I love a kooky old person – every time I meet someone with that kind of personality I look forward to being able to have a dozen cats and eat ice cream for breakfast, the kind of things you can’t do when you’re younger. When you’re old people say “oh, she hasn’t got much longer to live, let her have her fun” which is really quite depressing when you think about it. When you’re young they say “Get rid of the cats and get a man!” which is a bit sad too.

Anyway, when I grow old I want to be like Shirley Maclaine except with cats instead of 12 dogs:

Veteran actress Shirley Maclaine is convinced her pet dog can communicate with her. The Terms Of Endearment star owns 11 other canines but insists her relationship with rat terrier Terry is so unique, pet and owner understand one another. She says, “I talk to her and she answers me. I have serious discussions with her and I’m convinced that on some level she really listens. “She is selective about the questions she answers, though. For instance, she likes the question, ‘What shall we do next in the kitchen?’ Other questions she just thinks are a waste of time.”

Contact Music

Is there an old saying with something along the lines of ‘You aren’t crazy until they answer back’? Although she hasn’t crossed over the line to actually claiming that the terrier speaks, she just communicates.

As soon as I read this two thoughts came to mind. The first was that I suspect Shirley Maclaine lives alone, as in without any human companionship. I was right, although according to Wikipedia she shares a birthday with Barbara Streisand and they celebrate together every year.

The second was that there’s another dog lover in Hollywood that I can really see heading down that path of talking to the animals and generally seeming a bit strange - Denise Richards. Here’s a link to a video of Denise on “The Dog Whisperer”

Note by Celebitchy: Shirley Maclaine published a book in 2003 about her psychic relationship with her dog called “Out on a Leash: Exploring the Nature of Reality and Love.” The first paragraph, available on Amazon.com describes how she knows she’s capable of unconditional love because of the way she relates to her dog in both the serious and playful times. Critics have panned the book as rambling and odd. I found this critique from Publisher’s Weekly particularly humorous:

The latest addition to actress MacLaine’s New Age/autobiography oeuvre (Going Within; My Lucky Stars, etc.) is an excellent example of what can happen when a book exists because of its author’s fame instead of her dedication to the craft of writing. Wandering, incoherent and self-congratulatory, MacLaine’s 10th book will not earn her new fans. The book alternates between MacLaine’s own voice and that of her dog, Terry, with whom the author communicates in “humanimal,” which, she says, is a “purer, more direct form of language” than English. Her devotion to Terry is somewhat unnerving; she calls the pet her “heart” and her “new daughter”; later she explains “I know Terry senses my thoughts” and avers that Terry is “holy.” MacLaine uses Terry’s ‘voice’ to point out what a good actress “Mistress Mother” is, to reveal their past lives together in ancient Egypt, and to articulate the opinions that “we never die” and that “nothing is evil.” In her own voice, MacLaine shares more of her belief system-an apparent combination of Nostradamus’ predictions, Hopi and Mayan prophecies, Edgar Cayce’s channelings, Egyptian mythology and the Bible. Along the way, we get brief glimpses of MacLaine’s life that might have proved interesting if they had been developed (e.g., “I missed a lot in my daughter’s life but I did it to avoid imposing on her”), as well as her disconnected musings on nature, the Iraqi war (”I see signs that we are on the cusp of a new and devastating reality”), and dog and human sex. MacLaine’s books have consistently sold well; no doubt those readers who enjoyed her previous volumes will find Terry’s musings on life fascinating as well.

[Publisher’s Weekly review found on Amazon.com]

Yeah, she’s crazy all right, but at least it’s her own brand of crazy and she’s not a cult member. I agree that you can have like a silent communication with your pets where you know what they want and how they’re feeling. Maclaine takes it a bit too far, though. Maybe that’s something she should keep to herself, but she’s never really hesitated to share her spiritual beliefs with anyone who will listen or buy her books.

Maclaine is shown on 12/11/06 at the Dreamgirls Premiere, thanks to PRPhotos. The inset photo is from the cover to her book.

Nicole Richie seems to have postponed her planned wedding to boyfriend Joel Madden until after their baby is born in January. There were reports that she was going to marry Joel sometime this month, but it seems like they are going to wait as we haven’t heard much more about it.

