Stephen and Naomi — a couple of fugitives from the predictable middle class of the Northeastern United States — were doing relatively well. Stephen — born in a small town in Pennsylvania — was the oldest of six children. Naomi was the daughter of a pediatrician and a surgeon in NYC. They had gotten married and moved to LA in the 1970s, in search of an artistic life. He loved cinema, while she loved writing.
Stephen would end up directing made-for-TV movies, while Naomi would spend a few years as a production assistant on Sesame Street. They made a decent living, bought a house in Hancock Park — a residential neighborhood in the heart of LA — and had two children. They rubbed shoulders with Ted Danson and a young Steven Soderbergh. Paul Newman and Jamie Lee Curtis were their children’s godparents.
One day, at the age 11, the Gyllenhaal boy did something unexpected: he made Billy Crystal laugh.
When Jake Gyllenhaal first became an uncle, he was admittedly “overeager.”
