Kylie sues Pete Waterman
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He is the pop svengali who transformed Kylie Minogue from Neighbours tomboy into multi-millionaire hit factory.
But Pete Waterman is now facing a bitter court fight with his former protègèe.
Minogue, worth a reported £23million, is suing the Pop Idol judge, 58, for the loss of £443,000 royalties from her Greatest Hits album. The 36-year-old claims she was underpaid by ten per cent.
The record was released in 1992 and then re-released ten years later. Waterman's production company, Melbournebased PAL, has since paid her an extra £265,000. But the singer is demanding damages at Victoria's Supreme Court and PAL will contest the claim.
Waterman, who once declared Minogue to be 'the greatest artist I have ever worked with', split from his songwriting partners Mike Stock and Matt Aitken in the early 1990s.
They, together responsible for the likes of Rick Astley and Sonia, also sued him in a dispute over unpaid royalties.
The trio wrote and produced the young Minogue's early hits but she severed her ties with them after the 1992 album was released. She went on to enjoy further success in 2001 when Can't Get You Out Of My Head topped the singles chart for four weeks.
Waterman, who received the OBE in the new year honours list, has criticised Minogue for 'selling out' by adopting a raunchier image.
He later claimed the singer's 1988 hit, I Should Be So Lucky, almost bankrupted PAL because she was paid such a big cut of her earnings.
Minogue, for her part, has claimed that Stock, Aitken and Waterman made her feel 'out of place and unwelcome'.