Rooney Mara, welcome to your instant career.

The relatively-unknown-but-not-for-much-longer actress has been cast as the namesake in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” the first work in the internationally successful thriller series by the late Stieg Larsson. And while the nitpicking will begin, you could do worse than a serious young actress from a famous football dynasty who founded an African orphanage before she turned 25.

Who’s the girl?
The buzz has been reaching hysterical pitch over the Hollywood version of the Millennium Trilogy, ever since David Fincher (“Fight Club,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) signed on to direct. In July, Daniel Craig signed up to play the financial investigative reporter who faces down deadly threats and sleeps around.

Fan anguish was all about who would play Lisbeth Salander — the abused, antisocial, Asperger-ish, computer-hacker genius. The likes of Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman were dismissed as too good-looking and busty to play the flat-chested, scowling flyweight, while a contingent lobbied for Noomi Rapace, who headed the Swedish version. Rooney passed high-profile contenders Ellen Page, Kristen Stewart, and Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan. Just last week the choice reportedly had been down to her, French actress Lea Seydoux and Australian actress’ Sarah Snook and Sophie Lowe.

Mara seems like a compromise between the unknown Fincher said he wanted, and an actress on the verge of a breakout — she’s also starring in his upcoming movie about Facebook, “The Social Network” with Justin Timberlake.

So far, Mara looks the part: a petite brunette in her 20s who has had plenty of experience facing up to much bigger men. As she once told the New York Post: “I guess seeing grown men walk around naked [in a football locker room] is quite alarming when you’re 5’2″ and they’re towering over you.”

And even more about Patricia Rooney Mara:

The girl who laughed and screamed a lot
The New York-born actress started off in TV bit parts, but boosted herself to movie roles in the past two years. She got herself in the well-reviewed comedy “Youth in Revolt,” which starred the likes of Michael Cera, Zach Galifianakis, and Justin Long, but slipped in and out of the box office. Her bigger break came playing Nancy Holbrook in the remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” The movie got blasted by critics, but most of the blame focused on reviving Freddy Krueger, so she escaped the critical bloodletting.

The girl with a (non-twin) sister
Lisbeth Salander has an unseen twin, but Mara’s older sister Kate is a familiar face, in movies like “We Are Marshall” and “Brokeback Mountain.” She also scored a spot on “24″ in Season 5, as a computer analyst who saves Los Angeles from a nerve gas attack. Sister Kate has sung the national anthem at many Giants football games, plus a few for the Steelers, too, thanks to her famous football ties.

The girl whose grandparents kicked the pigskin
The name Rooney comes from her mom’s maiden name, and it means a lot to football fans: According to the New York Post, her maternal great grand-pappy is Art Rooney, who founded a Pittsburgh team called the Pirates (later renamed the Steelers). Meanwhile, her paternal great-grandpappy, Tim Mara, founded the Giants. Her granddads on both sides were also NFL big-wigs.

The girl who founded a nonprofit
While Mara was up and coming, she took the time to raise money to build a Kenyan orphanage. She moved the orphans from Kibera, which the New York Post described as “one of the worst places on Earth” and where one million people live in a one-square-mile slum, to a six-acre suburb in Ngong. Her nonprofit, Faces of Kibera, is still running.

The girl who will make millions
Critics and fans may agree that “The Girl” series has some “endless digressions,” “lumbering prose,” and “preposterous plots,” but the true appeal is all about the character Salander. With Fincher at the director’s helm, if Mara measures up, she should be good for some juicy royalty checks for some time. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” opens in theaters on December 21, 2011.

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It took seven episodes, but “Hitting the Ground” finally accomplished something no other episode this season had done to date: it entertained from start to finish. A moment of silence is needed for some of our favorite vampires we loved to hate. I’m going to miss Lorena (Mariana Klaveno) terribly. The very cruelty of her existence gave Bill (Stephen Moyer) a depth and angst that is going to be hard to replace. I’m still not sure what they are trying to do with him this season. He’s more schizophrenic than Mel Gibson. He nearly kills Sookie by feasting on her faster than David Spade at the Playboy Mansion and his only excuse is basically: “What do you want from me? I’m a vampire. I was starving. Duh.” Remember the days when he used to take his blood from a bottle? How cute that was? How charming? I can’t remember an episode this season where he didn’t have blood all over his mouth. He’s starting to look like a rabid teddy bear.

read the full article |   Watch this True Blood Episodes – free

Just because True Blood is shallow summer fun, that doesn’t mean that it can’t be educational. (We’ve already gained some new insight into Viking anatomy, if you catch my drift.). There’s a lot to be learned from the inhabitants of Bon Temps, at the very least from their many, many, many mistakes. So if you’re having a hard time justifying your favorite summer obsession, just refer to our list of valuable life lessons that we’ve gained from watching True Blood episodes. It turns out that all that time you thought you were just having sexy fun, you were actually growing as a person. And people say that TV is bad for you!

