A dog is man’s best friend, and it’s easy to understand the heartache when a canine is lost or missing. But in Brian Crano’s short “Dog Food,” he takes that premise that gives it a nasty twist.

Starring Amanda Seyfried, Cory Michael Smith, and David Craig, the 18-minute short film tells the story of a butcher who loses his dog, and the girl who he’s been interested in coming into the picture in an unexpected way. After premiering at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year, “Dog Food” has been on a helluva run to over 20 festivals around the world. Now you can watch it with a click of your mouse below, so check it out, it’s a nice little treat for Halloween.

Actors often complain about short rehearsal times, but some of entertainment’s biggest names — including Melanie Griffith, Amanda Seyfried, Uzo Aduba, Peter Dinklage, Nina Dobrev and Pablo Schreiber — are about to have virtually none.

They’ll be appearing next month in the 14th annual benefit “The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway,” which asks over a dozen actors, six writers and six directors to come up with six original short plays over the course of a day. Proceeds help the Urban Arts Partnership.

Rosie Perez, the actress and co-host of “The View” who is the artistic chair for the partnership and a veteran of the 24-hour plays, had this advice for participants: “Anything you can do outside of being reckless and taking illegal substances do it! You’re going to need everything.”

The other stars who have agreed to participate include Sasha Alexander, Jamie Chung, Billy Crudup, Rachel Dratch, Michael Ealy, Seth Green, Bryan Greenberg, Taran Killam, Zoe Kravitz, Justin Long, Aasif Mandvi, Stephen Merchant, Diane Neal, Jay Pharoah, Sebastian Stan, Julia Stiles, Tracie Thoms and Michael Kenneth.

The directors include America Ferrera (“Ugly Betty”), Andy Fickman (“Reefer Madness!”) and Kathy Najimy (“Veronica’s Closet”). Writers include Christina Anderson (“Good Goods”), Bekah Brunstetter (“Oohrah!”), comedian David Cross, David Lindsay Abaire (“Rabbit Hole”) and Jonathan Marc Sherman (“Things We Want”). Sarwat Siddiqui, the winner of a young writers’ project from Fordham University, will join the playwrights.

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