The lovely Saoirse Ronan carries 'The Lovely Bones'

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At the New York premiere last week of "The Lovely Bones," the highly anticipated new film from "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson, something quite unexpected happened to teen Irish actress Saoirse Ronan. Crowds of star struck people waved photos for her to sign.

These people, it turned out, were her New York fans. It tells you something about the young Oscar nominee’s values and modesty that they took her by surprise.

Attending a film premiere in a shimmering designer dress and posing on the red carpet for the paparazzi is certainly glamorous, but Ronan is never going to get carried away by it all. There’s way too much Irish in her to ever put too much faith in all that glitters.

At 15 she’s in the full swing of that awkward age between childhood and maturity, and she’s fine with it. If something excites her she’ll giggle, but then her newfound self-awareness will kick in and she’ll step back.

She’s growing up in public and doing a wonderfully dignified job of it, in other words. And she’s a typical teenage girl in most respects except one -- very few teens already have an Oscar nomination under their belts, with another possibly to follow in 2010.

But how does she feel about seeing her face and name on billboards all over New York City?

“When you say it like that it sounds strange,” Ronan tells the Irish Voice during an interview last week. “I haven’t really had time to take it all in. But I did get tapped for the first time by people who recognized me on the street here. That was a new experience for me. That was a bit weird. But they were very nice.”

For most of the rest of the world, recognizing Saoirse Ronan means learning how to pronounce her Irish name properly. “I’ve been called ‘Sar-say,’ ‘Soo-see,’ ‘Say-ice’ and everything else,” she says.

“I can totally understand why people who aren’t Irish can’t say it but it can be a bit annoying. More people know how to say it now I think.” (For the record, her name is pronounced seer-shuh).

Her biggest fans already know that her name is the Irish word for “freedom.” And freedom is what she now has to pick and choose whom she works with (an amazing feat for a teenage actor).

Being cast by Peter Jackson in the starring role of his latest film (his last two films "King Kong" and "Lord of The Rings "made multi-millions) will certainly bring Ronan greater name recognition in Hollywood. Judging by the hotshot producers and stars that turned up at the premiere of "The Lovely Bones" and after party in New York, she’s already becoming Hollywood royalty herself. 

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Nster.com