This weeks’ National Enquirer claims that Nicole’s dad, Lionel Richie, told her to hold off getting married until after she had the baby. He’s also said to have promised to foot the entire bill:

[Nicole Richie’s dad] Lionel Richie keeps advising his fragile princess to postpone the wedding, avoid all the nuptual frenzy and just chill! Said a family insider: “Lionel doesn’t think Nicole can handle the stress, and told her: ‘Baby, in life it’s first things first!’” Knowing Nicole’s vulnerable and worried about delivering a healthy baby, Lionel’s assured her that as Father of The Bride, he’ll spend big bucks for a spectacular wedding whenever she wants it - but right now, he wants her to focus solely on the birth.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker’s column, November 12, 2007]

Nicole may be waiting to get married on the advice of her family, but she’s still preparing for the ceremony in little ways. Star Magazine reports that Nicole purchased costumes for her little dogs including a tuxedo for her Shih tzu, Honeychild, and a bridesmaid dress for Foxxy Cleopatra, her Pomeranian. That’s kind of cheesy, but it could also be cute:

[Nicole Richie] recently bought a canine tuxedo for her mutt, Honeychild, and a bridesmaid dress for her Pomeranian, Foxxy Cleopatra, from tony Santa Monica pet store The Wagging Tail. She wants the pooches to walk down the aisle with her when she weds her baby daddy.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, November 12, 2007]

Maybe the outfits were for Halloween, but since they could also serve as doggie wedding attire, it does sound like she’s planning for her pets to walk down the aisle with her. At least she has a soft spot for her animals considering how nasty and cold she’s rumored to be. Hopefully she’ll feel that way about her baby, too

Nicole Richie is shown in the header image on 10/30/07 shopping. Thanks to Splash News for this picture. She is seen with Honeychild and Foxxy Cleopatra in images found at Celebrity Dog Blog.

When the news of the Iggy the Dog story first came out, everyone was feeling sorry for weeping Ellen and the two little girls whose newly adopted dog seemed to be so abruptly snatched from them by the owner of the rescue agency from which Ellen adopted the pup. The owner of the Mutts and Moms agency, Marina Baktis, made a visit to the family of Ellen’s hairdresser after they filled out an online application two weeks after Ellen broke her adoption contract by transferring the dog to them. Instead of working with the family to find a solution for how the dog could stay in his new home, Baktis snatched him up, clutching Iggy for over an hour before the cops came and checked his microchip, which still listed her as his owner. Baktis then absconded with the dog and turned him over to yet a different family after the scandal broke. People were outraged that a slavish attention to legalities and red tape could strip a rescued dog from a loving family who wanted him.

The tide gradually turned on Ellen when we all had more perspective on the situation and realized that she had broke the contract her partner Portia signed under which it was stated that they would return the dog to the agency if he didn’t work out. Some people criticized her for openly weeping on television and bringing the whole media in on the situation, saying that she was abusing her celebrity status over a personal legal issue. A story also came out about another dog that Ellen gave away without notifying the original owner after she adopted him, and Howard Stern made the claim on his show that Ellen had regifted an incredible 9 dogs before, although this was never proven.

Now The Smoking Gun has all the e-mails exchanged between Ellen’s partner Porti DiRossi, the agency owner, Marina Baktis, and Ellen’s hairdresser who received the dog, Cheryl Marks. Baktis sounds perfectly reasonable in telling DiRossi and Marks that the dog was given to a new home in violation of the contract. She seemed willing to work with the new family to ensure that their adoption followed protocol:

Hi Cheryl,
We just spoke with Ellen and Portia. Iggy has to be returned to us today. You are more than welcome to fill out our adoption application online or in the store when you bring Iggy back. If all is well, we can proceed with his adoption to you and you will sign the same contract Portia did that states all of our covenants.

Our address is…

To expedite things, please come with your entire family including your dog. We do not adopt dogs to people we have not met.

I understand that you like Iggy, he’s a great little pup but the way things were done was wrong. This is not your fault or mine. Portia signed a legal, binding contract that if she could not keep Iggy that he would be returned to rescue. She violated the contract she signed and broke our trust. We are more than willing to consider you as a home for Iggy but not without meeting you and not without our process being followed.

