(First of two parts)

LOS ANGELES ? Benjamin Franklin once wrote: ?Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.? On that note, I wish you a happy new year with your vices and neighbors!

Let?s look back at some of the most fascinating and flirtatious quotes from the stars in 2009:

Adam Lambert

When a reporter told him that he must have wonderful parents, the ?American Idol? runner-up said: ?I always felt weird and kind of out of place. I remember my father from my early age going, ?It?s okay. When you?re older, everybody is going to want to be your friend, trust me. The weird ones are the ones that everybody wants to be like when they?re older.? So that gave me a lot of confidence, being like a strange kid. And my mom is just as supportive.?

Sandra Bullock

In answering the first question, an innocuous one about working with Betty White (who steals some scenes) in ?The Proposal,? Sandra set the naughty tone right away. She brought up a scene where the ?Golden Girl,? who plays Ryan?s grandma, is altering a vintage wedding dress for Sandra?s character. Betty feels around Sandra?s breasts to make the dress fit better.

?Betty White feeling me up was probably one of the highlights of my career,? Sandra deadpanned. ?She did it beautifully. She was so tender yet firm. She was good with her hands.?

will.i.am

When we asked The Black Eyed Peas leader about apl.de.ap, he answered this way: ?To each other, we go, ?Wow, Fergie, you?re in ?Nine.? ?Will, you?re in ?X-Men!? ?And you were at the Democratic National Convention. Dang!? ?Taboo, you?re in Street Fighter.? Then we all look at apl and go, ?You have the whole Philippines!??

Michael Caine

Of the award he was about to receive later in the evening (we were in Las Vegas), his 10th Lifetime Achievement Award, Michael said wryly: ?I?ve got a few of these now.? He joked: ?I?m starting to turn them down.? Then he added, ?Because people think, if you have a lifetime achievement award, you should be retired and finished. I?ve just finished [a movie] called ?Harry Brown.? I?m available for work. I just took a year off. I had a great deal of fun. I nearly never came back but the script of ?Harry Brown? brought me back.?

Julia Roberts

A reporter inquired if she finds that people are intimidated by her. And was she the one who asked Danny Moder to marry her because he might have been daunted, too?

Julia, without skipping a beat, retorted: ?If someone?s that afraid of you, you probably shouldn?t be together.? Giving the journalist an unblinking, intense stare, Julia deadpanned: ?I don?t think I intimidate people unless I want to.? As the assembled press tittered at her mock-intimidating stance, she broke into that smile and giggled. ?I?m getting warmed up now,? she teased.

Zach Galifianakis

The actor in the surprise comedy hit of the year, ?The Hangover,? on his worst morning-after headache: ?I have woken up in a subway in New York and decided to stay on because I couldn?t move. This was many years ago when I was a young man ? My head hurt so much ? Everybody tells me, ?I just woke up one day and I said to myself, ?I?m going to stop drinking.? I?ve been waiting for that every morning for the last 20 years.?

Megan Fox

The 23-year-old actress, answering a reporter?s question about her boyfriend, actor Brian Austin Green: ?It?s hard to be in a relationship with someone who?s not in this industry, because it?s impossible to understand the things that we do for our job. They?re not normal. Anyone else whose wife went off to work and was making out with Johnny Depp for a film would be like, ?What? I?m not comfortable with you doing that!?

Then, Megan began crying and talked haltingly: ?But, other than that ? as a person ? Brian is a good person. Man, I just got emotional ... I feel blessed to have found someone who is genuine and who will stick around through all my bulls**t.?

Jack Black

A reporter told Jack what his ?Year One? director, Harold Ramis, said about him: ?Jack has probably spent more time acting in his underwear than any actor I?ve ever seen ... He doesn?t mind. He has no vanity, no shame. He?s just comfortable about who he is.?

The writer pressed on: ?But really, how comfortable are you in your body??

?I don?t know,? Jack answered. ?Let?s see,? he said as he stood up and started unbuttoning his checkered shirt. ?How comfortable am I?? He took off the shirt. And then, as Jack got up on the table, he shucked the pants as well. As you can imagine, the room rocked with laughter and cheers. In his birthday suit now save for his striped red and black briefs, Jack asked, ?Do you like these underpants? My wife bought them.?

Sacha Baron Cohen (channeling Bruno)

No one was safe from the bitchy barbs and lap dances of Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as Bruno ? gay fashionista, host of the TV show ?Funkyzeit Mit Bruno,? and star of a self-titled movie ? at an interview.

From the second Bruno sashayed into a hotel meeting room, in a tight, sleeveless black leather vest, a black thong peeking from his dazzling silver pants, there was never a dull moment. It was a laugh-a-thon.

Bruno?s flirty moves toward me were nothing compared to what he did at the end of the press con to my Korean colleague. The reporter, who truly got into the spirit of the playful interview, had earlier told Bruno that he found him ?charming and alluring? in his nude GQ magazine cover photo.

After the last question, Bruno took off his leather vest to reveal a tight white undershirt and started dancing. He went up a table, gyrated on his knees and then stood up. Bruno got off the table and walked toward my colleague. He ripped open his white undershirt and then did a lap dance on the journalist.

(To be concluded tomorrow)

Email the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.