Carry Around A Stain-Stick

Blood stains are unsightly and hard to remove, and, as anyone who has ever been near a vampire staking, messy. It’s hard to intimidate people into submission when you aren’t looking your best, and nothing undermines your authority as fast as a big stain on your clothes.

Use Reliable Birth Control

It’s important to protect yourself, in all situations. You never know when you’ll have to go to a huge mystical orgy, or end up pregnant with a serial killer’s kid.

Take Care Of Your Teeth

A smile can say a lot about a person. So if you want yours to say, “pay attention, or I’ll rip out your throat”, good dental care is a must.

Dress Appropriately For The Occasion

You don’t show up at Lou Pine’s dressed like lunch, and don’t infiltrate the Fellowship Of The Sun in black leather. And remember, shirtlessness is always in style.

Avoid Family Reunions

Odds are, your family is crazy. Maybe not as crazy as Tara’s alcoholic bible-thumping mom, or Sam’s abusive hick parents, or Sam’s other abusive, slightly less-hick parents, but there’s something to be said for being an orphan.

Don’t Have One-Night Stands

A night out can be a lot of fun, but keep in mind that the nice guy you take home might end up being a murderous psychopath. Or Jason Stackhouse.

Buy Cheap Carpets

A good rug may be able to tie the room together, but it costs a lot of money to keep it clean. It’s a lot easier to get blood out of linoleum.

Use Judgement When Adopting Pets

Adding an animal to the family is a big commitment, and it’s important to make the right choice. Baby armadillos, fine. The Mickenses, not so much.

Keep A Chainsaw Around The House

Chainsaws can be used as a practical solution for dozens of everyday chores, from disposing of dead truckers to fighting brainwashed sex mobs. Available for purchase or rental, no questions asked, at a sketchy hardware store near you.

Invest Wisely

You’ve got to provide for your future, because you never know how long you’re going to live. It could be centuries! And remember, lottery tickets aren’t a viable financial plan.

Do Not Date Sookie Stackhouse

We don’t care how good her blood tastes, that girl is a supernatural drama magnet. It’s not worth it.

To watch true blood full episodes online, free simply visit: http://www.trueblood-episode.com

ANGELINA JOLIE – ON HER LATEST ACTION MOVIE

If you’re expecting a taut thriller with a super sexy Angelina Jolie kicking butt, you can let that vision go.  What ‘Salt’ is – is Angelina at her kick ass best and leaving the concept of sexiness in the rear view mirror.  In fact, aside from the sexy split skirt she sports in the opening interrogation scene, there isn’t another single memorable portion of the film that highlights or even accessorizes with her looks.  Therein lies the genius of making a great suspense-thriller; put your best looking offering in the role (which was offered first to Tom Cruise), and let the story and action work for itself.

Angelina Jolie (Gia, Hackers) portrays Evelyn Salt, a sharp-as-a-tack CIA officer who at the end of her shift wants nothing more than to get home to her husband and celebrate their first anniversary when fate, in the form of a covert Russian spy, derails her life and brings her to grips with her true self, her true identity, and more importantly – her purpose for existing.  The Russian spy, Orlov (played very eerily and almost David Koresh cult-like by Daniel Olbrychski), plants the idea to Salt and her CIA colleagues that she is a Russian spy whose mission is to kill the Russian President.  The notion of Salt actually being an enemy of The State should be foreign to her CIA pals, but Orlov’s story echoes elements of truth and is intermixed with tales of a top secret Russian program to create ‘sleepers’ like Salt whose job is to infiltrate the highest ranks of US government and wait for a ‘calling to strike.’  And strike she does!  From her daring escape away from CIA custody (this is a 10 story federal building mind you), to an intricate execution of a bombing to ensnare a target, Salt plays no games and takes no prisoners.  Watching this film, I started to grow resentful of the condition of U.S. anti-terror and national security operations.  Our best and brightest fall like dominoes to a single Russian spy.  Salt manages to get into places and escape from situations that are next to impossible and our government efforts to stop her made us look like ‘monkeys f$cking a football.’  It’s okay to run amok while our operatives chase, but escaping custody and capture every single time..geez.

