Hey there, handsome

Everyone's excited over the photos of Jake included with the October issue of Interview magazine. I actually prefer this one, reported to have been taken yesterday in Hollywood, because it's natural. Hell, it's beautiful. More at JJ. Lady, why the scowl? Jake's smiling. You'd better believe if it were part of my job to be walking around talking to and dining with Jake Gyllenhaal, I'd be grinning from ear to ear the entire time. She ought to trade jobs with me. I wonder how she'd do dealing with arcane public policies, employees that refuse to complete paperwork correctly, and callers who can't enunciate, all on a government-peon salary. Maybe then she'd appreciate a little stroll and chitchat with the lovely one.

I certainly don't dislike the Interview photos. But they look about as authentic as this one from W. We know Jake really is an active, sporty guy. Somehow these images manage to make him look like a fraud. I can't decide if the silliness of them was completely intentional, on the part of Jake or photographer Mark Seliger. Maybe I'm just cynical today.

I'll say this: Seliger missed the boat on this one. Jake should have been wearing a tank shirt and working those oars. I've always thought he had the shoulders and arms of a rower.

So, we have no evidence of Jake or anyone else from Rendition having been in New Jersey for the Filmmakers Symposium's opening week. Damn good thing I didn't sell one of my kidneys for travel money. Oh, well. The symposium continues to run through December 4. It might still happen, and if it does, someone, somewhere is sure to report having been there. If there's one universal truth, it is that people who see Jake in person all want to tell the world about it. I can't imagine why.

Nobody is more down-to-earth and genuinely cool than Jake Gyllenhaal. I just like him a lot personally. I feel that he has not been affected much by stardom. -- Jim Nelson, GQ's Editor in Chief

And he wasn't even the one interviewing Jake. Our boy leaves quite the impression.

Photos: Simple Answers to Complex Questions, IHJ, and Just Jared.

Sox watch

Jake's sports tour of the east coast continued yesterday when he attended a Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees baseball game at Fenway Park. I'm hoping more pics will turn up soon, but I don't want to be greedy; I mean, here he is, wearing a hoodie and showing off one elegant hand, right?

If you click forward from Jake's photo to the next two on the Boston.com site, you'll see that Adrian Grenier is reported to have been "filming his documentary project on celebrity and paparazzi while the game was going on." No word yet on whether he included Jake in this footage or spoke with him about it, but I'll keep an eye out.

His continued presence here on my side of the country fits my theory that Jake would hang around until the Filmmakers Symposium screening of Rendition in New Jersey. The first session kicks off this Monday, September 17; I'd say chances are pretty good that Rendition will screen this Monday or Tuesday.
Being the intrepid Gyllenhaalic that I am, I tried to confirm my suspicions with a call to the symposium's hotline number a couple of days ago. Don't worry, I didn't reveal that I was only interested in knowing when Jake Gyllenhaal would be there*--I just asked if there were any schedule established so film buffs on a budget could make an informed choice to purchase either the Monday or Tuesday series pass. Unfortunately, as the nice lady who returned my call explained, the organizers are not really solid on a booking even up to the day it might screen, so any given film could at the last moment be moved up or bumped back between the Monday and the Tuesday venues. She also revealed that out of an average 20 potential participating films and filmmakers, they usually end up featuring about five or six.

I'm not as discouraged by that as I might be if Jake were photographed in Los Angeles yesterday. No, I won't be in New Jersey, but surely someone will, and maybe they'll get a nice juicy Gyllenbabble answer out of Jake for us. I think repeated exposure to Jake's...unique style of expression...may be the reason I'm able to understand him now; as I re-read the interview transcript I posted yesterday, I'm shaking my head and laughing to myself. Hey, I know what he meant. I think. The more I learn about him, the more I feel he's got the same empathic tendency to see a topic from all sides that causes me such ambivalence. I know what it's like, Jake.


*Actually, I would love to attend one of these even if Jake wasn't involved. Don't tell anyone.

Boston.com photo by Steve Silva; U.S. Open photos: IHJ.

Jake and Reese in New Jersey?

We have promotion!

This morning the Courier-News Online is reporting that Rendition will be screened as part of the Filmmakers Symposium this year, somewhere between September 17 and December 4. Since these are described as previews, let's assume it will happen before October 19.

Why is this exciting? Because the Filmmakers Symposium presents not just the films, but some of the key talent behind each picture, in a question and answer session following the screening. And look for yourself if you don't believe me, but Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, and Gavin Hood are expected to attend. The symposium's director Chuck Rose cautions: "Assessing film and guest availability is often like playing the ponies. Distributors juggle their release dates to gain competitive advantages. Sure shots can be scratched at the last minute, and wonderful surprises and fantastic celebrities can pop up out of nowhere, so I try to keep the schedule as fluid as possible."

I wonder if the audience will be vetted to prevent stupid questions from coming to the mic? You know the kind I'm talking about, what with both of them in the same room. Then again, maybe it will be a nice, awkward opportunity for some scathing Gyllenhaal humor.

If only New Jersey weren't so far away from my house. I was already planning a trip around the Rendition opening weekend. I'd adjust those plans if someone at the FS could promise me a date for the screening, but I can't afford to book it (no refunds) and then find out later that Rendition has been bumped to another night. Damn, it sucks to be poor.

As recommended by BirdGirl on the JW Forums, I've been DVRing IFC's reruns of "Indie Sex" this week, and it's a wonderful little series, including commentary from Peter Sarsgaard among others. One episode dealt with the effect on the popularity and earnings of movies released under the dreaded NC-17 rating in the US. Today Guardian Unlimited revealed that another Toronto International Film Festival presentation, Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, has just won this "death knell" rating from the MPAA.

This isn't the horrible news we might first perceive it to be. Focus Features has announced that they plan to buck the trend of recutting for a more acceptable R, and release the film as Lee intended it to be seen. I love you, Focus Features. Lee's reputation for creating beautiful, delicate but powerful masterpieces may be just what the industry needs to turn around the negative connotation of NC-17.

If nothing else, it's inspired me to fantasize about what the NC-17 version of Brokeback Mountain might have been like. Not that my imagination hasn't been there many times before....

Photos: IHJ.