Simon Cowell throws expensive 50th birthday party

The 'American Idol' judged celebrated reaching the landmark age with a £1 million bash at stately home Wrotham Park in Barnet, Hertfordshire yesterday (03.10.09).

The event was a star-studded affair, boasting 400 guests including supermodels Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, singers Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue and chef Gordon Ramsay.

Several of Simon's ex-girlfriends were also in attendance, including Terri Seymour, Sinitta and Jackie St Clair.

After being welcomed into the historic building by the image of Simon, guests were treated to a number of other surprises which ensured they didn't forget whose birthday it was.

Waiters in a Moulin Rouge-themed marquee donned masks of Simon's face, while the bread rolls presented with dinner spelled his name.

The meal included 'Simon's Chicken Soup', which boasted pasta shapes also in the music mogul's name.

Inside the palatial building a fake Michelangelo artwork was installed on the ceiling, again featuring Simon's image.

A source said: "It was typical of Simon - cheeky and fun with one surprise after another. Everyone sat on velvet chairs - and were given a choice of main meal of either fish fingers and mushy peas of shepherd's pie."

Special birthday messages from some of Simon's famous friends, including David and Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Aniston, were screened inside the house - with TVs even showing them in the toilets.

Guests were driven to the venue, which is 30 minutes from London, in a convoy of limousines, with three Rat Pack impersonators on hand to entertain them after being flown in from the US.

Others people present included Sharon Osbourne, David Hasselhoff, Katie Price, Paula Abdul, Piers Morgan, Randy Jackson, Kelly Brook, Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Olivia Newton-John, as well as several contestants from the reality TV shows Simon judges such as 'Britain's Got Talent' winner Paul Potts and 'The X Factor' winner Shayne Ward.

The party was planned by retail boss Sir Philip Green and his wife Tina, and took months to organise.
- From Times Live

Adam Lambert vs. Susan Boyle: Nov. 24 record release showdown

Ding, ding, ding, ding! Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rummmmblllle…or at least get ready to mark Nov. 24 on our calendars with big, red ‘Xs.’ How come? Because that’s when two of this season’s most anticipated debut albums will be dropped like scalding plates coming out of the microwave.

In the Simon Fuller corner, it’s American Idol season 8 runner-up Adam Lambert, the man whose rendition of “Mad World” left approximately 20 million Americans sobbing softly on their couches. The man whose boots/jacket combo made the members of Kiss look downright demure at the Idol season finale. The man who caused my Social Security-collecting mother to lasciviously shout “Come to mama!” at the Idol concert tour stop in Albany, NY, in August. The man who managed to top Barbra Streisand and Madonna on Amazon.com’s album pre-sale charts this week — even though fans won’t be able to listen to said record for almost two months.

In the Simon Cowell corner, it’s Britain’s Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, the woman whose audition to “I Dreamed a Dream” has racked up more than 76 million plays on YouTube (for the official version alone), a performance I am not ashamed to admit just made me get a little lump in my throat when I watched it again a few minutes ago. (Hey, just because your emotions are being manipulated doesn’t mean they’re not genuine, right?) Susan also topped Amazon’s pre-sale chart last month thanks to rabid fans who helped her surge past the Beatles and Whitney Houston.

That said, while I’m curious to see how Sony shoehorns the talented Ms. Boyle into the pop-music marketplace, as a total Idoloonie, I’m more excited for Adam’s set. I’m sure I’m not the only one obsessed with finding out what in the universe Adam’s debut is going to sound like (best guess: probably like nothing currently in said universe), and his list of collaborators to date — including Linda Perry, Max Martin, RedOne, Ryan Tedder, and Greg Wells — indicates his label is leaving no commercially viable stone unturned. What’s more, Randy Jackson told me recently that he bumped into Adam in the hallway of an L.A. recording studio, and what he heard of the still-in-progress disc was “hot, interesting, and cool.” (Okay, that’s not a lot of detail, but at least I scored you something better than a standard-issue “molten-hot lava bomb,” yes?)
What’s more, Boyle’s lead single (a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses”) sort of reminds me of one of the growing number of victims on The Vampire Diaries: Outwardly pretty, but drained of any blood or life or excitement. In the pantheon of “Wild Horses,” Rolling Stones > The Sundays > Susan Boyle. Which isn’t the worst thing in the world, but I have to hold out hope that whatever Adam unleashes on radio in the next week or two will, by comparison, be positively throbbing.

- From Entertainment Weekly