While Sadie the Scottie, West minster’s Best in Show, hit yes terday’s talk-show circuit, I spoke to her parents. And what personal goodie did Sadie get for winning this huge prize? “A hot dog,” said Dan Musser. “She loves hot dogs. Kosher. Nonkosher. Hebrew National. Anything. Any kind.”
Before becoming famous as owners of the country’s best dog, Amelia and Dan Musser were known for owning Michigan’s landmarked Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Listed among America’s historic hotels, since 1887 it has housed from the Duchess of Windsor to Jackie Kennedy. Kept Victorian style by decorator Carleton Varney, this classic American summer place allows no cars. Transportation is horse-drawn carriage. Coat and tie required in the dining room. Its longest veranda anywhere is 660 feet. And 1980’s Chris Reeve-Jane Seymour film “Somewhere in Time” was filmed there.
So, is the grande dame of hotels to be home for the grande dame of hounds?
“Not now,” said Dan Musser. “She’s going to California with her trainer to be bred. He has a wife and three children, so she’ll stay with them. But she’ll come back to Michigan to give birth. She’s used to airplanes because in this campaign year she’s showed someplace every week. She flies under the seat.
“We’ve been showing dogs 50 years. Done Westminster maybe eight times and won Best of Breed, but it’s our first Best in Show. Sadie’s 4½. She started showing two years ago and won 112 Best in Shows countrywide. She won Top Terrier in 2009 and that started her Atomic Year, where she’s so far won every prize there is, beating out 115,000 others. She came into Madison Square Garden as the No. 1 dog of 2009.
“First time a Scottie’s won Westminster Kennel Club since the ’80s.”
And, people, you will kindly remember that before the WKC’s president Dennis Sprung and its top dog Sean McCarthy gave me my down-front seats — way before — I told you the winner would be Sadie. Check my previous columns. I told you.
LITTLE Brown’s “I, Alex Cross,” a whodunit long on the best-seller list, is set in DC. Author James Patter son talks of its premier gossip col umnist who had a fragrance out — as I did — and uses the phrase “Jenna knows” — as I use “Mother knows” — and then explains that in the process of solving their crime they turned to (whatever this character’s name is) who is “The Washington version of Cindy Adams.” Such a great book. Such a great author.
MORE Washington. Evan Bayh says he’s splitting because our capi tal’s no good, Congress is a mess, politicians are poopy. And VP Joe Biden says Washington is broken. So my question is, aren’t these the guys supposed to fix it? Isn’t that why we put them there?
DESIGNER Zac Posen on Dubya‘s niece Lauren having worked as an intern: “No special treatment. She sewed animals’ eyes, straight from the taxidermist onto clothes. And sourced glass dolls’ eyes. She worked hard. Unfazed. No airs or graces.” . . . Scorsese and De Niro teaming to remake “Taxi Driver” . . . Ashton Kutcher: “For initiation in high school wrestling, they stripped me down and duct-taped me to a pole during volleyball practice.” . . . Liv Tyler‘s dyslexia has made her diary a disaster. She says: “Sometimes I can’t even read it. It’s embarrassing. I’ll spell the same word in the same sentence completely differently.”
MORGAN Freeman told me if ever ever his life was ever ever made into a film, he’d want Don Che adle to play him. Fine. Just thought he’d like to know Che adle’s acting debut was as Templeton the Rat in a fifth-grade production of “Charlotte’s Web” . . . Oscar-winning performances don’t always pay. Hilary Swank got $75 a day for “Boys Don’t Cry” . . . Connie Francis, about whom there’s no news lately, recently made news in Fort Lauderdale. Did some American Beach Party with four gay porno muscled beefcakes in bikini bathing suits and thigh-to-crotch tattoos. The incident will make her coming autobio (Part 2), which is to be called “Among My Souvenirs.”
FROM a New York judge: Want some one who eats what’s put in front of him and never says it’s not as good as his mother’s? Get a dog.
Who’ll go out at any hour as long as you like? Get a dog.
Never touch the remote, doesn’t care about football and can snuggle as you watch romantic movies? Get a dog.
Content to get on your bed and warm your feet and you can push off if he snores? Get a dog.
If you want someone who never criticizes, doesn’t care if you’re fat or ugly, who loves you unconditionally, perpetually? Get a dog . . .
BUT if you want someone who never comes when you call, ignores you when you come home, leaves hair everywhere, walks all over you and acts like your entire existence is solely to ensure his happiness? Get a cat.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.