We’ll be brutally honest here. When the...

We’ll be brutally honest here. When the item about actor-photographer Roddy McDowall appearing at the Palisades Branch Library landed on our desk, it was, as they say in the vernacular of cool, “taillights.”

It was gone.

History.

Sailing toward the trash.

What stopped us was the sweet face of a wise and noble dog. We would never have been able to look a collie in the eyes--or any dog, for that matter--if we put McDowall on the trash heap. “Lassie Come Home” still hits us in what’s left of our heart.

After all, this was Flicka’s best friend we were tossing aside.

Someone who portrayed an ape who was more human than some humans we know.

And his turn as the Bookworm on the “Batman” television show almost made us forget about Julie Newmar’s Catwoman. Almost.

McDowall, who has published his second book of celebrity photographs, “Double Exposure-Take Two,” will be the guest speaker at the Palisades Branch Library, 861 Alma Real Drive, at 2 p.m. today. Admission is free.

We copied a page from “Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion” to look up his credits, which included “How Green Was My Valley” and “The Longest Day.” At the top, the entry read: “British child actor of the forties, in Hollywood from 1940. Developed into an unpredictable adult performer, but made a reputation as a photographer.”

Unpredictable?

That we tossed in the trash.

--R.D.