Virginia "Pepper" Potts is a fictional character, a supporting character and a love interest of Iron Man in the Marvel Comics Universe. She first appears in Tales of Suspense #45 (September 1963) and was created by Stan Lee and Don Heck.

In 2007, she joined the Fifty State Initiative under the codename Hera, and after being given her own suit of armor by Tony Stark, assumed the codename Rescue in The Invincible Iron Man #14.

She is portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow in the films Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and The Avengers.

Fictional character biography[link]

Pepper, originally in the secretarial pool, gets her job by fixing an accounting mistake made by Stark himself. Pepper is originally infatuated with Tony and responds to the attentions of Stark's chauffeur and assistant Happy Hogan with caustic remarks. This, almost immediately after her first appearance, coupled with Stark's growing affection for her, puts her in a love triangle between Stark and Hogan. Pepper is for a time interested in Iron Man, unaware that he and Stark are the same person. However, she eventually falls in love with and marries Hogan, eloping with him in Tales of Suspense #91, though that relationship is not without its troubles.

Pepper and Happy eventually leave Stark Industries, settling in the Rocky Mountains and then finally in Cleveland, where they adopt children after being unable to conceive, and disappear from the main Iron Man storyline. After being kidnapped by Obadiah Stane (Stark's rival), Pepper tells Tony to stay out of their lives. Pepper and Happy soon divorce after she had an affair with a former college boyfriend. After Tony Stark's return from the Heroes Reborn universe, Pepper and Happy join Tony at his new company Stark Solutions and once again become core characters. After some time, Happy and Pepper once again became involved and remarry, eventually considering conceiving a child to supplement their adopted children. Stark entrusted Pepper with a special remote that could shut him down. However, Pepper was tortured and was forced to hand it over. The trauma caused her to miscarry. Iron Man was able to deal with the remote, but felt guilty that he had placed her in such danger. After Happy sustains massive injuries in a fight with Spymaster during the Civil War story arc, Pepper requests that Tony turn off Happy's life support (using his Extremis abilities). The final pages of Invincible Iron Man (vol. 4) #14 shows the death of Happy; it is implied Tony complied with Pepper's request.

The Order[link]

After the events of the superhuman "Civil War", Pepper joined the Fifty State Initiative as a member of 'The Order', a government sanctioned superhero team operating within California. She assumed the moniker of the Greek goddess Hera and used advanced computer hardware and prosthetics to monitor and coordinate the team's missions. Upon the absorption of The Order into the Initiative, Tony Stark offers her a job on the special projects team at Stark Enterprises, which she accepts.

[edit] The Invincible Iron Man

Pepper Potts resumes her activities as personal secretary of Tony Stark. When Ezekiel Stane (Stane's son) causes an explosion during a party hosted by Stark in Taipei, Pepper is trapped under debris and wounded by shrapnel. Suffering severe multiple internal injuries, she is far too weak to withstand a prolonged surgery, so Tony embeds a strong magnet (similar in appearance to the arc reactor of the movie) in her chest, essentially turning Pepper into a cyborg dependent on keeping her chest magnet engaged to stay alive, as he was once.^[1]

Pepper survives the less invasive procedure, but it is uncertain when, or if, the magnet can ever be removed. Pepper's body is further enhanced with new cybernetics and upgrades to the magnet, and she fears she is losing her humanity and has become a weapon. Tony tells her the enhancements are not based on Stark technology or weapons-based, but from Danny Rand's design for a new battery. Comforted by this, Pepper embraces her enhancements, exploring her new magnetic powered abilities, like gliding over magnetic lines.^[2]

When Tony is blamed for the Skrull invasion, S.H.I.E.L.D. is taken over by Norman Osborn, replaced with H.A.M.M.E.R. and Tony and Maria Hill are fired, along with the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. employees. Tony realizes that Osborn is after the secret identities of heroes, and he decides to go underground with Maria, and also to wipe the knowledge in his own brain. Tony makes Pepper the new CEO of Stark Industries, trusting only her to shut down the company in his absence. Pepper discovers a secret room in Tony’s office which contains a suit of armor that he made especially for her. When Osborn issues an arrest warrant for Tony and sends teams to seize all Stark Industries facilities, Pepper uses this suit to escape just before she herself is arrested.^[3]

