Beyonce battered by Cowell

Simon Cowell has labelled Beyonce as a talentless singer with an average body.

11:02 21 January 2005

Simon Cowell has labelled Beyonce as a talentless singer with an average body.

The self-styled Mr Nasty of the music world, who is acting as a judge on the new series of American Idol, laid into the former Destiny Child singer in no uncertain terms.

He told Esquire magazine that he was "mystified" by the allure of the 23-year-old, saying that he did not find her attractive.

"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 said.

And the ever-controversial pop mogul carried on where he left off during the opening American Idol show, slamming contest hopefuls Mandy, Melissa and Erin Maynard.

Cowell told the blonde 18-year-old triplets that they were overweight and advised them to take a "reality check" on their aspirations of stardom.

Not content with cutting the trio down to size once, Cowell then laid into them again by telling fellow contestant Katrina Rece to help them out after she revealed that she had once tasted human flesh in a science lesson.

"I am going to say no, but I'd like to introduce you to the triplets because you can help each other," he quipped.