WTF: IMDb Has Gone to the Dogs!

Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 20, 2008

Normally I don’t take suggestions for my WTF articles. Instead, I surf the internet early in the week to find something that literally makes me do a double-take to the computer screen and yell my now-famous catch phrase.

However, this week’s WTF comes courtesy of our intrepid DVD hound Brian Gibson, and rather than inspiring rage, it’s just made me wonder…

Earlier this week, Brian sent me a link to an IMDb listing. Before you read the rest of this article, click on this link and check out the entry. I’ll wait…

…

Okay, now that you’ve looked, everyone say it with me:

What the four-legged friend?

Back in my days of doing independent film, it was a badge of honor to get an IMDb listing. Now, it seems that any slob who owns a video camera and has a YouTube account can get listed. (Of course, real Hollywood insiders know that much of the day-to-day power lies in the hands of folks who are never listed.)

But still… Kuma has a listing (which is not to be confused with Kuma, an early-90s production designer whose only credits include Ultraman: Towards the Future). What’s more, the canine Kuma currently ranks #25,531 on the IMDb STARmeter.

To put this in perspective, Kuma is more popular with IMDb users than your average rank-and-file SAG member. Kuma’s got television credits, movie credits and even a “Trivia” section, which lists his skills as picking up coins and identifies that he is only two degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon.

Now, I love dogs dearly, but it’s a little much for one to have an IMDb listing. I give massive kudos to his owner, production-assistant-turned-animal-wrangler Sarah Clifford (whose other dog Max the Chihuahua also has an IMDb page but ranks way down the STARmeter at #152,104). Clifford’s latest project… Vacancy 2 in the role of “maggot wrangler.”

Still, while she’s wrangling maggots, she’s definitely moving up in Hollywood (her STARmeter number is 134,443), and she’s certainly learned to sell her dogs.

But I can’t help but wonder… How many more dogs, cats, monkeys and maggots are getting IMDb listings? And how many of them have a STARmeter rank higher than my paltry position at #591,640?

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