Pictures & Conversations: Ten Days Of Idol Insanity: Every Year, There Is A Hottie. Or Four...

Since the dawn of time, looks and sex appeal have impacted important decisions. Beauty and talent have become intertwined even more with the dawn of television. Obvious examples include that C&C Music Factory video where the heavier singer was replaced with a thin model and the marked difference between reactions of TV viewers and radio listeners in the Nixon/Kennedy debates.

In the world of American Idol, beauty is a double edged sword. While sex appeal alway sells, unless you have a lot of talent to go with it you get knock with Paula's kiss of death: a critique that starts with "First, let me say you look lovely tonight." It a little sexist, there have been two male winners (Reuben Studdard and Taylor Hicks) who are not even close to GQ model levels and a third who I think is ten kinds of sexy, but not conventionally boy-band gorgous (David Cook.) But all of the female winners have been stunners. Either thin and dynamic (Fantasia) pretty and perky (Jordin Sparks) thin, pretty and cool (Carrie Underwood) or with a great ass that lesbians and straight men love (Kelly Clarkson) - the looks are a variation on girl next door to the sexiest power. Plus, they all have killer pipes. Don't ask me to explain why it was OK for Simon to dis Mandisa for her weight, yet Reuben was praised as The Velvet Teddybear. In fact, pretty boys like Kris Allen and Anthony Federov got dissed more that the pretty girls do. I can't explain it. All I know is that it's not something that the industry will change, because it still works.

Now that I got that out of my system, I'm ready to start posting pictures of hot people. Being equal opportunity people here at Pictures And Conversations, we'll show you both the boys and the girls that get the blood pumping.

First, let's talk about my personal favorites each year I've watched the show. Only one per year, kids. Mama's not a slut...

I started watching American Idol during season three, the year Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson and LaToya London put the nation on notice that divas were doing it for themselves. The entire top four was female, after J.Hud's shock elimination that left Fantastia, Latoya, Diana DeGarmo and Jasmina Trias. So, were there any dudes on that year? Yeah, footballer Matt Rogers, gospel man George Huff and redheaded crooner John Stevens all brought the musky stuff. But it was John Peter Lewis that turned me into a pervy hobbit fancier. I mean, he hit all my hottie buttons - goofy, geeky, short and a crazy white-boy dancer. The only song I remember from him was "Little Less Conversation" but it was a doozy. He danced his way into me heart and became my first Idol crush.

The next year, I tried to keep a rein on my hormones. There were a lot of talented ladies to keep my eyes on, Nadia Turner was my favorite that season. But Carrie was really good and Vonzell just tore shit up. I wonder what happened to her? But even the constant eye-fucking from Constinine M. and ass-hatty mugging of Scott Savol could distract me from the beauty of Anthony Federov. Yeah, Bo Bice was a better singer, but Bo was a grubby southern rocker and AFed was my boy bander that showed up a couple years too late to jump on the O-Town train. At first I was turned off by the tracheotomy scar, which is shallow. I discovered that he was a thing of beauty, his glasses came off and he was Rachel Leigh Cook in She's All That, only with a dick. At least, I hope he had a dick. In my dreams, he did...

Then there was DAUGHTRY. His broad shoulders and meaty arms and sexy bald head and bad boy with a heart of gold attitude. He's almost generically pretty, like someone took every AfterElton poll and Abercrombie ad and dumped them into a computer and said: "make a sexy singer man who looks like THIS." The computer spit out Chris Daughtry, and I've been thanking it ever since. His voice and stage presence were undeniable, and his lips were soft and kissable.

Season six, the year Blake Lewis stole my heart and never gave it back. Chris Richards was cute, but I didn't need another Justin Timberlake, I needed a TimberBlake. Blake had that cool style I wanted to emulate and that smile that promised he knew what was doing to you, and he knew you liked it. Plus, he was awash in talent. He could sing, he possessed a really soft, tender voice. And he could beatbox, everybody knew that. And when he re-arrange that Bon Jovi song, it was like he gave us everything we wanted. It was way too much, we bit off more than we could swallow. But we wanted to swallow it, anyway. I wanted to swallow whatever Blake gave me. I bought his album, the first time I ever bought an Idol's entire album. (Kelly doesn't count, that was a gift.) I bought the MP3 of "You Give Love A Bad Name" - another first. I read some fucking fan fiction about him and Chris and their moist, delicious Cake and was so overwhelmed with emotion, I almost cried at end. It was weird, I probably should be discussing that with my therapist. But just look at that hair!

Last year, you guys were with me during my Idol journey of love, lust and David Cook. I called him my beloved Cookie, I drove 40 minutes to pick up tickets to see him live and weeks later I returned and stood in line for an hour with a million cougars before the show started. I didn't care, his warm voice embraced me, and his genuine smile lit up my loins. You know how rare a real smile is on a celebrity? They always look like the have some kind of smiling disease, like they had to be retrained to smile properly and some one didn't do it right. Not with David. His smiles are like an O-face, totally spontaneous and totally scary and totally hot. Most important is his love for his family, it is the hottest thing about him. When he cried after "Always Be My Baby" because his terminally ill brother was in the audience, I wanted to just wrap him in my arms and kiss his pain away.

This year was the hardest, I mean that in every way possible. For the first time, every top 10 guy had a HOT factor. Anoop had that cool nerd vibe, Micheal had that hardworking country boy thing, Lambert has the outsized personality (and fashion style and hair), Gokey is all sexy choir boy, Jorge had his accent and Matty G was Justin Timberlake again. But Kris Allen, the super-sexy boy next door with his understated charm and perfect bone structure, crept into my heart and made a nest there. I just want to kiss him on the nose, and stroke his cheek and generally be a silly girl around him so he'll wrap his arms around my tiny frame from behind and pick me up so my legs flail in the air. (It's a fantasy sequence, K?) He's what they call "man-pretty."

But there are a zillion hotties every season of Idol. So let's celebrate some of them, shall we?