Cheryl Cole X Factor Fix: Sophie Amogbokpa, A Visa And It’s All About The Money
CHERYL Cole has is heading back to the US version of the X Factor. Maybe.
An “insider” told The News Of The World:
“This is the biggest surprise of the lot – Cheryl is back. Who could possibly have predicted this – it appeared that Simon had dumped Cheryl for good? But behind the scenes Simon has been wooing Cheryl. And key executives at Fox all realised they had made a big mistake. They have been watching the tapes of her at the American auditions and realising that she could be a huge star over there.”
So much for the theory that an auto-tuned singer with a history of assaulting a black toilet worker would not go down all that well with Americans. It turns that that Cole is mega-talented. Jenny McCartney had this to say on the nation’s sweetheart in 2003:
On the night of the assault, Cheryl Tweedy was already wasted – on vodka and Red Bull, wine and complimentary champagne – when she staggered down to the ladies’ lavatories. There sat 38-year-old Sophie Amogbokpa, a black lavatory attendant, who earned a paltry £25 a night with which she funded her part-time law degree. In the course of a dispute – during which Miss Amogbokpa requested that Tweedy pay up for the sweets she had snatched – an energised Tweedy punched her very hard in the eye. In the pictures, Amogbokpa looked as if she had been horribly mugged: she suffered pain for weeks.
Tweedy was charged with both racially-aggravated assault and simple assault. The former hinged on whether she had called Miss Amogbokpa “a fucking bitch” as a witness claimed, or “a fucking black bitch” as Miss Amogbokpa subsequently claimed. The jury decided that there was not enough evidence that Tweedy’s assault was prompted by racism rather than uncomplicated viciousness, and so convicted her of plain assault. The judge called it “an unpleasant piece of drunken violence” for which Tweedy had shown “no remorse whatsoever”.
You may recall that in 2010, Cole was voted the “most inspirational woman of the decade” in a poll of the “UK’s leading cosmetic treatment review site”. Yeah – it is the site for people who will rearrange your features.
You may also recall that in 2008, Louis Walsh was sacked from the X Factor. He was replaced by Brian Friedman. And then he was reinstated. Headlines were made.
The PR-driven news is picked up by the Mirror, which tells readers:
The singer, who has been dumped by lover Derek Hough because he is fed up with her reclusive lifestyle, has been given a second chance by Cowell and Fox TV, who brutally axed her after just four auditions.
That was the brutal axing of which the Mirror stated:
Cheryl Cole could pocket £1.2million for four days’ work – if she keeps silent over her X Factor exit.
Brutal doesn’t come close. While you work out how a to keep a recluse quiet (answer: give her a TV show), we learn that might have signed a “pay or play” contract – she gets paid whether she appears on the show or not. And then, as the rumour goes, Cheryl wanted more the US cash and more money to appear on the UK version of the show.
The Hollywood Reporter tells us:
To avoid breaching her contract for the U.S. show, Cole will have to seek a visa in the days ahead, return to the U.S. and turn up for X Factor tapings. Whether she will have a role in the show is unclear; certainly it’s possible that the two sides will reach some sort of agreement returning her to a role in the U.S. show to end an embarrassing public dispute. Cole has not yet applied for a visa due to paparazzi hounding her, according to a source in her camp, but intends to do so. The show’s next auditions in New Jersey are scheduled for June 9th at the Prudential Center in Newark N.J.
It is incredible that a woman on whom are bestowed all manner of non-existent attributes and talents has managed to negotiate a contract that makes her very rich for doing very little not all that well.
But, then, she was once married to Ashley Cole…
Posted: 5th, June 2011 | In: TV & Radio Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
