Hugh Grant insists the mean-spirited TV host he plays in the new film "American Dreamz" is not based on "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell.
When a group of terrorists hears this, they send one of their own (Sam Golzari) to compete on the show with the intention of blowing up the commander-in-chief in front of a huge TV audience.
Grant plays the host who will do anything to boost his ratings.
"I have met Simon Cowell at a couple of parties, but I don't know him at all," the British actor told reporters in New York recently. "This part is not particularly based on him, aside from the fact that I am a judge on a talent show that is massively popular and I'm very cruel. There the resemblance stops. The part really is a creation of Paul Weitz and actually, in part, his warped vision of me."
Co-starring Mandy Moore, Willem Dafoe, Marcia Gay Harden and Chris Klein, "American Dreamz" opens Friday.
