Star-crossed

Shakespeare in Love costars Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck
split after more than a year in the spotlight

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If Gwyneth Paltrow remembered her mid-1997 engagement
meltdown with a certain blond hunk as the Pitts, she was
determined to keep her next love affair as low-key as
possible. At a press event in New York City last month,
journalists were kept at bay while Paltrow enjoyed a kiss
and cuddle in the hall with Good Will Hunting and
Armageddon star Ben Affleck. But at the mention of his
name a cold front swept into the room. "I asked her if
she was now the happiest she had ever been," recalls one
reporter, "and she said, 'Let's not go overboard.'"

She said nothing about man overboard. Paltrow and Affleck,
both 26, broke up just after the holidays -- even as
moviegoers were lining up to see them both in Shakespeare
in Love, the critically acclaimed satire about the
playwright's own love life. Even many who knew the pair
were caught off guard by the split. The two were together
at the Dec. 3 New York premiere of Shakespeare. On New
Year's Eve, Affleck partied without Paltrow in Manhattan,
but the pair spent that weekend at a romantic Savannah
bed-and-breakfast, The Gastonian. "If they were mad at
each other, it sure didn't show," says assistant manager
Denise Harrison. The breakup is reportedly amicable -- a
good thing since the two share a circle of friends
(Affleck's Good Will buddy Matt Damon is dating Paltrow's
pal Winona Ryder) and may well bump into each other around
the buffet table.

Both have been wounded before. Paltrow, who grew up in
Manhattan and the L.A. area as the daughter of actress
Blythe Danner and TV producer Bruce Paltrow, was once
linked to rock singer Donovan Leitch and actor Robert
Sean Leonard. But her love life turned positively stellar
when she met Brad Pitt while filming Seven in 1994. Affleck,
from a working-class family near Boston, dated high school
sweetheart Cheyenne Rothman for many years until 1997.
"Women want to take [a] guy and make him different," he
told USA Weekend last summer. "I can bend real far, but
then it snaps back." Maybe Affleck, who was spotted buying
gym weights in Manhattan two weeks ago, plans to work out
the kinks.