Annie’s best friend

MANILA, Philippines - When families go to see Columbia Pictures’ new musical comedy Annie (now showing in theaters nationwide), they’ll get the chance to meet Sandy — the best friend a kid could ever ask for. She’s not just a pretty face — she’ll be there in thick and thin. The movie is topbilled by Academy Award nominee Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of Southern Child) as the happy foster kid Annie.

From the comic strip to Broadway to the movies, Annie’s constant companion throughout her adventures has been her big, shaggy dog Sandy. To cast such an important role, Will Gluck, the co-writer and director of the new motion picture, turned to William Berloni, the animal trainer who has found and trained all the dogs that have appeared as Sandy on Broadway.

“I was fortunate enough to be involved with Annie from the very first production on Broadway, in 1977,” Berloni says. “I trained the original Sandy, and have trained all the Sandys for all the major productions ever since.”

Like the other Sandys that Berloni cast and trained for Broadway, this Sandy was to be true to character: She would be a rescue dog.

Berloni’s hunt for a new Sandy culminated in May 2013, when he found Marti, a beautiful tan-colored mutt who had been in an Armonk, New York shelter. Most likely a golden retriever/chow mix, Marti was smaller than previous Sandys, with a smoother coat. It was both her unique look and her winning personality that got her cast in the role of Annie’s best friend.

Marti may have been the most popular actor on set with the kids. “The relationship between Quvenzhané and Marti was almost instantaneous,” Berloni says. Wallis, who has dogs of her own, was inseparable from Marti for the three months they were together on the set.

“She’s very loveable and huggable and she’s just so cute,” Wallis gushes about her canine co-star.