Simon Cowell Tells Louis Walsh to "Stop the Conspiracy Theories"  3/23/07

Talent show judge Simon Cowell is sick of former The X Factor co-star Louis Walsh's claims he had him axed from the hit show - insisting he fought to save the Irish music manager's job.

After Walsh and show host Kate Thornton were dropped from the next series of The X Factor, Walsh accused Cowell - whose production company makes the show - of being behind the decision. But Cowell insists he has got it wrong.

The American Idol star says, "What Louis doesn't know is that he had one defender in that room of seven or eight people and that was me. The only one who defended keeping him on.

"When Louis wants to get over this and call me and actually find out what happened, I'll tell him.

"I think he wants to believe there was this horrible conspiracy, that I was wielding the axe. It wasn't like that.

"Louis was told about 12 hours after I was told. All this stuff saying we knew for weeks is complete and utter rubbish."