Australian actress Toni Collette, who’s about to have her first child, might soon pull up stakes and move to the good ol’ US of A to shoot a TV pilot for Steven Spielberg:
Spielberg handpicked Collette for the lead role in The United States Of Tara, a comedy show about a suburban mum with a multiple personality disorder …
If the pilot is successful (and given Spielberg’s backing it is likely to be) the actor and her husband Dave Galafassi may shift temporarily to the States for filming, with their new baby in tow.
Back in June ‘04, Collette wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald that future generations of Australians needed to maintain their own national identity, separate from us dirty Yanks:
Our children watch TV to learn. If they grow up with American standards and expectations in our relatively naive land, it’ll create such a stifling sense of confusion. They are already eating McDonald’s, drinking Coca-Cola and being swamped by Disney.
We don’t want Australian kids to grow up with American accents. We don’t want a country of clones wondering why their world is so different from the one they watch on TV or see at the movies. And that’s what will happen if we allow our screens to be dominated by American product. We have to prevent a diet of vacuous American fodder, which will spoil their, and in turn, our true potential.
Collette can still pull off this whole “Aussie Pride” thing without contradicting herself. The trick is to homeschool the kid and feed her (or him!) a steady diet of nothing but Australian movies and TV shows. They’ve got at least a dozen of each down there, and that’s not even counting the Yahoo Serious oeuvre. Her people have recently discovered how to fashion crude DVDs out of available materials (rocks and sand, mostly), so that should help. Then she can make her vacuous American fodder, collect her vacuous American dollars, and still have a clear conscience. Yay!
(Hat tip: Tim Blair)
She won’t be able to feed her child vegemite though - it’s illegal in the US.
that’s an urban legend. i’ve seen vegemite for sale in the supermarket.
one of your less convincing articles, on a whole. if she’s not getting work at home, she has to move - until she started doing a few hollywood films lately she wasnt working as much as she might have been.
Wow, insulting the entire Australian nation based on the views of one somewhat-successful Australian actress. How enlightening to know that you take one person’s opinion as a testimony to their homeland. I guess I could do the same for you, too?
For the record, Australia is a lovely place despite the fact that Australians sure do talk funny.
And, yes, I could easily say the same thing about Alabama. Or Quebec.