Elton John drops Lily Allen

Lily Allen may rue the day she insulted Sir Elton John. Last week she roundly abused him – "Fuck off, Elton" – when he passed a comment about her excessive drinking as they co-presented the GQ awards in London. Now it transpires that, up until that outburst, Sir Elton was going to give her perhaps the biggest break of her career.

"I was thinking about asking her to tour with me and maybe even to do a duet," says the old stager. "Obviously that won’t be happening now." Clearly he was rattled by the fact that someone stood up to him in public.

After he made his comment about Allen's drinking, she replied: "Fuck off, Elton. I am 40 years younger than you and have my whole life ahead of me!" The shocked audience fell silent. But Sir Elton was not to be outdone, replying: "I could still snort you under the table". This did not go down well. Allen replied: "Fuck off. I don’t know what you are talking about."

Meanwhile, Allen appears unbothered by the fuss. On her famous MySpace blog, she writes: "I’m 23. It was an awards ceremony. I drank the free champagne – how awful of me."