While Pepper practices using her new suit, instructed by an on-board artificial intelligence patterned after the persona of Edwin Jarvis, a large earthquake hits and she rescues a group of students just before their school collapses on them. This causes her to be detected by H.A.M.M.E.R., and Osborn orders a large commercial jet near her to be shot down just to see what her suit is capable of. Pepper successfully catches the plane, but when she brings it to the nearest airport she is arrested by H.A.M.M.E.R. agents. Interrogated by Osborn, Pepper states that all components of her armor are legal and that the design specifications are available to anyone. She also insists she does not know where Tony is. Despite Osborn threatening her loved ones with prison if she interferes with his search for Tony or attempts any more heroic actions, after being freed she takes off to find Tony herself.^[4]

While meeting with the doctor who implanted her chest magnet, JARVIS informs her of a grain silo explosion, with the victims "calling for immediate rescue," which inspires Pepper to adopt "Rescue" as a codename. After helping, she heads to Russia, where she finds Tony. His mental condition deteriorated due to his progressive mind-wipe, Tony does not initially recognize the suit he gave Pepper and attacks her, believing she is an enemy sent by Osborn.^[5]

Tony eventually recognizes Pepper and halts his attack. Reunited, they sleep together, but are captured and tortured by Madame Masque, who was assigned by Norman Osborn to track Tony down. Tony admits that he had loved Masque in the past,^[6] but when pressed to make a choice, with his own life on the line, Tony chooses Pepper. While the Rescue armor, controlled by JARVIS, restrains Masque, Pepper urges Tony to escape while she delays their attacker. As he flees to Afghanistan, Masque and Pepper go hand-to-hand with each other.^[7]

Defeating Masque, Pepper disguises herself as the former, infiltrating H.A.M.M.E.R. while presenting the Rescue armor to Osborn as spoils of battle. Pepper reveals herself when she rescues Black Widow and Maria Hill from Avengers Tower, while the Rescue suit uploads a virus into the H.A.M.M.E.R. mainframe, taking control of the Helicarrier's armory of suits.^[8] They then retrieve the hard drive that Hill was assigned by Stark to get, escaping to give it to Captain America.^[9] As part of "re-booting" Tony (who has gone into a vegetative state), the magnet in her chest is removed and placed into his.

Tony's memories have to be restored from a years-old backup that he made of them, meaning that he no longer remembers the events of the superhuman Civil War nor his role in it and its aftermath. Equally, it means that he does not remember his affair with Pepper. Pepper survives the removal of her chest device, but demands that a new one similar to Tony's own chest repulsor be re-installed, which is done. Recovered, Tony also gifts Pepper with a new set of the Rescue armor, complete with JARVIS installed, as before.^[10]

When Justine Hammer and her daughter Sasha Hammer use their own armored enforcer Detroit Steel to attempt to sabotage Stark Resilient (Tony's new company) and its design for a repulsor technology-powered vehicle, Pepper dons the Rescue suit and joins War Machine in helping Tony. Realizing that Detroit Steel and the accompanying drones are homing in on repulsor energy, Rescue and War Machine power down their armors, including Pepper's implant, which leads to a near-death experience for her. In it, JARVIS, masquerading as Happy, gives Pepper a cryptic vision and warning of the future.^[11]

In a flashforward to an apocalyptic future 41 years ahead where the Mandarin has conquered the world, an aged Tony defeats his long-time foe with the help of his son Howard Anthony Stark and his granddaughter Ginny Stark, but Howard and Tony sacrifice themselves in the process. At the close of the story, Ginny buries the two next to a gravestone with the name "Virginia Potts Stark". Howard is also said to be 41 years old, suggesting that he will be born within the following year.^[12]

Powers and abilities[link]

The cybernetic technology implanted in Pepper’s chest caused a number of physical changes to her body: it fixed her eyesight (she needed glasses before), increased her metabolism, made her stronger, improved her reaction time and reflexes, and increased her IQ by about 25 points. The electromagnet has also been shown to give her some control over the magnetic fields around her, once allowing her to levitate briefly. She can also disintegrate bullets with it.

