She may not have known her own strength, but Whitney Houston clearly overestimated the tenacity of her wardrobe Sunday night.

The comeback queen nearly turned the X Factor into the XXX Factor when she suffered a wardrobe malfunction halfway through her performance on the Simon Cowell-fronted reality show.

While performing her new single, "Million Dollar Bill," on Britain's Idol-esque series—her first U.K. performance, incidentally, in more than 12 years—the back strap of her form-fitting, floor-length gown gave way, and spent the remainder of the song flapping at her sides.

Seasoned pro that she is, she remained unfazed by the clothes call, which, luckily, didn't result in any more skin than usual being exposed.

"I sang myself out of my clothes," she said after her performance.

Houston, who pulled double-duty as the contestants' mentor this week, was later praised by the Ryan Seacrest-alike host, Dermot O'Leary, for her pull-no-punches (think less constructive, more criticism) advice to the wannabes.

"Is that why you call me 'Lippy'?" she asked Cowell. "Simon calls me 'Lippy.' I say what's on my mind just like he does."

For his part, the judge clearly doesn't mind a little sass, deeming her performance "incredible."

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Check out other sartorial scandals with a flip through our Fashion Police gallery.

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Simon Cowell turns 50 today and is celebrating the only way he knows how—by depositing even more money in the bank.

And who wouldn't want to slap their cheeks in his uberwealthy musk?

The American Idol judge is joining his British X-Factor costars—Cheryl Cole, Danni Minogue and Louis Walsh—in releasing a series of fragrances in time for the holidays. Word is each of them will take home $500,000 plus a percentage of the sales.

Needless to say, Cowell, whose line will include aftershave, isn't keeping his competitive nature to himself.

"Simon says his will be the top seller-he's already winding the other three up," a source tells The Sun.

They said "Simon says," so it musk be true.

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Check out what other stars are sniffing all the way to the bank in our Smells Like Celebrity gallery!

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Adam Lambert is like a modern-day Braveheart.

American Idol and 19 Entertainment may be putting out his debut album, but they're not taking his creative freedom—or so he claims.

"I think there's a little bit of a misconception out in the public that people that come out of American Idol are puppetted and kind of controlled," he tells E! News exclusively. "That hasn't been my experience one bit. They've been completely supportive and collaborative with me and all the powers that be are really trying to facilitate my artistic vision."

In addition to working with A-list producers RedOne (Sean Kingston's "Fire Burning"), Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera's "Keeps Getting' Better") and Ryan Tedder (the man behind the controversial Beyoncé and Kelly Clarkson tracks), Lambert is writing some of his own stuff.

"For a handful of these songs, I've gotten to write on them," he says. "So I really feel I've gotten to inject a lot of this music on the album with my own personal vocal stylings and my own lyrical content. A lot of it talks about stuff I really care about and that I find interesting, so that feels really good."

In addition to his excitement about his album's debut on Nov. 24, Lambert can't wait to see Ellen DeGeneres take a on a certain verbose judge come January…

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Someone needs to pull the pen from Simon Cowell's fingers.

While we love it when the crotchety American Idol judge decides to air his dirty laundry in public—that Susan Boyle botch list was a classic—is an absurdly lengthy diatribe really necessary?

On the cusp of his 50th birthday next week, Cowell wrote a letter to himself published in yesterday's Daily Mail in the U.K. In it, he looks back on the past few decades, scolding himself for poor decisions in the 80s and 90s and patting himself on the back for the good ones.

It would be a good, self-deprecating, third-person about-face, but regardless of what he says, nearly 3,500 words makes for nothing but a puff (as in puff, the magic ego) piece.

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NBC Photo: Chris Haston

America's Got Talent. Britain's Got Talent. Now thanks to Simon Cowell, America's Got Britain's Talent.

Good old SuBo herself, Susan Boyle, is scheduled to make her U.S. performance debut next week when she takes to the stage on the season finale of the Nick Cannon-hosted reality fest. (A nice and long-rumored bookend as she also appeared, briefly via satellite, in the season premiere.)