Sincerely,
Marina
Mutts and Moms

[E-mail from Marina Baktis to Cheryl Marks dated Sunday, October 14, from The Smoking Gun]

Baktis’ actions afterwards don’t jibe with her written willingness to work with the family. Ellen’s hairdresser told TMZ that when Baktis came over she immediately honed in on the dog and didn’t talk to them much at all. I remember reading that the agency required that there be no children in the home under 14, and this family had two pre-teen daughters. Maybe once they filled out the application Baktis realized that they didn’t meet her agency’s stringent requirements and decided to seize Iggy as soon as possible.

Neither party comes across particularly logical or “right” in this case, and although there was a contract and rules it doesn’t seem like a dog should be removed from a good home if someone gives him away like that. Maybe the best solution would have been to tell the family that Iggy was with them on a trial basis. Their daughters were younger than required, but they were 11 and 12, not toddler-aged children who might grab and abuse a pet. You can tell that both sides just want the best for the dog but neither went about it the right way.

You can read all the e-mails between Di Rossi, Marks and Baktis on The Smoking Gun. Thanks to USWeekly for the heads up.

I’ve said a lot of mean things about Paris Hilton. When you work for an entertainment blog, you actually have to sign a contract saying that you’re willing to do that. But of all the mean things I’ve said about her (vapid, bigfoot, herpes haven, etc) I never thought I’d be writing about the heiress’s love of the raccoons. That’s right, Paris loves some ring-tailed goodness.

Paris Hilton can add another talent to her already expanding list of skills such as ‘model’, ‘actress’, ’singer’ and ‘entrepreneur’. It’s ‘raccoon expert’. And it’ll probably be the only legitimate skill she can claim. Paris claims that her raccoon expertise, like the majority of her ‘talents’, is all thanks to her family inheritance. This time thanks to the genes of her dad, Rick Hilton. The 26-year-old explained all by launching into story that was slightly disturbing to hear from a grown woman.

“My dad has a pet raccoon. He found it as a little baby and raised it. If you get to find them when they’re in the nest and still as babies they’ll open their eyes to you at first and they’ll think you’re their mother,” she enthused. But that’s not all, her raccoon knowledge was actually put to use during the making of her new film ‘Repo, A Genetic Opera’, which may be even worse than watching an entire series of ‘The Simple Life’ and about as convincing as her performance in ‘One Night in Paris.’ Director, Darren Lynn Bousman explained: “We had a family of raccoons on the set. We came back from lunch and they were sitting on chairs and on the actual monitors.” And probably doing a better job than the entire cast. “I wanted to hug them but Paris pointed out they had rabies, so I ran away.”

[From Holy Moly]

Paris is known for her irresponsible love of animals. I say irresponsible because she buys and discards them the way you or I might purchase a video game. She has a Kinkajou named Baby Luv, 2 ferrets (no not Brandon Davis, a real ferret), a self-described “big ass cat,” a chinchilla, and more dogs and cats than I can shake a litter box at. There’s even a website called “Tell Paris No!” (like you’d say to a bad dog, I’m assuming) who’s mission is to dissuade the heiress from collecting more exotic animals that she can’t care for. Something tells me we have Rick Hilton to thank for all of this. Just like Paris herself. Thanks, Rick. What other atrocities are you going to inflict on us?

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s a video of 2 of Paris’s dogs escaping from her menagerie. They had to be rescued by TMZ photographers. Oh indignity of indignities!

I love Ellen DeGeneres: to me she can do no wrong. But it’s starting to look like Ellen has a bit of a history with quick dog turnovers. There’s a story in Page Six today that talks about another dog Ellen re-gifted a few years ago. Additionally, Howard Stern accused Ellen of giving away as many as nine dogs previously. A lot of articles are repeating this accusation, but I haven’t been able to find the transcripts, so I don’t know under what context Stern said this, and what his information is. The particular incident we do have some information about concerns a producer, Kerri Randles, who gave Ellen a mutt named Stormy a few years ago.

ELLEN DeGeneres’ latest doggy dealing wasn’t the first time she’d passed along a pup she’d adopted, says a Los Angeles producer who gave the talk-show queen a pooch she quickly got rid of. Kerri Randles says she gave DeGeneres a male mutt named Stormy two years ago, only to find out less than two months later that fickle Ellen had re-gifted him to a member of her staff. “She may have had it for much less time than that. I only say two months because that’s when I called to check on the dog and found out she no longer had it,” Randles said. “I was totally shocked. I thought she was out of her mind.”

