Discussing the Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell, written by Tom Bowers, at a celebrity-filled gathering at Serpentine Gallery in London, Cowell apologised to anyone he caused  embarrassment to and told guests of how he has spent the last week hiding under a pillow in his bedroom in shame, with all newspapers banned from his house.  The book, serialised in the Sun newspaper last week, tells of a relationship Cowell allegedly had with one of his fellow X Factor judges, Dannii Minogue, as well as his fascination with singer Cheryl Cole.

Sweet Revenge currently sits in The Bookseller’s hardback non-fiction chart at number five and is in its first week of release. Bower, who’s recent effort is his 20th unauthorised biography, has also used the likes of Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone, who was present at the launch of Sweet Revenge, Philip Green, and Karren Brady as subjects for some of his other books.

Cowell joked that he will not feature on television again for another year from this week onwards as he is now going to dedicate his time to writing a book entitled, The Sordid Sex Life of Tom Bower – a collaboration with the author that has caused him blushes recently with the release of Sweet Revenge.

To no one’s surprise, The X Factor walked away with the prize for the most popular talent show award at this year’s edition of the National Television Awards, beating the process rivals Britain’s Got Talent, Dancing on Ice and Strictly Come Dancing.

Oddly enough, Arlene Phillips, who left the dancing show because of some controversy, was presenting the award.

Ant and Dec took double honours, taking most popular entertainment programme for, and the award for most popular entertainment presenter, or presenters, in their case. David Tennant also stepped up to the podium twice, once for Doctor Who, which won most popular drama, and a second time for outstanding drama performance.

Saturday Night Takeaway received the prize for Most Popular Entertainment Programme, as well as the award for most popular entertainment presenter thanks to Ant and Dec.

Doctor Who also got two prizes; Most Popular Drama and Outstanding Drama Performance.

National Television Awards winners:

Most popular entertainment presenter – Ant & Dec
Outstanding drama performance – David Tennant
Most popular serial drama – Coronation Street
Most popular talent show – The X Factor
Special recognition award – Stephen Fry
Most popular factual programme – Loose Women
Most popular drama – Doctor Who
Most popular entertainment programme – Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway
Most popular newcomer – Craig Gazey
Most popular star travel documentary – Stephen Fry in America
Outstanding serial drama performance – Lacey Turner
Most popular comedy programme – Gavin and Stacey

The rising singing superstar lived though a horrifying moment handgun waving gangsters ran towards her car as it was stopped at a coffee shop. The thugs were fleeing police authorities after they had engaged in high-speed chase through busy Los Angeles streets.

In the commotion, Miss Lewis was not hurt as she was protected by her security staff although her manager Nicola Carson was pushed aside.

The 24-year-old had decided to make a stop at a Starbucks outlet to grab some drinks on her way to Los Angeles International Airport.

It was terrible and unfortunate timing as the police chase came rushing through precisely where Miss Lewis’s car was parked.

Miss Lewis was said to have been absolutely terrified by the violent events and was still shaken hour after.

Gun brandishing thugs came out of a car which had been blocked off by two police vehicles.

The scene was extremely chaotic as the men ran towards Miss Lewis and people were panicking and screaming.

In the commotion, security for Miss Lewis did manage to tackle one of the men before he escaped. Miss was unhurt although the emotional scares will surely last a while. He manages wasn’t so lucky as he was tackled down a police officer as he was attempting to make his way back to the car.

Miss must be developing a thick skin as this is her second encounter which such blunt and grotestque violence.

At a book signing held at Waterstones in London last October, Miss Lewis was hit on the face by twenty-nine-year-old Peter Kowalczyk, a loner from south London. The attack left the performer with a few bruises and a distraught soul.

Last month, Kowalczyk, a visibly deranged individual, admitted to the attack and was subsequently detained under the Mental Health act. Miss Lewis said the assault had left completely devastated.

The apparently thrilled thirty-eight-year-old confirmed the pregnancy rumours which had surfaced earlier last weekend with a joyful post on Twitter: “Woo hoo – I’m gonna be a mummy!”

She was spotted coming out of Australian hospital recently in the company of her boyfriend, retired rugby player Kris Smith.

The Aussie performer said she would return to her job as a judge of the popular ITV talent show later this year, if Simon Cowell still wants her services.

Minogue’s spokesman said she and Smith are very excited about the news and have been anticipating starting their family.

Her representative revealed that recent hospital visit had been the star’s 12-week scan. She got the results on Wednesday and got the go ahead to reveal the great news.

