We always hear about the horror stories of child actors. There’s certainly enough of them. From the “Different Strokes” kids to Lindsay and Britney, it’s always the same: early success leading to substance abuse problems and worse.

Maybe that’s why Jodie Foster is so refreshing. She was the quintessential child star of the 1970′s. In tons of films from the time she was 10 and was an Oscar nominee for playing a teenage prostitute at 14. She left Hollywood for awhile and went to Yale–graduating magma cum laude with a degree in literature. Smart cookie.

And then there was the whole John Hinckley, Jr. nightmare. If having a wacko try to assassinate the president of the United States doesn’t make you go crazy, I doubt anything will. It’s something Jodie still, to this day, rarely talks about. Imagine other stars who would run to People or Vanity Fair to spill their guts about it. Not Jodie.

So here she is–almost 40 years into her career and she’s still going strong. Not only that, but she’s aging gracefully and naturally. There’s no pretense about this woman. She doesn’t talk about her private life, even though it’s common knowledge she’s been in a relationship with a woman, Cydney Bernard, for years. She’s a rarity in Hollywood and I cannot help but like her. She seems like the kind of person you could have an intelligent conversation with about anything–and that’s even rarer!

Her new movie, “Nim’s Island,” premiered last night. Co-stars Gerard Butler (yum-mee) and Abigail Breslin–who, let’s hope, learned a few things about growing up in front of the camera from Jodie. You could do a lot worse for a role model.