Salt’s ‘Whodini’ act aside, an impressive standout in this film is Liev Schreiber (Kate & Leopold, X-Men Origins-Wolverine), who portrays Salt’s boss Ted Winter.  Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium) deserves most of the credit for the dialogue, but Liev’s style makes the sharp wit and commanding presence of the character really play well.  Hats off to one of my favorite spy-thriller Director’s, Phillip Noyce (PatriotGames , The Saint).  With Salt, he was given a wider range than just the crisp thriller – this time he got continuous action sequences and performed admirably.  The frame work of Salt’s escape from NYPD’s finest was a real rush.  While on the subject, why would the U.S. government allow the NYPD to cuff and transport one of the wiliest covert operatives?  It doesn’t take an early screening of the film for you to know how that perp ride is going to end.

Still, what makes Salt enjoyable is not just the film being an adrenaline ride; it’s the attention to detail present throughout the movie and even in the characters.  As each character is discovered by the audience, you start to become suspicious of everyone you see.  If the secret Russian program has spies planted in the U.S. from the ages of 3 and up – almost anyone could be a sleeper and not know it.  Every person you meet could be an ally or an adversary and I confess, I was guessing throughout the film and enjoying discovering who was and who wasn’t.  The detail doesn’t stop at characters – it extends to production design.  The scenes involving the White House were some of the most intricate and explorative views I’ve ever witnessed on screen.  At one point you’ll see 3 of the top side levels (with individual rooms) and a sub-level that you’ve only heard about in conspiracy theories.   I questioned how the filmmakers got that level of detail; private access to shoot in the White House (schaa…as if!), or most likely liberties taken from sketches allowed during public tours.

‘Salt’ won’t redefine Jolie’s career, and it won’t be known as one of her sexy thrillers, but it will keep her viable as an action star – and box office willing, will spawn Salt 2 which is clearly a hole left open at the films conclusion.  Go see it to watch a great escape artist and a cunning covert operative work and you’ll be pleasantly satisfied.   After you’ve exhaled from the finale and walk towards the theater exit – ask yourself, what happened to Evelyn’s dog?

Inception: peering into the science of dreams

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a dream snatcher. He’s an industrial spy, who steals secrets when his victims are at their most defenceless: when they are asleep, and dreaming. But he has an even rarer ability, that of inception. He can plant an idea in someone’s sleeping mind, and watch it grow and take root in reality. “The most resilient parasite is an idea,” he says.

Inception is a complex sci-fi thriller that lies somewhere between a James Bond film and The Matrix. Many of the film’s themes are often covered in New Scientist, so we have assembled a spoiler-free guide to the science of the movie, and all you need to know about dreams and the unconscious mind.

Is it possible to directly access someone’s dreaming mind?

In the movie, the dream-snatchers use a drug called somnacin and a dream machine to upload a scenario into someone’s sleeping mind. One or more of them then go to sleep themselves, hooked up to the machine, and enter the target’s dream.

This fictional dream machine is called a Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous (PASIV) Device.

A device does already exist that can effectively read someone’s mind. A functional MRI scanner takes snapshots of brain activity, and then the software recreates images of what the subject was looking at.

The researchers say it has the potential one day be able to record someone’s dream – without the mess and danger (or the fun) of actually sharing that dream.

Using drugs like somnacin to access a sleeping mind is not possible, but there are drugs that can drastically modulate our sleep. These include modafinal, which can promote continuous wakefulness, and new classes of sleeping pills that can deliver “super sleep”.

How can I control my dreams?

The easiest way to experience a lucid dream is to train yourself to ask, “Am I dreaming?” while you are asleep. Keen video gamers, probably because they focus on a single task for hours per day, are particularly good at lucid dreaming.

The dream team of Inception is highly trained at this, which may be why they are able to perform complex tasks – such as reading – which most normal lucid dreamers find difficult. Some of the characters in the movie have also militarised their dreamscapes, to protect themselves against the invasive dream snatchers.

Do dreams have to obey the laws of physics?

This is a fondly debated topic, and Inception has it both ways. Sometimes impossible things happen – in one dream Paris gets folded like a huge sheet of paper – and optical illusions become “real”. The endless staircases created by M. C. Escher, for example, exist in Inception dreams thanks to a manipulation something like that occurring in 3D virtual environments.

However, the dreams follow some “real life” rules. As writer and producer Jeff Warren wrote about his own dream investigations:

Without sensory input, consciousness appears to behave in predictable ways. Informal laws can be deduced, for example, the “law of self-fulfilling expectations” (what you expect to happen will happen), the “law of narrative momentum” (linger too long in one place and the dream world begins to fray.

In Inception, the dream world “frays” when external influences from the real world intrude.

What is the function of dreams?

Freud thought that dreams expressed our repressed desires. And so they do, sometimes, but much modern research suggests that dreams help in information processing and memory storage.

