VANITIES

ALISON LOHMAN

AGE AND OCCUPATION: 22, actor. PROVENANCE: Palm Desert, California. YOU PROBABLY MISSED HER IN: Dragonfly—"They changed the story line and I got cut out of it"—and Mike White's little-watched but critically acclaimed Fox series, Pasadena. "It might come back, but they always say that. You just have to move on." THE OPRAH STAMP OF APPROVAL: This fall, Lohman stars in White Oleander ("I'm in every scene") alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zellweger, and Robin Wright Penn. The film is based on Janet Fitch's 1999 novel, which was an Oprah's Book Club selection. HOUSE-HOPPING: "[I play] Astrid, whose mother is imprisoned for murdering her ex-lover. She grows up in different foster homes and has to learn to adapt to these environments in order to survive." TEENAGE WASTELAND: "If you had asked me at 17, I probably would've thought Palm Desert was boring, but now I can appreciate the beauty of the desert." MONEY MATTERS: "I moved to L.A. five years ago. I had wanted to go to N.Y.U., and did get accepted to the Tisch School of the Arts, but it was just too much money. It was like 30 grand a year!" -KRISTA SMITH

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