Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Starring: Hilary Duff, Haylie Duff, Judy Tenuta
Directed by: Martha Coolidge

Cat Out of the Bag Alert!  This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Ava and Tanzie Marchetta (Haylie and Hilary Duff) are the heirs to their father’s cosmetic fortune but face adversity and poverty when a scandal threatens to take down their empire.

Kitty Cameo: The girls enlist the help of a pro bono charity lawyer named Henry (Lukas Haas) to help them fight for their company. Ava starts to fall for Henry and as they are about to kiss in his office over pizza they are interrupted when his gray and white cat, Clarence Darrow jumps up on the desk between them, sending Ava into a fit of panic.

As it turns out Ava hates cats and this sets off an argument between her and Henry.

Cat Cattle Call:  Near the end of the film the girls have obtained the name of the woman who charged the company with ruining her skin, Margo Thorness (Judy Tenuta). They visit her in her home which is filled with cats, making the girls uncomfortable.

According to director Martha Coolidge, ten cats from Birds and Animals Unlimited were used in this scene. She commented on how impressed they all were with the professionalism of the cat actors, each doing exactly what it was supposed to do. The Humane Society site reports that eleven cats were on call for this shoot and six were filmed at a time.

Kitty Cameo: When the girls leave Margo’s house they are confronted by a rough-looking neighbor (Anthony Crivello) holding a Maine Coon cat. He tells them to tell Margo that if he catches any of her cats peeing on his Vee-Dub one more time he’s going to set the animal on fire. He then chucks the cat into the cat with them which sends them scrambling.

Final Mewsings: You’d think rich people had never seen cats before!

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