The precocious, press-savvy Dakota Fanning (Photo: STV)

Look, it is really easy to crack on a child star, especially some blonde-haired, blue-eyed 11-year-old girl who has upstaged everybody from Denzel Washington to Robert De Niro to Glenn Close. And especially one who shows up at a horse-movie premiere on a fucking horse.

But whaddya say we put Dakota Fanning in some sort of real perspective--preferably a New-York-celebrity-coverage one, where even the best publicists in the world could not pull off the garish pony pageantry that accompanied last week's Hollywood launch of Fanning's latest, Dreamer? (Or is it Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story? I would hate to betray DreamWorks carefully cultivated marketing push.) Instead, Fanning joined a theater full of pre-pubescent girls and their dads for a very special "Father and Daughter" screening of the new film.

The whole thing was a migraine on steroids, but amid all the shrieks and febrile flapping-open of autograph books, The Reeler thought the burgeoning Myth of Fanning might be worth a characteristically in-depth, crystalline-context, red-carpet study:

ON DREAMER (AKA: INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY): "I'm so happy to be here. It's so incredible. I love this movie."

ON NEW YORK: "New York is one of my favorite cities. It's so wonderful and I love it and I want to live here one day."

ON OUTSHINING GLENN CLOSE IN NINE LIVES: "Thank you!!! It was one take and I only worked for like one day for four hours. I wish I had gotten to work with them longer but I really loved the time we spent together."

Awwwwww!

Anyway, is Fanning coached? Of course. Is she too well-adjusted for her age? Probably. Is she being exploited? Only if she is on a horse. Which makes New York a perfect place for her, at least until a broke-ass Lindsay Lohan invites her out to the Hamptons and makes her pay for bottle service. Until then? Sky's the limit, I guess.