Gwyneth Paltrow

On Emma, boyfriend Brad and, yes, who she thinks is really the
Sexiest Man Alive

by Ivor Davis


Until her latest movie, Emma (yes, that's the 180-year-old Emma,
created by Hollywood's hottest writer, novelist Jane Austen),
Gwyneth Paltrow was simply the talented up-and-coming daughter
of actress Blythe Danner and producer Bruce Paltrow (St.
Elsewhere). Not to mention darling of the tabloids, thanks to
her role as Brad Pitt's Main Squeeze.

All this is subject to instant change when Paltrow shows up as
the beautiful, bright and meddling Emma Woodhouse. "She's the
next Meryl Streep," says writer-director Douglas McGrath. "Men
adore her. Women love--and don't envy--her. She doesn't seem like
a goddess, because she has a beauty you don't feel threatened by."

Hyperbole, surely. But not so far off, it turns out, when the real
Gwyneth finally bursts into a suite at the Four Seasons Los
Angeles like a fashion model on her day off: blond hair cascading
to her shoulders; a simple black cutoff T-shirt (from K-Mart, she
assures us) exposing a bare midriff (some of Brad had to rub off,
I guess); billowy chiffon slacks (Gucci) flopping over black high-
heel sandals. It's way before noon on a Sunday, and the almost 23-
year-old is complaining that she is tired--but she certainly
doesn't look it.

After starting out on the stage in Picnic, opposite her mother,
her first film role was with John Travolta in Shout, followed by
a turn as the young Wendy in Spielberg's Hook. Hollywood first
took note of her in Flesh and Bone, then in Mrs. Parker and the
Vicious Circle; Malice; Jefferson in Paris, opposite Nick Nolte;
and Moonlight and Valentino.

Since she and the ubiquitous Pitt met while filming Seven, the
two have been inseparable, rumors of engagement and marriage
swirling constantly around them (all denied).

And now, finally, the big star treatment: First in Emma, with
Paltrow the only Yank in a crowd of sterling, theater-honed
British troupers that includes Greta Scacchi, Juliet Stevenson,
Polly Walker, Jeremy Northam, and Phyllida Law and Sophie
Thompson (mother and sister, respectively, of another Emma--Emma
Thompson); and, later this month, in Hard Eight.

This could be the Paltrow breakthrough.