‘Dog Whisperer’ faces suit

Los Angeles – A television producer is suing dog trainer Cesar Millan, star of TV’s “The Dog Whisperer,” claiming that his Labrador retriever was injured at Millan’s training facility after being suffocated by a choke collar and forced to run on a treadmill.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Superior Court, “8 Simple Rules” producer Flody Suarez said he took 5-year-old Gator to the Dog Psychology Center on Feb. 27 to deal with fears of other dogs and strangers.

Hours after dropping the dog off at the facility, Suarez claimed a worker called to inform him the animal had been rushed to a veterinarian. He later found the dog “bleeding from his mouth and nose, in an oxygen tent gasping for breath and with severe bruising to his back inner thighs,” according to the lawsuit.

The facility’s workers allegedly placed a choke collar on the dog, pulled him onto a treadmill and forced him to “overwork.”

Suarez said he spent at least $25,000 on medical bills and that the dog must undergo more surgeries for damage to his esophagus.

Jackson not thrilled by GQ spoof photographs

New York – A recent GQ article spoofing Michael Jackson has the singer demanding the magazine apologize and pull the issue from circulation.

In a statement released Friday, Jackson’s representative, Raymone K. Bain, said Jackson is “furious” about a series of photos featuring a Jackson impersonator in the magazine’s May issue, now on newsstands.

The photos accompany an article called “Where’s Michael?” which documents writer Devin Friedman’s quest to find Jackson in Bahrain, the Middle Eastern country where he lives.

In one photo, a Jackson look-alike sits in a darkened movie theater amid a row of children. Another photo shows him standing in the desert draped in a black cloak and headscarf, with his trademark glittery white glove.

Jim Nelson, GQ editor-in-chief, responded with a statement Friday: “It is very clear that the pictures in the story … are satirical. : Mr. Jackson may feel that the person in the photographs is an ‘impostor,’ but he is merely an imitator.”