Simon Cowell: 'I made Cheryl a superstar'
Simon Cowell has insisted that he turned Cheryl Cole into a superstar. The music mogul and Britain's Got Talent judge said that he would work with the Call My Name singer and former X Factor star again "in a heartbeat". But he told GQ magazine: "To be honest with you, even though we went through that pretty horrible period, I could look Cheryl in the eye and say (that) what I did do for her in those two years really propelled her into a different league." Simon insisted that he and Cheryl "still have that connection" despite her axing from the US X Factor. "That's why we fell out so badly, because when you're really, really close and you trust someone and you feel that person you trust has let you down - and she did feel that I had let her down - it hurts," he said. "It hurt me that she was upset, and I didn't want that to happen... It all ended pretty badly, to be honest with you." Asked how he'd feel if Cheryl performed on BBC One show The Voice he said: "I honestly couldn't care less. Why would that bother me?"
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.