Love and Other Drugs gets a cast injection, Brokeback Mountain remains AfterElton's Best Gay Movie

With Jake Gyllenhaal getting ready to go back to work on Monday, with all that that entails (washing and - optional - ironing clothes, getting one's body clock back into the rhythm of the daily grind, perhaps buying some new stationery), it must be a comfort for him to know he will not be alone. After reports that Gabriel Macht from Whiteout would be joining the cast of Love and Other Drugs, today we have had confirmation that Oliver Platt and Hank Azaria have signed up for duty as well. We also get confirmation that Jake will be called Jamie and needless confirmation that he will be 'charming'. And with Jake playing the role, you can expand that to mean 'Very, Very, Very Charming'.


According to The Hollywood Reporter: 'Macht plays a hotshot Prozac salesman who's invovled romantically with Maggie (Hathaway), a free-spirited woman with Parkinson's disease who enters into a relationship with charming Viagra salesman Jamie (Gyllenhaal). Azaria plays an unscrupulous doctor and client of Jamie's, and Platt plays his boss, a beleaguered pharmaceutical rep desperate to boost Jamie's sales.'


Oliver Platt will forever be known to me as the crocodile whisperering Hector of Lake Placid and Babish of The West Wing, but he also had roles in Kinsey and Casanova. Hank Azaria (Kahmunrah of Night at the Museum) is known for doing every other voice in The Simpsons. Hank and Oliver recently acted together in Year One, which I'm sure they were funny in even though I've never heard of it. I'm delighted in particular to hear that Oliver Platt will be acting in this film alongside Jake and Anne.


The consensus around the net is good, with Empire, for example, saying that this is a film with 'a heck of a cast'. We should definitely expect much more from this project than a typical romcom, with wit, satire, fine acting, an unconventional plot, sizzling chemistry and a charming Jake Gyllenhaal to boot, all competing for our attention.



Last night, it looked like other aspects of Jake Gyllenhaal could have been dominating our attention in May 2010 - a 3D bare-chested, multi-belted, leather trousered, booted and strapped, wet and leaping Prince Dastan! However, this morning, Disney dashed our 3-dimensional hopes. This was probably in the interests of health and safety. One cannot easily envisage the effect of a 3D Jake on audiences, especially IMAX audiences (a 2D Jake is more than enough to cope with). A 3D pecking ostrich and a 3D spitting camel would have been awkward.


Brokeback continues to change lives

AfterElton today announced its new 50 Best Gay Movies and yet again Brokeback Mountain tops the list and yet again it is by a landslide. What particularly struck me about AfterElton's piece on the film is its assertion that Brokeback is as real a place as any and I don't just mean a cinematic location.


'Brokeback Mountain a pretend place? On the contrary, it was the controversy that surrounded the movie’s release that turned out to be the illusion: that ridiculous six-month orgy of conservative outrage and mean-spirited jokes from late-night comedians – not to mention an Oscar snub that was clearly motivated by Hollywood’s fears that the town might be perceived as being too “liberal” as well as plain old-fashioned homophobia.'


'Four years after the movie’s release, we now know that Brokeback Mountain, both the mountain and the movie, was something very real. Did it change Hollywood? Did it change America? I don’t know, and I don’t really care. But I know for a fact it changed me, profoundly and dramatically. And for most of you who voted in our movie poll, I suspect it changed you too.' He suspects right.

And finally...

The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus has been on display in Toronto and the reviews are coming in. Here is Cinematical's review of an eye dazzling spectacle.


Includes pictures from IHJ.

The Jeans - A Tribute. Whiteout Gabriel in Love and Other Drugs

Our discussion yesterday of Jake Gyllenhaal's oversized/perfectly sized jeans has led me to embark on another scientific project - an analysis of one of those Gyllenhaal Trademarks. Along with the coffee cup, the key on the green string, the dog ball throwing Orange Thing, the Nike and The Hat, The Jeans have passed into GyllenLore, just as they have also possibly passed into the laundry basket in the sky.




Since their debut on the world's stage at the film festivals of Venice and Toronto 2005, we have been fortunate to watch The Jeans grow, as they supported Jake's every stride through his career.





We have seen those little designer peaks through the denim blossom into rips and holes and watched as patches were patched, cloth thinned and still they were worn and cherished.








The Jeans seem to go with everything, the t-shirt or the expensive jacket. Nike, boots or cloth shoes. A nice snack.


They might not be the most attractive of the Jake Jeans but they are arguably the most loved, if not by all of us, then at least and most importantly by Jake.





Love and Other Drugs has another cast member. In an interview for his current movie Whiteout, Gabriel Macht told his co-star Kate Beckinsale that he is shortly to begin work on the film with Jake and Anne Hathaway.


Pictures from IHJ.