X Factor

Fox had better be using a wide-angle lens for its forthcoming talent competition, The X Factor . The judging panel already contains Simon Cowell , Paula Abdul , Nicole Scherzinger , and L.A. Reid . Now Cowell says the show will have to make room for another outsize personality, Mariah Carey . Telling People Magazine that the pop diva has been lobbying to participate for months, Cowell said, "You can't say no to Mariah....

It's official! Fox on Monday announced what we've all known for weeks: Britney Spears will be a judge on season two of The X Factor. The network made a big to-do about it, trotting out (like so much overpaid cattle) Brit, 30, and a second hire, multitalented youngster Demi Lovato, 19. They will join show czar Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid this fall at the judges' table. The gals uttered words such as excited and thrilled. (Brit better be happy: She reportedly will pocket $15 mil just for one season!

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears said Friday that she has made the "difficult decision" to leave Fox's "The X Factor" after one season. In a statement, the pop singer said that she had an incredible time working on the singing contest but that it was time to get back into the studio to record. It was widely reported Thursday that Spears and "X Factor" were parting ways after a season in which the show's ratings fell and Spears received lackluster reviews as a panelist. Fellow panelist Antonio "L.A.

Khloe Kardashian has been kashiered, kanned, kicked to the kurb. The producers of Fox's The X Factor announced Monday that they had pink-slipped Khloe as kohost, confirming a rumor that had been noised about for the last two months. "We really enjoyed working with her and wish her all the best in her future endeavors," the official statement bleated politely. No warning about watching out for the screen door. Khloe's cohost Mario Lopez survived to host another day and will be back to welcome viewers to the show's third season in the fall.

No longer ranked; no longer struggling. David West scored 18 points and had 15 rebounds as Xavier pulled away to an 80-47 victory over La Salle last night in an Atlantic 10 game. Xavier, which fell out of the Top 25 this week, improved to 11-4, 2-1 in the A-10. Xavier played like an elite team once again against La Salle (7-6, 1-2), which hadn't lost by such a big margin since Feb. 9, 2000, 82-48, at UMass. "Xavier is by far the best team we've played this year, bar none," La Salle coach Billy Hahn said.

Inquirer television critic Jonathan Storm is reporting from the television critics' press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. Read his blog "Eye of the Storm," at www.philly.com/eyeofthestorm . With Steven Spielberg's epic time travel series Terra Nova , the delightful New Girl sitcom starring Zooey Deschanel, and Simon Cowell's blockbusting The X Factor , Fox this fall may have an invincible new-programming juggernaut....

NEWARK, N.J. - At auditions filmed Thursday before a live audience for "The X Factor," Simon Cowell seemed to want people to move on from the shake-up on the show's judges panel replacing British pop singer Cheryl Cole with American counterpart Nicole Scherzinger. "It wasn't really such a big deal as everybody thought. . . . Truth is you've got to move on. It's about the contestants. They've got no interest in us bickering," Cowell said at the auditions in New Jersey. Earlier in the week, Fox and producers announced Cole was out and Scherzinger, who originally was signed on to co-host the show, would slide over to the judges table alongside Cowell, Paula Abdul and L.A. Reid.

LONDON - In northeastern England they say she's a canny lass - and maybe that's the problem. British sweetheart Cheryl Cole has reportedly been dumped from U.S. television, and tabloid media say she lost her big break in part over fears American audiences wouldn't understand her regional accent or the phrases unique to her corner of Britain. Cole, whose rags-to-riches showbiz story captivated Britain, had been expected to appear as a judge on Simon Cowell's The X Factor , due to premiere in the United States this year.

The fun never stops, folks. During the broadcast of American Idol's season finale, Ryan Seacrest announced the cities and dates for next season's auditions. And the very next morning, Fox's other singing competition, The X Factor, began taping its second season in Austin, Texas, with new judges Britney Spears and Demi Lovato. As you no doubt heard, Simon Cowell, X Factor's de facto dictator, conducted a purge when the first season fared poorly in the ratings, firing Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger as judges.

I'm beginning to think I just don't recognize the X factor when I see it. Time after time this week, at the same moment the judges were gushing to some singer a variation on "You're the reason I got into this business," I was thinking, "You're the reason God invented the mute button. " There seems to be some disconnect between what The X Factor panel is hearing and what is coming through the TV speakers. In four hours of auditions, there's been only one singer I thought was worth a second listen: 18-year-old Melanie Amaro.

