For all his sartorial bluster, his pet cheetah and Via Veneto scruffy good looks, the 31-year-old Cipollini is surprisingly soft-spoken.

From Paris came reports of black exiles abroad, and of the cabaret star Josephine Baker, who prowled the streets with her pet cheetah straining at the end of its leash.

Gordon was once notably photographed walking a pet cheetah on a London shopping street.

He is found and raised, along with his pet cheetah, by Dr. Laurence, a research scientist.

In later shows in Paris she was often accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah, Chiquita, who was adorned with a diamond collar.

Here, she is shown to have fashioned her costume from the fur of her pet cheetahs, which she violently killed and skinned in an ancient ritual (likely reminiscent of the Barbara Ann Minerva version).

Slash, the guitarist of the rock group Guns 'n' Roses, is scheduled to bring his reptiles, and the actress Tippi Hedren plans to bring her pet cheetah.

The couple make time for the cameras of PBS television and People magazine, tossing a masticated soccer ball with their pet cheetah, Gizzy, as they explain why farms, not parks, are the breed's best hope.

Among the palazzo's previous tenants was the Marchesa Luisa Casati, a flamboyant portrait subject known for her pet cheetahs and gold-leafed houseboys.

Carroll Ballard's "Duma," about a white schoolboy intent on returning his pet cheetah to the wild, will be released in minor markets on April 29.