Puppy Love

The high-profile bounty hunter and his fiancée are planning a wedding in May

THE HUGE MAN with the long blond mullet, his body covered in black leather and tattoos, is the picture of intimidation. But right now, he's whimpering.

"That word scares me to death, Beth," Duane Chapman says to Beth Smith, his partner of 12 years. "You know how I feel about that word. I can't even say it."

Elizabeth Smith is no less intimidating -- sturdy and strong-willed, she is a take-no-prisoners opponent of anyone who dares to jump bail or of Chapman himself, should she catch him sneaking a cigarette.

But not on this sunny afternoon.

In the tidy living room of the couple's East Oahu home, Smith is the giddy bride-to-be.

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"I want Dog to be the sheriff of Honolulu, out with the old and in with the Dog."

Beth Smith
Fiancée of Duane Chapman, above, whose hit show attracted as many as 3.1 million viewers an episode last season.

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"It's OK Duane. Our glass, our life, is half-full, not half-empty."

Chapman wipes away tears with the thick, big-knuckled hand of a street fighter. "I know, Bethy, I know. But I haven't been so successful at, uh, the marriage thing and I'm so afraid of, well, you know."

Chapman has been married three times and has 12 children.

"I have a lot of luggage," he says.

"You won't get divorced again; we won't divorce!" Smith says, waving a fist in the air. "I won't let it happen."

"God there's that word -- divorce," Chapman reacts. "I hate that word!"

BUT THERE'S no going back now. The stars of A&E's top-rated reality show, "Dog, The Bounty Hunter," will be married in May on the Big Island, with the ceremony likely to be filmed for their show, Smith says.

"Gee, Bethy," Chapman says sheepishly, "now it's really out there."

His impending marriage is the only thing "Dog" may not want publicized. The most self-promoted bounty hunter in the United States is in negotiations for his third season with A&E, with filming to start this week.

As the new season approaches, his national profile is on the rise. Over the last few weeks, Chapman has appeared on ABC's "George Lopez Show" and NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Naomi Judd recently interviewed the couple in Hawaii for her talk show, "Naomi's New Morning," to air in March on the Hallmark Channel.

Chapman also will narrate an upcoming History Channel special on bounty hunters, and A&E has purchased the rights to a two-hour special about his most famous capture -- of Max Factor heir and convicted rapist Andrew Luster. Chapman and Smith will be technical advisors.

King Features plans "Dog, the Bounty Hunter" action figures for Christmas release -- with "non-lethal weapon" accessories ("Watch His Fists Fly Hawaiian Style," the box reads).

CHAPMAN, a convicted felon, is ecstatic about his newfound fame on the legitimate side of the law. "I love being famous, almost every minute. It's what I always wanted my whole life -- to have people listen to me."

Smith, meanwhile, works hard at calculating how to transform headlines into dollars.

If Chapman is the charismatic, "ah shucks" muscle of this made-for-Hollywood duo, Smith is all systems control. She quarterbacks their Da Kine Bail Bonds business on Queen Emma Street, coordinates the tracking of bail jumpers for the TV show and embraces being bad cop when negotiating contracts, most recently with A&E for a new season.

She's in a good negotiating position. "Dog, The Bounty Hunter" attracted as many as 3.1 million viewers an episode last season.

Artie Scheff, A&E's senior vice president for marketing, declined to discuss the negotiations, but said the network "is very optimistic that this hit show" would return for a third season.

"A&E loves 'The Bounty Hunter,'" Scheff said in a telephone interview from New York. "It's the network's top-rated show. It's popularity is growing."

IT WAS the 2003 capture of Luster in Mexico that began Chapman's rise. Although a California judge refused to reward Chapman the $300,000 bounty, the couple used the publicity to broker deals for a reality TV show, landing at A&E, which gave them more creative control, if not the salary they would have liked.

But success has had consequences.

"People call us at home all night long," Smith says. "Fans -- tourists, not locals -- walk right into our office to see Dog, or drive up to our house and get out and take tuffs of grass. We're the most accessible celebrities in Hawaii."

DOGGISMS "You're going to the motel without a window." "You have to run with them in order to catch them." "Born on a mountain, raised in a cave. Arresting fugitives is all I crave." "Six men can carry you or 12 men can judge you. You decide!"

During negotiations with A&E, one of the couple's demands has been a larger house and security. They'd like to move to a gated community, sources said, but A&E favors keeping them in a location that viewers are accustomed to.

