There are plenty of shirtless boys and drama in the new extended trailer for New Moon, the second film in the Twilight saga. The three stars of the series, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, and Kristen Stewart, premiered the extended trailer to screaming fans at the MTV VMAs last night. We’ve already seen some brief shirtless clips of both Robert Pattinson (Edward) and Taylor Lautner (Jacob) from the film as shown at Comic Con, along with a shirtless Lautner in the first trailer. Now we get to see much more of Jacob’s hot werewolf buddies from La Push and more of the characters who play the vampire elite, The Vulturi. Dakota Fanning is evil young Jane with glowing red eyes and too much makeup.

Mild spoilers for New Moon that you can figure out from watching the trailer
I’m definitely going to go see this movie, but I really disliked the part of New Moon where Edward just up and leaves Bella. (I’m labeling this a spoiler, but it’s pretty much in the trailer above.) Bella’s depression is kind of hard to deal with as a reader and I wanted her to realize what a jerk Edward was for not sticking by her instead of working so hard to contact him somehow. It will be an entertaining film, and it looks a little overwrought in this trailer, but that’s Twilight for you, and that’s part of the reason we love it. The car scenes with Alice look really cheesy and fake though, right?

New Moon is out in the US on November 20th and is sure to be a hit. Its predecessor Twilight has taken in $383 million so far.

This is so sweet I have a toothache. In the constant swirl of random teenage celebrities, I usually find myself grossed out, cringing with the total ridiculousness of these young Hollywood couplings. Couples of yore like Miley Cyrus and Justin Gaston, or even recently split Joe Jonas and Camilla Belle I find rather unpleasant. But this latest one made me smile. Dakota Fanning, age 15, might be dating Freddie Highmore, the 17 year old English actor who famously got to work with Johnny Depp twice – in Finding Neverland and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It’s an age-appropriate coupling, in my mind (when I was 15, I “dated” or “hung out” with 17 year old boys). I don’t think it’s some huge age difference, especially considering Freddie looks all of 12 years old still. And Dakota looks young for her age too, considering another Hollywood 15-year-old is Ali “Smoker’s Rasp” Lohan:

If you thought Selena Gomez and Taylor Lautner were a match made in tween heaven, think again.

Full-blown thespians Dakota Fanning and Freddie Highmore reportedly had a dinner date in Beverly Hills Saturday night. Squee!

At 15, the increasingly adorable Dakota has already gone toe-to-toe with the likes of Sean Penn, Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise and, oh yeah, Robert Pattinson(!) in the upcoming Twilight sequel.

Lest you forgot, Freddie, 17, has a résumé no less impressive, serving as Johnny Depp’s pint-size protégé in both Finding Neverland and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Seriously, can you say power couple?

[From E! Online]

A dinner date is a big deal for that age group. I wonder if they went dutch, or if he paid? Dakota makes more money than Freddie, but it’s not like he’s a B-List young Hollywood kid. Who knows? He could even be the next R-Pattz. Well… with less sparkles. Less train wreck hair. But Freddie has cute little dimples, so that counts for something. Sigh… memories of my teenage years. If I could go back and do it all again from the age of 15 years old… nope, I still wouldn’t do it. I hated my teenage years. That being said, if I got to go on a dinner date with a cutie like Freddie when I was 15 years old, I would have been all over it. Even though, back then, my heart belonged jointly to John Malkovich and Eddie Vedder. Swoon.

Freddie Highmore is shown on 6/29/09 and 7/23/09. Dakota Fanning is shown on 1/29/09 and 2/2/09. Credit: WENN.com. Dakota is also shown on the set of the Joan Jett movie, The Runaways, on 7/22/09. Credit: Fame Pictures

Forbes has released its list of Hollywood’s Most Valuable Young Stars. The list came out as part of Forbes’ recent Star Currency Survey, which evaluated star power of 1,400 actors in Hollywood. The choices, meant to give a cross-section of Hollywood, was sent to 157 people working in all parts of the movie industry, who evaluated actors based on certain factors.

Criteria used were:
-The amount of financing that flows to a project is significantly determined by the individual actor’s presence in a film.
-The individual actor’s presence in a film guarantees theatrical distribution.
-The individual actor’s presence significantly drives the film’s theatrical box-office performance.
-If the individual actor’s involvement is essential in securing rights deals for revenue streams, including DVD, pay/free TV, video-on-demand and online/downloading/streaming (when applicable), as well as a project’s ultimate financial performance in those areas.
-If the individual actor can attract audiences in any film genre.
-If the individual actor can attract other top-line talent based on his or her involvement in a film.
-If the individual actor is popular among most demographic groups.
-Whether media exposure the individual actor receives (positive or negative) enhances his or her ability to attract financing and audiences to a project.

