Cranky American Idol judge Simon Cowell thinks Beyonce is overrated and that Ashlee Simpson (news) has been criticized unfairly. Cowell tells Esquire, "I find the whole Beyonce thing really mystifying. She's not sexy, she hasn't got a great body and she's not a great singer."

Cowell defended Ashlee Simpson's decision to use a backing track instead of singing live on Saturday Night Live last October. He said, "Why should you have to do something substandard just for the sake of being real? If it sounds better with the vocal you recorded, why shouldn't people listen to that? There's almost a witch-hunt mentality about people miming."

In his biography, I Don't Mean to Be Rude, But... Cowell admits that his first target for criticism was his mother. Cowell says that at age 4 he looked at his mother's white fuzzy pillbox hat and remarked "Mum, you look like a poodle."