Cowell Embarrassed About Hough Story

Thursday 9th April 2009 - 06:30:01

Music mogul Simon Cowell was left red faced on U.S. TV when he was forced to declare he had never heard of country singer and Dancing With The Stars regular Julianne Hough.

Hough, who was named Top New Artist at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday (05Apr09), paid tribute to the American Idol judge during a segment on news show Extra, recalling how pleasant he had been when she once auditioned for him in London.

She said, "When I was about 10 years old, my brother (Derek Hough), (dancer) Mark Ballas and I were living in London and you actually came to our house and listened to us sing... You were very nice and I always tell people that Simon Cowell is not the nasty man that he is (on TV)".

But a red-faced Cowell could not recall the audition - or Hough - stating, "I've got no idea who you are, but I'm glad I was nice to you. God, that's embarrassing".