“The E! True Hollywood
Story: Simon Cowell”
Tomorrow at 8 p.m. on E!
(three stars)
RYAN Seacrest isn’t as shrewd as he seems.
The first time he laid eyes on Simon Cowell, he thought Cowell would flop as a judge on “American Idol.”
“I looked at this guy and he was full of himself and his pants were up to his bellybutton and he’s smoking cigarettes and I thought, ‘Who is this character? There’s no way he’s going to work over here in the States!’ ” Seacrest candidly reveals in this new edition of “The E! True Hollywood Story” on Cowell, premiering tomorrow night.
Seacrest was wrong, of course, and by the end of this one-hour profile of Cowell, the “Idol” host says of the show: “It wouldn’t be what it is without Simon.”
And Cowell probably wouldn’t be what he is without “Idol.” But what – or who – is he?
Everyone in America knows him as the tart-tongued British judge on “Idol” whose blunt critiques have been known to anger fellow judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, and crush young, hopeful singers whose auditions for the show aren’t up to snuff.
The typical “Idol” fan likely has a vague impression that Cowell was some sort of music promoter in the U.K. before he became a star of American television.
For those curious to learn more about Cowell, this new show fills in the blanks, explaining where he came from and how his early career positioned him for stardom in the relatively new realm of TV talent competitions.
Among other revelations, the show reports that, to some extent, Cowell grew up in show business – or, to be more specific, next door to it.
As he explains in the show, he lived with his family – two brothers, his mother, Julie, and his late father, Eric, a real estate investor – in a mansion in a London neighborhood Cowell likens to Beverly Hills.
According to Cowell, the president of MGM lived next door and the young Simon developed a taste for Hollywood glamour by observing the comings and goings of stars such as Robert Mitchum and Elizabeth Taylor, who once held the precocious neighbor boy on her lap.
After faring badly in school, the young-adult Simon cajoled his way into the music business and some of those he cajoled, and who eventually mentored him, are interviewed here.
We also hear from Simon’s mum, his older brother, Tony, and Simon himself, who probably authorized the whole thing.
This is definitely not a warts-and-all profile. It’s more like a no-warts-at-all profile, but nevertheless fleshes out the Cowell story.