Uggie, four-legged star of The Artist, won’t be on the Oscar red carpet next week.
The scene-stealing Jack Russell (10), and winner of the inaugural Golden Collar Award for best dog in a theatrical film, was the underdog for an invite to the biggest bash in the movie industry. But it seems he was barking – silently - up the wrong tree.
"Uggie has not been asked to participate or appear at the Oscars," a spokesperson for The Weinstein Company, distributors of The Artist, told Reuters on Tuesday.
But Uggie has at least one trophy for his own mantlepiece after beating off dogged competition from Blackie the Doberman, star of Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, to scoop the Golden Collar Award. On the night Uggie, resplendent in a red bow tie, performed a number of his party pieces before accepting the honour bestowed by the online magazine, Dog News Daily.
"People don't realize how many hours we put into training these dogs into becoming movie stars, so I'm very happy that this is happening," Uggie's trainer, Omar von Muller, told Reuters at the red carpet ceremony.
But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has left the four-legged thespian in the doghouse for the February 26 ceremony.
Following the news Uggie was unavailable for comment.
