Nailed to be scored by Squeak E. Clean - and Heat gets hotter

The omens are good... Following on from Jake Gyllenhaal's recent cheery luncheon with David O'Russell - with both looking far too happy for it to have been a 'sorry, Jake, our film will never see the light of day' meeting - it appears that the score for Nailed is being composed as we speak. The composer is a Mr Squeak E. Clean, possibly related to Mr Colgate but definitely related to his brother Spike Jonze, director of John Malkovitch and partner of Michelle Williams.



Last month, Nailed was mentioned as the next project for DJ Squeak E. Clean (a.k.a. Sam Spiegel), working with 'Philadelphia MC Spank Rock'. Spiegel has worked with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kanye West, Maroon 5, to name but a few and so this promises to be quite a soundtrack and one I imagine Jake would approve of. It also suggests that Nailed is still in production, still being made, and hopefully on its way to completion and not oblivion. I am hopeful.


Torso of the Week

Britain's Heat magazine this week continues to maintain its Jake credentials - for the third time, Jake Gyllenhaal is Torso of the Decade Week. Many thanks to my colleague for decorating my desk with the Prince of Persia for my return from lunch today.




Includes photos from IHJ and scans by WDW.

Gemma 'I didn't tongue Jake Gyllenhaal' Arterton - 'It was an accident...'

Noone can have forgotten Feisty Gemma Arterton's recent confession that, when trying to give Jake Gyllenhaal a modest kiss on the PoP set, it all went awry... 'I got so carried away, it kind of slipped out' - the tongue that is. However, the Princess of Persia has now retracted her tongue statement, although when you examine her new statement, her defence has more holes in it than a big chunk of Gouda.


The statement: '"I didn't tongue Jake Gyllenhaal," she laughs... "That was a misquote and a half," she says. "Somebody asked me if I used my tongue and I said, 'Well, I gave him a kiss and perhaps my tongue slipped' and I thought, 'Oh God no, what have I done?' And then they said that I tongued him, which I didn't. Which he's probably very upset about and Reese Witherspoon is also probably a bit upset as well. You know, you snogged my boyfriend. No I didn't, it was an accident."'


The verdict: Feisty Gemma still admits she has no control over her tongue - 'perhaps my tongue slipped'. She says she didn't tongue him (an expression I've not heard for an astonishing number of years) but then we hear 'it was an accident'. Not only that, she's laughing as she says it, hinting at some very pleasant and suspect memories from that scene.

Prior form: It transpires that Ms 'It Just Slipped Out' Arterton has previous, witness James Bond himself. '"Yeah, I think I did the same with Daniel [Craig]," she giggles. "I get so carried away and he is an incredible kisser." More peals of laughter.'


Case open and shut.

The real prize on this piece, though, has to go to the interviewer who, it turns out, wears Gyllenhaalic feathers: 'So how would she rate Frost in the kissing stakes compared to Craig and Gyllenhaal then? (We're not afraid to ask the tough questions.) The actress giggles. You can tell from her expression she's dying to spill the beans but she decides not to kiss and tell. Doesn't matter, we know Gyllenhaal would win hands down.'


And it's good to hear that PoP didn't just provide Gemma with a kiss from the lips of Jake Gyllenhaal, she also got some sound advice from the dastardly vizier: 'To cope with the madness of her new-found celebrity, Arterton turned to Sir Ben Kingsley, her co-star in Prince Of Persia. His advice was simple: "He told me to just be myself, because so many people are trying to change you and trying to make you something you're not. He told me to keep being unique, which I thought was the best advice ever."'


Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jake's shopping trip continues - another shop, another hat...

Jake Gyllenhaal's Shopping Guide to Los Angeles has a new chapter tonight, due to his visit yesterday to the Whole Foods store in Beverly Hills. This required a change of hat.




Thanks to IHJ for keeping up with Jake's shopping spree!

[Updated for more shoe shopping] Jake shops, 28 March, and Direct Witness: A report from the PoP set

Yesterday, 28 March, Jake Gyllenhaal went shopping in Brentwood at the New Balance store - although I'm glad to see Nike came out for the trip, along with The Jeans, which are now more than a few steps closer to becoming car cleaning rags. Jake also brought a 'Red Thing' along. Fortunately for Jake, his yoga and parkour skills are at hand should he come across any obstacle.



That is Not An Exit, by the way...


