Cashmere Mafia. Cashmere? Mafia? Discuss.

OK what do we think of ABC's Cashmere Mafia, guys?

I don't know how I feel about it. I was not a Sex & The City devotee, so any comparisons to the erstwhile show-about-4-friends-in-a-booming-metroplis are beyond me. It kind of reminds me of Big Shots (the other show ABC's also got on that is more like Tweed Mafia ... same premise except switch out the chicks for hot Michael Vartan and 3 other dudes).

I think I like it. And before you start freaking out because you think it's a crappy show, keep in mind that I'm allowed to like crap (after all, it's much in the same way you're allowed to watch whatever crap you want. Go ahead, I don't really mind.)

Here's my why, it's this silly game I play when foreign actors are playing Americans. Two of the leads are Australian, and I'm always waiting for their accent to slip. I kinda find it fascinating hearing foreigners "play" us... like I think to myself, "Is that really how they think we sound?"

Some of the better ones:

• Hugh Laurie (House). Whoa, is that guy awesome or what?? He sounds like a true sarcastic person of Jersey.


• Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman). I wanted to dislike this show and her because I didn't want anyone tampering with my fond Lindsay Wagner memories. Not bad for a 23 year old British soap star. She sounds just like any other 23 year old suburban gal with a bionic arm!


• Eddie Izzard & Minnie Driver (The Riches). They're playing Southern, so maybe somebody really from the South could say if they're doing a good job or not. She's so good, I forget that she's the British bitch that broke Matt Damon's heart in Good Will Hunting.

The Not so good:

• Rachel Griffith (Brothers & Sisters). She got awesome reviews when she was on Six Feet Under, and here she is playing Gidget's daughter and Ally McBeal's sister where she sounds more like their foreign exchange student.


• Miranda Otto (Cashmere Mafia). She's playing snooty upper crust with that weird snobby affectation, I think to disguise her accent. I'm like sure, Americans talk like that ... if you're living in a 1940's Hollywood movie.


• Barbara Walters. Oh. That's not a foreign accent?