Dakota Fanning…with fangs?

It’s possible. E!Online can exclusively report that the 14-year-old child star—she turns 15 on Feb. 23—is in talks to play Jane opposite Robert Pattinson & Co. in New Moon, the upcoming sequel to box office megahit Twilight.

“There were no auditions,” a source reveals. “They just offered it to her outright, and now they’re in negotiations. They’ve been going back and forth.”

Jane is a member of Italy’s Volturi, the most deadly group of bloodsucking killers in author Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling series.

In the casting notice we got our hands on earlier this month, Jane is described as a petite blonde with a “Botticelli angel-like face…[and] crimson irises.” While fellow Volturi guards Demetri & Felix “are three times the size of her, they are terrified of her,” the casting notice reads.

Coincidentally (or maybe not), an online petition started by a Twilight fan already asks the studio, Summit Entertainment, to cast Fanning because she would be “perfect” for the role.

Early last month, Entertainment Weekly suggested Pushing Daisies star and Broadway diva Kristin Chenoweth. “Her voice is certainly high enough, and at 4′11”, she’s also short enough,” writer Amy Wilkinson proposed.

Director Chris Weitz is expected to start shooting New Moon in March in the U.S. and Italy. If all goes as planned, the movie will hit theaters on Nov. 20.

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Pictured: Katherine Heigl, Kate Hudson, Reese Witherspoon, Carrie Underwood, Jessica Stroup, Jewel, Jordin Sparks, Brooke Burke, Debra Messing, Queen Latifah, Marisa Tomei, Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, AnnaLynne McCord, Jennie Garth, Ellen Degeneres & Portia de Rossi, Christina Applegate

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I need to read this book!  I have had it for a couple months, but I’m so behind on all my books, I haven’t gotten to it yet!  I keep picking up books that I want to read, and I have so many of them “to read” now, I feel like I’ll never reach the end!  I’m currently reading “Friday Night Knitting Club” (which makes me want to join a knitting club, btw) and next I’m going to read “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle”.  I’m DYING to read it. I bought it several months ago, then Oprah picked it as her book – for her book club.  She had the author on the show, and now I’m even more stoked to read it.

Here is the official site for “The Secret Life of Bees”.

Anyway, back to the post at hand.  Here are the celebrities at last night’s premiere of “The Secret Life of Bees”.  Stars include Jada Pinkett Smith (Executive Producer) and Will Smith, Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson (check out the closeup on her ring!) & Nia Long.

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In attendance for the New York premiere of Hounddog were Dakota Fanning, Kirsten Dunst, Robin Wright Penn, director Deborah Kampmeier, Jen Gatien, Robert Davi, and more!

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GENIUS CASTING!!! This is funny – when I was reading this book, I pictured Dakota Fanning as the younger sister.  They both are remarkably talented – so I think this is brilliant casting.

Thespian prodigies Dakota and Elle Fanning have agreed to play Cameron Diaz’s daughters in My Sister’s Keeper for director Nick Cassavetes.

The film is an adaptation of Jodi Picoult’s 2004 novel about a young girl (to be played by 9-year-old Elle) who sues her parents for emancipation after they conceived her in hopes that her genes would save the life of her cancer-stricken sibling (13-year-old Dakota).

The project reunites Cassavetes with screenwriter Jeremy Leven and producer Mark Johnson, two key members of his team behind the hit tearjerker The Notebook. It’s due to start shooting early next year.

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It’s always weird to me when a child actor grows up.  Like I saw pictures of that cute kid from “Jerry Maguire” today and he’s 16! (And slightly cute)  Go here to see him today – in a speedo!

And whatever happened to Haley Joel Osmemt? He has a new movie coming out – go here to see him today!

Anyway – Kate Hudson, Dakota Fanning and Virginia Madsen were all in Pasadena filming a short film yesterday. Kate Hudson is gorgeous as ever!

No movie arrived at the Sundance ‘07 fest with more controversy than Hounddog, the so-called ”Dakota Fanning Rape Movie” in which the 12-year-old actresses stars as an Elvis-obsessed little girl growing up in the 1950s South. Leading up to the film’s Jan. 22 premiere, writer-director Deborah Kampmeier expected protests outside the theater, as well as inside, thinking that maybe even a few moviegoers would stand up and boo. But as the lights went down at Park City’s Racquet Club Monday night, there was not a single peep of dissent, not even during the rape scene, which turned out to be brief and devoid of graphic shots, or during the Q&A with Kampmeier, Fanning, and other cast members following the screening.

For Kampmeier, the subdued atmosphere was a good sign. ”We were prepared for the worst, and I think we got the best,” she told EW the day after the premiere. ”I think people were expecting something more controversial, and it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s it?’ ” Added Fanning: ”I hope people weren’t let down!”

By Tuesday afternoon, however, it looked as though some people were disappointed — but not because of the movie’s lack of exploitive violence. ”Hounddog is an indigestible gumbo of Southern Gothic ingredients seasoned with snake oil, biblical hash, and thoroughly unpalatable spice,” wrote Variety film critic Todd McCarthy. ”Aside from Fanning and the controversy, the film has nothing going for it commercially.”

Ouch.

It’s not the kind of review a filmmaker hopes for when debuting any movie at a festival, especially one up for acquisition. At press time, no distribution deal for Hounddog had been announced, but when Kampmeier met with EW before the Variety review appeared online, she seemed confident that there was interest from buyers. ”We’ve got my lawyers on it, talking to people,” she said. ”Look, some people are going to love this film, some people are going to hate it. Some people it will resonate with, some people it won’t.”

As for Fanning, she seems to be weathering the after-storm just fine, thank you. But she isn’t ready to call Hounddog a definitive turning point in her career. ”I guess people will see me a little bit older now, but I’m not all grown up yet,” the precocious pre-teen explained. ”I just want to keep taking steps forward and doing what I believe in.”

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So people don’t want to see Dakota get raped?  Shocking!