Jodie Foster Tells Media To Lay Off Kristen Stewart

She did, at one point, have a man once try to assassinate the president of the United States of America to impress her, so Jodie Foster may know a thing or two about surviving a media frenzy. But this one-time mom to Kristen Stewart (Panic Room, anyone?) got a little maternal over the star's recent treatment from the media. Foster writes a "Leave Kristen Alone!" type speech on The Daily Beast, frankly saying:

"In my era, through discipline and force of will, you could still manage to reach for a star-powered career and have the authenticity of a private life. Sure, you’d have to lose your spontaneity in the elaborate architecture. You’d have to learn to submerge beneath the foul air and breathe through a straw. But at least you could stand up and say, I will not willfully participate in my own exploitation. Not anymore. If I were a young actor or actress starting my career today in the new era of social media and its sanctioned hunting season, would I survive? Would I drown myself in drugs, sex, and parties? Would I be lost?"

While headlines are fond of saying Foster is laying the smackdown for Kristen, the reality is: Foster is sticking up for all young starlets who make any sort of decision that makes them human. She does admit that she has strong feelings for Kristen, even sagely remarking, "Lift up beautiful young people like gods and then pull them down to earth to gaze at their seams. See, they’re just like us." But she doesn't say what Kristen did was right or wrong — just that she should have the right to make private mistakes...in private.

Kristen Stewart might be a public figure, a major movie star, and a magazine seller, but she is still a 22-year-old. (If this writer was held accountable for all the stuff she did when she was 22...well, life would be a darker place.) Her transgressions aren't admirable by any stretch of the imagination, but as Foster says, "The public horrors of today eventually blow away. And, yes, you are changed by the awful wake of reckoning they leave behind. You trust less. You calculate your steps. You survive. Hopefully in the process you don’t lose your ability to throw your arms in the air again and spin in wild abandon." (The Daily Beast)