* By Prairie Miller *


Actress Gwyneth Paltrow stars in a new movie Sliding Doors,
in which her character gets into a lot of trouble around
issues of destiny and chance. Directed by Peter Howitt from
his original screenplay and Opening Night feature this year
at Sundance, Sliding Doors tempts fate romantically for Helen,
as her multiple futures are determined by whether or not she
happens to slip through the closing doors of a London subway
train.

Paltrow was on hand to talk about more personal notions of
destiny. She weighed the pros and cons of both celebrity and
love, sprinkled with generous amounts of humor and candor.

PRAIRIE MILLER: Stardom has been very good to you. Talk about
the down side.

GWYNETH PALTROW: You know, I go to the market, I do all my own
stuff. But sometimes, you know, you're like eating and you go,
I wish everybody would stop staring at me. And I wish people
would stop eavesdropping on my conversation.

Sometimes it gets sort of heavy. But I think the minute that
you say, well I'm not going to do this anymore, well then you
become a freak. Then you remove yourself from society, and you
have no foundation in the normal world.

You just can't do that. I refuse to do that. I mean, I refuse
to kind of say, yes I'm larger than life. You know, I'm this
actress and this celebrity, and so therefore I remove myself
from the world. That's just death. I couldn't live that way.

PM: Did that glare of the public eye intensify when you were
hanging out with Brad Pitt?

GP: It's weird because people think that I had this high
profile relationship, but it wasn't high profile. I'm talking
about what was going on within the relationship. I mean, there
were pictures of us all over the place, but that doesn't give
anybody insight into my relationship, you know? So I feel like
it was completely private, and nobody really knows anything
about it.

Well, they think they do, but that's kind of their prerogative.
You know, I'm a public figure, and he is. There are pictures of
us, and people projected all kinds of things on to us. That
doesn't mean that it has any basis in reality.

Yeah, I got some calls afterwards. But I can still go out and
do my own thing completely. It's great. I've kind of had a
little life do-over, and it's great. At twenty five years old,
to understand as much as I have, I feel pretty fortunate.

PM: How has your family reacted to your fame?

GP: I just have the best family in the whole world. And my best
friends literally are from kindergarten, then from seventh grade
when I moved to New York City. I'm friends with people that I've
known my whole life, and my celebrity is not a factor in our
friendship.

Sometimes it's hard for them a little bit. It's a bit hard for
my best friend Mary, whom I live with. She's been my best friend
since kindergarten. She's auditioning now, and she's doing really
well. But I think it's hard. When we're in a room together, just
us or with our friends, it's just Mary and Gwynny. But when we go
out somewhere, it's Gwyneth Paltrow's friend, you know. And I think
that's kind of unpleasant, you know what I mean?

But she's really open with me about it, and we talk about it. And
I do what I can. She's so smart, and she's so above all of the bull.
She sees right through everybody. I'm really lucky to have her.

PM: Compare and contrast the Hollywood lifestyle with New York for
you.

GP: I love living in New York. It's strange you know. In New York
everybody does all different kinds of things. When you go out to
L.A., it's such an industry town. Everybody knows who everybody is,
and everybody wants something. It's like you can't go anywhere.

I would rather that teenagers come up to me, you know by the Empire
State Building, than these smarmy producers and managers who come up
to you in L.A. It's just like, oh please leave me alone! It's just a
whole different energy.

PM: You and Kate Winslet have a lot in common this movie season. She
sheds all her clothes for some sketches done by Leonardo DiCaprio's
character in Titanic, and you do pretty much the same thing in Great
Expectations. What gives?

GP: That was really something else! I mean, I'm a huge art lover and
I love modern painting. You know, I went in to sit there, and I was
just so nervous! I was overwhelmed. Here I am being painted. I was
naked but I felt, I'll just sort of pretend. Like I'm Parisian, I'm
posing. It was really extraordinary.

Copyright 1998 by Prairie Miller