JHud Lets Us Down Filed under ( American Idol, Jennifer Hudson, Simon Cowell )

The great thing about being an American Idol fan is knowing that you helped launch someone's career by tuning in every week, dialing in, and supporting an artist's career when they leave the show. This personal involvement in the launch of someone's career means that we probably hold American Idols stars to a higher standard and expect them to appreciate what we did for them to get them where they are. So, this story about Jennifer Hudson's diva behavior from Page Six just plain disappointing.

Jennifer Hudson apparently tried to back out of a performance on the Soul Train awards show. Here's what happened:

"Soul Train" producer Don Cornelius immediately called Clive Davis, the legendary J Records mogul who created the careers of Whitney Houston, Alicia Keyes and dozens of other artists.

"Clive called Jennifer and read her the riot act. He said, 'Get you're ass out to L.A.' and then hung up on her."

The strong talk from her de facto boss evidently worked because "she showed up."

But it doesn't end there. In the tradition of thankless American Idol contestants, Hudson bit the hand that fed her:

When asked last week why she didn't thank "American Idol" in her Oscar speech, Hudson snapped, "If I'd been any better at my job when I was at Burger King in my middle teens, I wouldn't be here, either, so maybe I should thank them, too."

"Extra" went through tapes of old shows and found three instances of Cowell's praising Hudson, proving that she was wrong when she claimed he was not supportive. Asked whether Hudson owed him an apology, Cowell said, "No . . . All I ever wanted to do on the show was be fair."

Reps for Hudson, Cornelius and Davis didn't return calls.

I have one word for how I feel about this story: Boo!

Photo from Page Six.