Pepper’s suit, the Mark 1616, appears similar to Iron Man's and can fly. It contains an AI version of Jarvis to assist her and answer questions, and is ideally suited to her biology and cybernetic enhancements.^[13] However, in respect to Pepper’s wishes that she not become a weapon, the suit contains no weapons whatsoever, and is instead designed for “heavy rescue and recovery”. It contains repulsor technology, and electromagnetic field generators allowing her to suspend and tow massive loads and is powered by solar cells.^[14]

Other versions[link]

Amalgam Comics[link]

In the Amalgam Comics Universe, DC Comics' Green Lantern and Marvel's Iron Man are combined to create Iron Lantern.^[15] Iron Lantern is secretly Hal Stark, owner of Stark Aircraft, a developer of experimental aircraft. One of his test pilots is Pepper Ferris (an amalgamation of Pepper Potts and DC's Carol Ferris). Like both her DC and Marvel counterparts, she is involved in a love triangle, this time with Stark and his chief mechanic Happy Kalmaku (an amalgamation of Marvel's Happy Hogan and DC's Thomas Kalmaku). When Pepper comes in contact with a mysterious alien gem, she is transformed into Madame Sapphire (a combination of Marvel's Madame Masque and DC's Star Sapphire). Pepper Ferris first appeared in Iron Lantern #1 (April 1997), published jointly by Marvel and DC. She was created by Kurt Busiek (script) and Paul Smith (art).

Heroes Reborn[link]

In the alternate universe of the "Heroes Reborn" storyline, Pepper and Iron Man are lovers, although she can also be seen in a relationship with Happy Hogan. Stark is forced to leave her unexpectedly and without explanation, as his very presence in the universe will endanger her life and the lives of everyone else.

Marvel Zombies[link]

Pepper appears in the Marvel Zombies universe in Marvel Zombies Return, having just submitted her resignation to Stark, who at this point is a near-useless drunk. However, when the zombie Giant Man initiates an outbreak at Stark International, Pepper and Happy are among the zombified casualties. She is killed by Stark when he vomits a nanite-ridden formula on her, which was being developed as a potential cure for cancer. The formula destroys necrotic tissue (although it was only effective on zombie-Pepper because it was introduced into her mouth), and dissolves Pepper into a skeleton.^[16]

Ultimate Marvel[link]

Virginia "Pepper" Potts can be seen in the Ultimate Universe during Ultimates 2. She and Happy (with whom she appears to be in a relationship) can be seen monitoring Tony when he uses the armor.^[17]

In other media[link]

Television[link]

• Pepper Potts has appeared in the Invincible Iron Man segments of The Marvel Super Heroes voiced by Peg Dixon.
• Pepper Potts appears in Iron Man: Armored Adventures voiced by Anna Cummer. Like Stark and Rhodes, she is a teenager who moved to New York after spending her childhood following her father, an FBI agent, from country to country for each of his assignments. Initially unaware of Tony's secret, she finally learns Iron Man's secret identity after he saves her life from Mister Fix.^[18] A running joke in the second season is her pestering Tony into creating an armor suit for her own use (which Tony eventually approves), hinting at her comic identity (and a possible implementation thereof) as Rescue.^[19][20][21]
• Pepper Potts appears in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes voiced by Dawn Olivieri.^[22]
• Pepper Potts has a few cameos in Marvel Anime: Iron Man, voiced by Hiroe Oka in the Japanese version, and by Cindy Robinson in the English dubbed version.

Film[link]

• Pepper Potts is mentioned in Ultimate Avengers 2, the sequel of the first film.
• Pepper Potts appeared in The Invincible Iron Man voiced by Elisa Gabrielli with an apparent British accent.
• Gwyneth Paltrow portrays the character in the 2008 Iron Man feature film and the 2010 sequel Iron Man 2. She is never addressed to as Virginia, but only by her nickname, although her name is mentioned only once in the films. In the first film, Stark notes that she is virtually the only real friend he has at the company. In the second film, Potts is promoted to CEO of Stark Industries, though she later resigns after Tony finds a cure for the palladium poisoning that was killing him,^[23] and in The Avengers she has become his lover and partner. Paltrow will reprise the role in Iron Man 3.^[24][25][26]

Video games[link]

• Pepper Potts was mentioned in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance video game. After giving Tony's cuff-link to Jarvis, he says its a gift from Ms. Potts.
• Pepper Potts appears in the Iron Man video game voiced by Meredith Monroe.
• Meredith Monroe reprises her role of Pepper Potts in the Iron Man 2 video game.
• Pepper Potts appears in the Marvel Pinball video game, voiced by Tara Platt.
• Pepper, in her Rescue armor, makes a cameo appearance in Strider Hiryu's ending in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, fighting against the Reavers.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Pepper Potts at Marvel.com

Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow at the 68th Venice Film Festival, September 2011
Born	Gwyneth Kate Paltrow[1] (1972-09-27) September 27, 1972 (age 39)[2] Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer, author
Years active	1990–present
Spouse	Chris Martin (m. 2003) «start: (2003)»"Marriage: Chris Martin to Gwyneth Paltrow" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Gwyneth_Paltrow)
Children	2
Parents	Bruce Paltrow (deceased) Blythe Danner
Relatives	Jake Paltrow (brother) Katherine Moennig (cousin)

Gwyneth Kate Paltrow ( /ˈɡwɪnɨθ ˈpæltroʊ/; born September 27, 1972) is an American actress and singer.^[3][4] She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Seven (1995) and Emma (1996) (in which she played the title role). Following the films Sliding Doors (1998) and A Perfect Murder (1998), Paltrow garnered worldwide recognition through her performance in Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, for Outstanding Lead Actress and as a member of the Outstanding Cast. She also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011 for her role as Holly Holliday on the Fox hit TV show Glee in the episode "The Substitute".

Paltrow has portrayed supporting as well as lead roles in films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Shallow Hal (2001), and Proof (2005), for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in Motion Picture Drama. Since 2008, she has portrayed Pepper Potts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring in Iron Man and its sequel, Iron Man 2 (2010), and also appearing in The Avengers (2012). Paltrow has been the face of Estée Lauder's Pleasures perfume since 2005. She is married to Chris Martin, the lead vocalist of Coldplay. They have two children together, Apple and Moses. She is also the face of American fashion brand Coach,^[5] owner of the lifestyle company Goop.com^[6] and author of the cookbook My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness.^[7]

Early life[link]

Paltrow was born in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of actress Blythe Danner and film producer/director Bruce Paltrow. Her father was Jewish (of Russian Ashkenazi origin),^[8][9] and her mother is a Quaker of Pennsylvania Dutch and more distant white Barbadian ancestry.^[10][11][12] Paltrow's paternal great-great-grandfather, whose surname was "Paltrowicz," was a rabbi in Nowogród, Poland.^[13] Paltrow has a younger brother, Jake Paltrow, and is a half-cousin of actress Katherine Moennig, and a second cousin of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-08).^[14]

Paltrow was raised in Santa Monica, where she attended Crossroads School, before enrolling in The Spence School, a private girls' school in New York City.^[15] Later, she briefly studied art history at University of California in Santa Barbara, before dropping out to act.^[16] She is an "adopted daughter" of Talavera de la Reina (Spain), where at 15 she spent a year as an exchange student and learned to speak Spanish.^{[17][clarification needed][18]}

Career[link]

1990–1995: Early work[link]

After spending several summers watching her mother perform at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, Paltrow made her professional stage debut there in 1990.^[16] Her film debut followed with Shout (1991), starring John Travolta, and she was cast by Steven Spielberg in his film Hook (1991), as the young Wendy Darling.^[16] Paltrow's next roles were in two made-for-television films: Cruel Doubt (1992) and Deadly Relations (1993). Her first plum supporting role in a big-screen film was in the 1993 drama Flesh and Bone, where she played the much-younger girlfriend of James Caan. In the hit thriller Seven (1995), she played Brad Pitt's wife. Paltrow's character was the high school sweetheart of Pitt's, even though she is nine years younger than him in real life. Her performance earned her a Satellite Award nomination. Also in 1995, she appeared in Moonlight and Valentino and Jefferson in Paris.

1996–2001: Breakthrough and film stardom[link]

Paltrow at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival

Paltrow's first role as the central lead was the title role in Emma (1996), for which she received critical acclaim. She had leading roles in several films throughout 1998, including Sliding Doors and the adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations with Ethan Hawke, Robert De Niro, Anne Bancroft and Chris Cooper. She also appeared in two thrillers, Hush opposite Jessica Lange and A Perfect Murder inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film, Dial M for Murder. Paltrow appeared opposite Michael Douglas as Emily Taylor, based on Grace Kelly's character from the original film, though the film was met with mixed reviews.^[19]

In 1998, Paltrow starred in Shakespeare in Love, portraying the fictional lover of William Shakespeare, played by Joseph Fiennes. The film earned more than US$100 million in box office receipts in the United States, and Paltrow gained critical acclaim for her portrayal. Entertainment Weekly commented, "Best of all is Gwyneth Paltrow, who, at long last, has a movie to star in that's as radiant as she is."^[20] The New York Times summed up her turn as Viola as such: "Gwyneth Paltrow, in her first great, fully realized starring performance, makes a heroine so breathtaking that she seems utterly plausible as the playwright's guiding light."^[21] The award-winning Shakespeare in Love^[22][23] earned Paltrow the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role from the Screen Actors Guild,^[24] the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress^[24] and the Academy Award for Best Actress, among other honors.^[23] Her Pink Ralph Lauren dress worn at the 71st Academy Awards in collecting her Oscar was extremely popular and was credited for bringing pink back into fashion.^[25]

