They taught Catwoman her tricks

Catwoman’s other feline fatale has camera-ready natural mascara lines and doesn’t need bondage gear to attract attention. The role of Midnight, the mysterious presence in Catwoman’s latest big-screen incarnation, is played by three male Egyptian Maus, striking spotted cats with gooseberry-green eyes.

Lead trainer Mark Harden took a last-minute gamble on an unseen year-old Mau, flown in to show the producers and director an example of the breed. “Cairo, a real cheese ball, raced around like he owned the world,” Harden says, “then plopped down on the conference room table and watched us. Everyone said, ‘This is our cat.’ ”

Harden grew up in the mountains of Northern California, where he inexplicably developed an interest in marine mammals. In the early ‘80s, his sea lion act got him a gig on a TV pilot shot in Catalina, which was soon followed by an arkload of jobs wrangling cine-creatures from grasshoppers to elephants. Among the cats he’s coached are five white Persians who portrayed Snowbell in the “Stuart Little” films.

Cairo’s training began with the “foundation,” learning to hit a quarter-size mark. Harden started by setting him on a small box with a 6-inch, sand-filled fabric disc on top, then paying him with a treat, pronto. Eventually he let Cairo discover for himself that’s where he got something tasty. Gradually, the box was lowered and then removed, and the mark reduced in size.

“The most difficult thing with movie animals is just getting them to look natural,” Harden says. To prepare dozens of cats for performing in a marsh, they practiced several weeks on the newly constructed set as the scary elements of water and layers of mud were added little by little.

In rehearsing one critical scene, Cairo trotted the length of Halle Berry’s recumbent body and leaned down to look in her face. Harden instantly rewarded him with a juicy morsel. “There I was,” Harden worries, “dripping cat food on Halle Berry, the world’s most beautiful cat mark.”

Nice work if you can get it.

-- Marlene McCampbell