Halfway House: Child Stars Are Demonic

Halfway through the day we stop a movie halfway through...

Oh, Christine. Gin and tonics won't help you forget your demon child!

Sixty-four minutes into The Bad Seed (1956) Christine Penmark (Nancy Kelly) tries to disguise her concerns about her daughter's malevolence under the pretense of research for a murder-mystery she's writing (Fail: She isn't even a writer!). Unfortunately family friend/criminologist expert Mr. Tasker (Gage Kelly) doesn't exactly allay her fears.

Bad Liar: The...uh... question that I wanted to ask you is a psychological one. I doubt that it's been asked or answered, if it has, until recently.

Oblivious Man: Well, I may not know all the answers.

Bad Liar: Well perhaps no one does. This...story that I'm thinking of writing made me wonder. Tell me, do children ever commit murders? Or is crime something that's learned gradually and grows as the criminal grows so that only adults do really dreadful things?

Oblivious Man: Oh, yessss. Children often commit murders... and quite clever ones, too! Some murderers, particularly the distinguised ones who are going to make great names for themselves start amazingly young.

Bad Liar: In childhood?!?

<--- Rhoda (Patty McCormack) is eeeevil. What is a mother to do?

This scene goes on and on and even repeats its exposition and thesis over again once a third adult character enters the room. 'As we were just saying...' Ha!

Stilted acting and underlined expository conversations are a true joy in the right context (i.e. old movies), aren't they? The american fascination with Psychology in the 1950s produced so many great and great/bad movie moments. I can't wait to see what StinkyLulu and crew say about this movie's two supporting actress nominees (Eileen Heckart and Patty McCormack) on Halloween weekend, can you?
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Saoirse and the Dakotas

When someone in Hollywood needs a 15 year old blonde with dramatic chops to headline or co-star in their movie, I imagine that Saoirse Ronan and Dakota Fanning are getting the scripts first. Can we get a few mailed to Dakota Blue Richards, too?

Dakota Blue Richards in Five Miles Out (2009)

She's exactly 1 day older than Saoirse Ronan (weird trivia!) but I fear she may get lost in the shuffle. Fanning has two months on both of the Dakotas and many more years of experience and celebrity. But Saoirse already has an Oscar nomination and a primo gig with Peter Jackson. Richards, on the other hand, is only known for headlining The Golden Compass, the blockbuster that didn't bust blocks. Since Compass she's made 1 TV film, 1 short and 1 feature.

<-- Saoirse and Dakota the First

In that stack of shorts I saw whilst in Nashville, Richards had the lead in a beautifully shot miniature called Five Miles Out. She played a morose and preoccupied girl, trying to shake off the heavy weight of a family crisis during a trip to the seaside. That 18 minutes was enough to remind me that she holds the screen really well. You look at her face and you must know what's going on inside her head. It's the same feeling I get when I watch someone like Samantha Morton... albeit on a much smaller scale in this case.

Did you think Richards was strong in The Golden Compass? Any other mid-teen actresses you think are worth watching? It won't be long before they're all fighting it out for what we now think of as the Keira Knightley, Amanda Seyfried, Scarlet Johannson parts.
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Max & Haley

Today marks the 80th birthday (80th!) of cinema legend Max von Sydow. This year, a fan site points out, retrospective celebrations of his work seem highly probable. I bring this birthday up because my interview with him a year and half ago is still one of my favorite events from my Film Experience journey. He was so interesting to talk to. Consider the diversity of his resume: The Exorcist, The Seventh Seal, Awakenings, The Virgin Spring, Flash Gordon, Three Days of the Condor, Judge Dredd, Hannah and Her Sisters. He's worked with everyone from Ingmar Bergman to Steven Spielberg. If I could have tied him up for hours with more questions, I would have, believe me. His next film is Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (previously discussed) and then we might see him in the WW II resistance fighter drama, Truth & Treason. He's not in the trailer so we assume he plays one of the characters as an older man in an epilogue.

On the other end of the age spectrum is von Sydow's upcoming co-star in that picture, Haley Joel Osment. He turns 21 today. He was once everyone's favorite tiny medium (The Sixth Sense) and little android (A.I. Artificial Intelligence) but we haven't seen him for years. Growing up is always difficult for child stars. Their faces change or don't change enough. There's that brief awkward phase or whole long stretches of it. We haven't seen Osment much recently but he does have two films in the works, the aforementioned Truth & Treason and an indie comedy called Montana Amazon in which he co-stars with Olympia Dukakis.

