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Dermot upsets Celine

14/12/2007

Television presenter Dermot O'Leary has revealed he angered musical diva Celine Dion by having the temerity to interrupt her last month.

The French-Canadian singer was appearing on ITV1's the X Factor as a celebrity mentor to the contestants and had decided to give very in-depth opinions regarding the merits of this year's entrants.

But with a commercial break on the way, the former T4 presenter was forced to step in and cut Dion off in mid-flow leaving the My Heart Will Go On star gobsmacked.

He told Heat: "That was amazing. The thing was, she really wouldn't stop and I had producers in my ear telling me that if she carried on naming every single act on the show and telling us what she thought of them, we'd fall off the air before we got to the actual results.

"So I literally had to shut her up, and just had to say something. She has that very Quebecois stare.

"Her management weren't happy about it, so I was worried I was going to be b*****ked."

Dermot explained that when he had offered to apologise to the multi-million-selling singer, his bosses rubbished the ideas.

"[They] were like, 'No way. You were great with her'," he added.

This weekend's X Factor final will see the three remaining contestants performing three songs each - a Christmas classic, a duet with a celebrity partner and their favourite song from the series.

Brother-and-sister duo Same Difference will sing alongside Jason Donovan, Scottish crooner Leon Jackson will sing with Donovan's erstwhile paramour Kylie Minogue and show favourite Rhydian Roberts will duet with Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins.

Once the third-placed act in this year's series has been announced, the two remaining contestants will perform When You Believe, a cover of the 1998 Mariah Carey/Whitney Houston duet and this year's X Factor single.

The final song choices are (Mentor in brackets)

Leon Jackson (Dannii)
White Christmas - Bing Crosby
You Don't Know Me - Ray Charles
Duet with Kylie Minogue

Rhydian Roberts (Dannii)
O Holy Night
Somewhere - Barbra Streisand
Duet with Katherine Jenkins

Same Difference (Simon)
All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
Breaking Free - High School Musical
Duet with Jason Donovan