Photo Miscellany

Update: Looks like Jake wanted some new pics for the post. Arriving at LAX:




A couple of new photos of Jake Gyllenhaal from the opening of the Edible Schoolyard in Brooklyn:




And a semi-new photo of Jake from CMJ night last week:



And to spice up this post, a few from the archives...

No idea what this is from - Jake with Harold "Who You Gonna Call?" Ramis:



Some shots from Coachella:









That's all from Memory Lane!

L&OD Screening(s) NYC

Updated the post to include some photos of Jake from the CMJ screening of L&OD on Thursday, 10/2. It looks like wax figure Jake at first, but he was real!

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There was a screening of Love & OTher Drugs in New York last night, and film blogger Jeffrey Wells has supplied us with some Q&A photos and video of Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. Wells also loved the film, particularly Jake's performance.



[it] is first and foremost a hit. It's charming and affecting and likable in a "good Eloi" sort of way, or in the way that cultivated mainstream audiences tend to go for. It's sharp and polished and beautifully shot and acted and cut, and it just grooves right along with sass and wit and ultra-frank sexuality and generous nudity and undercurrents that are Jerry Maguire-ish at times.



It's a very tight and assured romantic dramedy (or "emotional comedy," as post-screening moderator Elvis Mitchell put it tonight) that delivers an intensely sexual, emotional hair-trigger relationship story about two avoider-dodgers (played with wonderful verve and assurance by Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, both delivering the most appealing performances of their careers). It wades into emotional truths and touches bottom and knows exactly what it's doing and how to massage every note and bridge and stanza.

I'd been told that Hathaway's performance is the killer, and it is, I suppose, because you can read every emotional tick and tremor on her face, and because your heart goes out to any character coping with a debilitating disease (stage-one Parkinson's) and who wants to keep herself aloof and in control. But Gyllenhaal gives his most winning performance ever -- not the deepest or darkest or saddest, perhaps, but 100% likable with no audience-alienation issues except for emotional avoidance. They're quite a pair, these two. All you want is to see them keep it together and somehow make it work.



Love and Other Drugs isn't a deep-well soul film, but it plays its own game in a sharp and likable way, and sometimes quite movingly. It's tight and fast and precisely honed and well acted up and down, and for these and other attributes it could easily qualify as one of the ten Best Picture contenders.



The core of the romance is Jake's overcoming his shallow relationship history, and Anne overcoming her emotionally aloof thing. And both Hathaway and Gyllenhaal make their characters come vividly alive. It's a pleasure to get to know them and share the time. I'm looking forward to catching this at least a couple more times.

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New still from L&OD. Looking good:



(Thanks to Jeffrey Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere.)

Elle Homme

When the MSN folks tweeted that "Jake Gyllenhaal sprinted down the red carpet ... giggling," I didn't think we'd get many pictures from ELLE's 17th Annual Women In Hollywood Tribute. Boy, was I wrong! Here's Jake in action:







In close-up:




And from the side. These are ripe for captioning. First up, Jake and Gwyneth, the original Jake-sex-scene crier.

"I wonder if my smile looks as fake as it feels?"


Then Hilary Swank:

"I think I'm going to throw up on Jake Gyllenhaal."

"If I look just to her right, I can see conversational freedom..."


"Unhand me, woman!"

Then Quentin Tarantino:


"The lights have gone out, my eyes are closed, yet he keeps talking. And talking. And talking..."

Would you like to see Jake in a Tarantino flick? Sadly, though Kathryn Bigelow was there, no photo of her and Jake discussing that new venture.

ETA: Aparently, Jake presented Gwyneth with an award.



"Bottom line, she is not a mere mortal like the rest of us," the actor, 29, said in his introduction. "She is an Internet-savvy, award-winning, lifestyle guru, making all of us look lazy. She doesn’t just find a nice guy to settle down with -- she marries a rock star and then domesticates him. She doesn’t just cook -- she goes to Spain with Mario Batali and then domesticates him! She is not just a lifestyle guru, but she invents a whole new fitness movement and then convinces me to try it, and I do it, and I am, therefore, domesticated ... sweating my ass off in spandex, which is humbling and embarrassing."



When Paltrow, 38, took the stage, she said she didn't have a speech because, "I kind of wanted to speak from my heart." And she was more candid than ever.

"Jake is gorgeous and hilarious and when we worked together in Proof, I was pregnant and I was a f****** nightmare hormonal mess, but we managed to stay friends through it anyways," she said.

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A couple of tweets of Jake (and Maggie) at tonight's Mumford and Sons show at the Hollywood Palladium.

Edible Do-Gooding Foodie

A first-hand account of the dedication of the Edible Schoolyard at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn:

The Edible Schoolyard, an experimental educational program to bring children closer to their food sources, has officially launched its first New York City location at P.S. 216 at 350 Avenue X, with a dedication this morning that brought educators, activists, politicians and celebrities to Gravesend.

Construction began on the $1.6 million project in September, and this morning children played and planted, kicking the smell of dirt and wood-chips into the air. Media and parents flocked around them snapping photos and taking video, following a half-hour of speeches from some of the project’s backers.




Sitting in the front row was friend to the project Jake Gyllenhaal, the Oscar-nominated actor who has been helping raise funds for the citywide initiative.



The Wall Street Journal profiled John Lyons who co-hosted the fundraising dinner with Jake earlier this week. Lyons, pictured above with Jake and the kids, is the president of production at Focus Features.

(Thanks to Sheepshead Bites for the photos and text and to People for the title.)

October Oscars

Sure, it's a little early. Okay, a lot early. But two Oscar prognosticators have placed Love & Other Drugs on their lists for a potential Best Picture nomination. Entertainment Weekly's Dave Karger writes:



10. Love and Other Drugs The Jake Gyllenhaal/Anne Hathaway comedic drama reminds me a lot of Up in the Air and Jerry Maguire (both past Best Picture nominees). And it’s perhaps the sexiest movie I’ve seen in years. It won’t be for everyone, but if most critics go for its blend of titillation and tragedy, then it’s a contender for one of the five “B-list slots.”



IndieWire's Anne Thompson also lists L&OD in her Top 10.



The blogosphere is full of dissenting opinions and some agreement. As we learned with Brothers, it's probably not wise to get one's hopes up for awards. I'm just hoping for a big hit for Jake. And a fun, sexy movie.

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Some photos of Jake from the Le Grand Fooding event in late September. A videographer caught heavily bearded Jake and a heavily bald friend in action.




Thanks to the folks at Grub Street for unearthing this gem!