Maybe he isn't ambitious about having a big film career as an adult but if he is I figure both M. Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg ought to offer him something good to help him with the transitioning. They way I see it they both owe him --think of how much weaker both of those films immediately become with anything less than a preternaturally gifted child actor in their demanding roles.
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Orphan Boy Finds New Home (Contest Winners)

< --- No, no, no. We're not sending pour little Mauro off to an orphanage. We're shipping him off to three TFE readers who've won The Year My Parents Went on Vacation on DVD. I asked all contestants what their favorite films about children or childhood were. The winners, drawn randomly, responded like so...

Samuel from NY

The 400 Blows or In America or if it can count (because it's about the paternal bond) - Chaplin's The Kid. If I had to choose one, it's The 400 Blows.

A classic. Good choice.

Agustin from Argentina

You Can Count On Me. It's not strictly about childhood, but it's nice that the only child in the movie is the most mature character. Laura and Mark are still acting like those kids they were when there parents were still alive.

What a surprising answer. But it's totally true and a lovely observation.

Jonathan from NY

I was debating between Paper Moon, Oliver! and Thirteen, but I think I have to go with the less acclaimed/polished Goonies...

The Goonies all grown up

because the 10 year old in me can't help but smile from start to finish whenever I watch it!

I haven't seen Goonies since it was in theaters (gulp) I've never really understood the appeal even if I was known to bop around to Cyndi Lauper's theme song "Good Enough". Nevertheless, it was a popular answer in these contest entries. Perhaps I should give it another spin?

<--- The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, which was Brazil's submission for the 2007 Oscars, debuts on DVD tomorrow. Check it out.

Hugh Jackman Pinches Himself. In a Manly Way!

Hugh Jackman's adamantium claws won't be onscreen again till 2009, but watch more and more Wolverine news litter the internet while we wait and wait... and wait. Here's a good snippet from Moviehole. Hugh doesn't want the kid who plays Wolverine as a youngster (Kodi Smit-McPhee) on the web because it's too full of pre-release speculation and movie expectations. Um, Hugh... he's 12. He's already running rampant online.

Wolverine, pinstriped @ 12 (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and @ 39 (Hugh Jackman)

The quote on Australia is also of note and goes like this

Recently I saw another five minutes, and I just pinch myself I'm a part of it. It's an amazing moment for Australian film. Fingers crossed we can pull off the ambitions being set

Aside from the visual of Jackman touching himself (OK, pinching isn't that sexy but it's Jackman -- shut up!) it's nice to see some honesty in sound bite interviews. There's both excitement, pride and a little worrying in there. As well there should be.

Yes, I'm too obsessed with Australia. Help me!

Incidentally, the apparently pin-stripe loving Kodi Smit-McPhee already played son to Eric Bana in Romulus My Father (for which the young actor won big raves) and before Wolverine (or after depending on release strategies) you'll see him as Viggo Mortensen's son in the upcoming adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Quite a collection of father figures this kid is amassing with just three years in the biz.

Notorious (Times Two)

Notorious (Times Two)

Child Stars Give You Wrinkles

Mayim Balik who, in a brilliant feat of casting, played the young Bette Midler in Beaches (and later went on to TV fame with Blossom) is 31 years old today. I only bring this up because oh my god that makes me feel old. Wasn't it just yesterday that I bought the Beaches soundtrack on (gasp) cassette! Wasn't it yesterday that it was all the rage to joke about collagen pioneer Barbara Hershey's inflated lips? If it wasn't yesterday it was like a year ago ... tops!

Just imagine how you'll feel when Dakota Fanning or Haley Joel Osment turn 30! You'll feel ancient. Be warned.

Child Stars Give You Wrinkles

Mayim Balik who, in a brilliant feat of casting, played the young Bette Midler in Beaches (and later went on to TV fame with Blossom) is 31 years old today. I only bring this up because oh my god that makes me feel old. Wasn't it just yesterday that I bought the Beaches soundtrack on (gasp) cassette! Wasn't it yesterday that it was all the rage to joke about collagen pioneer Barbara Hershey's inflated lips? If it wasn't yesterday it was like a year ago ... tops!

Just imagine how you'll feel when Dakota Fanning or Haley Joel Osment turn 30! You'll feel ancient. Be warned.

