HOW ROSARIO DAWSON HIDES HER REAL-LIFE DRAMA

Rosario Dawson, 28, shot to stardom at the age of 16 in the movie Kids, but somehow her rap sheet remained scandal-free as she built up her screen credibility. How did she avoid becoming a troubled starlet?'Who's to say that I'm not, actually?' the Descent star joked to OK! August 7. Turning serious, the New York native said, 'There's my family, there's who I am as a person. I have integrity in my life, and I have a lot of other things that luckily surpass whatever bad things I've done. There are definitely people out there who know me well, and that's great actually. I'm a multi-faceted human being, but there are certain actions that have stood out more, and that's not just me doing that. It takes a lot of people out there to maintain that privacy. I've been very lucky.'Before pointing the finger next time Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie or Britney Spears experience challenging times, she urges self-examination.'Unfortunately, if you looked at anybody's pasts, we would find some very interesting things in there that we're probably very grateful never ended up on the cover of a magazine,' she told OK! 'But we are continually subjecting these younger actors to that, and making it fodder for the news when we clearly have much bigger issues to be talking about. Then, we wonder why we have kids petitioning for Paris Hilton to be let go from the DUI charge, while we're still getting those same kids to vote. Clearly they have an understanding of the political process because they're voting on American Idol, but they're using it for Paris.'By Valerie Nome Photo: Wireimage.com