Friends of the couple have hinted that Minogue will soon wed her 31-year-old boyfriend, who is believed to be keen on this marriage.

X Factor colleagues immediately responded with good wishes. Simon Cowell said he was thrilled for her. Louis Walsh called the announcement a great way to begin the new decade and Cheryl Cole said she was absolutely thrilled for the couple.

Minogue will be going through her pregnancy when nationwide auditions X Factor are held.

But according to a friend, Minogue insists on coming back to the show.

Also known as Jedward, the pair will take to the O2 Arena stage in the British capital for event’s 15th anniversary. The singers have not revealed details of which number there are to performers.

Hosting the show will be Dermot O’Leary, as thousands of crystals have been promised for the performance.

The Irish boys rose to fame on the X Factor thanks to their horrible voices but quirky performances combined with colorful outfits and crazy hairdos. The public appeared to appreciate their energetic renditions We Will Rock You, Ghostbusters and Oops, I Did It Again on The X Factor.

The singing competition will be facing Britain’s Got Talent, Dancing On Ice and Strictly Come Dancing for this year’s National Television Awards best talent show prize.

On more XFactor news, Simon Cowell has announced two days this week that he will be leaving the hugely popular talent US talent  show American Idol in order to launch a version of his X Factor show on the other side of the pond. The British pop music guru has said that the US show will begin in the fall of 2011.

Cowell’s contract is scheduled to expire after this season, the ninth, of American Idol.

The show, which had gathered a huge following over the years, is responsible for the emergence of such household names as Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson.

Cowell said an American version of The X Factor is set for the 2011 season.

Despite his staggering American Idol salary of a reported annual $36m for his job as a judge, the series is propriety of Simon Fuller, and Cowell repeatedly expressed his desire to cash in bigger with the opportunity to introduce his X Factor in US air waves.

One benefit is said to be the ability to grab a bigger slice of the music sales revenue generated by the show, which is expected to be very large.

The American version of the X Factor show will be broadcasted in the autumn, thus avoiding American Idol, which occupies the schedules at Fox in the spring.

Cowell revealed the news during a press conference held in Los Angeles earlier this week, saying that the agreement stipulated that he would both act as a judge and produce the show.

He said that the bosses at American Idol had offered him a lot of money to say but famous impresario claimed that he now wanted to do something new and different.

The 18-year-old performer had been involved in a battle for the UK’s number one Christmas single with US protest heavy rock band Rage Against The Machine following a very well publicised campaign on Facebook which captivated much of the British music scene for the last few weeks.

But “The Climb” has managed to sell 196,000 copies this last week, pushing it past “In The Name” and momentarily securing second position in the singles chart.

McElderry, hailing from South Shields, was said to extremely happy about the news.

The singer thanked all the people who had supported him and had made this Chirtmas the best one for him so far.

He also wanted to extend to everyone good wishes for the New Year.

Just ahead of Christmas, the US band Rage Against The Machine managed to reach number one in the UK singles charts with a song which was released in 1993.

Rage, famous in America and elsewhere for being anti-establishment and particularly anti-Republican party, had been unwillingly pulled into the race at first when a Facebook campaign was kicked-off to counteracts musical acts generated by Simon Cowell and his XFactor talent show which were branded as dull, uninspiring and plastic-like performers devoid of soul.

At the time, Cowell had called the move stupid. Paul McCartney had commented on the race by saying he believed it would be a good thing if Rage Against The Machine would win.

Cowell himself has admitted that the X Factor show needs a make-over if it’s to remain relevant.

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The band managed the feat thanks to an online Facebook campaign which protested against what they call X Factor guru Simon Cowell’s own brand of dull and faceless music as well as the hijacking of the music scene by generic pop acts. Although its scapegoat was talent show winner Joe McElderry with his song “The Climb”.

The 18-year-old performer was normally virtually ensured the number one, as previous XFactor winners had scored the last four Christmas chart toppers.

But husband and wife team Jon and Tracy Morter interrupted the yearly process with a very efficient Facebook campaign promoting a grassroots movement to put the Rage “Killing In The Name” to the top spot. This proved popular, with supporters downloading in excess of 500,000 copies of the track, 50,000 more than “The Climb” had been purchased.

While Cowell called the campaign cruel and stupid, the band members of Rage joined in the battle. Rage Against The Machine is the ultimate protest band, having partaken in several activities in the US. They have been known to voice their concerns about Guantanamo Bay as well as the American Republican Party, which Frontman Zack calls the power abusing party.

