Elaine Paige has issued an apology to Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle, after saying that she was:

“a virus really that spread across the world in a nanosecond.”

Last night, she told The Daily Mail: ‘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.’

In an interview at this week’s Southbank Awards, the Evita star who performed with Susan just a few months ago ranted:

“She is a girl with no experience of anything to do with theatrics, the music business, or art in any way. ‘It’s all about turning someone into an immediate celebrity at the expense of longevity and working hard and experience.”

However in a spectacular display of backtracking today, Elaine claimed:

‘I am a huge supporter of Susan Boyle and admire what she has achieved.

‘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’!

It seems to us that Elaine’s PR person has ordered her to retract her earlier comments and we’re not sure how heartfelt they are. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject below.