Ashley Tisdale's Response To Being Called Out For Buying '400 Books' Before House Tour Is HILARIOUS!

Ashley Tisdale is being refreshingly real about getting her home ready for an Architectural Digest feature!

The High School Musical alum is the focus of the real estate and design-focused outlet’s newest YouTube video released earlier this week, a 16-minute-long look into her new self-designed home in Los Angeles that she shares with husband Christopher French. But days before the shoot, Tisadale noticed something that needed fixing: her bookshelves didn’t have any actual books in ’em!

While the 36-year-old star was showing the mag around her home, they came to a beautiful set of built-in bookshelves placed along a living room wall. But as the star explained to the outlet, the perfectly-placed books within those shelves hadn’t exactly been there for so long. Just a couple days, in fact!

The momma realized before the shoot that Architectural Digest was going to show up soon, and so she panicked, telling French they needed to fill the shelves and make the home — that she designed herself while pregnant — look perfectly lived in!

Tisdale recalled the conversation she had about it with her composer husband, saying:

“These bookshelves, I have to be honest, actually did not have books in them a couple days ago. I had my husband go to the bookstore and I was like, ‘you need to get 400 books.'”

OK, wait, 400 books?! That’s gonna fill up a car pretty quickly! And he’s gotta carry them all into the house, too, doesn’t he?!

She shared her husband’s very authentic and understandable response, too:

“Obviously my husband was like, ‘We should be collecting books over time and putting them in the shelves.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no, no.'”

Too funny!

That poor guy. He’s right, you know! Putting together a real book collection takes time. Unless Architectural Digest is showing up to have a look! Then you’ve gotta go at warp speed! Still, Tisdale got her way, as she explains at about the 3:30 mark in the video (below):

But wait! It gets better!

After the video came out, fans took to Twitter to share their reaction to the High School Musical star’s unique decision to take action on filling out her bookshelf. While Tisdale’s followers flocked to the social media app to give their thoughts on the momma’s honest admission about her home’s reading material, she delivered this incredible one-liner:

Sorry I haven't been reading everybody's tweets, I've recently just got a lot of new books to get through????

— Ashley Tisdale (@ashleytisdale) March 31, 2022

LOLz!

In a separate response following her funny first message, Tisdale also shared her reading list with fans curious about what she actually likes to read. She also fans to buy books from independent shops, in order to support stores and authors. Amen!

But since it’s Twitter, nothing can possibly go on without a big ol’ controversy. Fans called out Ashley’s privilege regarding her ability to buy 400 books at once, as well as pointing out the seemingly superficial nature of doing it all for an Architectural Digest vid. Others supported the star, taking up for her amid the online firestorm.

As you can see (below), followers had all KINDS of reactions to Tisdale’s frank literary admission on camera. Here are just a few of the takes coming through in fan tweets:

“Honestly, if you really bought these from an independent bookstore… that’s awesome. Maybe some of us would feel better if you promised to take some of the books off the shelf at some point and at least see what they’re about. Seem reasonable?”

“Ashley, no criticism. Folks with built-ins do this all the time. I donate books constantly and if I ever had your built ins (LOVELY), i’d need to purchase a lot of books. I hope you just bought from a local bookstore.”

“Books can be for decoration, I don’t get the backlash”

“Don’t understand why anyone would get shelves if they don’t own anything to put on them. What’s next? Buying wine to fill up your wine rack? I think there’s a difference between styling a magazine photo and styling your own home.”

“it’s not that serious, people were coming to film her home and she wanted it to look a certain way.”

“It is sad to read that this is a service offered by interior designers, tacking onto the growing number of ‘library curators.’ Only in America do people buy books to decorate rather than read.”

“it’s one thing staging a house for sale or a set for filming. but staging your home for an article about the design and decoration of your home seems really sad. I presume the journo and photog must have known going in the whole thing would be faked, but readers don’t.”

“your honesty was wonderfully refreshing. Gotta come correct for AD!”

“This happens everywhere. So what? I read at least 2-3 books a month. But not everyone is into reading. And a shelf with books looks better than without books. So what? The writers are happy, the bookstore is happy, the owner is happy. Twitter is not happy.”

“If you put curios on your shelves, that’s who you are. Why are you pretending to be someone with an extensive library? If AD wants to photograph you in a fake house, let them do it. Why would an interior designer suggest books for someone who doesn’t read much?”

“I’m a huge reader, and I have tons of books I have both read and haven’t gotten to yet. But, still, I find her honesty about this actually charming. Who cares if they are for display? The authors/publishers/bookstore got paid, so that’s good enough for me.”

Honestly, that’s a lot! Twitter is always mad about something! LOLz!

What do U think, Perezcious readers??

Is it deceitful to buy books for this purpose? Or is it refreshing to hear how candid Ashley is about it?? Sound OFF about it all with your take down in the comments (below)!

[Image via Architectural Digest/YouTube]