Simon Cowell
News (Page 4)

See, not everyone hates Simon Cowell.

Some actually love the American Idol judge. And we're not just talking about Bucky Covington.

Pictured here with Cowell is his long-time girlfriend, Terri Seymour. Simon cares so much about the lovely woman on his left, he said the following:

"When I respect somebody I say I'm not going to marry you, out of respect. I think it's the decent thing to do. A lot of showbiz marriages don't work out."

We guess that makes sense. Either way, these two look happy below:

While some American Idol contestants might fear the bite of Simon Cowell, at least one alum is grateful for it.

"Because of him being mean, millions of people watch that show," said Bucky Covington, who finished eighth last season. "So I say 'thank you' for being mean. You turned on a lot of people to this show, and because of that a lot of great things happened to me."

Cowell and fellow judges Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson have been accused of being nastier than usual this year on News Corp.'s Fox network talent show, pouncing on some of the more awful Idol wannabes during auditions.

Covington, 29, says he doesn't agree.

"I didn't see them being really nice to me - no pushovers, you know," the Rockingham, N.C., native said recently. "I never knew Simon to be nice. If you said, 'Hey, Simon is being nice this year,' you would have caught my attention. But being mean is just what I expect. It's what he does. It's his job."

Covington's self-titled debut album on Lyric Street Records will be released April 17. The first single, "A Different World," is rising on the country charts.

Bucky  said he got everything he wanted from his America Idol experience.

"I didn't really think I was gong to win it. I wanted to be heard and get noticed," he said. "The most stressful thing for me was after this show is over, what's next? Is it back to painting cars? Is it playing clubs? Or is it a career starter?"

Having received flak for supposedly being too mean during American Idol auditions, the snarkiest judge of them all is actually hearing praise now.

The Special Olympics has put out a statement commending American Idol for not going soft on one of their own. It especially applauds Simon Cowell for how he reponded to Jonathan Jayne during auditions on the show’s premiere.

The statement reads:

While polite isn’t a word one would normally associate with Cowell and company, a viewing of the episode in question shows that the judges were in fact gracious and very encouraging to Jayne during his rendition of "God Bless America.” At one point, [co-judge Paula] Abdul commented admiringly about Jayne’s spirit and advised him to ‘Always believe in yourself.’” […]

[P]eople with intellectual disabilities don’t want to be pitied. They want to be judged for who they are and appreciated for what they can achieve. American Idol should be commended for providing Jayne with the same opportunity to succeed as any other contestant.

We agree. It's nice to see common sense portrayed in response to Simon and the judges, as opposed to the knee-jerk reaction that honestly is always cruel.

Are American Idol auditions judged too meanly this season? It's been a common source of contention.

TV critic, Dalton Ross, of Entertainment Weekly, however, doesn't blame Simon, Randy or Paula. He actually says they've been nicer than ever on some occasions. Check out what else he recently wrote:

Another season of American Idol auditions means another season filled with incompetent singers cluelessly showcasing their wares for an entire country.

But this year, something seems different. According to everything I've read and everyone I talk to, the judges of American Idol have suddenly gotten a lot meaner, lighting into contestants like never before. Frankly, this is hogwash.

Go back and watch season one - Simon was just as rude and crude as he is now. I don't see any difference there at all. That's not to imply that this season of Idol has not been meaner than past ones; it's just that the judges are not the ones to blame. The producers are.

Remember, it's not Simon, Randy, and Paula weeding out who makes it onto TV from the tens of thousands of applicants. The producers take care of that. They are the ones that pick out the people who make it before the holy trinity. Their job basically seems to consist of sorting stadiums full of auditioners into three groups, which are:

Group 1: The Really, Really Good
These people have genuine talent and are sent in to Simon, Randy, and Paula to see if they are worthy of being addressed as ''dawg'' and sent to Hollywood. We'd count Sundance Head, Sarah Krueger and Kia Thorton in this group.

Group 2: The Really, Really Bad
These people have no talent whatsoever, yet are also sent in to Simon, Randy, and Paula as a form of comic relief. Their badness dominates the first few weeks of the show and enables us, the viewers, to feel better about ourselves through the mocking of others.

Group 3: Everyone else
Most people fall into this category — the mild, the mediocre, the middle-of-the-road. These people are dismissed on the spot since they are neither good enough to stand a chance at winning, nor bad enough to provide any good laughs.

Where this season's Idol differs from previous ones is that the people in Group 2 have gone from ''really, really bad'' to really, really sad. Some of the contestants being brought in front of the judges (and, in turn, a national audience) are clearly in need of help — and I'm not talking about vocal training.

Nicholas Zitzman went beyond merely socially awkward, and there was something vaguely non-human about Darwin ''Mischa'' Reedy and her practically identical mother. But the show sunk to a new low with another debatably dynamic duo: Jonathan Jayne and Kenneth Briggs.

Kenneth was the guy Simon compared to a monkey, calling the bug-eyed contestant a ''bush baby.'' Some saw that as unnecessarily harsh, but Simon has never pulled any punches in his commentary on contestants' looks. This is nothing new, and he has actually uttered comments much worse than that.

What made this situation different was the fact that Kenneth was even in the room to begin with, seeing as how he didn't — and I'm trying to be gentle here — appear to possess the highest IQ.

Which brings us to Jonathan Jayne. Jayne is a perfect example as to exactly why the judges are not to blame. For those who don't remember, Jonathan was the large guy who crooned ''God Bless America.'' Turns out he is a former Special Olympics participant.

