House

larajane from London writes: "What astonished me was the grimly mangled American accent Hugh Laurie chose, or was forced, to adopt for the role. I am English and even I can tell the accent is hopelessly fake."

I have nothing but respect for larajane, and, of course, her wonderful country, which has presented the world with such gifts as Hugh Laurie. However, I do wish that she would leave the subject of who does or does not have a convincing American accent to, well, the Americans. Many of us love Hugh Laurie and have done so for years, and I have yet to meet a single American viewer who has any bones to pick with Laurie's accent on the show. I've even met more than a few viewers who are getting their first glimpse of Laurie now, and to whom it never would have occurred that Laurie was anything other than American-born and bred. Hugh Laurie, as Dr. House, has the accent of an upper-class or upper-middle-class white male raised in the Northeastern portion of the United States. Gregory House's voice would have been perfectly at home in the milieu of voices I heard during my years living in Princeton.