Fade to Brown

Gwyneth Paltrow explains her low-key new look. Winning an
Oscar made the ''Talented Mr. Ripley'' star rethink her
life.

by Liane Bonin
EW daily news
December 21, 1999, 6:00 a.m.


Not all blonds have more fun. Gwyneth Paltrow kept her golden
tresses for ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (opening Dec. 25), but
when it came time for her to film the upcoming ''Bounce,''
director Don Roos (''The Opposite of Sex'') asked to see her
dark side. ''I think he was sick of the whole blond Gwyneth
Paltrow person, as was I,'' says the 26-year-old actress. ''So
I made my hair brown, and I'm keeping it for a while. People
don't know who I am, which is great because I can get around
much easier. I'm in New York City with my parka on and a pair
of sunglasses and nobody has a clue who I am. It's nice to feel
I can observe humanity and not be so isolated and stared at.''

Paltrow says her celebrity status began spiraling out of
control after she won an Academy Award for ''Shakespeare in
Love'' last March. ''After the Oscars, it was very dicey,'' she
says. ''I felt like I wanted to go hide somewhere. I felt like
I couldn't sustain all of the energy that comes with all that
attention. The stress level was so high for me it was just
incredibly surreal. I couldn't make sense of it all, and I was
just trying to get through it.''

To help ease her stress, these days the new brunet has turned
to that increasingly popular celebrity pursuit: yoga. ''Now
I'm content a lot of the time, more so than I've ever been,''
Paltrow says. ''I think it comes from taking the time to be
with myself, meditating, doing yoga, connecting with what's
real.'' For the sake of her sanity, let's hope Oscar decides
to overlook her turn in ''Mr. Ripley.''