Jake Gyllenhaal has a new manager, the Golden Globes, Brokeback Vote, and not a rotten tomato

It's the New Year and you know what that means. Time to turf out the old and ring in the year. For me that means new slippers but for Jake Gyllenhaal it's all about new management. Deadline reports that Jake has now signed up to work with Patrick Whitesell of WME. I'm sure we all wish them both every success for 2012 - may the year be full of seductive scripts and irresistible directors.

The last post was typically published about ten minutes before the announcement of Jake as a presenter at Sunday's Golden Globes. This is great news, not least because we will see Jake in a tux and maybe even without excessive hair weight, but also because we can see Jake in the public eye, presenting himself to us all. Other presenters include Jake's friends Natalie Portman, Robert Downey Jr and Adam Levine. Sounds like a good night!

Talking of awards, the DGA has nominated Jake's father Stephen in the TV movies and miniseries category for Girl Fight. The winners of those awards will be announced on 28 January.

Brokeback Mountain is still in third place in the Focus Features best film poll so VOTE VOTE VOTE!!! And then vote again.

Source Code might have been left out of the gongs so far, for reasons unfathomable, but audiences and critics loved it. One could argue that their opinion matters more than any academy. Rotten Tomatoes has listed its Golden Tomatoes Awards for 2011 and at No 8 is Source Code with 91% of love.

Meanwhile, while Jake prepares for the Globes, ironing off the suit and polishing the shoes and tweaking the nasal hair, twitter sightings continue, with a spotting last night of Jake having dinner with Austin Nichols - sushi? - in LA. Here's hoping we may see them cycling together soon.

As this post has an awards theme in places, it's very apt that IHJ has published old/new photos of Jake and Selma Blair at the 2002 Movieline Young Hollywood Awards. Ten years ago - how time flies.

Thanks to IHJ for the pics. Thanks to BBMISwear for the twitter link!

My review of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is now up at MovieBrit.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie in Hawaii for dad's wedding, Peter Sarsgaard in Madrid, Source Code out in the US tomorrow

This last weekend Jake Gyllenhaal had a break from his police training and filming schedules to pop over to that most beautiful of places Hawaii. The occasion was the marriage of his father Stephen to film maker Kathleen Mann. Maggie was there too, looking stunning in a summer dress that conjures up all sorts of images of flowers, sunshine and holidays. Jake, however, was put in brown. There's a full account here with pictures. Here are a few. There are many others here, do take a look.

I would like to implore all friends and relatives who are getting married to do so in Hawaii and fly me over. I'll take the Maldives at a push.

Peter Sarsgaard was unable to be there because his publicity tour for The Green Lantern continues - and seems to have gone on forever. At the end of last week he was in Madrid.

Blockbuster's early release of Source Code in the UK

As previously mentioned, Source Code is in the shops in the US tomorrow but, while we have to wait over here, Blockbuster will be getting it into its shops early on 29 July. There are details about that and a competition to win a copy - over at Blockbuster and at ManMadeMovies.

And finally...

I'm off for a few days holiday with bucket and spade and a daft hat. I am not, unfortunately, Hawaii bound. The southern coast is the goal. Because I'm going to be camping (shudders), I may have internet, not to mention electricity, issues at times, but I will do my best! Please all do a sun dance for me...

Pictures from links.

[Updated] Jake and Stephen Gyllenhaal in NYC - and 'if anyone tries to get into the kitchen with me, I'll kick their butt'

Update: It's been a while, but today we have new pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal - here he is out and about today (25 October) in NYC with father Stephen and a very big bag. Good to see you, Jake! Source.





On with the post...

With all quiet on the Gyllenfront, I thought I'd break into the attic, creak open the cobwebbed WDW archive chest and dust off a parchment from those distant days of 2002. Settle back with a big, fluffy cushion, a mug of cocoa perched on the armchair, and listen to Jake.

The scene is set: '"strangely lovable." That's Jake. Whether impersonating a coal miner's son who dreams of building a rocket in "October Sky" or a demon-ridden teenager in the glorious midnight cult flick "Donnie Darko," Gyllenhaal is unwaveringly lovable in a rummy, I-was-a-teenage-alien fashion.'


