voice – Michmutters

Pat Carroll — best known for voicing underwater villain Ursula in Disney’s 1989 The Little Mermaid — has died, aged 95.

Carroll’s daughter, Tara Karsian, confirmed the actor’s death on Instagram with a post praising her mother’s iconic laughter.

“We ask that you honor her by having a raucous laugh at absolutely anything today (and everyday forward) because besides her brilliant talent and love, she leaves my sister Kerry and I with the greatest gift of all, imbuing us with humor and the ability to laugh … even in the saddest of times,” Ms Karsian said.

The actor’s other daughter, Kerry Karsian, said Carroll died at her home in Cape Cod, in the US state of Massachusetts on Saturday.

Carroll’s first film role came in 1948, in Hometown Girl, but she found her stride in television.

She won an Emmy for her work on the sketch comedy series Caesar’s Hour in 1956, was a regular on Make Room for Daddy with Danny Thomas, a guest star on The DuPont Show with June Allyson, and a variety show regular stopping by The Danny Kaye Show, The Red Skelton Show and The Carol Burnett Show.

However, she’s best known for her role as Ursula in The Little Mermaid, with her throaty rendition of Poor Unfortunate Souls making her one of Disney’s most memorable villains.

Carroll would often say that Ursula was one of her favorite roles.

She said she saw her as an “Ex-Shakespearean actress who now sold cars.”

“She’s a mean old thing,” Carroll said in an interview.

“I think people are fascinated by mean characters.

“There’s a fatal kind of distraction about the horrible, mean characters of the world because we don’t meet too many of them in real life.

“So, when we have a chance, theatrically, to see one — and this one, she’s a biggie — it’s kind of fascinating for us.”

In a statement on Twitter, Disney Music said “we are deeply saddened” by Carroll’s death.

“We will forever treasure and remember her iconic portrayal of Ursula and performance of Poor Unfortunate Souls,” it said.

AP/ABC

The Albanese government’s proposal to enshrine an Indigenous advisory body in the constitution should include words that formally recognize Indigenous people as Australia’s first inhabitants, advocate Noel Pearson says.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese outlined the core three sentences of a draft constitutional change in a speech to the Garma Festival of Aboriginal culture on the weekend.

Those three sentences would establish a Voice, with a role of advising the parliament and the executive, with its exact powers to be defined by the parliament in future legislation.

But right before outlining the proposed words, the prime minister said the change would be “in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the First Peoples of Australia”.

Mr Pearson said it was important that those introductory words themselves be written into the constitution, alongside the enshrinement of the Voice.

“I think that they’re important words to retain as a prelude to those … substantive sentences,” he said.

7.30 host Sarah Ferguson asked if that recognition needed to be “spelled out” in a clause of the constitution, or whether it could be sufficiently “implicit” in the creation of the Voice.

But Mr Pearson said again the words of recognition were an important inclusion.

“It would adorn the substantive words,” he said.

Voice proposal ‘constitutionally conservative’ and practical

Anthony Albanese speaks from a podium on a stage at the Garma Festival — Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at the Garma Festival on Saturday.(ABC News: Michael Franchi)

Mr Pearson said the Voice proposal should appeal to “constitutional conservatives” because it respected the primacy of the constitution and the parliament.

“This isn’t a proposition that has its origins in a leftist proposal. And in my view, this is the formula for success, because we need conservative constitutionals and conservatives and Liberals generally, to join this journey to complete the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”

Mr Pearson said he was “extremely moved” by Mr Albanese’s speech at Garma.

“I didn’t know that he could connect with me in that way.” Mr Pearson said.

yin and yang

The Opposition’s shadow attorney-general, Julian Leeser, has left the door open to the Coalition supporting the proposal while calling on the government to release more detail about the body’s role.

Indigenous Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has called the Voice an exercise in “virtue signaling” over practical action.

But Mr Pearson said the Voice could do both: symbolically representing Indigenous Australians in the nation’s most important legal document, and practically improving the lives of Indigenous people.

“The practical dimension is the kind of the yin to the yang,” he said.

“And my view is that a Voice will achieve both. It will symbolize the recognition of the voices of the original Australians. But it will also result in better laws and policies.”

Mr Pearson said he had met recently with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who he said was “absolutely sincere” in his publicly stated concerns about welfare in Aboriginal communities.

He said he would soon meet with Mr Dutton again, and was optimistic about his potential support for the model.

“This is a modest proposition, modest but profound, capable of being consistent with liberal and conservative thinking,” he said.

“I look forward to speaking with him again.”

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