diff --git a/src/dialog/dialog.js b/src/dialog/dialog.js
index 67a192b2ce..92ef40730b 100644
--- a/src/dialog/dialog.js
+++ b/src/dialog/dialog.js
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ dialogModule.provider("$dialog", function(){
 
         if (self.options.controller) {
           var ctrl = $controller(self.options.controller, locals);
-          self.modalEl.contents().data('ngControllerController', ctrl);
+          self.modalEl.children().data('ngControllerController', ctrl);
         }
 
         $compile(self.modalEl)($scope);
diff --git a/src/dialog/test/dialog.spec.js b/src/dialog/test/dialog.spec.js
index 8cbdcbf618..79d368462c 100644
--- a/src/dialog/test/dialog.spec.js
+++ b/src/dialog/test/dialog.spec.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 describe('Given ui.bootstrap.dialog', function(){
 
 	var $document, $compile, $scope, $rootScope, $dialog, q, provider;
-	var template = '<div>I\'m a template</div>';
+	var template = '<div>I\'m a template</div> ';
 
 	beforeEach(module('ui.bootstrap.dialog'));
 	beforeEach(module('template/dialog/message.html'));
@@ -287,4 +287,22 @@ describe('Given ui.bootstrap.dialog', function(){
 			expect($document.find('body > div.modal > div.modal-header').length).toBe(1);
 		});
 	});
+
+	describe('when opening it with a template containing white-space', function(){
+
+		var controllerIsCreated;
+		function Controller($scope, dialog){
+			controllerIsCreated = true;
+		}
+
+		beforeEach(function(){
+			createDialog({
+				template:' <div>Has whitespace that IE8 does not like assigning data() to</div> ',
+				controller: Controller
+			});
+			openDialog();
+		});
+
+		dialogShouldBeOpen();
+	});
 });