Update:

Jake was in a serious shoe shopping mood yesterday, after Brentwood he headed off to buy a bundle more at Recreational Equipment, Inc - probably the store in Santa Monica. And that means the hat and sunglasses were given a brief break.



I did say brief...


Thanks IHJ!

Direct Witness: A report from the PoP set

I am very grateful to Sara Andrea for sending over to me details of a feature from yesterday's edition of Chile's leading newspaper, El Mercurio. In it, Alexander Witt, Director of Photography and Director of the 2nd Unit, spoke about his experiences of working on Prince of Persia under the watchful scrutiny of Disney and the Bruckheimer producers. The producers' approach clearly put pressure on everyone, Jake Gyllenhaal included, but director Mike Newell especially. Thanks, Sara, for your translation, which follows here:

'Direct Witness: Alexander Witt reveals the controversy of the new Disney super production

The Chilean filmmaker worked in the Second Unit of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time", "Jake Gyllenhaal and the director even shouted to each other", he confesses from London where he is working in a new film with Russell Crowe.


His work is shooting the action scenes in Hollywood super productions, coordinating hundred of extras, stuntmen and even the stars themselves. It's a complex work, even dangerous. In Morocco, where he just finished shooting "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time", he was tied to safety harnesses more than once to supervise the sets (as seen in the photo).


But nothing, not even his 20-year experience in Hollywood, prepared him for the human problems he experienced in this Disney film, directed by Mike Newell and starring a muscular Jake Gyllenhaal, that will be released in 2010: "I really don't have the best memories of that movie", Witt confesses by phone from London.


"The biggest problem was that not even the director had an idea of how was the movie we were doing", says the 56-year-old Chilean about the $150 million dollar project that had him two month in the Sub-Saharian Africa at the end of 2008: "Mike Newell didn't have a good relationship with the producers and the script was re-written during the shooting which forced us to change [scenes and] even the scenes that I was directing", he remembers.


Witt shot intensely with Gyllenhaal. The Chilean [filmmaker] tells that the "Brokeback Mountain" actor lifted weights between takes to stay in shape and reveals that: "Sometimes Jake prefered to shoot with me. He and Mike didn't get along well and a couple of time they shouted at each other".

But what exhausted his patience was the producers that asked him changes that they hadn't discussed previously with the director: "It doesn't happen to me very often but at that point I said 'enough' and I kicked them out the set. Luckily my relationship with Mike was very good. He was very honest with me. He told me 'I don't know anything about action, so you will have to help me with this'. And so I did".'


Includes pictures from IHJ and a pdf of the El Mercurio article can be seen here.

Jake's Friday - back to the Medical Center and lunch with Reese

Tonight, British Summer Time begins, not that you'd know it with that northerly wind. But, despite the chill, all is good because we get to enjoy the warmth of that LA sunshine through Jake Gyllenhaal. He must know he's doing us good, because there are more pictures of Jake from yesterday, including another visit to Jake's second home, the Medical Center. One can't help but wonder if these visits may be linked to an imminent project. Either that, or Jake has a part-time job...




Following on from the run (see this morning's post), Jake and Reese sat in the sun for lunch.


A note to the Brits: Brokeback Mountain is on Channel 4 tonight at 9.15pm (followed by Heath's Monster's Ball). Tomorrow night, Proof has its British terrestrial TV movie premiere - BBC2 at 10pm.


Many thanks to IHJ for the wealth of pictures!

'Catch me if you can!' Jake takes us for a run, 27 March

Yesterday (27 March), Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon went out for a jog in LA and, judging by the big smile on Jake's face, he had plenty more miles left in him. Many thanks to Los Angeles' weather for the good look it allows us of The Arms, not to mention the rest of him. I think I need an energy drink...





Thanks to IHJ for the pictures.

Jamie Foxx's cast pose and Jake Gyllenhaal's Guide to Tucking In

With thanks to BBMISwear for being eagle-eyed, it's great to see that another picture has been released to help promote Jamie Foxx's celebrity-rich video for Blame It. Here you can see the stars that Jamie worked on during the Inauguration of Obama, or persuaded in subsequent phonecalls, including Jake 'I Love This Hat So Much I'm Gonna Keep It' Gyllenhaal. Source.


How to wear a shirt...