'Maybe it's the ungainly tension between the searching billiard-ball eyes, the sprawling piecrust lips and the sinewy track-runner frame. Whatever he's got, he has dodged the generic teen-comedy trap and created a uniquely off-center niche among his peers. And thanks to his character's moonstruck obsessions over Jennifer Aniston and Catherine Keener in "The Good Girl" and "Lovely and Amazing," respectively, he has also become a kind of media poster boy for younger man-older women romances. "Older women have been a lot nicer to me," he admits, sipping cranberry juice through a straw at New York's Bowery Bar. "You know, I like being a spokesperson for that type of relationship. It's not so racy. I don't know if anyone's read Oedipus."'


'"You ask me do I consider myself angst-ridden?" he says, betraying a residue of defensiveness that lingers after two weeks of cockamamie interview questions. "I'm drinking out of a straw. I don't know how angst-y that is. No, I mean I hope it's not ridiculous to say that I consider myself an actor. What I don't feel like people totally understand is that for me as a young actor, the parts that have emotional depth at the age of 20 or 21 are the ones who are 'screwed up,' the ones who have a breakdown the way adults would, the oddballs.'


'"I think Jason Biggs is a genius in that type of film. If I were to go into those, I would not do as good a job. I hope the movies I do will be true to those [particular] times in my life. It's the only way I can believe them. When I had done this recent chunk of movies, I was kind of grappling with these same sort of existential questions. Actually connecting to my mother and father and sister, rather than fighting like an adolescent. Not being happy or creative at college. I found myself in a depression for a little while, and these movies were a therapy in a way."'


'He considers himself more Jewish than otherwise. (His given name was the biblical Jacob and his middle name, Benjamin, belonged to his great-great grandfather.) He wasn't bar mitzvahed, in the traditional sense. "We had this weird cultural mix, a sort of christening bar mitzvah. Hooting and howling with my father, praying with my mother." (Swedish meatballs instead of cocktail franks?) "We had our share of goy white-trash food."'


'Cuisine is actually a big deal for Gyllenhaal, who reads Cook's and Savor magazines cover to cover and spent the better part of the summer working magic with vegetables from his parents' garden. "I'm trying to work my way to great cook status. The first rule in my family is that if you are going to spend money on anything, spend it on food. My dad and mom were heavily influenced by their travels in France when they were younger. Ever since I was born it's been: You get the freshest food wherever you can and you make something out of it.'


'"I went on a road trip with my friends from Boston to Toronto recently and we made this concerted effort to stop at little places with good food. You find interesting people when you find good food, people with an interest in the specific, and the sensual. And when we didn't, we would always be depressed. I just love the meditative, spiritual quality of cooking. But if anyone tries to get into the kitchen with me, I'll kick their butt."'


'Gyllenhaal concedes it's easier on his competitive relationship with his sister now that she is becoming a star. "I feel like we're becoming a kind of a force now. We were taking over the Toronto Film Festival. That was our fascist intention." It certainly didn't start that way. Gyllenhaal recalls when his parents put him and his sister in one of their movies as kids, and Jake's scenes were cut. That, we opine, should have been enough to keep him in therapy for at least 15 years. "It has."'


I have a sudden hankering for cranberry juice. Piecrust lips?


Excerpts from Newsday (September 2002), pdf available on request as always. Photographs thanks to IHJ.

Congratulations Peter and Maggie!

Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal wed yesterday 'at a small chapel on the grounds of the luxury hotel Masseria in Brindisi near Rome, Italy. There were about 40 guests including Maggie's brother Jake and Reese Witherspoon.' And in the glimpses we can see Jake (plus hat) and his parents, Stephen and Naomi. Many, many congratulations to Peter and Maggie! Huge thanks to IHJ for the happy news.








The day also included a bike ride through the old streets with Jake, Maggie and Peter.



In the picture below, you can just see Ramona in the child seat with her pink helmet.



I always cry at weddings... I may have to dig out Mike Newell's Enchanted April to watch today.

