Zoo gets its own Simon, the bush baby

MILWAUKEE -- Simon Cowell meet your namesake - Simon, the bush baby. "American Idol" has donated $1,500 to the Milwaukee County Zoo to call its only bush baby Simon - and to poke fun at the outspoken judge for comparing a wide-eyed contestant in Seattle to the tiny primate.

"American Idol" producers contacted the Association of Zoos & Aquariums to find out which zoos have the animal and only about 10 zoos nationwide do, including the Milwaukee County Zoo, zoo spokeswoman Jennifer Diliberti said. The zoo got the call Monday.

"The producer wanted to make sure the joke was put back on Simon, not the contestant," Diliberti said.


The show approached contestant Kenny Swale beforehand for his approval, she said. It also gave Swale and another contestant the Golden Idol award for best buddies during this week's season finale.

The controversy started during auditions in Seattle when Cowell critiqued Swale, who had compared himself to Justin Timberlake. Cowell said: "You look a little odd ... you look like one of those creatures that live in the jungle, with those massive eyes ... a bush baby."

Swale, who went by Kenneth Briggs on the show, said he wasn't offended. He has talked to Cowell since then and thinks he's a great guy who was just having a bad day, he said.

"I think this was to remind Simon what a real bush baby looks like," he said by phone from Seattle. "Clearly, it does not look like me."

Swale, of Bothell, Wash., said he has an agent and is trying to get into acting and singing.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has sent a letter to Cowell offering him a permanent pass to the zoo and plans to send one to Swale as well, said spokesman Rod McWilliams. Swale said he has never been to Milwaukee and would someday like to meet the new Simon.

Cowell's spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said his client also looks forward to visiting the bush baby in Milwaukee and thought the name change was made in good fun.

Representatives from "American Idol" didn't immediately return a call.

Diliberti said the tiny, gray animal, originally named Boing-Boing, fits in the palm of a hand. Bush babies are native to central Africa. There are only eight males and three females in captivity in North America, she said.

The newly renamed Simon is an 8-year-old male who was born at the zoo, Diliberti said. Zoo visitors have been interested in seeing their "little star" since word got out about his "American Idol" connection, and he's loving it, she said.

"He was kind of jumping around and leaping around and whatnot, and I think he just tired himself out and he was just resting for a couple of hours," she said.

Simon's demeanor is particularly sweet, she said. He allows caretakers to come and go from his cage, and he grooms and plays with two springhaas, with whom he shares a cage.

Diliberti joked Cowell might be able to learn a thing or two from his namesake.

"Maybe Simon will soften his personality a bit now knowing the bush baby is such a sweet little animal," she said. "Or maybe not."