American Idol judge Simon Cowell, who once told a contestant that he would make a better drag queen than an Idol, and called another contestant’s singing “diabolical,” (he was actually correct about that one, mean though he was) may have a heart after all, underneath those boring black sweaters and man-boobs. The Brit participated in “Oprah’s Big Give,” a reality/game show that is giving that other ABC tearjerker reality show, “Extreme Home Makeovers,” a run for its money. Cowell donated $162,000 to a family who fell into a financial crisis after their daughter was diagnosed with cancer.

Simon Cowell may not be so mean after all.

The American Idol judge, 48, gave the family of a cancer-stricken 3-year-old $162,000 to pay off their mortgage, he announced on Oprah Winfrey’s Big Give show on Monday.

The family drives more than 100 miles from their Minnesota home every day so their daughter, Madelaine, can receive treatments.

“It’s a very basic story of a normal family whose daughter got very ill, and they had some financial problems which was relatively easy for me to sort out,” Cowell explained to Extra.

On the show, he told Winfrey that he “credits her” for teaching him to be a do-gooder.

Said Cowell, “I never knew that doing good could feel so good.”

[From Us Weekly]

I think Oprah should recruit some more notorious meanies for this show. It would be like “The Grinch,” week after week. Too bad Leona Helmsley is dead. Anyway, good for Simon for finally understanding that there are other people less fortunate on the planet than himself. But that doesn’t mean I want to see “Nice Simon” on American Idol. Somebody has to tell these people that they suck!

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the clip from Oprah. It made me cry so hard to see what this family and little girl are going through.

Simon Cowell recently explained why he and his longtime girlfriend, entertainment journalist Terri Seymour, will never get married. And it’s not because of his bromance with hyperactive American Idol co-star Ryan Seacrest. It’s because he’s afraid of being cleaned out like Paul McCartney.

X-Factor boss Simon Cowell has revealed the real reason he will never marry girlfriend Terri Seymour – because he fears she will “do a Heather Mills on him” and leave him broke.

The music mogul said his partner of five years was “great” but admitted the concept of marriage in the entertainment industry was a scary and unrealistic one.

“I don’t believe in marriage, certainly not in this business,” the 48-year-old told the Mirror.

“The truth is that you get married and in a year or two they clean you out! It’s just not going to work.

“I know a lot of people going through divorces now and once the lawyers get involved it starts to get nasty.”

[From The Daily Mail]

I’m curious…just how much is Simon worth? I know he’s had a successful career managing some pop stars in the UK and creating some shows, but here in the states, his success outside of “Idol” has been limited. As for his concerns about being taken to the cleaners, Terri is no Heather Mills, she has her own successful career and seems to have her own identity and interests outside of the relationship.

In another interesting part of this interview, Simon says that if he were Amy Winehouse’s manager, he would have insisted that the singer enter rehab a lot sooner than she did.

And Cowell left his nicest comments for struggling Amy Winehouse, who he described as “an amazing talent”.

“Given the chance I’d take her on, but I don’t think she’d work with me,” he said.

“If I had been managing her I would have got her into rehab from day one. Then maybe none of this nonsense would have happened.”

I guess hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it?

Note by Celebitchy: According to Wikipedia, Cowell is worth upwards of $200 million. He just bought a mansion that cost $80 million, so I guess we know where his money is going. He also revealed that he turned down a $2 million offer to be the face of erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. That’s chump change to him.

Simon Cowell has always seemed a little odd to me – and the fact he wakes up to an identical breakfast in bed every day confirms his oddity.

“In the morning, I have a very set routine – Brenda, my housekeeper, brings me breakfast in bed, and it’s always the same thing: Porridge, papaya juice, fresh fruit and a smoothie. I read the papers, have a bath, and everything is very calm.”

Don’t you sometimes wake up and think “Gee, I’d rather just have toast this morning” Nope, not Simon Cowell. Are you too lazy to make something else? Can Brenda not make anything else?

Anyway, Simon cheerfully admits to being vain, and having botox, but he hasn’t had plastic surgery.

“Vain? Yeah, I am. But to be honest with you, I can’t think of one person who is on TV who isn’t vain. It’s the nature of the beast. If you are on TV then you have a vanity, for sure. Just admit it! Why not?”

