TV’s most-watched show exploded into litigation today as American Idol creator Simon Fuller sued Fox claiming he should be paid a rich fee for the upcoming Simon Cowell competition show The X Factor.

According to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Fuller negotiated a hefty executive producer fee and credit on X Factor as part of a settlement of a 2004 copyright-infringement lawsuit against Cowell when X Factor launched in the U.K. Fox, which airs Idol and will debut X Factor in September, and Fremantle North America, which produces both shows, are now refusing to honor that deal, according to the suit.

“Fox and Fremantle made hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to the creative efforts of Fuller,” the suit states. “Now, when it is time to finally perform on these unequivocal promises, Fox and Fremantle refuse to provide Fuller his executive producer credit for Defendants’ new television show, The X Factor, and refuse to pay Fuller an executive producer fee ‘commesurate with his duties and stature in the entertainment industry.’ Defendants refusal to honor their promises made to Fuller is particularly malicious given that but for Fuller’s agreement, the X Factor show would not be able to broadcast in the United States at all.”

Back when Cowell lauched X Factor, Fuller sued, claiming the show was a blatant rip-off of Idol, which had aired in the U.K. and U.S. for several seasons with Cowell as the lead judge. The rancor between the two Simons threatened to derail America’s No. 1 show, so Fox helped broker a 2005 settlement of the litigation that kept Cowell on American Idol for five seasons and gave him a bigger stake in the Idol franchise in exchange for keeping X Factor out of the U.S. until 2011. Fuller agreed to yank Pop Idol off the air in the U.K. (giving X Factor a big boost there), but he became entitled to a fee on X Factor and a credit on the show if it ever came to America.

Cowell honored the arrangement and left Idol in 2010, when Fox and producer Fremantle announced that X Factor would launch in fall 2011 with Cowell as its producer and star, while Idol would be rebooted without the personality that had defined it.

The explosive lawsuit is the latest and most brazen move in a yearslong chess match over the billion-dollar Idol property. Fuller created the Idol format in 2001 in the U.K. and hired Cowell, then a friend and music industry executive, as a judge. When Idol came to the U.S., a three-way partnership was formed between Fuller’s 19 Entertainment, Fox (led by reality chief Mike Darnell) and Fremantle (whose top U.S.-based exec is Cecile Frot-Coutaz). But Cowell didn’t own the show.

When Fuller sued Cowell in 2004 over X Factor, it reflected a relationship that had become strained even as the program dominated ratings around the world. “The battle between Fuller and Cowell that played out in the British courts — this was the undercurrent of everything that went on from the beginning of Idol,” a show insider told author Richard Rushfield for his recent book American Idol: The Untold Story. The lawsuit is said to have helped make Cowell determined to someday bring X Factor to the U.S., and the feuding put Fox in the awkward position of trying to keep both powerful men happy.

Now Fox is in business with both Simons, and clearly one of them is unhappy. In the lawsuit, Fuller even takes a shot at the network’s owner News Corp. and the phone-hacking scandal that has rocked the company.

“Fox, and ultimately its parent company, News Corporation, have demonstrated a callous disregard for Fuller’s rights which, given recent developments, reflects a corporate culture — if not a pattern and practice — of wrongful behavior,” the complaint states.

Damages are not specified, but it’s safe to say that given the parties involved and the value of the X Factor franchise, this is a multimillion-dollar claim.

We’ve reached out to Fox for comment and will update with a response.

UPDATE: Fox and Fremantle send us this comment: “Mr. Fuller has not been hired, nor performed any duties, on the U.S. version of The X Factor. His suit seeks payment and credit as an executive producer despite his neither having been approved by the required parties, nor hired, as such. We believe this lawsuit is without merit, and we expect to prevail.”

The suit comes at a particularly sensitive time for the Idol team. Having successfully rebooted the show with Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and a positive vibe after many believed the departure of “nasty” judge Cowell would kill it, Fox has shifted its attention this summer to promoting X Factor, which took an unsubtle dig at Idol’s touchy-feely judges in a promo that debuted during Fox’s coverage of baseball’s All-Star Game.

Even as Idol was in production this spring, there were rumblings inside Hollywood that the Fuller team was unhappy because Fox and Fremantle were more interested in launching X Factor than in stewarding the Idol flagship.

Now that bitterness has become litigation.

The suit, filed by Dale Kinsella and David Swift of Santa Monica’s Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert, seeks damages for causes of action including breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, promissory estoppel and declaratory relief.

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Every now and then its good to stray from the serious issue of politics and drop in a blog about something… well, comical if you will.

Have you seen the picture of Simon Cowell at the live broadcast of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’? Millions of  British viewers were shocked by the Simon’s drooping left eye during the live semi-finals of the ITV show on Monday night- rumors say it was caused by Botox treatment.

