We're bringing back a classic today: My Favorite Scene was a feature from our golden print era, in which a wide swath of showbiz luminaries would share a personal favorite movie sequence with Movieline readers. Now that we're online, we have the added advantage of being able to show the scenes themselves. And we could think of no more auspicious a way to kick things off than with the American Idol Top Ten (save for Scott MacIntyre, unfortunately omitted for time constraints and not his visual impairment), all of whom are headed to your town soon on their 52-city Idols Live tour. What scenes meant the most to Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, and the rest? Some of the answers might surprise you -- and some, not so much.
KRIS ALLEN
"The first one that popped into my head is Independence Day, when Bill Pullman, who plays the President, gets up on a flatbed truck and delivers that speech to the pilots. 'We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.' That was really good."
ADAM LAMBERT
"One of my favorite movies of all time is Velvet Goldmine, by Todd Haynes, and the scene that comes to mind is when Ewan McGregor's character is first introduced and he's a singer, a rock star, and the camera comes in on him -- he's on stage -- and he gets naked, pours beer all over himself, then glitter on top of that. He shakes the glitter can around his crotch like he was jerking off onto the audience and then lights the foot of the stage on fire. And to me, that just sums up everything that a rock star should be. It's like a fantasy sequence. That movie is absolutely brilliant -- and a little underrated in my opinion, too. I was about 22 when I first saw it, and I was just like, whoa. It's a movie loosely based on a Ziggy Stardust-type character and an Iggy Pop-type character. It doesn't specifically name them but they're clearly modeled after those two rock stars, and it's just cool. It's a love letter to the glam scene."
DANNY GOKEY
DANNY GOKEY: One of my favorite scenes is from Disney's Aladdin, when the genie first comes out of the lamp. The genie -- Robin Williams -- just cracks me up. He says all these random things, and he scares Aladdin. It's awesome -- a funny moment. I love Disney, and DreamWorks.
[He sees a journalist he knows.] I'm sorry, I have to ask this guy a question. [He asks the journalist about a young brunette woman in the room. The journalist replies that he thinks she's an intern with one of the TV crews.] Man she's cute.
MOVIELINE: Which one is she?
DG: I don't want to turn around and make it obvious.
ML: In the high-heeled silver shoes?
DG: Uh-huh. She's very cute.
ML: Well, you're the rock star, you're supposed to, you know, be a rock star.
DG: Make a move, right? I'm pretty cautious when it comes to relationships.
ML: Would this be a relationship?
DG: Ahhhh -- even those. None of that. I don't want to be disrespectful. Not that I'd disrespect them. But a one-night stand ... I don't know, I feel would be like I'd be disrespecting them.
ALLISON IRAHETA
"The first scene for some reason that came to my head right now was in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, when Jim Carrey's coming out of the rhino. It's pretty gross. That for some reason just came into my head. It's one of my favorite scenes! When he's coming out of the rhino."
MATT GIRAURD
"In The Godfather, the scene where Pacino does his first crime. Anyway, they're sitting there at the table and they're going to kill that police chief guy at this little Italian restaurant. It's so intense, because that's like the breaking point when he really becomes a gangster. Before that he was just a good little, you know, army guy. A military man. That's when he really makes the change. I love that scene. It's so intense. They hide the gun in the bathroom, and he comes out. It's always sweet. Badass forever."
ANOOP DESAI
"My scene is from the movie Swingers, which is my favorite movie ever. It's the very end of the movie, where Mikey is talking to T, they're in a coffee shop. And Mikey had just met this girl the night before. He'd be sweatin' his ex-girlfriend for six months, and he's really in a rut. And he finally meets this girl, and he's out of it. So the roles are sort of switched. T is the ladies' man, giving advice the whole movie. And in the end, T ends up making a fool of himself and then Mikey is the one that's very content. That means a lot to me, because one of my best friends made me watch that movie when I was sort of going through a rough time in my life, and it sort of gave me hope for the future, gave me a road map for how to be yourself and things will just come -- which fortunately has worked out for me."
LIL ROUNDS
"The movie for me would be The Notebook. I love The Notebook. The scene that I love the most is when Allie gets together with Noah, and they start dating. She finally decides to go out with him. And they're leaving the movies, and they're getting ice cream, and she takes the ice cream and shoves it in his face and starts playing around with him a little. That's like the funnest part for me because I've done that to my husband before. Just playin' around. Then they kiss afterwards. That's the cutest little part of that movie."
MEGAN JOY
"I love movies. There's so many different ones I could talk about, but the one that just came to my mind is from Dancer in the Dark. Right when Björk's character is about to be executed, she's singing and counting her steps as she goes, and her son is involved, and I cried and I cried. I kind of think about it sometimes. Björk is one of the biggest influences in my life."
MICHAEL SARVER
"The movie Tombstone, when Val Kilmer's character Doc Holliday was supposed to be sick in the bed. Doc goes out to take care of a duel that was supposed to happen between another person and his pal Wyatt Earp, played by Kurt Russell. And Wyatt comes out, and Doc said, 'Oh, I wasn't quite as sick as I made out.' I don't know why, but that was one of my favorite lines ever."