AMERICAN IDOL - JACKSON COMES TO TERMS WITH COWELL MELTDOWN

LATEST: AMERICAN IDOL judge RANDY JACKSON believes he knows the real reason for SIMON COWELL storming out during recent auditions - he was suffering from "manopause".

Jackson insists things were going fine during televised auditions in San Francisco, California but his fellow judge seemed a bit off-kilter.

Jackson says, "(I think) it might have been his time of the month. There's this new term called 'manopause.' We were having a good time, but he just couldn't get it together. I think he was having one of those weird days."

Jackson reveals his colleague became so furious that he refused to fly back to Los Angeles on the same plane with him and fellow judge PAULA ABDUL.

He adds, "He chartered his own plane back to LA."