Photographer Unknown - citation requested
I've long admired Hugh Laurie, going back to his early career and routines with Stephen Fry. Having read Gavin Edwards' profile of Laurie in the NY Times magazine, I like him even more. Apparently we share similarities in attitude, if not a parity in talent. Certainly I share his philosophy though: happiness = contentment = complacency. I've thought of it in exactly those terms any number of times (though I tend to think of complacency leading to redundancy, rather than 'impending disaster.').
There's something refreshingly real about Laurie's curmudgeonly disposition in this profile. His take on the difference between England and the US is spot on: 'We differ by only 5 percent in almost every field, except when it comes to religion, and then we part company by about 300 percent.' Coming from England, where organized religion is largely invisible in the day-to-day, yet living in Texas, where there are almost as many churches lining the roads as there are pubs lining the streets of England, I can understand this.
I wanted to weep with joy and recognition at his take on the differences between British and US television: 'I think good-looking people seldom make good television... And American television studios almost concede before they start: 'Well, it won't be good, but at least it'll be good-looking. We'll have nice-looking girls in tight shirts with FBI badges and fit-looking guys with lots of hair gel vaulting over things. So at least we'll have achieved that base standard of entertainment. He shook his head. 'I think that's hugely misguided. The glory of American television is Dennis Franz.'
Hugh Laurie: my kind of guy.
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