How to give Jake Gyllenhaal his perfect first date - make sure you're hungry

As the long nights creep on in, it seems appropriate to look at good ways to fill them. The other day, we were looking at how Jake Gyllenhaal would be the perfect date to take home to have dinner with the family - although the odds of a family member actually pinching said Jake during said dinner should be carefully assessed before the day arrives. Tonight, with the rain and the wind putting up a battle outside, I thought it was the turn of Jake to decide what he wanted to do on our - sorry, his - first date. I do want to say upfront, Jake, that I'm not fussy...


Jake has said on a couple of occasions how he behaves on a first date - and I can somehow see how this influenced the portrayal of Robert Graysmith's first date with Melanie in Zodiac.


Jake told More Magazine: 'Be sloppy and goofy - works every time.' And again to Cosmo: 'Be sloppy and goofy at first and then segue into the dinner-and-a-movie thing. Do something active and original.' All right, a few things to note here - does Jake actually mean soppy? I'm not certain sloppiness is high on my list of musthaves for a first date (of course, if Jake wants to be sloppy, Jake can be sloppy.) Secondly, I like the sound of 'something active' and thirdly, I like a prospective date who can throw the word 'segue' around like that.


So, Jake's turned up, sloppy and goofy, and it's working. What's next? A movie would be good but there's a chance that this could feel like work for Jake. And whose movie would you see? If you said you wanted to see the latest by Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Colin Farrell or Brendan Fraser (just picking some names out of a beanie), would Jake take that the wrong way, as a sign that he had competition? I'm voting to give the movie a miss and instead settle down with a meal (or at least a beer).


For a dinner date with Jake Gyllenhaal, there are two options: eat out in a glorious restaurant or let Jake cook and eat at home (with the risk of a lot of washing up - it's a known fact that men use more utensils and bowls/pans when cooking than women). When Bazaar magazine asked Jake back in 2006 what his favourite extravagance was, he said: 'I love expensive meals. I just think when you have a good meal with people you have the potential to really relax. Because if the food and service is amazing, then you don't have to worry about anything. I'll spend any amount to have that.' Agreed - so is a pizza out?



Due to the huge difference between what constitutes an expensive meal for a movie star and, well, me, maybe it would be better for Jake to cook. Fortunately, expensive ingredients are not a necessity because Jake can cook with whatever he finds in a fridge, even mine. Jake told Star's interviewer 'I like to cook with anything I can get my hands on, like if you were to ask me to cook with all of the ingredients on this table, I'd make a tape recorder sandwich!' I would like to point out that it normally takes more that a tape recorder sandwich to win me over, but I can be flexible...



Jake does enjoy the idea of cooking for a date. He told 17 that 'I just like little things like cooking dinner and having a really long date with someone I care about.' I like the sound of the 'really long date'. And to Cosmo: 'Whatever my girlfriend wants, I'll cook for her. Whoever she is and whatever she wants, I will cook it for her.' I'll make a list.


Kirsten said of Jake 'He's a really good cook. I love everything he makes. One birthday, he made me a six-course meal of all my favourite foods: butternut squash soup, braise short ribs, coconut cake..' and then a bunch of antacids.


Assuming that the meal was a success and a happily long date ensues, what does Jake want from his date? For clothing, Jake told More Magazine: 'I love to see the back of a woman's neck or her collarbone. Those areas are very sexy. Clothes that show just a bit are best.' For demeanour, Jake loves it when a girl 'is calm when she's in love. Sometimes love just gets plain dirty and girls can be vicious.' I can be calm... And, having eaten every morsel in front of one, even done the washing up, and acted suitably calm, 'I know when I wake up in the morning with the person I love, we end up laughing. It's really the morning time, the waking up time, I look forward to.'



Includes pictures from IHJ and scans by WDW.

Jake Gyllenhaal - 'it's nice to make people laugh with your body' and the dangers of plastic...

In a post hindered, hampered, aggravated and itched by having to make do with dialup internet, I thought I'd take a brief look at an old interview, from way back in 2001, when Jake Gyllenhaal described his very first experience of being a stuntman - long before he had to do battle with snake-throwing, evil Viziers and their armies of sand devils, and even before a shivering Jake took on CGI nasties in a flooded, snowbound NYC.