Dreams occur in both rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, and non-REM sleep. REM dreams are more story-like, with emotion and aggression, and non-REM dreams often involve friendly social interactions. People with depression often experience more REM sleep than non-depressed people.

How does subjective time pass in a dream?

In Inception, dream time runs much slower than real time, and there is a scaling effect, such that if you dream within a dream, time passes even more slowly. So 5 minutes of real time equals 1 hour of dream time, a 5-minute dream inside a dream equals one week of second-level dream time, and so on.

This is perhaps the cleverest part of the movie, but though intuitively pleasing, there is little evidence for it. In fact there is some evidence that in lucid dreams, at least, the perception of time in similar to that when the dreamer is awake.

A more pressing question for researchers is what happens when our brain’s time perception goes faulty. In fact, the illusion of time may be created by the brain itself, which is at least as much of a head-scratcher as the plot of Inception.

Images: Warner Brothers

As if Sandra Bullock didn’t already have enough on her plate — new house, new baby, global super-stardom — now she’s taking on Congress and fighting to clean up the Gulf.

Bullock is just one of the celebrities putting her star power to good this week in a public service announcement for Restore the Gulf, which encourages folks to sign a petition demanding Congress provide long term funding to gulf states following the BP oil spill.

Bullock is joined by Dave Matthews, who says that this is “a national problem that requires a national solution,” Harry Shearer, Blake Lively, Eli and Peyton Manning and Emeril Lagasse.

The project was started by Women of the Storm, and organizers hope to collect one million signatures. Watch the video below and sign the petition here.

With a thick glass partition separating them, Lindsay Lohan received her first visitor in jail – her attorney.

“Understandably, Lindsay’s having a difficult time adjusting as it would be for anyone,” Shawn Chapman Holley told PEOPLE after the brief visit with her client Tuesday. “She’s trying to make the necessary adjustments to an extremely stressful and difficult situation. There were some tears.”

Lohan, who’ll be confined to her 12-by-8 cell alone for approximately 22 hours a day for about two weeks, is being kept in a special segregated unit away from the general population. E! reality star Alexis Neiers, 19, occupies the next-door cell once used by Paris Hilton.

“Generally, the first two days in jail are the most difficult,” Holley added. “I just kept reminding her of that. She’s doing the best she can.”

Lohan, 24, apparently got a nod of sympathy from her guards. “Her spirits aren’t high,” says Holley, “but I spoke to some of the deputies and they said Lindsay’s reaction is the same as anyone in her situation.”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Jennifer Aniston won a restraining order on Tuesday against a man who was found prowling around carrying a sharp object, duct tape and other items.

Aniston’s publicist Stephen Huvane told Reuters that the man was arrested earlier this month “outside a location he thought she frequents, but it was a location she in fact has never been to.”

Jason Peyton, 24, was ordered to stay 100 yards away from the home, work and vehicles of the former “Friends” star, celebrity website TMZ.com said.

He was carrying a bag, a note, a roll of duct tape and messages about Aniston, 41. His car was also carved with large messages reading “I LOVE JENNIFER ANISTON”, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.

The documents describe Peyton as an “obsessed, mentally ill and delusional stalker with a history of violence and criminal stalking – who drove cross-country in his delusional ‘mission’ to locate and marry (Aniston), with whom he believes he is in a relationship.”

In the past, Peyton has stabbed himself and hit his own mother with a golf club. He has previously been institutionalized and placed on antipsychotic drugs.

Peyton also believes he is related to numerous celebrities including Oprah, Jay-Z, Donald Trump, Courteney Cox, Nelson Mandela and Jennifer Lopez, according to the documents.

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit; Editing by Jill Serjeant)

MELISSA Gilbert really has suffered for her art!

The star struggled with back pain while on tour with the Little House on the Prairie musical — and only found out why when the tour wrapped earlier this month.

Gilbert said she met with a neurosurgeon in Los Angeles and “He came in and said, ‘Your back is broken, and it has been for months,’ ” the 46-year-old told People magazine. “I sort of was in shock for a while.”

Melissa — who played Laura on the original Little House TV show and Ma in the musical — fought through the pain for the sake of the production.

“I would balk and fight it and say, ‘I’ve got to do the show,’ ” she recalls, telling herself: “If it got really bad and I lost feeling in my legs or couldn’t move, I’d go to the ER.

“I thought doing a musical at 46 playing a woman in her late 20s, early 30s was amazing enough. But doing it with a broken back buys me a little more street cred.

“One of the things that is great is that I’ve lost about a half inch in my height and I will get that back.

“That’s really cool.”