Far From "Home" In More Ways Than One: Jake Gyllenhaal's Met Gala Truancy

As Narnia has previously demonstrated on many occasions, right after Jake Gyllenhaal signed with WME in late 2011,  a seven-year relentless marketing campaign was unleashed. The goal a simple one. Make sure that the lifelong California Boy was publicly perceived as a NY transplant in all ways.  Ignore that he still was seen in California for years after his high profile relocation. Or that he still was photographed leaving his favorite medical building in Los Angeles in November 2012. Or that he was photographed with his well known pooch, Atticus, in West Hollywood in August 2013, while his lovable canine companion was never seen in NY. And don't point out that his public Hollywood Hills house didn't even go up for sale until September 2014. Or, that Jake then proceeded to film three movies in the Los Angeles/Malibu area within a short five years of one another:  Nightcrawler (2013); Nocturnal Animals (2015); and Velvet Buzzsaw (2018)

Remember all those farcical Jake on subway pics? Funny how we don't see them any more, isn't it? (Although I'm sure we can look forward to something soon now that this oversight has been pointed out.)

And all those Jake Gyllenhaal headlines about how he was "eyeing" NY apartments again? Along with the publication of actual addresses, (privacy be damn!) just in case the public might not be convinced that Jakers now lived in the City That Never Sleeps, instead of The Golden State he had once called home for 31 years.
  
New York Post, October 10, 2013


CITY HAAL
Jake Gyllenhaal is the latest celebrity who’s house-hunting this fall. He recently looked at a 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, 4½-bathroom loft duplex at 137 Franklin St. The TriBeCa co-op, asking $6.2 million, comes with a fireplace, private elevator and radiant heat white oak floors. Sadly for Jake, an out-of-town family has swooped in to buy the place. Town’s Andrew Azoulay represented the seller while Town’s Claudia and Mark Fromm represented the buyer.

Jake Gyllenhaal eyes $3.75M townhouse

                                              37 Harrison Street in TriBeca, May 2014

NEW YORK CITY

Jake Gyllenhaal Reportedly Buys a Pad in 443 Greenwich for $8.63M

443 Greenwich, a super luxury condominium in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, June 2017

Although Jake has actually spent more time in NY over the last few years, the point still stands that Endeavor continues to obsess over convincing everyone that he is a true New Yorker. The repetitious nature of the message, the only real constant of Jake's post-CAA existence.

In the beginning, the unexpected cross country "move" was explained away as Jake simply wanting to be closer to his "family," although the question of why Hollywood movie star Jake Gyllenhaal would abruptly need to be near his sister and mommie, never really rang true. Especially, since Maggie's Big Apple affiliation, (she was actually born in New York City and had pretty much relocated there back in 1995, while attending Columbia University) never seemed to inspire Jake to follow suit. That is until his Endeavor hetero reinvention began in 2012.  

In reality, the lingering rumors regarding Jake Gyllenhaal and Austin Nichols being together since 2002, and raising their own private family in surrogate-friendly California, seems to have been a more compelling reason for Jake's very public relocation to NY. More reason, in fact, than any manufactured, out-of-the-blue sibling-maternal ties. Remember that the separation of OTPs is always a go-to tactic of management teams concerned with their closeted clients' image. All Endeavor had left to do was saddle Austin Nichols, who interestingly enough stayed in Los Angeles, with serial beards (remember that the marginalized half of the couple can never be single), and the reinvention process was complete. Move along. Nothing to see here, people. 

Which brings us to the main point of this post, the notable absence of Jake from the Met Gala fundraiser today.  The no show status was particularly egregious since Jake had been associated for years with this Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibit. His involvement dating back as early as 2003 when he first appeared with his then "girlfriend," Kirsten Dunst.

And then again in 2005, this time officially flying solo.

          Jake Gyllenhaal Arrives at the Costume Institute Chanel Exhibit 

    Opening Night Gala Benefit - Met Gala May 2, 2005

Here he is with his best bud at the time in 2013.

Jake's "date" Marcus Mumford, Met Gala May 2013

Immediately followed by the inseparable siblings in 2014.

                                                         Jake's "date" with his Big Sis Maggie, Met Gala, May 2014

Then a ménage à trois bromatic affair in 2017.

                            Jake's "double date" with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, Met Gala, May 2017


Yet, instead, of the obvious quintessential New York pairing of Jake Gyllenhaal with the 'Notes on Camp' theme set for this year, we get this unexpected announcement, that Jake will be in Burbank on May 6 (since Ellen's Tuesday shows are videotaped on Mondays). A ready made excuse provided for Jake to be AWOL from the high profile fashion event.

Given the Camp theme and Endeavor's love of placing Jake with every man he works with (Anyone but Austin!), it truly is odd that PR would miss a  grand opportunity for an coming out, ahem, I mean appearance, don't you think? Based on that truly laughable "lobster" tweet (wink wink) from one of those pop culture openly gay reporters with the NY Times, maybe Jake could have dressed as a flamboyant pink crustacean with brocade black satin and gold lace footwear, sporting Rococo Baroque heels. Now that would have been a look to remember!

