Gwyneth Paltrow

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Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (born September 27, 1972) is an Academy Award-winning American actress.

Early life

Paltrow was born in Los Angeles, California, to the late Bruce Paltrow, a film director, and Blythe Danner (a well-known character actress); Paltrow's father was Jewish and her mother was raised in the Quaker religion. Raised in Santa Monica, she attended Spence School, a selective private girls' school in New York City, and briefly studied Art History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before dropping out and committing herself to acting. Paltrow has a younger brother named Jake and is a cousin of actress Katherine Moennig. She is adopted child of Talavera de la Reina, where she lived as a exchange student

Career

Her debut film was Shout (1991), and later the same year she had a small role in family friend Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991). She later starred in Se7en (1995), dating her co-star Brad Pitt. Her performance in Emma (1996) received its share of praise. She was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress two years later for her performance in Shakespeare in Love (1998), in which her then-boyfriend Ben Affleck also appeared. She has since had a steady film career, with a few notable film roles, including Proof (2005) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).

In an interview with The Guardian [link] on 27 January 2006, Paltrow admitted that she divided her career into those movies she did for love, and those "shite" films she did for money. The Royal Tenenbaums, Proof and Sylvia went into the former category, whilst View From the Top and Shallow Hal were in the latter. [link].

Other work

• In May of 2005, Paltrow was announced as the new face of Estée Lauder's Pleasures perfume.
• In 2000, Paltrow and Huey Lewis released the single "Cruisin'" as a promotion for the movie Duets. A video was shot and the song became #1 in Australia.
• In 2002, Paltrow appeared on singer Sheryl Crow's album titled C'mon, C'mon singing with her on the track "It's Only Love".
• She's confirmed to be working on her album and has already finished recording her first single. The date of release is unclear but William Orbit, producer of Madonna's album Ray Of Light and All Saints Pure Shores, is helping Paltrow on her own L.P.

Personal life

She had a much-publicized romance and engagement to Brad Pitt and was also once linked romantically to Ben Affleck and Robert Sean Leonard. She later stated that she regretted breaking up with Pitt. In an interview with Barbara Walters she stated that she wished Pitt well and couldn't believe he was with her when she was "such a mess." They were together for over three years.

On December 5, 2003, she married Chris Martin of the British rock group Coldplay in a secret wedding ceremony in Southern California. Paltrow gave birth to their first child, daughter Apple Blythe Alison Martin, on May 14, 2004, in London. She explained the unusual first name on Oprah, saying,

In January 2006 Paltrow announced that, "Since my daughter came along, I've not worked much through choice. And with another baby on its way, I don't think I will be doing a lot for the next year or so either." Her second child, son Moses Bruce Anthony Martin, was born on April 8, 2006, by caesarean section in New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital. Her son's first name can be explained by the song that her husband wrote for her shortly before their secret wedding, called "Moses." It includes the words "Like Moses has the power of the sea, so you've got power over me..." and it's about the moment when Martin met Paltrow.

In May of 2005, she publicly announced that she suffered from depression after the untimely death of her father Bruce Paltrow. She practises yoga, and is a vegan as well as following a macrobiotic diet, although she told People in 2005 that, "I'm not as stringent as I was in the past. Now I'll have cheese once in a while or white flour, but I still believe in whole grains and no sugar."

She is a good friend of Christina Applegate, but she earned the enmity of Sharon Stone due to her performance as Stone in a Saturday Night Live skit that poked fun at Stone and her then-husband, Phil Bronstein. Paltrow is also good friends with Madonna and fashion designers Valentino and Stella McCartney. Steven Spielberg is a close family friend. She was best friends with Winona Ryder until her breakup with Brad Pitt.

Paltrow had a stalker in 1999 and 2000 named Dante Michael Siou, who allegedly sent five to ten packages a week: everything from love notes, flowers and candy to religious tracts, pornography, dozens of letters a week, and over 1,200 emails. He also made a threat of a sexual nature and showed up repeatedly at her house, even after her mother, Blythe Danner warned him not to return. He persisted despite being warned by the FBI and was sentenced to several years in a mental institution.[link]

According to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission, Gwyneth Paltrow contributed $1,500 to John Kerry's campaign for President in 2004, and also contributed $2,000 to EMILY's List and $2,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The FEC documents also list her home address as being in New York City.

Paltrow is a descendant of the famous Rabbi David HaLevi Segal of Cracow through the Russian rabbinical family Paltrowitch, which produced 33 rabbis over several generations. Paltrow has said she is very proud of being Jewish, and has attributed her father's warmth to his Jewish heritage:

"My father had that incredible Jewish warmth, really bolstering us (Paltrow and her brother) all the time. And when you're 9 years old and you're hearing that you are the best person, it gets in there, and you think, 'OK, I'm not going to be afraid to try things, because I'm always loved no matter what.' That kills me, when I think about it. It totally breaks my heart, how lucky I am."[link]

Filmography

• Shout (1991)
• Hook (1991)
• Malice (1993)
• Flesh and Bone (1993)
• Deadly Relations (1993)
• Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
• Jefferson in Paris (1995)
• Se7en (1995)
• Moonlight and Valentino (1995)
• Hard Eight (1996)
• The Pallbearer (1996)
• Emma (1996)
• Out of the Past (1998) (documentary) (narrator)
• Sliding Doors (1998)
• Great Expectations (1998)
• Hush (1998)
• A Perfect Murder (1998)
• Shakespeare in Love (1998)
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
• The Intern (2000) (Cameo)
• Duets (2000)
• Bounce (2000)
• The Anniversary Party (2001)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
• Shallow Hal (2001)

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