RUSH: I just finished reading that Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl That Played With Fire, The Girl That Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I don’t think I’ve ever read — other than my brother’s book now that I just could not put down, I don’t think I’ve ever read — three novels faster. I’ve read a Vince Flynn novel, Pfft! Every one of those. But these three… I was kinda surprised. Stieg Larsson died at age 50, very young, after the manuscripts. After three books had been written (unpublished) and 200 pages of the fourth had been written, he died of a heart attack, and he didn’t leave a will, which means that his family gets the estate, but his family had nothing to do with writing the books. His companion did. He never married her, so there’s an argument now over who has access to the 200 pages that have been written.
But this character that he created, this computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander! Have you read these books, Snerdley? They take place in Sweden. And he wrote these books for his own entertainment. I don’t know the story. I don’t know if he ever intended to publish them or not but they did, they made a movie out of all three of them in Sweden. The first one’s been released. But here’s the thing. It does have a football connection ’cause I was sitting here minding my own business about a month ago and I get this note from a very proud father, a good friend of mine: Chris Mara, who’s one of the many sons of Wellington Mara. He’s the director of pro player personnel development of the New York Giants. He’s got two daughters who act. One is Kate Mara (she was in We Are Marshall and Brokeback Mountain) and ‘Rooney’ (Patricia Rooney Mara, and she goes by the name ‘Rooney’) and she’s got the part of Lisbeth Salander in the Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo.
They’re filming it now in Sweden, I think, and I said (laughing), ‘Chris, have you read these books? You better go read these books.’ His daughter is 24 or 25, which is the same age as the character, but this is a major plum. I mean, Scarlett Johansson wanted this, Natalie Portman wanted this role — and Rooney Mara gets it, the daughter of one of our good friends. Kathleen Rooney is Chris’s wife and the mother of the girls, and she’s the daughter of Tim Rooney who’s one of the Steelers Rooney brothers. This is football royalty, and now this young woman gets this primo part. It’s an amazing series of… Folks, now, I know this a family show. If you’re gonna go read these books, you have an open mind. I mean, some of this, depending on your moral code, would be way outside the guardrails. But if you can set that aside, they’re fascinatingly well done and a great insight into Sweden. It makes me want to go to Sweden. (interruption) No, just to see it! (laughing) Not because of what I might find there. Yeah, but this character, Lisbeth Salander is an amazing literary character.