Idol Worship

ME: If you were to lie about something personal, what would you lie about?
COWELL: I lie about whatever is appropriate at the time.
ME: You don't have a problem with lying?
COWELL: No! If it gets me out of trouble or makes a situation easier. Absolutely! And it's a fairly continuous thing, I would say.
ME: Can I have a cigarette?
COWELL: Here. Good.
ME: Why is it good?
COWELL: Oh, I don't know. It amuses me.

The way he says this, with grace notes of liltingly mellifluous Anthony Hopkins-like smoothness, is unnerving and seductive. He takes you in like that, before you know it.

Actually, has any British import in recent history rooted any deeper into the national psyche than Cowell? His words and manners have been debated constantly for the past five years: Is he a good thing or a bad thing? He is bad, one side says, because he says mean, hurtful things and sets a bad example for young people who would otherwise turn out A-OK. He is good, the other side says, because he alone is not afraid to tell today's young people -- spoiled-rotten brats, presumably, with a self-righteous sense of entitlement instilled by namby-pamby parents -- that their achievements suck, that their dreams suck, that maybe they should get different dreams altogether, and while they're at it, how about shedding a few pounds and wearing clothes that don't suggest massive gender confusion?

The way things are going, we may never be rid of Cowell and his truths. Earlier this year -- after settling a lawsuit brought by British Idol creator Simon Fuller, who claimed that Cowell's new top-rated series on British TV, The X Factor, was basically just an Idol rip-off -- Fox signed him to five more American Idol seasons. This came after weeks of negotiations that were widely reported as hardball but that Cowell describes "as gentlemanly as these negotiations can be," after which his paycheck rose from a reported $8 million annually to some number Cowell can't bring himself to reveal. The figure must be astronomical, though, because other networks have offered Cowell in excess of $25 million a year to leave Idol and thereby wreck its future prospects, after a 2005 season in which the show earned Fox more than $900 million in revenue and led commentators to say things like "American Idol is the most powerful show in TV history . . . No other program has come close."

"American Idol is like a juggernaut," Cowell says. "It demolishes everything in its path, and our competitors go, 'What do we do to get it off the market?' Their hatred of the show is such that they would do anything."

(Excerpted from RS 997, April 6,2006)

Who cares what Simon says! Rate the American Idols.