Posted on 09/15/2005 9:08:04 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
For God's sake, Paltrow, we can't talk about the article you read in my paper, writes RICK GROEN. Couldn't you be a bit more self-absorbed?
'I've just finished reading this long article in your paper on the corrosion of the American empire," declares Gwyneth enthusiastically from her perch on a hotel-room couch. Actually, if couches were countries, she's got this one pretty well occupied -- slim legs, clad in black capri pants, tucked captivatingly beneath that elongated body; blond hair tumbling in golden tresses past those cornflower-blue eyes down upon a white silk blouse. Gwyneth, needless to say, looks immaculate. But she sounds engaged, very engaged. Having read this paper, Gwyneth dearly wants to talk about the Article. Paid to write for this paper, I dearly need to talk about Gwyneth. With only 15 minutes at our disposal, one of us is bound to be disappointed.
The world, of course, is on a first-name basis with Gwyneth, and has been for much of her 32 celebrated years. But I can't claim to know her that well. Her work, yes. Her life, not really. Just the usual stuff. To the Hollywood manor born -- her mother an accomplished actor, Blythe Danner; her late dad the TV producer, Bruce Paltrow. Close enough to King Spielberg to call him "Uncle." Educated, albeit briefly, at a posh New York prep school. Enjoys a macrobiotic diet, whatever that might be. Had romantic liaisons with various Bens and Brads just as famous and almost as lovely as her. Married a Brit rocker with a band called Coldplay; soon thereafter gave birth to a baby called Apple. Or did I reverse those names?
Anyway, you knew all that, and it's a bit humdrum. Her work, however, is another matter entirely, because this daughter of privilege also inherited a commodity often denied to her aristocratic kind: Gwyneth has real talent. More interesting still, this all-American beauty has often deployed that talent in non-American ways, slipping on a credible British accent for many of her most notable roles -- the title character in Emma, the put-upon Helen in Sliding Doors, her Oscar-winning turn as Viola in Shakespeare in Love, the academic-minded Maud in Possession.
Now add to that Brit list her other substantial parts -- the nervous Margot in The Royal Tenenbaums, the poetic Plath in Sylvia, now the anguished Catherine in Proof (the reason for her appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival) -- and the common denominator isn't hard to find. All these characters are fighting the same interior battle.
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All harbour the same competing mix of fragility and strength, emotional vulnerability and forceful intelligence. That's Gwyneth's patented on-screen persona, that's her dialectic, and the camera adores her doing it. She can play darkness lightly, without seeming lightweight.
"Yes, I hadn't thought of it before, but you're right about those characters," she concedes, diverted momentarily from the Article, "But we're all like that, aren't we, a mixture of frailty and fortitude. It's fun to play people with that sort of universal complexity."
Or, more accurately, it's occasional fun. Asked if movie acting is still enjoyable -- she's been doing it since her teens when Uncle Steven cast her in Hook -- Gwyneth is candid: "Sometimes. I loved it at the start, but there was a long, long time in the middle when I didn't. I was pregnant when we were shooting Proof, but afterwards, giving birth to my daughter and losing my father has caused me to re-examine my priorities. So I haven't gone back to work full-time yet. I will, but only when the elements are aligned properly."
That alignment could be hastened by her more efficient approach to acting: "It's cleaner, more economical now, with fewer theatrics and neuroses. I have the technique to know what's cheating and what's not. And I'm not a method actor, I don't take the part home." Also, her eventual return may well come with a major change in direction: "I'd like to do a musical one day. It's one of my goals."
Don't dismiss it. Gwyneth sang well in Duets, an otherwise off-key flick, and has a brief cameo as Peggy Lee in an upcoming biopic of Truman Capote (not Capote, but "the other one"). What's more, there are even rumours of her taking the lead in an "untitled Marlene Dietrich" project. "That's still in development," she muses, "We'll see."
Still, the mention of Dietrich takes us back to the non-American application of her talents, and to her current residence in London as the proud Mrs. Coldplay. "Yes, well, I went to Spain in an exchange program at 15, and I've always been drawn to Europe. America is such a young country, with an adolescent swagger about it. But I feel that I have a more European sensibility, a greater respect for the multicultural nature of the globe. And it's a strange time to be an American now."
Oh, that Article does loom now -- it's the Paul William Roberts piece that ran in the Focus section last weekend. Alas, in dodging the discussion, I may have won the battle yet lost the war. It's 5 p.m. and, in the stifling corridor outside the hotel room, scribes have been huddled like homeless wretches since the wee hours of the morning, parched scores of them all waiting for their precious draught of fame. But the fountain is drying up. Understandably, Gwyneth is getting tired of talking about Gwyneth, and her answers to me, while always polite, have grown shorter, almost clipped.