In 1999, Paltrow co-starred alongside Jude Law, Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett in The Talented Mr. Ripley, which earned $80 million domestically and received positive reviews.^[26] She showcased her singing ability in 2000's Duets, which was directed by her father and co-starred singer Huey Lewis. The same year, Paltrow co-starred with Ben Affleck in the romantic drama Bounce as Abby Janello. In 2001, she played Margot Tenenbaum as part of an ensemble cast in the Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums and starred with Jack Black in the comedy Shallow Hal, where she had to wear a specially designed 25-pound fatsuit and heavy make-up.

2002–2007: Career down[link]

Paltrow at a ceremony for receiving her Hollywood Walk of Fame star, December 2010

Since the Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, Paltrow's film success has been less noteworthy.^[27] She said she was unequipped for the pressure, leading to several bad movie choices,^[28] agreeing with peers who believe the win is, in some ways, a curse.^[29] During this time, Paltrow rarely appeared in films, having taken a career hiatus to raise her family.^[15] In The Guardian, she said she divided her career into movies for love and films for money: The Royal Tenenbaums, Proof, and Sylvia fell into the former category, while she did View from the Top and Shallow Hal for the latter.^[18] In 2004, she appeared in the science-fiction film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow opposite Jude Law. The same year, she was recognized as an outstanding woman in entertainment by Women in Film Los Angeles with the Crystal Award.^[30] In 2005, she appeared in the film Proof as the depressed daughter of a brilliant, eccentric mathematician. The movie is based on the play of the same name, in which Paltrow also played the same character at London's Donmar Warehouse in 2002. For her performance Paltrow earned her second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama. In 2006, she had small roles in Running With Scissors and Infamous, in which she sang Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?".

2008–present: Career comeback[link]

In 2008, she appeared in the superhero film Iron Man as Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's closest friend, budding love interest, and business partner.^[31] Iron Man is Paltrow's highest-grossing film to date, earning more than $585,000,000 worldwide.^[32] Paltrow said she was hesitant to appear in a big-budget project but she was won over by Robert Downey Jr., the film's lead, and director Jon Favreau. She recalled a conversation with Downey, saying:^[33]

Robert called me and he said, 'This is gonna be fun, and this is gonna be good.' And then he said to me, 'Don't you want to be in a movie that people see?' And I was like, 'Whoa! What would that feel like?' And he's right. Moviemaking is not supposed to be a masturbatory exercise; it's supposed to be shared by other people.

In 2010, Paltrow reprised her role in the sequel to Iron Man, Iron Man 2. Later in 2010, she appeared in the musical Country Strong and recorded the song Country Strong for the film's soundtrack.^[34] The song was released to country radio in August 2010.^[35] At the 83rd Academy Awards, Paltrow performed another song from the movie, "Coming Home," which was nominated for Best Original Song.^[36] She also appeared in Fox's Glee, as substitute teacher Holly Holliday, who fills in for Matthew Morrison's character when he falls ill. In her first episode, "The Substitute," she sang "Nowadays" from the musical Chicago with Lea Michele, Cee Lo Green's "Forget You", and a mash-up of "Singin' In the Rain" and Rihanna's "Umbrella" with Morrison and the rest of the cast.^[37] She later performed "Forget You" with Cee-Lo Green himself and several puppet characters provided by the Jim Henson Company at the 2011 Grammy Awards.^[38] She reprised her role twice more that season, performing "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" by Gary Glitter, an acoustic version of "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac, "Kiss" by Prince, and Adele's "Turning Tables". In 2011, Paltrow appeared in the Steven Soderbergh thriller Contagion, in which she was part of an ensemble cast, including Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and her The Talented Mr. Ripley co-stars Matt Damon and Jude Law ^[39]. The movie opened at number 1 at the US Box Office Weekend and received positive reviews. In 2012 she stars in the independent romantic comedy Thanks for Sharing with Mark Ruffalo and reprised her role as Pepper Potts in the film The Avengers, which broke records as the highest grossing U.S. opening weekend film of all time. It was confirmed that Paltrow will star in a Spanish film alongside Antonio Banderas to shoot in late 2012.