Paula was typically kind after his somewhat excruciating performance, but it should be noted that Simon was as well, even saying ''You're a nice guy. I like you, but this is not the career path for you.'' Randy then thanked him for showing up. So why again are the judges under fire? Heck, even Special Olympics International praised them for being ''gracious and very encouraging.''

Yet the judges are still catching the heat, when it was the field producers who put Jayne in the room to begin with. If it was to see him mocked, then they are evil. If it was to chalk up an easy and compassionate story line, then they are merely shamelessly exploitative. Either way, it's pretty classless.

Now, let's move on before I emotionally shut down over the realization that I just wasted almost 700 words defending Paula freakin' Abdul.

The Fox TV network chief on Saturday dismissed talk of unusual cruelty by the judges on American Idol this year, saying he's heard from people who think the show has actually been toned down.

"The judges and their scrutiny, I think, are a big part of what makes American Idol American Idol,'" Peter Liguori, Fox entertainment president, told reporters after coming under scrutiny.

The talent show and cultural phenomenon returned with a vengeance this past week, with episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday attracting around 37 million viewers. The episodes featured auditions by the good, the bad and the awful from Minneapolis and Seattle.

But some questioned whether the judges have been over the top this season in their sometimes harsh critiques of prospective Idols.

Simon Cowell, whose reputation for blunt, nasty put-downs was established at the series' beginning, was in peak form, telling one contestant that his singing was horrendous and he looked like a "bush baby."

Cowell's counterpart, Randy Jackson, told one contestant his audition was awful and perhaps ruined his business.

"You shouldn't be a vocal teacher. I wouldn't take vocal lessons from you, I wouldn't tell anybody to take vocal lessons from you," Jackson said.

On ABC's The View this past week, Rosie O'Donnell - always looking to stir things up, be it with Donald Trump or pretty much anyone else - lashed out at the way contestants were treated by the judges, who she termed "three millionaires, one probably intoxicated."

"If you keep serving people crap and telling them it's a meal, they're eventually going to think it is a meal," O'Donnell jabbed.

Fox's Liguori said the judges know what makes American Idol and that this is just the continuation of a successful formula.

"Let's face it, the show has been on the air six years, the judges have been critical for six years," he said.

The judges' harsh assessments also were defended by Geffen Records chairman Ron Fair, who is about to take on a Simon Cowell-like role on an upcoming Pussycat Dolls reality show for the CW network, "Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll."

"In order to have a reputation and continue in a healthy manner in this business, you have to tell people 'no' all day long," he said.

"I'm telling people 'I'm not going to sign you, that song is not a hit' ... And there's no gracious or wonderful way to tell somebody, whose hopes and dreams are on the line: 'no.'"

With all the talk swirling that American Idol judges are being too mean this season, here's a way to wax that problem:

Make them into wax statues.

Indeed, Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest were the latest celebrities to be included in Madame Tussauds museum. Check out their likeness here:

We assume there's no Paula Abdul figure because the sculpters couldn't capture her odd gyrations and possibly drunken antics.

Simon Cowell wasn't always mean.

In fact, the American Idol judge used to be shy and intimidated by fame. He recently admitted regret for not speaking up when he had the chance early in his career - and thereby putting an end to pop dreams of Eddie Murphy.

The caustic American Idol co-creator was hired to help Murphy hit the high notes in the early 1980s. How now admits he wishes he had the nerve back then to tell the star he was terrible.

"He (Murphy) was interested in making a record, so I flew to his huge house, and I was very intimidated. I thought it would be just the two of us and a hi-fi. But I ended up in a recording studio with about 20 nodders; a nodder is someone who gets paid to agree with the person paying him," Cowell said. "Eddie started to play some songs, which I hated, and I just didn't know what to say. Now I'd find it a lot easier. I would just say, 'I hate it.'"

He's certainly proven as much with his recent criticism of Bob Dylan.

Come on, Simon, we were just willing to give you a break after listening to Paula Abdul sing your praises.

But now the Idol judge has come out with a snub that will have Bob Dylan fans blowin' in the wind with rage: he likes Kelly Clarkson better than the singing legend.

"Do I prefer Kelly Clarkson's music to Bob Dylan's? Yes. I've never bought a Dylan record. A singing poet? It just bores me to tears," Cowell tells February's Playboy.

The straight-shooting American Idol judge adds: "I've got to tell you, if I had 10 Dylans in the final of American Idol, we would not be getting 30 million viewers a week. I don't believe the Bob Dylans of this world would make American Idol a better show."

The 47-year-old Brit, who begins his sixth season Tuesday with the smash Fox talent contest that made Clarkson a winner in 2002, says he knows a lot of people think he's a big jerk for his acerbic, in-your-face opinions - and admits they may be right.

"Based on public opinion, yeah, I am. If half the people think I'm a [bleep]hole, then I'm half a [bleep]hole."

Maybe Simon Cowell isn't the meanest person in the world.

After all, fellow judge Paula Abdul says that she might have been fired from American Idol if Cowell hadn't come to her rescue.

In today's New York Post, Paula says that when allegations surfaced that she'd had an inappropriate affair with Corey Clark during Idol's second season, it was Cowell who ultimately stepped up for her.

"He was extremely distraught and protective and supportive of me when that happened," says Abdul. "There's the times when he's like a big brother – or a lover."

Of course, as Americal Idol fans know well, Paula also said it's not all wine and roses with Cowell:

"When he's just annoyed, I get the brunt of it."

But, wait a minute, did she say lover?!?

Take a look below: Simon Cowell isn't a meanie ALL of the time!

Sure, the man may often make snide remarks about American Idol hopefuls, but it looks like he has the occasional softer side. Especially when it comes to cute puppies. That's gotta count for something, right?