Yay! No school today!

Well, since today is President's Day, we have school off! How nice it is to have long weekends like this. :)
Well, today I thought I might write a little bit about one of my favorite actresses, Dakota Fanning. You might know her from the movies I Am Sam, Uptown Girls, The Cat in the Hat, War of the Worlds, Dreamer, Charlotte's Web, etc. Three things gave me the idea to write about her, 1. Dakota turns 13 on February 23, in 4 days, 2. I was watching Uptown Girls last night, a movie that Dakota starred in when she was eight, and 3. My mom made a comment last night about her newest movie, an independent film called Hounddog, which we haven't seen since it's not a movie that's being released in theaters.
Well, the first time I heard about Dakota was when I was at my friend's birthday party and we went to see The Cat in the Hat at the theater. I thought the girl who played Sally was really good and I wondered who she was, so I looked her up and found out that her name was Hannah Dakota Fanning (she has the same first name as me, even though she uses her middle name!) and I had also seen her in her small role in Sweet Home Alabama. At that time, Dakota had a new movie coming out soon, called Man on Fire, although I couldn't see it since it was rated R. But I still watched Dakota's interviews about the movie at that time and I was able to see clips of her in the movie, since she wasn't in the violent parts. I immediately liked her a lot. She was a great actress who could play both silly parts in comedy movies and emotional parts in dramas. And in her interviews, she was always kind, down-to-earth, and very mature. I was so glad to see that seeing how a lot of celebrities are these days. She is also really great with her fans. I read such a great story about a fan that got to meet her and her sister Elle on the set of Charlotte's Web (you can read it here: http://www.elle-fanning.org/sarahstory.php ). I have never met Dakota but I wrote her a fan letter last year and she was kind enough to send me an autographed picture back with a little note (it was personalized too- she wrote "To Hannah" at the top). I also love how she and her sister Elle have such a great relationship, even though they are both actresses. Dakota says that there is no competition between the two of them and that she is just really proud of her sister. And of course, I ended up seeing most of Dakota's movies. I've seen all of them except for Man on Fire, Charlotte's Web, and Taken (which was actually a mini-series that aired on sci-fi). And of course I haven't seen Hounddog, since it's not in theaters, and it is also (apparently) "obscene".
Oh, wow, I'll never forget all of the drama over Hounddog that started in July, when word got out that in Dakota's new movie, she was playing a sexually abused girl in the 1960s who finds a safe haven by listening to the music of Elvis Presley. She was supposedly raped on-screen and also shown naked. I was worried when I first heard about this, but I couldn't imagine that Dakota would ever do an "obscene" movie, or that her parents would let her. On a message board about Dakota, everyone was completely spun up- many people were panicked, slamming Dakota's mother for letting her do the movie, and even saying that Dakota was probably on her way to becoming "the next Lindsay Lohan." Others said that we haven't seen the movie yet, so we can't judge it, and, since we were such loyal fans of Dakota, we should support her and not be so judgemental until we find out more. It turned out, though, that the media was exaggerating to try to start drama, like they always do. I suppose they saw it as a great opportunity to get everyone all spun up, since Dakota is so popular now and has so many fans. According to Dakota, and others who saw the movie, she was raped in one scene, but it was done in a close-up shot of her face so you could only see her facial expressions, and she was also wearing a body suit. Of course, this movie is meant for adults, and I don't plan on seeing it if it ends up making it into theaters, but I am still a fan of Dakota. I'm still going to support her because I, like the other fans, am confident that she would never do anything like what the media was saying. She has always been one of the nicest Hollywood stars and has always had morals. I have faith that she will not end up like Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton. I think that both she and Elle have a very bright future ahead of them. Go Dakota and Elle! And happy birthday to Dakota (it's a little early, but I figured I'd say it now in case I don't have time to post on her birthday)!