Hilary Duff to Ellen: Can Simon Cowell Help Me Get My X Factor Back?

The other day while I was jogging, something happened that totally took me by surprise and scared me just a little.

“With Love” by Hilary Duff came on, and I didn’t press skip. In fact, I listened to it twice.

Yes, folks, I thought I was totally over her, but I’m a secret Hilary Duff fan. Not so much of her movies, or even her music — though I did start to get into her when she stopped trying to be Avril Lavigne 2.0 and started aping Kylie Minogue’s Euro-pop musical moves on “With Love.”

I just sort of like the idea of Hilary Duff — Miley Cyrus without the element of nepotism to muck up the Cinderella story — and I always understood her appeal. In fact, back when I was a senior editor at Us Weekly in the early ’00s, I actually suggested a story with the “Is Hilary Duff the New Britney Spears?” angle. That’s when Spears’s career and her reputation were nosediving and Lindsay Lohan was starting to go out too much. The world was in desperate need of a pop princess with just a touch — a dollop, not a thick, greasy, glitter-coated layer — of bad.

Duff didn’t quite deliver the bad, but she was the closest thing we had. Interestingly, by the time she finally started flaunting sexuality on “With Love” in 2007, the public had cooled on her. Although “With Love” was her highest-peaking single on Billboard’s Hot 100 (No. 24), her film career — which had never been Lohan-caliber to begin with — had stalled, and Dignity, her 2007 makeover album, didn’t do much on the charts.

Now Simon Cowell might be coming to the rescue. Or perhaps it’s just another rumor created by a media looking for the next big casting headline, like “Robert Pattison As Kurt Cobain, a Done Deal” (apparently, not if Courtney Love has anything to say about it!). They all but have Duff sitting in a judge’s chair next to Simon Cowell when he brings The X Factor to the U.S. next year. They’d previously prematurely anointed Paula Abdul, former Sony Music executive (and Mariah Carey’s ex) Tommy Mottola and pretty much every A-to-C-list celebrity under the sun.

For her part, Duff has made it clear that she’d be willing to take the job if it were offered to her. During an interview with Cowell’s current co-worker Ellen Degeneres on The Ellen Degeneres Show today, she all but publicly applied for the gig, even acknowledging how judging a televised talent search must be as tough as being judged on one. (It’s about time someone stuck up for the judges!)

Despite my secret appreciation of Duff, I’m not sure she’s the woman for the job. Yes, she’s personally acquainted with the X-factor concept, having been the It Girl for a hot second, but she was never a great singer nor a particularly acclaimed actress.

If she were to get the job, though, Cowell would be doing her a huge favor. He could aim a lot higher on the celebrity food chain — even Duff’s old rival Lohan would guarantee bigger ratings and more must-see value.

But good luck to Duff. It’d be nice work if she can get it — and perhaps just what her career needs.