Her boyfriend: possibly you know him. Last year, during an acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, Brad Pitt spoke of the two forces that had gotten him through a nervous day. One was Paltrow, whom he referred to as ““my angel.’’ The other was Kaopectate. ““How cute was he?!’’ says Paltrow, 23, who could be seen at her table, weeping. ““He was so cute. That was such a moment.’’ Well, Pitt’s intestines are his own business. His angel, fortunately, is ours. Paltrow plays one of literature’s most misguided matchmakers in Douglas McGrath’s funny, buoyant new adaptation of Jane Austen’s ““Emma.’’ It is Paltrow’s first turn as a leading lady, a breakthrough by an actress who has lit up only smallish roles in movies that did not deserve so much light: ““The Pallbearer,’’ ““Jefferson in Paris,’’ ““Moonlight and Valentino.''
““Emma’’ should make Paltrow famous. But hasn’t witnessing Pitt’s ascent made her dread celebrity? ““Yes. Oh yes. Yes,’’ Paltrow admits. ““If it would stop right here, it would be perfect. People will recognize me, and teenagers will ask for an autograph and a picture, but I’m not mobbed on the street. And I don’t get people with this energy, like they want to rip something tangible from me and take it with them. It’s not me they’re attacking, but it all just makes me want to protect Brad, and not ever get anywhere near that level of fame.''
At the moment, Paltrow is wearing a shimmering black outfit – satiny shirt, Gucci slacks, DKNY sandals – and smoking a cigarette by the open door of the restaurant. In person, as on screen, Paltrow manages to be both poised and sweetly awkward. This is someone who still blushes and touches her face to see if it’s hot. The actress’s neck brings Audrey Hepburn to mind – ““My neck? Really?’’ – and she has thin and endless arms and legs. She is a blond flamingo. ““Oh, she’s absolutely beautiful, I think,’’ says Jeremy Northam, her costar in ““Emma.’’ ““But there’s also something . . . “Gawky’ isn’t the right word. But do you know what I mean? There’s something unfinished, there’s something still growing about her.''
Let us now praise famous genes. Paltrow was raised in Manhattan, the daughter of TV producer Bruce Paltrow (““St. Elsewhere’’) and the great stage actress Blythe Danner. She was nursed on movie sets, doted on at cast parties, allowed to sit barefoot and watch rehearsals at the Williamstown Theater Festival, in Massachusetts. Paltrow grew up intoxicated by acting. But her parents discouraged her, hoping to spare her a life of rejection. Paltrow was an erratic student, and sneaked out of the family’s town house at night: ““Dear Mom and Dad, I’m out at the clubs. You can punish me in the morning.’’ After high school, Paltrow enrolled at UC Santa Barbara. She cut class, went to auditions, agonized about quitting school. Then she appeared with her mother in ““Picnic,’’ at Williamstown: ““After the opening, my father came to the dressing room and said, “I don’t think you should go back to college.’ It was amazing. I think it was the first time he thought, “She has the goods’.''
Paltrow first spun heads in 1993’s Texas drama ““Flesh and Bone,’’ playing a drifter who goes to wakes posed as a mourner and steals rings off the corpses. Her next movies were bad in varying degrees, but Paltrow never went down with the ship. In the blackhearted hit ““Seven,’’ she played Pitt’s wife and made a thankless role touching. Then the killer decapitated her and mailed her head in a box. But at least Paltrow met the person she believes is the sexiest man alive: Morgan Freeman. ““Oh, he is sexy,’’ she says. ““He is so sexy.''
Paltrow loved the ““Emma’’ script, but Miramax equivocated about whether to make the movie. (Says McGrath, a first-time director, ““I think the disincentives were me and me.’’) The studio ultimately told Paltrow it would make ““Emma’’ if she also agreed to play the object of David Schwimmer’s desire in ““The Pallbearer.’’ That movie died in theaters, but ““Emma’’ was born. McGrath says that when he announced an American was playing the lead, there was some eye-rolling among the British cast members: ““There was this feeling of “We’ll help the little American actress through the film’.’’ But Paltrow sailed through a role that demanded an English accent, singing, dancing, piano playing and archery. ““Gwyneth has great self-assurance,’’ says McGrath. ““I said, “Do you think you can learn to shoot archery?’ And she said, “Oh, sure.’ She had one archery lesson and it was like a comedy. In the first round, she misses and the coach says, “No, no, you actually have to aim for the target.’ In the second round, the bull’s-eye is obliterated.''
Paltrow will be seen as a Reno cocktail waitress in a movie she adores, Paul Thomas Anderson’s independent film ““Hard Eight.’’ And she just finished shooting ““Kilronan,’’ in which she’s a bride with a psycho mother-in-law, Jessica Lange. Another reason Paltrow doesn’t want to be a superstar is that that sort of celebrity puts a lot of interesting roles out of reach. (““I mean, I would much rather be Robin Wright or Jennifer Jason Leigh than – no offense – Sandra Bullock.’’) She wants her life to go on exactly as it is now. ““I have this incredibly gifted and loving family, and I’m in the most loving relationship I’ve ever been in,’’ Paltrow says. ““It’s so healthy, you know? I’m doing great in my career, and I’ve found the person I’m complete with. That’s an extraordinary thing.’’ For the record, she claims to be human and to get depressed every so often.
After lunch, Paltrow walks up Madison Avenue, looking in shop windows. Her next project is an updated version of ““Great Expectations,’’ and she’s headed to a hair salon to have her hair done for the role. Paltrow feels silly discussing this. ““My hair,’’ she says. ““Isn’t it fascinating?’’ She laughs. ““They’re just making it a little lighter.’’ Not too light, hopefully. She’s glowing already.
