According to some newly added information on IMDb, Rooney’s once unknown exact birthdate is supposedly April 17th, 1985, which would make today her 26th birthday! Happy birthday, Rooney! Leave some love for our girl in the comments!

We have our first official Rooney appearance to look forward to since being cast in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”! On January 8th, Rooney will join “The Social Network” co-stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer and Justin Timberlake in Palm Springs to receive the Performance Ensemble Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival! CONGRATS!! In a press release, PSIFF Chairman Harold Matzer said:

“Every so often, a movie comes along with performances that set the standard for a generation of actors. ‘The Social Network’ combines a theme that defines our time with performances that redefine acting for the screen.”

Rooney joins the boys of “The Social Network” to make up #6 on Entertainment Weekly’s annual Entertainers of the Year list, under the headline “Tomorrow’s A-list movie stars today”. Congrats to the whole gang, well-deserved!! EW asked each actor to send in what their Facebook status might say right this moment.

Rooney Mara
Status Update: “It’s -9 degrees Celsius. 37 takes down, only about 42 more to go. Every time he says, ‘Okay, last one,’ I fall for it. Every. Single. Time. If only I could get this damn shrug right, then maybe I could go inside and my nipple ring would have time to thaw out…” (Sent via e-mail from the set of David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in Stockholm)

Why her? The adage that there are no small parts, only small actors proved especially true for Mara. Playing Zuckerberg’s quick-witted ex, she had just a few short scenes in the movie. But she dazzled in them, making an instant impression on audiences – not to mention director David Fincher, who cast the 25-year-old as the tough computer hacker Lisbeth Salander in his upcoming Dragon Tattoo adaptation.

Congrats to Rooney on making yet another well-deserved list featuring the best up and coming talent in Hollywood. She made Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch earlier this year, and now The Hollywood Reporter puts her on their Next Gen class of 2010. Yay Rooney!! 2011 is going to be such a great year for her!

Rooney Mara, 25
Actress, ‘The Social Network,’ ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’

Sure, Mara has only one pivotal scene in David Fincher’s hit drama The Social Network. But it was apparently enough to score the relatively unknown actress the role of the year in the director’s forthcoming The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; she reportedly beat out big names like Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman to star opposite Daniel Craig in the English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy. Before diving into her craft full time like her older sister Kate (127 Hours), Mara traveled the globe after high school and was inspired to start a charity, the Faces of Kibera, which provides aid to orphans in Nairobi, Kenya. She eventually enrolled at NYU and graduated just in time to reinvent herself as goth hacker Lisbeth Salander in Tattoo,which she’s filming in Sweden. “I’m not funny at all,” Mara admitted to Interview magazine last year. “I’m much darker.” We wouldn’t want her any other way.

Rooney shares a spot with her Swedish “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” counterpart, Noomi Rapace, in Elle’s annual Women in Hollywood Power List.

Rapace is Hollywood’s new It Girl. As the hard-ass-on-a-Harley heroine in the Swedish version of Stieg Larsson’s book trilogy, most famously The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, she’s being considered for an Oscar. Rooney Mara won the most closely watched casting search for an actress since Gone With the Wind to star as Lisbeth Salander in the Hollywood version of Dragon Tattoo. That, and her big role in The Social Network, makes her the “get” of every media outlet.

Congrats to Rooney and Noomi and it’s so good to see them not being ranked against each other for one!

Congrats to Rooney and the entire cast of “The Social Network” on this great honor!! *crosses fingers we’ll see Rooney attend the ceremony*

Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Josh Pence, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, Douglas Urbanski and Rooney Mara to receive the “Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award” at the Hollywood Awards Gala.

The festival and awards will mark their return on October 20 for a week long series of screenings, competitions and awards. The Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 25, 2010.

Rooney is featured as one of Variety’s annual 10 Actors to Watch this year!! Congrats Rooney!! She also spoke to Variety from the set of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”.

“I have an attraction to playing complex characters, and they don’t come around that often, especially for women.”

Rooney Mara shares this piece of info from the set of her next film in Sweden. The film, of course, is “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” David Fincher’s adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling posthumous book. And her role is the much-hyped lead: Lisbeth Salander.