[from Forbes]

The survey participants then ranked each actor based on these questions. The young Hollywood list was extracted from this survey and had the criteria that the actor be 19 or younger on February 10, 2009. Most of the young thespians on the list are actors who have potential staying power: Abigail Breslin, Daniel Radcliffe, and Dakota Fanning, for example. Miley Cyrus also makes the list not necessarily because of her potential for an adult career, but because she has yet to go wrong with her project choices, and continues to bring in the dough. Here’s the list:

1. Daniel Radcliffe (age 19)
2. Miley Cyrus (age 16)
3. Dakota Fanning (age 15)
4. Abigail Breslin (age 12)
5. Hayden Panettiere (age 19)
6. Emma Watson (age 18)
7. Freddie Highmore (age 17)
8. Keke Palmer (age 15)
9. Emma Roberts (age 18)
10. Anton Yelchin (age 19)

Most of these are not surprising, except for Anton Yelchin, who has been doing projects for a while but hasn’t made a celebrity name for himself yet. He’ll be starring in Terminator and Star Trek this summer. The article about the young Hollywood list makes a good point that’s worth quoting: “In the past, someone like a Shirley Temple was limited,” says [producer Rick] Alvarez. “She was playing herself, and she was the cute little girl with the patent-leather shoes and the curly hair. How do you go from that to playing Cleopatra or Mary, Queen of Scots?” I can see Abigail Breslin, Dakota Fanning, and Freddie Highmore going on to do just that – if they decide to keep going. Fanning, for one, was recently in the movie Hounddog, which included a rape scene that was too graphic for many audiences. Can you imagine Shirley Temple doing something like that? As for the rest of the actors on the list, it will be interesting to see how many of these names we see in Forbes’ Most Valuable Hollywood Stars in a few years. I’ll bet that Miley’s name will be nowhere near it.

The sequel to the hit teen vampire sensation “Twilight” has already had its fair share of speed bumps, with director and casting issues, but it seems those problems are now in the past. “New Moon” is in early production, and child star Dakota Fanning may have been offered a plum role as Jane, the young but terrifying leader of a vicious faction of vampires.

Dakota Fanning…with fangs?

It’s possible. I 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.

Is Fanning right for Jane? We’re sure Twilight fans have plenty to say about it.

[From E!Online]

I will have to check in with my resident Twilight expert – my 13-year-old daughter – when she gets home from school to see if this is a good fit. I do know that Dakota is pushing to branch out into edgier roles now that she’s a teenager – so far it’s been difficult. Maybe this is just the role and franchise for her.

Dakota Fanning doesn’t see the need to grow up fast. She enjoys the process of growing up, but is happy to take her time doing it. Dakota is 14-years old and while she seems infinitely more mature than the examples of fourteen we’ve seen coming out of Hollywood for years, she’s also exactly what every mother wants her fourteen year old to emulate.

The 14-year-old actress – who can be seen starring alongside Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys in new movie ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ – admits she is excited about growing up, but doesn’t want to rush into anything.

She said: “There’s always the experimenting with make-up and the fun part of it, but there’s no need to grow up any faster than I will, you know? I think the dating side of things happens all at the right time. And I look forward to that part of my life.”

[From Female First]

It’s amazing how refreshing it is to hear that in this world of Mileys, Lohans and Jamie Lynns. She’s a far superior actress with a far superior upbringing it would seem. And this is why Fanning will be winning Oscars while the rest of them will either fade into obscurity or be playing the Kim Cattrall character in the Cinemax version of Sex and the City: The Next Generation.

She added to the USA Today newspaper: “I won’t be able to play the same roles as I did when I was six or nine. I’ll be 15 in February, and as I get older, the roles will inevitably change. I look forward to that.

“I know what I was meant to do and what I want to do and what I love to do. I feel at home.”

[From Female First]

Miley Cyrus says the same thing, but she’s talking about the celebrity, not the art. Ali Lohan says the same thing, but she’s talking about the attention, not the responsibility. Since she was very young, Dakota Fanning has known what she’s doing and loved it. All of it, the work even more so than the adulation and compensation. Recent reports that she was a primadonna on set were refuted by the director, and she participates in school activities like a normal kid, no private tutors and no boyfriends over 18 moving in, which makes her just about flawless. She better be careful or that tide is going to turn. You know what happens when someone is too likeable.

Dakota Fanning is shown at a double Hollywood Star award ceremony for husband and wife producer/directors Richard Donner and Lauren Shuler Donner on 10/16/08. Credit: WENN

Dakota Fanning is a cheerleader at the school she attends, The Campbell Hall Episcopal school in Studio City, California. The 14 year-old actress was spotted in a Vikings cheerleading outfit laughing and talking to friends outside a football game on Saturday.

About a week ago we ran a story about how Dakota was supposedly taken to task by the director of her recent film Winged Creatures. Australian director Rowan Woods is said to have called her “naughty” and is quoted as saying that she was jealous of her co-star and wouldn’t come out of her trailer on the first day. Woods has refuted ever saying that about Fanning, though, and wrote in an e-mail to Defamer that he has nothing but praise for her behavior on set:

I directed Dakota Fanning in WINGED CREATURES.

I am very upset and disappointed on behalf of Dakota that such untruths have spun around the internet in regards to Dakota and WINGED CREATURES and that those opinions be attributed to me. They are not my opinions.