A History Of... Dakota Fanning

It's Tuesday. Time for a new episode of the History series...


Oh unsuspecting reader. I do apologize in advance. First Bunnies and now this? Will the "cute" ever end? I was spurred on by yesterday's request and a strange finding on which web google searches were leading people to this site. OK I'll share: It was a search quote "Dakota Fanning mysteriously dies" I don't know why this would lead people to the Film Experience. I'm frightened that it would. But it did. Google is a strange and endless labyrinth.

Let the history begin...

1994 Hannah Dakota Fanning is born to unsuspecting parents in Conyers, Georgia. No... not --I mean, they knew they were pregnant. That's not what I meant...never mind.

2000 At the age of six, Dakota is unleashed upon the nation's living rooms without parental supervision in no less than six hit TV series. One of the roles is as the young Calista Flockhart in an Ally McBeal episode.

2001 Her next role: The young Ellen Degeneres in the comic's eponymous TV show. In her first major role, wee Dakota steals I am Sam from its intended stars Pfeiffer and Penn. For the sad scenes Dakota tells reporters she thought about her pet goldfish dying. The studio spends a fortune in hush money to prevent the quotes about 'kicking Tatum O'Neal's ass at the Oscars' from emerging. In the end, Dakota settles for a SAG nomination.

2002Dakota plays a young Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama.

2003 She throws her first professional tantrum when she is denied the role of a young Colin Farrell in Alexander and a young Jim Caviezel in The Passion of the Christ. "Can't these Hollywood dimwits see my range? I can play everything from the young version of a post-feminist punching bag to the young version of the world's most famous lesbian to the young version of the world's second most ambitious type A blonde in Hollywood!"

To punish Dakota for her outburst, her management places her in Uptown Girls to spend time with fidgety Brittany Murphy.

2005 In her first major blockbuster, the child star steals War of the Worlds from its intended star Tom Cruise. For the frightened scenes Fanning tells no reporters she thought of the nightly visitations from Tom Cruise in a mask 'Xenu' on set, or the relentless Scientology recruitment drive at the craft services table: "Am I stressed?!? Of course I'm stressed you idiots. Elle is hot on my tail and I'm not getting any younger!"

In this year Dakota also turns 11 years-old. Tatum O' Neal and Anna Paquin's Oscar records are safe. Temporarily defeated, the young dynamo shifts her sights to defeating Jodie Foster's 'two Oscars by the time she's 30' record. For her tireless determination (and, perhaps, from blood curdling fear) Barbara Walters names her one of the 10 most intriguing people of the year.

2006 Awkward adolescence be damned, Dakota plans a full out multiplex assault with four new films, commencing with Charlotte's Web in December.


* If you're new to this blog, please give it a good looksie.-- there's more than just the histories.

Previous Histories...
Bunny Rabbits * Sharon Stone * Jodie Foster *Gender Bending * Bald Women * Sarah Jessica Parker * Gay Cowboys * Julianne Moore's Screen Kids * Gyllenhaal

tags: Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Tom Cruise, movies, celebrities, Oscars, gossip, Scientology

A History Of... Dakota Fanning

It's Tuesday. Time for a new episode of the History series...


Oh unsuspecting reader. I do apologize in advance. First Bunnies and now this? Will the "cute" ever end? I was spurred on by yesterday's request and a strange finding on which web google searches were leading people to this site. OK I'll share: It was a search quote "Dakota Fanning mysteriously dies" I don't know why this would lead people to the Film Experience. I'm frightened that it would. But it did. Google is a strange and endless labyrinth.

Let the history begin...

1994 Hannah Dakota Fanning is born to unsuspecting parents in Conyers, Georgia. No... not --I mean, they knew they were pregnant. That's not what I meant...never mind.

2000 At the age of six, Dakota is unleashed upon the nation's living rooms without parental supervision in no less than six hit TV series. One of the roles is as the young Calista Flockhart in an Ally McBeal episode.

2001 Her next role: The young Ellen Degeneres in the comic's eponymous TV show. In her first major role, wee Dakota steals I am Sam from its intended stars Pfeiffer and Penn. For the sad scenes Dakota tells reporters she thought about her pet goldfish dying. The studio spends a fortune in hush money to prevent the quotes about 'kicking Tatum O'Neal's ass at the Oscars' from emerging. In the end, Dakota settles for a SAG nomination.

2002Dakota plays a young Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama.

