The Dog Who Plays Liberace's Poodle Takes Top Honor at Cannes

Baby Boy wins the Palm Dog for work with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in "Behind the Candelabra."

A panel of esteemed film critics met this week to select the "top dog" of the Cannes Film Festival. No, that's not a bit of fancy wordplay. They weren't there to give Quentin Tarantino some more awards to throw on the woodpile -- that happens during the Palme d'Or award. This is the Palm Dog award. Canis lupus familiaris. Best dog of the whole festival, the only award that really matters in some circles (like the one we're in right now).  

But first, how esteemed where these judges? Let's present them in list form: 

James Christopher of the TimesDerek Malcolm of the Evening Standard Peter Bradshaw of the GuardianCharles Gant of Heat MagazineKaleem Aftab of the IndependentFrom where I sit (Michael Leaverton of Dogster), that's pretty esteemed. 

And who won the Palm Dog? Baby Boy, Liberace's partially blind Poodle in Behind the Candelabra! He gets to wear the trophy collar. We weren't lucky enough to see the Steven Soderbergh film when it aired on HBO this week, but Twitter went nuts over the film, so we're assuming that Baby Boy put in a stellar performance. Also, perhaps Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Rob Lowe, and Dan Aykroyd carried some of the weight as well. 

Peter Bradshaw praised Baby Boy for exploring "a profound existential paradox," according to PawNation.

In the film, Baby Boy is credited with bringing his teenage dog trainer (Matt Damon) into the embrace of Liberace (Michael Douglas). 

"He brought those boys together -- he has a lot to answer for!" said Palm Dog organizer Toby Rose. 

Oddly, we can't find a decent shot of the famed Baby Boy (save the one above), so we'd thought we'd leave you with this, a Poodle in sunglasses driving a car. Seems right. 

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