Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 33

TT MOKDAY 2212 From animal shelter to Animal Planet t' fM 1 Vj A 2 In this sitcom, which premiered Aug. 13, Chip V- plays Jack, a lovable, streetwise canine who allows himself to be adopted by the Poole family. Because the 1 Chip, the canine star of the cable network's Beware of Dog, talks about his humble beginnings with help from trainer Roger Schumacher. show writer and producer, Bob Gilmer, wanted the dog to act naturally, no special effects are used to make it seem as though the animal can talk. Instead, a human (named, seriously, Park Bench) supplies the voiceover.

Trainer Roger Schumacher found Chip in a Los Angeles animal shelter five years ago and taught him the tricks he had to know to become a star. He was the backup dog on the TV movie Annie and helped his kennel mate Kelly depict Max in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. By BRIDGET BYRNE Washington Post ike many Hollywood actors, the star of Animal '1 1.. 4 I Planefs new TV show Beware of Dog had to dye his 1 hair to eet the Dart He originally had white hair Animal Planet Chip probably has both bearded collie and Tibetan Please see ANIMAL 4D and brown ears, but Chip, a mixed-breed dog, is now honey blond. Chip CJ: By MATTHEW GUREWITSCH New York Times he ABC newsmagazine 2020 has called Josh Groban "almost famous." You could say that In case you haven't heard of him, Groban is a 21-year-old vocalist in a direct line of descent from Andrea BoceHi, opera's pop ambassador to the millions.

His debut album, Josh Groban, released last year, went platinum some time ago. By now it has sold more than 1.5-million copies, in huge part through his Web site, to which his various television appearances (dramatic, musical and personal) have attracted visitors in startling numbers. The recording industry got an early hint of Groban's talent at the rehearsals for the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 1999, when he filled in at a run-through for Carol Bayer Sager and David Foster's inspirational duet The Prayer opposite Celine Dion. Her scheduled partner Bocelli was under the weather. A home video of the event shows a gawky, skinny boy-next-door with a Medusa tumble of corkscrew curls framing a long, narrow face with a pointy nose, stepping onto the stage of the mammoth Shrine Auditorium with no great show of confidence.

As Dion later told Barbara Walters, "he was almost going backwards, he was so scared." Then he sang, said Dion, "and you couldn't be any more powerful than that this kid was Dion was blown away. So were the orchestra and the people who happened to be in the hall, one of whom was Rosie ODonneD. She promptly pounced on him for her talk show, on which she introduced him as "opera boy." Onward and upward. Last year, around 10-million Ally McBeal fans Please see VOICE 4D tfE jj i i 1 53y fyi? 1 II Jjl "I (in sl i i) I If 1 ru ru II li if; II: is 1 r. i Up-and-coming classical vocalist JOSH GROBAN maybe you've seen him on TV has stunned the music industry, which is having difficulty classifying his varied style.

Warner Bros. Josh Groban has it," Broadway legend Barbara Cook "Some people just have a natural connection with their voice, says of the young vocalist and actor. SUMMER READING SERIES BSSl if BOOMERANG BULLY BREAKING POINT EDITOR'S NOTE: Welcome to our summer reading series, a joint offering by the Xpress section and Newspaper in Education department of the St Petersburg Times. Seven young Tampa Bay area writers have been chosen to collaborate on this project, each writer contributing a chapter under the coordination of Michael Taylor, language arts teacher at Mead-owlawn Middle School in St Petersburg. Our summer serial is a fictional treatment of what are very real problems faced by too many students: bullying, intimidation and harassment Our central characters, Amanda and Nathaniel, are victims but because often individuals who are picked on find outlets for their distress, they are also I 1 II11 wi UUJ i 1 4 i I ff 'I ---i J1 I ii uB jiyiLmieiD i i fpik i i THE STORY SO FAR: Friends Amanda Bichard and Nathaniel Flanagan decide they have to do something to help a classmate who is being bullied, but they haven't gotten anywhere.

Ffcblo says he doesn't want any help. To read previous chapters, go to www.sptimes.comnie, then click on Kids Only. By (CATHERINE M. WORKMAN Amanda shrugged and looked around the parking lot "I don't see him out here. Maybe he's in front" She dug in her backpack for some gum.

"Nah, I checked when I locked my bike in the bike rack," said Nathaniel, unwrapping the piece of Bazooka that Amanda offered him. "I think he's very frightened of what Brian and James might pull next He can't handle all the girls calling him Vimp and worse. "And not that I care what James says about me, but Ym getting a little tired of him saying Pablo and I are gay." Nathaniel was troubled that Pablo was such a victim of bullying, and he had been trying to help his friend get the taunting stopped, with little success. "Pablo has this thing about not being able to tell his parents. In fact, he doesn't seem to have anyone to talk to.

Now when I bring up the subject, heU barely even talk to me. Please see BOOMERANG 4D "Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is." German proverb "Whaf wrong, Nathaniel? You seem kind of bothered," Amanda said, poking his arm gently with her pencil eraser. Nathaniel had walked to the back of the school hoping to find her. "Amanda, don't you think it's kinda strange that Pablo isn't here today? He rarely misses schooL" Timn rt MtKE SUDAL.