2003 She throws her first professional tantrum when she is denied the role of a young Colin Farrell in Alexander and a young Jim Caviezel in The Passion of the Christ. "Can't these Hollywood dimwits see my range? I can play everything from the young version of a post-feminist punching bag to the young version of the world's most famous lesbian to the young version of the world's second most ambitious type A blonde in Hollywood!"

To punish Dakota for her outburst, her management places her in Uptown Girls to spend time with fidgety Brittany Murphy.

2005 In her first major blockbuster, the child star steals War of the Worlds from its intended star Tom Cruise. For the frightened scenes Fanning tells no reporters she thought of the nightly visitations from Tom Cruise in a mask 'Xenu' on set, or the relentless Scientology recruitment drive at the craft services table: "Am I stressed?!? Of course I'm stressed you idiots. Elle is hot on my tail and I'm not getting any younger!"

In this year Dakota also turns 11 years-old. Tatum O' Neal and Anna Paquin's Oscar records are safe. Temporarily defeated, the young dynamo shifts her sights to defeating Jodie Foster's 'two Oscars by the time she's 30' record. For her tireless determination (and, perhaps, from blood curdling fear) Barbara Walters names her one of the 10 most intriguing people of the year.

2006 Awkward adolescence be damned, Dakota plans a full out multiplex assault with four new films, commencing with Charlotte's Web in December.


* If you're new to this blog, please give it a good looksie.-- there's more than just the histories.

Previous Histories...
Bunny Rabbits * Sharon Stone * Jodie Foster *Gender Bending * Bald Women * Sarah Jessica Parker * Gay Cowboys * Julianne Moore's Screen Kids * Gyllenhaal

tags: Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Tom Cruise, movies, celebrities, Oscars, gossip, Scientology

Request: Best Child Actor

Monday. Time for Reader Request [Use comments to request] Today’s topic was suggested by John T: Favorite Performance By A Child in a Movie

In real life I love kids. If I were super-wealthy like Mia Farrow or Agelina Jolie I'd probably adopt a whole bundle, too. In reel life I sing a different song. When I see tykes in movies I get nervous. They often stink up the joint, ruining good scenes with painfully stilted line readings.

Sometimes I find myself wishing a movie would jump forward in time so that a child actor could be replaced quickly [Example: Just rewatched Auntie Mame and I was counting down the minutes until young Patrick (Jan Handzlik) would go to college when I knew he'd suddenly be played by Roger Smith, an actor that Rosalind Russell, Peggy Cass, and Coral Browne could perform with rather than act around in the Oscar-nominated comedy.]

Generally speaking I think that American children are worse actors than foreign ones. I think this has to do with excessive television-watching and a resulting lack of naturalism: They're trying to do what they see as opposed to just being what they are. Dakota Fanning and Haley Joel Osment, two much lauded child actors, are not typical of their breed. The reason so many people find them spooky is that their performances seem adult in mind if not in appearance.

I haven't looked at any movie lists to write this post so I'm operating on cinematic memory. But my choices for the two best performances are both from films that I've only seen once. I've never been able to shake either.

My runner up comes from an Australian film called Careful He Might Hear You. The actor playing a young orphaned boy is Nicholas Gledhill. Like many child actors not much of a career followed but I remember being astonished by him as well as the woman playing his aunt, Wendy Hughes, when it was released here in America. The movie is a gripping custody battle over the seven year-old.

Without hesitation I'd name the best acting I've ever seen from a child coming from Victoire Thivisol in the French film Ponette. I don't cry much at the movies. A few times a year my eyes will well up. Maybe once or twice a tear might escape. But when I saw Ponette it was plain old school weeping that occurred. I would have nominated Thivisol for Best Actress that year. I would almost have handed her the Oscar. I still remember her work vividly. I still think it's miraculous that the performance exists. I still wonder how it was wrestled on to the screen. She plays a young child who has suddenly lost her mother. She is confused, sad, lonely, and adrift. Victoire Thivisol was four years old. The film is a grade A cinematic study of grief and coping mechanisms. It has to be seen to be believed.

