simon cowell leaving american idol

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about a very aught-like phenomenon: the cult of celebrity.

There is no clearer metaphor for the concept of being a celebrity than the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You work hard to chase your dream and achieve a career for yourself by making your name known to the masses of the universe.

Then when you've grabbed that star and become a regular fixture in the flash bulb of the press' cameras, how does the public honor your tireless toil and efforts? They throw you down on a sidewalk and walk all over you.

In the Aughts, however, a new celebrity oozed out of the primordial muck. A celebrity that still suffered the slings and arrows of the tabloid press and a complete loss of the right to privacy, but achieved their stardom by simply cutting out all that pesky hard work and tireless effort nonsense. These are the celebrities who became famous by simply because they were famous.

If you hate Simon Cowell, you'll only have one year left to coat your TV with a fine layer of anger spittle during American Idol.

The judge's brother, Tony Cowell, leaked the news on his podcast that Cowell's people are preparing a press release announcing that 2010 will be the final year Cowell sits in the judging seat on AI.

But don't celebrate the death of the lumbering reality TV giant yet, all you AI lovers and haters. Cowell is stepping away from AI to focus on the importing an American version of The X Factor. So who should AI replacing the acerbic judge or would a rabid monkey that uses sign language suffice?