STOCKHOLM – The longtime partner of late Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson says he wouldn’t have approved of merchandise being linked to this week’s release of a Hollywood adaptation of his best-selling novel, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.”
Eva Gabrielsson said Monday that Larsson would have instead used the buzz around his work to call attention to violence and discrimination against women.
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“We would never have sold any rights for merchandising,” Gabrielsson said. “It has nothing to do with books.”
H&M has released a Dragon Tattoo Collection, created by costume designer Trish Summerville, that it says is inspired by Lisbeth Salander – the tattooed anti-heroine of Larsson’s books and the film, which opens Wednesday in the United States.
Gabrielsson and Larsson were a couple for more than 30 years, but never married. Larsson didn’t leave a will, so his brother and father inherited the rights to his works when he died of a heart attack at age 50 in 2004.
The two have rejected Gabrielsson’s suggestions that they are using Larsson’s legacy for profit, and say they will donate their earnings to causes he supported, including an anti-racism magazine that he worked for as a journalist.
Still, Gabrielsson expressed concern that the political dimension of Larsson’s books, including the feminist undertones, would be overlooked by the film’s hype. She claims Larsson wanted to show that gender imbalances exist even in Sweden, one of the world’s most egalitarian societies.
“The oppression of women exists everywhere, this incomprehensible discrimination,” she said.
In Larsson’s trilogy, Salander and journalist Mikael Blomqvist team up to solve serial killings and sex trafficking scandals. Rooney Mara plays Salander and Daniel Craig plays Blomqvist in the David Fincher-directed film.
Mara suggested at a news conference last month that Salander isn’t a feminist, and doesn’t see herself as part of any group or subculture.
“Does she know what film she has been in?” Gabrielsson said, disbelievingly. “Has she read the books? Has she not had any coaching?”
Salander doesn’t fit neatly into any category, “but she is still part of a movement,” Gabrielsson said. “Her entire being represents a resistance, an active resistance to the mechanisms that mean women don’t advance in this world and, in worst-case scenarios, are abused like she was.”
Jessie J’s goal for 2012: to gain some more weight
NEW YORK – Most New Year resolutions include dieting. Not for Jessie J. The British singer says her goal for 2012 is to gain more weight. Jessie J said she’s “been working hard this year” and that “it’s important to know when you need to gain weight, or when you need to lose weight and be healthy.”
The 23-year-old is known for her slim figure and skin-tight outfits.
She released her debut CD, “Who We Are,” earlier this year. It’s double platinum in the United Kingdom, where she has four Top 10 hits, including the No. 1 tune “Price Tag.” That song has reached the Top 40 in America.
The singer also plans to shave her head for charity.
Jackson’s estate to pay executors
LOS ANGELES – The executors of Michael Jackson’s estate will no longer have to pay some legal expenses and other costs out of their own pockets after a judge approved changes Monday to the estate that has earned hundreds of millions of dollars since the pop star’s death.
The changes approved by Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff mean that attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain will no longer pay the costs from their share of the estate.
The men had been paying fees for entertainment legal counsel provided by members of Branca’s firm, and McClain had been incurring expenses for the use of a recording studio founded by Marvin Gaye.
Those expenses significantly diminished their 10 percent share of Jackson’s post-death earnings.
Branca and McClain have been collecting closer to 7 percent of the estate.
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