Jake Gyllenhaal inspires Travis and a Cotswold and Hamster Interlude

It looks like Jake Gyllenhaal has been given the weekend off from honing his viagra salesman skills in Pittsburgh. Tweets indicate that Jake and Reese (with or without the accidentally 'ugly' dog) are currently working their way round the restaurants of Brooklyn and SoHo. So, while we wait for the results of the Hot Poll tomorrow, I thought I'd slip in a gentle and partly off-topic post.


Travis, or at least elements of Travis, has begun a tour of the US, going through its backlog while finding inspiration for their next 'On the Road' album. Each of the songs has been introduced with some background and one reviewer suggests, tantalisingly, that we should guess which song was inspired by Jake Gyllenhaal.


This would not seem hard because there on the songlist is Love Will Come Through; a song that was purposefully written for Moonlight Mile and remains one of the band's favourites. Singer Fran Healy said of their inspiration, Moonlight Mile: 'We were totally blown away... It's a beautiful, smart, heartfelt movie. By the end, I was crying my eyes out... I just sat in the cinema room with my guitar, letting the movie wash over me... It was a fun challenge.' And, as this article points out, this song was the lone new song on an album of classics.

Travis must have been delighted to hear that Jake told Mvyradio: 'I can't stop playing the soundtrack in my car, I cannot stop playing it. I stole it from Brad and I play the Travis track over and over and over and over again.' The review of the show this week suggests that Jake himself and his performance were an inspiration for this beautiful song.


An interlude: Hamsters, History and lots and lots of pheasants

As it's the weekend and quiet, I thought I'd beg your indulgence for a little off-topic interlude. It's no secret that I have a little bit of a big thing for Richard 'The Hamster' Hammond of Top Gear fame (and almost 60% of all other programming at the moment). He's well up there on my list and, appropriately, he shares Jake's birthday - a sign, as I'm sure you'll agree. Today, I was out for a day trip in Cheltenham and the Cotswolds and The Hamster and his family walked right past me in the high street. And then, as if that wasn't enough, maybe to ensure I didn't miss him, they did exactly the same thing again an hour later. I heard a girl nearby berate her boyfriend for being too slow to take a photograph so she couldn't sell a pic to OK magazine. Then she started talking about Richard's hair. As I did. It was fluffy.


I didn't get a picture of Richard Hammond, so instead I thought I'd make do with other pictures from today and so now I put on my historian hat. These photographs were taken during a beautiful evening at stunning Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds. The church here contains the grave of Katharine Parr who lived at Sudeley after her husband Henry VIII died before he could chop her head off. In these gardens Elizabeth I played with her stepmother. It's one of my favourite places, especially because I was named after Katharine Parr.



And so, interlude over, remember to vote before the poll closes tomorrow!

Includes pictures from IHJ, here and WDW.

At the movies - Jake and Reese see Bruno and a poster for An Education

The day after the night before, a couple of sleepyheads were seen at Beverly Hills' AMC theatre yesterday evening. It seems that Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon were among a number of well know people who chose to see Bruno, which might explain the facial expressions. I wonder what Jake bought at Bose... Many thanks to IHJ for the pictures.





Talk of An Education

Brothers is being regularly listed now as a contender for the coming award season. However, it is not the only film being discussed which is of interest. I'm delighted to see that Peter Sarsgaard's An Education is also getting some buzz and it too now has a poster. Its other star is Carey Mulligan, who also has a role in Brothers, tightening the connection.


Going off topic again...

I stumbled across another filmset today, not once but twice. Despite reports that the recession had killed off ITV's classy detective drama Lewis, the offshoot of Inspector Morse, I can definitely attest to the contrary. Lewis had taken over one ofOxford's scenic colleges, drawing quite a crowd of tourists. At lunchtime I saw Warren Clarke, a much loved and famously grumpy-looking UK character actor...


... and in the evening saw Laurence Fox - Lewis' sidekick, son of James Fox and husband of a very lucky Billie Piper. I watched the filming standing next to the creator of Inspector Morse, Colin Dexter - an unassuming and very modest gentleman. This was a thrill for me as I've read every single one of his novels.



