You'll never beat the (Northern) Irish

Friday's Wall Street Journal (subs. req'd) uses too broad a category to describe an interesting phenomenon:

White House on the Thames

Anyone born in America can grow up to become president of the U.S. Apparently, anyone born in the British Isles can, too.

When it comes to casting actors to play the Commander-in-Chief, Hollywood's two biggest new projects focusing on U.S. presidents star natives from across the pond. Next month, Kenneth Branagh will play Franklin Delano Roosevelt in "Warm Springs," an HBO film that chronicles FDR's experiments to reverse the effects of polio. And in 2006, Steven Spielberg plans to begin production on "Lincoln," to star Northern Ireland-born Liam Neeson.

In fact, there's no need to refer to the Thames, or arguably the British Isles, since both actors are from Northern Ireland. Belfast and Ballymena, respectively.

And while American actors might be justifiably annoyed, there is one historically valid defence: the accent might actually be closer to that of the actual president than a modern American accent, at least in the case of Lincoln/Neeson. But of course the real reason for casting Neeson as Lincoln is surely his fine performance as Michael Collins. So, does that mean Alan Rickman (DeValera) as Jefferson Davis?