Long-time friends and "soul sisters" Jamie Lee Curtis and Mariska Hargitay came together for Variety's latest Actors on Actors segment, though the conversation did not go quite how anyone expected.
The pair discussed Hargitay's recent documentary, My Mom Jayne, which covered the life and legacy of her late mother, Jane Mansfield.
They were in the thick of their conversation when Curtis attempted to ask a deep question about the process behind filming the documentary, including Hargitay having to go through her mother's things and a sizeable storage locker.
But when she asked the question, Curtis said:
"When you came back to Los Angeles..."
This distracted Hargitay, because Curtis pronounced "Los" like "los" in Spanish, and she pronounced "Angeles" in the familiar, American way with a hard "g" sound, like "gel" or "jello," mixing two pronunciations of the same name.
Though she was clearly about to ask Hargitay a serious question, her friend could not help but laugh and held up her hand for Curtis to stop talking.
"I'm trying not to laugh, because you just said, 'Los Angeles.'"
The pair got into a hilarious "argument" over how to pronounce the city's name, comparing it to how people pronounce "Los Feliz." They even turned to the production team off-stage, asking how they pronounced the city's name.
Hargitay confidently said:
"If I had a jury here, everyone would vote for me!"
You can watch the segment here:
Many people were snarky about the segment in general and Jamie Lee Curtis's pronunciation in particular.
Some were kinder about it but clearly would have been members of Hargitay's "jury."
Others understood the point of the conversation and had a good laugh about it.
Since the population of California is a mix of English and Spanish speakers, there can be some confusion about how to pronounce the names of cities that share Spanish roots.
When in doubt, go with the local pronunciation.
@IrnaEnglish/X