 
Moreover, given that Jake is supposedly "dating" a French 23-year old model, the Met Gala seemed like a no-brainer for someone comfortably cemented into a closeted image, but still trying to remain relevant, while also associating himself with NY and it's international fashion industry.

With all this in mind, how very odd of Jake to begin promo season for Spider-man: Far From Home, nearly 2-months before the film even opens "at a theater near you," and just a few short days before The Met Gala. After all, he could have credibly walked that pink carpet with an actual girlfriend model. The free media coverage would have been extensive as well since the E! network was LIVE broadcasting four consecutive hours from the Pink Carpet this year. Great exposure for someone working hard to worm associate himself with his "home" in NY, and it's world renown fashion industry. 

The timing of the trailer for Spider-man: Far From Home that dropped today doesn't pass the smell test either compared to similarly situated productions. Research shows that the average time between first trailer and theatrical release is 126 days (i.e. around four months). Genre appears to influence release time as well, but action adventure films have even more lead time. In fact, the gap is closer to 145 days between trailer and theatrical release. Hmm, with two months out, it almost seems like Sony Pictures held back so Jake would have something to promote just around the time of the "see and be seen" Met Gala pageantry. Think of the valuable free publicity Jake and Spider-man would have garnered if he had participated adorned in flashy heroic attire.

 Source: Stephen Follows Film Data and Education July, 2017


Furthermore, delving a bit deeper...hey...wait one darn pregnant-paused minute. *slaps forehead*  But, of course. That's the very reason why Jake wanted to be as far away from NY as possible on May 6. Even though he was there as recently as April 29 being photographed at the Lincoln Center celebrating 50 years of the Film Society. 

Apparently, all Jake needed to skedaddle out of town was a semi-legitimate "reason" that would be related to him "working".  And, true to form, Endeavor was more than willing to provide that excuse. Who cares that promo campaigns for movies are typically scheduled no more than three-four weeks before release to build momentum for the premiere. Paul Rudd, for example, was on Jimmy Fallon on April 25, 2019, just a day before Avengers: Endgame opened. He also talked about how the last three weeks had been a whirlwind of promotion. Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles, London, New York, Shanghai.

Jake also could have easily promoted Spider-man within the New York-based media market like on Jimmy Fallon or Seth Meyers, instead of scheduling Los Angeles area talk shows like Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Kimmel (which he will also be on this Thursday with other cast members). No doubt that is why Jake and Junior appeared from out of nowhere at this Mexican Conque this past weekend, pretty much unannounced. Why? Well because Mexico City is far closer to LA than NY after all. *shakes head*

Oh, and look. Just Jared, Jr. publicity. That's pretty impressive guys. Looks like you've really hit the big time now.

All things considered, it's pretty obvious that Jake literally escaped to the west coast at the very last minute when all the stars were in perfect alignment for him to be at the Met Gala. Zendaya, who lives in California, made time to attend. Choosing not to start her Spider-man promo until the Jimmy Kimmel show on Thursday. Let's review why this was a perfect NY venue for Jake to attend as well.

1) He's been seen in NY most of this year and has been embedded into the Fashion, Fragrance, and Fine Jewelry industries since 2017

2) His fake girlfriend is an Endeavor IMG model

3) In October 2017, Jake became the face of the Calvin Klein fragrance launch for "Eternity"

4) Since 2017, Jake's been "seen" at NY Fashion shows and with fashion designers like Raf Simons and Calvin Klein

5) From September 2017+ Jake has been "photographed" at NYFW

  

6) The Cartier launch in April 2018

                                               Jake Gyllenhaal is the bold new face of Santos de Cartier.

Coupled with everyone being aware that the Met Gala is always on the first Monday in May, Jake and his beard could have easily scheduled around this iconic event as early as last Fall. The added absurdity of he and Tom Holland already beginning to promote Spider-man in Mexico this past weekend when the movie is not even opening until July 2 is just another pre-textual indication that Jake, in no way, wanted to walk that red carpet with "Caribou" Cadieu. The whole thing is rather embarrassing actually. But, this is our Jake in 2019. All fake NY chutzpah, but, not a whole lot of red carpet follow-through.

Late Breaking News:  9:00 p.m. EST   

Met Gala Pink Carpet arrival and the youngest Co-Chair to date, Harry Styles, stunned tonight with elegance and daring, humor and fierceness. And what is Harry's definition of camp? Basically, just having fun with fashion, with no judgment...especially given the way people are today.

We here at Narnia couldn't have said it better, Harry. Thank you for being brave. And for being proud. For just being you. And for caring about others no matter what.

pic sources:  WWD; giphy; Met Gala, Variety, Google Images, Getty Images, NY Times, People Magazine, Just Jared, Jr., Daily Mail