ABC/KATHERINE BOMBOY-THORNTONThere's a saying in the South: A cat can have her kittens in the oven, but that don't make 'em biscuits!
The opposite applies, too—meaning, a house cat might descend from tigers, but she better not try her luck in the jungle. Essentially, all this means is that being "Southern" entails way more than having distant relatives from the area. There's a warmth and hospitality to this family-focused culture, which is probably what accounts for so many non-Southerners claiming to be part of it.
Reese Witherspoon, Justin Timberlake, Matthew McConaughey, Dolly Parton, Aziz Ansari, Oprah Winfrey, Kelly Clarkson, Selena Gomez, and yes, 2014 CMA Awards co-hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are upstanding, good people who present themselves with poise and manners. They also all (legit) came from the South!
Now, these faux-Southerners below are the real-deal, too, in how they act, but it's disingenuous to call any one of them a "Southern superstar." Bless their hearts, though—they sure want to be, so perhaps honorary Southerner would be a kinder term. In any case, let's meet 'em.
Blake Lively: In 2012, the Gossip Girl star married Ryan Reynolds at Boone Hall, a plantation just outside of Charleston, S.C. In Fall 2014, her lifestyle website Preserve did a spread inspired by the "authenticity and allure" of the South's "Antebellum period," even encouraging readers to, "Embrace the season and the magic below the Mason-Dixon with styles as theatric as a Dixie drawl."
And while Blake recently told E! News she's from "a big family...a big family of Southerners," she herself was born and raised in California and now counts Martha Stewart as her upstate New York neighbor.
Taylor Swift: The "Welcome to New York" singer (and the city's official tourism ambassador) has only recently returned to her Yankee roots. She was born and raised in Pennsylvania and spent summers at her family's New Jersey because house, but at 14, the Swifts moved to Nashville so Taylor could pursue her country music dreams. In 2006 she released her debut self-titled album, and with tracks like "Tim McGraw" and "Our Song", she very much emanated a sweet Southern sound—dropped g's, banjo chords and all! Over the next decade, her sound evolved, and it wasn't until this year that the 24-year-old released her first straight-up pop album, 1989.
Hayden Panettiere: Her accent on Nashville's pretty convincing, but this born-and-raised New York gal didn't plant her Southern roots until her hit show kicked off in 2012. Still, the mom-to-be finds that the country capital "suits me better," she told Southern Living, which is why she decided to make a permanent move to Tennessee. "My mom is from Kentucky and my grandmother is from Corpus Christi, so I had a better understanding of the South than the average person moving from New York" she said. "At my core, this is the kind of person I am and want to be. I like being in a place where people appreciate the little things and don't need a lot of stuff to be happy. You can put a group of Southerners in any scenario and they'll have a good time."
Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban: The actress and her hubby both love their native Australia, but they're truly at home in the Southeast United States! Nicole described Nashville as "the warmest, loveliest community I've ever set foot in," telling USA Today, "For me, it's the perfect place to live. To me it's the best part of America."
"Keith's lived there for 20 years," she went on. "The country music community is very tight. I like the South. I like that it's slower. I like the polite nature of it. No traffic. I'm a big Southern girl now. It just suits me.
Josh Hutcherson & Jennifer Lawrence :The Hunger Games co-stars both hail from Kentucky, something Josh told Yahoo OMG "was very much a connection" when they first met. Most consider the Bluegrass state to be a region all its own, but Josh felt he and Jen had "a certain kind of understanding of the South and the same [type of] upbringing..."
Goodness gracious! Regardless of where you're from, mind your manners like all these lovely people, and make sure to tune in to the 48th Annual CMA Awards Nov. 5 on ABC.