Actors Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tim Daly and Matthew Modine will host a luncheon and briefing about America’s health care crisis at the Long Island Marriott Hotel in Uniondale this afternoon in conjunction with the presidential debate.

The luncheon event, “America’s Healthcare System on Life Support: How Should the Presidential Candidates Respond?” is sponsored by The Creative Coalition and will also be co-hosted by actress Rachael Leigh Cook and actor-director Giancarlo Esposito.

In Eisenhower Park, David Crosby and Graham Nash, two members of the famed Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young band, Bruce Hornsby and other artists will sing for Barack Obama in a concert and rally at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theater in East Meadow’s Eisenhower Park. The rally will be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Richard Patterson, 10/2008

While The Tempest plays at their 13th Street home six days a week, on recent Mondays CSC has presented another of its annual First Look readings series, this time centered on the work of 20th century theatrical pioneer Bertolt Brecht.

These First Look readings – which take place after only an afternoon’s worth of rehearsal time – serve mainly as impromptu artistic experiments, whereby the theatre company can mount classic texts in front of paying audiences in order to explore their viability as possible full productions in future Classic Stage season lineups.

This week’s reading of Brecht’s moral melodrama The Good Person of Sezuan, featuring film star Maggie Gyllenhaal, a last minute replacement for under-the-weather Elizabeth Marvel (currently starring in Fifty Words off-Broadway), gave a top-notch cast a chance to explore the underbelly of modern society through this Sezuan province-set tale of the corruption of greed by the complex struggles of modern life.

Water seller Wang begins the play by introducing himself and his poverty-stricken home of Sezuan. Three gods visit the province, met with inhospitable local residents who refuse them keep. All except one, the poor prostitute Shen Te (Gyllenhaal), who opens up her home to the weary spirits after brief hesitation. In return, the gods give her a thousand silver dollars with which to become a better person. She uses the money to buy a tobacco shop, returning the gods’ favor by giving food and shelter her friends and enemies alike.

Faced with the consequences of her goodly actions, Shen Te creates a practical, no-nonsense alter ego for herself in the form of her make-believe cousin Shui Ta. But while assuming the identity of Shui Ta can solve some of Shen Te’s problems, others are more complicated. Her love for the conniving pilot Sun Yang (Jason Butler Harner) is sacrificed for her betrothal to greedy barber Shu Fu (Ben Shenkman), and Shen Te’s profligate intake of the local poor is soon exploited by Shui Ta when the unemployed are recruited as hand-to-mouth laborers in Shen Te’s newly founded tobacco factory. The more corrupt she becomes, the better off she is in society. As she tries to improve her standing with the gods, all remnants of her personal happiness threaten to crumble at her feet.

In a distinctly modern choice, Gyllenhaal made the Jekyll-and-Hyde transition from kind, altruistic Shen Te to cutthroat Shui Ta by donning a pair of sunglasses as well as widening her gait and loosening her swagger. Nevertheless, her warm vocal inflections changed only minimally, making the acceptance of her dual personalities amongst the townspeople with whom she comes in regular contact somewhat implausible. This could be a strength or weakness, depending on how one looks at the play. Is it preferable that Shen Te’s moral deception be one largely accepted by an oblivious public or a construction of her fundamentally corrupted internal nature?

… read more »

So I promised to add the video of Maggie on The View and I have of course done that. But there’s also a little bonus as I have added 2 more Maggie interviews related to the “Fashionably Natural” fashion show. Also for those of you interested in knowing more about these natural clothes go to SoyJoy.com where you can find information about the 4 designers, if you fell in love with Maggie’s dress then you can buy it here.

Maggie on My Fox Live Oct. 2008

Fashionably Natural fashion show 2008 – Backstage

The View – Oct 2008

Sorry these are coming a little late haven’t had time to upload these before now. The video of Maggie on “The View” yesterday will be uploaded hopefully tomorrrow.

