Don’t let her perfect life fool you. Gwyneth Paltrow likes to get down and dirty!
We are sitting in a café near the north London home that Gwyneth Paltrow shares with Chris Martin and their children, Apple and Moses. It’s morning, and she has just completed the school run. The 36-year-old actress is on the first of two soy lattes that she will drink during a freewheeling, easygoing conversation that lasts twice as long as it was meant to. She fesses up that the boot-cut 7 For All Mankind jeans she’s wearing today were pinched from the wardrobe department of her latest film, Two Lovers. She’s also wearing a woollen Dolce & Gabbana V-neck and Louboutin ankle boots. Not pictured: the mild stains on her bum (as spilled by Moses) and the shoulder snot (also supplied by her cold-ridden son). Dark roots showing through her bobbed hair and evidence of Moses’ cold aside, she is quietly radiant. She exudes star quality and class — something Diego Della Valle, president and owner of Tod’s Group, identified when he hired her to front its fall/winter 2008 campaign. “She’s the perfect ambassador — modern and charming, with a strong sense of family,” he says. “She is the contemporary embodiment of Audrey Hepburn.” Still, she’s a regular in this café, and it’s quiet, so there’s no overt gawking. She’s just another thirtysomething north London mom, unwinding after the morning rush.
Paltrow is fun — yes, fun — to hang out with: witty, candid and self-deprecating. “People assume, terribly mistakenly, that Gwyneth is stuck-up and rarefied,” James Gray, the director of Two Lovers, later tells me. “She’s not — she’s really very earthy. I can talk about some silly video on YouTube with some crude joke and she’ll know it and love it.”
She is also pals — surprisingly — with Courtney Love. “We first met on a movie set,” recalls Paltrow. “We were in an elevator, and she was really horrible to me. And I was the biggest Hole fan of all time, so I was devastated. Then she went on a drug spiral. When she got sober, she contacted me and was like, ‘I feel like I missed an opportunity with you.’ Then we started texting and talking, and now when she’s here, she comes around. When we’re in L.A., we have dinner.”
'People assume, terribly mistakenly, that Gwyneth is stuck-up and rarefied,' James Gray, the director of Two Lovers“Is Courtney more sorted these days?” I ask.
“Yeah...I mean, she’s Courtney — she’s her own magical being. Some days, she seems more sorted than other days. But I don’t think she’s on Class A narcotics anymore — maybe just Class C! That’s not a big deal — aren’t we all, ha, ha, ha?!”