Take a trip to the moon and Anne's defining moment

It's time for the Martha's Vineyard Dreams auction again - last year, you might remember, there was the chance to bid to build sandcastles with sandcastle-building champion himself Stephen Gyllenhaal. This year, the Dreams auction gives the lucky bidder the chance to spend quality time with someone who's not a million miles removed from Stephen Gyllenhaal in lineage - Jake Gyllenhaal.


'TAKE A TRIP TO THE MOON WITH DOUG LIMAN AND JAKE GYLLENHAAL…Count on gravity to keep you earthbound for an out-of-this-world VISIT TO THE SET of Bourne Director DOUG LIMAN'S upcoming untitled movie about the colonization of the moon starring the Island's own JAKE GYLLENHAAL. The Lucky Dreamer and a guest will meet Doug and Jake for a photo op, and will also receive an autographed screenplay and two tickets to the premiere.'


Other Dreams include one Jake might well bid on himself - watching a Red Sox game from the owner's box. Another is spending the morning with Diane Sawyer but Jake's already done that. Golf, fishing, prehistoric paintings in France, cooking treats and theatre outings all feature, but it's difficult to get past that one listed at the head of the page with one of MV's most well-known and certainly one of its sexiest islanders, and I'm not talking about Bill Clinton.


But what is also interesting about this is that it yet again brings The Unnamed Moon Project - otherwise known and beloved as UMP - to the foreground when it has been very much pushed to the background by director Doug Liman himself. From recent accounts, the script is being rewritten and is far off, to say the least. So, this auction lot either means that the MV organisers have been given information that makes this a reliable lot to bid on, or there's a bit of wishful thinking going on and who knows what the winner will get - maybe even his money back. But the winner last year did get to build sandcastles...


But, on the plus side, it's always good to get little nuggets of information about future projects because, after all, this is often all we get and then the next thing you know there's Jake riding around an English stables with a big grin on his face and a scimitar in his hand. Talking of which...



Cover girl Anne remembers Brokeback

The lovely Anne Hathaway is on the cover of Marie Claire for August and in the issue she discusses Brokeback Mountain, clearly a major turning point in her flourishing career. 'After auditioning, Hathaway landed the role of Jake Gyllenhaal’s wife. The first time she saw the film, at the 2005 Venice Film Festival alongside Lee and co-stars Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger (when asked about the tragic death of her co-star and good friend, she describes it as ‘devastating’ and ‘a shock to us all’), she almost didn’t make it through. ‘I’m not in the movie until, like, 45 minutes into it,’ she explains, ‘and I start to get sick to my stomach, thinking that I’m gonna be the one to fuck it up. So, right before I come on, I run outside because I can’t handle it.’'


'Eventually, Hathaway came back in and watched without incident – until the last scene, when she burst into tears. ‘Didn’t stop for an hour. And Kirsten Dunst, who was going out with Jake at the time, was like two rows behind me, as was Maggie [Gyllenhaal], and we were all crying,’ she recalls, laughing.'


Last month, when Anne arrived in Australia for the premiere of her film Get Smart, she had this to say: 'But there was one other role she considers a personal breakthrough - playing Jake Gyllenhaal's wife in Brokeback Mountain. Hathaway said she had sobbed for an hour after seeing the film. "That was the film that I decided I wanted to be an actor," she said. "I didn't know if I had the chops for it. It was the first time I really came up against my own limitations and surpassed them. I remember thinking if this possible once, it's possible again and it's worth spending the rest of my life trying to get back to this place. Before then, I was having a lot of fun acting but it didn't feel inevitable."'


Pictures from IHJ and Marie Claire.

Serendipity - WDW's birthday adventure with Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth and Jonathan Ross - and Maggie in London

Sometimes you just have to wonder and last night was one of those occasions. Wet Dark and Wild had its first birthday yesterday and I have always been very aware of, and not to mention grateful for, the luck and good fortune that has followed me about during that year - now and again it's hard even to believe. The name of this site was inspired by Robert Downey Jr, an actor for whom, through his portrayal of Paul Avery in Zodiac and his obvious friendship and professional support for Jake Gyllenhaal, I have a deep regard. 'Wet, dark and wild' seemed, to me, to sum up everything that drew me to Jake.




