Irish teen sensation Saoirse Ronan is growing up fast, as you can see from our picture taken last month.  The Oscar nominated actress, only 15, sure knows how to work a red carpet too, blowing kisses to the press with aplomb.

Saoirse’s dad, the Irish actor Paul Ronan, is rightfully protective of his girl given her level of fame.  Given that her star continues to rise in Hollywood she certainly would be considered a good catch for some lucky guy . . . but Daddy will be guarding the door, so potential suitors better beware!

"The one thing you would worry about is when she does meet somebody, that it's for the right reasons, and I'm sure it will be. But you have to watch out for that,” Paul told the press during the Irish premiere of her latest movie, The Lovely Bones, last week in Dublin.

“You've got to be a little bit more nervous than you would normally be about having a little girl growing up . . . and I'll bloody kill them!"

Hopefully the job of meeting a mate is still a good while off for Saoirse, given her age and the fact that she’s got the world at her feet!
Speaking of The Lovely Bones, the film based on the wildly popular Alice Sebold novel, which also stars Mark Wahlberg and Susan Sarandon, was supposed to be an Oscar favorite, according to pre-release buzz.  Saoirse in particular was tipped to receive her second Academy nod, her first coming a couple of years back for her supporting role in Atonement.

So what happened?  The film opened in a handful of theaters prior to December 31 to make it Academy eligible, but the reviews weren’t particularly enthusiastic.  Then the studio, Dream Works, seems to have forgotten about Bones altogether, going with a low-key wide release campaign – at least that’s what it seemed like – in January.

The strategy, though, backfired.  The Lovely Bones, according to Box Office Mojo, has grossed just over $38 million in the U.S., but its budget was at least $65 million.  It will hardly reach that figure given the juggernaut that is Avatar, but perhaps if Dream Works had planned a better marketing plan the film would have made more money.