Squawk Radio

I have a confession — beneath my cynical, sarcastic facade beats a heart of pure mush. Before you snort milk through your nose, think about it — despite Connie’s best efforts, my favorite movie in the world is THE SOUND OF MUSIC. What’s not to like? (Xtina asks Connie) Great songs, fabulous scenery, incorrigible children, a charming nun/governess and a stern, handsome frozen-hearted captain who slowly melts under the spell of the songs, the scenery, his kids and Julie Andrews. When I start that movie and the mountain scenery comes on the scene with the birds twittering and the first chords of music play … I’m in heaven.

But THE SOUND OF MUSIC, while my favorite, is not the most romantic movie I’ve ever seen.

The actress I’d vote as most romantic is Audrey Hepburn, who played SABRINA to Humphrey Bogart’s interfering grumpy old guy lead and the princess to Gregory Peck’s out-to-get-what-he-can reporter in ROMAN HOLIDAY. She played the lead in MY FAIR LADY (but didn’t sing — that was Marni Nixon who dubbed a lot of actresses and played one of the nuns in THE SOUND OF MUSIC) and Audrey Hepburn was also the artless lead opposite Cary Grant in the suspenseful and completely CHARADE.

I love every one of those movies, but none of them are the most romantic I’ve seen …

I have trouble picking my favorite romantic male lead. Cary Grant, Clark Gable … James Garner, Richard Gere, Colin Firth … it doesn’t seem to matter how old an actor is (or if he’s dead or alive), I fall in love with him depending on the role he’s playing. Right now my favorite is Brad Pitt, but let’s face it, the sight of his naked rear-end in TROY would launch a thousand Squawker ships.

TROY is not the most romantic movie I’ve ever seen, though …

The current craze for paranormal romance was foreshadowed by DEAD AGAIN directed and starring Kenneth Branagh and his (at the time) wife Emma Thompson. This movie has everything — a love that lives over multiple lifetimes, a murderer who never gives up, and if you foresee the twist coming in this movie, I salute you. I was stunned.

But DEAD AGAIN isn’t the most romantic movie I’ve ever seen …

I asked my husband Scott about his favorite romantic movie and he said RETURN TO ME. David Duchovny’s wife is killed and he donates her heart to an unknown recipient, Minnie Driver. (Spoilers to follow!) Scott said he loved the movie because he could never forget that the wife had been working with a gorilla teaching her to sign, and the gorilla would sign that it loved her, and after she died and the gorilla saw Minnie Driver, it signed that it loved her. Scott said he loved the “love goes on forever” message. (Most romantic lead in my life, ladies? Guess!)

So what is MY most romantic movie ever? That privilege belongs to a lesser known movie, LADYHAWKE. It’s a medieval fairy tale starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer as star-crossed lovers, and a very young Matthew Broderick as the comedy relief, Greek chorus and cowardly narrator. The evil archbishop loves the Michelle Pfeiffer character. She loves the captain of the guard (Rutger Hauer) and he loves her. So the archbishop curses them both — by day, she’s a hawk, by night, he’s a wolf. Forever together, eternally apart … they love each other so much, but they can never touch and they’ll do anything to be together again. What a fabulous mixture of high adventure, extraordinary drama and glorious love! Even Connie would like LADY HAWKE.

Well, maybe.

Thursday I leave for the long stretch of The Barefoot Booktour. In between autographings and speeches for THE BAREFOOT PRINCESS, I’ll be in strange cities in hotel rooms eating room service all by myself, so take pity on me. Tell what your favorite romantic movie is so I can order it up and indulge myself in a gluttony of romance!