Not being a young man of fashion myself (or any creature of fashion, to be honest, or indeed even a young man), I happened to mention to a colleague today that I was rather intrigued by Jake's habit of only tucking in one side (or just part) of his shirt at the front. While, this is clearly extremely attractive for more reasons than I can possibly go into here, I wonderered whether this look was by accident or design. She looked at me as if I were old enough to be her great aunt and then revealed that she had once been a window dresser and The Manual suggests this semi-tucked in look as the perfect way to reveal a) a pleasing shirt b) a rather attractive and expensive belt c) whatever the shirt would be hiding if it entirely hung loose d) a hot man.


With this in mind, I went on a ramble around the male clothing shops of Oxford for evidence and it was not long before I found it, conveniently only a few doors down from Starbucks.


But if you want to see this look at its finest, you don't want to examine a lump of plastic in clothing, you need to take a butchers at the finest exemplar of this carefully disarranged trend.






And it's not just shirts either - t-shirts, woollies... or a combination of any of the aforementioned. The hat is an optional extra.



Includes pictures from IHJ, Just Jared and WDW.

More than a name - Jake shines a light on 'something that has given my life more meaning than almost anything that I do' - and Jake goes shopping

The last 24 hours have been hours to savour indeed and it hasn't ended yet. We've had truly extraordinary and beautiful photographs of Jake Gyllenhaal walking in Beverly Hills, looking for all the world like he was intentionally walking towards that camera. Then, photos from last month of Ramona playing on the swings of Central Park with Uncle Jake and, finally, another set of photographs of Ramona having lunch with Uncle and Mum at Ammo in Los Angeles, just yesterday. And now we have a video from Jake's visit last month to a school in LA for Global Green Initiative. There is a short version and a long version, but why bother with the short when you can have a full ten minutes of Jake talking about what is clearly one of the passions he has in his life?



As someone whose best friend is a chef, and a chef who has been spreading the word about farming, harvesting, and the preparation and cooking of local produce, it's no surprise to hear Jake say that 'Some of my closest friends are farmers and it's something that has given my life more meaning than almost anything that I do.' That's some statement but in keeping with the comments that Jake has made over the years about his love for cooking, for growing food on Martha's Vineyard and for using local, fresh ingredients. This is that area of his life which has almost been presented as 'The Alternative' to how Jake's life has progressed in reality, in front of the camera. So, if any actor is suited to give his name to this cause, to turn cities green, then it's Jake.


'When you see something like a vacant alleyway that could be nothing and could just serve as a depressing view out of your classroom in the middle of a boring class, you can see that it can be transformed into something like this, that gives kids hope, that teaches kids about the science of growth and just about their environment and what they can do to change it. It's really inspiring and it's inexpensive and gives back so much more than we can put into it. So it's really an incredible thing to see.'


'They talk about how they walk around and how they don't see any green in the environment in which they live and this is one of the only places they can come where there's green and there's trees and there's life. And for most of the country, I think they are surrounded by a lot of green, but in a massive city like Los Angeles, it's surprising how little green there is.'


Global Green USA President Matt Peterson: 'Having Jake out here means a lot to us because he helps shine a light on not just the challenges that we face as society - everybody is aware now of climate change - but to really connect the dots between how something like this is - this school garden - helps improve the lives of kids. And him being here today, to give his time and learn from the kids and shine the light on what they're doing is so important.'


Jake: 'I wouldn't be involved in something I didn't feel like I could... I had actual experience in. I know all these plants, I've grown them myself. I feel like I know how much they can give to other people's and I know - I see how much he [Matt] has given to these kids, and so, it's not just someone coming in to lend their name - it's someone who cares very deeply about this and I really do...'


'I want the Inuit kids to see that things are possible, that people are doing things to help them as it's hard to grow things in the Arctic Circle! But to know that there are other children somewhere else helping them, helping the life that they love so much survive, somewhere they're all connected.'


'I think that making a garden like this, thought it has its own administrative challenges, ultimately, it's incredibly easy and really inspiring and with one seed many seeds can grow. You go to www.globalgreen.org, you can find out more about how to green your school and your life.'


Such a pleasure to hear Jake's voice at length, and Jake introducing himself on the Green Bus, and saying such delights as 'Those are tasty' - they are indeed.


Jake out shopping in Beverly Hills, 26 March

Many thanks to IHJ for new pictures of Jake shopping today in Beverly Hills wearing a favourite shirt.




Includes pictures from IHJ.