Ed Zwick on his leads Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway: 'you might know them but you really don’t'

As Love and Other Drugs gets ever closer, we have the news that Anne Hathaway will be hosting SNL on 20 November. And, rather appropriately, the musical guest will be Florence and the Machine, one of the bands that Jake Gyllenhaal has mentioned as one he's interested in. I think it's about time that Jake hosted another show, or at least had those talents of his made use of somewhere on the box. Thanks to Susan for this very enjoyable reminder of a show almost four years ago. It's hard to believe that Jake's SNL was in January 2007!



One has to wonder if Jake will make some kind of appearance during the show. Only four days before the release of the film, there must be a chance of that.



This week the press screenings for Love and Other Drugs have continued and, on the whole, the reactions have been very favourable for the 'sexiest' movie of the year. In this review, we hear 'Love and Other Drugs started off really really funny, got really really serious, and then ended as a typical romantic comedy. It’s a quirky love story surrounded by drugs…pharmaceutical drugs that is. You follow Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal), a drug rep for Pfizer whose job it is to get doctors to prescribe their drugs to patients. The beginning of the movie is hilarious and will have you rolling in the aisles. Jamie is trained by Bruce Jackson (Oliver Platt) who tells him, “you and your swinging dick will be my winning ticket.” He’s a playboy hotshot ready to make money no matter what it takes!'


'Then he meets her. Jamie meets Maggie Murdock who is beautifully played by Anne Hathaway. At first, they’re a match made in heaven. Jamie is a dick who just wants sex and Maggie doesn’t want to be in a relationship and get attached…she just wants sex too. So they have sex! And lots of it. But this is a romantic comedy so you know they fall in love and all that stuff happens but it’s still in a humorous way…until Maggie’s disease becomes more evident. She has early stage Parkinson’s and the movie takes a serious look at what the disease does to a person and everyone around them. It hits you like a ton of bricks and the movie almost slows to a halt but does deliver its message.'


I love this description - that moment when everything appears to be going along so well as it should, even better than it should, and then suddenly the floor is pulled from under one's feet and you freefall, with that feeling in the stomach that rips you in half. I'm so excited to see Love and Other Drugs.