Simon Cowell: The beginning of the end?

In his record company days he turned down Take That, saying of Gary Barlow: "I don't like the lead singer, he's too fat."

He also missed out on signing the Spice Girls, and failed to buy the song Hit Me Baby One More Time, which was a colossal, career-making hit for Britney Spears.

More recently, he fired Louis Walsh from The X Factor and then realised he had blundered. And that's not even mentioning his attempts to take Cheryl Cole to America.

Despite all this, up until now his successes have been such that it has been possible to paint him as a Midas figure. He was "King Cowell", the biggest star in the global television world — a man who had built a £200 million (Dh1.18 billion) fortune on the basis of his seemingly unassailable instincts for popular entertainment.

But last week, as his shows were being beaten in the ratings on both sides of the Atlantic, a biography was published with which — although unauthorised — he has fully co-operated.

And what a colossal mistake that co-operation turns out to have been. The book, by former BBC journalist Tom Bower, is titled Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell, and it went on sale on Friday.

Cowell learned that Bower was writing the book, and — after taking advice from one of Bower's previous subjects, Bernie Ecclestone — decided that he should give Bower a chance to get to know him.

From May 2011 they spent many hours together. Bower went to The X Factor auditions in America last spring and spent a fortnight on Cowell's rented yacht over New Year.

He was there while Cowell flirted with diamond heiress Zeta Graff, and tried it on with singer Natalie Imbruglia, a former flame who gave him nothing more than a "kiss and cuddle" on that occasion.

Cowell also instructed many of his closest friends to speak to the biographer.

There were hundreds of hours of conversations between the two men, with Bower saying that Cowell was "remarkably candid" even when it came to "embarrassing topics".

Both men insist that some of the most damaging information — about Cowell's affair with Dannii Minogue for instance — did not come from Cowell originally. But the fact remains that he did confirm it with the cringe-making quotes: "It was Dannii's hair, the sexy clothes and the t**s."

The end result is a book which not only manages to damage Cowell's reputation, but also appears to bear his imprimatur.

Even Max Clifford, who is paid to polish Cowell's image and is the veteran of many media storms, has been blanching at the fall-out.

He said last week: "Simon does now regret that he co-operated and gave all these interviews."

He adds: "He is OK, but this has not been the greatest week of his life."

A less diplomatic associate has called the whole affair "an insane misjudgment". He said: "Cowell thinks that he is God, and he thought that he could control Tom Bower, and have him write the book he wanted."

The trouble is, Bower wouldn't play. "Simon Cowell is a clever man and a manipulative man, but maybe not quite as clever as he thinks he is. He never saw this coming," says the associate.

‘Can't resist the spotlight'

Another friend said: "I think that this book is the beginning of the end for him — but he never could resist being in the spotlight."

So what is in the book? We already know that he has admitted that fling with Minogue, and to lusting after Cheryl Cole. We also know that he regards his engagement to sultry make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy as "a mistake". But what the book also shows, often in his own words, is what a very peculiar superstar he is — and a deeply insecure one at that.

For one thing, the book reveals that Cowell is prone to "introspective monologues" that can go on for hours about his work, and his fear of failure.

Even after he won his Bafta lifetime achievement, Cowell was dissatisfied. "I went home depressed," he said. "I am only interested in the future and what I am going to get."

And now, with the disaster of his ITV gambling show Red or Black, which never took off, and the relatively poor ratings of The X Factor USA (which Cowell thought might get 30 million viewers and managed only 11 million) as well as the apparent inability of Britain's Got Talent to beat The Voice in the ratings, that fear of failure is gnawing ever deeper.

Bower provides a telling insight into how Cowell struggled last year as problem after problem surfaced.

When Cole was struggling on X Factor USA, the author says Cowell had to take two sleeping pills at 5am, fearing a showdown with his one-time protege over her performance. After that crisis was over, he cursed the lighting and production on The X Factor USA, saying it wasn't good enough.

Then, such was his concern about Britain's Got Talent when he returned to assist judging in the final last June, that, according to Bower, Cowell told himself: "I must stay focused on the show and not read the papers."

The book also shows Cowell to be a hypochondriac, obsessed with cleanliness. Former girlfriend Jackie St Clair says he is even in the habit of throwing away teaspoons if they have been used to eat yoghurt.

Cowell himself says he likes to bathe and scrub twice a day, and can change his T-shirts up to four times daily.

He also seems oddly culturally bereft, unless discussing his hero, Frank Sinatra. "Who's Picasso?" Cowell asked his interior designer.

Bower reveals that Cowell took half a sleeping pill before his 50th birthday party, because the idea of 500 of his nearest and dearest celebrating his life made him nervous. "I wanted to be slightly dreamy because I was stressed... I would have to go to the tables and be nice to everyone," he said. "It was almost unbearable. The tablet made me relaxed."

The Cowell in Bower's book has never been in love — not for more than a week or two, anyway. He has plucked almost every girlfriend he has ever had away from either a friend or from his brother — and seems to conduct his liaisons on a purely physical level.

One "romance" with wannabe singer Allison Jordan is explained by Cowell in these witheringly basic terms: "We had a brief thing. She'd done her b**bs."

It is this kind of statement that is proving most alarming both to ITV and to Cowell's friends. They were appalled when he said of Minogue: "There were a few b**ks and then it petered out while I was in America."

Gallantry is certainly in short supply, according to Bower's book. Women are disposable objects of occasionally intense interest — which calls to mind his admitted infatuation with Cole.

This attitude might cause his new fancy, Brazilian divorcee Ana Paula Junqueira — with whom he was photographed last week looking dishevelled and sporting a small cut over his eyebrow — to pause before getting more involved than she already is.

There was a period when he was a big success in America, and he was set up on dates in his home by the agents of various actresses — including Denise Richards.

Bower writes: "In a similar social arrangement, Amanda Holden was introduced, only to announce coyly as she entered: ‘I have a car arriving at 11pm.' She departed punctually."

Bower leaves readers to wonder what happened on that date. Of course, the fact that the book paints Cowell as such a red-blooded womaniser strikes some as rather convenient.

Ironically, the book's publication gives fresh impetus to anyone wishing to sell a kiss-and-tell story on Cowell.

And because Cowell has co-operated with Bower and given him quotes about his sex life, it will be all the harder to argue for an injunction, should he wish to try to keep anything quiet.

— Daily Mail