Simon Cowell has now spoken out to say that these rumours are not true. “I wish! Come off it,” Simon said. “Its absolute nonsense…. crazy, crazy nonsense. Speculation. Not true. Nothing has been signed. There hasn’t been a deal done,” he told a reporter.

“We’re talking to Fox. We have a very good relationship with them. As to what we’re going to do ongoing over a number of different bits and pieces…. we’ll see… we are having conversations.”

Well, i wouldn’t be surprised if this turned out to be the figure Simon Cowell gets to stay on at American Idol. If the shows host, Ryan Seacrest can get a new $45 million deal, why cant the real star of the show (Simon) triple that? I think Simon is way more valuable, don’t you?

Last year Simon Cowell was paid $33 million dollars for his work on American Idol, but this year he is being tempted with an offer of $144 million dollars to stay on for another season at America’s most watched TV show. Despite the worldwide economic credit crunch, that’s a $114 MILLION DOLLAR PAYRISE!

Now that might seem like a hell of a lot of money (and it is), but when you take into account that American Idol makes just shy of $1 BILLION dollars per year for its show makers, and Simon Cowell is the undisputed star of the show with his trademark sniping at co-hosts and scathing reviews of performers, so its a pretty decent wage for Mr Cowell.

If i was you Simon, i would absolutely sign up for another 12 months at the show! $144 MILLION DOLLARS!!!

Terri Seymour was confronted outside the Nokia Theatre complex by a Janice Thibodeaux, who reportedly attempted to choke her after being asked of she and Simon Cowell were a couple. Terri refused medical treatment at the scene and was escorted out of the complex by three American Police Officers.

Janice Thibodeaux happens to be a pretty “huge woman“, weighing in at a massive 200 pounds, so Terri Seymour had little chance fending off the woman alone. The suspect was arrested at the scene on felony battery charges, and is currently being held on $52,700 bail.

Now the 33-year-old woman’s in jail, she was given the chance to put her side of the story across exclusively to Radar Online from her jail cell, where she reveals the motive behind her attack which was ‘revenge for Paula Abdul‘.

The suspect told Radar Online: “I wasn’t cool with Simon Cowell choking Paula Abdul on the show last week and with her crying-out ‘help’ as he did so,” referring to Cowell’s mock attack on Abdul during American Idol. ”Nobody said anything about that so I wanted to confront him about it because that is not appropriate behavior, is it?”

When Janice Thibodeaux saw Terri Seymour in the crowd, she decided to confront her instead of Simon Cowell himself. “She was taking some photographs with her camera and I knew she was his girlfriend so I went up to her to tell her how I felt. We started arguing and then I put my hands around her neck and started choking her just like Simon had done with Paula,” Thibodeaux explained. “Then I walked away and I was tackled by the police but I don’t regret what I did because of what Simon did to Paula, nobody seemed to care about that.”

The funny thing about this story is that Simon Cowell and Terri Seymour split up mid-last year, so how the suspect thought she would benefit from this attack is currently unknown. She has still refused to take advice from a lawyer, and the case continues.

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American Idol

The acid-tongued Englishman has warned he may quit when his current contract ends this year. Out of 230,000 votes, 49% of fans who voted say they will stop watching if Cowell quits.

Simon Cowell said in a recent TV interview that he’s still agonising over whether to continue as a judge on the show because constant travelling between England and America for his TV shows is getting too much. He told Oprah Winfrey: “Right now, I kind of feel maybe it’s the end, but I’ll maybe keep an open door.”

Simon admitted he still enjoys working on the show and living in the States saying: “I really, genuinely like working in America and I like doing the show. I’m very grateful.” Currently though, it would be mad for Simon Cowell to leave American Idol, because its still the most watched TV show in America, pulling in more than 26 million viewers per episode.

In other American Idol judge related news, the new judge Kara DioGuardi is lagging well behind Simon Cowell in the popularity stakes, according to the new poll results – 44% of fans think she is “awful”.

Simon Cowell

Simon has said that he is going to leave American Idol when his contract is due to end in 2010. Being the executive producer and presenter he earns around £25million per year.

He has made hints before that he may leave American Idol which usually attracts 25 million viewers.

In a recent interview with a US TV magazine he stated that he will only be appearing on American Idol for one more year. He said “I’ve been on record for two or three years saying the end of the contract is probably when I will leave.” He added “The producers and I negotiated how long we wanted to spend with each other. We agreed on an absolutely sensible number and, if we wanted to add more years, we would have done it then.”

Simon Cowell also goes on to say, “I think nine seasons is a lot. I’ve had the best time ever in my life and then you have to consider doing something new or taking a break. Everyone thinks it’s a negotiation but I don’t negotiate like that. If I want more money, I’ll ask for it and if they don’t want to pay me then I’ll say no.”

It is reported that the ratings for the last series of American Idol were down by 12 per cent.

Industry insiders have said that they think Simon Cowell has had enough of the transatlantic commuting from his UK shows The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent to the Los Angeles Idol set.

Reports from Entertainment Weekly magazine, Cowell really wants to take The X Factor to the US. Simon’s current contract with Fox TV stops him from doing that but as soon as his contract has finished he is free to start to develop The X Factor for US TV.