foot down and refused to take any money and ‘profit off of his children,’” a source tells Us magazine. “Lynne didn’t care.” Jamie is “devastated” by the news, says the source. He’s “extremely depressed” and “feels Jamie Lynn ruined her life.”

When you think about it, though, the tabs were going to find out eventually — why not just come clean about it and score some dough for the kid?

I wanna give Jamie-Lynn a hard time about this, but, speaking as me rather than as Evil Beet, I’m sure this was a heart-wrenching decision for her and I give her mad props for going through with the pregnancy, and I wish her all the luck in the world. I hope her father ends up supporting her. I hope she doesn’t wind up like her sister.

“I kind of just keep my options open. I have a bunch of friends that I always hang out with, a bunch of guy friends.”

Jamie-Lynn Spears, when asked if she had a serious boyfriend, in an interview with the AP published December 17, 2007, just a day before her pregnancy was announced.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

When was this interview done? Didn’t she know she was pregnant by then??? Why would she say that?

WTF is going on???

I think someone’s a little jealous.

Cut to 1:45 in this vid for Britney’s denial.

Either Jamie-Lynn and her mother faked an entire pregnancy on an international stage, or Britney honestly thinks this is some horrible, cruel plot to distract attention away from her.

Either way: CRAZY!