On mine the stars means I have one of my things on AOL calls them away messages. like a notice that says - Be right Back,

On yahoo if the smilie next to the name is yellow the person is logged on to yahoo. If the smilie next to the persons name is grey (sleeping) the person is offline, not logged in. star means they are logged on but away from their computer or they have a personal away from computer message up. To see that message put curser on the persons name, click on it and then click the send instand message. in the message bar it will say the person is off line or the notice they have up. stars may also mean she has a stealth setting up so that she wont get interupted during a conversation with someone or doing researech.