Simon Cowell is preparing to fight a lawsuit from former adviser Ian Rosenblatt over a 75 million pound business deal allegedly written on a napkin at a London dinner.
Rosenblatt claims Cowell signed terms offering up to 15 per cent of any deal worth more than 75 million pounds, with the agreement formalised later at Cowell's Cotswolds home. He says he was never paid, despite the deal going ahead, and is now seeking what he believes he is owed through the courts, in a case that could cost Cowell tens of millions.
Court papers paint an unflattering picture of the music mogul. Cowell is described as very difficult to speak to, with the claim alleging he refused to own a mobile phone and excluded his adviser from calls about Syco budgets. The papers suggest a working relationship that broke down amid secrecy and frustration, with Rosenblatt increasingly frozen out of the business he had helped to build.
Cowell, who built Syco into one of the most successful entertainment companies in the world on the back of The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, has not publicly responded to the specific allegations. His legal team is expected to contest the claim vigorously, and the case is likely to turn on what was actually agreed over that dinner and what followed at the Cotswolds house.
Napkin deals are the stuff of showbusiness legend, but they rarely end up in court. The enforceability of an agreement scribbled over dinner, and the question of whether the later formalisation created a binding contract, will be at the heart of the case. Lawyers say handshake and napkin agreements can be enforceable, but proving their terms years later is notoriously difficult.
For Cowell, the lawsuit is an unwelcome distraction from his television empire. For Rosenblatt, it is a fight for recognition and reward after years in the mogul's shadow. The courts will now decide whether a dinner-table promise is worth tens of millions of pounds, in a case that could become a cautionary tale for the entertainment industry.
Cowell is no stranger to legal disputes, but this case cuts to the heart of how business is done in the entertainment industry, where deals are often struck informally before the lawyers get involved. If Rosenblatt can prove the napkin agreement and its later formalisation amounted to a binding contract, the damages could be enormous. Legal observers say the case will turn on documentary evidence and witness testimony about what was said and signed at the dinner and at the Cotswolds house. For an industry built on handshakes, the outcome will be watched with keen interest.