Happy birthday Maggie! 'It's wonderful because you can stop and say 'I love you' and then turn around and fight'

Although Jake Gyllenhaal's hard at work finishing off a certain movie and getting to wear straps round his biceps and multiple scarves and tight black trousers, you can bet he's taken time out today to phone his sister Maggie who this Sunday celebrates her 31st birthday. So with congratulations to Maggie, this post takes just a brief look at how these two siblings have sparked off each other since the day dot.


Working together on Donnie Darko: 'It was a nightmare, actually! (Laughs) I think it was just sibling rivalry. She was doing (the film) as a favor, and I was being the cocky lead actor and not giving her the attention she deserved. Next time, hopefully, the process of working together will be a lot healthier.'


In another early magazine: 'It's really nice but it's weird having a sibling doing the exact same thing you're doing.. At the same time it's wonderful because you can stop I say 'I love you' and then turn around and fight.'

Vanity Fair: 'My sister Maggie would say I am a 'neat freak' because I like to have things tidy.'


New Yorker: '"I think both of us have sad eyes," Maggie said. "Do I have sad eyes?" Jake asked. "They go down a little bit on the side." "Do I have cow eyes?"'


On working with the boyfriend: 'I considered that it was him trying out for my sister's hand. I'm not saying whether he succeeded, but that's what it was. I think Maggie revelled in it - I think she was excited for both of us. And we came out of it closer, that's for sure.' Maggie did visit the Jarhead testosterone-rich set: 'I'd phone Maggie while we were making Jarhead and say: 'I'm feeling this way and I don't understand.' And she'd say: 'But that sounds perfect for the film.' She came to the set and said: 'I have some notes if you want to hear them.' I was like, 'YESSS!''


As early as 2002, Maggie told the Daily News: 'We're good critics for each other, in a way,... I think that he, more than anybody, can see in my work what is honest and maybe dishonest and vice versa.'


Jake also has his other uses: 'There were things that made no sense, too. I had my brother staying with me at one point - he and Peter, they were running around the city trying to find something that I could eat. "I was really sick. They came back with pasta and steak, Saltines (crackers) and all types of things and I couldn't eat any of it. "Then my brother handed me a spoonful of tiramisu - just sugar and cream - he said I sat up like a mommy and ate it!"'


And this story is difficult to forget... '"My sister put on this play of Cats while my parents were having a dinner party," he says. "I wanted to be in it, and she said, 'Well, we'll get a bowl of milk and you can lick out of the bowl.' And, no kidding, I sat on the side while they did the whole thing, licking milk." He later went solo, singing Bruce Springsteen tunes and reciting lines from movies such as "Dune" and "Willow" scene for scene while cracking up in his Coke-bottle glasses.'


As it's Maggie's day, I thought I'd end this with some advice from the birthday girl herself: 'When I first got out of college I didn't have any air conditioning. I came up with interesting things to do. I put my sheets in the freezer. It's something that really works. You get your sheets a little bit wet and you put them in the freezer. In fact, you don't even really have to get them wet. You can just put them in the freezer. Just crumple 'em up before you go out and then right before you're about to go to sleep, take them out, put them on your bed. Hopefully you'll have a bottom sheet and a top sheet. Put the top sheet over you, and you have about 10 minutes - 12 minutes, maybe - to fall asleep, and it helps.' Blimey, I've got goose pimples now... Happy birthday, Maggie!


Includes pictures from IHJ.