A shaven Jake out in Santa Monica with Naomi and Reese, 31 December

Today, Jake Gyllenhaal, mum Naomi and Reese enjoyed the treats of Santa Monica's last Farmers' Market of the year, including its Japanese cucumbers - always an attraction, I'm sure you'll agree. And freshfaced Jake's done his bit for the family gathering and the facefuzz has gone! Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes today, thanks for making it such a perfect day - Happy New Year!






Source.

Happy New Year's Eve!

To many people, today is New Year's Eve but, for me, it's my birthday and because it's a biggie (rhymes with naughty - or warty), Jake's helping me celebrate, although the jury's still out on whether I'll get a cake. Thank you, Jake, and thanks to each and every one of you for keeping me company through 2008. Happy New Year! Back later.







Includes pictures from IHJ.

It's official, Jake Gyllenhaal is Fit... and Handy

According to the readers of the UK's Heat magazine, Jake Gyllenhaal is Fit! Although this is hardly news, it is true. In the mag's survey of the fittest male celebrity bodies of 2008, Jake has been listed at No 6, which astoundingly means that five celebrity male bodies have been judged fitter. What is also in some doubt is the term 'fit' as, judging by the list, which contains the likes of Matt McConaughey, David Beckham, Gordon Ramsay and Russel Brand, this could mean fit or fit, if you see what I mean. Fortunately, as Jake is both, his place at the top of the list should be a dead cert.


Handy Jake

The picture of Jake buying a drill at the weekend reaffirmed my belief that all men do want drills and other DIY tools for Christmas. If they don't get them, they'll have to go out and buy them themselves. Jake with a drill is also infinitely desirable because not only is Jake the 6th fittest celebrity male in the world (see above), he is now extremely handy.


Even putting aside tables made for parents' summer homes in MV as well as protestations of woodworking ambitions, Jake has demonstrated on more than one occasion, through his films, that if you have a job that needs doing, Jake is your man. Even way back in October Sky, Jake exhibited original carpentry skills, showing that rocket science can actually have its practical uses.



While Donnie Darko's plumbing skills left much to be desired, Robert Graysmith finally realised his dire need for shelving - if only he could find the instructions.




Resourcefulness is a virtue, especially during a particularly cold spell, and Jake has demonstrated that he needs no more than two chairs, a pencil and a scarf to create winter footwear.



But why stop at footwear, when you only need a bit of plastic, some straps, a ventilation unit and double-sided sticky tape to construct an entire bubble suit? This can double up as your own personal greenhouse and sauna.



Up on Brokeback, Jake demonstrated how good he was at putting a camp together. He knew the first rule of camping - always clear the ground of potential animal hazards.




Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr's Christmas hike

There's only one thing better than seeing Jake Gyllenhaal treading the trails of rural California, and that's seeing Jake treading the trails of rural California with one Robert Downey Jr! Intent on walking off the turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, three veg, sausages, Christmas pud, brandy cream, soft-centred chocolates and a bucketful of local red, here are Jake, Robert, Reese and Robert's wife Susan (and never forgetting Attucus) hiking around Ojai on 26 December.







According to a source, on the next day 'the Downeys took Reese and Jake for a spin in his Bentley to get some coffee before heading back and saying their goodbyes.'



'Afterwards, Jake and Reese were spotted visiting a clothing store and a hardware shop - during which time Reese helped Jake shop for socks and then he bought a drill to help with some domestic maintenance at Reese’s Ojai home.'



'On the Sunday, Jake and Reese visited the farmer's market in their 'black bubble jackets'.


Jake, my flat is definitely in need of some domestic maintenance...


Edited to add...

...more pictures of Jake and Reese out and about in Ojai on Sunday 28 December. Big thanks to IHJ for the pics and you can find plenty more there.






Pictures from link, Just Jared and IHJ.

No dinosaurs, no Donnie Darko, no Sam Hall

The post is late tonight and, for that, full responsibility can be thrown squarely across the feet of one Stephen Spielberg, who has been ruthlessly distracting me from Jake with a film about dinosaurs. As someone who was once lovingly presented with a mammoth tusk and back tooth, and has a Roman urn to hold cocktail umbrellas, I thought I'd take this opportunity to examine Jake Gyllenhaal's problem with dinosaurs.


As it turns out, we should be grateful for our toothsome ancestors because, if it hadn't have been for the existence of dinosaurs, the acting industry could have lost Jake Gyllenhaal forever and the movie industry's loss would have been eastern philosophy's gain. Fortunately, Columbia University is the only university in the world which insists on its students knowing the name of each bone in every dinosaur that ever stomped the earth. According to Knight Ridder back in 2001, 'Jake followed his sister to Columbia University in New York, but unlike her, he did not graduate. He says his decision to leave school had nothing to do with his grades. "Actually, my grades were pretty good, except for the `F' I got in my class on dinosaurs. That was the hardest class I ever took."'