Other projects[link]

Paltrow on the 84th Academy Awards Red Carpet 2012

Paltrow is a Save the Children artist ambassador, raising awareness about World Pneumonia Day.^[40] She is on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization that works to alleviate poverty in New York City.^[41] In February 2009, Paltrow received a Grammy nomination for her reading of the classic bear books of author Bill Martin, Jr.^[42]

Paltrow had her singing debut in the 2000 film Duets, in which she performed a cover version of Smokey Robinson's "Cruisin'". The song was released as a single. The song went to number one in Australia, while Paltrow's rendition of the Kim Carnes classic "Bette Davis Eyes" reached number three.^{[citation needed]} In the 2006 film Infamous, she sang "What Is This Thing Called Love". On September 27, 2006, Paltrow sang with rapper Jay-Z during his concert at Royal Albert Hall. She sang the chorus for "Song Cry", from the rapper's album Blueprint.^[43] In an interview, she said she would be at the concert but not that she would perform. She was quoted as saying "I'm a Jay-Z fan. He's my best friend."^[44]

In May 2005, Paltrow became the face of Estée Lauder's Pleasures perfume. She appeared in Chicago on August 17, 2007, to sign bottles of the perfume, and on July 8, 2008, she promoted Lauder's Sensuous perfume in New York with the company's three other models.^[45] Estée Lauder donates a minimum of $500,000 of sales of items from the 'Pleasures Gwyneth Paltrow' collection to breast cancer research.^[46] In 2006, she became the face for Bean Pole International, a Korean fashion brand.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2007, she signed for a PBS television series Spain... on the road Again with Mario Batali that showcases the food and culture of Spain.^[47] In September 2008, she launched a weekly lifestyle newsletter, Goop, encouraging readers to 'nourish the inner aspect'. The website's title is derived from the initials of her first and last names.^[48] Each week, the newsletter focuses on an action: Make, Go, Get, Do, Be, and See. It has been ridiculed by E-Online,^[49] Vanity Fair,^[50] The Independent,^[51] and the UK's Daily Mirror.^[52]

Personal life[link]

At the age of 24, Paltrow was engaged for six months to actor Brad Pitt, whom she dated from December 1994 to June 1997.^[53] The engagement was called off, according to Paltrow, because she was not ready for marriage, and she later felt responsible for hurting Pitt since she was "such a mess" during that time in her life.^[54] Paltrow has since said that, as this was her first high-profile relationship with another celebrity, it taught her the need for public discretion about her romantic life; she told Biography magazine, "I said things about being in a relationship [with Brad Pitt] that felt wrong to me even as I was saying them."^[55]

Paltrow had an on-off three-year relationship with actor Ben Affleck from 1997 to late 2000.^[56] Soon after their breakup, Paltrow convinced Affleck to work in the film Bounce with her;^[57] during the making of the film, which was shot in mid 1999, the couple started dating again and eventually broke up in October 2000.^[56]

In October 2002, Paltrow met Chris Martin of the British rock group Coldplay backstage three weeks after the death of her father, Bruce Paltrow. They married on December 5, 2003, in a ceremony at a hotel in Southern California.^[58] On May 14, 2004, the couple had their first child, a girl named Apple Blythe Alison Martin. Paltrow explained the unusual first name on Oprah, saying: "It sounded so sweet and it conjured such a lovely picture for me – you know, apples are so sweet and they're wholesome and it's biblical – and I just thought it sounded so lovely and … clean! And I just thought, 'Perfect!'"^[59]

Her second child, a boy named Moses Bruce Anthony Martin, was born on April 8, 2006, in New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital.^[60] Her son's first name was explained as the song, titled "Moses", that her husband wrote for her before their wedding.^[60] Paltrow has stated that she cut down on work after becoming a mother.^[61] She has also said that she suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her second child.^[62]

In 2010, she suffered a severe tibial plateau fracture, due to a vitamin D deficiency and osteopenia.^[63]

Paltrow discovered in 2011 that her father's family came from a long line of influential East European rabbis, and that inspired her to raise her daughter and son in a Jewish environment.^[64]

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Featured singles[link]

Album appearances[link]

Music videos[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gwyneth Paltrow

• Gwyneth Paltrow at the Internet Movie Database
• Gwyneth Paltrow at People.com
• Gwyneth Paltrow's Newsletter, Goop
• Gwyneth Paltrow on Twitter