DeGeneres may have passed along several other dogs over the years. Howard Stern said on his Sirius show that he’d heard she had done this nine times before. Viewers were shocked Tuesday when DeGeneres tearfully told her viewers that the Mutts & Moms agency had gone to her hairdresser’s house and confiscated the dog Ellen had adopted from the stylist. Mutts & Moms said she had signed a contract agreeing to return the dog only to the agency if she no longer wanted to care for it. Randles said DeGeneres seemed a perfect pet owner at first, but she quickly discovered the daytime TV hostess was “neurotic and crazy.”

When Randles took Stormy to NBC studios to meet DeGeneres, she was “drilled” for four hours by the star, her assistants and the crew. “Everyone on the show and in her entourage got themselves all involved,” Randles told Page Six’s Marianne Garvey. “They were all coming into the dressing room, playing with the dog as if it were a new extension of Ellen.” DeGeneres finally decided to keep the dog for a few nights to see if he’d fit into her home. She suggested that Randles take the dressing room next door to “tell the dog privately that she’d be going home with Ellen. I told her I’d already had a talk with the dog. She didn’t get my jokes,” said Randles. When she called to check on the pup a few days later, DeGeneres told her she’d decided to keep it. “She acted like she was keeping it for life,” Randles recalled.

[From the New York Post]

I’m probably not the most un-biased person to write this story; I freaking love Ellen. This is obviously only one side of the story. I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to give someone a pet as a present. That’s really something a person needs to make their own decision about. I would guess that someone like Ellen, who’s known for being an intense animal lover, would probably be given animals more than an average person. In terms of the “nine other dogs” she’s supposedly given away over the years, it is possible that people gave her animals as a present, which I’m sure was well-meaning but maybe not practical. Most people can only have so many pets. It would be one thing if Ellen were constantly adopting and discarding dogs on her own account. The story above sounds very weird, and I’m not totally inclined to believe the accuracy of Kerri Randles’s account. But as I said, I’m kind of biased. First off, it sounds like Randles’ gave the dog away in the first place. It doesn’t seem like she adopted the dog specifically for Ellen. So if Ellen did the same thing, who is she to call her out on it?

As someone who worked in a vet clinic and has owned many animals over the years, I can say that certain pets don’t always work out, and sometimes you have to find a new home for them. I’ve seen a lot of cases of a new pet being too aggressive towards an old pet, and have had owners spend hundreds of dollars on behaviorists to no avail. Then a new home is found, and for some reason it’s a better mix and the animal is fine. Sometimes the reasons have to do more with other pets than with the humans. There’s clearly a lot more to this story than just what’s written here. I can’t emphasize enough that I hope this doesn’t turn people off from adopting shelter pets. It’s a wonderful way to save a life and bring some happiness into your home.

Picture note by Jaybird: That’s not really a picture of the dog in question.

The Iggy the Dog scandal has reached critical mass, with news outlets all over the world reporting on the outrageous story of how a little pooch was snatched from a loving family after a minor bureaucratic snafu with the adoption agency. Ellen Degeneres, who gifted the dog to her hairdresser’s family after adopting it from the agency Mutts and Moms, has called for an end to the scandal, and asks us all to please move on.

People are so upset over how the dog was so heartlessly taken from the loving family Ellen transferred him to that they’ve been making death threats to the agency’s owner.

The woman from the agency, Marina Baktis, told the family she was coming over for a house check after they filled out an online application and then immediately grabbed the dog, holding him for two hours until the police came and checked its digital chip to verify that the agency, not the family with who Iggy had been living for two weeks, was the rightful owner.

At that point she fled with the little black dog, the theme song for the wicked witch of the west playing in everyone’s head.

TMZ has a video of the dog-napping and it’s quite damning. The woman is shown turning away from the concerned little girl several times while she clutches the dog. Baktis’ anger at how Ellen flouted rules by transferring ownership must have clouded her judgment and made her oblivious to all the bad PR that was about to be heaped onto her agency.