My only WINGED CREATURES interview since completing the movie was this one…

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=642285

Dakota Fanning is an incredible actor and a wonderful person. She is brilliant as Anne in WINGED CREATURES. The climactic scene of the movie is the most difficult scene and she hits it out of the park.

My only advice for people that read such things is: watch the movie, judge for yourself. I am proud to be associated with Dakota’s amazing performance.

Cheers,
Rowan Woods

[From Defamer]

Despite rumors to the contrary, Dakota still seems to be a down to earth girl who tries to get involved with hobbies and extra curricular activities. She may have a little bit of the movie star attitude, but at least she’s earned it and is still striving for a sense of normalcy. We’ll have to see how she handles it over the next few years.

Photo credit: Fame Pictures

Child actress Dakota Fanning, who recently emerged from a rather gangly stage to reveal a braces-free, poised young teen, may not be the “America’s sweetheart” everyone saw recently on Oprah. In a new interview, Australian film director Rowan Woods, who directed Fanning recently in “Winged Creatures,” didn’t have many kind words for the youngster.

Woods said his high profile cast was a pleasure to work with except for teenage starlet Dakota Fanning, who could be a diva on the set.

She initially refused to come out of her trailer on day one of shooting because her scene wasn’t filmed first, and was “intensely jealous” of her young co-star Josh Hutcherson.

“Everyone was on their best behaviour on this film because they have got a `really serious Australian director who is known for his ensemble work’,” Woods laughed.

“(Fanning) was the only one who was naughty.”

Woods said while he thinks Fanning is a fine actor, on this film she didn’t hit the mark.

“She is a gorgeous girl … but she was the disaster,” he said.

“There was something about her presence that wasn’t ringing true.

“Most of our work was cutting her scenes and a lot of her scenes were cut.”

[From Live News Australia]

So, Dakota is like most of the other child stars (and adult actors) in Hollywood: demanding and self centered. No big surprise there. What does surprise me is this director’s candidness about it. Can you imagine if directors like Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg came out at a press conference before a big opening and just started dissing the actors? Maybe the rules of disclosure are different in Australia. Something tells me that this Rowan Woods guy probably won’t be getting a lot of directing jobs in Hollywood.

Top photo: Dakota Fanning arriving at LAX in February 2008. Bottom photos: Dakota at “The Secret Life of Bees” premiere, October 2008. Photo credit: Bauergriffin.com and WENN

In May we ran a story about how grown up child actress Dakota Fanning, 14, looks. Dakota is the same age as Ali Lohan, but she manages to look very pretty yet age-appropriate at the same time. At the premiere of her controversial film Hounddog last night in NY, Fanning wore black patent peep-toe wedge heels and a silver satin strapless top over black skinny jeans. She had on minimal makeup and wore her hair long with a little volume.

Fanning’s schedule is busy. She has the Secret Life of Bees coming out this year, two films in post production scheduled for release next year, and another in the works. She’s sure to get more offers for projects soon. I’m really impressed by this girl and you can see how she will mature into more adult roles. She may very well win an Oscar before she’s 20. Somehow she’s managed to preserve her childhood despite a busy Hollywood career and she’ll hopefully stay grounded throughout her teen years.

Hounddog premiered at the Sundance film festival in 2007 and includes an infamous scene in which Fanning’s young character is raped. All that is shown is her face, but the inclusion of the scene is said to have scared off investors and caused production and distribution to be delayed multiple times. It is finally out in the US in limited release this Friday, September 19.

Photo credit: PNP/WENN

14 year-old child actress Dakota Fanning made an appearance at a ball for Lupus LA yesterday and she looked years older than the last time I remember seeing her. She has her braces off and she’s absolutely beautiful. The last event photos I could find of Fanning were from about a year ago and she looked like a little girl at that point.

Fanning has quite a few movies coming up, only one of which is in pre-production. She has Winged Creatures, Push, The Secret Life of Bees, and Coraline due for release and it’s possible she still looks like a little girl in those films since they’ve already been shot. In Coraline, which is in post production and is due out in February of next year, she plays a girl who discovers “an alternate version of her life,” and in The Secret Life of Bees she plays a 14 year-old girl who runs away from home and is befriended by a group of beekeeping women in 1960s South Carolina. That’s due out in October.

I guess that’s what happens when teenagers grow up, but it’s amazing to see the transformation in her. She’s sure to be taking on more teen roles. Fanning seems like a smart girl who has a lot of hobbies. Wikipedia lists her interests as knitting, swimming, piano, violin, ballet, and horseback riding. Hopefully she’ll stay involved with extra curricular activities and won’t let the cesspool of Hollywood suck her in as she gets older.

Dakota Fanning on 5/1/08

Dakota Fanning on 3/31/07

12 year-old actress Dakota Fanning received the “Heart of Gold Award” last night at the annual gala held by the Starlight Starbright Children’s foundation. Fanning was honored for her “commitment to helping others.” Jamie Curtis hosted the event. Attending stars included erratic Teri Hatcher, John Stamos, Bob Saget, Alicia Silverstone, and Elly and Mike Godard.