Peachy Jake Gyllenhaal on BBC Radio 4 on LAOD's attention span

At the risk of interfering with frenzied Boxing Day shopping for sofas, beds and fitness DVDs, I thought I'd do a quick post this evening so that we can catch up with Jake. On 23 December there were very enjoyable mentions around the social networking sites of Jake Gyllenhaal visiting a children's hospital in NYC for a couple of hours. At Rockstar Ronan there is a wonderful account of Jake's visit and a taste of what it meant to children and parents at such a time. Jake's excursion to the Sydney children's hospital earlier in the month clearly had quite an affect.


Back in Britain, with Love and Other Drugs opening on Wednesday, attention continues in the British media. On Christmas Eve, Jake appeared on the Film Programme on BBC Radio 4. In Britain, you can listen to the interview on the BBC iPlayer until 1 January. Interviewed by Francine Stock (who can now pronounce Jake's surname correctly), the main criticism directed at the film popped up for Jake to answer - its similarity to the ADD that Jake's character Jamie suffered as a child. How the film presents 'a little bit of this and a little bit of that'.


Jake: 'That's been the main criticism I believe of people who... there's an expectation for movies and I think there's an expectation particularly when you're watching something you think... When I think about my mind – it might be partially mine and Ed's fault because the way my mind works is not within one coherent structure and I don't just take myself seriously all the time or just have a crude sense of humour or just feel romantic. I have those within a span of 15 seconds sometimes and I think it's true to that and I think the power of this is the relationship between these two characters and I think that's pretty consistent and not very ADD like.'


Jake had some difficulty trying to describe the energy of Love and Other Drugs, requiring several false starts before 'When I first read the script, I remember getting fifteen pages into the script and realising somewhere, maybe cosmically or something, that Ed had written this film for me and he didn't know it. And that has rarely happened in my career. I mean a few times but this was a pretty special one. It's kind of inexplicable to be honest, which is why I'm having such a hard time... but I know it has energy as I felt it and I felt it everyday and every day when I came to work and I never had a day that I was tired.'


Working with Anne Hathaway again, after a film such as Brokeback Mountain, was very special indeed. 'We only worked 8 days on Brokeback Mountain together but something about that movie, the idea of that movie, the bond we created when it came out, what it's become, sort of ties us all together for ever. And I think we feel safe with each other because we've told a story which, I think, was dangerous and embraced... As a result of that, we're close. So when it came time to make this movie, when it asked us to be intimate and when it asked us to share things that we would normally, I think, a little bit even more hesitant about sharing with someone we didn't know, we kind of just embraced it. Because we had been through something that only a select group of people understood within this circle of Brokeback Mountain.'


Back to Love and Other Drugs: 'I don't think what I'm saying is that it's dangerous or groundbreaking but what I am saying I think it's refreshing because I don't think you've seen movies, particularly in this genre, deal with sex in a way that is actually dealing with intimacy. Some romantic comedies or comedies that are emotional or whatever, to see an actress – to see an actor – but to see an actress with sheets covering up her top and not really seeing these two people actually be intimate physically with each other. The physical intimacy between a couple is like half the relationship in my opinion and also an important aspect. I've rarely ever seen people have sex with boxers on but I see that in romantic comedies all the time. They getting out of bed with like boxers on. It doesn't make any sense! The wonderful part about falling in love is the time spent naked! The times spent intimate like that. We should see them sharing their bodies with each other and that means ultimately sharing their bodies with the audience too in this story.'


Anne Hathaway is interviewed in today's Observer and she has something to say about the relentless focus on the film's nudity, comparing the subject to being repeatedly asked if she had ever dreamed of being a princess: 'The question that I dreaded answering in interviews was 'Did you always dream of being a princess?' I felt like saying 'No, I dreamt of being an actress! That was a role I played!' It was frustrating because, like constantly being asked about the nudity in Love and Other Drugs, it kept the conversation at the surface'. Here, Anne talks about how Love and Other Drugs has a message without being preachy - such as showing the long journeys that the poor, sick and elderly have to undergo in order to fill their prescriptions.


Normal service is resumed in the Mirror: 'The pair strip for a scene in their latest flick Love And Other Drugs and they can't stop talking about each other's bodies. Jake revealed: "It was a very tough role - so many others before me turned this role down because it meant getting naked with Anne Hathaway and no one wanted to do it. It's not an easy job, I felt bad for her so I agreed to do it. I took one for the team. She has a great ass!" Anne pitched in: "Not as peachy as Jake's." And it sounds like Anne's a bit jealous of Jake's effortlessly hot looks. She says: "Jake has this annoying habit of always looking healthy and really great."

Jake's next appearance on the radio is on tomorrow's Edith Bowman Show on Radio 1 from 10am.


And finally...

The Big British Freeze continues, with temperatures so low that many houses have been transformed into giant icicle holders, looking almost as if they are enormous candelbras with transparent wax dripping from roofs, windowsills, ivy and wisteria. On today's journey from the frozen north to the even more frozen south, we took the time to feed some rather despondent ducks. In return, they posed.