With her little-girl vulnerability, thick regional accent and homespun good sense, Cheryl Cole has long been the U.K.'s sweetheart. And until yesterday, it looked as though the support of Simon Cowell would be enough to propel the Girls Aloud singer to the pinnacle of her TV career, a coveted judging slot on Fox's version of The X Factor.
Now it seem that Cowell has lost his battle to keep Cheryl, with Fox bosses taking the view, according to reports, that her strong North Eastern British accent is problematic. Other reports cite a lack of chemistry with Paula Abdul, homesickness and the fact that she hasn't been up to the mark in the glamor stakes as reasons she may have been ditched.
In Britain, Cole's place in the national consciousness owes as much to the tabloid frenzy surrounding her power-couple breakup with her cheating ex-husband, Premier League soccer star Ashley Cole, as it does to her judging role on Britain's X Factor.
But she won over audiences for her unapologetic -- and to many, unenviable -- Geordie accent, as well as her support for underdog contestants and her fondness for addressing wannabe contestants as "pet."
In the North East of England the Geordie accent is known for its drawn out vowels and its its clipped words: 'yes' becomes 'ya' and the last consonant is often dropped. A spoof in the Guardian newspaper suggested that American audiences might have trouble understanding Cheryl's dialect, struggling to understand that when she said "Ya dazzlin, pet. Keep gannin like that and yazall be a star," what she meant was "you are doing very well, keep going and you will be a star."
In reality, her accent is far from as problematic, and if anything, her heartfelt directness seemed to endear her further to British audiences.
Most notably, her performance earned her the all-important support of Simon Cowell, who elevated her to the top of the pile of his U.K. judging line up and made it clear that he wanted her to be part of the US show.
Of course, the decision to ditch Cheryl may have been part of a strategic campaign of hype-building around the show. After all, Cowell has along history of playing his leading ladies against each other, whether it is pitting Dannii Minogue against Cheryl, Cheryl against Paula Abdul, or now, Cheryl against Nicole Scherzinger, who is now rumoured to take her place.
But if the reports are true and a downcast Cole is heading back to the UK with her dreams in tatters, she can at least be assured of a national welcome.
"Agree Cheryl Cole is better off in the UK where she is very good. What do the Yanks know anyway?" tweeted The Apprentice host Alan Sugar.
Dannii Minogue, who was recently fired from the X Factor U.K. judging line-up Tweeted "Judging [X Factor] should come with a life jacket, drop-down oxygen and a life raft."
Meanwhile, comedian Russell Brand also offered his commiserations while being interviewed on ITV morning show Daybreak.
"Our Cheryl? That cannae be right," he said, imitating Cole's famous Newcastle accent. "I've come to this country in good faith and they've kicked our Cheryl off? Oh no! She's Britain's sweetheart."
Asked if he thought that an American audience would have trouble with Cheryl's accent, Brand advised: "Just listen more, just listen very intently. All them things she's saying -- that's English.
It was clearly too soon. When Kenneth Cole tweeted an insensitive joke about the uprising in Egypt to sell more products, he probably didn't expect to make headlines beyond Twitter. Here's the Thursday tweet that led the Internet world to lash out at the fashion icon:
“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online.”
Within minutes of this post, Web users started sharing the message, mostly in disbelief that the head of a major brand would be so clueless as to make a joke during a crisis. Bloggers posted advice on how a CEO can avoid this type of controversy and Twitter users promoted the hashtag #boycottKennethCole.
Shortly after the insulting tweet, @KennethCole said he didn't intend to make light of a serious situation and the company posted an apology on Facebook. While I'd love to share the reaction from fans, they are not fit for print (think a lot of swearing and name-calling). In the wake of this social media storm, one creative web user took a cue from the @BPGlobalPR account that went viral last May.
A quick peek @KennethColePR is sure to make you cringe. The fake account, which states that “Kenneth Cole is all about making sure you look good…no matter what is happening,” is jam-packed with (really, really) inappropriate jokes. Here's a sample, and they keep coming.
“JeffreyDahmer would have eaten up our spring collection!” #KennethColeTweets
“People are looking at our sales girls in Chernobyl like they have three eyes. It's just our insane markdowns!” #KennethColeTweets
“You’re gonna want to Abu Ghraib one of our hoodies before they’re gone.” #KennethColeTweets
And those are the tame ones.
While I thought I'd seen every social media mistake around, this big-time blunder clearly takes the cake. Making light of an international crisis where a reported 5,000 people have been injured is just bad business. Good luck with that spring collection KC, you'll need it.
It was clearly too soon. When Kenneth Cole tweeted an insensitive joke about the uprising in Egypt to sell more products, he probably didn't expect to make headlines beyond Twitter. Here's the Thursday tweet that led the Internet world to lash out at the fashion icon:
“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online.”
Within minutes of this post, Web users started sharing the message, mostly in disbelief that the head of a major brand would be so clueless as to make a joke during a crisis. Bloggers posted advice on how a CEO can avoid this type of controversy and Twitter users promoted the hashtag #boycottKennethCole.
Shortly after the insulting tweet, @KennethCole said he didn't intend to make light of a serious situation and the company posted an apology on Facebook. While I'd love to share the reaction from fans, they are not fit for print (think a lot of swearing and name-calling). In the wake of this social media storm, one creative web user took a cue from the @BPGlobalPR account that went viral last May.
A quick peek @KennethColePR is sure to make you cringe. The fake account, which states that “Kenneth Cole is all about making sure you look good…no matter what is happening,” is jam-packed with (really, really) inappropriate jokes. Here's a sample, and they keep coming.
“JeffreyDahmer would have eaten up our spring collection!” #KennethColeTweets
“People are looking at our sales girls in Chernobyl like they have three eyes. It's just our insane markdowns!” #KennethColeTweets
“You’re gonna want to Abu Ghraib one of our hoodies before they’re gone.” #KennethColeTweets
And those are the tame ones.
While I thought I'd seen every social media mistake around, this big-time blunder clearly takes the cake. Making light of an international crisis where a reported 5,000 people have been injured is just bad business. Good luck with that spring collection KC, you'll need it.