Baktis has already given the dog to another family, a fact that Ellen says she finds unbelievable and surreal. Still, Ellen says she doesn’t want any more hysteria over it and she’s not going to talk about it anymore unless there’s news that Iggy was returned to his last family. She says we all need to be aware of our rights when adopting pets and insist that they switch the microchips to the new owner’s names.

As JayBird mentioned yesterday, hopefully this won’t discourage people from adopting shelter pets who so badly need loving homes.

Ellen DeDeneres tried to do the right thing – she went with partner Portia de Rossi to a pet rescue agency and adopted a dog. But when the pooch, a Brussels Griffon mix, didn’t make friends with her cats, Iggy wound up in the doghouse. Sorry, bad pun.

It seems that part of the dog adoption agreement is that you can’t hand the dog on to other owners. Ellen had passed her dog on to live with her hairdresser and two children aged 11 and 12, after spending $3,000 having the dog neutered and trained to be with her cats, although he must have been a slow learner. A representative from the Mutts and Moms agency came and collected the dog on Sunday night, prompting Ellen to address the issue on her show Tuesday.

“I guess I signed a piece of paper that says if I can’t keep Iggy, it goes back to the rescue organization, which is not someone’s home, which is not a family,” she said in a show transcript provided to The Associated Press.

“I thought I did a good thing. I tried to find a loving home for the dog because I couldn’t keep it.”

DeGeneres said her hairdresser’s daughters, ages 11 and 12, had bonded with Iggy and were heartbroken when the dog was taken away.

“Because I did it wrong, those people went and took that dog out of their home, and took it away from those kids,” a sobbing DeGeneres said on her show.

“I feel totally responsible for it and I’m so sorry. I’m begging them to give that dog back to that family. I just want the family to have their dog. It’s not their fault. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have given the dog away. Just please give the dog back to those little girls.”

AP

I suspect that Mutts and Moms isn’t your standard rescue shelter. While it is a non-profit organization, the AP reports it doesn’t have a listed number, and when I’ve gone to my local animal welfare there were no Brussels Griffons, mixed or otherwise. But then all my focus was on the kittens and horses.

Still, I have to agree it’s a pretty nasty thing to take a dog away from kids. Couldn’t you just come and check that the dog was in a good home? It seems heartless to just take it away from a loving family because it wasn’t placed there originally.

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the video about this case, thanks to TMZ, which shows that the adoption agency is pretty vindictive and cruel. The owner of the agency claimed she was “just going to do a house check,” when she came by, but then left with the dog after calling the cops. It’s all pretty ridiculous and I hope this organization gets new management and backs down, apologizes and returns this dog to the little girl who loved him. Considering that a celebrity is involved, this is incredibly bad PR for them. This makes me so mad.

Update: Here’s Ellen crying before telling the story about how the evil adoption agency took away the dog. Thanks to TMZ.

In case you were wondering how Paris Hilton scored such a fine specimen of a man despite the fact that most of the world is aware of her, um, well-documented medical issues, the fact is that he’s a Swedish guy who doesn’t speak much English. He was working as a pizza delivery person in Gothenberg, Sweden, to earn his fare to America and was staying in a youth hostel when he hit the jackpot with Paris. He aims to make money and become famous, so maybe it’s worth the trade off for him:

Talk about rags to riches! Paris Hilton…. is now seeing ex-pizza-delivery boy Alexander Von Vaggo! “Alex comes from Swedish nobility, but his family has no money,” a pal tells Star. To buy his plane ticket to L.A., the aspiring model delivered pizza in his native Gothenberg. “He wants to make lots of money and get famous,” says the source. “Paris is helping him with that, so he won’t leave her side - even though he can barely speak English.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, October 15, 2007]

He sounds too good for Paris if he actually works for a living. It’s probably quite beneficial for their relationship if his English is bad as he can’t figure out how stupid she is.

Maybe Paris and this guy Alexander are already broken up at this point, though. I can’t find any pictures of them together in the past two weeks, and you know she would have continued to drag him around to events if he was willing. He’s just a perfect accessory.

Speaking of accessories, Paris’ is keeping her dogs illegally under LA law. According to Mike Walker in the National Enquirer, she needs a kennel permit for her dozen dogs and doesn’t have one:

You’re apparently breaking LA’s Department of Animal Services law, which reads in part: “If you have four or more dogs at one location (any lot, building, structure, enclosure or premises…) then you need a Kennel Permit. Guess what, Paris - we contacted Animal Services and were told you don’t have a Kennel Permit!

