LumberJake, CheeseCake Jake, LoveFilm LoveJake and a WDW Filmset Interlude

I hope you're sitting comfortably - we have a lot to get through this evening so no time for slacking, let's get on with it. First off, Jake Gyllenhaal is in New York City today and is he shaven? No. Is he on a train? Yes. 'I just rode the 1 train with Jake Gyllenhaal. Sporting a lumberjack beard.' I think from on, as long as the Face Pet lives, he shall be known as LumberJake. More on The Beard later in the post.


Love and Other Drugs draws slightly nearer and along with it comes more tales of its creation in The Pitt (aka Pittsburgh). Ms Blair recalled this today about her experience on the set of LAOD: '"In the world of extras, it was a step up," she said. She and another woman spent a day with a photographer taking Polaroid photos and wearing early 1990s clothing. She doesn't know where the pictures will be used, but she guessed they could appear as decorations in Ms. Hathaway's apartment. Later, she was an extra in a scene in a North Side cafe, and she spent the entire day sitting near Mr. Gyllenhaal and Ms. Hathaway. That was exciting, but the highlight, she said, was splitting a piece of cheesecake with Mr. Gyllenhaal at a meal that day for the cast and crew. "If nothing comes of it -- if you don't even see me in the movie -- it's totally worth it to have a chance like that," she said.' Source.


At this point I have two points to make - 1) I don't like cheesecake at all but 2) Jake, if you ever need anyone to share a cheesecake with I am willing to make the huge sacrifice of eating as much of it as you don't want because, as a Gyllenhaalic, I am selfless. But just don't offer me an artichoke. I have to draw the line somewhere.


LoveFilm LoveJake

LoveFilm have produced their top ten of Jake and it makes for some interesting reading and you may want to disagree with the choices - or omissions. The ten listed are: City Slickers, Donnie Darko, The Good Girl, The Day After Tomorrow, Brokeback Mountain, Jarhead, Zodiac, Rendition, Brothers, Prince of Persia. Full details here.


Clearly, it is impossible to confine Jake's best movies to a top ten list - and this problem is only going to get worse - BUT, if you have to have a top ten, should it include City Slickers at the cost of Moonlight Mile? And what about October Sky? And where's Bubble Boy and I can hear some people lamenting the rejection of Piilot. There is only one thing for it - don't confine Jake Gyllenhaal to a Top Ten. I'm sure I read that once in a medieval legal scroll.

Thank you to everyone who tweeted this to me today - it's great that you were thinking of me!


THE POLL

The Should Jake Shave poll is closed and the results are in! Please pardon me for a moment while I put on the white coat, protective feet coverings, laser pointy thing and flipchart...

178 people voted - a lot more people than are usually polled for anti-wrinkle cream and catfood surveys as you'll agree. This may come as a surprise to you but it seems most people want the Face Pet ritually slaughtered. To be scientific, 124 people or 69%. This actually came as a surprise to me. I thought it would be slightly higher - 99.9% for example. But 40 people, a whapping great 22% said no, don't shave, Jake!


Obviously, this group requires more detailed study and then it may be revealed that they all hail from the Cult of the Beard and live in the wilds and devour berries and squirrels and wear a belt of leaves around their nether regions. Instead of speaking with voices as we know them they 'caw caw' through the woods and birds and butterflies flock to them as one of their own.


4 voters (2%) cannot decide. Admittedly, if one has to have a beard it could be a lot worse as can be seen here.

An admirable 5% (or 10 voters) haven't even noticed that LumberJake has a beard. This is either a very good thing or a very bad thing, depending on their glasses subscription.


Jake has until Saturday to shave for his New Yorker on stage interview in NYC. He knows our thoughts, now there is nothing to do but wait. At some time the winds will drop, the waves will calm and the moon will shine through unbroken cloud. That time will come, my friends, and then we will look back on the Face Pet Epoch with the wisdom of advancing years and know that we had to go through it to get through to the other shaven side. And we will laugh and we will sing.


Right! That's the preamble over - on with the post!

You might think that most movies are filmed in Hollywood or Pittsburgh - but you would not be correct. Oxford is not just boatraces and gown-wearing students chucking flour, eggs and squid over other gown-wearing students. It has more filmcrews than you can shake a tourist at. I once saw Brad Pitt when I popped out for a sandwich. This week it became apparent that a certain movie may have moved in to town, X-Men - turning back the clocks by 50 years. It was something to do with the cranes, the big white trucks, the security, the catering lorries, the cameras and lights and the radio reports that gave it away. Bleeding Cool had a lot of success yesterday. I got to see them clear up - obviously a vital stage of the shoot.


And so, not having had any success there I went round a few corners, past a few more beautiful old buildings, and suddenly I was on another filmset. This time, Oxford had gone back in time by about 40 years and there was the beautiful, extremely talented and feisty Duffy (in changing coats) shooting her latest video. Having seen An Education film in Oxford it was rather nice seeing its theme singer in the town as well. It all makes a change from Harry Potter and murder mysteries.



Pictures from IHJ and WDW.