Posted on 05/24/2003 7:40:30 PM PDT by yonif
MTV, the music video cable station, has selected Becky Griffin, a 25-year-old Israeli as its newest European station video jockey (VJ). Griffin, an American olah to Israel, was selected over 200 other Israelis, including local celebrities. She will be broadcasting for MTV Europe from London, starting with the weekly Dance Floor Charts countdown. Israel 21c, an Israeli culture and business website, quoted Eric Kearly, manager of MTV Europe, as saying that Griffin “has a very professional attitude and the camera just loves her.” Israeli pop music journalist and historian Benny Dudkevitch may have put his finger on another reason for her selection over other Israelis, when he quipped, “her English is for sure better than mine.”
Griffin lived in the Massachusetts and Maine before making aliyah with her family at the age of ten. Her father, 1980s Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball player Bob Griffin, was somewhat of a local celebrity; however, for Becky, arriving in a new country at that age, she told the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, was a difficult adjustment. She explained that she worked very hard to lose her American accent. Ironically, that very accent may have served her well during hert MTV VJ auditions.
Another Israeli, Eden Harel, was a VJ at MTV for five years, from 1995 - 2000. Her reported popularity was so great that it inspired MTV to search for another Israeli VJ this year.
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