Cheryl Cole ‘needs elocution lessons’

It appears Simon Cowell, the pop tycoon and X Factor judge, has a Professor Henry Higgins complex - and that Cheryl Cole is his Eliza Doolittle. According to a report in the Mail on Sunday, Cowell has decided the 25-year-old needs to have elocution lessons if she wants to become a star presenter on American television. He has apparently lined up a Los Angeles voice coach to do the necessary.

Cole, a member of the group Girls Aloud, and the wife of Chelsea and England footballer Ashley Cole, was born in Newcastle. Cowell fears her strong Geordie accent will prevent her from finding the sort of success in America that she instantly enjoyed on British TV when she joined his X Factor judging panel last year. "It [her accent] makes him laugh," said a friend, "but he knows American audiences simply won't understand a word she says."

While Cole considers her options, she at least knows she didn't need Cowell's help to knock Kate Moss off the top of the annual 'world's best-dressed woman' list compiled by Glamour magazine. "She's ridiculously gorgeous, beautifully groomed and always glossy, glossy, glossy," said the magazine's editor, Jo Elvin. ·