Be glad for anonimity (spelling?)

I’ve been wondering what Americans think of all these British actors’ accents. There’s certainly an invasion. In the past they’d never have them in films and TV.

Have to say I can’t take Hugh Laurie seriously in House, I’ve watched Jeeves and Wooster too much recently. He’s much more believable as the upper class idiot Wooster.

I did notice during the last couple years of awards shows that pretty much everyone who was winning was a Brit. Then I started to realise that there were quite a few British actors playing American parts in American shows… Hugh Laurie, Anna Friel, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Damian Lewis and on and on… And the surprising thing? They do an American accent much better than plenty of Americans

Interesting article on the topic… http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/arts/television/05acto.html

Nebraskans appear to think a) I landed from outer space b) it’s OK to stare at me in Wal Mart and go all gooey-eyed, which, on reflection I did enjoy and c) did not once confuse me with Australians, unlike Parisians who I suspect do it just to wind up the British. Most mid-Westerners I met appeared to think I am The Queen’s personal emissary with an inexhaustible encyclopaedic knowledge of history and etiquette. Of particular interest in one question was “is it true that you’re not allowed to spit any of your food out whilst your eating in the presence of The Queen unless it is a shotgun pellet?”

So far I have received free sausages, unwarranted adulation of Company VPs and unexpected urgent need-to-speak-now phone calls to provide background information and verification of historical facts surrounding the film “The Duchess”.

With my father being a Geordie, my mother from Kent, a childhood upbringing in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire plus 15 years of living in Milton Keynes I do have a fairly universally American-friendly classic British accent. Oh, and unlike my fa-thur I say “gr-arse” when I see his “gras”.