December 7, 2002

Dear diary,

today we started shooting this new picture, which should be called “Molly Gunn” or maybe “Uptown Girls”, I don’t know yet. It sounds real cool and I love my part, and today I met Brittany Murphy, who will be my main partner in the movie.

She greeted me with a bright smile and said: “Dakota Tanning, huh.”

“Fanning is the name,” I said politely.

Ms. Murphy made a puzzled expression. “Oh, I thought it was Tanning. Sorry, my mistake. Well, we might just resolve this calling you Dakota, can’t we?”

“Sure!” I said.

“Good. I’m sure we’ll get along real good. You see, working with me is pretty easy: you just stay out of my way, don’t irritate me, don’t make me repeat scenes countless times... generally don’t get on my nerves. Get it?”

I didn’t know what to think. It sounded weird. “Well... yes. I s’pose so.”

“Very good. Easy, isn’t it? Break one of these rules and you’ll find yourself tanned for good, and you know what I mean.”

I opened my eyes for the big surprise. WOW! I SURE didn’t want a tanning, so I smiled, but maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to do because Brittany thought I was not taking her for real.

She said: “You don’t believe me? Go and ask Skye Bartusiak, you know? She did get on my nerves last year when we shot together, and she did pay for that. Now, shoo: I got work to do.”

And with that she sent me away. That wasn’t very kind of her, but I shrugged and got out of her trailer. And I just wanted to say hello. L

– Dakota Fanning

December 14, 2002

Dear diary,

I guess I should’ve taken Brittany more seriously. Now I know. And I will from tomorrow on.

It’s true, I’ve been acting real bad this morning, and screwed up more than one scene where she’d been doing good. The first time she caressed my head jokingly, saying it didn’t matter. I smiled back, and we went on. The second time I could tell she was annoyed, and threw me a nasty look. Now I was starting to get a bit scared, but kept on shooting as nothing happened. We did that scene okay right away, but again I made a couple of mistakes in the next one.

Brittany showed to be more than patient, because at my first error she took me aside and whispered in my ear, so no one could hear us: “Remember what I told you?”

I nodded.

“Well, then: just do this goddamn scene right and then we’ll all have lunch. One more mistake and you’ll be eating standing up.”

Well, they say I’m a little girl but I know something bad when I see it. That meant she was actually going to spank me! Me! Okay, I’ve been spanked a lot of times before, but never by a stranger and never for acting bad. I was getting real nervous, you see?

As we got back on the set, I grew more and more tense, and I could tell Brittany saw me. She threw me another reproving look, and shook her head, as if she was sure I would fail the scene again. I didn’t like that, and when the director said “Action!” I couldn’t really concentrate. So I made the worst mistake of all, one I never did this year yet: I forgot my line. That had never happened before here on this set! I almost never forget my lines!

After the “Cut!” I looked straight at Brittany, who was furious. Unluckily for me, the director said we could all use some ten minutes break, and that was very unlucky: I was sure I would spend those minutes with Brittany, and I did not like that.

Well, it went like this: unbeknownst (I just learned this word from mom! Ain’t it cool?!) to the others, she marched me back to her trailer, which wasn’t far from mine. I’d been there some times before, and no one suspected nothing. As for me, I was too scared to say something. I did not protest. Maybe I should, who knows? Well, we just got in, and Brittany closed the door and locked it.

“Wait, Brittany. Can’t we...?”

“No we can’t.” She sat on a chair and pointed at her lap: she looked really angry! “Get your little fanny here, young lady, or you’ll regret it.”

My eyes began to water as I obeyed. What else could I do? She is an adult, and I must obey to all adults, or mom says I get a spanking. What if an adult tells me to get a spanking? Does that count? Well, maybe it counts even more, so I just obeyed.

She grabbed my wrist when I was close enough, and ordered me to take off my shoes. I did it without protesting, because also mom makes me do that: she doesn’t want the shoes to kick her face. After that Brittany bent me over, and I was surprised. I’m always required to do that myself, but maybe she had a different way to spank little girls.

“Please, no...” I whined.

“Hush! Quiet. I’ve had quite enough of you, young lady, and now I’m going to teach you a lesson in concentration you won’t soon forget.”

Then I felt my black dress rising up, and she folded it around my waist. I was wearing pink pantyhose and white panties under the dress, but she didn’t take them off.

She started to spank me with her hand, it was very HARD! Oh God, I thought I would die!! I started to cry after the second spank, and I’m not a cry-baby: I can take some spanking before I start to cry, I’m used to that. But she was hitting so hard I can’t believe it!

At ten I lost count, but I think she went on until twenty or so. I was bent over her lap, my hands and feet off the floor, and under Brittany’s legs I could see my own feet kicking. I hate that!, because it reminds me that I’m bent over, and if I’m bent over it means a spanking. WHY do little girls like me always have to be spanked?! What’s wrong with the world?!?

After (maybe) twenty she stopped, but my spanking wasn’t over. I was already crying, and I was telling her to stop.

“Please, Brittany! I won’t do it again! I’ve learned my lesson, please?”

But she was very nasty today, and said: “I’m not quite through with you, Dakota. That was just a little warm-up. Let’s see if you can take a real spanking now.”

REAL?!? Wasn’t that REAL?!? What did she have in store for me? I trembled, and I’m trembling now if I think back about it. Before I knew what was going on, she had peeled my pantyhose and panties down to my knees, leaving me with my black dress around my waist... and from there down I was... well, I was THAT. It’s so BAD to think of it now! L L

And it’s not over. Brittany also took one of my shoes, that are those black flat shoes I wear in the school scenes of this movie. She started spanking me with that!! On my n…d bottom! Oh, my poor little bottom! I guess it was already red from the “warm-up”, as she’d called that awful spanking, and now she was hitting it HARD with the shoe back.

I got it real bad this afternoon, because the shoe stung like HELL. It was probably nothing more than ten swats, but it sure felt like a million to me. I was really crying when it was over, and Brittany helped me relax stroking my back and hair as I sat on her lap and massaged my poor butt. Then she washed my face with a wet cloth and hugged me and said it was all forgiven and that I was a better girl now. I nodded but I wasn’t sure she had done the right think spanking me. I told mom of course, and she would seem to agree with her. But this is very strange, because mom had never ever never ever spanked me for forgetting my lines. I don’t understand.

Well, I sure learned something. Making mistakes when you act is part of the acting stuff, but if you do everything straight and make no mistakes it’s even better! Also, I learned that maybe Brittany was right in calling me Tanning, because I sure got a big tanning from her! ;-)

– Dakota Fanning

– The End –