A reminder of the previous time I saw filming for Lewis in Oxford.








Includes pictures from IHJ, links and WDW.

Life in and behind the lens

Watching Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese leave Burn 60 this weekend (you can see the pap video here) to a cacophony of shutters reminds me that, despite the inconvenience and the craziness of some pap situations, Jake has had a largely good relationship with the camera for years - both in front of it and behind it. We all know about Jake's passion for cooking but, back in Teen People 2002, Jake's passion was listed as photography.


Jake described his 21st birthday to 17 magazine: 'During the day my mom threw me a party with my family and closest friends. At night my friends had a big party for me at a club in LA. My mom bought me this really old-school Palaroid camera. And I got a beautiful ring from a friend that says: It's important to live, not only to exist.' On recent visits to Europe, Jake has been seen camera in hand taking pictures of the sights, just like the rest of us.



Jake can also be relied upon to help out.



Of course, as an actor, Jake is well accustomed to performing in front of a camera and, as a particularly photogenic actor, he's also well used to posing in front of fashion and magazine photographers, including some of the very best. These include Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz as well as Michael Stipe. The impact of the paparrazi on such photography is discussed here by Steffan Hill who has photographed Jake in the past.


Beautiful as Jake is, Ang Lee told the Advocate that he'd had some problems photographing Jake, in contrast to Heath Ledger: '“Jake positions himself this way, then that way. He tries everything—like De Niro or something,” Lee says, then cackles. “Heath is not like that. He has a specific target within him. I don’t have to bring him back from here or there. He’s also very easy to photograph, easier than Jake. You don’t have to avoid anything.”' One wonders what this 'thing' was that had to be avoided. Yet it is because Jake has such an interesting, animated and expressive face that one takes so much pleasure in looking at him.


Brokeback Mountain had a stills photographer, Kimberley French, who has the gift of melting into the background and being tolerated and liked and admired by actors. Her photography on the set - especially her images of Heath with whom she had a special connection - led to the instantly recognisable Brokeback poster.



'French met [Heath] on a movie set when he was visiting then-girlfriend Naomi Watts, and when they met again on the set of Brokeback the two instantly bonded over cameras and cigarettes. As a result, French was able to capture poignant photos of the actor. “It felt really great from the start, that I already had a relationship with one of the actors,” French muses. “And it just continued... Heath would let me get so close to his eyeline. Getting in an actor’s eyeline—between them and the camera or another actor, or whatever they think they’re looking at—is a big deal. He also later allowed me to shoot him while he was concentrating on his lines.”


'On one such occasion, when Ledger was pacing back and forth rehearsing a scene, French snapped an introspective portrait that was used in composite for the movie’s iconic poster. The other portion of the final image, featuring actor Jake Gyllenhaal, was taken during a special photography session that lasted all of five minutes. “I had very little time, so I had no lights, just reflectors,” she now laughs. “It’s nerve-wracking, but the job is totally about being fast.”'



Kimberley's images also feature in this video as background to an interview Heath did for an Australian radio station on 22 January 2006.



Nailed

A big thank you to Monica for finding more pictures from the set of Nailed. As with other photos we've seen from the set, it seems the actors and director were quite happy to have cameras around despite the strict ban. The photo of Jessica is interesting because it gives us a good look at the offending nail. Many thanks to the photographers for taking these pictures, which must keep us going until we get to see the finished article.




And finally and off topic...

I took my own camera out today for a trip to Blenheim Palace to have afternoon tea...


... to enjoy the scenery...




...and to pretend my other car is a porsche.



Including pictures from IHJ, links and WDW.

A sunny Cornish Interlude - All good things...

A gratuitously off topic post today, largely because Jake Gyllenhaal is not in Cornwall, even though he'd love it... May my sunburnt nose serve as a beacon for all travellers.



The Eden Project



No jellyfish were injured during the making of this post.





Back on topic later! Time to hit the road and get back home.