Fur pet's sake - Penn Vet to star in new Animal Planet show

FFROM TV critic

Ellen Gray

:

Students and faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine will get their first look Friday at a new Animal Planet docu-series in which they - along with their (mostly) four-legged patients - are the stars.

Penn's rolling out a red carpet, purchased for the occasion, for the schoolwide screening of Life at Vet U, where guests will include some of the featured patients and their owners.

The preview party, which won't be open to the public, comes on the eve of the show's premiere at 10 p.m. Saturday.

"It's just a big deal for us, so we're making the most of it," said vet school spokeswoman Ashley Berke.

Life at Vet U was filmed in Philadelphia earlier this year and follows a half-dozen fourth-year veterinary students on their rounds at Penn's Ryan Hospital in West Philadelphia and its New Bolton Center hospital in Kennett Square, Chester County, where their teachers include Dr. Dean Richardson, the chief of large-animal surgery, who's known for his months-long fight to save the life of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro after the horse shattered its leg in the 2006 Preakness Stakes.

Among the featured students, all of whom have graduated, is Lindsay Gallagher, of Medford, N.J.

Fans of ABC News' NY Med and other 24/7 series should find the format familiar. These patients may have less to say, but they're universally endearing.

Even the ones who pee in the hospital hallways. Or on the red carpet.

Brain tumor advocate/patient

Jennifer Pownall

(creator of the Rock Out Brain Tumors Air Guitar Challenge) is transitioning to a pair of new careers.

On Oct. 15, she's going to be Celebrity Boxing promoter Damon Feldman's guest ring announcer for the Battle of Female Reality Stars.

The bouts will take place at 8:30 p.m. at the 2300 Arena (2300 S. Swanson St.), and the main event will pit Natalie DiDonato of Mob Wives against Gina Marie Zimmerman from Big Brother.

The night of fights will raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Pownall has also landed an acting role in the locally-shooting psychological thriller Right Before Your Eyes opposite Brian Anthony Wilson (Creed, Limitless, Law Abiding Citizen) and Jason Cutts (Broken, Limitless).

The story of addiction and recovery is based on the life of the film's executive producer David Vincent Bobb.

Pownall, who's never acted before, said she was discovered through her brain tumor advocacy work and the filmmakers re-wrote a role for her.

She'll play a bartender named Hope.

"Ironically," she said, "David Vincent Bobb did not know I have the word Hope tattooed on my arm. So it was meant to be!"

* Philadelphia native and Tony Award winner

Leslie Odom Jr.

(

Hamilton

) will follow up his self-titled jazz debut with an album of newly reinterpreted holiday classics entitled

Simply Christmas

. The CD drops Nov. 11.

* Finally, a reason to see Cats.

Internet sensation Grumpy Cat joins the cast of the Broadway musical today (Friday).

Grumpy "will be worked into the end of the show and will become an honorary Jellicle Cat," according to a spokesman for the show.

Grumpy Cat has become an online phenomenon with 8.7 million Facebook followers and a career selling books, T-shirts, mugs and cat food. Cats, the musical, meanwhile, has made about a trillion dollars.

* Months after saying she was planning a family - and the internet erupted with so many hoax theories, you'd think this was the moon landing - Janet Jackson has been spotted sporting an apparent baby bump.

Janet, 50, announced in April that she was postponing her tour because she and husband Wissam Al Mana were talking babies, and she was on "doctor's orders" to rest.

Pictures published online by Entertainment Tonight show Janet leaving a baby-furniture store in London.

* TMZ.com reports that Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris are no longer mortal enemies.

Next to bury the hatchet: Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell.

OK, maybe not.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

gensleh@phillynews.com