Last week, the worlds of entertainment and purebred dog rearing lost a giant with the passing ofCatherine O'Haraat the age of 71. Our thoughts go out to Cookie Fleck's family and her hundreds of ex-boyfriends.
The days since O'Hara's death have shown just how much impact a truly superb sense of humor can have on the world. O'Hara's body of work is one of the most diverse lists of all-time great comedy projects, such asHome Alone,BeetlejuiceandSCTV, but many of her fans most closely associate her with mockumentary kingChristopher Guestand his many oddball films.
And, for the dog-lovers in the O'Hara fandom, one Guest-starred-and-directed comedy stands out as the most deserving of a blue ribbon:Best in Showthe 2000 send-up of the world of competitive dog shows.
This week marked the 150th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York City, where the most prestigious organization in pure-breeding played a touching tribute video to the late, great mother to the award-winning Winky:
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Fittingly, the Westminster Kennel Club played the career retrospective for O'Hara during the judging of the Norwich terriers, which is the breed of the top-prize-winning dog Winky who belonged to Cookie and Gerry Fleck inBest in Show. And, in a moment of pure serendipity, a dog named Cookie won the Toy Group category, which bodes well for the championship potential of the undoubtedly numerous litters that she'll have throughout her life.
At the time of writing, the Westminster Kennel Club has yet to release the full tribute video they showed for O'Hara, but the reaction in the MSG audience tells us everything we need to know about her legacy in the world of canine competitions.
In a stacked ensemble cast that included Jane Lynch and Jennifer Coolidge, Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock and Parker Posey, and, of course, Guest himself, O'Hara and her fellowSCTValumnus Eugene Levy stood out as the most endlessly entertaining and entirely hilarious couple of contestants in the film, which is probably why Guest decided to write them in as the eventual victors.
I sincerely hope that O'Hara was looking down on the MSG crowd and smiling when the Westminster Kennel Club honored her life and career – and I hope Fred Willard was there, too, begging her to guess how much he could bench press.
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