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!

This is one thing I just DON’T understand about parent’s of child actors.  How can they be okay with this?  Erin and I were watching The Parent Trap last night (the Lindsay Lohan one) okay, so we like that movie – back off!  But we were saying how it’s just so sad that kids start off so innocent – then end up… well, Lindsay Lohan.  Enough said.  But from the looks of it, our little Dakota will be treading in the same water.

Dakota Fanning Ventures Into Dark Territory, Scares Away the Money

Kid phenom Dakota Fanning is going the way of Brooke Shields and Jodie Foster – and then some – as she tackles a dicey, but potentially award-worthy role in which she endures a sexual assault and appears naked in several scenes.

The 12-year-old thespian is starring in “Hounddog,” a dark story, as Lloyd Grove puts it, of “abuse, violence and Elvis Presley adulation in the rural South,” in which her character gets raped in an explicit scene and appears nude or wearing only undergarments in others. Fanning’s mom and agent apparently see the film as Oscar material for Dakota, but potential investors apparently shied away from its creepy material. Production shut down briefly, but filming will wrap tomorrow in North Carolina.

“It’s not just the rape scene,” says Fanning agent Cindy Osbrink. “The whole story is challenging Dakota as an actress…I’ve seen the dailies, and in every scene she gets better and better.”