Tuesday 28 July 2009

American hegemony

Don’t you just hate it when you arrive in work at 6:30 and the network is down?

Following an announcement that Nadya Suleman, the mother of octuplets born in January, had signed a deal allowing her children to appear in a reality TV show, a judge in California has appointed a guardian to look after their financial interests. Suleman argued against the decision on the basis of it being an intrusion into her private life. So a reality TV show about your 14 kids (she already had 6 others and is single) isn’t an intrusion?

In 1970 Roald Dahl wrote a book called Fantastic Mr Fox. It has since been turned into a film – The Fantastic Mr Fox - which will premiere in London in October. The author was British; the book was set in Britain; the film is set in and shot in Britain; the film is being produced in the UK – and yet the voice stars of the film are almost all American. The makers have even introduced a character called Coach Skip, who has nothing to do with the book. It’s a bit like finding Mr Toad of Wind in the Willows has a Mexican housemaid and being introduced to Police Chief Wowalski as a character in a film of Noddy. It was bad enough when Disney gave Pooh an American accent. Harrumph!

A woman in England has been spared jail for committing 4 acts of bigamy. The judge said she was responding well to treatment and jail would serve no purpose. I wonder that the treatment is – divorce perhaps?

Hay is threatening to investigate a number of local care homes for the elderly with a view to having me placed in one.

9 comments:

Alan Burnett said...

I am also being threatened with institutionalisation. If you can't moan on your blog where can you moan? I see from a report on the bigamist woman that she has been given medication : what on earth can be in those pills?

Jennysmith said...

Oh yes, Dahl's book Matilda was snapped up by Danny De Vito and fully americanised - even tho' it was set in Buckinghamshire!

However I found it a very good film. We may be pleasantly surprised by this one. Do take your point tho'.

I know a couple of good care homes. Will send you the addresses and rates. xxx

Bee said...

I think that we can all agree that Nadya Suleman represents so many of the things that are wrong about America. I'm still gobsmacked that she was ever given fertility treatment of any kind. I suppose she will re-set the bar for trainwreck television.

It is a shame that Dahl's story couldn't have been voiced by British actors . . . but I suppose the producers thought that George Clooney and Meryl Streep would do a better job of pulling in the punters. At least Streep can do accents: not too sure about Clooney, Wilson or Murray.

The funniest thing about the bigamist (or should it be quadromist?) is that she is only 30! I wonder how many marriages she could have wracked up had the law not caught up with her?

Kat said...

I just want them to do a film of Dahl's book The BFG. My all time favourite children's story. I need to find a copy to read to LaLa.

Chairman Bill said...

Alan: Bromine?

Jenny: Can't wait (got my legs crossed already).

Bee: I guess you've never played pool.

Kat: Also try Where The Wild Things Are, which is American, The Gruffalo and The Jelly Monster, which was my eldest boy's favourite.

♥ Braja said...

As long as the home staff around you don't start speaking in American accents...

Chairman Bill said...

Braja: No, Hay speaks with an English accent.

Kabbalah Rookie said...

American accents? Bah, Humbug!!

As for the bigamist, what made me laugh was that she had already been married four times by the age of 23.. (and has already served a six month sentence). I understand that she is bi-polar, hence the "I'm so happy I'm just gonna get married now!!" syndrome, but maybe an ankle band that sends an alarm every time she is within striking distance of a registry office might be a good idea...

Cotswoldgent said...

After my deafness and grinding knees Mrs CG has checked my life insurance policy, she believes OAP homes are too expensive