Hathaway says dog helped her get role

NEW YORK, July 16 (UPI) -- New York actress Anne Hathaway says her sick dog inadvertantly helped her snag the starring role in Julian Jarrold's new period film, "Becoming Jane."

"Julian didn't like my first audition and I begged him for a second one," Hathaway told UPI in New York. "I was extraordinarily nervous before the first audition and I didn't read it very well."

Hathway, who plays British author Jane Austen in the film, said the night before the second audition, her pup ate a slipper and she spent the whole evening caring for him and cleaning up his mess.

"When a 70-pound dog eats a slipper... it's not pretty," she said. "So, I stayed up all night cleaning up my dog's bodily fluids, basically, and I showed up at the audition (the next) day too tired to be nervous and too tired to be self-conscious and just too tired to do anything except get to the end of the audition, so I think that worked to my benefit."