Nicole Scherzinger bails on 'Cats' a week before rehearsals

December 19, 2011. Judge Nicole Scherzinger poses for photographers following a news conference for the television show "The X Factor" in Los Angeles. (Reuters)

Nicole Scherzinger isn’t starring in “Cats” on Broadway, because Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber refused to give her top billing.

The claws are out after the former Pussycat Doll, who starred in the musical in London’s West End, demanded her name be above the title for the Broadway show, as well as on the marquee.

“She wanted the same billing she had in London, with her name on the title.”

But we’re told the New York producers were not having any of it.

And Lloyd Webber was furious when the singer pulled out of the show, just a week before rehearsals were due to start, to return to the UK talent show “The X Factor.”

Lloyd Webber told the Economist Radio, “I mean, she’s crazy. But the American producers just took a view — ‘well, fine, we’ll get somebody else,’ because she’s actually not very well-known in America.”

He continued, “I’m furious because I really believe she’s the most fantastically talented girl, and I went out on a limb to get her for the London Palladium here, and it makes me look like an absolute [bleep] with them all.”

He added, “But never mind, there’ll be another girl on Broadway, and Nicole will not get her Tony Award.”

She’s been replaced by UK singer and fellow “X Factor” star Leona Lewis, who’s just hit town for rehearsals.

Meanwhile, questions about Scherzinger’s departure from the show were banned at a Hamptons party at Seasons of Southampton on Saturday, celebrating her Social Life Magazine cover.

Reps for Nicole didn’t get back to us.

But a “Cats” spokesman said, “The producers do not discuss negotiations — but above-the-title billing? Really? Not even the magical Mr. Mistoffelees could pull that one off!”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post's Page Six.