When Jake ('a naive little boy') took on the part of Bubble Boy Jimmy... 'They made me do a lot. I'm just a naive little boy. We did this one stunt where I come in and the building is on fire. There's a huge wall of fire and the guys who did the effects did in Backdraft. I'd say, "What is that?" and they'd say "It's gasoline. It's fine." They'd spray it on my feet. "It's fine. Trust us." Everyone is getting their fire suits on and, hey, I'm in a plastic bubble. They asked me to go in and shake the door handles. I go in with "I'm gonna be a stunt man. I'm gonna do this. I've got it." I get to that wall and I'm like "Oooh this is hot!" I put my hands out and grab the handles and I look at the bubble and it starts expanding. And then it goes whoosh.. and then flat all around me and I see the steadycam guy going "Run!." They are spraying me and they cut me out of it like an embryonic sack. I don't touch plastic anymore.'


I was particularly intrigued to hear on whom Jake had based his Bubble Boy characteristics: 'I used Peter Sellers in Being There, Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Buster, with his face, in silent films, says so much. Charlie, through his movement. The running in the bubble at the beginning was all Chaplin stuff. The voice came out of watching and thinking what a child would do.'


And it's funny to hear that making out with Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl also gave Jake cause for some other concerns: 'There were love scenes. I have to pay my respects to Brad and not say anything. The love scenes are kind of explicit. He stayed away. [How scared were you?] After Fight Club and everything? Whew.'


On whether it's more difficult to do a love scene or physical comedy... 'They are both really challenging so I wanted to do both. It's nice to make out with a beautiful actress but it's nice to make people laugh with your body (with, not at).' Strange, I've never felt like that watching Jake's love scenes...



Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal bringing Thanksgiving to London Town

Jake Gyllenhaal brought Thanksgiving to London last night - to Chelsea, to be more precise. After what seems like an age, we have a new photo of Jake, thanks to IHJ. Yet again, for as long as the hair and the cold nights grow, Jake shows that no-one wears a beanie and scarf quite like he does. We've missed you, Jake!


The party took place at the Chelsea home of Richard Rogers and Jake wasn't the only American there. Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow were also there - in shoes with extraordinary heels.



Pictures from IHJ and link.

Right Royal Jake - and for that WDW gives thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone across the pond as well as to those Americans (ie, Jake Gyllenhaal) who may be spending their Thanksgiving on these shores. I hope our turkeys come up to scratch. And for this, I give thanks.


And for this...


This post comes with a tentative link warning, the reason being that bumping into the Queen and Prince Philip during my lunchbreak today is too untypical not to mention. 'Don't storm the car!' warned the friendly policeman - we politely said we wouldn't, and we didn't. 'People act irrationally when they see the Queen' said the policeman - we said we wouldn't, and we didn't. I didn't get a good picture of the waving Queen and Duke (thanks to a very tall bobby helmet) but I did get a picture of the next best thing - the car with a flag on the top.


The last royal I saw was, of course, Helen Mirren, when Jake was on hand to award her with the Bafta for best actress for The Queen. On that occasion, I had to ask Helen (politely but firmly) to budge as she was blocking my view of Jake. I like to think that the other Queen would have done the same thing today.



As it is unlikely that Jake will have a bop with Queen Elizabeth in the near future, this will have to do. Jake shimmied to I Will Survive alongside Queen Latifah for the benefit of Ellen Degeneres and a hundred million grateful Gyllenhaalics who enjoyed the sight of Jake's cheeky wiggle.



And, finally, Jake himself, despite his protestations of Californian republicanism, is now becoming a royal figure in his own right - Prince of Persia. According to Sir Ben, Jake has the 'effortless confidence' to pull off his regal role. Fortunately, Jake is playing my favourite kind of prince - the type that doesn't need to wear a shirt and can get away with arm bondage, big boots, tight trousers, bare chest, jewellery and luxurious scarves - and for that I also give thanks...



Includes pictures from IHJ and WDW (the car with the Queen in it photo).

Jake on women - 'The more you know, the less you know'

Although this side of the pond does not celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow - more's the pity - I thought I'd take a peek this evening at something that I truly do give thanks for - Brokeback Mountain and two hot cowboys - via an old interview that was new to me. This is suppplemented by photographs that also give me cause for thanks.


