Back in the dressing room, the scene was playing out like something from "Malcolm in the Middle," which just happened to be the show everyone in the joint was working on.

There was Justin Berfield, the spiky-haired 15-year-old who plays Malcolm's sibling Reese on the top-rated Sunday-night sitcom, which is up for eight Emmy Awards at the Shrine next month.

Next to him on the couch was Diva, a sleepy 12-week-old brown-and- white boxer puppy, named for teen-pop singer and Berfield pal Jessica Simpson. Also on hand was 10-year-old Erik Per Sullivan, the kid who plays Dewey, the youngest brother in the unruly TV clan. They hovered over the pup, examining the snoozing Diva's thickly padded paws.

"Now, what do you think that stuff on her paws really does?" Sullivan asks.

"It protects her and cushions her," Berfield responds. "They look like erasers," Sullivan rejoins. "Wouldn't that be kind of cool, to have the bottoms of your feet be erasers? Then you could have your feet on the table and your teacher wouldn't be able to say, 'Hey, get your feet off the desk.' You'd just say, 'Hey, I'm erasing something.' You gotta admit it would be pretty cool."

REAL-LIFE KID STUFF