Setting the table for Jake Gyllenhaal

British interior designer Linda Barker has taken part in a celebrity 'Dining with...' show and, despite wishing for Jake Gyllenhaal as a guest, ended up with Peter Stringfellow. The world is cruel. Imagination, however, is kinder and in it we can have Jake as our dinner guest and, even better, he's a good cook - even managing to knock up a colourful dessert with starbursts and strawberries - and what's a bit of washing up to a moviestar?


Should Jake be on your invitation list for that special dinner, you can rely on a well-turned out guest. If formal is what you're after, formal is what you'll get.


The dinner table is the place for constructive debate about the political and social issues of the day. Jake will know the right questions and answers for polite company and will also be able to draw younger guests into the conversation.




Family gatherings can often lead to tension, particularly worrying when large carving utensils are involved. But if you sit up, turn off the television and appreciate the food on the plate before you, you should come through unscathed to enjoy another Thanksgiving.


Jake has had on occasion to perform for his supper. This can be a cheap and easy option - while you dine on a butter-poached lobster, Jake will quietly lap milk from a dish.


Sometimes, though, all you get is beans.


A business dinner is sometimes unavoidable. Stick Jake in the middle and everything will be fine.


There are times, especially when a new Ice Age turns up unexpectedly, several thousand years too soon, when a full service is impossible. On these occasions, you may have to make do with a bag of peanuts and a bag of salt and vinegar.



But when all else fails, you can always fall back on a tangine and some after dinner recreation.


Jake is such a useful guest, he has even been known to build a dinner table - constructing a 'craftsy' (I think that was translated as 'wobbly') mahogany table for his mother's house in Martha's Vineyard where, presumably, they would use it less.


Of course, there are risks associated with being seen having dinner with Jake Gyllenhaal, as Jake himself once said: 'You know, when you sit next to someone while you're out to dinner with friends, and reporters are there, 'sitting next to each other' becomes 'snogging' very quickly.' But if you're up for it...


And finally...

Thanks to IHJ for today's wonderful new old pictures from the UK premiere party of The Day After Tomorrow.



Includes pictures from IHJ.