September 27, 2012. Copyright 2012, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Actress and lifestyle blogger Gwyneth Paltrow turns 40
By Susan Shepherd
 
LONDON, September 27, Graphic News:  She was 26 when she hit what has, so far, proved to be her career high: playing a beautiful noblewoman who inspires the world's greatest playwright in Shakespeare in Love (1998). The role of Viola de Lesseps, opposite Joseph Fiennes' Bard, moved Gwyneth Paltrow on to the Hollywood A-List, winning her an Oscar, a Golden Globe, fulsome praise from the critics and new fans worldwide. Looking back, she acknowledges her good fortune in securing the part, co-written by Tom Stoppard -- "I don't think I'll ever read a script that good again" she has said -- and admits she would trade many of the subsequent trappings of success for "a body of work that I'm proud of". Before she gave that "Best Actress in a Leading Role" performance, the Los Angeles-born daughter of producer Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner had made her mark as a teenager, abandoning her degree course at the University of California to make her stage debut at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts in 1990. Her godfather Steven Spielberg cast her as young Wendy in Hook, his 1991 take on the J.M. Barrie classic, Peter Pan, and her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt chose Paltrow to play his screen wife in the 1995 thriller, Seven. Paltrow's real breakthrough came with her portrayal of Jane Austen's meddling matchmaker, Emma (1996), quickly followed by the dual-lead role in Sliding Doors, released just ahead of Shakespeare in Love in 1998 and showcasing Paltrow's versatility in the "what-if" story of a woman whose life takes two directions simultaneously.

After breaking off her engagement to Brad Pitt and dating fellow actor Ben Affleck -- with whom she co-starred in the romantic movie, Bounce (2000) -- Paltrow married Chris Martin, lead singer of the British rock group Coldplay, in December 2003. Five months later their daughter, Apple, was born in London, Paltrow telling TV host Oprah Winfrey she chose the name for its sweet, wholesome and biblical connotations. Their son, Moses, was born in New York two years later, after which Paltrow suffered from post-natal depression, an experience she has described on her blog at her Goop website as "one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life". Goop, which was relaunched this year and is said to attract a million viewers a week, combines e-commerce -- clothes and accessories hand-picked by Paltrow -- with her views on topical issues, as well as recipes and travel features. It has been much satirised elsewhere on the web, but the actress-turned-blogger, who famously succeeded Elizabeth Hurley as the face of Estee Lauder in 2005, defends her "branding" of herself, a move which led her to sever her links with the cosmetics giant after four years. Her acting career has recently revived with the high-profile role of Pepper Potts in the Iron Man superhero films alongside her close friend, Robert Downey Jr. The third installment of the lucrative franchise is due for release next year.
/ENDS