Hugo star Blackie the Doberman is expected to secure a nomination at this year’s Golden Collar Awards after a campaign by Martin Scorsese.

In a letter to the LA Times, the director complained that Blackie had not been recognised in the ‘best dog in a theatrical film’ category.

He urged readers to contact the awards’ organisers to support the canine.

Dog Daily News agreed it would add Blackie to the category if it received 500 write-in nominations.

The canine starred in the Oscar-nominated film as an attack dog owned by a train station officer, played by Sacha Baron Cohen.

“How could she not be nominated?” Scorsese wrote in his letter, noting the two nominations Uggie the Jack Russell scored for The Artist and Water for Elephants.

“Jack Russell terriers are small and cute. Dobermans are enormous and – handsome,” the director said.

“More tellingly, Uggie plays a nice little mascot who does tricks and saves his master’s life in one of the films, while Blackie gives an uncompromising performance as a ferocious guard dog who terrorises children.

“I’m proud of Blackie, who laid it on the line and dared to risk the sympathy of her audience.”

’6th nominee’

In response, Dog News Daily said: “Rather than engage in a war of words over the merits of the brilliant and nimble Jack Russell versus the imposing stature of a handsome Doberman, we will do what Mr Scorsese so eloquently requests.”

It said if it received 500 write-in nominations for Blackie via its Facebook page by 6 February, “the Golden Collar nominating committee will request that the panel of 14 judges add Hugo’s Blackie as the 6th nominee”.

More than 400 supporters have so far submitted write-in nominations in the 24 hours since Scorsese’s letter was published so it is expected that number will be reached.

Also vying for Top Dog at the Golden Collars are Cosmo from Ewan McGregor film Beginners, Denver from comedy drama 50/50 and Hummer from Charlize Theron film Young Adult.

Click here to read Martin Scorsese’s awesome letter.

While preparing for their roles, Liam Neeson and other “The Grey” cast members crossed the line from fantasy into reality: as a form of method acting, they requested real frozen wolf meat to be flown in to their filming location in Alaska.

Though the wolf was already dead prior to the actors’ request, it is unclear why the animal was killed.

The movie’s subject matter, combined with the actors’ unnecessary consumption of real wolf meat, are disrespectful to these native creatures and will perpetuate negative stereotypes of wolves. Please sign the petition to boycott this irresponsible film.

Click here to sign.

Tom Hayden is trying to give Jerry Brown a guilt trip.

The “Chicago Seven” activist who stormed the 1968 Democratic National Convention and later married Jane Fonda has asked the California governor to consider his own dog, Sutter, before repealing the state law that lengthened the amount of time animal shelters must hold stray and abandoned pets before euthanizing them.

In an online video posted on YouTube, Hayden explains that as a state senator he wrote the legislation in 1998 to make euthanization a last resort and give animal owners a chance to recover their pets. The mandate, which has been suspended since 2009, is one of roughly 30 that Brown wants to eliminate to save money in the next fiscal year.

“Governor, I see you’re a dog owner. I can tell from the publicity that you love that dog, your wife loves that dog,” Hayden says in the video. “So stop and think: Thousands of dogs and cats are put to death needlessly every year. It’s not a budget issue…. It is a humane issue. And I urge you to look at your dog before you allow this bill that protects animals to die.”

Since Brown’s inauguration last year, Sutter has been a bona fide celebrity — at least by Sacramento standards. After Sutter attracted front-page headlines and Capitol admirers, the governor’s office created an official website and Facebook page for the first dog. An unofficial Twitter account has thousands of followers.

Brown himself has used the canine as a political prop, taking him into budget negotiations with dog-loving Republicans and offering him to the state GOP as his surrogate to debate the anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist.

According to Brown’s Department of Finance, the governor wants to repeal the shelter mandate “because it is more appropriate to allow local governments to determine how long to care for certain animals.”

Asked for a response, Brown’s press office sent the following: “Sutter could not be reached for comment.”

Tom Hanks and Monty.

The star of such movie classics as “Apollo 13″ and “Forest Gump” shared with his Twitter followers the loss of his dog Monty on January 19, posting the above image of his beloved pet with the caption “Monty. Deep brown eyes, noble demeanor, finest dog ever. A sad day. Goodbye Big Boy.”

The Dog Files would like to express our sadness in the passing of Monty. RIP.

Kevin Bacon and his beloved pup, Paulie.

Sadly, six degrees of Kevin Bacon now includes doggie heaven.

The “My Dog Skip” star and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, are in mourning after losing their aging pet pooch, Paulie.

Bacon announced the death of his beloved black Lab mix Monday on his WhoSay page, writing, “Paulie 1999-2012. Sleep well old friend.”

His missus subsequently thanked Twitter followers for their condolences over the sad news.

“I so deeply appreciate the kind words about Paulie,” she tweeted.

The couple’s best friend had been suffering from health problems the last few months, including a bum leg that Kevin revealed his pooch was sufferering from in a

WhoSay post back in November.

