(American Showbiz) Hollywood Glamour

Entertainment columns listing former child stars often mention Astrid Magnusson.

"A textbook case of squandering a winning hand."

"She has the air of a reclusive Gypsy. She'll never make it big."

No one expected that a few years later, she would shoot to fame and become a phenomenon, the first since Ingrid Bergman.

She's a perennial contender at every major awards ceremony, a cultural icon adored by the public, and unquestionably the brightest star of Hollywood's new generation.

But at the beginning, she was just a Hollywood nobody, abandoned by her agent and sitting alone in a bathtub, waiting to die.

Theme: Never give up on yourself