Jake Gyllenhaal stops traffic in Pittsburgh, and how to order a drink with an accent

From the sound of it, Pittsburgh is becoming gridlocked, not due to various worldleaders dropping in for a global gathering, but because of Jake Gyllenhaal. The set of Love and Other Drugs might be closed (as reports tell us) but if you're in any doubt as to where Jake might be filming today, here are the clues:


1) Look out for the lines of extras getting kitted out in 1990s garb. At least 12% of a sizeable city's population may be an extra in this movie, and, if they're not, you can bet their car is. 2) Watch out for cougars (but ignore those who want to gush to Jake about how good Spider-Man 3 was). 3)Look out for vehicles with Love and Other Drugs written all over them. 4) Road restrictions - fortunately, the local media is on the case.


We're lucky that a fair number of the extras, crew and observers are keen tweeters. One such tweeter has recorded taking part in a dining scene at which Jake has to give a speech about Pfizer's Zoloft and she was able to get some photos of the scene including Jake's stand in. As I know from painful personal experience, if Jake's in front of your camera, a strange phenomenon occurs and the molecules of the camera are transformed to jelly (I'm being suitably scientific here, as befitting a post about a film about viagra). But I'm very grateful for the attempt.


Another fortunate person managed to get a picture of Jake up on to Flickr, although, as is often the case with Jake, he is fleet of foot. Thanks to them and it's good to hear that Jake had been posing for photographs.

There are also sightings and reports on IMDb: 'They filmed at the Omni William Penn Hotel, and it's a closed set. I got to be right behind Jake Gyllenhaal in a hotel hallway scene (where Gabriel Macht was also there, I think) and then later in a hotel bar scene.'


There was a fun anecdote about Peter Sarsgaard by Carey Mulligan today, which also throws light on the difficulty of ordering a drink in a foreign accent. '"There's a lot of things that, to say it with an American accent, you have to reverse the way your tongue moves. (In Wall Street 2) I have to say a line, 'Futures commodities marginalization act' and I spent two hours with a voice coach on that. In An Education, Peter Sarsgaard has a line, 'You slam your glass down on the bar and ask for more.' And he struggled with that. He nailed it in the end, but I remember on set trying that line with an American accent and everything is reversed."' I'll be looking out for it (the photo below, from PopSugar, shows Peter and Mggie out for a bite yesterday in NYC).


Talking of Nailed, that most worrisome of Jake's movies got a mention today, courtesy of David Ramsey who appears in the movie and doesn't appear to be writing it off... 'Q: We see you have some movies coming up, too. Tell us a little about them. DR: Mother and Child is a great piece, amazing cast. I'm playing Kerry Washington's husband—give me a break! And Nailed is a political satire. I'm kind of playing Jake Gyllenhaal's nemesis. It's another fun, fun role.' For once, I actually would like to see Jake meet his nemesis (if you see what I mean...).


Edited to add: Having Jake Gyllenhaal in your music video may be something that many singers aspire to - I mean, is there any better motivation for having a record out? I'd say not. Here, Matt Alber is interviewed about his debut album: 'Q: Speaking of your video, if you could have cast any famous male actor to dance with you, who would you have picked? MA: Oh, man. My honest answer is I wouldn't have changed a thing. It turned out exactly how I wanted it to turn out. We talked about trying to cast somebody who was a famous actor, and we realized that would just take away from the story we were trying to tell and it would be "it's that video with Jake Gyllenhaal and that guy" it would just be about that instead of being about the story. Q: So is that your roundabout way of saying "Jake Gyllenhaal?" MA: That said, I definitely wouldn't have minded a few rehearsals with Jake Gyllenhaal. I definitely would have gone to those rehearsals.'

Includes pictures from IHJ and links. Thanks to the people of Pittsburgh for involving us all in the shoot!