Goodie. We like admissions. Has he had copious cosmetic surgery then? His fellow X Factor judge Louis Walsh thinks he might have had pectoral implants.

“No, absolutely not. I have not had cosmetic surgery,” he sniggers.

Botox then? He sucks his (extraordinarily white) teeth.

“Yes, I’ve had Botox, but not in an obsessive way. Then again, every guy I know who works in the City has had it now.”

And he’s not gay either. Who said he was? Is he starting his own rumours now?

“If I was, why hide it? It’s not as if the music business would be an odd place for a gay man to work. And anyway, if I was trying to hide the fact that I was gay, I would be off playing rugby every Saturday, wouldn’t I?”

The Daily Mail

Rugby players can’t be gay? I thought they could. Well, maybe while you’re out playing rugby you can also drink beer and go fishing – except gay men can do all those things too!

The good news is, Simon says in the interview that he has no plans to procreate. Unfortunately he still intends to make low quality cheap television shows, where he humiliates contestants for entertainment value.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Simon Cowell is shown in the header image at the National Television Awards in London on 10/31/07 with his ex girlfriend, singer Sinitta. Cowell insists that nothing is going on with married Sinitta and that his girlfriend Terryi Seymour is not bothered that they remain friends.Sinitta works as a mentor on Cowell’s British talent show X-Factor. Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures.

Simon Cowell has gone on the record (I’m not sure which record it is… probably the gossip record) to state that he loves the strip clubs. And he’s pretty sure there’s nothing wrong with that – in fact if you don’t like strip clubs, there’s something wrong with you. At least if you’re a guy. Simon says his girlfriend of five years Terri Seymour isn’t exactly a fan of his extra-curricular activities, but seems to accept it. If I were Simon Cowell, I would look in the mirror, look at my messed up hairdo with a part down the middle, and thank high heaven I had such a hot girlfriend. Then I would never do anything to piss her off again.

Music mogul Simon Cowell has defended his weakness for lap-dancing clubs – and insists those who don’t like the scantily-clad cavorting ladies are ‘odd’. The American Idol judge admits his partner of five years, Terri Seymour, isn’t fond of his penchant for lap-dancers, but concedes the experience helps him relax.

And Cowell believes those who don’t like lap-dancing clubs “have a problem”. He says, “I don’t have a problem with saying I like lap-dancers. Nothing wrong with that. If you don’t, you’ve got a bit of a problem.”

“I haven’t got them living in my house. Sometimes I go out with some mates and we have a laugh. Terri’s not exactly doing a dance herself when I say I’m going out with the boys. “But you’ve got to let off a bit of steam occasionally. It’s fun!”

[From NBC affiliate WOAI]

I’m going to reiterate that Simon Cowell is damn lucky, and that’s nothing to trifle with. I’m not a big fan of strip clubs, but I’m also incredibly uptight and old-fashioned. Actually no, but I am in regard to my opinions about strip clubs. My ex-boyfriend once described going to one as “An embarrassing fleshy congress,” and I think that sums it up better than I ever could. Simon Cowell, fix your hair. Please. I can leave the strip club stuff alone, but I can’t stand by and watch a man do a center part – and let him think he’s cool.

Simon Cowell’s acid tongue may actually have saved a person’s life. Cowell is also a judge on “X Factor,” which is the UK version of “American Idol.” Contestant Jacqui Gray auditioned in front of Cowell and Sharon Osbourne. Both seemed to sense something was amiss in the singer’s voice, though it’s hard to tell without actually seeing the episode if they were just being very specifically mean, or were actually concerned for the singer.

“‘You have a very odd-sounding voice,’ Cowell, 47, told the nightclub singer after she finished her rendition of Labi Siffri’s ‘Something Inside So Strong.’ ‘Something happens to your throat when you sing. It is quite raspy. It sounds as if you have someone else in there, like you were choking on something.’

“Fellow co-judge Sharon Osbourne, 54, advised the 46-year-old mother of two ‘get it checked out,’ and then cut her from the competition. Luckily, Gray took their advice. ‘I thought I was suffering from a chest infection or swollen glands,’ she said. She went to an ear, nose and throat specialist who found a shadow on her lungs during a chest scan and diagnosed a potentially fatal lung disease.