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker’s column, October 15, 2007]

It’s not like they’re going to take the dogs away from her, is it? Walker points out that she was voted the “worst dog owner” in 2005 by Hollywood Dog and NY Dog Magazines. I would suspect she’s just about as bad a girlfriend as a dog owner.

The header picture of Paris and Alexander is from 9/25 outside the AmFar Rocks event. He looks pissed off. Thanks to Splash News for this photo.

A slightly injured George Clooney vowed not to replace his dearly departed pet pig, saying he was irreplaceable and that he’s too busy to care for an animal like that anyway:

He says, “You can’t replace a good pig like that. I’ve been down to the Carolinas to shoot this movie and then cutting and writing so I haven’t been home since January. And you can’t get a new pet when you’re on the road. Well you can - but people will talk.”

[From Starpulse.com]

Meanwhile Clooney and his flavor of the month girlfriend, Vegas cocktail waitress and former Fear Factor winner Sarah Larson, 28, attended the premiere of his new film Michael Clayton last night in NY. Larson hobbled in on crutches with her foot bandaged. Contrary to earlier reports, she did not break her foot, just a toe.

Clooney make a thinly veiled reference to his now perhaps slightly constrained hot sex life with Larson after their motorcycle accident in Weehawken, NJ on Friday. People Magazine quotes him as saying they were “just resting” and that “You don’t really want to rub or massage parts that are broken or anything.” Maybe he’s referring to the fact that he can’t rub her feet now. I’m guessing that’s part of Clooney’s regular foreplay scenario and he’s all too conscious of a deviation from the script.

Larson covered up a black eye with makeup at the premiere and despite her injuries it seems like this accident was a lucky break for her. She ate a scorpion on television for a measly $25k, surely she’ll accept a broken toe and black eye to insure that she gets the maximum publicity out of her relationship with fickle Clooney. From the way Clooney is standing apart from her, I bet she wouldn’t have scored a red carpet appearance with the lothario if it wasn’t for their motorcycle crash. He can’t replace his dear pig, his companion of 19 years, but women are a dime a dozen.

Clooney will not be charged or issued a ticket for his motorcycle accident. He was said to have told Larson “I love you” after they were hit. Maybe they’ll last, but I doubt it.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures.

Like Leona Helmsley, whose dog Trouble inherited $12 million, billionaire Oprah is planning on bequeathing her dogs a sum that could serve as hefty lottery winnings.

When Oprah kicks, her dogs are going to get $30 million for their care. Don’t ask me how a handful of animals expected to live less than 20 years can go through $30 million, unless they have a team of experts at their disposal daily, as if they would know the difference.

The $30 million Oprah is said to be leaving her dogs is a bargain compared to the $250 million her maybe-boyfriend of 21 years, Stedman Graham, is said to have received as a “keep quiet or else” severance package.

The Enquirer reported last month that she paid Stedman the hefty sum “to seal their split”

Oprah Winfrey’s romance with Stedman Graham has run its course - and she’s handing him a handsome gift of $250 million to seal their split, the Enquirer has learned exclusively.

After 21 years together, the two are still close friends and even vacationed together in Canada recently, but the romance is gone from the relationship and they’ve decided to go their separate ways, sources say…

Oprah and Stedman, 56, began dating in 1986 and announced their engagement in November 1992. But they never made it to the altar - and Oprah decided to pull the plug on their love affair this summer.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, August 27, 2007]

I wonder how much Oprah is leaving to her bff Gail?

While Stedman is set for life, Oprah’s pooches better watch out. Leona Helmsley’s newly rich dog Trouble is getting sued by Helmsley’s former housekeeper for biting her on several occasions.

I wonder if Oprah’s help knows about how much cash she’s leaving her dogs and if they feel like dupes for working faithfully for her ass for years and not getting so much as a mention in her will. Dogs are creatures that love you without question, but they can also live quite well off a gardener’s salary for a year, while the gardener and his family have to struggle to make ends meet.

Update: Commentors are right that I don’t know that Oprah’s help aren’t mentioned in her will. This was an assumption that might not be true.