Cowell Paid One Direction a Whopping £10 Million?

British boy band One Direction is definitely going places... with increasing numbers of fans and concerts. However, perhaps the biggest sign of success, at least in terms of monetary gains, is a whopping £10 million payment from Simon Cowell!

According to People magazine, the "Britain's Got Talent" (BGT) judge paid each of the five members of the band £2 million, over the past seven months.

"Simon Cowell wants them to know what they deserve. They have been a massive success, what they have achieved is phenomenal. Simon thinks they are the hardest working people in pop at the moment. They have made him an absolute fortune and he is incredibly proud. He always saw potential in them and now it's paying off. Girls across the globe simply love them," a source told the magazine.

The band recently set a record by becoming the first British band to top the US Billboard charts with their debut album - "Up All Night".

Meanwhile a few fans of the band are upset that the boys are picking up an American accent after their American tour.

"The boys' accents are getting stronger by the day. It's getting a bit annoying now. I think they're just doing it to fit in with their new mates in America and to appeal to their US fans. We can't believe how quickly they picked it up. They've only been there five minutes," a source told the Daily Star.

Incidentally, not all parts of their American trip was a success. The band is being sued by an American band of the same name, who claim they were the ones who took the band name first.

"I don't care how powerful Simon Cowell is. He's mad if he thinks we're going to lie down, sit down or back down over this - whatever power and money he has behind him. We're not going to be pushed around by some music mogul. The facts are that we were first to use the name One Direction. We've been using it since November 2009... The British band did not come together as a group until almost a year later. We were the first to record an album. We hope that this dispute will be resolved soon, and then all of us can focus on what we do best - making music," the unnamed manager of the American band by the same name told The Sun.