In this, our civilization's winter of discontent, art has become nothing but commerce and commerce the highest form of art. So it is. Just ask Beyoncé . The diva's PR machine has so hyped her upcoming album that fans are desperate for any crumbs of music. She has obliged by releasing a snippet of the new song "Standing on the Sun" in a 90-second video. Mind you, it's not a music video, but a TV ad for H&M. (Fact, it's a double advert: for the retail clothing company, and of course, for B's LP.)

Khloe Kardashian has been kashiered, kanned, kicked to the kurb. The producers of Fox's The X Factor announced Monday that they had pink-slipped Khloe as kohost, confirming a rumor that had been noised about for the last two months. "We really enjoyed working with her and wish her all the best in her future endeavors," the official statement bleated politely. No warning about watching out for the screen door. Khloe's cohost Mario Lopez survived to host another day and will be back to welcome viewers to the show's third season in the fall.

I don't know what the limit is. To me, an athlete trying to do a backflip while driving a 450-pound snowmobile is insane. But for Caleb Moore and other freestyle snowmobilers, it's just another trick. Moore performed his failed stunt during the Winter X Games on Jan. 24 and died a week later. The stunt was difficult but apparently doable. He had done it many times before. So what do we make of this? By definition, "extreme" sports are difficult or dangerous, performed in a hazardous environment.

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears said Friday that she has made the "difficult decision" to leave Fox's "The X Factor" after one season. In a statement, the pop singer said that she had an incredible time working on the singing contest but that it was time to get back into the studio to record. It was widely reported Thursday that Spears and "X Factor" were parting ways after a season in which the show's ratings fell and Spears received lackluster reviews as a panelist. Fellow panelist Antonio "L.A.

Britney Spears is leaving The X Factor . The freshman judge on Thursday out-foxed her Fox boss Simon Cowell by resigning before he could fire her. (She's like a Roman Legionnaire, falling on her sword rather than risk capture by the Goths.) Pyrrhic victory, anyone? Several Unnamed Sources tell London's Daily Mail and MTV News that reality TV's very own Darth Vader planned to cut Brit, who was hired to bring some much-needed spark (flare, glow, glitter)

FOX TV ANNOUNCED Monday that it will be bringing back "The X Factor" for a third season. Darn it, they're going to keep trying until they get it right. As regular readers know, Tattle believes the U.S. version of the show was cursed when Simon Cowell turned his back on U.K. judge Cheryl Cole , because she spoke with a Scottish accent. So did "Braveheart," and Americans seemed to figure him out. Britney Spears and Demi Lovato are this year's female judges as the show tries to skew toward younger fans and Auto-Tuned singers.

File this one under: Things We Found Out Watching the Season Debut of The X Factor . Britney Spears is a Gorgon. Like the female monster of Greek mythology, she can apparently wreak devastation with just a look. You had only to witness that poor disconsolate guy backstage after being dismissed by the judges. He was sobbing uncontrollably, collapsing to his knees again and again and wailing: "Did you see Britney's eyes? Did you see Britney's eyes?" Oh, the horror! Shriveler of souls she may be. Unfortunately, Spears is not the electrifying personality Simon Cowell was hoping for when he ponied up $15 million to get the baby-diva on his also-sang reality show.

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. — Mariah Carey has landed a seat in the latest game of musical chairs at Fox's "American Idol. " And what a seat it is. The opportunity to sit next to Randy Jackson and a Player To Be Named Later and to say kind or cutting things to young men and women who may or may not be able to sing is expected to bring the pop diva at least a bit more than the $12 million the now officially departing Jennifer Lopez was paid in...

Katie Holmes is again in the arms of the Catholic Church she left to join the Scientology of husband Tom Cruise. Now that TomKat are splitting up, Kat has signed up at the Parish of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan. This tends to corroborate, though not prove, that religion was involved in the split, specifically the faith in which daughter Suri, 6, will be raised. Tom tends to marry Catholics: think of his second wife, Nicole Kidman. He learned about Scientology from his first wife, Mimi Rogers.

"Oh, there's all these rumors that I'm a lesbian," says Kelly Clarkson, who graces the cover of Lucky mag's first music issue. The Voice mentor is jocular, her lucky Lucky interlocutor says.  Well? Is she? "I have a boyfriend now," Kelly, 30, says. "Brandon Blackstock, my manager Narvel's son, Reba McEntire's stepson. " The blushing American Idol hopeful turned megastar is as all-American traditional as her music: She likes to shoot guns. "I just had my 30th birthday and we went turkey shooting," she says.