It was the first time Simon Cowell, 51, had been seen on British TV since the X Factor final in December.  Viewers quickly spotted his wilting eye and a small bruise by his cheekbone.

A source shared: ‘Simon had overdone things a little with the Botox and it soon showed up on camera – especially as we film in high definition, which is particularly unforgiving.

‘During the break between shows, the producers were quick to change the lighting over the judging panel.

‘Simon was not happy.’

One Twitter user wrote: ‘Whoever did Simon Cowell’s Botox wants sacking. Droopy left eye lid and bruising!’

Plastic surgeon Rajiv Grover said:  ‘There can be noticeable sagging around the eyes and brow area in older men if Botox is used, because they have heavier brows which tend to sag before many women.’

With all the money he has he really should find a better plastic surgeon.

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We’ve been talking politics for awhile and I thought since Obama was on his 60th trip to the golf course we should take a break too.

Have any of you been watching American Idol this season?  First, let me be one of the first to raise his hand and I say that I had doubts about the casting of judges.  I mean who could imagine the chemistry of Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, and Randy Jackson working?  I couldn’t.  To my surprise, it has.

Idol made a wise choice going back to the 3 judge format.  The 4th judge took too much time and by the time the 3rd judge offered his/her critique the 4th judge was simply repeating whatever had already been said.  I can’t imagine the show would be as good as it had been so far this season had they kept Ellen DeGeneres or Kara DioGuardi.  When know Kara was given the boot and based on Ellen’s boring performance and lack of original critique I wonder if Idol didn’t just ask Ellen to leave quietly.

After 10 seasons, ‘American Idol’ is still going strong.  In fact, Thursday’s night’s show saw an increase of 30.2% over last year- it’s most watched Thursday episode since 2007.  Idol has averaged 24.5 million viewers this season.  That’s an incredible amount of viewers for a show in its 10th season.

Paula?  Simon?  Kara?  It appears that America isn’t missing any of them as much as the pundits and I thought.

I’m enjoying this season of American Idol and despite hearing each year that, “these are the best singers we’ve ever had”, I can offer that its finally true- as a whole, these are Idol’s best singers.  Many have very unique voices.  Some have interesting stories and backgrounds.  And, they have personalities.

I have to hand it to the judges…  they did a great job in selecting some of the best talent Idol has ever had.

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Tonight the new season of American Idol begins.  This will be the first season with Simon Cowell.

I was interested to see how the new team of Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, and Randy Jackson would mesh.  Surprisingly, I’ve been enjoying the trio.  They seem like a better fit than the oddly cast Ellen Degeneres.

What are your opinions?

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For those who have never driven one, the Bugatti Veyron – the fastest, most powerful and, at £1million ($1.7million), costliest production car ever made – must seem obscene.

The top speed it has clocked in a test drive by a racing driver is 253mph – a third of the speed of sound and 240mph more than the average speed on the traffic-choked streets of Los Angeles.

This is clearly no deterrent to Simon Cowell, who was pictured this week driving his pride and joy around the world’s entertainment capital.

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Clay Aiken may have grabbed her boobs, but Simon Cowell grabbed her heart- Beautiful Mezhgan Hussainy told RadarOnline.com  that she and Simon are officially engaged.

Until now, there have been only whispers and rumors about the couple possibly getting married — but their plans have been a secret.

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Buildings in Detroit are left abandoned.

So what’s in the news round-up for tonight:

1. Rep. Charles Rangel, the most powerful tax-writing lawmaker in Congress and a 34-year veteran of Capitol Hill, knowingly accepted Caribbean trips from a corporation in violation of House rules, the House Ethics Committee ruled Thursday. Shocker!  Now will Nancy Pelosi and the rest of  those liberal hacks demand that Charlie resign?

2. The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance surged to just below the 500,000 level last week, and have climbed more than 12% over the past two weeks, the government said Thursday…. but, but, but Obama said the worst of the economic crisis was over and his recovery package was saving and/OR creating jobs.

3.  Just moments before the afternoon session got underway, C-SPAN’s cameras picked up audio of Biden chatting casually with participants. “It’s easy being vice president — you don’t have to do anything.” Whomever Biden was chatting with said, “It’s like being the grandpa and not the parent.” “Yeah, that’s it!” replied Biden.  Of course he doesn’t do anything, he’s a bumbling idiot and can’t be trusted.