“‘I was diagnosed with bronchiectasis and told if I had not got it seen to, it could have killed me.’ Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Cowell, said, ‘Simon was genuinely concerned about her voice and is glad she sought the proper medical attention and received the necessary care. He was happy to help.’”

[From Us Weekly]

Simon Cowell, brilliant diagnostician. I don’t know that I really buy the whole “Simon Cowell really cares/ Simon was really worried for her line” – I mean it is Simon Cowell, I doubt he could have resisted passing up an opportunity to make fun of something so specific. Either way, Jacqui Gray certainly doesn’t hold a grudge after being eliminated.

“Gray, meanwhile, may be the first contestant to be rejected by the judges and thank them afterwards. ‘I want to thank them both,” she said. ‘I may not have got through X Factor but they gave me something much more important than that…they really did save my life.’”

[From Us Weekly]

Now if only Simon could leave all the contestants a little better off than they were before they met him. A brain for one, a heart for another, courage for the one that ran out of the room crying. He seems to have this very unique ability to spot ailments that go undetected by less-evolved naked human eyes. So though I never thought I’d say it, today Simon Cowell is a Good Celebrity.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s Simon at various “American Idol” promotional appearances. Does his haircut make anyone else angry? It makes me angry. What man has a part down the middle and a flat top? Images thanks to PR Photos.

Megahit producer Timbaland hints at a rift with Britney in a new interview with MTV. He says he would work with her again,but only if she apologizes. He won’t say what happened, just that “She knows what she’s sorry about.”

He says Britney doesn’t have a comeback story yet, that she hasn’t really let enough people help her and has royally screwed herself by trying to go it alone. It sounds to me like she told him she didn’t need his help and wasn’t nice about it.

Now Timbo has even more advice to give her about getting her career back on track. “She needs a story,” he said. “She has no comeback story. That’s the problem. She has to have a team. She needs to come back with Justin doing records; [then we'd see headlines like,] ‘She went back to her ex and she’s making smashes.’ [But instead she got] so big-headed and [was] like, ‘Screw you, screw you, I don’t need nobody.’ ”

So is there any chance for Spears to rectify the situation and possibly work with Timberlake and Timbaland? Yes, says the super-producer — if she apologizes.

“She should humble herself and make a phone call and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ She knows what she’s sorry about,” Tim said. “She needs to say, ‘I was wrong,’ and it’ll definitely move forward. … That’s all she has to say.”

[MTV.com via WeSmirch]

That’s good of the guy to say he’ll work with her, but he knows that Britney will make him a lot of money so it’s not like it’s all about charity.

Meanwhile the American Idol judges say they want to help Britney too. Yesterday Simon was talking smack about her, but today they’re extending a hand to get some free publicity:

“We have decided we can bring Britney back,” the normally caustic Cowell confirmed. “We are serious. We plan to buy her underpants, get her bigger shorts to perform in and get her away from her stupid friends.”

[Fox News]

That’s nice that they’re not telling her to work out, and are just talking about covering up properly. Of course Cowell outlined his comeback program for Britney yesterday and it involved hitting the gym, so it sounds like he lightened up a little when giving Brit this public appeal that she’s never going to take.

Britney is said to have stayed out until 6am the night before the VMAs, not 4am as was previously reported. Those extra two hours of sleep wouldn’t have made her able to magically dance and lipsynch properly, though.

And in related unsurprising news, her abs were tan airbrushed on before her VMA performance. I find it hard to believe she even let someone airbrush them on, considering how over-confident she was in her appearance. I imagine her saying “Ma stomach looks gud. Don’t point that gun at me.” I was wondering how she looked so cut with a normal stomach, but it didn’t occur to me that her abs were painted on. Someone did a good job, unlike Britney.

Britney is shown outside her lawyer’s office yesterday, where she had a four hour meeting with K-Fed which was said to be about custody of their boys. Thanks to Splash News for these pictures.

Never one to mince words about people he dislikes or finds lacking in talent, Simon Cowell has said that he never would have let Britney perform after seeing how unprepared she was in the auditions. He also said she’s blown her chance at reviving her career and it’s all over now for Brit:

Speaking from his mansion in LA, Simon told me: “If I had been looking after Britney I’d have taken one look at her in rehearsals and I wouldn’t have allowed her on stage.