Even former Beatle and “X Factor” guest star Paul McCartney revealed his support for for Rage as he said their win would prove a point.

Meanwhile, British bookies had put Joe McElderry had number one, which means that the move has cost an apparent minimum of £1 million.

It’s been reported that some punters got 150/1 odds for ‘Killing In The Name’.

A coral representative for Coral told reporters that ‘Killing In The Name’ had originally kicked off with 150/1 odds to reach the Christmas number one over the track of X Factor winner McElderry ‘The Climb’.

Gary Burton of Coral said this represented the biggest Christmas upset in History, adding that now, things got interesting since the X Facto winners’ dominance of the past had sanitised the Christmas time betting event.

At the time of its original release, more than seventeen years ago, the song had reached number 25 in the charts.

This time around, the groups’ Killing In The Name track managed to sell a highly respectable 500,000 copies, in the process outperforming The Climb by X Factor winner Joe McElderry.  Rage Against The Machine edged out the young pop talent show winner with a further 50,000 copies to claim number one in the singles competition.

The success surrounding Killing In The Name Of, stemmed from an aggressive Facebook campaign masterminded for the soul purpose of stopping one of Simon Cowell’s protégés to reach the top spot.

Big winners this incredible 2-week race were undeniably music retailers.

One of them dubbed the outcome as truly remarkable, adding that the result was probably the biggest chart upset in history.

Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha, being interviewed on the Radio 1 chart show, expressed his happiness at reaching number one in the UK, adding that the band was very ecstatic about the result. De La Rocha promised the band would celebrate their chart win with a free UK gig in 2010.

He said the campaign’s purpose was to combat what he called ‘the sterile pop mentality’.

As for the eighteen-year-old X Factor winner Joe McElderry, he praised the campaign and its outcome, saying that he was happy to have been part of exciting and hyper-hyped battle.

The budding star was obviously gracious in defeat and didn’t seem to hold any sort of grudges towards the camoaign initiators or the band Rage Against The Machine.

It’s been said that McElderry didn’t actually lose the race, boasting similar sales as past X Factor winners.
The campaign and the use of the Killing In The Name, basically a protest song, was built around a sense of tiredness of the blatant dominance of the X Factor show in recent years and what many consider music void of any flavour and personality.

X Factor winners have won all four of the last Christmas number ones. The absolutely stunning Alexandra Burke created one of UK’s best selling Christmas singles ever with her version of Hallelujah last year.

Last four winners were:

2005: Shayne Ward, That’s My Goal
2006: Leona Lewis, A Moment Like This
2007: Leon Jackson, When You Believe
2008: Alexandra Burke, Hallelujah

The most recent odds for the talent show winner song The Climb have been put at 2/7, while ‘Killing In The Name’ by Rage Against The Machine is at 9/4.

The bookie news arrives despite The Climb being currently outsold by Killing In The Name. However, the 18-year-old performer has apparently narrowed the gap, with 40,000 copies separating him from the metal-hip-hop ensemble.

Rage Against The Machine frontman Zach De La Rocha, on Thursday morning, slammed the popular talent show as well as it’s guru judge Simon Cowell as he and his band mates performed the song live on UK radio.

Simon Cowell has been very vocal of the situation calling the smearing campaign “stupid” and “cynical”.

Meanwhile, Joe McElderry mentor and member of Girls Aloud Cheryl Cole has expressed her fury over the “mean campaign” against the X Factor winner.

Cole said she sincerely hopes her protégé’s song the Climb beats out the Rage Against The Machine track in the run for Christmas number one.

The star said it would be a devastating blow for the budding singer to fall victim of such a horrible campaign, adding that every single want to be star hopes to get a number one record.

But they are sure winners out of the fight: retailers and record company Sony. They must be thrilled with the enthusiasm and passion spurred by the quasi hateful move from the Facebook group, the movement which wants to alienate Simon Cowell and his X Factor by having the offspring of the show being blown by an underground classic.

At the time of writing, the songs had cumulated a total of 470,000 sales.

What the Facebook group doesn’t seem to realise is that they’ve managed to exasperate and contribute to the growth of what they appear to be fighting: commercial success. Their campaign is likely to end up blowing up in their own face, as it could be helping make the X Factor become more popular than ever and participate to its successful future as Cowell and his talent show dwell on controversy.