pet connection

E! Online is reporting that maybe (but no one’s sure, really) Paris Hilton is going to do a pet show. The famous for being famous celebrity idiot has almost single-handedly launched the little  dogs  as  fashion accessories for young women concept, which keeps countless puppy-mills and retail puppy-mills outlets dancing with glee.

But a pet show? Uh … E!’s “Ask the Answer Bitch” writes:

The Middle East has had troubles. Paris’ pets have had experiences—if reports are true—that fall somewhere between Lord of the Flies and Guantanamo Bay.

[...] Bunches of tabloids are reporting that Paris has scored a deal with Britain’s Living TV network to follow the heiress as she manages a pet grooming salon on Bond Street. However, when I contacted the network, they seemed as bewildered as a flock of underfed Chihuahuas.

“This one’s not us, I’m afraid,” a Living spokeswoman just told me via email. “It was misreported in yesterday’s Daily Star Sunday that it was, and I’m afraid I’m not sure what channel it is.”

Hilton’s reps didn’t return a request for comment, so if there is a show like this in the works—anywhere—the details remain a mystery.

Either way, it might not be the best idea. If there is a celebrity out there who has a rep for being a good pet mommy, it’s not Paris.

The rest outlines the troubles Ms. Hilton has with caring for her pets. At least the ones we know about, that is. Geez, can’t she just hire some help? And leave the puppy-mill retail outlets alone?

Elsewhere: A story on Pope Benedict’s longstanding love of cats is the most e-mailed piece on the New York Times Web site for days running now:

Though Benedict is the first pope to be written about by a cat, he falls squarely within a long Vatican tradition. According to “The Papacy: An Encyclopedia,” by Philippe Levillain, Pope Paul II, in the 15th century, had his cats treated by his personal physician. Leo XII, in the 1820s, raised his grayish-red cat, Micetto, in the pleat of his cassock. And according to The Times of London, Paul VI, pope from 1963 to 1978, is said to have once dressed his cat in cardinal’s robes.

When Cardinal Ratzinger was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the German newspaper Bild wrote, he tended to the cats that frequented the garden of the congregation’s building in the Vatican and bandaged their wounds.

I didn’t find the piece that interesting at all, but as a very lapsed Catholic (after 13 years of Catholic schooling, thankyouverymuch) I may be immune to Pope-mania. Christie, also tormentededucated by Catholic schools, may be the same.