PORT NECHES — Angela Dodson sits cozy as a cat on her grandmother's couch in Port Neches, a photo of her recently deceased grandfather, Earl Thompson, in a prominent spot on the wall above her.

Thompson, known as the doughnut man at the local senior citizen's center, lost his battle with cancer about two months ago. When Thompson became ill the statuesque Dodson was at a time in her career as an actress where she was about to become a household name. Instead of staying in the lights of Hollywood she choose to come home to be with her grandmother, Jo Ann "Nonni" Thompson, and "Pop" during the last days of his life.

The decision was a no brainer for the woman who has often played the ditzy blonde bombshell on screen.

The special bond between the woman and her Pop was strong. Dodson and Nonni took shifts watching over the ill man and the granddaughter often anticipated his needs.

"Before he even said 'Angela, I need...' I was there with a glass of tea of whatever he needed," Dodson said as her proud grandmother sat nearby.

Dodson also lost her other grandfather, Roy Lee Dodson, known to her as Pee-Paw, in the same week.

Dodson has bid adieu to stardom even with two movies completed and ready to be released. Last August the Port Neches woman was filmed as the role of Jenny in "National Lampoon's Pledge This," working alongside Paris Hilton. The movie is set at South Beach University and Hilton is the head of a sorority that all the campus women want to be a part of, but to make the cut you must be gorgeous and follow Hilton's character's rules.

No date has been announced for the opening of the movie, she said.

She also has the yet to be released "Pretty Cool 2" under her belt once again playing the sorority girl.

But before she was Jenny in "Pledge This", the 26-year-old was in the first season of Spike TV's Joe Schmo. The show placed a regular person in a house of actors, unbeknown to him. The man thought he was in a reality series called Lap of Luxury where cast members competed against each other in the hopes of winning $100,000. Dodson played the sweet Molly Crabtree, a virgin from Wisconsin. After taking courses to drop her southern accent she was instructed to use her accent to play the southern belle who uttered such lines as "oh my stars" and "oh my goodness."

Even with her budding acting career, Dodson continued to model. She initially got a chance to go to the big lights of New York, at age 17, to model and dropped out of high school. She later came back and earned her equivalency diploma.

Her face and body has donned the pages of magazines and calendars as well as being named Miss Hawaiian Tropic. Her journey to modeling was tough, she said.

"I slept on a mattress in the kitchen of my cousin's friend," she said. "He had a small apartment in New York. There was no privacy."

About a month before Dodson turned 23 she decided to try acting. She worked two jobs, about 70 hours per week, to save enough money for the trip.

The young woman has had parts in the hit show Nip/Tuck, hosted a Nascar series, was featured in the soap opera General Hospital and made three music videos; Jessie's Girl by Frickin' A, Somebody Told Me by The Killers and Step Up by Drowning Pool, and had a supporting role in the TV show Lucky Ducks.

Nonni Thompson is proud of her granddaughter. Through the years Dodson was away working on her career, the grandmother received many late night/early morning phone calls from the excited Dodson. First hand stories of attending the Oscars and Jamie Fox's birthday party, meeting Dan Akroyd (he considers her his friend), meeting Tom Cruise, Bruce Willis, Owen Wilson and others.

"I played it cool," she said. "But as soon as I got in my car I was like, 'oh my God.'"

When attending the Oscars, Dodson wore a designer loan gown with a $10,000 price tag and $800 shoes.

"Did you know when you wear the loaned clothes you have to give them your credit card just in case something happens to the gown?" she said.

A ubber paranoid Dodson had a mental chat with herself, chanting over and over in her head "don't touch me, don't touch me." She even drank clear colored drinks, just in case. Someone did bump into her spilling a cranberry-like drink down the back of her dress. She quickly told the woman to find some Club Soda - now.

And at the MTV Movie Awards last year Dodson graced the red carpet stopping for the paparazzi cameras. With a laugh she described her worry about looking in the wrong direction when her name was called and of not having the graceful smile prepared as the flash bulbs went off.

Thompson looks away from her granddaughter for a second to say how proud of her she is.

"Honey I brag about her all the time," Thompson said. "I was in Louisiana at a casino and they were having the Louisiana Miss Hawaiian Tropic pageant. I told them that my granddaughter had made it to nationals and brought out a picture."

The picture is Dodson's business card featuring a modeling photo and information on the woman.

Dodson has found happiness back at home. Employed with Twin City Veterinary, the vet's tech spends her days with dogs, a far cry from her day in the $10,000 dress.

"On Saturday, all I think about is going back to work on Monday," she said. "I can't wait to go back and check on this dog or that dog that had stayed over the weekend."

The actress turned vet tech is now engaged to an actor turned contractor, Shawn Kerwin. Kerwin starred in soap operas, made the career switch and the couple have now bought a home in Beaumont. Her agent does keep in touch, wondering what her plans are; the movies will one day be released and her career could blossom.

But for now, Dodson is content away from the limelight and at home with her family and fiance.