“It would have been worth pulling her off the bill — no matter what the cost — to save any chance she had of resurrecting her career.

“She wasn’t ready for that show in every possible way.

“The song wasn’t right, the image wasn’t right and she just wasn’t rehearsed.

[From The Sun]

Cowell said that Britney wouldn’t even make it to the next round in his UK reality talent show “X Factor.” Cowell’s fellow judge on “X Factor,” Louis Walsh, also repeated those claims, saying “Britney wouldn’t make it through one audition of X Factor because she can’t sing live.”

She can’t even lipsynch anymore, I might add.

The Sun points out that Britney was supposed to perform on American Idol, but that her management decided not to go through with it when she was asked to do a live show. She’s not even capable of dancing properly and moving her mouth around.

Back in May, Cowell gave some long-distance advice to Britney when he was on Good Morning America. He said that’s she couldn’t handle the pressures of fame and that she should go home, “get a sense of reality,” and then get her life and career “back on track.” Obviously she didn’t take any of that advice.

Kanye West said that Britney was just being used and abused by MTV, but she’s perfectly capable of ruining her image without outside help. MTV officials did try to get her to rehearse and warned her to curtail her partying, it just wasn’t possible.

I would love to see Britney appear on American Idol. She would be one of those contestants cut out at the first stage who sing pretty well but completely ruins their chances by being full of shit. She would act like it was a given that she would be accepted into the next round, and when Simon tells her no, all stony faced, she would talk back and get all mouthy and offended.

For as harsh as Cowell is to Britney to the British press, he told Extra that “She stole the show whether you liked it or not.” But he also added that “She wasn’t ready for it” and said she needed to get the snake back and wear less revealing clothing.

Header image from Radaronline.com

I hate American Idol. Fortunately, the country I live in isn’t a fan either, so last year’s NZ Idol winner didn’t even get a recording contract, just a car. Which was probably more useful to them, since no one was going to buy that album anyway. Then all the rejects from the previous two series, from when NZ Idol way in its heyday, got together and fought it out for $50,000. Unfortunately it wasn’t a Gladiator-style fight.

Anyway, it seems American Idol might finally have sucked the talent out of the pool, and is scraping the mildew at the bottom, according to Ryan Seacrest.

TMZ cameras caught the “Idol” host before his jog outside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in NYC on Sunday — sporting an iPod and an inconspicuous Ed Hardy hat. When asked about the upcoming season of the juggernaut that is “American Idol,” Ryan said they “weren’t great … for 20,000 people, we only found a few good ones.” Is that a change?

TMZ

Actually, the bad auditions are the best part, so maybe things are looking up for the show.

Another sign American Idol is on the way out – low ticket sales for its Idols Live shows.

Reports of attendance and gross receipts for the first 30 of the 57 shows scheduled for the tour, as recorded by Billboard Boxscore, show this year’s crop of 10 Idol finalists is falling short of last year’s concert performance.

No sellouts were reported for the first 30 shows, and only one topped the 93% of capacity mark. (That was the show in Glendale, Ariz., Idol winner Jordin Sparks’ home turf.) Of the 2006 tour’s first 30 shows, 17 were sellouts and another 10 exceeded 93% of capacity.

Nearly half (14) of the shows were below 60% of capacity. (Lowest was 38.9% in Birmingham, Ala., hometown of 2006 winner Taylor Hicks and 2003 champ Ruben Studdard.) In 2006, the lowest-capacity figure in the first 30 shows was 89.3%.

The 2006 tour was the most successful to date, but 2005′s was a lot healthier than the current version. Of the first 29 dates of 2005, 11 were sellouts and four more topped 93%.

USA Today

What will happen if the whole enterprise shuts down? How will record companies find talent? What will Paula Abdul do for a living?

The drama between Kelly Clarkson and RCA head Clive Davis will not settle down. The two got into a pretty public feud (well Clarkson said a lot of stuff that Davis said and no one denied it) about the quality of Kelly’s most recent album “My December.” Kelly stood her ground, and the reviews have been mixed at best, with many critics siding with Davis. Kelly revealed to Blender exactly what she said to legendary Clive Davis.

