The other night while watching The Closer with my lady love, I had to giggle when she said, “Wow, Kyra Sedgwick’s Southern accent is so thick!”

What my girlfriend didn’t know — and what many of you may not know, either — is that Kyra is a born-and-bred New Yorker with such good acting chops, she can convince you she’s the southernest of Southern belles. Kyra comes from a long line of awesome actresses who can switch up their voices to suit a character. For instance, did you know Golden Girl Rue McClanahan was faking Blanche’s Southern trill? Yep, McClanahan was trained on the stages of New York.

Of course, for every actress who can fake a believable accent, there’s another (two or three) who bomb at it. Let’s take a look at a few winners and losers in the accent department.

We would be remiss if we did not start with Meryl Streep, who became so well known for her accents in the 1970s and 80s, people would jokingly wonder what dialect she would conquer next: African tribe woman? Eskimo?

With lots of research and endless attention to detail, Meryl knocked it out of the park when mimicking the dialects of Australians (A Cry In The Dark), Danish (Out of Africa), Polish (Sophie’s Choice) and lesbian (Manhattan). OK that last one is just a joke, but wasn’t it fun to see Meryl play Woody Allen’s Sapphicly-inclined ex-wife?

One of the few contemporary actresses who could go head-to-head with Meryl is the lovely Cate Blanchett. Aussie Cate’s a master of accents from Russian (The Man Who Cried) to American (Babel) to Kate Hepburn’s quirky Connecticut cadence (The Aviator). Cate can even do Bob Dylan (I’m Not There)! … continue reading

Last week, Malinda blogged about cult TV shows. No. 13 (how fitting) on the TVGuide.com list is Mystery Science Theater 3000. I love B movies, and I love snark, so naturally I love MST3K. And I'm glad to hear that its creators are back, this time under the name the Film Crew. … continue reading