Use the comments to suggest a topic for next week. Or discuss this one.

previous requests: Classics I Haven't Seen (for Glenn) Favorite Animals (for Cal) Cher (for David) and The Sound of Music (for Becky)

tags: Dakota Fanning, child actors, movies, cinema, movies, Auntie Mame, Haley Joel Osment

Request: Best Child Actor

Monday. Time for Reader Request [Use comments to request] Today’s topic was suggested by John T: Favorite Performance By A Child in a Movie

In real life I love kids. If I were super-wealthy like Mia Farrow or Agelina Jolie I'd probably adopt a whole bundle, too. In reel life I sing a different song. When I see tykes in movies I get nervous. They often stink up the joint, ruining good scenes with painfully stilted line readings.

Sometimes I find myself wishing a movie would jump forward in time so that a child actor could be replaced quickly [Example: Just rewatched Auntie Mame and I was counting down the minutes until young Patrick (Jan Handzlik) would go to college when I knew he'd suddenly be played by Roger Smith, an actor that Rosalind Russell, Peggy Cass, and Coral Browne could perform with rather than act around in the Oscar-nominated comedy.]

Generally speaking I think that American children are worse actors than foreign ones. I think this has to do with excessive television-watching and a resulting lack of naturalism: They're trying to do what they see as opposed to just being what they are. Dakota Fanning and Haley Joel Osment, two much lauded child actors, are not typical of their breed. The reason so many people find them spooky is that their performances seem adult in mind if not in appearance.

I haven't looked at any movie lists to write this post so I'm operating on cinematic memory. But my choices for the two best performances are both from films that I've only seen once. I've never been able to shake either.

My runner up comes from an Australian film called Careful He Might Hear You. The actor playing a young orphaned boy is Nicholas Gledhill. Like many child actors not much of a career followed but I remember being astonished by him as well as the woman playing his aunt, Wendy Hughes, when it was released here in America. The movie is a gripping custody battle over the seven year-old.

Without hesitation I'd name the best acting I've ever seen from a child coming from Victoire Thivisol in the French film Ponette. I don't cry much at the movies. A few times a year my eyes will well up. Maybe once or twice a tear might escape. But when I saw Ponette it was plain old school weeping that occurred. I would have nominated Thivisol for Best Actress that year. I would almost have handed her the Oscar. I still remember her work vividly. I still think it's miraculous that the performance exists. I still wonder how it was wrestled on to the screen. She plays a young child who has suddenly lost her mother. She is confused, sad, lonely, and adrift. Victoire Thivisol was four years old. The film is a grade A cinematic study of grief and coping mechanisms. It has to be seen to be believed.

Use the comments to suggest a topic for next week. Or discuss this one.

previous requests: Classics I Haven't Seen (for Glenn) Favorite Animals (for Cal) Cher (for David) and The Sound of Music (for Becky)

tags: Dakota Fanning, child actors, movies, cinema, movies, Auntie Mame, Haley Joel Osment

A History of... Jodie Foster

It's Tuesday. Time for "A History Of..."


1962 Wee infant Alicia Christian Foster is born in Los Angeles. She will be known, very quickly I must add, as "Jodie". Her mom will pimp her out just two years later for her first professional gig. Over the next 40+ years Alicia will flash a lot more than her Coppertone tan.

1968-1973 Jodie on the lam! The young actor skirts child labor law authorities by accreditation as two different actors "Jodie" and "Jody" (her imaginary twin brother?) making 33 TV appearances and 4 movies.

1974 Jody and Jodie make a big impression as a tomboy in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

1976 At the tender age of 14, whilst peers are having slumber parties and talking about cute boys, Jodie stars in three enduring films: One classic,Taxi Driver, and two family favorites, Bugsy Malone and Freaky Friday. Fearing she had accomplished too little that calendar year, she makes two more films, begins work on Flora Plum, hosts Saturday Night Live, and moves to France. C'est tout.

1981 Crazy John Hinckley Jr shoots President Reagan in what he claims is an attempt to impress Jodie Foster. It becomes The Subject That Dare Not Speak Its Name in interviews with the actress. Stephen Sondheim later speaks its name in his musical "Assassins." Meanwhile she attends Yale and adds another undiscussable to her resume: The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Sondheim stays mum.

1984 Jodie emerges from college related obscurity to repeatedly f*** screen brother Rob Lowe in The Hotel New Hampshire. Hey, he looked like this. You would too.

Yes, even if you were a lesbian.

1988-1989 Jodie stars as rape victim Sarah Tobias in The Accused and steals the Oscar from its primary 80s lady-in-waiting Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons whose performance is, by rough estimation, 413 times better. Freaky Friday Monday, March 29th --That same night Rob Lowe dirty dances with Snow White, wishing it were Jodie all the while.