Something similar happened at an earlier press conference for Proof. Upon entering the conference room, she immediately faced a human wall of photographers, at least 20 wide and two deep. Oh, she smiled dutifully, and responded to questions amiably, but when others on the panel were speaking -- like her director John Madden, or her co-star Anthony Hopkins -- you could almost see Gwyneth building a counter-wall around herself and, with those blue eyes slightly glazed, retreating well behind it.
That fortress is precisely what's facing me now. I can only capitulate: "So, uhm, what did you think about the Roberts article?" The change is instantaneous. The
'I've just finished reading this long article in your paper on the corrosion of the American empire," declares Gwyneth enthusiastically from her perch on a hotel-room couch. Actually, if couches were countries, she's got this one pretty well occupied -- slim legs, clad in black capri pants, tucked captivatingly beneath that elongated body; blond hair tumbling in golden tresses past those cornflower-blue eyes down upon a white silk blouse. Gwyneth, needless to say, looks immaculate. But she sounds engaged, very engaged. Having read this paper, Gwyneth dearly wants to talk about the Article. Paid to write for this paper, I dearly need to talk about Gwyneth. With only 15 minutes at our disposal, one of us is bound to be disappointed.
The world, of course, is on a first-name basis with Gwyneth, and has been for much of her 32 celebrated years. But I can't claim to know her that well. Her work, yes. Her life, not really. Just the usual stuff. To the Hollywood manor born -- her mother an accomplished actor, Blythe Danner; her late dad the TV producer, Bruce Paltrow. Close enough to King Spielberg to call him "Uncle." Educated, albeit briefly, at a posh New York prep school. Enjoys a macrobiotic diet, whatever that might be. Had romantic liaisons with various Bens and Brads just as famous and almost as lovely as her. Married a Brit rocker with a band called Coldplay; soon thereafter gave birth to a baby called Apple. Or did I reverse those names?
Anyway, you knew all that, and it's a bit humdrum. Her work, however, is another matter entirely, because this daughter of privilege also inherited a commodity often denied to her aristocratic kind: Gwyneth has real talent. More interesting still, this all-American beauty has often deployed that talent in non-American ways, slipping on a credible British accent for many of her most notable roles -- the title character in Emma, the put-upon Helen in Sliding Doors, her Oscar-winning turn as Viola in Shakespeare in Love, the academic-minded Maud in Possession.
Now add to that Brit list her other substantial parts -- the nervous Margot in The Royal Tenenbaums, the poetic Plath in Sylvia, now the anguished Catherine in Proof (the reason for her appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival) -- and the common denominator isn't hard to find. All these characters are fighting the same interior battle.
Advertisements
All harbour the same competing mix of fragility and strength, emotional vulnerability and forceful intelligence. That's Gwyneth's patented on-screen persona, that's her dialectic, and the camera adores her doing it. She can play darkness lightly, without seeming lightweight.
"Yes, I hadn't thought of it before, but you're right about those characters," she concedes, diverted momentarily from the Article, "But we're all like that, aren't we, a mixture of frailty and fortitude. It's fun to play people with that sort of universal complexity."
Or, more accurately, it's occasional fun. Asked if movie acting is still enjoyable -- she's been doing it since her teens when Uncle Steven cast her in Hook -- Gwyneth is candid: "Sometimes. I loved it at the start, but there was a long, long time in the middle when I didn't. I was pregnant when we were shooting Proof, but afterwards, giving birth to my daughter and losing my father has caused me to re-examine my priorities. So I haven't gone back to work full-time yet. I will, but only when the elements are aligned properly."
That alignment could be hastened by her more efficient approach to acting: "It's cleaner, more economical now, with fewer theatrics and neuroses. I have the technique to know what's cheating and what's not. And I'm not a method actor, I don't take the part home." Also, her eventual return may well come with a major change in direction: "I'd like to do a musical one day. It's one of my goals."
Don't dismiss it. Gwyneth sang well in Duets, an otherwise off-key flick, and has a brief cameo as Peggy Lee in an upcoming biopic of Truman Capote (not Capote, but "the other one"). What's more, there are even rumours of her taking the lead in an "untitled Marlene Dietrich" project. "That's still in development," she muses, "We'll see."
Still, the mention of Dietrich takes us back to the non-American application of her talents, and to her current residence in London as the proud Mrs. Coldplay. "Yes, well, I went to Spain in an exchange program at 15, and I've always been drawn to Europe. America is such a young country, with an adolescent swagger about it. But I feel that I have a more European sensibility, a greater respect for the multicultural nature of the globe. And it's a strange time to be an American now."
Oh, that Article does loom now -- it's the Paul William Roberts piece that ran in the Focus section last weekend. Alas, in dodging the discussion, I may have won the battle yet lost the war. It's 5 p.m. and, in the stifling corridor outside the hotel room, scribes have been huddled like homeless wretches since the wee hours of the morning, parched scores of them all waiting for their precious draught of fame. But the fountain is drying up. Understandably, Gwyneth is getting tired of talking about Gwyneth, and her answers to me, while always polite, have grown shorter, almost clipped.
