Neighbor:

Gwyneth Paltrow - Actress

By Emily J Weitz

From the way she talks to the press, it's pretty shocking that she was voted "Most Stuck-Up" on Movieline's 1998 poll of "100 Most." From her remarkable body of work to her down-to-earth approach to her marriage, children, past relationships and colleagues, Gwyneth Paltrow seems like the kind of woman you'd like to get to know better.

Born into a family of the theatre - her father was producer Bruce Paltrow and her mother actress Blythe Danner - Paltrow attended the Spence School in Manhattan before she headed to California for UC Santa Barbara to study Art History. However, she realized that the theatre was in her blood and decided to try her hand at acting instead of pursuing her degree. It turns out she made the right decision.

Steven Spielberg is not a bad person to have as a godfather. Now, I'm not saying he wouldn't have cast her anyway, but in 1991, Mr. Spielberg gave his goddaughter a chance when she was cast in the role of a young Wendy in Hook. With her designer's dream figure and classic beauty, the limelight snatched Paltrow up. In 1995, she played the small but significant role of the wife in the brilliant thriller Se7en, where she caught the eye of a young and much more obscure Brad Pitt. The two began dating and soon after were engaged. But it was not meant to be, and after their 1997 breakup, Paltrow was quoted as saying, "It really changed my life. When we split up, something changed permanently in me. My heart sort of broke that day, and it will never be the same."

But we are never really the same, after all, and she bounced back with a few tour de force performances that would secure her place as one of the great actors of our time. In 1998, she joined the star-studded cast of Ethan Hawke, Anne Bancroft and Robert DeNiro in a modern rendition of Great Expectations. She played the heartbreaker Estella, and she looked like an absolute goddess. That same year, she won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Shakespeare in Love. At the beginning of the year, this actress' price tag was $750,000 per movie, and by the end of the year it had skyrocketed to $10 million per movie.

In 2000, Paltrow was the Maid of Honor in dear friend Madonna's wedding to Guy Ritchie. That close-knit friendship has since faded, because Paltrow "couldn't get along with Madonna's extravagant lifestyle". However, she told InStyle Magazine last year that their friendship continues, and that "Madonna has evolved with so much wisdom and grace that [she] would say that [her] favorite Madonna is today's Madonna. She's a beautiful product of all her explorations and incarnations."

In 2001, Gwyneth performed with newcomer Jack Black in the film Shallow Hal. To prepare for the role, in which she would play an obese woman, she strapped her 200-pound latex "fat suit" to her chest and went to a bar. She said that people avoided eye contact with her and treated her in a less-than-human way and she was "saddened by the experience" because of the plight faced by overweight people.

After securing a place for herself as a truly great actress, Paltrow was able to turn back to her personal life and slow down the train on her career track. Still, she was starring in at least one major motion picture a year, but that was quite a reduction given her previous rate. In 2002, she attended a Coldplay concert and, being Gwyneth Paltrow, she was brought backstage to meet the band. She and lead singer Chris Martin began dating and in 2003 they were married. Encouragingly enough, the marriage continues and they now have two children, Apple and Moses. Paltrow said Apple received her unusual name because her parents believed apples to be whole, crisp and sweet. Moses, on the other hand, was given his grandfather Bruce's Hebrew name.

The year she was married, Paltrow starred in the film Sylvia, which chronicled the life of tragic poet Sylvia Plath, and then in 2005 she did an amazing job as the tortured and ingenious daughter of a brilliant mathematician in Proof. In 2002, she was nominated for the London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for this performance.

Paltrow prides herself on savoring the simple things in life and believes that "the simpler things are, the happier they are." Perhaps, then, she appreciates this little corner of the earth in the same way we do - for its simple natural splendor and not its excess and ostentatious nature. She has been coming to the East End every year to spend Thanksgiving with Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw. But last year she became a resident, purchasing a home in Amagansett for over $5 million. She made headlines for her kind role as an employer when she rented a separate house for her employees. And it was no servants' quarters. According to New York Magazine, she and husband Chris shelled out $20,000 a month this past summer to house their help.

Paltrow has recently appeared in foreign films, which is not surprising, as she has been known to denounce the American capitalistic way of life. In 2006, she appeared in both the French film Love and Other Disasters and the book-turned-movie Running with Scissors. This year she stars with Penelope Cruz, Morgan Freeman, and Danny DeVito in The Good Night. There may be some personal reasons for her decision to sign on for this movie, as it was written and directed by her brother Jake.

Even as a mother of two and partner in a seemingly healthy marriage, Paltrow has always managed to keep her career rolling. And, she never seems to age. A classic beauty and a formidable actress, she's sure to be around for decades. And as long as she can afford to keep her housekeepers in style, she'll probably be lounging on the Amagansett shores for just as many years to come.

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