Seriously? OMG! WTF?

"Hounddog," the simply awful movie in which 12-year-old Dakota Fanning’s character is raped, has no buyers. "No one wants it after the terrible reviews," one distributor told me, just as we were sitting down to see another disaster, J.P. Schaefer’s "Chapter 27." Indeed, the people associated with The Weinstein Company, IFC Films and First Look were among those who instantly agreed that they had no interest in "Hounddog." At this rate, this exercise in bad taste may wind up being a DVD collector’s item. Same thing for "Chapter 27," from which many fled before it ended in the two audiences that have seen it. Meanwhile, the producers of "Hounddog" trotted out 12-year-old Fanning yesterday to defend the film in places like USA Today and at another press conference. It’s come to that, apparently. The people who should be answering questions, however, are Fanning’s parents, and the parents of the other children in the film. Indeed, 12-year-old Cody Hanford, who plays Fanning’s boyfriend in the provocative and poorly written outing, may actually become more of the focus than even the star. In the film, his character lures Fanning’s into a barn and then watches as she’s raped. Hanford and Fanning also have numerous kissing scenes, some in which they’re half-dressed. Yesterday, Variety’s Todd McCarthy was one of several reviewers who echoed my complaints about the hoary plot, terrible dialogue and clichés marking every scene. With the above mentioned distributors out, it’s unlikely now that any major will take "Hounddog." And that’s just as well, considering that its release is sure to spark more outrage, protests and calls for investigations. The strange part is that, in the long run, the movie itself is only offensive because it’s so bad. The real culprits aren’t the filmmakers, but the parents of the young actors. Yesterday I spoke to Joy Pervis, the Atlanta agent who discovered Dakota and her sister, Elle. She’s since signed Cody and Isabelle Fuhrmann, the other child in the film. Pervis told me she’s basically in favor of the film and trusts the Fannings’ judgment. "They’re a good Christian family," she said. But plenty of publicists who’ve worked on movies with either Fanning girl have stories about their mother, Joy. "She’s a real stage mother," one of them said at the screening. "The negotiations just go on and on." But back to "Hounddog." Since I am one of the few who’ve actually seen it, let me explain something important. There is no point that I can find to the child’s rape. Once it happens, it’s never discussed. The culprit is never accused or apprehended. The child never tells her story to anyone. There’s no great moment of revelation that could possibly help someone who’s watching the film. It’s simply there for shock value. The fact that Kampmeier and the producers have somehow conned rape-assistance groups into using the movie as a public-service announcement is bizarre to me. But I guess it’s no more bizarre than using Dakota Fanning as the public defender of the indefensible.

Fox411

Amen! Even though the critics said the rape scene was not that bad, it was still was, in my opinon, too much for a 12 year old girl with so much talent to go through for a role. I wonder how her mom and agent, who made her do it for a possible Oscar, feel now that her movie will most likely go straight-to-DVD only! 

 

Dakota Fanning had to work hard to persuade her parents she should keep a controversial birthday present from Tom Cruise. The 12-year-old was sent a mobile phone by her War Of The Worlds co-star, but her parents initially thought she was too young to keep the grown-up gadget. She recalls, "My mom and dad really don’t approve of mobile phones and they really didn’t want me to have one. But then on my birthday this parcel arrived from Tom and it was a phone. In the end they let me keep it."

WENN 

There is just something so wrong about that? She wants her to remain a kid, but forces her to play adult roles. Whatever.

Cute-as-a-button child star Dakota Fanning, who turned 12 in February, is venturing into sexually disturbing territory in a movie being filmed in North Carolina. The screenplay for "Hounddog" – a dark story of abuse, violence and Elvis Presley adulation in the rural South, written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier – calls for Fanning’s character to be raped in one explicit scene and to appear naked or clad only in "underpants" in several other horrifying moments.Fanning’s mother, Joy, and her Hollywood agent, Cindy Osbrink, see the movie as a possible Oscar vehicle for the pint-size star. But despite Fanning’s status as a bankable actress – whose movies, including last year’s "War of the Worlds," have earned more than half a billion dollars since 2001 – the alarming material seems to have scared off potential investors from the under-$5 million indie project."The two taboos in Hollywood are child abuse and the killing of animals," a source close to the situation told me. "In this movie, both things happen."Fanning’s carefully choreographed rape scene has already been filmed. But then the production – which also stars Robin Wright Penn, David Morse and Piper Laurie – was shut down for lack of funds. Penn, who’s also an executive producer, gave a pep talk to the dispirited cast in the days leading up to the shutdown. The desperate producer, Jen Gatien, daughter of former club czar Peter Gatien, sent out an SOS to New York entertainment entrepreneur Lawrence Robins. Robins located emergency investors, filming resumed, and the movie is scheduled to wrap tomorrow."The subject matter is very tough," Robins told me, "but I was attracted to it because in the end it’s a story about human understanding, about a little girl who’s dealt a very bad deck of cards, but finds solace in the music of Elvis and survives."The script requires the preteen actress to confront tougher challenges than Brooke Shields and Jodie Foster did when, at Fanning’s age, they played child prostitutes."It’s not just the rape scene – the whole story is challenging Dakota as an actress," Fanning’s longtime agent, Osbrink, told me. "And I’ve never been so proud of her in my life. I’ve seen the dailies, and in every scene she gets better and better."

Lloyd Grove 

This is child pornography. Dakota’s parents need to be locked up over this. This will f()ck Dakota up for the rest of her life. Look at all the anguish that both Jodie Foster and Brooke Shields went through in their lives for doing the same thing. Are her parents so desperate to live through Dakota to get an Oscar that they are making her do this? Then she should be taken away from them. She is an Oscar worthy actress and she will get that Oscar, but she does not need to do this. Just look at well Oscar nominations or wins at such a young age worked out for River Phoenix, Linda Blair, Tatum O’Neal and Haley Joel Osment.  

If you want write Cindy Osbrink and tell her you feel about this do so at:

Osbrink Talent Agency

4343 Lankershim Blvd

Suite 100

Universal City, CA 91602

Oscar may be almost 80, but he’s still young at heart – enough to keep company with Heath Ledger and even Dakota Fanning.

On Thursday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the Oscars each year, invited 120 artists and executives to join its ranks – including such young actors as Ledger, 27, Fanning, 12, Keira Knightley, 21, and Jake Gyllenhaal, 25.

"Most people who aren’t really aware of the Academy think it’s probably a bunch of elderly people," AMPAS director Bruce Davis told the Associated Press. "They’re not thinking Scarlett Johansson and Maggie Gyllenhaal, they’re thinking really old guys. That’s a hard perception to overcome."

"Two years ago the Academy decided to slow membership growth, and to become even more selective in choosing members," Academy president Sid Ganis said in a statement. "Instead of inviting every proposed person who has achieved the minimum qualifications for his or her branch, the membership committees are selecting the most exceptionally qualified names from those lists."

The Academy will welcome new members on Sept. 20 at a reception at its Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills.

People 

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