I just saw...
...an interview with Mel Gibson. He was apologizing for his recent anti-semetic rant and justifying it by saying that his "rights as an American were violated". And...he said it with an American accent. I know that a person can have duel citizenship...but can you have duel accents as well?
And why didn't the press mention that little piece of acting that Mel did for us pions? They most certainly would have chatted it up if Bush started speaking with an Australian accent. I think that Mel and the media think that we are some stupid, stupid people. Are you guys gonna let them get away with that?
Meg
...an interview with Mel Gibson. He was apologizing for his recent anti-semetic rant and justifying it by saying that his "rights as an American were violated". And...he said it with an American accent. I know that a person can have duel citizenship...but can you have duel accents as well?
And why didn't the press mention that little piece of acting that Mel did for us pions? They most certainly would have chatted it up if Bush started speaking with an Australian accent. I think that Mel and the media think that we are some stupid, stupid people. Are you guys gonna let them get away with that?
Meg
posted by Meg Kelso | 6:00 AM
7 Comments:
I thought Mel Gibson was an American. Isn't he from New York?
What's funnier is when that Kramer guy used the "N" word, even though he's of Semetic origin by race, not by religion.
Brace yourself - this got a bit long...
Some of us *do* have multiple accents. My mother was born in one country, spent a few years as a young child in various displaced person refugee camps in another country, was primarily raised in a third counry, lived with cousins in England for a year as a teenager, and then came to NYC for good with my dad when she was 19. English is my mom's fourth language, and her accent will spin your head around.
My father was born in the country where my mother was raised, but his parents were born in yet another country. Oh, and my mom's step-dad was from yet still another country, and spoke seven languages. I miss that man.
My parents came to Brooklyn, and that's where I was born, and most of the neighborhoods in which we lived when I was a kid were neighborhoods with strong New Yawk accents. We moved to the suburbs when I was five, and for the first five years in the suburbs, we lived in a city that had yet its own nasal New-Yawk-influenced accent (Yonkers, for those who are trying to guess). Then I went to college in upstate NY. I moved to New England when I finished college. Additionally, I often spent summers in the country of my father's birth, with my mother's heptilingual stepfather being the member of my family who spoke the best English, with an Austrian/British accent that had to be heard to be believed. I lived for a few months in the south, and in that time, picked up a Southern accent that I can call upon for giggles.
The most consistent accent I heard growing up was the neutral accent of American television, which is the accent that I tend to have as my default accent, barring any other accents being significantly present around me.
My accent changes in the blink of an eye, depending upon who I'm with and where I am, and with no real conscious thought (though I can consciously change accents when it's useful to me, something that came in handy when I did theater in high school and college). It's actually pretty funny, and has gotten me into trouble more than once with people who think I'm making fun of them.
People like myself, who are unquestionably as American as apple pie but who have ties to the rest of the world that most Americans do not, can have dual or even triple accents.
Not that Mel should be excused for what he said. Not at all.
I'm Jewish. Much of my family was slaughtered in the Holocaust, which is part of why my mom and other relatives spent time in refugee camps during my mom's childhood. I have NO USE for the man, and will never spend a penny on anything that I know will put a penny in his misbegotten pocket. He's a disgusting anti-Semite, and as far as I'm concerned, an apology does not change his essential nature.
The accent fluidity, however, is just normal for those of us who have grown up in multiple places in this world. He was born in a town just 30 minutes away from the town where I came of age, and his family did not move to Australia until Mel was in his teens. His fluctuations between accents are, sadly, quite normal for a multi-national. Let's make sure to put the correct blame in the correct place.
Sincerely,
An anonymous multi-accented American-born red-white-and-blue multi-national citizen of the world who despises Mel Gibson
Meg he has a grown woman daughter in the city where I live, she is going to make him have paternity tests to prove he is her father, Mel pre famous movie star was a regular dreamer down in Adelaide and knocked up a 17 yr old in the back of his station wagon some 30 something years ago so the local gossip mags suggest in an article with her.. I think he's an embarressment so you guys can claim him as ya own now hehehe
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/mel-gibson-faces-paternity-test/2006/12/17/1166290418251.html
Carmel's mother Marilyn said she met Gibson in Adelaide in 1976 when he picked her up while she was hitch-hiking to Sydney.
She said Gibson promised to drive her there, but first ducked back to his house and came back to the car with a mattress and pillows and put them in the back of his station wagon.
"We got on really well. He was charming and funny. He said he was going to be a famous movie star," Marilyn said.
"He said he was going to change his name, but I told him not to. I said Mel Gibson was a really nice name and it suited him.
"When we stopped for the night, Mel got in the back on the mattress but I stayed in the front.
"Eventually he persuaded me to join him in the back. I told him 'if anything happens and I get pregnant I'll come looking for you'. He replied 'I'm going to be famous, you'll always know where to find me'.
"We spent the night making love and talking, but when it got light Mel said he had to be back at work at an orange juice factory in Adelaide.
What a peach that fool is!
I understand the accent changing thing, as a matter of fact, I do it as well. I was born in Jersey of a Jersey bred father and a Virginia bred mother. I lived in the South for a very long time but I grew up speaking in Chicago, with a midwestern accent. If I spend a few minutes with my Jersey family, I'm "Flarida aranges" all over the place. And...if I speak to my Southern family, I will begin Ya'll-ing like the best of them. But, I never put on an accent purposely nor do I try to manipulate people with the way that I speak. I feel as though Mel did that.
I'm actually more annoyed with the media who didn't question his manipulation. He is an actor and can speak however he wants to speak. I've heard him speaking naturally and when he does, he always sounds Aussie-like. He is bright enough to know exactly what he was doing. But...the media should have, at the very least, pointed out the fact that he was all of a sudden speaking "American" when he is not from this country.
And, to the person who wanted to give Mel to us...I'm quite sure that we have more than enough bigots already, we don't need to import anymore of them.
:):):)
Dear Meg,
What do you think of this? I am developing quite a crush on you and Ive never seen you. Just by reading your words I feel like I know you somewhat and I like you. What do you think of a person who falls for a person without even knowing what they look like? Would you mind if I e-mailed to you?
Michael
Michael,
I'm going to fix myself some breakfast and make a few phone calls...then I will be back to write my morning post. So, you'll see my answer to your question shortly!
Meggers
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