Kirsten Dunst says she’s “learned a lot” after checking into rehab earlier this year for depression and is now in a different place in her life.

“Everyone goes through a hard time in their life,” Dunst says in the October issue of Harper’s Bazaar. “They just don’t have to do it in front of tons of people and with our media the way it is. I did, and I’m lucky that I had the resources and the money to take care of myself.”

She adds: “Now, I’m great.”

“I wasn’t taking care of myself emotionally. I wasn’t expressing my anger,” she says. “I was making nice all the time.”

She even got words of wisdom from an old pal - Tom Cruise. The actress keeps a plastic-framed copy of L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology Code of Honor in her home, which was recently given to her as a gift from her former Interview with the Vampire costar.

The 26-year old is not a Scientologist but appreciates the advice; something she can use as she develops her own projects, including a documentary called Why Tuesday? about the electoral process. She also stars in the upcoming comedy How to Lose Friends %26 Alienate People.

On the home front she’s busy, too. The actress is selling her LA home and says she will be in her apartment in New York City, which she purchased in 2007, in a year. And her love life?

“Listen, I’m happy single or not single,” she says. “Now I love me, so I’m okay.”

RELATED ARTICLES:
• 2002: Spidey takes Kirsten to the A-List!
• 1994: 12-year-old Kirsten kisses Brad Pitt - and tells!

• File this under wrong place, right time! Kirsten Dunst made it out to the Green Door’s jazz night - but that’s not where she planned on going.

The actress wandered into the Hollywood lounge thinking there was a party

for Pineapple Express. When told she was at the wrong place, she

decided to stay anyway - and settled into the library with a group of

friends. “She stayed listening to the jazz,” an onlooker says. “She was

upbeat and having a great time.”

• Lauren Conrad, rushing into STK in West

Hollywood with Lauren %26#34;Lo%26#34; Bosworth for a late supper.

After the ladies finished dinner, they popped next door to Coco De Ville,

where they took a seat on top of a banquette sans cameras. LC messaged

furiously on her BlackBerry - and the two friends sipped champagne

throughout the night. At one point, Conrad held her glass in the

air as she got down to tunes like Kanye West’s “Flashing

Lights.”

• After setting up shop at L.A.’s Farmer’s Daughter Hotel,

Charlize Theron met a group for dinner at TART, where the

ladies feasted on Southern delicacies. On the menu: crawfish spring rolls,

friend green tomatoes and banana cream pie.

• Ryan Reynolds, visiting with family in Vancouver. While in

his hometown, Scarlett Johansson’s fiancé ventured to the

Cascade Room with his older brother. According to onlookers, the actor

stayed incognito, and hung out for several hours.

• Heather Mills and daughter Beatrice, 4, hanging on the

rooftop of New York’s Soho House with their nanny in town. Mills typed on

her laptop while the nanny played with her daughter.

• By JENNIFER GARCIA, CHRISTINE KILPATRICK, ALYSSA SHELASKY

and ABBY STERN

Celebrity Hot Spots.

Wednesday’s Caught in the Act >

Kirsten Dunst is opening up about her stint at the Cirque Lodge Treatment Center in Utah earlier this year, saying that she sought help for depression, not for drug or alcohol abuse.

“I was struggling, and I had the opportunity to go somewhere and take care of myself,” Dunst, 26, tells E! Online. “I was fortunate to have the resources to do it. My friends and family thought it was a good idea, too.”

In February, Dunst checked into the same posh facility where Lindsay Lohan and Eva Mendes have been treated.

“She does drink and she does have wild nights, but that was never the root of her issues,” a source close to Dunst tells PEOPLE. “She couldn’t control her depression.”

As for why she decided to talk about her struggles now, Dunst tells E!, “Now that I’m feeling stronger, I was prepared to say something … Depression is pretty serious and should not be gossiped about.”

• Reporting by ALYSSA SHELASKY and JED DREBEN

“]

• Kirsten Dunst, checking out the wares on a

shopping trip at Steven Allen Annex in New York.

• George Clooney, waiting patiently in line for

the elevator at the L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon restaurant in London’s Covent

Garden. He was in good company: Tim Burton, Helena Bonham

Carter and Thandie Newton were in line, too - all heading up

to the Salon Bar for a party in his honor. At the fete, Clooney spent his

time chatting with Matt Damon, sipping vodka, eating

canapés and chocolate sorbet with Oreo cookie crumbs. The Leatherheads star then finished his night at Bungalow 8.

• Kiefer Sutherland, picking up his luggage and chatting on

his phone after arriving at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport from London

with girlfriend Siobhan Bonnouvrier.

• From the ballroom to the nightclub, the Dancing With the

Stars crew came out en masse to cheer on Mark Ballas and Derek Hough’s band Almost Amy at

Hollywood’s Hotel Café. While Ballas’s main lady, Sabrina Bryan, was standing and “rocking out” as he sang “Sexual Healing,” fellow

DWTS castmembers were cheering too. Also in the house: Priscilla Presley, Kristi Yamaguchi and Cheryl Burke.

• Mischa Barton, stopping for a smoothie and some

shopping in Hollywood. The former O.C. star was also spotted taking

a business meeting that day, looking relaxed as she read a script in the

car, an eyewitness tells us.

• By BRYAN ALEXANDER, PERNILLA CEDENHEIM, MONIQUE JESSEN and MARY

MARGARET

Celebrity Hot Spots.

Wednesday’s Caught in the Act >

Kirsten Dunst took part in some retail therapy at Target this weekend, taking a break from her treatment at the exclusive Cirque Lodge in Utah.

The Spider-Man actress, 25, who entered rehab recently strolled the aisles with a large cart and snagged some snacks during her visit to the retail chain.

A regular on the L.A. nightlife scene, sources say Dunst wanted to slow down and take a breather from partying. According to a friend, effects from her childhood stardom and media scrutiny also played a role, saying “Everyone has problems, but not everyone is forced to deal with them in a fishbowl.”
- Christina Tapper

A friend of Kirsten Dunst’s says the lingering effects of being a child actress and the pressures from constant media scrutiny are at the core of her decision to seek help in rehab.

“It’s cruel the way people have put her under a microscope,” says a friend of the actress. “She’s trying to take a break. It’s a great thing.”

The friend adds: “She’s an incredible woman - so giving of her time, her money, her soul. That’s the story that should be told. Everyone has problems, but not everyone is forced to deal with them in a fishbowl.”

“There’s probably less than a half of a percent of people in the world who understand the issues of being a child star and the pressures that come with it,” says the friend. “You have to figure out a lot of lessons later in life, ones you didn’t learn in school. The socialization is very different.”