by William RuhlmannAt a time when Barry Manilow can top the charts singing pop songs of the 1950s and Rod Stewart can sell millions by massacring the Great American Songbook, it's no wonder that others would try their hand. French film and TV actress Arielle Dombasle, who was actually raised in Mexico, went after South of the Border pre-rock pop standards on her 2004 set Amor Amor (released in the U.S. earlier in 2006); here, she takes on quasi-French material of the 1930s-1950s like Cole Porter's "C'Est Magnifique" and the Doris Day hit "Que Sera Sera." In fact, she seems to have a thing for her cinematic predecessors, giving listeners her own versions of songs introduced by the likes of Ginger Rogers, Marlene Dietrich, and even Carmen Miranda. She does so in a heavily accented, keening, birdlike voice that does no great favors to lyricists such as Dorothy Fields and Al Dubin. The soupy arrangements of Jean-Pascal Beintus aren't much help, either, and the pink bubblegum packaging, emblazoned with such slogans as "Who said blondes are dumb?," makes the whole album seem like some sort of Gallic joke. Maybe that's what it is, but if so that joke isn't particularly funny.