Neither NBC nor the infamous BGT runner-up, whose months-away debut album has already bested Whitney Houston's and Jay-Z's in Amazon pre-sales, have disclosed exactly which ditty Boyle will sing come next Wednesday, though "I Dreamed a Dream" and "Memory" are both safe bets, as she performed both during her U.K. reality show reign.

Boyle will arrive stateside tomorrow afternoon in advance of her prime-time debut.

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We know how to keep it real. Check out our 2009 Summer Reality TV Stars gallery.

ADC/Keystone/ZUMA Press; Michael Becker / FOX

Some people just can't take a joke. Others just can't tell them. Simon Cowell falls into the latter category.

While the American Idol judge apparently can't spare a moment to officially comment on Ellen DeGeneres' replacement of Paula Abdul (unlike everyone else involved), he did take time to go on record today to clarify a joke he made about the Beatles on CBS' Early Show Wednesday morning. Which, as the most cursory of Google searches will tell you, didn't exactly translate well.

Cowell was on the show to talk about Susan Boyle's recording future but got slightly off-course when his interviewer, his Britain's Got Talent cojudge Amanda Holden, asked the critical Brit, "If the Beatles came on Britain's Got Talent or American Idol, do you think you would have put them through to boot camp?"

Unfortunately, Cowell never met a piece of bait he didn't lunge for.

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Michael Rozman/Warner Bros

Count Ellen DeGeneres among those shocked by Fox's announcement that she would be permanently filling Paula Abdul's infamously vacated American Idol seat.

Though, to be fair, she did have a (tiny) bit more warning as to the prime-time development than the rest of us. And that includes Ryan Seacrest.

The talk show host-turned-reality judge told the Idol ringmaster on his morning radio show that making yesterday's shock announcement was "really exciting, cause this has been going on for a few weeks just quietly. I wasn't sure if you knew, I thought you'd call me or something…"

"They didn't even ask me to be a guest judge," DeGeneres said of the unexpected job offer. "It just went straight to, 'Would you like to be…'"

But don't expect the new opinion-wielder to try and replace everyone's favorite rambling sycophant.

"I hope Paula is OK with it," said DeGeneres, who in addition to not talking to Abdul about her new gig has also so far refrained from speaking to Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson or Kara DioGuardi. "I don't want anybody to think that I took Paula's job away."

Now why would they think a crazy thing like that?

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We know he digs the V-neck tees, but does Simon Cowell have an unhealthy—and possibly illegal—obsession with women's footwear?

That seems to be the gist of small-claims court action against the prickly American Idol overlord by a would-be chef who claims her pricey kicks were swiped by Cowell and ex-girlfriend Terri Seymour.

Meeshell Block claims she was having a try-out for a personal chef gig at Chez Cowell and, at their request, removed her shoes upon entering the domicile. (Maybe foot cheese was on the menu…mmmm!)

Trouble is, the cook somehow left her orthopedic-fitted sneakers at Cowell's abode residence. When she came back to retrieve them, Seymour's assistant handed over the wrong pair.

Now she's seeking $661.59 to cover the price of the MIA shoes, the insoles and $9 in gas used to drive over to his place. The first hearing is set for Oct. 29.

Cowell, who's used to giving tart criticism, not good arch, was unavailable for comment on whether he's holding the shoes hostage. But his rep has labeled the whole (toe) jam "ridiculous."

—Additional reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum

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Who knows, maybe Simon used the shoes to kick Paula to the curb. Follow the whole Abdul-Idol debacle here.

Denise Truscello

Other than conflicting reports of pregnancy and hard-partying, Avril Lavigne has kept a pretty low profile of late. That's all about to change.

The "Complicated" singer has just joined the fast-lengthening roster of stars filling Paula Abdul's vacant chair on American Idol.

She'll be sitting alongside Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi telling perspective idols she doesn't like their boyfriends singing during one of the final two days of auditions in Los Angeles.

Previously announced seatfiller Katy Perry will be hanging with the A.I. trio on the other day.

This won't be the last you'll hear from Avril this month—she's expected to unveil her latest clothing collection for Abbey Dawn during New York Fashion Week.

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Don't miss our American Idol 2010: Guest Judges Galore gallery!