Simon Cowell: The Queen "Ignored" Me
This column was written by U.K. celebrity journalist and royal watcher Neil Sean.
The queen has never been more popular, according to official figures from Britain's Royal Palace. So imagine the surprise in her majesty's corridors last Friday when Prime Minster Gordon Brown decided to announce his "succession plan".
And Gordon Brown isn't the only Englishman with some explaining to do.
Simon Cowell, co-judge and patriarch of the "American Idol" enterprise, will be doing some back-tracking after claiming last week that the queen "ignored him" and that the Duke of Edinburgh called him a "sponger".
Both the queen and Prince Philip, the man she relies on the most, were stunned by Brown's latest musings on the monarchy during his visit to Brazil. The British throne has been inherited through family lines since the 9th century, but Parliaments have intervened several times since then to alter rules of succession.
Brown's government has proposed changes that would allow women equal succession rights to the throne and make it legal for the monarch to wed a Catholic.
It came as no surprise that Brown announced his ideas to modernize the monarchy just as the latest dire unemployment figures were released and yet more mass job-cuts left Britons without salaries.
As one palace source told me, "One could assume that this would help distract from the performance of his team and himself, if it were not so laughable."
Another source from inside the Royal circle said, "It's all very well Mr. Brown, who is the Prime Minister at this present time, concocting this idea, but let's not forget; without the queen, there can be no change in the law with regards to succession and aims to end discrimination against female succession - and well he knows it."
The idea, according to the prime minister's office, is to simplify a long-winded succession process. But, as my source explained, getting the rules changed "will take years."
"You would need at least 15 legislatures, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand" to ratify the changes… So it's really a non-story," added the source, who has very close contact to the queen and her family.
The mood around the palace is that there are more pressing matters in the world than who will succeed her majesty, the queen. And it's important to remember that her mother, the queen mother, lived to the ripe old age of 101, so as one lady-in-waiting told me, "it's not as if it's likely to happen for years."
Meanwhile many expect Cowell, known for the barbs he uses on "American Idol" contestants, to back off from his complaints last week that the queen "ignored him" and that the Duke of Edinburgh called him a "sponger".
Unfortunately for Cowell, his U.K. show "Britain's Got Talent," and the network which airs it, ITV Productions, need the palace's endorsement for the Royal Variety show.
Part of the prize on Cowell's U.K. show is an appearance on the televised Royal Variety show - at which members of the Royal family are often seen in attendance.
Someone who works on the Variety Show tells me we can expect to hear Cowell back off his complaints of her majesty and her majesty's hubby - publically.