h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So why do they make the king of foppishness an exception? How has HUgh Grant endeared himself to America other than by fuelling California's seamier industries?

The only reason that Hugh Grant got away with getting busted with a prostitute was because he was British. Think about it, when was the last time you saw Charlie Sheen in anything good?

Hugh does have a certain presidential quality about him.

The only accent Keanu Reeves has ever been able to pull off is Idiot-California-Surfer-Dude, which is because he is an Idiot-Hawaiian-Surfer-Dude. Not a far stretch, since avoiding saying 'da kine' every other word is the only major difference.

And actually, villains sound more sinister when they have an accent, for some reason. Hollywood has used British, German, and Russian quite a bit, but anything that sounds odd will do (see Star Trek's Klingons for example).

One last note: I'm an American who does a rather good Aussie accent, and a very convincing impersonation of the idiot from the 'Crocodile Hunter' show. 'Crikey, these sharks look really mad! I'm going to tape these two raw steaks to my nipples and go down there and smack them around a bit.'

- Gary Oldman, my favourite "disturbed psycho"-actor was Dracula. Can't remember where he comes from, though...

Dick Van Dyck for one

Or an Englishman doing an Irish accent - even an ex-pat such as myself.
My recent attempt at a south Dublin just sounded like a slighly less camp Graham Norton....but was still funnier .

Treading on dangerous ground there. Quick to the kitty-phone!

Are you thinking of "Far and Away" in which Kidman and Cruise both fail to perform an Irish accent?

That's it. Thank you. I've never seen the movie (which is probably why I couldn't think of it) but I've seen the trailer for it numerous times. Does it have boxing in it?

Yep, Tom Cruise, the young Irish emigré, takes up prize-fighting to earn a crust.

What I think is even worse is, in one of the old James Bond films with Sean Connery, he's supposed to be successfully acting like a Japanese person. Come off it! He can't even pass himself off successfully as an Englishman.

3:-þ

And stampeding back to Norton and the kitty-phone - isn't it great how ir's always heinously perverted Americans he calls? Us Brits have some class deviations but we just don't tend to publicise our fetishes on a global scale.

Er, I guess.

Surely h2g2 counts as a global scale?

Using a pair of global scales to publicise fetishes sounds like a bit of a fetish in itself.

Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut in future.

Haven't you noticed that when a British actor plays a British part in American films he is always a "baddy"!

Well, yes, apart from Hugh Grant - he's just bad.