Simon names his replacement...kinda?
Radio shock jock Howard Stern, music producer Tommy Mottola and superstar Madonna. All have been grist in the rumour mill as possible replacements for Simon Cowell when the Brit bad boy gives up his American Idol judging seat at the end of this season.
So when a journalist asked Cowell - during a jam-packed conference call to promote next week’s live performance episodes - whom he thought could do his job, he said, no joke … Perez Hilton.
“Perez would be funny,” the surprisingly friendly and polite Cowell said of gossip maven Hilton, who owns the salacious, celeb-skewering website PerezHilton.com .
“He’s got a good taste in music, and he’s a personality. That could work.” The X Factor creator and judge dismissed Stern as a serious option for Fox’s ratings juggernaut, despite what the lanky radio host has been saying on the air.
“I know Howard (Stern)’s name has been out there for a while, but I’m fairly certain there hasn’t been an approach at any time for Howard to do the show,” he said with conviction.
He added that he has told Idol’s producer that whomever the show gets, the person must have a knowledge of - and previous success in - the music industry to provide advice and constructive criticism.
The judge was in good spirits with media on the call, alternately flirtatious and friendly, knocking down gossip fodder that he didn’t like departed judge Paula Abdul and isn’t playing nice with new judge Ellen DeGeneres.
“Paula is my friend,” Cowell says earnestly. “Amazingly, even though we used to argue a lot, she was somebody that I got very close to over the years. We would hang out together after the show and she always made me laugh. It’s like not having your friend on the show anymore. I do miss her.
“I don’t know Ellen all that well ... There was one story that I read where I turned up an hour and a half late. The truth is I was 15 or 20 minutes late because I was coming from a press conference earlier in the day. But that wasn’t a problem. There wasn’t fallout. I was trying to guide her through the week and that was about it.”
Switching gears to the upcoming live performances in Season 9 of the singing competition show, Cowell said he believed that a packed field of women all but ensures that a female will claim the title this year and named one person he would love to have mentor the season’s finalists.
“Lady Gaga,” he says simply. “I’ve met her and she’s very smart. She’s the most relevant pop artist in the world.”
American Idol airs Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on A/Fox.
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