4.  Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said Wednesday he “absolutely” intends to relocate residents from desolate neighborhoods and is bracing for inevitable legal challenges when he unveils his downsizing plan. In his strongest statements about shrinking the city since taking office, Bing told WJR-760 AM the city is using internal and external data to decide “winners and losers.” The city plans to save some neighborhoods and encourage residents to move from others, he said.  ”If we don’t do it, you know this whole city is going to go down. I’m hopeful people will understand that,” Bing said. “If we can incentivize some of those folks that are in those desolate areas, they can get a better situation.”  Detroit can thank the unions and liberal leadership for its demise.

5.  You may be upset or relieved to hear my news that Howard Stern definitely won’t be joining American Idol as the judge replacing Simon Cowell.  Good, because as much as I respect Howard’s craft, he’d be completely wrong for a family show.

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From Deadline.com:

It was American Idol’s newest judge Ellen DeGeneres’ first day of taping the Hollywood segment, and she was excited and nervous, sources tell us. But then that turned to anger. Because, our insiders say, Simon Cowell was an hour and a half late for the taping. And Ellen stewed while she waited. She had reason: to accomodate both her talk show hosting duties and her American Idol judging duties, she had moved up her schedule so that now she shot the talk show earlier in the day and then jumped in the car to go to Idol. She was on time, and Cowell was not. “Here it was the first day of taping of the Hollywood shows, and Ellen was there waiting for Simon to show up. Ellen’s new to gig and she’s very organized and she made a commitment to take this on, and now she’s asking herself, ‘What did I get myself into?’ She called Simon Cowell a prima donna. So right from the start, the chemistry isn’t great,” an insider tells us.

With that, Ellen Degeneres contacted the pal who brought her to the primetime hit show, Fox alternative programming chief Mike Darnell, and made a request: she asked for him to “hurry up and pick” Simon’s successor. Cowell has told the world this will be his last season judging Idol to do his own U.S. version of The X Factor. But there’s a problem, a big multi-pronged one, and it involves Ellen vs Simon, and Simon Fuller vs Simon Cowell, and American Idol vs The X Factor as well.

Our sources say that American Idol’s first choice to succeed Cowell is former Sony music chief Tommy Mottola, best known to the public as Mariah Carey’s ex-husband and the top executive behind Michael Jackson’s music in its heyday. But Cowell has also designated Mottola as first choice to be a judge on Simon’s American X Factor show just announced. Cowell is reportedly being paid nearly $175 million for launching the new talent search show in the Fall of 2011. (Cowell didn’t own American Idol and only gets paid to appear on it, but he does own X Factor and the whole brand. It is currently shown in 17 countries worldwide with a global audience of more than 500 million, and is the No. 1 TV entertainment format in Europe. The X Factor format is owned by Syco, a global music, television and film production joint venture between Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment.)

Execs behind American Idol and The X Factor want a high-profile music industry professional to give some gravitas. And our sources say Mottola, who hasn’t made headlines since he left Sony and started a new music label, is loving this situation. He’s in the middle of an American TV tug of war!

According to our insiders, Fox, Darnell, and Fremantle’s American Idol producers have “come up with a list of 25 people led by 60-year-old Tommy Mottola, the co-owner of Casablanca Records in a joint venture with the Universal Music Group. He is the former husband of singer Mariah Carey, and is currently married to Mexican singer Thalía. He headed Sony Music Entertainment, parent of the Columbia label, for nearly 15 years. But ever since leaving as head of Sony Music, he’s been on the downlow. “What’s he doing now? Good question. He’s got some label. But in truth he hasn’t do much,” one of our sources shrugged. Mottola also is known as a mentor and former talent manager. His most famous proteges were Hall & Oates, Carly Simon, John Mellencamp, Diana Ross, and Taylor Dayne as well as Mariah Carey in the 1990s, and Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez in the early 2000s.

Cowell’s music background and blunt assessments anchor American Idol, “but he’s also a music industry insider and Mottola fits that bill. And he certainly knows how to find young talent,” our source explained. “Mottola is frontrunner for Idol, but when Simon became aware of this, he began trying to get Tommy to team with him and Paula Abdul for his new show The X Factor.” Our insider feel there is the very real likelihood that Paula will sign for big dough to reteam with Cowell. Let’s not forget also there is real rivalry between The Two Simons: Simon Cowell and American Idol’s Simon Fuller. Cowell turned down $100 million to stay on the show. But if he signs Abdul and starts his X Factor with two of the three original American Idol judges, this poses a real threat to Fuller. Especially since two of the original three Idol judges gone, leaving only original judge Randy Jackson, last season’s new judge Kara DioGuardi, and this season’s new judge Ellen DeGeneres.

“Mottola is in the middle of all that and benefactor of it. Mottola has remarkable leverage because of this tug of war and will get a big payday from somebody,” our source predicted.

