'''Gwyneth Katherine Paltrow''' (born September 27, 1972) is an Academy Award-winning American actress and singer.
Early life
Paltrow was born in Los Angeles, California, to the late Bruce Paltrow, a film director, and Blythe Danner (a well-known character actress); Paltrow's father was Jewish and her mother was raised in the Quaker religion. Raised in Santa Monica, she attended Spence School, a selective private girls' school in New York City, and briefly studied Art History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before dropping out and committing herself to acting. Paltrow has a younger brother named Jake and is a cousin of actress Katherine Moennig. She is an ''adopted child'' of Talavera de la Reina, where she lived as an exchange student.
Career
Her debut film was ''
Shout'' (1991), and later the same year she had a small role in family friendly Steven Spielberg's ''Hook'' (1991). She later starred in ''
Se7en'' (1995), dating her co-star Brad Pitt. Her performance in ''
Emma'' (1996) received its share of praise. She was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress two years later for her performance in ''
Shakespeare in Love'' (1998), in which her then-boyfriend Ben Affleck also appeared. She has since had a steady film career, with a few notable film roles, including ''
Proof'' (2005) and ''
The Royal Tenenbaums'' (2001).
In an interview with ''The Guardian'' http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1695582,00.html on 27 January 2006, Paltrow admitted that she divided her career into those movies she did for love, and those "shite" films she did for money. ''The Royal Tenenbaums,'' ''
Proof'' and ''
Sylvia'' went into the former category, whilst ''View From the Top'' and ''
Shallow Hal'' were in the latter. http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1695582,00.html.
Other endeavors
In May of 2005, Paltrow was announced as the new face of Estée Lauder's Pleasures perfume.
In 2000, Paltrow and Huey Lewis released the single "Cruisin'" as a promotion for the movie ''Duets.'' A video was shot and the song became #1 in Australia.
In 2002, Paltrow appeared on singer Sheryl Crow's album titled ''C'mon, C'mon'' singing with her on the track "It's Only Love".
She's confirmed to be working on her album and has already finished recording her first single. The date of release is unclear but William Orbit, producer of Madonna's album ''Ray of Light'' and All Saints ''Pure Shores'', is helping Paltrow on her own L.P.
Personal life
She had a much-publicized romance and engagement to Brad Pitt and was also
