COWELL SAYS SPEARS VMA SHOT WOULDN'T HAVE GOT HER "TO THE NEXT ROUND"

American Idol producer/judge Simon Cowell has told a British newspaper that Britney Spears should never have been allowed to appear on the MTV Video Music Awards. "I'd have taken one look at her in rehearsals, and I wouldn't have allowed her on stage," Cowell told the London Sun. Indeed, he said, if she had been auditioning for one of his talent shows, "I wouldn't have put her through to the next round." Cowell said that Spears' performance was so inept "that she could have killed her career.