Something similar happened at an earlier press conference for Proof. Upon entering the conference room, she immediately faced a human wall of photographers, at least 20 wide and two deep. Oh, she smiled dutifully, and responded to questions amiably, but when others on the panel were speaking -- like her director John Madden, or her co-star Anthony Hopkins -- you could almost see Gwyneth building a counter-wall around herself and, with those blue eyes slightly glazed, retreating well behind it.
That fortress is precisely what's facing me now. I can only capitulate: "So, uhm, what did you think about the Roberts article?" The change is instantaneous. The voice regains its spark, the eyes lose their glaze and the fountain pours forth: "I totally agreed with it. I feel like we're really in trouble. I just had a baby and thought, 'I don't want to live there.' Bush's anti-environment, pro-war policies are a dis. . . ." Well, you can guess the rest. Her speech is deeply felt and not unintelligent, yet entirely predictable and ill-suited to these pages, where analysis of American domestic affairs is confined to the highly partisan manoeuvrings of Brad and Jennifer. Sorry. Gwyneth's wall may be down, but the game, and my time, are up.
voice regains its spark, the eyes lose their glaze and the fountain pours forth: "I totally agreed with it. I feel like we're really in trouble. I just had a baby and thought, 'I don't want to live there.' Bush's anti-environment, pro-war policies are a dis. . . ." Well, you can guess the rest. Her speech is deeply felt and not unintelligent, yet entirely predictable and ill-suited to these pages, where analysis of American domestic affairs is confined to the highly partisan manoeuvrings of Brad and Jennifer. Sorry. Gwyneth's wall may be down, but the game, and my time, are up.
I must have a false memory of seeing a still of that movie showing her head in a box. Hmmph.
She spends most of her time dead she should stick to it !
Since SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE it's been a string of flops and losers.
In other words.... "As an American I made millions with very little talent, now i'm bored.... F America!(there, that ought to keep my face in the papers)"
Gwynneth Go-eth. Me Happy!
She named her child "Apple"?
Where do I send my $1 to speed up the moving process:-)
Airhead actress, biting the hands that feed her.
On the other (now locked) thread on this subject, posters were thinking that she'd be paying higher taxes living in England.
I bet she has a US based corporation that all her business runs through. She's "loaned out" by the corporaton to film production companies but the cash is paid to the corporation. This keeps her corp pay a US corp tax rate, which reduces her personal income tax. The corp can also do things like buy her a house to live in, pay for her car/drivers/transport/airfare to&from the US, her entertainment and other professional costs and hire her an armed body guard - none of which "she" pays for.
Wealthy celebrities with such a set-up can "afford" to make statements such as she has.
For further brain cramps besides Paltrow's, see below:
(On September 17, 1994, Alabama's Heather Whitestone was selected as Miss America 1995.)
Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?
Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
--Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest.
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"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
--Mariah Carey
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"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
--Brooke Shields, during an interview to become Spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.
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"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body,"
--Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.
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"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country,"
--Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC.
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"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."
--Hillary Clinton commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents.
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"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it,"
--A congressional candidate in Texas.
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"Half this game is ninety percent mental."
--Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark
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"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
--Al Gore, former Vice President
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"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."
--Dan Quayle, former Vice President
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"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?"
--Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler Corporation
```````````
"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." -
--Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.
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"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people."
--Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instrutor.
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"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
--Bill Clinton, former President
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"We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
--Al Gore, former Vice President
````````````````
"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."
--Keppel Enderbery
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"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances."
--Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina
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"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record."
--Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman
In fairness to the dumb bimbo, her career was basically acquired through the influence of her parents (Bruce Paltrow and Blythe Danner). The "casting couch" reputation probably indicates that she just doesn't believe in saying no.
Can't we just kick her out and use eminent domain to build on any property she might own, perhaps a housing project.
This is the same thing her old paramour, the Frenchman Johnnie Depp, said a short while back.
Be goneth.
I was flipping channels the other noght and she was on some actor's interview show...whatever. I watched for a moment as she spoke about how hard prep school was for her because she could barely spell, or add. Then she said she went to college for a few months, or weeks, but not really because she already new she wanted to be an actor. Just the intelligence level needed to follow the rest of the Liberal sheep over a cliff.
One less loon from Hollyweirdo Land...oh please NEVER CHANGE YOUR MIND...maybe the rest of your loon family will make the UK their home too!!!
The VERY best thing we all can do is NEVER EVER go see one of her movies and NEVER EVER rent one of her movies again.
Hit her and her cronies in the pocket.
Thank God!
I'm sick to death of all these brainless-wonder "ack-tores" who make fortunes off of careers in America, and then switch gears and think they're too good to live here. Just sick of it.
Get a sandwich! Shut y'er piehole!
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