Thousands complain about X Factor controversy - but Simon's, like, soooo not bothered, apparently

Remember last year when everyone got terribly upset about Laura White getting booted off X Factor? Only rings a vague bell, doesn't it? Well, hopefully all this Lucie/Simon/Jedward controversy will blow over just as quickly - as it's all turned seriously nasty and nastily serious.

It's been revealed that more than 3000 viewers have complained to ITV about Simon essentially booting off Lucie Jones after taking things to scary old Deadlock on Sunday's results show. Many believe that it was "a fix" (um, can we point out that she came bottom in the phone vote?) and that Simon's a hypocrite after slagging off Jedward week after week (we acknowledge that there's a bit of truth in that).

"I was furious," says Lucie's own gran Jean (no doubt from her home in that small village in Wales they all like to go on about). "I said all along if it came down to Lucie and anyone else he would get rid of her because he is afraid of her. He is afraid of her voice. He said all along he wanted a male singer to win this year. He is protecting his own acts. I’m going to vote for the twins every week and I hope everyone else does too. That will teach him a lesson."

Ooh, a feisty gran. We like those. Weirdly, Lucie herself is much more measured about all this - but then, her exit has had way more attention than it would have done if she'd lost out to someone less controversial, so she's probably feeling a bit smug (tough love reminder: you lost the phone vote). "I thanked Simon for the opportunity of being in the competition," she said in a press conference yesterday. "It is always going to be about exciting the viewers from the word go. It is a TV show as well as a talent competition and it is a very popular TV show."

Er, what an insight. Naturally, ITV themselves are pretty chilled too: "Reflecting the huge popularity of a show watched by almost 17 million viewers, The X Factor result can divide opinion and provoke comment from our viewers." Nice mention of viewing figures there - they might as well have added "SO NER, STRICTLY!" on the end.

Simon is, of course, still standing by his decision. "I know there will be lots of people who will criticise the decision to let it go to Deadlock, but I honestly could not have predicted the way public voting had gone," he insisted last night, probably while laughing in the manner of an evil cartoon villain. "I never get told the voting figures. I don't think either of the bottom two acts could have won. But the twins are good entertainment even if they can't sing and there would be criticism either way. I really couldn't make up my mind and that is why I left it to the public."

Somewhat contradicting this, Simon's friends (some friends!) say he's actually worried that he's damaged his own reputation by sitting on the fence and not ruthlessly getting rid of the twins as viewers might have expected him to - and there's even talk that, during the commercial break, he tried to persuade Cheryl to back Jedward, so that he could have saved face by keeping Lucie.

"It seems that Simon may have tried to get Cheryl to vote for the twins so he could save Lucie and then it could have gone to deadlock without him - or the show - losing any credibility," says someone in the know, but we're getting a bit confused now. "But Cheryl knows her own mind and didn't want to take the fall for him. She thought Lucie deserved to stay so she voted with her feet. Obviously, Louis and Dannii would save their own acts so he knew Cheryl was his only hope. But she just wouldn't save the twins, however much he pleaded."

It sounds like this will all rumble on until... well, until Jedward get booted off fair and square, we'd imagine. But we wonder if all those fans who are now threatening to boycott the show actually mean it. After all this hoo-ha, we're pretty sure we'll be even more glued to the X Factor than we were already... which is exactly what Simon wanted.

Pic: Rex