Date with greatness
Now that her breakup with Brad Pitt is old news, Gwyneth Paltrow's
getting on with life ...

http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesArtistsP/paltrow_gwyneth.html
Sunday, January 25, 1998
By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun


HOLLYWOOD -- Gwyneth Paltrow is dating again.

Last June, Paltrow and Brad Pitt announced they had called off their
engagement, thus ending a very public 30-month relationship.

Paltrow, 25, immediately sought refuge with her friend Winona Ryder,
explaining "there are not a lot of people who can relate when you
tell them that you've just broken up with your boyfriend and it's
been on the cover of People twice."

Ryder had lived the same scenario when she broke up with Johnny Depp.

"I was in pathological denial," said Paltrow. "I've never understood
or known how to handle celebrity. It looks weird to see myself on
magazine covers and I never read gossip magazines, so I was out of
touch with what was being written about me."

One thing Paltrow wants to make absolutely clear is that "there was
no cheating on anyone's part in our relationship. Brad never did
anything wrong. There is no sweeter, kinder, nicer man in the world.
He doesn't deserve the speculation that bombarded him after our
breakup."

It was Paltrow's intention to seek solace with Ryder and then live
alone for the first time in her life.

"I've always had a boyfriend and it was always serious. I'd always go
from one serious relationship to another and I thought it was time I
got to know myself, because it's only then that you get to really
know yourself."

It's been six months since her split with Pitt and her stint at soul-
searching and Paltrow has an announcement.

"Yep, I'm dating again. It's great to be by yourself, but it's also
great to be with someone."

That someone is Ben Affleck, one half of the Golden Globe writing
team of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The childhood friends wrote and
star in Good Will Hunting.

They received a Golden Globe earlier this month for their original
screenplay and will likely earn at least an Oscar nomination for the
same feat come Feb. 10.

"They're going to get that Oscar. I told them they'd win the Globe
and I'm telling every one they're getting the Oscar. They absolutely
deserve it," says Paltrow.

Paltrow refuses to elaborate on her relationship with Affleck because
"I've just been through a very public relationship and it isn't a
pleasant experience."

Paltrow was offered the Kate Winslet role in Titanic and the Uma
Thurman role in The Avengers. She passed on both to make the
infinitely more modest Great Expectations and Sliding Doors.

She insists she has no regrets about passing on Titanic.

"Are you insane? Great Expectations and Sliding Doors have great
characters and great scripts. Titanic has a ship."

In Great Expectations, a modern version of the Charles Dickens
classic that opens Friday, Paltrow plays a young woman raised to
hate and manipulate men.

"Great Expectations is like a classic on acid. We took a great deal
of poetic licence. It's also the most sensual movie I've made."

The film required several nude scenes which, Paltrow says, proved
"both empowering and liberating. Mind you, my father saw the trailer
for the film and said he wasn't sure he could see it."

Paltrow is the daughter of TV producer Bruce (St. Elsewhere) Paltrow
and actress Blythe (Prince of Tides) Danner. Her younger brother
Jake is a budding film director in New York.

"My mother could have had an incredible film career, but she put it
on hold to have my brother and me and to raise us.

"I think that's what I'll do when I decide to have children. I
certainly won't keep up the schedule I've had these past four years."

Paltrow has just completed A Perfect Murder, the remake of Alfred
Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder. She has the Grace Kelly role, playing
Michael Douglas' young trophy wife.

"It's my first big Hollywood movie. It's a smart, fun thriller and
Michael is so scary."