News / Entertainment
‘American Idol’ Judge Simon Cowell Taking Abuse Over Incident Involving Virginia Tech
‘American Idol’ judge Simon Cowell has been taking a lot of heat after cameras showed the blunt Brit rolling his eyes after a contestant offered prayers and support to the families and community affected by the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy.
After Chris Richardson performed on Tuesday night’s show he opted to say a few words about the shooting rampage that resulted in 33 deaths, including the gunman. Cameras panned to the judges and Simon was seen rolling his eyes at the moment Richardson offered his words.
Cowell, along with the show’s producers, have adamantly denied that the eye rolling incident had anything to do with what Richardson was saying but, rather had to do with an earlier comment made by Richardson defending the sound of his voice.
Appearing on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show on Wednesday Cowell insisted that he was speaking to fellow host Paula Abdul while Richardson was speaking about the Virginia Tech shooting. Cowell told Seacrest he had rolled his eyes over the comment Richardson had previously made about deliberately singing his song in a nasal tone.
‘American Idol’ executive producer Nigel Lythgoe has defended the judge by dismissing the incident as a misinterpretation of the actual events that unfolded.
It is common practice among the judges to talk amongst themselves while a contestant is talking so the likelihood that Cowell never heard the Richardson comment is very believable.
