You can't make this crap up!
Who knew that Dane Cook getting evicted for failing to clean up his dog's doo-doo was really somehow related to Animal House, or at least that film's star, John Belushi?
That's what Cook is contending in a new court filing, in which he tries to stave off eviction from his West Hollywood apartment where he reportedly, repeatedly let his dog defecate in the public courtyard. (View the documents.)
He tells the court that forcing him to move from his apartment of more than 10 years would in effect jinx him. Cook asserts that his comedy career only got on the good foot after he rented the unit once occupied by Saturday Night Live star Belushi (and in the same building Steve Martin once called home).
Here's an excerpt from Cook's filing:
"To live in the unit of one of the great legends was overwhelming and after moving in to that unit, I felt a creative drive that I had never felt before. It's a little bit like the superstition that athletes have, before games, about a favorite bat or shoe, or the order in which they gear up; for me, this apartment has been the place where I've sat and worked on my comedy routines, and I can feel, and have felt, the presence of the true greats that lived there before me. It's been a long road for me, in terms of developing my career as a comic, and the apartment is both a place of inspiration to me as well as a place where I go to feel connected to the source."
Cook seems to be pretty serious about wanting to keep plugged in to his muse, going so far as to offer a $40,000 bond to make nice and defray any canine cleanup costs.
The jury's still out on whether the court is inclined to believe the manure that Cook is shoveling now, when he wouldn't shovel any before.
(Originally published Sept. 22, 2008 at 9:45 a.m. PT)