A few years back, I heard a Congressman from Massachusetts speaking on TV in a "standard accent" (obviously not one of the Kennedy's) until he got to the word farm which came out fay..yuh..wum.

IMO, Kelly Pickler torpedoed herself on American Idol partially by never having learned to drop her "country" twang on non-country songs - "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" aihuhyum aaiiieee (am I) was particularly painful. Not just that the accent, but having to slide through three different vowels on what's supposed to be one long pure note. On the other hand, hearing a classically trained singer butchering a pop song with pure Italian vowels can be pretty funny.