My Sim Launcher won't open

I just finished downloading the manual patch from the link in one of Crinrict's threads and installed it (over the current updated version that Origin had messed with).  I decided it couldn't hurt to try that.  The launcher now works fine again.  So, to the original poster:  Try that.  It takes a long time to download, but it worked for me.

It also may confirm that there's something corrupt with Origin's update/repair install files that it references, but I wouldn't feel safe to  assume so without hearing the same story from other people who have updated or downloaded packs for Sims 3 today.