Rendition solidarity and Jake and the amazing bracelet

More beautiful pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal have emerged from the Los Angeles Rendition press conference. Now all we need are some photos from the conference of all of the cast with their director. I was struck, when listening to the press conference, with the respect and affection that each appeared to express for the other, whether it was Gavin Hood and Jake encouraging Moroccan actress Zineb Oukach to speak or Gavin protecting his two leading stars from 'unsuitable' questioning ('That was rough!' exclaimed Jake as if in sympathy with the press).


Gavin also remarked on his amazement at how well Reese coped with the paparazzi, who surrounded her from the first day, particularly when filming in Pasadena, the budget Chicago stand-in. Gavin had never been exposed to that kind of attention before and was intimidated. Reese, in turn, was intimdated by Meryl Streep and spoke of how nervous she was on the drive to work that day.


It's also interesting to consider Gavin Hood's perspective as a South African. At the press conference, Gavin spoke of how, as a young law student, he looked up to the US constitution as a guiding principle and that, when he learned of the practice of extraordinary rendition, he was shocked. This feeling was intensified because he is now the father of American children and he feels driven to recover that principle.




A red carpet Gyllenhug

I discovered another video of Jake and Reese arriving at the Rendition Gala in Toronto, this time from a CBS news report. It shows that on Jake's arrival the first thing he did was to wrap one lucky fella up in a famous Gyllenhug!



Jake and the bracelet

Talking of videos - let's backtrack a festival to Cannes and I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did. When an interviewer from Britain's ITN tried to ask Jake about his film, Jake was far too fascinated by her bright pink snap on bracelet! 'It's amazing!' he says and tells her it will add some time to the interview (I don't think she minded...). After trying it on a few times, Jake then snaps it around the ankle of his interviewer who says, perhaps unnecessarily, 'It's staying there'. The video includes new film of the red carpet and interviews with Chloe Sevigny (the difficulties of finding a dress suitable for the steps) and Mark Ruffalo, but it's the image of a laughing Jake snapping the bracelet round his wrist which lingers in my mind.




The LA Zodiac 'premiere'

The LA Zodiac premiere was... unusual. I speak with some knowledge of this as I was there - well as close to the red carpet as possible in those extraordinary circumstances. The event was moved from Hollywood to behind doors at Paramount Studios. All fans were barred and the few of us who turned up could just peer through the gate and see stars in the distance being photographed - a sham if ever there was one. Jake and David, of course, weren't there but the other members of the cast were, including Robert Downey Junior, plus Robert Graysmith himself and the lovely TDAT Emmy Rossum. The closest we got was Mark Ruffalo's brother coming out to take pictures of us and some woman sticking her head out of her car to yell out that Jake was gorgeous in real life - yep, we knew that.


This is a big preamble to say that I also came across a bizarre video of this oddest of premieres - two Danish reporters interview Chloe and ask her what it was like working with Jake. Chloe responds: 'He's very cute, very handsome. Sometimes it was quite distracting'.

Boot trouble at Boot Camp

I know that many of you love the funny little details as much as I do. This is today's. In an interview to promote Jarhead, Jake spoke of the tribulations of Boot Camp, which, appropriately included Boot trouble.


"Physically, I was ready for all the running after I killed myself working out, but then mentally it started. The first night of boot camp I got an hour and a half worth of sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night because I later found out (co-star) Lucas Black had thrown a bottle in the air and it hit me on the head when I was sleeping... Those things were constantly happening and, by the end of that week, I had gotten cumulatively 10 hours of sleep. My head was in such a weird space." As a result: "I had a 10-and-a-half wide and a 10-and-a-half regular (boot size) and I had loaned one of the guys my 10-and-a-half wide boots. I thought my other boots would stretch and it would be fine but I was standing there for two and a half hours and my left shin was hurting so badly."

And finally...

... hardly a surprise but it looks like neither Jake or Reese attended the New Line event last night.


Includes pictures from IHJ.