Naomi Gyllenhaal's Intellectual Underground Railroad
Naomi Gyllenhaal, the screenwriter who brought us Running on Empty and the Hollywood mom who brought us dreamy-eyed star Jake and sister Maggie, suddenly finds herself in that rarest of positions: in the midst of a middle-age writing career resurgence. (Though not, of course, due to the the heat on her kids. Perish the thought!) And even though the Gyllenhaal clan finds L.A. lacking in the kind of the intellectual refinement that only the writer of Losing Isaiah can adequately appreciate, you know, they'll keep cashing those studio sharecropping checks:
Though the Gyllenhaals found Los Angeles an intellectual wasteland - and to a certain extent still do - they stayed because they kept getting work, and their home became, as she calls it, "the underground railroad for East Coast intellectuals," where authors like Michael Ondaatje gravitate when in Los Angeles.
We hope this post doesn't ruin our chances of getting an invitation to eat finger sandwiches with Salman Rushdie at the Gyllenhaal salon. We are so very starved for good conversation these days.
[Photo: Stephanie Diani/NYT]
