Simon Cowell linked to Janina Gavankar

Simon Cowell's love life appears to be heating up this winter - he has been spotted on a date with True Blood star Janina Gavankar.

The music mogul took the pretty actress to his favourite restaurant Cecconi's in Los Angeles on Saturday, and the pair left together in a chauffeured car.

Cowell has been using Twitter.com in recent weeks to publicly send flirty messages to Gavankar, who bears a striking resemblance to his former fiancee Mezhgan Hussainy.

The music mogul called off his engagement to the make-up artist earlier this year.