BEVERLY HILLS -- In Hollywood, even toddlers have career strategies.

So it's a revelation, and a bewitching one at that, when Kirsten Dunst -- questioned by journalists about her own professional trajectory -- reminds them all of one simple fact.

"I'm just 23!"

Easy enough to forget. In just the past decade -- starting with her breakthrough role in Interview with a Vampire -- Dunst has appeared in nearly 30 films, the latest of which, Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, opens Friday. Moreover, she has established herself as her generation's cinematic object of affection without ever falling into the party-girl pitfalls of her peers.

"I don't relate to myself as the girl in the magazines," she admits, possibly explaining her reluctance to discuss her personal life -- including her relationship with on-and-off-again boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal.

"I can't imagine having a personal thing like a divorce or marriage out there in the public. I'd rather not talk about any of that."

Irresistible muse

Predictably, she's more forthcoming about Elizabethtown, which stars Dunst as Claire, a vivacious flight attendant who becomes saviour and love interest to Orlando Bloom's self-destructive Drew. The two meet while he's flying to Kentucky after the sudden death of his father.

This all unfolds while Drew is also at the centre of a career "fiasco" in which a botched project -- a "shoe with wings" -- has cost his company hundreds of millions of dollars.

Dunst's Claire, like many of the female characters in Crowe's films, is an irresistible muse who draws Drew out of his depression.

Dunst -- who'd come close to landing Kate Hudson's role in Crowe's Almost Famous -- was the first actor cast in the project. "I was excited to do a movie like this because the part is done for you. It's a beautifully-written character. A lot of times you're making it up as you go."

Which is not to suggest a Crowe set is sterile by any means. On the contrary, she recalls, "Cameron's so funny because when we're working he's behind the camera like a cheerleader. He's jumping up and down and sometimes you can see him out of the periphery of your eye."

Yet despite her obvious affection for Crowe and the film, Dunst refrains from calling Elizabethtown -- with its emphasis on words, not webs -- a welcome departure from the Spider-Man franchise for which she is best known. Nor does she suggest she'd rather dig into meaty scripts like Crowe's verbose screenplay than tangle with another of Spider-Man's rogues gallery.

"I wouldn't want to do a movie that has a lot of dialogue and it's all bad," she says. "I could say, 'Oh God, Spider-Man was such a drag with the green screen and all,' but I loved working with (director Sam Raimi). He gives me a lot of space and lets me be and I love that. He has his own special perspective of things and that really comes across in the movies, especially the second one."

And possibly the third, which Dunst begins shooting in January in New York. It will again be directed by Raimi and star Tobey Maguire as the friendly neighbourhood superhero.

Asked about purported plans by Sony executives to make as many as six instalments, Dunst, while noncommittal, doesn't rule out a Spider-Man 4 or 5. "I'm only contracted to do three. It would depend whether Sam was directing (a fourth) and Tobey was doing it ... I'm not going to be the only one back. What a loser I'd be then!" she laughs.

And although speculation is rampant in fan circles over the identities of the film's antagonists -- to be portrayed by Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace -- Dunst, who was attributed on one website as saying the pair are playing Sandman and Venom, isn't giving anything away.

"I know what the story is about, but that's all I'm going to say."