Elaine's line

In today's episode, The Stranded, Elain is with Jerry and George at a party. She is speaking to a woman who seems to love the term "fiancee" and keeps repeating it. This annoys Elaine very much and when the woman says that she has lost her fiancee, "the poor baby", Elaine replies: "Maybe the dingo ate your baby!" in a hilarious English of Australian accent. Is this line a direct reference to a movie or something? Anyways, I think that the line is a classic!

It's a reference to a supposed "real life" occurrence in Australia, where some woman claimed that a dingo grabbed her baby during the night and must have eaten it since no remains where ever found. She was tried in court ( I think) because no one believed her. Meryl Streep starred in a movie version, whose title I can't remember, maybe something like "Gone with the Dingo"... EDS

On 18 Sep 1996, Vincent Edwards wrote:

"Vincent Edwards" wrote:

Refers to a big Australian news story which made it to the movies eventually (starring Streep). Seems that this lady was missing her baby back in the 80s in the Australian outback and she claimed that a Dingo dragged it off. But there was no eveidence and conflicitng reports and I think she may have had to go to trial over it.

As has been documented before, the "Maiybe the dingo aite your bai-bee" line is a spoof on the (1984?) movie "A Cry In The Dark" starring Meryl Streep and Sam Neill. It was a cinematic version of a famous contemporary Australian court case in which a woman's baby disappeared while the family was camping at Ayres Rock. The woman was accused of murdering the child, perhaps in a ritual religious ceremony, while she steadfastly maintained that a dingo (an Australian wild dog) had stolen her baby from the tent and dragged it off. Because the dingo is kind of a symbol of national pride to the Aussies, she was reviled as a liar and murderess. Like most well-known misquoted lines from movies, nobody in the film ever actually SAID "Maiybe the dingo aite your bai-bee." More likely, she would have said something like "The dingo took my bai-bee." or something of the sort. BTW, the movie is rentable on video and well worth seeing.

Lee Salem wrote:

Only if you're not an Aussie :) By the time this movie was made, we were all so thoroughly sick to death of it that nobody bothered. And then there was THAT accent that Meryl tried but failed to do....*grin*

In article , [email] wrote:

:

    It was never said in the movie but she (Lindy Chamberlain the real person
accused of the murder) said it during the court case.
    The case went on for ages she was convicted the first time and has since
gotten the verdict overturned and mas a shit load of money on the way.

I haven't seen the particular episode yet but I'm looking forward to it now.

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Vincent,

I remember that one. I thought she was referring to that movie with Meryl Streep, where she's an Australian who's baby is eaten (surprise) by dingos. I didn't see it, so I don't know the title. It may have been based on a real incident--seems there was some sort of trial in it...

Sorry so vague, anyone else remember it? Maybe five years ago? -Kathy P.

In article , [email] says...

Forget the name of the movie but it starred Sam Neill and Meryl Streep. A dingo stole and killed their baby while in the outback. Based on true story. 'You're Batman.' 'I am Batman.' don...

In article , [email] (Donald Reeser, Jr.) wrote:

I loved that line too and the movie is called "A Cry in the Dark". Chris

In article , [email] (Donald Reeser, Jr.) wrote:

Will you people let this dumb thread die already? The movie is Cry in the Dark.

This may be unrelated, but I'm new to this and was wondering if there is a newsgroup for Ellen? alt.tv.ellen does not work. If there isn't one, then why the hell not?

[email](random person) wrote: