Simon: "Paula's Video Ruined My Evening!"

Simon and OK!'s Founder Richard Desmond at the Elton John AIDS Foundation bash on Sunday night. (wireimage)

Last week on American Idol, the hit show took a brief break to present the TV debut of Paula Abdul's new video for her single, "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow." And, even before it aired, Paula's curmudgeonly co-host Simon Cowell tells OK!, "I was expecting a nightmare!"

Unfortunately for the acid-tongued judge, he was left with nothing nasty to say after watching the clip. "It was actually quite good!" he confessed to OK! at the 16th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation dinner to celebrate the Academy Awards, where Simon and gal pal Terri Seymour joined OK!'s Founder and owner, Richard Desmond, at his table for the celebration. "I was disappointed... I kind of ruined my evening!"

What did ruin Simon's week, however, were the generally lackluster performances during the first week of the Idol semifinals. "I think they were better in the auditions," he explained to OK!. "The songs that they’d chosen were a bit boring. I don’t think that we’ve heard the best of them yet."

As for Paula and Randy Jackon's argument that Simon just didn't know a number of the songs chosen for the '60s-themed week, the feisty Brit fights back, "There are good and bad '60s songs, but they chose some of the worst songs that I have ever heard in my entire life," he professed. "It’s like some of them deliberately chose some of the worst songs that they could find!"

Well, hopefully the semifinalists will do better this week. Tune in Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to find out.