One of the more exciting and controversial young talents to have been slowly emerging from Hollywood over the last ten years is that of Dakota Fanning. In her younger days (pre teenage, anyway), she became the top name for films requiring a cutesy, innocent daughter character, and as much as she could be extremely annoying in those roles, that was more down to what was asked of her than the actress herself. For example, in War Of The Worlds she seems to spend approximated two hours solidly screaming for little to no reason, but then again, she was dangerously close to Tom Cruise the whole time. She also enhanced her star status by choosing to be known by her middle name, which sounds altogether more fancy and Hollywood than her forename. "Dakota" just seems to fit the bill for a starlet, particularly one who would play such controversial roles as Cherie Currie of The Runaways whilst only aged 15. Had she gone by her first name, we'd probably still remember her, but she would dramatically lose out on how well respected she is, because Hannah Fanning just sounds a little too silly. Thanks to it very nearly rhyming, you'd be forgiven for believing that you're looking at an actress who was named by Charles Dickens, or at least that her parents were particularly fond of The Name Game. It all seems a little unfair on Dakota when you consider that her young sister was given the much less comical name of Mary Elle, makes you wonder if the parents were testing the resolve of their eldest.
