Movie star Jake Gyllenhaal has shocked American Gulf War veterans by joking they did nothing but masturbate during their time in the desert in 1991. The cheeky 25-year-old starred in Jarhead, a movie exposing the U.S. soldiers' lack of combat in the Middle Eastern conflict.

He said, "The U.S. soldiers were sent to the desert for 122 days and they sat in the same tent and did nothing, except a little too much masturbating."

"Jarhead" centers on a young man called Swoff (Gyllenhaal), a third-generation enlistee of the marines. Transitioning from boot camp to active duty, Swoff is sent to the Middle East where he encounters intolerable heat and dangerous Iraqi soldiers. Swoff and his fellow marines find themselves in a country they don't understand, fighting an enemy they can't see, and enduring a war they can't fully fathom.

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)