Simon Cowell is my favorite British celebrity famous for his sarcastic remarks such as: "There was a wonderful moment in your otherwise moving performance - its end," or " Horrible ! You have got the charisma of a wax freak ." In 2007, Cowell was at number three in the Forbes magazine rankings of the richest TV faces, and at number twenty-one in the rankings of the most influential personalities of the same journal, with his fortune estimated to more than 100 million pounds.
Curiously, at the age of 40 Simon had no money in his bank account and was absolutely unknown. The only constant thing his life was his biting language that used to drive his parents literally crazy ever since he started to talk. His mother was Julie Brett, a former ballerina with an exquisite taste and fine manners, who looked like more of a movie star than a suburban housewife bringing up six children - five boys and one girl. As a child, Simon was totally rude to her, but Julie did not bother to acknowledge that publicly. "He was an impossible unbearable child - the worst of all my sons".
At the age of five he set the garden pavilion on the fire, cut the hair of his younger brother, he also built an impromptu pub in the yard and continuously refused to go to school. He hated to cook, and for years did not eat anything but scrambled eggs, biscuits, ice cream, baked potatoes and a slice of bread - all in one dish. Even today, Simon adhere to his beliefs about food and keeps shocking the chefs of lots of five-star restaurants with his special orders.
Julie Simon still remembers his first sarcastic remark. On Christmas Day 1963 when he was only four years old and playing on the floor in the bedroom of his parents. His mother was carefully fixing her hair in a modern hairstyle, to suit her make up, her white winter dress and a matching hat. After this nearly two-hour ritual preparing for the official family lunch , Julie asked her son whether she was beautiful. "Mom, you look like a poodle," said Simon and continued to play on the floor. And that was only the beginning of his revelations.
His father - Eric Cowell , a real estate broker bought cheaply an old mansion in Lambeth, 30 kilometers from London. The house was situated on five acres of native forest and a huge garden. Like other rural houses in England , it also had its name indicating its originally intended purpose. Before Cowells settled there , Abbots Mead was a place where elderly monks and priests used to retire. Eric spent two years repairing the mansion, which had four floors, eight bedrooms, four bathrooms and plenty of secret closets and doors. In the early 70s Lambeth was a peaceful suburb with beautiful houses that celebrities who settled there in search of solitude.
Simon loved to stare out of the windows and spy on the lives of the neighbors through the holes in the fence, sometimes creeping to their windows. One day he went to his father and asked, " Who's the girl with the big tits and the diamonds? "The girl" who lived two houses down was Elizabeth Taylor.
Simon was hardly a good kid or a good student , so his parents decided that a little discipline would not be redundant. At 12, he was sent to school in Radlett School, which offered house boarding with strict discipline. One Saturday they woke up with a short letter in their mailbox : "Dear Mom and Dad, I hope you are finally happy in your huge house with central heating, now that you got rid of me.Because I am freezing in this dark dormitory where I have nothing to eat." Nobody was surprised when at the age of 16 Simon just stopped attending school - without explanations and without any special plans for the future. His father found him a job as an assistant in the information department of the record company " Emmy ". Simon was doing brilliantly there , because even as a child he had an ear for music.
He liked his job and the music business seemed so attractive . At 21, he decided that he was mature and experienced enough to embark on his own initiative. Together with his former boss Elias Rich he created the music company "E & S Music", and the independent brand "Fanfare Records" five years later, thus issuing several successful albums. However he went bankrupt in 1989. So at the age of 30 Simon was broke, undergraduate, with no savings and having to live with his parents .
Nobody could ever imagine that only ten years later he would be one of the 100 richest people on the planet. The way up began in 2001, when Cowell met a friend with experience in the production of television programs . They discussed the creation of a musical show in which Britain had to choose a talent - "The next Pop Idol ". Simon Fuller who knew his biting mouth and his impeccable musical flair, insisted that he took part in the jury.
The very next year the format has been sold in the U.S. for several million dollars and went on air as "America`s Got Talent " and Simon as a jury. There followed several similar formats, including the recently discussed " X factor" that made Simon one of the greatest British celebrities. Today he says, " When I was little , my brother had a habit of singing Bob Dylan with all his might. Now neither he, nor Bob Dylan would have passed through the auditions of " American Idol " at least not as I am one of the judges. The first one could not sing , and the second one was deadly serious and boring!"
"If you imagine Madonna, Bobby Brown, and Dracula had a child it would be you. But in a weird way I quite liked you." (To Quatrele Da'an Smith, Episode 1)
"I won't remember you in 15 minutes."(To an unlucky contestant, Episode 1)
"It was like the six of you were waiting for a bus and somebody asked you to sing... a Demi Lovato song."(To unlucky contestants, Episode 1)
"You're like a singing candle. You just stand there and melt."(To an unlucky contestant, Episode 1)
"You're like a mouse trying to be an elephant." (To Shawn Armenta, Episode 1)
"You're like Jersey Shore meets the Kardashians." (To Lexa Berman, Episode 2)
"It was like you had an argument with Britney Spears, got drunk, and decided to scream the song at her." (To Patrick Ford, Episode 2)
"There's a lot of junk in that trunk." (About Lexa Berman, Episode 2)
"It felt 10 years out of date... Guys, it's like you're in a time machine for me." (To Citizen, Episode 3)
"I've always wanted a panda." (To Panda Ross, Episode 3)
"It's goodbye band. Hello, solo career!" (To Julia Bullock, Episode 4)
"Shut up and start singing." (To Tara Simon, Episode 5)
"It wasn't rapping, it was just you going ugh while he murdered the song." (To Adonis and John, aka the OGs, Episode 5)
"There was a movie that did that once. It was called The Exorcist." (To Sophia Harlow, Episode 5)
"If they ever remake the film, you could replace the ice berg. Just sing the song and down it goes." (To Changyi Li after she sang "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, Episode 5)
"It was like taking a musical sleeping pill." (To an unlucky contestant, Episode 5)
"You do sing like an eight-year-old." (To an unlucky contestant, Episode 5)
"You murdered that song... But that wasn't manslaughter. That was first degree." (To an unlucky contestant, Episode 5)
"I like them off. It's kind of more zombie." (To ONE 4 FIVE, Episode 5)
"Why are you wearing the hat? Take it off." (To Tara Simon, Episode 5)
"Years ago I sat on two cats and that's what it sounded like. It was painful." (To Kofoed Sisters, Episode 6)
"If a girl had said to me, 'I wrote this song about you,' and then she sang that, I would run a mile." (To Nick Moriarty, Episode 6)
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