Andrew Lloyd Webber 'furious' after Nicole Scherzinger pulls out of Cats to return to The X Factor

Andrew Lloyd Webber has said he is "furious" about Nicole Scherzinger's decision to pull out of a Broadway production of Cats to return to ITV's The X Factor.

Mr Lloyd Webber told The Economist Radio that the former Pussycat Dolls singer dropped out of the production just before rehearsals began and made him look "foolish".

"A week before we were due to go into rehearsal for Cats on Broadway, which luckily I'm not producing, she calls me and says she's decided she wants to do X Factor, having agreed everything," he said.

"I mean, she's crazy. But the American producers just took a view - 'Well, fine, we'll get somebody else', because she's actually not very well known in America, amazingly. She's much better known here."

Scherzinger will be joined on The X Factor later this year by fellow judge Simon Cowell. It is believed the other seats may be filled by Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne.