TV Guide Online: You've taken a lot of heat for your rendition of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."
Camile Velasco: Right, but that was one of those times I had lots of fun onstage. It's one of my favorite songs by Elton John, so I really like to perform it.

TVGO: Do you get why people were so critical of it?
Velasco: Kind of. I could have chosen a better song. Song choice was really important. But I really wanted to sing that song because that was my favorite song.

TVGO: Did you hear any reaction from Elton John after your performance?
Velasco: Not afterward. After we all sang [in the practice session] you saw in the clip package, he said he liked it and thought I sang it well. It was crazy just to meet him. He kissed my hand and I started crying! Tears started coming out, so I couldn't sing, so they had to skip me and come back to me.

TVGO: What do you think of Simon's suggestion that some of you kids take singing lessons?
Velasco: Definitely. I definitely agree with what Simon has to say. There's always room for improvement. I felt that I did my best, and I didn't agree with some of the things he would say about me. He would say I was nervous. And I wanted to tell him I'm not nervous, but I was too ashamed to say something back. But he is a professional who's been in the business longer than I've been breathing, so I respect him.

TVGO: When Matt Rogers was voted off, you started bawling as if you'd been voted off! Or were those just tears of relief?
Velasco: It's upsetting to be in the bottom three, but I didn't even think of myself at that moment at all. Matt Rogers was in Group 2 with me. He's just such an awesome personality that the house was so totally different without him. Matt's such an easy guy to love. He cheered us all up at times. It was hard to see him go.

TVGO: Have you learned anything from all this? What's next for you?
Velasco: Oh, totally! I feel like I've gained years of experience in two months' time. I'm so thankful that I decided to try out. Before American Idol, I'd been working on a 12-song album for two years. When I go back to Maui, I'll just try to finish it and move to L.A. and get it out there.

Hey, TV-nostalgia buffs! Aching for another Growing Pains reunion movie? Well then, you'll be pleased to know Growing Pains II: Home Equity just wrapped production in New Orleans, which doubles for the Seaver family's Long Island home base. All of Pains's original cast is on hand — TV mom Joanna Kerns even directs — but, unsurprisingly, Leo DiCaprio isn't coming back as Luke.

"I'm sure they thought of it," Alan Thicke (aka Dr. Jason Seaver) tells TV Guide Online, chuckling. "And I'm sure [Leo's] not available." Fortunately, the real-life pregnancy of Tracey Gold — whose career was recently "executed" on Celebrity Mole: Yucatan — will help make up for the personnel shortage. Gold's pregnant, so Carol's expecting onscreen, too.

"I'm still trying to get used to the concept of playing a grandfather," the 57-year-old Thicke says. "I've now moved into what I call the 'ferzage' category. It's a new demographic that I invented. That's where people start saying, 'Well, he looks good for his age'."

Will we see Carol's baby birthed in the TV movie? "Worse than that," Thicke mock laments. "[My grandchildren] are semi-grown children [around] 11 or 12. These are the children of Kirk Cameron and Tracey's characters. They were little tykes in the first [reunion] movie. So I'm now a grandfather to kids the same age as the children were back in the series!"

This fresh dose of Growing Pains nostalgia — which will likely air this fall — sure doesn't hurt Thicke's career as an author of fatherhood-advice books. The next one, How to Raise Kids Who Won't Hate You, is due out in the fall. And as host of the TV series Animal Miracles, Thicke tries to set a good parental example for fellow Animal Planet personality Steve Irwin. "I won't be dangling my 1-year-old in front of a crocodile, that's all I can tell you. No dangling!" — Additional reporting by Ileane Rudolph

"This movie is going to raise holy hell, and I may never work again," says director Sidney Lumet of HBO's Strip Search, a provocative drama about civil liberties in the post-9/11 era that airs April 27. The story cross-cuts between two degrading interrogations: In China, an American student (Maggie Gyllenhaal) gets grilled about her political activities, while in the U.S., an FBI agent (Glenn Close) gives a Saudi scholar (Bruno Lastra) the third degree. Now here's the kicker: Both sequences use the exact same script, implicitly equating the countries' treatment of suspects.

The filmmakers maintain they're simply taking dramatic license to tell a cautionary tale. "Am I saying we're a totalitarian country? No," says writer Tom Fontana. "Am I saying we could become one? Absolutely."

Such contentions have already stirred controversy among conservative watchdogs. "The premise is preposterous and insulting," says Media Research Center VP Brent Baker (who hasn't seen the film). "To put a moral equivalent between the United States and a Communist regime that has oppressed and murdered its citizens for 60 years is outrageous."

Whatever your opinion of Strip Search's politics, there's no arguing with its dramatic potency. Homicide vet Fontana knows his way around an interrogation room, and four-time Oscar nominee Lumet (Network) elicits astonishing work from his cast. The seemingly fearless Gyllenhaal delivers on the promise of her breakthrough role in Secretary with another emotionally (and physically) naked performance, and as her captor, Ken Leung proves electrifying. "He's one of the most original actors I've ever seen," raves Lumet.

The film's quality probably won't sway its ideological critics, but producers are prepared for the firestorm. "If I have to take the heat, I will — as long as people discuss it," says Fontana. "When you go this far out on a limb, you're not looking to be loved."