No way. Way! Dog, ex-Miss Del. USA go viral
"We're not worthy!"
That was the response from "Saturday Night Live" – and the internet in general – when a photo of former Miss Delaware USA Kate Banaszak and her Irish Wolfhound dressed as "Wayne's World" characters went viral earlier this month.
After posting privately to her Facebook friends Oct. 15, she decided to share the photo of herself and Kellan later that day on the popular Facebook page "Cool Dog Group" and its nearly 315,000 members,
Someone then posted it to Reddit and it blazed across the internet. In the days since, it caught the attention of "Saturday Night Live," The Huffington Post, "Today," Buzzfeed, People magazine and Martha Stewart's website to name a few.
No way. Way!
"It's insane," says Banaszak, 32, an office manager at Concord Pike Veterinary Hospital in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. "And giant dog breeds don't live very long, which is sad, so you have to make really big memories with them to look back on. So this will last a lifetime for me."
And if you think this is all about Halloween due to the time of the year, you'd be wrong. Very wrong.
STORY: Yikes! 36 weekend Halloween bashes in Delaware
STORY: Former Flyers judging Saturday's Food Truck Face-Off
Banaszak dresses her dog up year-round and her husband, Dustin, loves playing with the dog just as much. (That's his blue shirt on Kellan in the Wayne's World photo.)
This week, she started a blog for her dog photos at thefoxandthehound.me and added another photo that shows Kellan dressed as Waldo from "Where's Waldo." Plenty more will come, she promises. (You can hear Banaszak Friday when she guests on The News Journal's free pop culture podcast, "Hi, I'm in Delaware!," available on iTunes and Soundcloud.)
She'll be capitalizing on the moment following a feature in The Huffington Post headlined "Woman And Her Dog Slay Halloween With Most Excellent ‘Wayne’s World’ Costumes" and a "Saturday Night Live" Facebook post of the photo with the caption, "This dog’s Halloween costume? We’re not worthy!"
You can't miss 2-year-old Kellan, named after Kellan Lutz from the "The Twilight Saga" film series. When he's up on his hind legs, the 140-pound dog is more than 6 feet tall.
Vicky Cole, receptionist at Concord Pike Veterinary Hospital, says Kellan's size and overall joie de vivre made the suddenly famous canine stand out even before his big photo shoot.
"I can now say I know a celebrity. His name is Kellan," she says with a laugh. "That dog really is a ham. He's a sweetheart. I think it's fabulous. It's really weird how things take off."
Banaszak, a bubbly and good-humored Middletown native who won the Miss Delaware USA crown in 2009, says her brother Jake, 33, has been ribbing her about her new popularity.
He already grew up with a beauty queen sister, eliciting plenty of awkward comments and attention from some of his male friends growing up. "Do you know how many times I've heard this past week about how hot my sister is?'" he joked. (In this case, perhaps they simply say, "Schwing!")
Jake knows about being in the public eye. For nearly 15 years, he's been the hot shot blues guitarist for Rehoboth Beach's Lower Case Blues, easily one of the best and most popular original acts in the state.
The trio has performed at Firefly Music Festival in Dover, been crowned best band in the state by Delaware Today magazine and even wowed Foo Fighter Dave Grohl when he spotted them playing at a Rehoboth Avenue restaurant a few years back.
Even so, Jake has never quite received the amount of attention his sister is now enjoying and he couldn't help but poke her about it.
She summed up the situation on Facebook with a humorous post:
"My brother is a local musician who works his ass off. He's succeeded in becoming a professional guitar player. He chose a career path where most don't succeed. It is a constant work-in-progress to produce fresh material that people want to listen to. Nearly every free moment is spent finding work, and waiting for the 'right person' to stumble upon his talent.
"I put a wig on my dog and the internet went apes--t. Or, as Jake puts it: 'You could fart into a CB radio and somehow the world would hear it and tell you how amazing it was.'"
For the record, Jake says he's quite proud of his littler sister.
Banaszak says the idea for the "Wayne's World" theme came from her childhood. She and her brother would obsessively watch the "Saturday Night Live" spin-off flick starring Mike Meyers as Wayne and Dana Carvey as Garth.
"We are true '90s kids and 'Wayne's World' lived in the VCR," she says. "I always loved those characters."
With the tidal wave of notoriety, Banaszak has been busy fielding e-mails from reporters and now feels like she has a second job working as her dog's manager – or "dog momager."
"I am Kris Jenner," she jokes, referring to the mother of the Kardashian clan. "It's sickening."
Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).