Mel B drenches Simon Cowell with water after crude joke about her wedding night

Simon Cowell's generosity with the jibes earned him a reputation of being rude a while back. But on Tuesday's 22 August episode of America's Got Talent, it also resulted in a wet shirt for the television producer, thanks to his fellow-judge Mel B.

Following a failed magic act by escape artist Demian Aditya, Cowell cracked a crude joke at the former Spice Girl's expense. "I feel like this would be a lot like Mel's wedding night," he said. "A lot of anticipation... not much promise or delivery."

The remarks clearly angered Mel, who hurled her cup of water at him before storming off the stage.

The singer is currently in the middle of a messy divorce from her husband Stephen Belafonte and while many viewers presumed it was a scripted spat, the AGT Twitter handle stressed that it "was not planned".

Mel did return to her seat for the next performance but later told ET Online that Cowell should expect such reactions if he plans to run his mouth.

"He should know, if you say something inappropriate he's gonna get like, stuff thrown at him," she told the entertainment website. "In a friendly way... I made sure there was no ice in it this time... just fizzy water."

The singer did wish she could have thrown something better than fizzy water on him though.

"I just [wish] I would have had cranberry juice in there or something, and then his whole body would be really sticky!"

The two judges later exchanged words during a commercial break but Cowell did not seem contrite. "I told him he was an asshole and that was it, and he goes, 'Oh, whatever,'" she recalled.

This is not the first time the two have come to 'throws' during this season of the competition. Earlier, the former American Idol judge had commented that Mel had garnered fame without having any talent for dancing. That time too, the latter reacted by throwing her drink at him.