Jodie Foster

More arts and entertainment coverage on the Web MOVIES Vengeful women, pre-Jodie Foster In "The Brave One," due next month, Jodie Foster plays a vigilante, out for revenge because of a mugging. Check out a photo gallery of other films about women seeking revenge, such as Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" and Sally Field in "Eye for an Eye." At latimes.com/entertainment. AND… Book news, the Las Vegas blog, the Buzz Bands blog and recent reviews of films, plays and restaurants

Jodie FOSTER is perfectly aware that in reality women don't kill strangers. "They kill their husbands and their children and themselves," said the 44-year-old actress matter-of-factly. "That's how women handle rage and abuse. Men are able to push outwards and are able to say, 'I'm hurt so there must be something wrong with you.' "Let's say there is one that is," she continued. A woman who does expel her anger outwards, that is. And let's say she's played by the two-time Oscar winner.

THANK YOU, Rachel Abramowitz, for giving us "The Skinny on Hollywood," (Aug. 19)! As a 65-year-old size 20 actress who has been slogging through the showbiz world since 1965, I commend her. Indeed, I give her an oversized Oscarette! And hoo-hah for Jodie Foster for standing up for those of us who refuse to become what I can only call caricatures of human beings.

In "The Brave One," two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster dons her action persona and plays a radio host turned vigilante who blows away a would-be wife beater, a set of remorseless gangbangers, a pimp and a white-collar psychopath.

This time it was the woman with a gun who took control. The revenge thriller "The Brave One," starring Jodie Foster as a vigilante killer on the streets of New York, knocked the Russell Crowe western "3:10 to Yuma" out of first place at the box office over the weekend, grossing an estimated $14 million in the United States and Canada. "Women are really responding to the movie even though it has its violent moments," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros.

KUDOS to Kenneth Turan for his funny and spot-on review of "The Brave One" ["Making Strange Bedfellows," Sept. 14]. It is hard to believe that Jodie Foster felt she was creating a thoughtful and sensitive character. Erica Bain's perfunctory vomiting doesn't even occur until after she's stacked up her third corpse.

1. Will Smith is apparently pleased with the self-portrait he took on the red carpet for the premiere in Japan of "I Am Legend." Smith has plenty of company, unlike his film character, the last human survivor in New York. 2. From one musical artist to another, Johnny Depp, left, who has the musical "Sweeney Todd" under his belt, and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, at the New York premiere for the film. 3.

Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean everyone isn't out to get you, as Jodie Foster learns the hard way in the boilerplate, if histrionically entertaining, airline thriller "Flightplan."

THERE is no denying the post-Sept. 11 resonance of Jodie Foster's new movie, "Flight Plan." "Terror in the skies" means something much different than it did back in the days of "Airport." And the narrative takes full advantage of Homeland Security grace notes -- the air marshal played by Peter Sarsgaard, the hostility between a group of Arab men and their white seat mates and the various protocols discussed by the captain and crew.