So how amazing that on the birthday of the site, I go to see the recording of the Jonathan Ross show, thanks to Ruby, and discover that we're not seeing the filming of tonight's show after all (that took place on Monday) but next Friday's instead. And there on the show, direct from the London premiere of Ironman, was Robert Downey Jr himself. And not only that, the other guest was another co-star of Jake's, Gwyneth Paltrow, who was wearing the deadliest pair of heels I have ever seen. Having said that, RDJ's footwear was pretty incredible and ubercool, an effect highlighted by bright red socks. I did kinda wonder if Robert had kept his Ironman boots as a souvenir.


The show itself was a great experience to watch, although delayed for a couple of hours due to the premiere. Robert was the first guest and endured the first degree on Marvel Comics - Jonathan Ross is a self-admitted Marvel comic geek (sorry, enthusiast) and even came along prepared with his very own Ironman mask (silver foil, cardboard box and the finger from a large pointy hand) and machine gun that fired large numbers of elastic bands to an alarming noise. We were in the second row and I did fear that my Jonathan Ross TV debut could be me getting twanged on the nose by a rubber band. The picture below is illicit so it's wonky.


Otherwise, Robert was asked about his family and whether he had ever smoked a pipe. Not unexpectedly, the answer was yes. His motivation, he said, for doing Ironman was that he wanted to do a film more than eight people would see - to demonstrate the point, Robert asked how many people in the audience had heard of his last film called Fur, which showed him depicting a character who suffered from a condition that led to long hairs growing over his entire body. Point made.


Robert was very relaxed but clearly not an expert on comic books although he did appear to be a fan of the extremely likeable and hilarious Jonathan Ross (his mime of his dog's behaviour when it had a stick stuck up its backside is not something I'm going to forget in a hurry). One thing that struck me about Robert is how, now and then, he made me think I was in the same room as Paul Avery - he got the look.


Gwyneth was beautiful and very tall (not surprising, considering the shoes). She wore a different dress to the one she wore at the premiere - a lovely black number with a slightly longer skirt. She mentioned Proof as the last big film she worked on, but only mentioned Antony Hopkins. Gwyneth seemed to indicate that she wished she were married to the lead singer of Radiohead instead of Coldplay and she said that her days of the microdiet were over - pregnancy gave her a deep appreciation of icecream that I can truly understand. She supped a pint of Guiness like a good'un (her favourite drink - she took it away with her) and had a good go at a Scottish accent but then she said that the only paper she read was the Financial Times, that she didn't watch movies, just documentaries, and my old view of Gwyneth from Proof came flooding over me and I think I may have nodded off. Great shoes though.




Just for the halibut, here is a picture of me outside the hospitality area of the BBC, next to the icon of 60s' and 70s' UK TV - the Doctor's Tardis.



Back to Jake... A poster on IMDb seems to indicate that next week filming on Nailed is moving back to the Statehouse in Columbia so more sightings will hopefully follow.

Also, there is the rumour by 'sources' (them again) that Jake is to open an organic restaurant in LA with Chris Fischer. We've heard this rumour before - in fact, I think this one pops up each summer - but, if it's true this time, may I just point out that my bar skills are legendary and I can do the washing up if I have to. I was amused by the NY Daily News: 'Jake Gyllenhaal wants to open a restaurant. One source says, "Cooking is his big hobby and his passion. It's nothing for him to whip up miso-marinated cod with braised microgreens." Note to self: don't go to Jake Gyllenhaal's restaurant.' What on earth is miso-marinated cod? Is it tasty?


The Gyllenhaals in London

Yesterday, Maggie Gyllenhaal was seen in Holland Park, London. Ruby and I went through Holland Park ourselves yesterday. The day before, Maggie was spotted in a cafe with Ramona and, judging from this picture, Maggie isn't the only Gyllenhaal in London at the moment - I do believe that is Maggie's father Stephen enjoying the spring weather with his family.


Includes pictures from IHJ, WDW, The Mail On Sunday and Popsugar.