COWELL: I'LL TAKE A pounds 4m PAY CUT; Pledge to Talent bosses.

Byline: BEVERLEY LYONS; LAURA SUTHERLAND

HE may be minted but the credit crunch has forced even brash Simon Cowell to eat humble pie.

The Britain's Got Talent supremo said he is willing to take a pay cut - if it means he saves his job.

After troubled ITV pledged to cut wages by 20 per cent, reports suggested Cowell's jumbo-sized contract, worth pounds 20million, could be cut by up to pounds 4million.

He said: "I have a brilliant relationship with ITV. They have been very kind to me and I will never forget the fact that, without them, we would not have been able to launch our shows in the first place.

"So as far as I'm concerned, I still owe them a debt." Asked if he would ever be prepared to take a pay cut, he replied: "Yes. It isn't a question of how much money I can squeeze out of them.

"All I am worried about is, 'Can we make a better show than last year?' I don't believe in making the quality go down." Cowell also rated his chances of being knighted as slim after it was reported Prince Philip called him a sponger over opera-singingwinner Paul Potts. He said: "I would say my chances of being knighted were absolutely zero.

But I never did this show to get a knighthood. " He scoffed at claims Prince Philip called him a sponger - which the Palace later denied.

Cowell said: "The joke was started by Piers Morgan who said he was thrilled that the Queen didn't know who I was.

"And then Prince Philip made the joke about me sponging or something.

"Somebody told him I worked with Paul and he said, 'You sponge off him'.

"But it was a joke and he wouldn't remember saying it because he meets 10 million people a year.

"I thought it was hysterical." Britain's Got Talent is on ITV1 tonight at 7.45pm.

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SIMON SIGHS: Star faces a massive paycut