It was nice,” Clarkson told Blender of a “face-to-face” Beverly Hills Hotel meeting she and Davis had to discuss his “My December” issues. “It was just the two of us, and his dog. I was like, ‘I don’t know you very well, and I am not a bulls**tter. I get you don’t like the album. You’re 80; you’re not supposed to like my album.’ I said, ‘Clive, I’m going to make tons of albums. It doesn’t have to be mainstream every time.’”

[From Reality TV World]

Well it turns out that wasn’t really a smart thing to do for a lot of reasons. Clive Davis is a pretty powerful guy. And he’s her boss. So there’s two good ones right there. But more importantly, he’s been in the business forever, and he’s stayed relevant. In some way, shape, or form, he’s responsible for about half of what you hear on the radio. And it turns out he has a pretty good ear, since the record hasn’t been selling well compared to her old albums. Blender noted, “Clarkson has never sounded this depressive or spiteful.”

Simon Cowell decided to chime in and tell Kelly to STFU. Don’t worry, he’s got an accent so it sounds prettier when he says it. But it’s Simon Cowell so it actually sounds mean no matter what.

They just need to kiss and make up…Clive Davis at 80 is better than 99 percent of the people in the music business in their 20s, 30s and 40s…and he’s not 80….(Davis) is the boss of the record company, and it’s his job to advise.’”

[From Reality TV World]

I really like Kelly Clarkson, though I don’t care for any of her music. I like that she’s spunky and doesn’t follow the wasteland mentality that most celebrities her age seem to indulge in. I can really see where she’s coming from, and especially why she wouldn’t want to do something so mainstream after the last two albums. But on the other hand, Clive Davis is… Clive Davis. He’s legendary, and he knows what he’s doing. And he is her boss. If nothing else, if I were Kelly I would have kept quiet about it and not blabbed about it in every single interview. Either way, there are many measures of success. This album definitely isn’t selling like her last ones, and it probably isn’t going to produce the chart-dominating singles of her previous efforts. However it does seem to have more of an honesty to it, and there’s certainly something to be said for sticking to your guns, especially on something so personal.

Simon Cowell is pissed that Jennifer Hudson called American Idol a “stepping stone” to her fabulous career. He thinks she’s downplaying the role of his show in making her famous, and that without Idol she’d be nothing. He also thinks Taylor Hicks sucks and says he doesn’t have what it takes to sell records despite winning last season.

Cowell did all this trash-talking at a discussion panel for the Museum of Radio and Television:

“Jennifer Hudson said American Idol was a ‘stepping stone’ for her. Stepping stone? It was her big opportunity to become noticed and she got noticed and she got Dreamgirls,” Cowell said, noting that other past contestants “deliberately turn against the show that made them successful. The reason (people) come on the show is because all the doors had been slammed in their face.”

As for Taylor Hicks, who won season 5′s competition, “They (Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson) loved him. I couldn’t stand him. I didn’t get it,” Cowell snapped, adding that “at the end of the day you have to find a bona fide recording artist. Just because you win the show doesn’t mean you will sell a lot of records. Chris (Daughtry) is the one who sold the albums, not Taylor.”

This isn’t surprising coming from Cowell as he always talks smack. Hudson should have called American Idol her big break, but maybe she mischaracterized it or wants to downplay it as she moves on to other things.

It doesn’t seem like it matters how far finalists get in the competition as long as they’re given other opportunities. People has a nice gallery of Idol runners up on their website. Diana Degarmo, who was runner-up in Season Three to Fantasia Barrino, is performing on Broadway but until I read about it I had completely forgotten her. I found her rather annoying on Idol and although she could belt out the tunes and did a wide range of numbers I was surprised she made it so far.

Hudson finished Season Three in seventh place, and it was a shocker when she was voted off so early. Elton John called the voting “incredibly racist” after he noticed Hudson’s talent and she was voted off. It looks like it really didn’t matter and she was spared a lot of stress in the finals as she moved on to better things. Since she was voted off the show realitively early, maybe that’s why she’s calling it a stepping stone instead of a milestone.

Here are pictures of Jennifer Hudson when she was on American Idol from AmericanIdolJenniferHudson.com.