Clearly, Mara has struck “complex character” gold. The twentysomething Salander is a world-worn, tough-as-nails computer hacker. She has crude oil-colored hair, a plethora of piercings and a short fuse of a temper. As a child, she was beaten by her father, and only later did she enact her revenge.

Outside of the book (the first in a trilogy), the character of Salander has been interpreted by a Swedish film adaptation of “Dragon Tattoo,” which made its Stateside debut earlier this year. But Mara is quick to set this upcoming version apart from the previous film.

“I don’t categorize it as a remake,” she says. “We are making our interpretation of Stieg Larsson’s book. I don’t plan on ‘borrowing’ anything. I plan on giving my interpretation of the character.”

When it was announced that Mara would be playing Salander, there was some skepticism. At the time, Mara was a relative unknown. That was only two months ago.

It’s amazing how quickly things change in this industry. Mara recently appeared in the Fincher-directed “The Social Network.” Her character kicks off the film by breaking up with Mark Zuckerberg, appearing sporadically throughout, sometimes simply as a Facebook page. Her screen time was brief, but found Mara flawlessly chewing Aaron Sorkin’s savory dialogue.

Mara certainly had a strong track record prior to “The Social Network.” She appeared in “Youth in Revolt,” “Tanner Hall,” and this year’s reboot of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise. Her work on indies “Dare” and “The Winning Season,” both premiering at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, earned her a spot on Filmmaker’s list of “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

“She has depth and wisdom beyond her years,” says Tanner Hall director Francesca Gregorini. “She has so much going on behind her eyes.”

“The Social Network” is clearly a boost in Mara’s profile — others can notice what Gregorini knew all along — and marks a turning point in her career.

Says the actress: “After ‘The Social Network,’ I was re-inspired to give it my all.”

LUCKY BREAK: “The Social Network”
FAVORITE FILMS: “Can I only pick one?”
THE CAREER I’D LIKE TO EMULATE: “Daniel Day-Lewis. Though I don’t think that’s humanly possible.”

File this one under rumor for now since I can’t find any other source or confirmation, but Irish Central is reporting Vanity Fair is planning a Rooney cover for an upcoming issue!!! How freakin’ exciting would that be?! Really do hope it turns out to be true. But seeing as how they have a picture of Kate to accompany the article, I’m not convinced they are legit. We shall see…

Rooney Mara the new IT girl as Vanity Fair cover beckons for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

It’s official Rooney Mara is the new IT girl, having nabbed the hottest role in Hollywood as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Since the announcement Mara has become a household name in Hollywood and Vanity Fair are said to be planning a cover.

Amazingly folks seem to actually like her–rare for Hollywood.

“She was a sweetheart. She’s still new in the Industry, but I can tell she’s going to be in this a long time. She kind of reminded me of a Natalie Portman…her energy and everything.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Congrats to Rooney, what a great honor, and so well-deserved!

Go figure: Rooney Mara, who stars in the new remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” is deathly afraid of being chased. But now that she’s won the Wonderwall.com Stargazer Award at the Gen Art Film Festival, she should probably get used to being pursued — at least by casting directors, if not by Freddy Kruger.

Last night, the 25-year-old sister of actress Kate Mara took home the New York festival’s emerging actor award, presented by Wonderwall.com, for her performance in “Tanner Hall,” a funny, poignant story about the bond between four friends at boarding school.

Source: WonderWall

Rooney is named one of Total Film’s 10 Breakout Girls to watch out for in 2010.

#7 Rooney Mara

Breakout: Three reasons Rooney Mara is going to make it big in 2010.

1) She plays the kind-of-sort-of girlfriend of loveable geek-of-the-moment Michael Cera in Youth in Revolt. Like their relationship, the film’s a bit off-on, but Mara is great as a French-loving elusive teen who doesn’t know what she wants.

2) She’s been cast as the lead in slasher remake A Nightmare on Elm Street. Which means that even if the film’s bollocks, she’ll have made all eyes turn in her direction. And if it’s a franchise starter, endless sequels could prove very profitable.

3) She’s co-starring with Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network. Yeah, the Facebook movie. It could be good. It could be bad. Either way, she’s making friends.

Damaged Goods? Her debut role was in the diabolical Urban Legends 3: Bloody Mary. Let’s hope Elm Street fares better.

The New: Nancy Thompson

Source: Total Film