Dannii: “Mentoring Rachel is extremely hard”
Ooh, where to start today? There's just so much to tell you. Apparently some guy named Barack Obama has become the first US black President or something, but that hasn’t stopped the X Factor gossip machine from churning out lots of stories over night. As we told you exclusively yesterday evening, a major drama has kicked off over at X Factor HQ, with Rachel Hylton now refusing to work with her mentor Dannii Minougue. The pair haven't seen eye to eye since the first week, when Dannii's song choice of Every Heartbeat went down like a lead balloon. After finding herself in the bottom two last Saturday, Rachel was furious, and vowed that she would no longer let Dannii have any creative input into her weekly performances. A show insider revealed, "There have been some differences of opinion between acts and judges before, but not to this level. There is total breakdown in communication between the two." If Rachel does continue through the show without Dannii's help, it will be the first time in X Factor history that an act would've been allowed to compete without aid. The show insider went on to explain, "Rachel is desperate to win but feels she has no chance with Dannii. Simon also has a soft spot for her and wants to see her reach her full potential." Dannii herself admits her relationship with the fiery mum-of-five has always been difficult, saying, "Being a mentor to Rachel was extremely hard. I've always seen her as a soul singer, but she wanted to be a rock star." Blimey! What with Simon's break-up, Louis and Dermot at loggerheads and Cheryl getting her pants pinched (see below), it's all a bit manic over on The X Factor. Do you think Rachel's made the right decision in ditching Dannii, or should she be willing to take her advice?
 
Cheryl’s chihuahua’s pant-nicking habit
We’ve heard some bizarre things in our time, but perhaps none so bizarre as Cheryl Cole’s battle to protect her pants from her pet Chihuahua. Yep, her super-cute pooch Buster has a penchant for pant pilfering from the Cole household, and then buries the offending articles in the ground. And quite understandably, Cheryl’s none too pleased with the little dog’s underwear addiction. She says, “My dog digs holes and puts my knickers in the ground – but then I shouldn’t be telling you that. It’s disgusting. I have no idea why he would do that.”

Newly single Simon: “I’m off women”
As if he didn't have enough to contend with, what with his judges falling out with his host and his acts falling out with their mentors, Simon Cowell has also had a big break-up to cope with – and it appears to have affected him quite severely. "I'm off women now!" he declared huffily, "Don't worry about me, I don't need a lonely hearts ad." Well, no Simon, we'd imagine there's already a fairly eager queue forming. Despite his determination to remain single, Simon says he and his ex Terri are still very much friends, saying, "Everything's fine between me and Terri – we're still friends. I've always been very close to my ex-girlfriends." We wonder if Simon will still feel the same way when he hears that a certain Sugababe has a little crush on him? Keisha confided just this week that "there's something hot about Simon Cowell" and said that he should be given a sexiest male award. Hmmm, we were thiking more heat's Weird Crush award, but each to their own. Who would you like to see Simon hook up with next?

Tom out of Strictly?
Oh no! Holby City star Tom Chambers may not be in Saturday’s starting line-up for Strictly Come Dancing, after smashing into a wall during rehearsals for the show. Poor Tom was dancing away with partner Camilla Dallerup when the accident happened, and it was all caused by a pair of too-long trousers. Camilla tripped on Tom’s dancing pants and the pair fell into the wall, with Tom taking the full force of the collision. Ouch. A source says, “He was left in terrible pain and his first thought was that he had dislocated his shoulder. He decided to sleep on it but by the morning, it was clear the pain wasn’t going to go away and he had to get it checked out.” Get well soon Tom!