"I'm still a woman with six children and two adults in a three-bedroom house and we need more room and security," Smith says. "I don't think I'm overreacting."

Her biggest fear is that the youngest children living with them -- two 3-year-old grandkids -- will be "confronted by a freako," Smith says.

Her 12-year-old daughter has been harassed at school, most recently by "a pack of wolves" who chased her, yelling "Where's your daddy now?" The girl allowed a reporter to listen to a cell phone message from a boy who used expletives and threatened to beat her up.

"This isn't unusual," Smith says.

THEIR PROPOSED contract, sources said, would bind Chapman and A&E through a fifth season, with an option for a sixth.

Smith and Chapman are specific about their major negotiating points: "More money and respect for a winning show," Smith said. "Duane is now the big fish."

Smith and Chapman decline to say how much A&E pays them now, only that "it hasn't been enough," Smith said.

"This is hard to admit, but when we started season one we were broke," Chapman says. "That first season got us even, with a little bit of breathing room, but season two cost us a lot of money."

Filming disrupts their bail bond business, translating to about a 60-percent drop in revenue that was not offset by their A&E salaries. They've had to expand their office space and hire more staff to answer as many as 500 phone calls a day, most from fans wanting to talk to Chapman.

"We are the brokest guys on TV, brother," Chapman said. "We're still paying for our last child's birth."

BUT IT'S ALL PART of a larger plan. "I want Dog to be the sheriff of Honolulu, out with the old and in with the Dog," Smith says.

Chapman says he has even higher political ambitions, but declines to specify. Helping revamp the justice system is high on his list, though. "I love the police here and most of the judges. I'm at a place where people are now listening to me. I'm the poster child for rehabilitation."

The two are so confident about Chapman's celebrity that they recently walked away from a book deal with HarperCollins for a biography. Smith tries to be diplomatic about the situation, but can't hide her rage, saying the publisher "actually wanted Dog to change events in his life and alter the names of the guilty!"

The publishing giant also suggested Smith not be included in the story, she said. "They even wanted to change facts about the Luster case because they were worried that Liz Luster (Andrew Luster's mother) would sue them. Duane ... will not ride on that stage!"

HarperCollins did not return two phone calls seeking comment.

They've finished the book and are seeking another publishing company that sees things their way.

"Why throw your life story to swine?" Smith says.

IT'S 4 P.M. and a housekeeper has picked up the kids from school. The brood marches past two large SUVs parked on the street and a black Jaguar on the crumbling asphalt driveway.

The constant ring of a telephone is drummed out by kids rambling about school, homework and being hungry.

The 60-inch television is tuned to Fox news. A humming fax machine competes with gurgling bubbles from a freshwater fish tank that needs more water, and the chirping of a large parrot and, in a second cage, a cockatoo.

Blue, a droopy-eyed bloodhound flown to Hawaii by A&E for the upcoming season, lumbers outside the lanai doors, sharing space with three intimidating Belgian Malinois, a variety of Belgian Shepherd. The dog named Ilio (Hawaiian for dog) belongs to Chapman; Tita is Smith's.

ALONG WITH the Chapman-Smith nuptials, the new season will turn personal with an account of Chapman's struggle to quit smoking.

Chapman had throat surgery in Los Angeles earlier this year to remove pre-cancerous polyps, Smith says. "And prior to a Jay Leno show appearance he had to have a shot of steroids to talk because he had lost his voice."

Before the surgeon would operate, the bounty hunter had to cut down to a pack a day. "We started taking his cigarettes away and we fought for three weeks straight," Smith says.

"I'm down to eight cigarettes a day, Beth," Chapman says.

It was a small victory, and hard-fought, one among many that keeps Chapman's profile high and this household in constant motion.

"I'm busy," Chapman says. "And we're lovin' it, aren't we Beth?"

DUANE 'DOG' CHAPMAN » Raised in Denver, Chapman is the oldest of four children of Wesley and Barbara Chapman. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade. » Arrested 18 times for armed robbery, Chapman was sentenced to five years in prison for murder in 1977. He maintains it was his companion who was the killer, but under Texas law he was also convicted of murder. He served two years and was paroled in 1979. » Chapman stands 5-feet-7 but wears custom boots to add 3 inches. » He was a Kirby vacuum salesman before becoming a bounty hunter.