[sigyn: she's bitter and lazy]

My current tv obsession "Inside the Actor's Studio" was a good one. Hugh Grant was the guest and James Lipton was in primo butt-licking form. I've sort of figured out what his deal is, I think, and it took a frickin' Hugh Grant interview to reveal it to me. I think Mr Lipton is one of those American citizens who wish in their heart of hearts that they were born British.

You know the kind of people I'm talking about--I think every high school has at least one or two of them. They go beyond just watching Brit-coms on public television and thinking that anyone with an English accent is dead sexy, they think that somehow England is fundamentally--in every possible sense--a better place to be, and anything English is better than anything from any other country. The idea that England is a country with its own problems and qualities, good and bad, escapes them completely. I'm no stranger to liking British things myself (heck, I even have an account on the UK amazon.com just so I can get books that aren't available in the US), but come on people, it's not Never-Never Land for pete's sake! It strikes me as especially odd that this "Brit-ophilia" should occur with such frequency amongst Americans. We go crazy for that Royal family stuff! I'd say maybe it was some lingering guilt for the whole Revolution business, but as a whole we choose to be ignorant of our own country's history. I say this holding a double major, one half of which was in American Studies...

Anyway, back to James "wannabe Brit" Lipton. During the interview with Hugh Grant he made almost constant references to Grant's Britishness, and commented several times "we're in England now!" whenever Grant said something that was particularly "British". He was almost on his knees when he talked about Grant having attended Oxford, and he quoted a few lines of Chaucer (in Middle English) after bringing up Grant's major (but not before snidely telling the audience that when he asked "what did you read at Oxford?" he was asking what his major was in college). Near the end, he told Grant the score of a football match (this was after it had been established for the few people left in the US who didn't know that "football" means "soccer" when talking to ANYONE outside the US), and brought out his scarf for the team he supports. Gag!

Lipton also completely avoided the whole "arrested while getting a blow-job from a prostitute" part of Grant's public life, even avoiding mentioning any movies he did around that time. Grant himself alluded to it during the Q&A portion of the show.

[comment on this /0]

+ feeling--tired beyond belief
+ wishing--that I didn't have to get up tomorrow

update-shmupdate / 12.27.2002: 17:46
also... / 12.07.2002: 10:52
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pretty smells / 12.01.2002: 11:51
I'm not crazy. You're the one who's crazy. / 11.30.2002: 15:53