Let's talk accents for a second.

I guess this could also fall under the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves board, but it's a point I have to make for movie accents in general.

Everyone lost their *beep* when Kevin Costner didn't do an English accent for the English character Robin Hood. This is just one example of anyone-but-British actors being held to a different standard for accents and characterization.

BUT, when you have a period piece set pretty much anywhere, an English accent is used. In Ever After (which I loved, by the way), all accents were British rather than French, although the story is set in France. You're hard pressed to find a period film without English accents. This version of Anna Karenina (dully unwatchable past 10 minutes, but I won't get into that) is no different. Set in Imperial Russia, when aristocratic characters would have spoken mostly French? Pah! English accents only!

I am just appalled that English actors portraying characters of other cultural origins speak with their own accents whereas American actors are mocked for the same.