Cowell: I didn't cheat

Music mogul Simon Cowell has hit out at a British tabloid expose that claimed he twice cheated on girlfriend Terri Seymour at a Playboy party - insisting he was set up.

The American Idol judge was snapped in compromising clinches with two different women at the bash, thrown by Playboy boss Hugh Hefner at his notorious Los Angeles mansion.

But the BMG boss insists he didn't cheat on his partner of two years.

He says: "It was a one-second kiss. The girl who kissed me had a photographer with her. That's really all it was. I was back early that night. If a photographer witnessed every kiss I've had over the last 12 months then there would be a thousand pictures.

"It's just what happens. Someone comes up, gives you a kiss on the lips then goes away and that's the end of it... The pictures just captured that moment and it was all blown out of proportion.

"Terri is cool. We laugh together about stories like this because she knows there's nothing in it. In fact, we're happier than we've ever been. Her friends were at the party with me that night so they were able to tell her nothing went on."