1991 Anthony Hopkins chews scenery and downs a nice quianti as Hannibal Lecter. Foster becomes Clarice Starling. They both take home Oscars. But what she really wants to do is direct (Little Man Tate).

1993-1999 Jodie enters her "romantic" phase, wherein she pleads for the suspension of your disbelief while jumping Richard Gere's bones, flirting with Mel Gibson, trembling with Matthew McConaughey, and making goo goo eyes at Chow Yun Fat. She is more convincing whilst playing Nell, a freaky twin. Her other half is dead. Hmmmmm. What did happen to little Jody, anyway?

1997 She offed the wrong brother. Buddy Foster publishes an unauthorized biography, Sister Dearest "Foster Child"

2002-2006 Enters her "trapped in confined spaces in thrillers" period.
... wherein she phones it in from within a high-tech bomb shelter and a big airplane. She mixes it up in The Inside Man by being outside of the confined space (a bank) where others are trapped. That Jodie ...always surprising us!

Previous Histories...
Gender Bending * Bald Women * Sarah Jessica Parker *
Gay Cowboys * Julianne Moore's Screen Kids * Gyllenhaal

tags: Jodie Foster, Stephen Sondheim, movies, lesbian, celebrities, gossip

A History of... Jodie Foster

It's Tuesday. Time for "A History Of..."


1962 Wee infant Alicia Christian Foster is born in Los Angeles. She will be known, very quickly I must add, as "Jodie". Her mom will pimp her out just two years later for her first professional gig. Over the next 40+ years Alicia will flash a lot more than her Coppertone tan.

1968-1973 Jodie on the lam! The young actor skirts child labor law authorities by accreditation as two different actors "Jodie" and "Jody" (her imaginary twin brother?) making 33 TV appearances and 4 movies.

1974 Jody and Jodie make a big impression as a tomboy in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

1976 At the tender age of 14, whilst peers are having slumber parties and talking about cute boys, Jodie stars in three enduring films: One classic,Taxi Driver, and two family favorites, Bugsy Malone and Freaky Friday. Fearing she had accomplished too little that calendar year, she makes two more films, begins work on Flora Plum, hosts Saturday Night Live, and moves to France. C'est tout.

1981 Crazy John Hinckley Jr shoots President Reagan in what he claims is an attempt to impress Jodie Foster. It becomes The Subject That Dare Not Speak Its Name in interviews with the actress. Stephen Sondheim later speaks its name in his musical "Assassins." Meanwhile she attends Yale and adds another undiscussable to her resume: The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Sondheim stays mum.

1984 Jodie emerges from college related obscurity to repeatedly f*** screen brother Rob Lowe in The Hotel New Hampshire. Hey, he looked like this. You would too.

Yes, even if you were a lesbian.

1988-1989 Jodie stars as rape victim Sarah Tobias in The Accused and steals the Oscar from its primary 80s lady-in-waiting Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons whose performance is, by rough estimation, 413 times better. Freaky Friday Monday, March 29th --That same night Rob Lowe dirty dances with Snow White, wishing it were Jodie all the while.

1991 Anthony Hopkins chews scenery and downs a nice quianti as Hannibal Lecter. Foster becomes Clarice Starling. They both take home Oscars. But what she really wants to do is direct (Little Man Tate).

1993-1999 Jodie enters her "romantic" phase, wherein she pleads for the suspension of your disbelief while jumping Richard Gere's bones, flirting with Mel Gibson, trembling with Matthew McConaughey, and making goo goo eyes at Chow Yun Fat. She is more convincing whilst playing Nell, a freaky twin. Her other half is dead. Hmmmmm. What did happen to little Jody, anyway?

1997 She offed the wrong brother. Buddy Foster publishes an unauthorized biography, Sister Dearest "Foster Child"

2002-2006 Enters her "trapped in confined spaces in thrillers" period.
... wherein she phones it in from within a high-tech bomb shelter and a big airplane. She mixes it up in The Inside Man by being outside of the confined space (a bank) where others are trapped. That Jodie ...always surprising us!

Previous Histories...
Gender Bending * Bald Women * Sarah Jessica Parker *
Gay Cowboys * Julianne Moore's Screen Kids * Gyllenhaal

tags: Jodie Foster, Stephen Sondheim, movies, lesbian, celebrities, gossip