“My man Paulie home from the hospital,” he wrote, along with a picture posted of Paulie with a bandaged hind leg.

The celebrity couple adopted the dog from a vet and he’d been in the family ever since.

Major League Baseball's Mark Buehrle and Slater the Pit Bull.

Mark Buehrle’s left arm may have been greeted warmly down in south Florida this offseason, but the same can’t be said for one of his family’s four dogs.

According to the Miami Herald, “Slater” Buehrle, an 18-month-old American Staffordshire terrier, falls under a pitbull ban that has been in place in Miami-Dade County since 1989. That means the Buehrle family didn’t have the option of moving anywhere close to the Miami Marlins’ new ballpark after Mark signed a four-year, $58 million deal with the team last month.

Mark Buehrle, a dog lover who made headlines when he said he hoped Michael Vick would get hurt, avoided the ban by moving his family to a dog-friendly development in south Broward County. And while he says he wouldn’t have signed with the Marlins if there had been no housing alternatives for Slater and the rest of his family, Buehrle still wants to speak up against the injustice of the ban.

From the Miami Herald:

Mark Buehrle grew up with cats, rabbits and fish, but got his first dog with Jamie. They married in 2005 and are spokespeople for Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society, which accepted 22 of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick’s pit bulls.

The Buehrles have three other dogs — Viszlas named Diesel, Drake and Duke — and adopted Slater after Jamie fell in love with him during work with an animal rescue group. Judging from his festive getup in the picture above, he sure doesn’t look too menacing.

Though Slater and the Buehrles were forced to go live elsewhere, perhaps their story will help end a ban that causes a much bigger hardship for other families.

After all, not everyone who moves to Miami-Dade County for a job has the luxury of being able to choose where to live. The awareness the Buehrles are driving could prevent dog owners from having to make a decision they shouldn’t have to in the first place.

While researching her incredible book about Rin Tin Tin, (the Dog Files highly recommends it), Susan learned that Rinty received the most votes at the very first Oscar ceremony, but the Academy, thought that no one would take them seriously, so they awarded it to a man, Emil Jannings.

Check out the entire story right here.

The Dog Files supports Susan Orlean. We hope the academy is listening. If not, we want then to hear us. The Dog Files has stated a petition to get Rin Tin Tin his Best Actor Oscar! Check it out right here! Please share this with all your friends!

Thanks!
Kenn, Max & Remy

Hallmark Channel will present the inaugural American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11. The program, presented by Cesar Canine Cuisine, will also be broadcast for U.S. troops worldwide through Armed Forces Network after its debut on Hallmark.

Hosted by Emmy Award-winning Carson Kressley on Oct. 1, the Hero Dog Awards pay tribute to eight dogs and their handlers — each partnership a testament to the age-old bond between dogs and people.

After a nationwide online search that elicited about 400,000 votes, each dog was selected among hundreds of nominees from all 50 states in one of eight categories: Law Enforcement and Arson Dogs; Service Dogs; Therapy Dogs; Military Dogs; Guide Dogs; Search and Rescue Dogs; Hearing Dogs; and Emerging Hero Dogs, a category that highlights ordinary pets who do extraordinary things. At the end of the evening, one dog was named the overall “American Hero Dog.”

Celebrity judges and presenters on hand for the festivities included Betty White, Peter Fonda, Faith Ford, Pauley Perrette, Michael Vartan, Jason Lewis, Candy Spelling, Victoria Stillwell and Joey Lawrence.

You can find more about each of the eight dogs and their stories at the Hero Dog Awards website.

This Great Dane is a real canine super star after officially being recognized as the world’s tallest female dog – standing 5ft 11in on her hind legs!

Weighing more than 154 lbs., Nova, who lives with owner Ann Suplee in Addison, Illinois, was only recently given the title by The Guinness Book of World Records.

Taking her place in the record books after the previous record holder died, Nova still sleeps in Suplee’s queen-sized bed like a young puppy.

Four inches taller than her father and eight inches taller than her mother, Nova eats up to 30 lbs of food a week.

“It took a lot of paperwork and a lot of footwork to secure the record, but it was all totally worth it and great fun,” Suplee says.

“I wanted to get Nova this recognition, because she’s such a good dog and she deserves it.

Now when people comment on her height, I get to reply, “’Yes, you’re right, she’s the world’s tallest female dog!’”

Inspired to go for the record after the number of comments the dog received in the park from fellow pet owners, she said she’s proud of her prized pooch.

“I call her Super-Nova and I even dressed her up in a Superman cape during the last pet parade in Addison,” Suplee says

“Nova knows her own size, but with a simple ‘excuse me’ she will move out of the way, and is very careful around my three-year-old grandson who’s now at eye-level with her tail.”

Suplee feeds her dog watermelon as a treat. The gentle giant often gets scared by smaller dogs barking at her in fright.

“We don’t know whether it was the good food we fed Nova when she was a puppy, or some throwback genes, but I think it’s all the love and affection we’ve given her through the years that made her so big,” Suplee says.