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American Morning

Showbiz Today Reports: Hollywood's Actor Dogs Subject of New Book

Aired June 14, 2001 - 10:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, everyone. I'm Michael Okwu, in New York.

You can trace man's best friend back to the movie world's very beginning. Ever-faithful canines have made us laugh, and they've made us cry. Now the four-legged thespians are the subject of a book called "Movie Mutts," chock full of trivia, photos, and all kinds of pages worthy of being dog-eared.

CNN's Bill Tush met up with the book's authors for -- dare I say it -- a dog day afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Give me your paw, Coco. Give me your paw.

(voice-over): So Coco doesn't know the tricks to make her a movie star, but she was able to help her human, Stephen Silverman, and write "Movie Mutts: Hollywood Goes to the Dogs." It's something canine companions have been doing since the days of Charlie Chaplin.

STEPHEN SILVERMAN: He went through 20 dogs in the rehearsal and raided the pound in Los Angeles until he found the right sort of doleful-looking dog -- and he got a mutt.

TUSH: When it comes to Hollywood stardom, that term "a dog's life" means only good things.

SILVERMAN: Chaplin's dog remained on salary at the studio. Rin Tin Tin had a mansion in Beverly Hills. Lassie is very well cared for.

Probably Lassie is best known of all doggie stars, making her debut in 1943's "Lassie Come Home," to her last feature to date, simply called "Lassie," in 1994.

(on camera): I wonder how many Lassies there have been.

SILVERMAN: By the '70s, they were in to the sixth generation of Lassies, that I know. I don't know what it is now.

TUSH: But they were all from the original Lassie. SILVERMAN: All from the original.

TUSH (voice-over): Not always the case for some long-running favorites -- Benji, for instance.

SILVERMAN: Benji was a mutt -- a real mutt -- and by the time Benji made the movie, he was old, he was 14, and had been on "Petticoat Junction" all those years.

TUSH (on camera): That was Benji?

SILVERMAN: Yes, under the name of Higgins. Benji was sort of a has-been and was so old that he never did the sequels.

TUSH (voice-over): Then there are some that really do work like a dog. Look at Frasier's pooch.

SILVERMAN: We all know how grueling a TV schedule is, on top of which, he was appearing in luggage ads and was in "My Dog Skip."

TUSH: Comedy to drama -- now that's some range for Rover.

And they can be temperamental.

SILVERMAN: Myrna Loy, when they were making the "The Third Man" series, said her initial run-in with Asta was he bit her.

TUSH: How about "Cats & Dogs"? That mixture's coming this summer, and Eddie Murphy brings his four-legged pal back in "Dr. Dolittle 2."

As for "Movie Mutts"'s co-author Coco, her day may still come.

SILVERMAN: "Playboy" magazine did a spread in my apartment -- a photo shoot, I should say -- and Coco was there, and she got in some of the shots.

TUSH: Now that's one lucky dog.

Bill Tush, CNN Entertainment News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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