Sure, I'd like to send Dakota a gift, but...

Dakota is so talented and charming that the gift-giving urge is almost irresistible at times. However, I then remember the scene in Uptown Girls where Molly comes down into the lobby of her building as she's headed to her birthday bash (and her not-so-fortunate first encounter with little Ray). The lobby is loaded to the walls with birthday gifts and Molly tells the doorman: "Be a darling and send all this stuff to the Salvation Army." Really, warehousing all the "stuff" makes no sense. I don't know what stars like Dakota do with all the gifts they must get, but the only good option would seem to be to send it to a charitable organization. Even if she's tried to stash it all in her room(s), sooner or later, that has to end; otherwise, she'd get buried in love.

Also, there are many things I would certainly NOT give her. In connection with The Runaways, Jay Leno gave her a turntable and some LPs. A thing like that takes up lots of space and it's something she could easily get if she really wanted one. What's she going to do with it if she's like me and has all her music on an iPod -- and LOVES it that way?

If I ever send Dakota a gift, it'll be something that I believe she's very unlikely to know about. At this time, I have only one idea: for my own pending reread, and knowing only English, I looked around carefully to find what seemed to be the best translations of Victor Hugo's novels and the 12-play "realist cycle" of Henrik Ibsen. If I ever gift these to her, I'll write a note saying that she can regift or toss the books if she doesn't want them.

BTW, the powerful Hugo novel The Man Who Laughs (set in 1690) is badly in need of a movie remake and there's a female leading role in it that might -- just might -- be suitable for Dakota. The blind Dea, found in the snow as a baby by the boy Gwynplaine, later, at 16, falls in love with him. I'd forgotten that Dea was so young. There's much much more to the story than just Dea and Gwynplain; as I recall, it's also a story set in a society and state whose oppressiveness seeps into, crushes, and darkens everything. When I first read the novel, I had trouble getting started; however, after that, it's an extremely emotional experience. With all this chatter, I owe a link to the Blamire translation, which is the best I know of that's easily available:
http://www.amazon...amp;sr=1-1
Although several Kindle editions are shown for the title, I wouldn't touch one of those unless amazon explicitly stated the translator on the specific Kindle edition page. I would try to email amazon and ask. According to the Hugo biographer, Robb, lots of Hugo translations are very bad.

From some comments at amazon, I see that somebody has, as of 2009, written a screenplay and was "trying to make it happen." Sad to say though, I just don't trust Hollywood to do much of anything really well.