Truly Squirrelly Actors

Oddball director Tim Burton used real rodents in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, creating sweet jobs for dozens of silver-screen squirrels. Steve Vedmore, an animal trainer who worked on the film, told BBC News that some docile squirrels learned tricks quickly and became "hero" animals, while aggressive squirrels became "runners." The rodents' work rules sound suspiciously cushy, even by Hollywood standards. "The American Humane Society insists that for every animal you use as a hero you have two backups, like a human actor has a stand-in or double that does the running, so you don't burn any one animal out," Vedmore said. Nevertheless, a spokesman for the Captive Animals' Protection Society worried that the squirrels might suffer during training, filming or the tough transition back to normal life. Wonder if they got their SAG cards?
-- Lewis Wallace