Is it Steve Coogan's Time?

Steve Coogan's all over the place lately: He has major roles in Tropic Thunder and Hamlet 2.

I find his tactic interesting. Rather than using America to spread his entrenched British success, he's looking at it as a fresh start. It's as if Great Britain has been tainted with all those Alan Partridge appearances (that's one of his characters). You won't see Alan Partridge here ... in fact, you probably won't see any of his uncanny impersonations (he does a fantastic Al Pacino) or any of his standup/music hall schtick.

Coogan's positioning himself an an A-level Hollywood comedic actor. Often, he leaves his accent at the gate at LAX.

I'm not making any comment about the wisdom of that strategy. I just think it would be great if he at least did an HBO special so we can get a taste of what our cousins have been enjoying for years now.

Talk About an Accent

My accent would probably be like John Barrowman's if I moved to England -- all bullocksed up.

I heard an interview with him on the Steve Wright in the Afternoon show. I didn't know what to expect. I had figured that he was like Jamie Bamber -- a Brit who does a great American accent. In fact, he's a little of everything.

His Captain Jack on Torchwood is obviously American, but in real life, he speaks pretty much the same way ... with a few "ana-thing"s and British grammar thrown in. Hey I'd do the same thing, surrounded by Brits 24/7.

According to Wikipedia, he's Glaswegian but spent his formative years in Joliet, Illinois and then he moved to England. So, like Madonna, I guess he can choose the accent that suits him.

Here he is having a bit of fun with accents on *Matthew* Wright's show:

The Ugly ... Briton?

On September 11, 2001, when nearly every important figure was being asked for a comment, the one that touched me most deeply was from a person for whom I previously had no great affection: Lady Margaret Thatcher. She said about Britons and Americans, "We are the same people."

But is that becoming more true that ever before?

According to this article in the New York Times, which came out while I was on holiday, British tourism is way up -- and while the locals are happy to take their pounds sterling, they're not so thrilled with the seeming disappearance of the famed English decorum. In fact, English holidaymakers are acting more like football hooligans from 1970s than the sterotypical upper-crust adventurers with their traveling tea sets.

The article puts forth a cartload of theories about what makes the British so boorish. And I've got a couple of my own. Unlike the supposedly polite Germans and French, we all speak the current lingua franca and can expect to be understood all over the world. So no matter what trouble we get in, we're bound to be able to talk our way out. What's more, in spite of recent missteps in the the Middle East, we're hardwired to have nothing to apologize for. It seems our two countries can do what they wish (for now) in the far-flung lands, but it's not like we caused World War II or set up up a Vichy government. This might also be the reason why our two peoples are known for having outrageous senses of humor ... again, nothing to apologize for.

Then there's the fact that most Britons aren't sleek stylemakers from London, but regular "folks" as we'd call them here. On The Office, Gervais and Merchant had the Dawn's unsophisticated lout/fiance, Lee, move to Florida ... I said to myself, "Of course."

So, as long as the pound is up and the dollar is down we're likely to hear more about that new breed ... the cousin of the ugly American ... the ugly Briton!

Footie Goes Fourth

Third week of English Premier football.

Seems like there were less games than usual ... perhaps because there was a bank holiday?

In any event, Chelsea tied 1-1 with Tottenham, which means they remain on top. They've gone for ages without a loss. Liverpool had a nil-nil with Aston Villa, so they get to stay toward the top of the table as well.

Surprisingly, it's Man City who's third in the rankings -- Man U is all the way at number 9, but then again, they didn't play this week. Apparently, City got an emotional boost from the announcement that their club was just purchased by Abu-Dabi and their own acquisition of the single-monikered Brazilian Robinho.

But counting out Manchester United is a fool's game. As this big transfer weekend concluded, they finally secured the amazing Bulgarian striker, Dimitar Berbatov. If this bloke stays healthy, Man U will be keeping their cup.

Jag-You-Are?

Mrs. Phonybrit doesn't care a whit about cars -- but when she does point one out, it's inevitably a Jag. The boys and girls in Coventry really know what they are doing.

My problem is that I'm getting so immersed in British culture that I just can't help using certain British pronunciations. I've always laughed at people who say, "I play the pee-ah-noh." But now I'm no better, with my Jaguars, Pyou-mahs, etc.

Have I dived down the rabbit hole?

Don't Know Russell Brand? You Will.

I've only known about Russell for a few months, and I think he's a bloody riot. I'm wagering that within a couple of weeks, you will too.