But some of the suits behind American Idol have placed high on their list 2 more music execs. Second choice is 38-year-old Guy Oseary “because they’re cautious about skewing too old”. An Israeli businessman who began his career in entertainment at 17 at what was to become Maverick Records. Oseary is best known as Madonna’s longtime business partner who guided her through the 2006 Confessions Tour, and the 2008 Sticky & Sweet Tour, both of which are on the lists of the top-grossing tours of all time. In 2007 he negotiated the much-talked-about deal of the music business by partnering Madonna and all aspects of her music with Live Nation, the No. 1 touring promotion company in the world.

The 3rd list topper is 56-year-old Jimmy Iovine. The Eminem song “Jimmy Crack Corn” (which also features 50 Cent) is written about this music producer, entrepreneur and chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M since 2001. The Brooklyn-born Iovine began as a recording engineer in the mid-1970s working with John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen. He went on to produce albums for U2, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Stevie Nicks, Simple Minds, Dire Straits and Patti Smith. Then Iovine co-founded Interscope Records in 1990 and became a bigwig at Interscope-Geffen-A&M following Universal’s acquisition of PolyGram. Iovine is credited with having given Eminem’s demo tape to Dr. Dre who signed him to his Aftermath label. Iovine also is a film producer — on the hit Eminem movie, 8 Mile, a first-look feature deal with Paramount Pictures and MTV Films and the first pic under that deal Get Rich or Die Tryin’ starring 50 Cent, and with LeBron James and Maverick Carter of the 2009 documentary More Than A Game.

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1.  Ann Coulter asks Al Sharpton if he’s been asked not to use his “Negro Dialect” in the video above.  It’s a must watch!

2. David Paterson said remarks about Barack Obama attributed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in a newly published book are “reprehensible”.  Finally, a Democrat who can speak some truth.

3.  Gasoline prices are soaring toward the $3 a gallon range.  If you recall, Democrats were demanding an investigation of Bush and Cheney and their ties to big oil when prices were in the mid $2 range.  Of course, that’s when we had 4.4% unemployment and the world economy was doing fantastic.  I wonder why gas is hovering at $3 with unemployment at 10% and the world economy is struggling.  Do you think that Democrats will call for Obama to be investigated? Double standard.

4.  Remember the tired old mantra the Democrats like to spew- Republicans are for the rich?  Well, since the Democrats have been in charge the UK Telegraph writes:

The labour force contracted by 661,000. This did not show up in the headline jobless rate because so many Americans dropped out of the system. The broad U6 category of unemployment rose to 17.3pc. That is the one that matters.

Wall Street rallied. Bulls hope that weak jobs data will postpone monetary tightening: a silver lining in every catastrophe, or perhaps a further exhibit of market infantilism.

The home foreclosure guillotine usually drops a year or so after people lose their job, and exhaust their savings. The local sheriff will escort them out of the door, often with some sympathy –– just like the police in 1932, mostly Irish Catholics who tithed 1pc of their pay for soup kitchens.

Realtytrac says defaults and repossessions have been running at over 300,000 a month since February. One million American families lost their homes in the fourth quarter. Moody’s Economy.com expects another 2.4m homes to go this year. Taken together, this looks awfully like Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.

5.  So it’s official, Simon Cowell is to quit American Idol and head X Factor.  Sources confirmed to Hollywood Reporter exclusively that Cowell will quit the top-rated show on television at the end of this season as part of his plan to focus on launching a new series, “The X-Factor.” Fox has picked up “Factor” for the fall of 2011, when “Idol” is on hiatus.

Tune into JohnPaulus.com as we will have live chat coverage of American Idol Season 9.

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- Senator McCain and Republican leaders are courting other Democrats who are upset with their party’s radical shift to the left and their Marxist agenda. Two Democrat Congress acknowledge that they’ve been approached by the Republican leadership, but have given reassurance to Pelosi and other Democrat leaders that they have no plans on switching their party.

- William Daley of Chicago wrote a warning in the Washington Post to Obama, “The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic Party — my lifelong political home — has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come.”  Hopefully, Pelosi, Reed, and their puppet Obama will ignore Daley’s warnings.  Read more here.

- The Senate passed their version of the health-care bill which doesn’t live up to Obama’s promises;  it raises taxes across the board, it leaves 8% uninsured, it’s funded through tax increases and not premiums, verification for illegals is weak, and it cuts medicare and medicaid.

- Fox is working with 19 Entertainment to order more seasons of the hit show ‘American Idol’.  People familiar with the talks say that Fox is committed to renewing the hit show for 3 or more seasons after the current contract expires in 2011.  The news comes just as rumors have been circulating that judge Simon Cowell may leave the show when his contract is up to focus on bringing his hit show ‘X Factor’ to the United States.

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