All in a day's work

Glenn Close on taking her dogs to work:

"When I'm shooting DAMAGES, I always take my dogs, Jake and Bill to work. One reason is because I don't want to spend money for a dog-walker, but the main reason is because I can. I have always taken my dogs to whatever set I'm working on, be it a feature film, a TV set or a theater. (When I was in the musical, SUNSET BOULEVARD, my two dogs actually had their own name plaques on my dressing room door---on their eye-level.) Another reason why I take my dogs to work is that they are incredibly well behaved so I know they will not disrupt or distract the cast and crew.

Actually, in the beginning, they did cause a bit of a disruption. We were shooting a scene in an area of Patty's office where there is no carpeting. I suddenly heard the clicking of what I knew were dog toenails! I realized that Bill and Jake, tied to my chair, were pacing back and forth in their attempt to watch the action, their toenails clicking on the linoleum. We had to stop shooting and re-locate them to a more quietly carpeted place--still within eyesight of the action. Another thing I do to prepare them for the set is to exchange their regular collars, loaded with all their noisy dog tags, with two tag-less collars, embroidered with "Bad To The Bone". They get all excited during the collar exchange--Bill must twirl around at least 10 times-- because they know they will be coming with me to the set.

I also allow both the dogs to come on the set during rehearsal. That's the time they go around greeting all the crew and being patted to their hearts' content. They really add to our quality of life, by putting a smile on everyone's faces, even on the hardest, longest days. They take their job as the DAMAGES mascots very seriously and do an incredible job.

So I salute my canine entourage and look forward to DAMAGES--Season III with them trotting behind me or lying just out of camera-range, always keeping a watchful, loving eye. "