Even though, back in 2006, one might remember, Jake went bowling in Texas with Lance Armstrong and adopted the pseudonym
'Jakeosaurus' for his scorecard, his antipathy to the fourlegged colourful lizards was entrenched. Jake told GQ in 2004: 'I was taking a class in dinosaurs... We had to memorize every bone in every dinosaur. And I remember sitting in this class, like, 'What the fuck am I doing here? I have this huge opportunity in front of me.' So I just went from movie to movie, because I didn't want to go back to school. [My parents] both freaked out about it: 'You gotta finish college, Jake.' And I was like, 'No, I don't.' That was incredibly freeing for me.'


But it could have been a lot worse: 'I went to Columbia, and Columbia has this core deal in the first two years, they’re famous – you know when you’ve met a Columbia student because you can talk about the core, it’s really weird. Like Brown students, they’re like, “Did you take African drumming?” And they’re like, “Yeah, yeah.” At Columbia it’s different. But I learned really core modern western thought in two years and what shaped that, and I feel myself very well educated because of it. So whether I graduate and I get the degree – I’m just hoping for one of those honorary degrees.'


While I'm in a scientific bent of mind, I thought I'd (slightly) quote from an article which took the laws of physics to The Day After Tomorrow (a worthwhile task, I'm sure you'll agree), a film the study took pains to explain but could not spell. 'It would be very difficult to mathematically predict the exact damage done by the high velocity storm surge in The Day After Tommorow. However, we can get a rough idea of its destructive potential by comparing it to a wind with similar kinetic energy. The famous Bernoulli equation indicates that when a moving fluid like a wind or water flow is stopped, say by running into a wall, the kinetic energy of the flowing fluid will be converted into a pressure acting on the wall. Obviously if the pressure is too high the wall collapses... [a lot missing here]... Note, that we deliberately ignored the gravitational potential energy term in the Bernoulli equation for the sake of simplicity.'


So, ipso facto, if it had not been for dinosaurs, there would have been no Donnie Darko.

Includes pictures from IHJ.

'Jake is like one of those Japanese fighting fish....' Discuss

'Jake is like one of those Japanese fighting fish that can constantly change their appearance. When they're threatened they go bright orange, and when they're safe again they're next to invisible. So many things flicker across Jake's face, and the camera captures them all.' Sam Mendes in W (Jake's response, showing his Donnie Darko research had paid off: 'I'm sorry to kiss Sam's ass, but he's rad.')


Jake Gyllenhaal is able, through the slightest hint of a raised brow or the subtlest lift of a lip, to suggest every emotion by just the softest hint. As a result, the audience feels it all. No need to scream and shout, sometimes you don't need to say a word.




Ang Lee famously told the Guardian that Heath was '"easy to photograph, easier than Jake," observes Brokeback director Ang Lee. "With some actors, you have to avoid this and that. Not with Heath." Nevertheless, natural born performer and photography fan Jake Gyllenhaal (his mother bought him an 'old fashioned' - probably means it took batteries and film - camera for his 21st birthday), Jake knows all about showing the camera what it wants.


'It takes a certain type of person to enjoy entertaining people, and to use his own body for it... The instrument is... me! And if I'm going to play it, it's weird.' (W magazine.) Peter Sarsgaard said of Jake in the same magazine: 'His relationship to performing, and all the issues he has with it, is a lot more complicated than most actors I know... I think it's something he's going to wrestle with for a while.'


The drive to perform is quite probably something one must be born with, and Jake's desire for the spotlight has been there ever since he 'came down with a bad case of acting flu while performing in a skit. He and his friends were singing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" when he realized he wanted to be a professional actor.' (Knight Ridder 2001.) It is one reason why the role of chef appeals: 'I think performing has always been a big thing for me and I think cooking is another type of performance.'


Jake told Boyfriend magazine: 'I remember when I was little that I loved acting coz I wanted the attention! Then I would do a play at school and look into the audience and see the reaction on everyone's face, and that's what I love. Now it's become more than that.'


As for the obvious rewards of performing: '"Are you kidding me? I was so surprised!" Jake Gyllenhaal said about getting his first Oscar nom, for best supporting actor in "Brokeback Mountain." Speaking from the set of "Zodiac," Gyllenhaal said he was asleep when his agent called with the news. "I try not to have expectations. I had given up expectations in the past little while, and it's done me a lot of good. I think it's good to leave your expectations at the door. I feel that way about my birthday, I feel that about Christmas, and I feel that way about this."


For someone who wants an audience, Jake is in luck, he has one ready and waiting.


Includes pictures from IHJ.