More details on Love and Other Drugs and that 'deeply charming, flirtatious, funny, smart, sexy' Jake Gyllenhaal

It is an increasing pleasure to listen to Love and Other Drugs director and writer Ed Zwick talk about his new movie and in this video of a recent roundtable with Ed he tells us some more about what drew him to his leading man, Jake Gyllenhaal: 'Jake is a deeply charming, flirtatious, funny, smart, sexy guy and...' 'Agreed' [confirms the questioner to much laughter]. 'But I think in some sense he's held that back a little bit for some of the parts and has not demonstrated that.'


On the nudity: 'From the very beginning they really understood that that was in the DNA of the material. That in my experience when two young people get together and they're really involved and attracted to one another, they spend a lot of the time naked in bed. We wanted to give that the same level of authenticity as the drugs or the disease or anything else and to be coy and have the sheets pulled up I think would be a kind of violation of the truth and the authenticity of the relationship.'



Getting it done: 'We didn't have a lot of time. Everybody took a quarter of their salary to make this movie. We made it for $30 million. We shot in 49 days and so we had rehearsal and the rehearsal was very free and then once we shot it there wasn't a lot of time to mess around.

Shifting premieres

It had been thought that Love and Other Drugs would have its American premiere at the AFI Film Festival in November but, while that screening may well prove more glittery, it seems that the CMJ music and film festival has grabbed the premiere honour with its screening taking place in New York on 19 October.


Update: Meanwhile, the publicity machine for Love and Other Drugs may be heating up. Yesterday a stylist tweeted: 'On my way to a photo shoot with Jake Gyllenhaal!' Another very lucky person said: 'I'm totally standing next to Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhal and I am totally Freaking out.'

Jake at the BO

Jake meanwhile has made EW's list of the Top 50 Most Powerful Entertainers at 46. His Box Office total is quoted as being $1.4 billion, with his last three films making $405.1 million. The average weekend opening is $25.6 million and the average opening of the last three films $14.6 million. 'Viable leading men under 30 are hard to ind, but Gyllenhaal has crafted an enviable career consisting of global blockbusters Prlnce of Persia: The Sands of Time) and critical darlings (Brokeback Mountain).' Topping the list was Johnny Depp with Lady GaGa second and Oprah Winfrey third. There's more information here and thanks to BBMISwear for the scan.


Cranky in the mornings

I'm delighted to sat that there are more snippets from Saturday, this time about Jake and Maggie's big Oscar night. Apparently, Jake 'said he was in the middle of shooting a film but rushed to be by his sister's side when she was nominated for an Academy Award for "Crazy Heart" earlier this year. "Had I missed out on that moment that would have been awful," Gyllenhaal said. "I got no sleep and was a cranky person, but I was there and that was what mattered to me." He added, "Anyway, I love her a lot."' Jake cranky in the mornings? Something else we have in common... More here.


As for Jake himself, he took his Face Pet and a backpack and a date to New York City ballet's autumn gala on Thursday night. Tweets reported that he was not keen to be photographed, possibly because he didn't want to get done for breaking the dresscode. Natalie Portman was also there. Yesterday someone else said: 'I saw Jake Gyllenhaal at the coffee shop this morning. I smiled at him. He smiled at me. I have a feeling everything is going to be okay.' I know that feeling, it's a good one.


Includes pictures from IHJ, W and WDW.