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Dakota Fanning has responded to allegations of whitewashing over her latest role. In Sweetness in the Belly, adapted from Camilla Gibb's 2005 novel and screening in Toronto, the actress — recently seen as a Manson girl in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood — plays a child refugee who is abandoned in Africa by her parents and raised in Ethiopia as Muslim. The first clip from the film, directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, was released earlier this week, and fell foul of several online commentators, who complained on social media that Fanning's role — which originally Saoirse Ronan was...

E! apologizes for Dakota Fanning rehab joke. The channel wants to make it clear that, contrary to Kathy Griffin’s joke at the Globes, the 10-year-old actress is not in rehab.

Last week an openly gay man, Eric Fanning, became secretary of the Army. Read that sentence again and contemplate what it reveals about how much and how quickly American society has changed. Only five years ago, openly gay people were barred from serving in its armed forces. During Mr. Fanning’s lengthy confirmation process, his sexual orientation was simply not an issue. That is a tribute to those who fought so hard to repeal the ban, and a measure of the nation’s at times uncertain, but as yet unfailing, march toward equality.

A movie that includes a violent rape scene with 12-year-old actress Dakota Fanning as the victim has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and even though published reports have quoted a prosecutor saying there were no child pornography laws broken, there still remain big questions, according to experts. "Right away, I will tell you: 12-year-old Dakota Fanning plays a girl who endures a graphically suggested rape. If that's not enough, she is also filmed sleeping dreamily while a half dozen real snakes slither all over her," wrote Fox News' Roger Friedman in his review of the film. "The rape scene,...

Child Star Dakota Fanning Films Rape Scene It's beyond the pale even for Hollywood. Dakota Fanning, last seen on the screen starring alongside Tom Cruise in "War of the Worlds," turned 12 years old last February. Now, in an apparent career advancement move, the young actress has been drawn into filming a scene that requires the character she plays to be raped. The title of the movie is "Hounddog." In addition to Fanning, the film also features Sean Penn's significant other, Robin Wright Penn. Fanning has reportedly already filmed the violent scene. It is astonishing that anyone would advocate such...

Prosecutors in Wilmington, N.C., "are aware" of a scene for the movie "Hounddog" in which 12-year-old actress Dakota Fanning reportedly is violently raped, and if an investigation is launched authorities could consider sexual exploitation charges. The scene, widely reported on the Internet, is in the movie where Fanning plays the role of a "precocious, troubled girl (who) finds safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley," according to Blue Line Radio, which monitors child-abuse allegations. Susan Jordan, a district attorney in Wilmington assigned to work with such complaints, said she could not at this time confirm a formal...

Child actress Dakota Fanning is set to shock fans in new movie 'Hounddog.' The film features Dakota semi-nude in child rape scenes. The controversial film written and directed by Deborah Kampmeier is a dark and violent story set in American's rural south and the 12-year-old's mother and agent are convinced her gritty performance is Oscar-worthy. Agent Joy Osbrink was quoted in the New York Daily News, "It's not just the rape scene the whole story is challenging Dakota as an actress. And I've never been so proud of her in my life. I've seen the dailies, and in every scene...