Maggie Gyllenhaal has joined Monday’s night staged reading of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Sezuan, adapted by Tony Kushner and directed by Tony Speciale, as part of Classic Stage Company’s, popular First Look Festival – a program of one-night only staged readings, performed by notable actors. This season, the CSC’s First Look Festival is focusing on the works of Brecht, perhaps one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th Century. Brecht’s plays redefined the very nature of theatrical presentation to address the most pressing concerns of his tumultuous generation. Joining Gyllenhaal in the reading are Jeremy Strong, Jayne Houdyshell, Jason Butler Harner, Ben Shenkman, Ryder Smith, Mary Shultz, Roberta Maxwell and Judith Roberts. Next week’s First Look Festival reading, on Monday, October 20 at 8 pm is Life of Galileo, featuring Tony Award winner Richard Easton, and directed by Brian Kulick.

Procter & Gamble’s Duracell brand is once again on the hunt for five ambassadors to deliver holiday gifts to patients in children’s hospitals this year, and has partnered with actress Maggie Gyllenhaal to do just that.

Duracell has launched a nationwide casting call. Parents submit photos of their children ages six to 15 that show them excitedly opening or “powering up” a present for the first time. Submissions, which will be accepted through Nov. 3, must also include a short story describing the best gift their child ever received and why it made them smile.

Two of the five ambassadors will be selected through in-person casting calls in Dallas and Philadelphia, and three others will be selected through the online casting call, the company said. Each will fly to New York City to meet Gyllenhaal in December, receive a $500 shopping spree and Duracell batteries to power their holiday toys. As Holiday Ambassadors, winners will return to their hometown with donated toys by Duracell and batteries to deliver to local children’s hospitals for the holidays.

This is the second year of the program. Last year, Duracell partnered with actress Abigail Breslin for the promotion, generating 300 ambassador entries, P&G spokesman Kurt Iverson, said.

The second phase of the campaign kicks off around December under which visitors can upload pictures of their kids smiling on the site. For each photo uploaded, Duracell will donate $1 to children’s hospitals. Last year, people uploaded 4,000 photos and Duracell reported some 90,000 unique visitors to the Web site, Iverson said.

TV spots, on pack materials and in-store displays support the promotion. Paine PR handles PR efforts for Duracell.

Maggie Gyllenhaal says being a mum won’t change her choice of roles in movies.

The actress, whose daughter Ramona is two-years-old, has not been afraid to star in films with a darker subject matter, such as Donnie Darko and SherryBaby.

“I’ve been lucky enough so far only to have to work on things that have interested me,” she says. “If Ramona sees them at some point, even if I have my clothes off, or if I’m playing a drug addict, as long as they’re about something and they’re worth making and they’re asking people who see the movie to think in a different way or open their minds or their hearts, then I’ll be proud for her to see it. I think it’s only if I start making choices based on things that I don’t think are honourable, then I’ll be ashamed for her to see the movie, but I don’t think the subject matter will have to change.”

Maggie attended the opening night of “The Seagull” together with her husband Peter Sarsgaard.

Yesterday, it was announced that Mandy Moore would host Gen Art’s “Fresh Faces in Fashion” event on October 10. Well, now Maggie Gyllenhaal has been signed up to host another Gen Art show, this one the night before, October 9. This time, Gen Art teams up with Soy Joy snacks to present “Fashionably Natural,” hosted by the star of the biggest grossing movie of the year, “The Dark Knight.” Finally, somebody figured out that having celebrities at L.A. fashion shows was a good idea – New York figured that out a LONG time ago. And having them HOST fashion shows is an even bigger draw. So WHAT if it costs money to hire them to do these gigs? It’s totally worth it, just to insure an audience draw.

This second Gen Art show will feature four other new L.A. emerging designers: Brigid Catiis, Popomomo, The Battalion and Velvet Leaf – these companies work in all natural environmentally friendly fabrics. It will also be held at the Petersen Automotive Museum at Fairfax and Wilshire, at 8 pm, with an after party that will run till 11 pm.

And Soy Joy, in case you’re interested, is an all-natural snack made from soy, real fruit, and delivers vitamins and minerals in snack form. For those of us who live for Whole Foods, we’re always happy to know about new healthy snacks.

For more info, go to Genart.org. And even if you don’t care about environmentally friendly fashion lines, you probably DO care about seeing Maggie Gyllenhaal – her fashion choices are always interesting. And maybe her brother Jake will show up – with Reese. We can only hope.

Source.

Made a new page called “Cover Girl” with all the covers that Maggie has graced over the years. I’m sure there’s more and there will be added more covers as I find them. Here’s my favourites (click on the covers to see the rest):