Bulldog Articles
Bulldogs Take over HOLYWOOD
Article by Sandy Robins from Bulldogs Magazine(Vol. 25, 2nd Edition)
The English Bulldog has been a firm favorite in Holywood for decades. Over the years, they have won the hearts of movie audiences worldwide in several top-grossing movies, indeibly made their mark with their antics in classic animated cartoons and are constantly in the spotlight as the favored canine companion of many entertaiment celebrities. With their massive wrinkles and sagging chins, waddle walk and Marilyn Monroe breathy wheezy, the Bulldog is the antithesis of the Holywood standard in the lithe-and-lean looks departement. Further, they have a reputation for being stubborn and obeying a trainer's commands on their own time, sometimes deeming it totally unnecessary to respond at all.
So what is Holywood's fascination and continuing love affair with these dogs all about? Simply put, Bulldogs have that one quality that the entertaiment world has built an industry around: real animal attraction. This atribute is further personified by their easygoing natures and natural ability to befriend everyone they meet as well as other animals.
As a Hollywood favorite, they draw a wide a varied celebrity fan base, from comedian Adam Snadler to someone like radio personality Howard Stern, whose stocky companion is named Bianca Romijn-Stanos-O'Connell, after the acctress Rebecca Romijn-Stam0s-O'Connell. Stern is said to be besotted with her (the Bulldog, that is) and loves to walk her in NYC's Central Park.
A Quick History Lesson
To understand the varied roles Bulldogs have played in Hollywood, it's essential to look back at their breed history. The ancestor of the modern Bulldog breed was raised for the cruel blood sport of bull-baiting that was popular in the 17th century. The dogs were trained to leap at a bull lashed to a post and taught to launch onto its snout in an attempt to suffocate it. WHilese there ferocious and aggressive tendencies have long since been bred out of the breed, they set the guidelines for the cartoon Bulldogs in early animated films.
Spike, a popular character in the Tom and Jerry cartoons and undoubtedly the most famous cartoon Bulldog of all time, made his screen debut in the early 1940s and was sometimes known as "Butch" or "Killer". His stern character was drawn from this stereotype and given the added angry persona by his huge spiked collar. Despite the fact that he disaproved of cats, his creators, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, gave him a softer side by making him sympathetic to mice and making him extremely ticklish. He got his first role in the short called "The Bodyguard," with a voice that sounded a lot like gruffly Jimmy Durante. In 1949, Spike was given a puppy son named Tyke, and the two of them continued to dominate the cartoon series for the next couple of decades and finally made it into several full-length animated direct-to-video films in 2001.
Hector, the Bulldog featured with Tweety and Sylvester in a number of Looney Tunes cartoons, also wore the spiked collar to give him tough appeal, but because his creators made him pigeon-toed, he was more comical than tough. Then there was March Anthony, another burly Bulldog, who was besotted with a kitten named Pussyfoot. While popular in their day, this duo retired from the silver screen in the late 1950s.
The Big Screen Debut
It is perhaps funnyman Adam Sandler who is largely responsible for the current reign of Bulldog popularity in Hollywood. His beloved Meatball was best man at his wedding to model Jackie Titone in 2003. Footage of the dog wearing a tuxedo and a yarmulke while runnning down the aisle with the ring on a cushion strapped to his back is on Sandler's website (www.adamsandler.com), along with a wonderful tribute to this dogg, who passed away from heart problems in 2004. 
Comedian Adam Snadler takes his Bulldog Matzoball(on the left and right) all around Holywood 
And there is a lot more doggie footage for fans to view of Meatball, as well as Sandler's current Bulldog, Matzoball.
Matzoball is purported to go to work with Sandler, and judging by the number of photographs of the twosome around town and on the beach, they are inseparable, and the dog is very much a family member of the Sandler household. She was, however, a little miffed when the Sandler's first child arrived. "Matzoball has been very sweet to my daughter, but initially she was little heartbroken, wondering why all the attention wasn't on her anymore," said Sandler in the July 23,2007, issue of People Magazine.
Sandler's love for the breed traces its roots to his 2000 film Little Nicky, which Sandler co-wrote and co-produced. The movie features a Bulldog named Beefy who was actually played by several dogs trained by veteran Holywood animal-actor trainer Steve Berens. It seems that Spike is a popular name for Bulldogs in the movies. Unlike the character in Tom and Jerry cartoons, the Spike in the 2007 Disney film The Game Plan is a real dog. The movie stars Duan "The Rock" Johnson as Joe Kingman, a superstar football quarterback whose life with his pet dog vhanges drastically when a young girl shows up at his door, claiming to be his daughter.
Two dogs named Tubbs and Tank shared the role. Both dogs were put through their paces because there were quite a few challenging tasks for them to perform in the film. In one scene, the dog has to open a bedroom door and pull a suitcase out from under a bed. To assist the dog, the lightweight door was partially ajar so he could easily push it farther open when cued by an off-screen trainer. One trainer then held the dog near the bed while another trained hid under the bed with the dog's favorite toy and encouraged him to grab the toy and pull. The two scenes were edited together in post-production.
Spike was undoubtedly as much a star of the film as The Rock himself. However only one dog- and the producers are keeping mum whether it was Tubbs or Tank- made it onto the red carpet when the film premiered in Holywood.
Reality Bulldogs
Because Bulldogs have such a wonderful, easygoing natures and are always ready to be involved with everyone and everything around them, it follows that America's most lovably dysfunctional family, the Osbournes, would have such a dog as part of their pack. And Lola didn't disappoint in the family's reality show, which was a huge hit for several reasons.
Lola is son Jack's dog and totally devoted to him; so much so that when Jack left the house during the show, his mom Sharon, was purported to say that the dog had to go into grief therapy. On screen, Lola took out her frustration by peeing on everything, chewing furniture and vomiting. Father Ozzy reacted on camera by mumbling four-letter expletives and simply muddling on. Not to be outdone by Jack, daughter Kelly also adopted a Bulldog who she named Piglet and promptly dyed pink. That ruffled a few feathers and got PETA talking about irresponsible pet ownership. But one thing you can't fault the Osbournes on their genuine love and affection for dogs in general.
Nothing highlight the diversity of Bulldog owners and the fact that there is no single Bulldog owner stereotype more than MTV's Rob & Big.