When Whitney Houston made her glittering appearance on X Factor this weekend, she came with her record producer Clive Davis.

You can just imagine the phone calls shooting across the Atlantic between ITV researchers and Whitney's people. "Er, we don't think it would be appropriate for her to give a masterclass to these people, in a hotel room, on her own," they would have said through gritted teeth. "She'll need a chaperone. She wants record producer Clive to be there with her."

Cue Simon Cowell's sycophantic introduction of him on the Saturday night as an industry giant and a big inspiration to the pop svengali. But most audience members - and contestants alike - would not have heard of him, despite him and SiCow co-producing previous winner Leona Lewis' record together.

Me included. So I went on to Wikipedia to research him and found out that he is a multiple Grammy Award winner and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Working for CBS records he signed the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Janis Joplin, Billy Joel and Pink Floyd. But eventually he was fired after using company funds to bankroll his son's bar mitzvah.

It must have been some party.