Piers Morgan has slammed Elaine Paige for her recent comments about Susan Boyle. During an interview with the Daily Mail, Paige was reported to have compared Boyle’s sudden rise to fame to that of a virus. However, the former Cats star later complained she had been misquoted.

“Elaine Paige has come out with some extraordinarily bitchy remarks about Susan Boyle, saying she’s a ‘virus’ that she ‘doesn’t feel any pride for’,” Morgan wrote in his weekly Daily Mail column. “I, of course, presented the TV special at Christmas in which Susan sang a duet with Ms Paige, and got twice the ovation that Susan’s idol received. This, coupled with the fact that Susan has sold ten million albums and become a global superstar in a way Ms Paige never came close to achieving, may explain her pathetically jealous and mean-spirited hissy fit.”

British paper The Daily Mail recently reported Paige referring to Boyle as “a virus really that spread across the world in a nanosecond.”  In a statement to the Daily Mail, Paige clarified: “I wasn’t referring to Susan herself; I was referring to the speed of her fame spreading as fast as a worldwide viral marketing campaign.”

Boyle’s meteoric rise to stardom is well-documented, from her appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent,” which was viewed over 100 million times on YouTube, to the release of her first album, “I Dreamed a Dream.” The album, which came out in December, had the largest ever sales debut for a female artist.

The Scottish singer has long referred to Paige as a musical idol, even telling “Britain’s Got Talent” judges she wanted to be “as big as Elaine Paige.”  On Dec. 13, a longtime dream of Boyle’s was realized when Paige performed with her in a television special.  The two sang a duet from Chess.

On the Jan. 31 episode of her BBC Radio 2 program, Paige said she was “dismayed to read the remarks attributed to me in the Daily Mail,” and called the paper’s representation of her remarks “incomplete and misinterpreted completely.”

“There is no doubt Cheryl Cole is hot but there is one hotter – Susan. There are loads of talented, good-looking girls who can sing and dance in the charts but there is only one Susan Boyle. I have never seen anything like her.”

Speaking earlier this week on a US chat show, 50 Cent also said: “We got really tough competition – now that the competition is Susan Boyle. I probably would collaborate with her.”

All this admiration for SuBo who still lives in her childhood home in Blacburn, Scotland. Who could have predicted it?

Susan is making quite a splash in America, attracting some huge stars as fans. Despite her idol Elaine Paige calling her ‘a virus’ earlier this week, there are alot of people around, who are still supporting the Britain’s Got Talent star, most notably 50 Cent and Kanye West. The Sun claim that rap star Kanye West finds Susan ‘hot’ and quote him as saying:

“There is no doubt Cheryl Cole is hot but there is one hotter; Susan. There are loads of talented, good-looking girls who can sing and dance in the charts but there is only one Susan Boyle. I have never seen anything like her.”

Speaking earlier this week on a US chat show, 50 Cent also said: “We got really tough competition – now that the competition is Susan Boyle. I probably would collaborate with her.”

All this admiration is for SuBo, who still lives in her childhood home in Blacburn, Scotland. Who could have predicted it?

Oh boy….it just isn’t SuBo’s week, is it? Theater legend Elaine Paige — the Evita star idolized by Scottish songbird Susan Boyle — has revealed that she has no “pride” for Boyle, who she dismissed as “virus who has spread across the world in a nanosecond.”

Well…that was harsh. Paige made the reference while talking about Susan’s sudden rise to stardom after her jaw-dropping audition on Britain’s Got Talent last March. Susan Boyle clapsed international success when she performed one of Elaine Paige’s signature tunes, “I Dreamed A Dream,” on Britain’s Got Talent. She went on to cover the song on her debut album of the same name — which has sold more than 1 million copies in the US since its release in November.

Eh — none of it really impresses Elaine. She refuses to grovel at the feet of a YouTube celeb. “I don’t particularly feel any pride for her – I’m sure she is proud of what she has done. It’s all about turning someone into an immediate celebrity at the expense of longevity and working hard and experience,” Paige told The Daily Mail during the South Bank Awards in London this week. “Susan Boyle is doing terribly well considering she literally came to the attention of the world overnight with the advent of YouTube,” she added. “She was like a virus really that spread across the world in a nanosecond. She is a girl with no experience of anything to do with theatrics, the music business, or art in any way. She has done terribly well to be a major star overnight with YouTube….”

Glad to hear you aren’t bitter, Elaine….(Insert Rolling Eyes…..) The sharp-tongued Cats actress continued firing off at Boyle when reporters asked whether the shy Scot has what it takes to maintain a long-lasting career in the industry. “She is a major star because of YouTube. Longevity is gained through knowledge, experience and effort so it will remain to be seen,” Elaine replied curtly. “When I started, YouTube didn’t exist but even then with 15 years of experience prior to my success with Evita it was difficult, so I admire the way she handled her sudden success,” she further remarked. “Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor just take a bunch of people from real life who think they can sing and try and turn them into overnight ’stars’ with a couple of songs. Ha ha. It’s not entertainment…..It’s all about turning someone into an immediate celebrity at the expense of longevity and working hard and experience.”

I am a huge supporter of Susan Boyle and admire what she has achieved; she has handled the extraordinary situation of being catapulted to worldwide stardom with tremendous strength, charm and dignity and I thoroughly enjoyed working with her on the ITV special we recorded together only last month.

I have always said it’s very hard for someone to be fast-tracked to stardom without any prior experience – I know this as it happened to me when ‘Evita’ opened and I found it extremely difficult in the beginning; today, of course, it’s much harder with the phenomenon of the internet – Facebook, YouTube etc – it seems it only takes minutes for fame to spread around the world – and that’s why I used the word ‘virus’! I wasn’t referring to Susan herself; I was referring to the speed of her fame spreading as fast as a worldwide viral marketing campaign.”

Now hold on a minute there, ElPa. Her music may not be art, or even music, but if there’s one thing SuBo has experience of, it’s theatrics. Paige also likened Boyle to a “virus”. If Boyle is indeed a virus, she can’t be a very dangerous one – after all, Paige shared a stage with Boyle when they did a duet on TV before Christmas, and Paige doesn’t appear to have come down with the symptoms of any illness, unless rivalrous bitterness is now classified as a medical complaint.