I’m as big of a supporter of schadenfreude as anyone, but I’ve never really latched on to American Idle. That said the character of Simon Cowell does fascinate me, mainly from the absurd polarization between critic and performer that the show creates with him. Sky News has this moderately aesthetically interesting masks gallery up right now; I was engaging in some standard Internet surf-zombie behavior ruffling through them when I came upon Cowell’s. Celebrities painted their own faces to sell on eBay for charity. Anyway, I had to stop and look at this one just to figure out if I thought Simon Cowell had any reason to presume himself a painter. It seemed so simple at first glance — then I realized the facepalm symbolism at work here. And you know what, Simon Cowell? You made me laugh.