Back in 2006 Jake Gyllenhaal gave an interview to Redbook and I love how he is introduced: 'Jake was a popular guy the day of our phone chat. He told us he had back-to-back interviews scheduled (everyone, including us, was eager to hear about his controversial hit, Brokeback Mountain). But he made time to talk to Redbook. And when we heard his sexy voice on the other end of the phone, well, that's one interview tape we'll be holding onto for a long time to come...'. A sexy phone call from Jake - surely enough to make one's ears fall off.


Jake is asked if he relates to Jack Twist: 'Yeah. I'm definitely the type of person in my own life that goes, "We can try that. Let's try that!" And maybe naively so. And a lot of people might even think that about the choices of movies I've made. They're like, "Does he know what he's getting himself into?" And I'm like maybe and maybe not. But why do I need to? Why do I need to calculate my life?' And I rather like the end of this interview: '[What has your sister Maggie taught you about women?] I couldn't tell you. The more you know, the less you know. [We're a challenging breed.] Yes, you are. [Laughter]' But worth it, Jake...



Pilot

And I can think of one person at least who'll be very thankful to see the new old Highway-Jake pics posted on IHJ - big thanks to Stephanie!






Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal - making a lasting impression

Vanity Fair is celebrating its 95th anniversary and to mark the occasion the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting 'Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008.' And this site tantalisingly says 'The most engaging part of the exhibit (backstage footage of Jake Gyllenhaal’s photo shoot excluded) is the "Vintage Vanity Fair" section.'


Jake's photoshoot left an impression, not least because of the video footage of the shoot, done for Tom Ford's 2006 Hollywood Issue, which features photographer Annie Leibovitz, artistic director Tom Ford himself and a stunning and confident Jake Gyllenhaal.



The photos - and the video - were shot at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, California, on November 19, 2005. A day to remember, three years on. The cover for the special issue featured Tom alongside the nakedly draped Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson (seen below) but there was a rumour that the original idea for the cover had been somewhat different: 'Could the Tom Ford-directed Vanity Fair be any hotter? Apparently, it could have been. Sources say the cover shot of Ford with the very naked Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley is not the lineup the maestro first envisioned. "The idea was to have Tom between a guy and a girl, and he wanted Jake Gyllenhaal" ... The official word from Gyllenhaal's rep: "He was never asked to be on the cover or pose nude. He was asked to be featured inside, which he did." There is a lesson here - VF, ask the right questions!


In 2004, W magazine suggested that Jake and Heath had turned to Tom Ford for advice before the filming of Brokeback Mountain: 'Despite reports that their onscreen kiss was a no-go, it appears that Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger shared a passionate canoodle on the set of Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" after all. The actors, both straight, had turned to Tom Ford for advice about the whole man-on-man thing at this year's Vanity Fair Oscar party. (Gyllenhaal was riveted, and Ledger squeamish, says a witness.) When filming began near Calgary this summer, they did further research at the city's annual gay rodeo. "Everybody was anxious before the kiss happened," says a source on the set, who couldn't confirm whether the smooch would make the final cut. "But when the day came, they just went for it. And it was amazing."'



Back in 2003, Jake had attended a Goddess gala at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art along with Tom Ford, Stella McCartney and Nicole Kidman. Outside the event a fan asked Kirsten for her autograph - you can read Jake's cheesy but sweet response here.


And finally...

One of the oddest headlines today related to Jake was this one. As a fan of Snow Patrol, it seems there is only one thing that can make a Snow Patrol video better and that's the inclusion of Jake Gyllenhaal. No arguments there, then.


Includes pictures from IHJ and Amazon.

Jake Gyllenhaal - ideal date material (and not just for Thanksgiving either...)

With a holiday weekend approaching on one side of the pond - but very definitely and disappointingly not on this side of the pond - dating agencies have been casting around to identify just who is the ideal dinner date to take home and make polite conversation with the mum and dad. It's no surprise to see that Jake Gyllenhaal is in the top 4, only beaten by Hollywood royalty, real royalty and Tom Brady (I wikid him - he's sporting royalty).


And in the selection of ladies, the top four are co-stars of Jake, with the lovely Jennifer at the head of the list, followed by Reese, Anne and Jessica - with Natalie further down the list of desired dates.


There is a disadvantage to taking Jake home as your date - your family may take too great a shine to your date, or Jake may be too big a distraction from the nut roast.


But Jake has demonstrated carving skills...


the art of polite conversation...


witty repartee and...


a healthy appetite.


Jake is also considerate...


and adorable...


and scrubs up quite well. Yep, Jake, you'll do.


Includes pictures from IHJ.