Chris Pratt has done a lot of bragging lately.
He bragged on “Late Night with Stephen Colbert” and “Live with Kelly and Ryan.”
On social media as “@prattprattpratt” he braggedbraggedbragged.
For sure, Lake Stevens’ famous son has much to brag about: His new blockbuster “The Lego Movie 2.” His engagement to “The Terminator’s” daughter. His 21-day fast with no sugar, alcohol or meat.
He certainly has bragging rights for all his contributions to Lake Stevens, where he was considered a good neighbor.
But what he’s been bragging about in recent weeks — is fleece.
What’s up with that?
Pratt’s sheep took the limelight at the Country Living Expo and Cattlemen’s Winterschool at Stanwood High School.
“My role in ‘Fallen Kingdom: Jurassic World 2’ didn’t get an Oscar nom but my prize-winning Romney sheep took home a blue ribbon at Fiberpalooza. So we’re very happy,” he said on “Live with Kelly and Ryan.”
On Instagram he wrote: “I hate when celebrities brag on here … but I have to. Our ewe (female sheep) named ‘Cacao’ just took home a blue ribbon at Fiberpalooza!!!! Boom chic-Cacao cao!”
Pratt, 39, was not at the Stanwood event. Nor was Cacao.
“The people at his farm brought the fleece,” said Joan DeVries, WSU Skagit County Extension and expo coordinator.
Yes, the guardian of the galaxy is a shepherd in real life. He has about 160 sheep, 30 pigs and 60 chickens on his farm in the San Juan Islands, where Bill Gates, musician Steve Miller and Oprah have second (or third-fourth-fifth-sixth) homes.
Pratt’s farm is his “own special slice of heaven in a secret location in Washington,” he told Colbert.
The name on the bag of wool entry at the expo’s Fiberpalooza was also a secret.
It didn’t say “this came from a sheep owned by an A-list Hollywood celeb.”
“Nobody had any idea whatsoever,” DeVries said. “Everything is judged anonymously. The judge said it was a really beautiful fleece.”
Pratt spread the word on social media.
“He started twittering after he got the blue ribbon to announce it,” DeVries said. “The way we first found out was that the janitor at Stanwood High School went to high school with him, and has always been one of his Twitter followers, and he told us.”
By that time the fleece was back on the farm.
“The whole Fiberpalooza and the Country Living Expo and WSU Extension all got a lot of publicity from this,” she said. “We’d love to invite him to come next year and have him participate but he’ll probably be off somewhere making a famous movie.”
The expo had about 170 classes on topics such as diagnosing the dizzy donkey, arc welding, beekeeping, quilting and sourdough baking. Autism and animal science guru Temple Grandin was the keynote speaker.
On Colbert’s show, Pratt talked about how his farm staff went to workshops and heard Grandin speak.
Pratt’s post this week is of two baby lambs with him and his fiancee, author Katherine Schwarzenegger, daughter of actor/politician Arnold Schwarzenegger and journalist Maria Shriver.
Other posts have videos of 6-year-old Jack playing with sheep. Jack’s mother is Pratt’s ex-wife, actress Anna Faris, who grew up in Edmonds.
The little lambs are ultimately destined for the dinner table.
The transition to “final destination” is trauma-free, Pratt explained in a 2018 post: “Just a touch of a USDA certified wand to his head and he goes to sleep. The other sheep don’t even notice. It’s like unplugging a TV. Then Wocka my butcher works his magic.”
That post, with a photo of butchered meat, sparked backlash from vegans for “bragging” about eating the “happiest lambs on the planet.”
Pratt was not available for an interview for this story.
He is a hometown hero in Lake Stevens.
His $500,000 fundraiser in 2016 helped build the new Lake Stevens Boys & Girls Club. Pratt was the prize in a raffle with $10 tickets to win a trip to spend a day with him on the set of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”
It opened in 2017, named the Dan Pratt Memorial Teen Center, in honor of his late father.
In 2018, Pratt raised more than $500,000 for Special Olympics Washington in another raffle for a trip to the premiere of “Jurassic World 2.” He kicked off the fundraiser by playing softball with the Special Olympics team from Lake Stevens.
Julie Parrish’s grandma and uncle lived in the house next door to Pratt’s in Lake Stevens. She went to high school with him.
Rory Parrish lived next door to Chris Pratt in Lake Stevens. “Chris treated him like a normal person like people with disabilities should be treated,” Parrish’s niece Julie said. Rory Parrish died in 2010 at age 40. (Submitted photo)
“He was always a great neighbor,” Parrish said. “My uncle (Rory Parrish) took special ed classes. Chris would play basketball with him in the backyard or up at the high school. They’d pal around. He treated him like a normal person, like people with disabilities should be treated.
“Anytime Chris or Rory would see each other Chris would stop and take five or 10 minutes to talk to him, to see how life was going and chitchat.”
Rory was a Special Olympics Athlete of the Year and went to the International Special Olympics twice. He died in 2010 at age 40.
“Chris is genuinely a nice guy,” Parrish said. “Super-stardom, he deserves every little bit of it.”
Are there things you wonder about or do you have some wonders to share? Let me know at abrown@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3443. Twitter @reporterbrown.
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