MTV tapped him for their VMA Awards, scheduled for September 7th. That's a position that the likes of Chris Rock have held, so he's about to achieve a level of stardom that few British TV presenters/radio personalities/comedians could even dream about.

I've heard his show a couple of times and it's like Howard Stern with lot more brains. This guy is extremely clever and quick. He even has a deeper sense of satire than Stern ever did. And unlike Stern, he's just as happy poking fun of himself as the rest of the absurd world.

On his last show, he described what it was like being detained at LAX with a Tibetan monk. I laughed out loud as he told of trying to transmit mental messages to the robed man (who spoke no English): "Your Holiness, you dunt unnastand, these fings [pointing to his many rings], they mean nuffink to me."

Anyway, keep on the lookout for this bloke. He's going to be big (unless he goes to far for America's sensibilities) ... after all on the day after 9/11, he reportedly came to host his MTV show dressed as Ossama bin Laden, so who knows what he's capable of?

In Praise of MPs

It's even trickier to keep track of British politics than British football (see below for some stats from the weekend and Monday). Still, in this political season here in the US, I have to envy the UK and other countries that have parliamentary systems.

I know the Knesset, for example, make Israelis bonkers, as it always seems hopelessly intractable. But this vestige of the British mandate does have one advantage: You don't have to pretend you're something you're not. You may have to form a coalition with some pack of nutters, but you don't have to actually claim that you have the extreme views yourself. In other words, if Barack Obama was running for PM instead of president, he wouldn't have to claim to be in favor drilling for oil. He would just have to join forces with another party that does.

Sometimes it seems like England (and now Scotland and Wales with their own parliaments) has fallen into a two-party system with Labour and Conservative in a deadlock for decades. But I was shocked to learn than the Liberal Democrats routinely get a quarter of the votes. The halls in Westminster are lousy with Lib Dems and they're a great party -- proud to be left of centre. Sure, they'd form a coalition with Labour if push came to shove, but because it's a parliamentary system, they don't have to say they're something they're not.

I heard a great interview with their former leader, Sir Menzies Campbell and he's brilliant. Their current leader is another unabashed liberal, Nick Clegg ... I hear he has a bright future.

They too have a shadow government, just like the Torries. Don't you have to love a system that includes something as cool sounding "shadow government"?

QUICK FOOTBALL RESULTS
Man U won this time, but so did Chelsea and Liverpool again, so they're still on top. Could we be looking at the end of an era with Manchester?

Condolences to my friend, Edward. His lads of Tottenham lost again. They're now ranked 17 out of 20. Then again, there are a lot of weekends between now and championship time.

The New Most Beautiful Words

Henry James might have thought that the most beautiful words in the English language were "summer afternoon," but "See you in 2012 in London" sounded pretty sweet to me.

Now that everyone can quiet down about Beijing, we can focus on the real capital of the world. As if our city on the Thames needed another push, the Olympics will absolutely make London the place to be: An English-speaking capital in the most new most-important region in the world: Europe.

This is going to be fun.

Not My Cuppa Tay

I'll never get over how many different entry points and gateway drugs there are to the Anglophile obsession.

Case in point: On the ride back from Martha's Vineyard last weekend, my brother-in-law told me that he never realized that I was an Anglophile (so many people express shock at this dirty little secret), but that it must run in the family.

He says while they are channel surfing, my sister always stops if the people have British accents.

I never considered my sis much of Anglophile. After all, I think she had only one Who record growing up and no Beatles albums. Kinks? Who are they?

But for her, loving British culture means Hotel Babylon and those Jane Austin stories they've been airing on PBS.

Frankly, those never did much for me. Nor was I much of an Inspector Morse of Upstairs Downstairs fan ... I tended to like the Britcoms mostly, although I did like that show from the late 80s in which Ian McShane played a crime-solving antiques dealer. (Lovejoy had a much nicer vocabulary than McShane's character on Deadwood.)

I guess the lesson is that Anglophilia takes you tastes and makes them more acute. It doesn't transform you into a new person, with new likes and dislikes ... it just sort of directs them. Jerry Lewis fan? Here's Rowan Atkinson. Ramones fan? Meet The Jam.

Peaches Geldorf

I read that the breakfast show, Richard and Judy, is moving off Channel 4. So I searched for them on YouTube.

And tripped on this appearance on their chat show:

Peaches Geldorf?!

So by checking out a show I *had* heard of, I found someone cool I hadn't heard of.

Peaches is Sir Bob's daughter, naturally, and she's quite a celeb -- far less serious than her dad. Here she talks about a special she did about about Islam: