The Oscars look away while Jen stands up for Jake

I'm not amused - I think you can guess why. This morning at 7.30am (local time), the the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the Oscars and - what do you know? - not a single mention of Zodiac and its incredibly talented cast and crew in any category. One could be forgiven for hearing the sound of grinding axes. And no consideration for Rendition either, and I had a little sneaking hope that Omar Metwally would get a nod.


The lack of nominations may spare us the replay of the 2006 agony but I think Jake Gyllenhaal, David Fincher, Robert Downey Jr, Harry Savides, James Vanderbilt and David Shire - to name just a few - have been shortchanged despite superb contributions to an achievement all should be proud of.


At least we know, along with a million and one critics (slight exaggeration but so what?) that this was a film to last through time. Here is the full list, which, to be honest, I've been too cross to do anything but scan. It does seem on a cursory glance, however, that Cate Blanchett is in each category.


But ours is not to reason why and one should not brood. So, instead, I thought I'd lighten my mood by focusing on something guaranteed to make me smile. In the MTV UK Zodiac special, both Jake and David Fincher made it clear that Jennifer Aniston was responsible for the casting of Zodiac, and that it was she who insisted that David pursue Jake for his lead. This friendship and professional support that Jen has provided for Jake over a few years now, since, presumably, The Good Girl, is good to see and ongoing.


This mutual respect has led to each giving the other awards - in 2005, Jen presented Jake with the Breakthrough Actor of the Year award at the Hollywood Awards while, in 2006, Jake presented Jen with the Vanguard Award at the GLAAD Media Awards. Here are videos of both occasions.



The GLAAD moment is amazing to watch, not least because Jake says the word 'smooch' in such a way I lost ten years off my life but considered it well worth it.



This all goes back to The Good Girl and only shows what an impression the young actor must have made on Jennifer. Yet the filming itself wasn't all easy and maybe the awkwardness of the love scene in it drew them together. The UK's Sun newspaper reported: 'Jennifer Aniston says filming her big-screen sex scene -- with Jake Gyllenhaal in "The Good Girl" -- was sheer torture for her. "He's so young it felt wrong -- like doing it with a child,... I was shaking."'


Jen told the Daily Mirror: 'It was uncomfortable, unless you're someone who likes having people watch you - which I'm certainly not... It's weird having 40 crew members look at you in such an intimate situation... Also, since I don't watch myself when this is happening in real life I found myself asking, 'What do we do now?' Fortunately, Jake was as nervous as I was. Finally you just go for it.' Married to Brad Pitt (another favourite of Fincher) at the time, Jen told People that Brad had advised her 'Be nice to the guy, he's just a kid'.



In this interview, the director of The Good Girl, Miguel Arteta, makes it clear why Jake impressed both him and the screenwriter Mike White and demonstrates the lengths Jake went to, to leave his mark at his audition: 'I knew him from October Sky, which was a great performance and we wanted him, but he was really busy. He was doing Bubble Boy, and he was on his way to another set, and he just had a two week window, and we managed to make it work. He was funny. When he came to audition, we were at Mike White's brand new home; he was really proud of his home and Jennifer was there reading with everybody, and he really got into the audition, so to the point that he picked up a chair and threw it at the wall and put a huge hole through Mike White's new wall…'


[Interviewer: He does seem often that intense, on-screen anyway…] 'Mike was like,”He should definitely get the role, but he should definitely pay me for my wall, too.” (Laughs) It's hard to play a character where you have to believe their sadness, and also believe that, suddenly, they have a manicness, too. It's a lot of range.'


Includes pictures from IHJ.