Are Ellen DeGeneres and Simon Cowell Already Feuding Before Idol‘s Live Show Starts?

Just in time to celebrate her 52nd birthday comes word that Ellen DeGeneres is having an epic feud with American Idol co-judge Simon Cowell. Because we need gossipy filler to generate headlines about the Fox ratings behemoth!

Ellen’s excitement and nervousness turned to anger when Simon dared show up 90 minutes late to the newcomer’s first taping in Hollywood. But it wasn’t just Ellen’s ego at play, but her work commitments; she has moved her own talk show taping earlier in the day to accommodate Idol‘s film schedule. An “insider” tells Nicki TOLDJA Finke: “Here it was the first day of taping of the Hollywood shows, and Ellen was there waiting for Simon to show up. Ellen’s new to the gig and she’s very organized and she made a commitment to take this on, and now she’s asking herself, ‘What did I get myself into?’ She called Simon Cowell a prima donna. So right from the start, the chemistry isn’t great.” And it has Ellen, supposedly, griping about how Fox needs to pick Simon’s successor pronto. Which is amusing, because after Simon makes his planned exit after this season, only Randy Jackson will be left of the original judging panel; it’ll be Kara and Ellen who have mid-level seniority over the newcomer.

And we thought they were gonna be besties.